To be perfectly honest, the art supply shopping options in Japan was probably one of my top reasons for wanting to book the trip to begin with. 😉

I will also say, I did not lend the amount of time nor money that my heart desired on actually shopping and hitting the many beautiful stationary and art supply shops available! But Japan is so full amazing beauty, culture, food, etc., I had to lend my time to those things too!

So, here we are the entrance to the biggest store I got to see that was dedicated solely to stationary and art supplies. Itoya. They had a handful of locations in Tokyo, the one I ended up at was Ginza and it happened to have two stores across the street from each other! I got to go to both and both were about 6 floors big!

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I really didn’t photograph the right things here but there were so many variations of sticky notes, many you can get online or locally of course. They had tons of tiny character flags that I’m also sure you may fine online or locally, but seeing this selection in one place was pretty amazing. Lol

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The informal Hanko stamps were available in many of the stationary shops. There’s no easy translation to the meanings or names available on these stamps so it was impossible for me to have time to really resend know which stamps to buy. I did select a few pretty designs but have no idea what they mean. Lol I will eventually find the translation! 😉

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Here I took pics of some artwork they had hanging in the store. The one on the right was a great sample board of various watercolor papers. ?

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I liked the globes. This entire room was a selection of globes for sale.

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I also regret not taking many many more pictures. I’m not sure why I blanked on that because i did plan on doing much more than I got! 🙁 I think I was just in awe of the selection.

The other major art supply shop was Pigment. They specialize in natural paint pigment and also offer a huge selection of brushes and Sumi inks, among other high end paint related supplies.

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The selection of brushes was overwhelming, but they have all of the brushes available at a table at the end where you can use water and washi paper to get a feel for how each brush will hold and deliver paint. That was fun and very helpful! I chose 3 brushes here. I bought a few others at other shops.

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These jars are filled with the ground pigments from various stones and minerals. The pigment can be blended with your medium base such as oil, acrylic or water! You basically select them based on how finely they are ground for intensity and the type of medium you’re using. For watercolors, the chunkier ones were my choice, though I do intend to use the powders for texture in some pieces also!

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Pigment also serves as a small museum and they display many pieces of art that showcase the supplies they offer.

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In Japan, all of the stores take their packaging and wrapping very seriously. Everything gets individually wrapped and everything is checked thoroughly to avoid sending you home with anything defective!

Here is a shot of all my goodies still packaged.

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Some of my haul, this was mostly day one. I picked up some other random items during my trip but I think I failed to photo those too!

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Above is a close up of my items from Pigment. The four larger brushes I got there. The smaller brush I got from Itoya. It also shows the two pigment colors I ended up with, I hard a hard time only choosing two!

The box in the upper left of the photo is a gold leafing set. It came with some glue, two colors and some tools, the tube has a mesh on the bottom for spreading the metal flakes. I’ll do a blog on using that soon!

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Above are so,e close ups of my itoya haul. I was apparently obsessed with stickers and stickies 🙂

Some beautiful hand painted washi stationary ina shop in Kyoto. (below)

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Some other shops I visited:

Tokyo Hands. This one was high on the list of some of the YouTube vloggers for stationary and art supplies. I did not think to get any pictures here. I did buy some things, mostly postcards and souvenirs I think though. I did not find the store especially extinguisher for items I could not get at home, however they still had a great selection of unique items. Also, the layout of the store was very confusing so the items I had on my list to buy there just weren’t easy to find, partly due to packaging and lack of translations vs the amount of time I had to spend. :(. Also, they carry ,UCB more than stationary and art supplies. They also carry housewares, clothing, hardware, and they do have tons of these little specialized stations in each department where you could get assistance or order special made wares from said department!

Another store I visited based on vlogger recommendations was Don Quijote Known as a $1.00 store, it was on the list for some art items and souvenirs too. The place was cramped, confusing and difficult to find what I was looking for. I left there with only a few items and no pictures! It would be a great place to stock up on a range of flavored KitKats though!

I can’t wait for another trip to Japan so I can spend some more time shopping some of the smaller shops too!

The food culture in Japan is strong. And it is delicious. It is elegant, pretty and perfect. And sometimes weird. Mostly just different, cheap but of the best quality and abundant.

We were in awe of the quality of the convenience store foods. 7-11, Family Mart and Lawson’s were the standards and they had great options from packaged to hot and fresh.

