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On the last full day of our anniversary get-away we explored areas south of San Luis Obispo. One of our final stops was for coffee in Arroyo Grande. This cute cafe was suggested to us by our oldest son Ryan. He wanted to make sure that we celebrated our milestone. I had to call Ryan in Texas from my cell phone in the car in order to get directions to the cafe. Meanwhile Ryan had to search on the internet to remember the name of it, and where it was. I'm happy to report that our efforts paid off and were very worth it. My husband and I enjoyed some time relaxing in the cafe with our hot drinks. While he read a book, I sketched this page. Ryan highly recommended their Chai Latte so I spoiled myself with two drinks - my usual Vanilla Latte and the Chai Latte. Yum!!
After our coffee stop, we headed north and enjoyed watching the sun go down from various spots on the coast on our way. The day was coming to a close in the same way that our short get-away was coming to an end.
After driving down the coast a bit, my husband and I walked around Pismo Beach. We were a bit surprised that it didn't seem as quaint as some of our other stops during our get-away. We were heading back to San Luis Obispo when my husband suggested that we get some ice-cream. This was unusual as he doesn't normally eat it. He found a hole-in-the wall ice-cream place in an old strip mall and we went in and made our choice. I chose the Kona Coffee and Espresso Chip, and he opted for Rainbow Sherbert. The cold treat just hit the spot! Although the little shop didn't look like anything special, I did want to remember the special time and I loved the lettering on the window, The SCOOP.
During our April anniversary get-away, my husband and I enjoyed an afternoon drive from San Luis Obispo out to Morro Bay. We wandered along the main street by the water and went in a few shops. Our favorite was stopping for a break (wine for me and coffee for him) in the Otter Rock Cafe. We relaxed and enjoyed the view of Morro Rock in the distance. I got brave and pulled out my sketchbook and small travel palette to record a memory of our time together. We had visited out here many years ago when we were still in college, and in years since with our kids in tow. But, this time it was back to just the two of us - just like in the beginning.
Last month, my husband and I managed to get away for 4 nights to celebrate our Anniversary. This is not something that we are able to do very often.... so it was a special treat. One of our first stops was Avila Beach, California. While my husband participated in several conference calls (from our car), I kept myself busy in this small coffee shop. I enjoyed a great cup of coffee and had fun playing with my art toys. It is amazing how absorbed I can get when I'm working in my sketchbook. The time just flies by.... ! Stay tuned for more of what I did during our get-away.
P.S. The "latte art" (the design on the top of the drink) was awesome!
I'm a bit behind in my posting... This winter I spent some time in the garden doing pruning and general clean-up. Its lots of work to do some general clean-up in the yard in preparation for the coming spring. An afternoon in March I was out in the yard and I was quite taken to see the new growth appearing on a variety of our plants and trees. I took a couple of photos and then chose 3 images to sketch: a Gerbera daisy plant (my grandmother's favorite) on the left, a rose bush, and a tomato plant. Seeing the new growth, and anticipating the coming blooms and harvest, certainly boosted my spirits, and sure felt like a reward for the efforts spent cleaning up the yard. I felt excited as I anticipated the further growth of everything in my garden. Anticipation is fun - just like planning for and anticipating a vacation.
I'm having so much fun checking in on my garden now - especially all of my roses which are blooming. It will be fun to try my hand at sketching the flowers as they bloom, and vegetables as they ripen.
My oldest son Ryan is familiar with the sunset challenges that I have received from his brother Sean. Ryan called me on a recent Friday night as he was driving 4 hours across Texas from Corpus Christi to some other location for a weekend cycling event. It was unfamiliar territory for him, and a long drive. During the drive he noticed a beautiful sunset and decided to leave me a phone message similar to what Sean has done. He gave me a call, but instead of the message recorder he got me on the cell phone. So, I acted as my own message recorder and transcribed his description of the Texas sunset to the paper on my lap (my tax envelope of all things!). Ok, another challenge from one of my boys.... it was another fun exercise to paint something from a written description - rather than seeing it for myself. 
P.S. You might wonder why I bothered to note my son's dinner on the side. He had assembled a 'homemade bag dinner'. My son loves to cook, is careful of what he eats for his athletic pursuits, and was just so excited to tell me what he had put together for his dinner on the road. It certainly made me smile when I heard what he was having for dinner - even a homemade mini-pumpkin pie!
Usually when I sketch or paint I depict something that I can "see" with my own eyes. Long distance communication with two of my boys has given me another perspective - painting a scene from someone else's description of it, without seeing it myself. It all started with a phone message left by my middle son over a year ago. He called and left me a phone message about a beautiful sunset in San Luis Obispo (SLO), California where I used to go to college and where my son now is. The phone message was certainly a tease as he described at length the beautiful sunset that he was seeing, and I was not. However, I turned his message into a challenge to myself to sketch and paint that sunset. It was a fun exercise. (skip to the end of this post to see the 2008 sketch)
Fast forward to this year.... my son Sean knows that I'm having fun with my sketching and painting, so he recently left me another phone message as an art challenge. His message was a detailed description of another beautiful SLO sunset. My son included an explicit request for me to sketch and paint the sunset before he would be home for Spring break. Always looking for ways to connect with my boys... I took on Sean's latest challenge and finished it before he arrived home. I sure had fun sharing my effort with him. Here is the latest SLO sunset from 2009:
Backing up to 2008, here is the watercolor sketch that I did with Sean's first detailed sunset phone message last year:
On the last full day of our anniversary get-away we explored areas south of San Luis Obispo. One of our final stops was for coffee in Arroyo Grande. This cute cafe was suggested to us by our oldest son Ryan. He wanted to make sure that we celebrated our milestone. I had to call Ryan in Texas from my cell phone in the car in order to get directions to the cafe. Meanwhile Ryan had to search on the internet to remember the name of it, and where it was. I'm happy to report that our efforts paid off and were very worth it. My husband and I enjoyed some time relaxing in the cafe with our hot drinks. While he read a book, I sketched this page. Ryan highly recommended their Chai Latte so I spoiled myself with two drinks - my usual Vanilla Latte and the Chai Latte. Yum!!
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