Merry Christmas to All!

Merry Christmas to all the blog friends. I wish you a wonderful holiday with your family and friends, and I hope Santa stopped by and treated you well...

As the holiday winds down this coming week, I look forward to getting back to my 'art toys' and doing some more watercolor journaling. I hope you'll stop by again to visit.

Let me introduce you .....

I hope my incomplete title caught your interest .... as I have something exciting that I want to share with you. I recently came across Leslie Fehling's charming Irish travel journal on her blog and I think you will enjoy it too.

Leslie recently traveled to Ireland with her mother and she has captured priceless memories of their adventure in her sketchbook journal. It has been fascinating for me to follow along as she has posted the different pages on her blog. Leslie's images that I have posted here are just a small taste of what is waiting for you over on her blog. Pour yourself a cup of coffee, take a stroll over to Leslie's blog, and have a look at her charming Irish Journal. You're in for a treat!!

P.S. The link I provided above will go to the most recent post on Leslie's blog - which right now is the last portion of the Irish travel journal. Use this link to go directly to the first page of Leslie's Irish Journal.

My home away from home in New Orleans

This is the second 2-page spread in my NOLA journal - pages 4 and 5. I loved the Place d'Armes Hotel and I felt right at home in my room. I loved the quaintness, homey feel, and even the quirkiness of the hotel - and my room was an obvious choice to capture in my journal. It was GREAT that we were living right in the French Quarter - it really made me feel that we were 'living' the adventure - rather than commuting in to be a 'visitor' (or 'observer') to the French Quarter each day.

The beginning of an unbelievable adventure

Just a month ago I stepped out to do something very different for me. I had been looking forward to this trip since early in the year, and I was super excited and filled with anticipation as the time grew near. My adventure started as I took a week off of work and flew by myself to New Orleans to meet (for the first time) Laure Ferlita and 7 other women for NOLA Live! The adventure truly was "An Artist's Painting Holiday"!!!

I'm not used to traveling alone, I'm usually with family members. So there were more than a few butterflies in my stomach as my plane took off! Once I landed it still felt a little unfamiliar to get a cab by myself and just show up at the reserved hotel. I checked in, got my key, and went to my room by myself to unload my things. It was a quick stop as I hurried back down to the lobby to meet the group and go to dinner. It was an amazing intro - from the moment I met everyone it felt as if I had just rejoined a bunch of long time friends. During the magical week we explored the quaint French Quarter together, sketched and painted in our journals, walked and walked, chatted a bunch, and ate amazing meals too! It was all so much fun!

We had numerous sketching opportunities during the week to work in our journals. Since I have returned home I have continued working on sketches and adding memorabilia to my journal to record my adventure. Tonight I'm posting the first 2-page spread in my journal, and I'll continue to post the other pages as I work my way through my journal.

Pointing out a couple of things on these 2 pages - the portable chair that I carried EVERYWHERE to use for sketching, and Tujagues a charming old restaurant where we enjoyed our first meal together (Sunday dinner).

P.S. I am excited about the watercolor journal that I used for the trip. It was made by Lori Vliegan of Elvie Studio. The cover says 'Always follow your heart' and that is just what I did in traveling to New Orleans for this special adventure.