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Another convenience store snack. A salmon roll. It is wrapped in such a way that the salmon is not touching the rice, then opened properly, the packaging pulls away so they only touch when you’re ready to eat. Greg loved them. I never tried them, I was snacking on fruit chews, hard candies, I’m not as much of a snacker at night :0. I didn’t take any pics of my fruit chews, but they were really yummy too. 😉

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Squid and fried chicken from the convenience stores. Greg enjoyed both.

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Fake food. It’s such a thing there. It is considered an art and you can take classes and workshops to learn the art of making it! Many restaurants have a display of their menu items.

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Vending machines, everywhere! Some with beer, some with cigarettes, mostly with juices, coffees and usually a choice of soda, but not a lot! Some restaurants even used ticket machines for ordering food! Don’t forget your hot corn drinks too!

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This was one of Greg’s favorite finds from the vending machines. It’s grape juice, yes? Yes, with chunks of real grapes in it and it’s ice cold!

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Corn seemed to be a thing too. My boss swears that the hotdog bun with the corn/mayo filling things are delicious. We took his word for it. Gotta love the sushi elote! Lol

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While, regrettably we did not sample as much from the street food vendors as we would have liked, hey were plentiful! And looked and smelled amazing!1. Some of the freshest foods!

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Here we took time to check out the various garden finds at a neighborhood produce market. A few of the shots were finds in Train Station shops and outside one of the stations, I believe.

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All the train stations had grocery stores and malls attached to them where locals would shop too. Fresh spices, pickled fishes, fresh bento boxes were among the cheap and plentiful options at any station we passed through.

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Lastly, and not good related, but definitely machines centric…Video games, betting machines, gaucho-on and arcades are a big form of entertainment in Japan also!

(more pics to come,)

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So, I took a lot of pictures of plants, flowers, little random gardens. :). How many can you identify?

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A patient husband who provides action shots ?

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a collection of manhole cover art

Manhole Cover Art is quite a thing in Japan. There are now over 6,000 different manhole covers in the country! The manhole cover, just like almost everything else in Japan, has become a work of art and a source of pride for many cities. I didn’t really know this during our trip, as the idea for looking down for these “unique to each city” pieces of art was introduced to my by my dear friend , Mitch. But I am so thankful we took the time to be on the lookout for these pieces of art most people will just walk right past.

Here is an excellent article on the subject I found that gives some good information on the art: Street art: Japanese Manhole Covers.

In my pictorial collection here, I must note that many of the covers are not of the “Artistic” variety, but being so unique compared to the ones here in the States, I still found them interesting and wanted to capture/share those too.

This first grouping of manhole covers are in Tokyo. The Sakura flower is incorporated in some of the designs for the larger covers. Tokyo definitely had more basic designs and patterns compared to the other cities.

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This group of covers come from the Kyoto, Osaka and Harakata prefectures and become much more interesting and creative.

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Beppu, hands down, had the largest variety of designs and the most colorful and creative!

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Shutter art in japan. There isn’t much graffiti to speak of that I saw, but there is a lot of shutter art. I didn’t take pictures of as much as I could have and probably even more during after hours exploring.

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Day seven was a day trip to Hiroshima. Since Okinomoyaki was rumored to be best here, we saved this bucket list meal for today and it did not disappoint. This delectable dish is basically a griddle pancake topped with soba noodles and a variety of shredded grilled veggies and eggs. Ours had cabbage and shrimp in it and we had to split one because I couldn’t even eat my half. Lol

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For desert we stopped in the shopping mall and had strawberry banana and chocolate crepes. They were the ultimate delicious snack to hold us over for the trip back to get dinner. Crepes are a big thing here and I’m kinda sad I waited till now to have one. I should have had more than one on his trip! Hahaha

Our last dinner in Hirakata was yet another round of conveyor belt sushi from Sushiro. 🙂 it was a Saturday night and they were packed!

Day eight was a big travel day with 4 train transfers and 5 hours of travel. We ate a really early lunch for breakfast at Train Station spot. We were the unusually early first customer of the day. Greg’s neighbor for the meal was a pig foot. ??. I had pork soba I think and Greg had _______. [greg might remember]

Our first dinner in Beppu was at Yakiniku Korean Garden, where you BBQ your own meat and seating is arranged in private rooms and shoes are removed. Though we weren’t sitting tatami mat floor style, they were still booths, and slippers were provided for trips to the restroom.

