Summer To Do List

Summertime is here...so let's see.....what shall I do with myself? Well I am going to be finishing my Paint Something E-course Part 2 up first. LOTS of painting and video taping. I CAN NOT wait. This e-course thang is right up my alley. First, I love a stage. And this platform gives me a shiney stage to be the spotlight of. Secondly, I love to share my heart with others about painting. Teaching is a gift I have been given, I am so grateful for this gift.

Secondly, I can't wait to hang with this man a little more. I've promised myself I am going to pick up a golf club so we have a common activity to enjoy. I may just be the hot golf-cart girl though. Hahaha..I've tried to get him running with me and that ain't happening. He has started strumming guitar a little to do something I enjoy. Marriage is like that....you bend and curve until you mold together again. It's super fun. I love seeing how we unfold each year.

 I am really looking forward to sleeping in with this fuzzy face. Every morning after Billy leaves the doggies totally sandwhich me. I love it. Love love love it. Their unconditional love is amazing.

I hope to get to some painting for fun....I want to paint a big one for my porch. A bike of course. Pink I think. With pennants and hearts and some cool quote. Yep.

So I just found out we have HBO. Not sure why I haven't scrolled through the 10,000 channels we have sooner, but a person can only click so much before her eyes get glossed over. Between 2 Lifetime channels and 5 HBO's I am set for porch TV and couch TV when it's sweltering here in Georgia. I love me some movie time. And obviously doggies do too. They are the biggest snugglers ever. Again...love it.

There will be lots of watching this handsome boy play ball. He's stepped up a notch and will be playing summer 16U travel ball. I understand some of the tournaments are packed with college scouts and pro-scouts. Makes me a nervous momma....for him! He has seriously playing goals. I want him to see his dreams come true so bad. After the back injury that put him out of high school ball all season we are excited for the season to start and see how he has healed. This summer will be the tell-tale if he can hang with the big boys. He's the youngest and smallest on his team. And yet plays the hardest position on the field and I think has a pretty good batting average. I am so not into stats and records. But he hits a lot. That's all I know.

Lastly, I hope to be hitting this at some point. Mailey and I are going to NYC in July, so not sure between baseball and that if we can squeeze it in. But I sure hope so. The beach is my soul saver. It's like a recharge for my whole body. I love it so much. Billy and I both hope to one day retire to the sand. It may be in a cardboard box, but we'll have salt, sand, oysters and each other. What more could a woman need?

So what are your summer plans? If you want to join my e-course be sure to pop over to that website www.paintsomething.guru. We are launching on July 6th. Summer is always a time of lazy days, no plans, lunches out and smelling of chlorine. I can not wait to get started with it all!

Summer Time

Oh summer. Summer. Summer. This summer, unlike last year I feel good. In fact thinking about last summer makes me sad. I spent a majority of it feeling so bad I don't remember much about being a mother, a friend, a wife and even less about an ARTIST. It's a bit of a blur. All I remember is feeling out of control from my health to our finances. Out.of.control. This summer we are exploring life around town, our first trip to the lake with teen friends, (whole blog post worth of that experience!!) and my first art e-course. 

Oh geesh look at this photo above. Lawrence is feeling quite left out of porch life. Where I am spending as much time as possible. Lily has completely embraced porch life. Must be a girl thing.

I've spent most of my summer free time writing the e-course material on the porch. It feels SO right and SO good to write this. Like something really big is going to emerge from all this. I feel it to my core. In fact after editing today's video I totally cried. It's that freeing to give myself over to teaching creatively like this.

So...if you did'nt get in on the first e-course, I am already scheming the calendar for the fall course. Yep......be on the look out. For now I've get to back to the video that's uploading. Multi-tasking at its best right? Blogging and e-courseing at the same time!

Featured on Jars of Cute!

So today I found out that I was featured here for this above. Oh I love being CUTE! Thanks Ange in Canada!

Field Trips

This past school year our county decided to save money by cutting out all field trips. Seriously, don't they know that part of the learning process is seeing and doing, not just sitting? Anyhoo....education is a topic for another day. So this summer I decided that I would take my kids on a field trip each week. I don't tell them where or when, we just go. Last Tuesday after William's game, we packed up at 9PM and headed to Lake Martin where my father has a houseboat. We spent all day Wednesday in the Lake. Along side was Harley, the lake dog. He even hung out on a float with me for a bit. Swimming, jumping off the pier, fishing, eating junk food and just plain old being lazy were on the docket for the day. My other rule for field trips, no cell phone or TV. Man was that nice. This week we are headed to......well you'll just have to wait and see!

PS: William caught about 6 Brim I think. We are thrower backers though. Love to eat fish, but not clean it!

Mattie Swinging

I tend to work on several paintings at once in different styles, mediums and subjects. I don't know how not to really. I get anxious, so while one is drying I start another one, and so the cycle continues. I am working on some sweet images to hopefully one day incorporate into a children's book. You will see Mattie doing all sorts of fun things over the next few months as I develop her character. It was recommended to me by a wonderful mentor that I should get my audience to fall in love with her, let the character develop and then write the book. So this is my plan. Here she is doing one of my children's favorite things....swinging! Of course there is no Mommy bird behind her. My very observant little Mailey noticed that right away. You see, my two still want me to push them, and since they are now 6 and 8, it does seem a bit silly, but I love it. It is another memory they will have of us together. I may still be pushing them at age 21 at this rate though! Have a lovely weekend!