Austin, Texas Girls Weekend

This Texas Okie flew down to her birth city, Austin, Texas to hang with the girls! No, I didn't grow up in Austin but that's where I was born and spent the first year of my life until moving to Plano, Texas! Being born in the Capitol of the State of Texas makes me more of a Texan, right? 

Lauren, the 'L' of my high school friend group, the 'JLMS' lives down in Austin and instead of just meeting in Dallas, we decided to meet in Austin for a change. Meagan drove down to meet us and the three of us were just going to have a girls weekend with nothing really on the agenda other than enjoying each others company.  

We hit the cool spots in Austin like South Congress, West 6th Street, The Domain Shopping area and even out to Lake Travis. Here are just a few snapshots from the weekend. 

Our first stop was South Congress, we were headed to scope out the stores there, including one of my favorite Texas Jewelry designers, Kendra Scott. The corporate office and store is right there on South Congress! On our way to the stores, we stopped for a photo in from of this "I love you so much" graffiti. Apparently it's a famous Austin spot located on the side of  Jo's Coffee.

Saturday we ventured to The Domain shopping area where we shopped, had mimosas and lunch and then ran into this large fellow. Why not take a picture with an over-sized whooping crane?

I loved that the Austin climate could support tropical plants like palm trees and yuccas. I snapped this pic while roaming around The Domain.

Saturday evening we had dinner at sunset at The Oasis on Lake Travis. That place was so cool, I could have stayed there for hours just people watching!
 

The weekend was a success - I really enjoyed spending time with the girls and getting to see Austin. Austin really is such a neat city with beautiful scenery, I can't wait to go back!

4 Day 4th of July

I could really get used to 4 day weekends. When Wednesday is your 'Friday', it's amazing what all you can do. B and I spent two full days at Lake Texoma celebrating the 4th of July with fun in the sun and fireworks and still had a day and a half to spend at home before starting the week. Because laundry and other house chores is 'for the birds', I spent most of the time at home painting. 

Wanting to paint something different than my latest pieces (see them here, here and here), I whipped out this traditional yet whimsical 11x14" painting.  You'll even notice that I used a color I rarely use - red (Xmas ornaments are an exception).

After finishing the Traditional Whimsy painting, my creative juices were still flowing. To switch things up, I went for bigger and out of my comfort zone. For once, I started out without a plan and let my love for ikat and bright colors shine through in this 18x24 Afternoon Ikat piece. 

Because I still felt like painting, I painted a plain-jane initial I had stored away - Mackenzie-Childs Courtly Check inspired, of course. 

Then, I noticed a pattern in everything I paint. I always finish them off with a little gold... so I guess, adding gold is 'my signature thing'.

At this point, B looked at me and the collection of paintings/crafts we're beginning to acquire and asked what I'm going to do with all this. Good question. I have no idea and we're running out of room in our house.

I'm too chicken to open up an Etsy shop or Facebook 'fan' page just yet, but am thinking about hosting a pop-up shop (via my personal Facebook or Instagram) to see how things go. What do you think?

Terrariums, Painting and Decorating

I guess my creative juices were flowing this weekend. I kept filling the space in between normal weekend stuff with creative stuff. Somehow I managed to host an unofficial craft night, paint a 16x20 canvas and decorate a space that hadn't been decorated in nearly 4 years... in a matter of about 48 hours. 

It started Saturday, while running my errands I walked by a terrarium display at Lowe's. I've been wanting to make one, but just haven't gotten to it yet - so, I started gathering supplies. Knowing we were having another couple over for dinner, I decided us girls would have a craft night while the boys did their thing chilling on the patio. 

Terrariums are as easy as 1, 2, 3. Literally,  1 = rocks, 2 = charcoal, 3 = soil, 4 = plants, 5 = more rocks, done.

Sunday morning, when all I wanted to do was sleep in until 8am… and my body thought 6:25am was a better idea, I busted out a 16x20 canvas and painted. 
 

While B was away for most of the day, the big blank wall in our living room was really bugging me. I have purposely left the wall blank, because my Mom always said, just leave it empty until you find the perfect thing for over the couch. 

This whole time (nearly 4 years) I’ve been looking for ONE perfect thing, when I realized that space could definitely handle a couple perfect things. I laid possible items out on the floor so I could get a better visual for balance and spacing. Here was an initial stab at what the mix might look like:

 

One of my favorite parts of my married last name is the "Mc", so wanted to make use of the little 'c'. But the gold didn't look just right. I had to paint it.

Mackenzie-Childs Courtley Check-like of course.

Most of the items are result of my craft making. Two paintings by me, a big "M" I got down in Canton, TX, little 'C' from Hobby Lobby, and my 1st anniversary, paper gift to Brandon showcasing the Texas girl and the Oklahoma boy. 

The collage isn't perfect, but I love how it's quirky, colorful and ties in both Brandon and Me.