On the menu was an assortment of WAGYU beef and pork. For desert I had a most yummy peach sorbet served in a frozen peach. We loved this place so much, guess what? We ate here again on our last night. Lol

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Day nine started with what became the usual Family Mart breakfast, which was not unlike the 7-11 breakfasts in Hirakata, just different brands.

Lunch was on the front end of our tour of the 7 Hells (post to follow) at a restaurant next to one of the Hells. お食事処 極楽亭, which translates to literally to “Dining room” was next door to Chinoike Jigoku, the hell known as the Blood Hell.

My meal was simple and amazing. A bowl of pork, which melted in my mouth and rice with a local brew Japanese Hefeweizen that was delicious too! I love my local brews and they are hard to find ! Greg had _____ [pics?]

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For dinner we found our 4th meal of Conveyor belt sush (LOL) at Sushi Meijin. We obviously could not get enough of the cheap deliciously fresh sushi !

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Day ten was a day trip to Kokura Castle. We found this most wonderful little ramen bar in the neighborhood outside the train station. It was probably the best bowl of ramen on the trip.

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Greg couldn’t resist one of the food vendors outside the castle, a grilled squid skewer.

Dinner was at, 炭火串焼と旬鮮料理の店 別府 炭旬, which translates to “Charcoal-grilled and seasonal cuisine restaurant Beppu Charson” a yakitori restaurant right by the Beppu train station, the standard assortment of pork and Greg had some chicken skins here I think… delicious of course!

Day eleven was a day trip to Yufuin, an adorable little village several hours away by 2 trains. We had lunch in the Oita Train Station mall while we waited for the second train. Amazing mall food! I had a pork soba stir fry and Greg had his third serving of takoyaki !

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The Yufuin Roll cake….holly wow yummylicious!! I should have bought a whole cake to eat on the train trip back. Lol These were so amazing. We enjoyed ours at the Yufuin Roll Shop, but there were several places in town serving up this cake.

Probably deserving of its own post, dinner on this second to last night in Japan was another bucket list meal and could not have been more perfect of an experience for us. A traditional set sushi dinner experience that, in the moment for us, felt so surreal and was an experience right out of an Anthony Bourdain episode.

Sakae Sushi is a small sushi bar was run by his little old man and his sweet wife. They spoke little to no English and did not have an English menu. There was another little old couple who came in at the same time who spoke little to no more English than the sushi chef and his wife but they all four worked together to communicate with us in a humorous and light hearted fashion while we used google translate to compliment the ‘OISHI’ meal. It was a really funny and sweet time with total strangers. I should have taken pictures of everyone.

On the menu was a shared course of sashimi followed by individual courses of nigiri that the chef served as he made. It was Devine. Fresh. Heavenly. Simple. Devine. It was the perfect perfect meal for our end of adventure eve.

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Day 12. The last day. Was surely a bit melancholy but was an amazingly relaxing and enjoyable day. On the menu was a lunch at the Beppu mall, i didn’t get a shot of mine. I had noodles I think and Greg had katsu with soup… it was, of course, yummy!

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In the afternoon, we had several hours to kill before our last Onsen appointment (upcoming post) and while we were a bit hungry we didn’t want to spoil our planned dinner so we hung out at the previously enjoyed conveyor belt sushi spot, Sushi Meijin. This time we really only had a few plates each along with a few beers. 🙂

And for for our last dinner in Japan, we ended up at the same meal at the WAGYU steak house, we ate at the first night in Beppu Yakiniku Korean Garden . hahah To our defense we did plan and try to go to another restaurant but when we got there they were so dead, when restaurants all around were busy, we feared it was a sign and ran back to the place we so loved the first night in Beppu. And I could not resist another helping of peach sorbet!

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Our dining experiences here were all amazing. Nothing was disappointing, the quality and freshness were consistent with each new and repeated experience! The service was top notch in every experience from mall foods to convenience stores too!

Overall our meals in Tokyo were the most expensive but everywhere else was relatively cheap, plus, no tipping!

Stay tuned for a separate post about the random snacks, convenient store foods and vending machines!

The foods we ate during our trip to Japan were, hands down, the best part of our trip. The food culture in Japan is amazing and the quality is beyond anything we are used to here in the States.

