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.