I’m going to cover most our meals, I’ll try not to be boring ?. Also, beer was pretty standard with all our meals, even some breakfasts! It was also the main source of carbs and we certainly earned them in the miles we walked each day!

Drinking is part of their food culture, So, we declared it an “Alcoholiday” LOL

On most of the menus beer was just labeled as “Beer” for the English translations. I assume most of it was either Kirin or Asahi since the places that did have it translated usually had Asahi, with only a few exceptions.

Also most places we ended up at had an English menu of some sort, even if only roughly translated.

Starting in Tokyo, on arrival day, we were starving and a bit overwhelmed by the number of places to choose from and we were in search of a heafty meal. The place we found around the corner from our Airbnb was a small spot with limited seating and when there are no seats, people line up outside. (true for most places because of limited indoor seats). We were so tired and travel weary we didn’t even get pictures of the food but I did get a shot from the outside. I only remember I had some sort of stir fry type dish. Lol

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On our first morning, a Sunday, the neighborhood was very quiet. We found this great café, which turned out to be a large chain, Café Velocé, I really loved their peanut butter sandwich ?. Greg had a breakfast sandwich.

On our way to Sumida Park we stopped for a carb snack at Asahi Brewery on their lovely patio. ..they also had a street stand set-up selling special cups of their Sakura brew, that you could decorate with the special Sakura stamps! So we got one to go. Haha

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For a late lunch/early dinner on the first day we ended up at the VenusFort Shopping Mall food court in the Odaiba neighborhood (before we went to the teamLab Borderless Digital Art Museum). This meal wasn’t my favorite meal, it was pretty pricy meal for a mall food court but mine was also basically a steak. I had a hamburger steak and WAGYU beef medallions with rice and a few veggies. Greg had Chicken karaage with egg and a side salad and miso.

This food court also had one central drink service staff that handled your drink orders separately and you could order beer. None of the food vendors sold drinks. That was different… 🙂

Day two in Tokyo started with a Monday morning coffee and donuts at another chain, Mister Donut, on our way to the Imperial Palace. Our seats gave us a second story view over the neighborhood Monday morning traffic.

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With our lunch on day two brought the holy grail of lunches for the budget-wise sushi lover… conveyor belt sushi at Genki Sushi in Shibuya. We were like kids in a sushi candy store. You can select English on the menu screen and order up to 3 plates at a time, order drinks and desserts the same way. Fabulous! I think we hit 18 plates plus 2 beers each and our total was about 30$ (no tipping!).

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Dinner on day two, was a Monday night and the plan was to cruise Omoide street in Shinjuku for an izakya. We hit the alleyways and found one of the tiny izakaya serving yakatori. The menus were all a bit interesting with choices like horse and womb. We went for more standard choices like chicken and pork ribs ? They also charged a $3 table charge and served a little appetizer dish for the charge, which was basically peanuts in a sweet soy on rice. Also, Greg’s drink was a highball with fresh squeezed orange juice he squeezed in the juicer right at the table. 🙂

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Day 3 was a rest and recovery day for us. Partly from the first days of travel, partly from hangover ?. We found a quiet little spot in Shinjuku, on a street a bit away from the touristy areas and it was bringing in local business men on lunch. We both had the pork ramen and it was so tasty and also exactly what we needed to nurse our hangovers. Lol

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Since day four (a Wednesday) was a travel day for us. We had breakfast at Burdigala Express in Tokyo Station. Delicious and so fresh and the mango juice was also delish. I wish I had a picture of the cafe itself. It was very crowded though.

Lunch on day four was Duck soba at Tagoto, in the Kyoto Train Station food mall!! This was so quacking yummy, words cannot describe how savory this soba was. Look at those giant scallions too!

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Our first dinner in Hirakata was so yummilicous. The spot was recommended by our Airbnb host. 炭火焼鳥八金亭 船橋店 is the name of the place and this place was just bomb! The name translates to English as “Charcoal-grilled chicken Hachigane Funabashi”

The young man running the place is trying to learn English and during the evening he would randomly make conversation with us in order to practice his English. Also, our AirBnb host actually helped him create a handwritten roughly translated menu. It was a wonderful experience, and one of our favorite places. We also ate here again on our last night in this adorable little town.

Yakatori was the only course. We had a selection of chicken and pork and Greg also had the pig nose ? haha

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Day five started with a Breakfast that was like most mornings here in Hirakata, consisting of items from the 7-11 around the corner. My selection was generally a banana and a juice box, plus a blueberry or peach yogurt drink. Then when we got to the train station I would also hit the juice bar for another large fresh mango juice that was only 200yen! ($2 us).

Greg was also loving the grape juice that had chunks of real grape in them! Those could be purchased from vending machines everywhere also!

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Lunch on day five was another round of conveyor belt sushi, this time at another spot recommended by our Airbnb host and it was exceptional. Sushiro was the spot. This one had an assortment you could grab from the conveyor and you could also order from the menu tablet. They also had little hamburger nigiri and corn/mayo rolls, which we passed on. lol Note the little packets of wasabi and the ‘instructional’ dos and don’ts of conveyor belt sushi dinning.

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Dinner was in Osaka on a Saturday night and wasn’t so much a meal but some here and some there… starting with some WAGYU beef on the hotpot grill which was devine then some grilled crab legs from the famous street vendor Kani Doraku. Greg also finally got his first serving of Takoyaki  (fried octopus hushpuppies basically)

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Day six was a day in Kyoto. Tons of walking and not enough food. Lol. We got an early morning snack from a street stand on our walk up to the temples. …Checing with Greg for pics (;

Dinner in Kyoto was a traditional service 6 course sushi meal at Yuugetsu. We sat on the floor, next to the balcony overlooking the river. This was a very unique experience and it was so beautiful by the river.

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We got back into Hirikata at a weird time, we had a big meal in Kyoto, but it was also a long day with not much else to eat so we stopped at Hachigane Funabashi for one more Yakatori snack and Greg talked heavy metal with the young guy running the joint. 🙂

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This covers the first six days, I continue in a “Week 2” blog entry…..

On day 4 of our trip to Japan we arrived in Kyoto. We would spend the next four days seeing Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima neigh our accommodations in a small prefecture situated between Kyoto and Osaka. During these four days we were able to vis some of the most beautiful temples and gardens of the entire trip.

On travel day we arrived in Kyoto a bit early in the day, we weren’t meeting our Harakata Airbnb host until 4, so we decided to see the area around Kyoto Station. We stored our luggage at the train station for a few Yen and set off to the Higashi Honganji Temple which is just a few blocks from the station.

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This was the largest temple we actually spent any time at. The one in Tokyo was so crowded it was hard to feel we were at a temple, this felt much more serene and peaceful.

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After spending quite a bit of time at Higashi, we ventured out into the neighborhood around the temple and discovered this cute little Japanese Garden, Shosei-en Garden. The gardens featured a cute little brook running through it, pond with lily pads, traditional tea rooms and this huge cherry blossom tree that was held up with a frame.

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On day 5 we started the day in our little neighborhood outside of Kyoto, in this little town called Hirakata. Our Airbnb was traditional housing and just a two minute walk to this beautiful enchanted little forest temple, Ninomiya Temple.

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After spending the early party of he day in Hirakata, we headed off to Osaka for the evening. These are a few temples we discovered during our walk to the Dontabori for dinner.

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Walking through the side streets and through areas around the Dontibori we happened across this little monk prayer ceremony. This was such an amazing experience! We were confused about what was happening and we still can only guess this is what was happening, if you have more info

Day 6 was probably one of my most favorite days of the trip. We did ALOT of walking but the views, the neighborhoods and the temples we saw were every step! The area we chose was a bit away from the most popular areas, which happily got us away from the crowds.

We headed from the ____ Train Station on foot and made our way through little neighborhoods, the final destination was Otagi Temple, but along the way we discovered this quite old cemetery. Moss is everywhere in this area a damp humid climate, though it was on the chili side for us today.

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Giouji Temple is one of the temples in the area that was also on our route and I am so glad we got to see this one! Also part of a Moss Garden, the fauna was otherworldly.

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The walk up the hill to Otagi was difficult, but we took the long way and it was so worth the views of Kyoto, we could see the tower from one point!

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Otagi Nenbutsu-Ji Temple. His one was so fantastical. The hundreds of Buddha heads, many covered in moss was quite amazing. None were the same and they were so amusing! We were also there with only about 3 other couples.

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I didn’t take enough pictures of the neighborhood shrines and tiny temples we also saw along the way but this cute little shrine was just on a neighborhood street corner.

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Is one was long left unattended.

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A parting shot as we made our way back to town where we enjoyed a traditional service sushi course. This day was so peaceful and serene, otherworldly, fantastical and all around fabulous:). I would definitely recommend taking the ‘off -the-beaten-path’ option and seeing these less touristy spots.

On day 7 of our day our our trip, we took the train to Hiroshima. This day was a calm, somber day, one to reflect and one to remember for sure.

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This memorial was erected to memorialize the 10,000 students killed in the bombing.

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A-Bomb Dome. The building left closest to the hypocenter and was left as it was to memorialize the casualties.

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Greg met and had a very emotional conversation with a survivor of the bombing. He and his sister were the only survivors from his family and they still live there today.

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Is the park were families celebrating Hanami, the celebration of the Sakura (cherry blossom festival).

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We also happened to be in town on the opening day of baseball season. Go carps !

I have a co-worker who loves Llamas. So what better holiday gift for so,done who definitely makes my life at work easier!? A LLama! I decided to painter her a mug because they’re so versatile and you can never have too many!

I started by sketching and practice painting a few….

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I found the pottery paint place in my area, As-You-Wish, and went to work, I sketched the image on I pencil before putting all my layers of paint on…..

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I was quite happy with my finished product! I do wish I had not painted his face the same as the mug, but I still LOVE the way it turned out and so did the recipient!

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This year I definitely learned from last year and used reproductions of my work instead of trying to have originals. I also decided to go with a “Best of” theme with eliminated re-creating the wheel so to speak.

Going through all of my work for 2018, I put together my favorite Sketchbook entries from 2018…….So, without further ado…

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January was painted from a photo posted on the Arizona Highways Instagram page of a mountain scape seen in the McDowel Mountain range.

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Desert sunsets and hummingbirds are two of my favorite things about Arizona ?

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April and May were my two favorite florals from the year and June and July were pieces I painted while in Oregon in December.

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August got the most adorable Llama which I originally painted as practice for one I painted on a coffee mug as a gift for. Co-worker.

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September is a scene I painted one afternoon while out scooting around the canals in Tempe which depicts four peaks and red mountains ranges. October is is the haunted hotel in Jerome. November and December were two more pieces I painted during our trip to Oregon.

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I am so happy with our this years calendar turned out. I love being able to see my progress with working with watercolors and sketching and sharing it with my friends and family!

A few things I love about living here in Phoenix…. the year round amazing weather and the canals! Today was such a beautiful warm sunny day, and knowing colder weather is coming I really wanted to be outside!

I decided to rent one of these rental scooters and see the sights from the Tempe Canal. I started at Tempe Marketplace and headed towards Tempe Town Lake.

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I stopped for a break on the north side of the lake with the view of the KPMG buildings and sketched. I first sketched on my dotted paper, this is helping me with spacial layout so much!

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Then I moved to my journal and did a light layout in pencil then painted watercolor! I’m really happy with this one!

I just love the views of the city you get from the canals! This route took me north of the lake and into Papago Park.

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Heading north of Papago, stopping with this view to sketch, because, well…. that view!!

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I skipped the dotted paper and went straight to journal here and love the result….

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I then headed past Papago towards Old Town Scottsdale, taking me under a few roads! I love the tunels!

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No pics of the view but I made this quick sketch of the canal and the hotels along it in Scottsdale…

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This little confluence area of the canal is north of Scottsdale arond Thomas, it’s a really neat little area too.

I spent about 6 hours out on the scooter and just love strolling through the back ways of the city! I’m getting a bike for Christmas and look forward to exploring more canals soon!

This was year number 2 camping at this the Burnt Coral Campground. It’s found about 5 miles north of Roosevelt Lake

The area is a bird watching paradise! These yellow Wilson’s Wdarblers were everywhere!

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This guy posed for me nicely! I don’t know what kind it is yet, I’m working on that and will update!

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This little desert lizard let me get pretty close before he took off.

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Rabbits were also plentiful during our morning and evening walks.

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Here’s a few pics of our campsite by the water and our site set-up.

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There were tons of Cardinals too! Those suckers are fast too.

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I got a new kayak the day we headed out and this lake is a fantastic lake to explore. Having a campsite right on the water also allowed me to do some sunset and moonlight floats right off the beach. I absolutely love being out on the water at twilight.

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During the day we took n off-road drive up to the top of Four Peaks from the back side. Such beautiful views.

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I saw this little chipmunk climb out on the ocotillo branch from my kayak. Lol

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This spot is one of my favorite places to be on an early spring evening or morning. I would love to camp here every year.

Each year for about the last 5-6 years I have tried to do a calendar to give out as a Christmas/holiday gift to friends and family. The first few years were little digital illustrations I came up with but with each year the calendar has pushed me to actually learn how to draw and then paint.

My 2018 calendar is my favorite of all of them. It’s the project that catapulted my watercolor obsession. I did ultimately bite off more than I could chew with the idea that each calendar would be an original! I spent 6 months painting and had only about 15 original sets. My goal was 40. At the last minute I figured out that it was actually possible to scan in y favorites and put together a digital version too!

The theme was cactui, they made an easy subject to paint and most my friends and family are in Memphis and other southern states so the subject was well received. I also continue to use the artwork in various projects.

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February was actually a hand carved rubber stamp that I designed, carved and applied watercolor to stamp. October was also my own design and hand carved stamp.

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I love my happy accidents!

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This was my second baby shower project in six months and I was totally stoked! I was super excited for the theme too! Spaceships and outer space!

*right now I have limited pictures of the final project. Look for updates!

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I created the vector files for the cut files I used for the banner and confetti using Adobe Illustrator.

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I planned out each cut file and all the colors for each piece. I probably spent an hour in the scrapbook paper isles at both hobby lobby and Michaels to find the best matches to depict the parts of the solar system and rocketship. I loved the glitter for the fire, the sun and on planet ring.

This is the banner, the pieces are assembled I just didn’t string it until we were at the party and hanging it. I used the raised dots for the letters to give those some depth also.

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Large cut confetti for table decorations, make for easy clean up too!

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Cake matched the invitation so perfectly !

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This shower was a huge success and got many positive comments. I was really proud of the banner!

This was my first baby shower. I was really, really excited when I was asked to help with this “little party”.

The Mommy-to-be had not really decided on her nursery theme or anything so we brainstormed and came up with a theme that we found cute/fun.  We knew it was a girl and the committee decided one this momma/baby elephant theme and for the banner “baby girl” as mom didn’t have a name decided on either 🙂

The shower was two parts, one part for all the women in our group which consisted of games and lunch then in the afternoon we joined again with the entire group to include the men, so we had a luncheon for the women and desert afterwards in the office to include the men.

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Using Adobe illustrator, I put together the cut files for the text, elephant elements, etc for the banner.

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for for the banner, I went to Michaels and spent probably two hours up and down the paper isle and finally went with one of the scrapbook paper books that had a girl baby theme.  I went home and spent another few hours Planning out the paper arrangement for the banner… I went into OCD overdrive with this one LOL

To assemble the banner I used raised adhesive dots and pink ribbon to string it all together

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The cake totally matched the invitations and party theme: adorbs:

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I look forward to doing more of these!!

This was a true bucket list photo opportunity for me! My daughter and I wanted to take a road trip on a long weekend and we have never seen Colorado, and so that’s where we decided to head off to. As my luck would have it, it was the weekend of the balloon festival, the largest in the states and world known.

We were able to get into Albuquerque the evening before opening sunrise flight, which allowed us to scout out the perfect spot outside of the festival grounds to catch some great photos. We only had the morning to catch the sights and I preferred to have the viewpoint away from the crowds and wanted to chase the balloons a bit so we did not buy tickets to go into the festival grounds.

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We picked a most perfect spot too! We were up at like 4 am, Ashley ways a good sport :). And we were in place just in time for the very first balloons to taking flight right at daybreak! The moment was exciting and I was so excited to catch the fire in the balloons on an overcast morning.

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We couldn’t have asked for a better sky, the morning sun and overcast sky gave me lots of lighting to play with!

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All of the balloon characters were fun to spot and identify, some were hard to figure out! Lol

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I was very excited for the water to catch reflections in!

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We chased the balloons for a bit and lucked into this great landscape 🙂

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We caught up with some landing balloons to complete the chase. I love that part of these events ! After a stop at a super busy Starbucks we were on the road to Denver and Winter Park!