Eat Pray Love

I'm back from spring break and feeling very much recharged.  I took a little girl's trip to the Smoky Mountains.  We just laid around in our cabin, read, got in the hot tub, and even did some yoga!  We also did bunches of shopping, went to the Hatfield and McCoy's dinner show, and even the Titanic museum...talk about a bunch of tourists!

Today it is back to the real world...

One of my favorite customers, Andrea Brock-Pierce, ordered this 10x10 for her kitchen.  To coordinate, she asked for a few touches of red.  I added that in the ribbon, the trim, and the buttons.

I absolutely love this vintage postal trim.  I also love the distressing and the vintage buttons.  I also added the brown and taupe pearls and flower.  So pretty!

I'm On Spring Break!

I am officially on spring break - yay!  I love my job, but the little breaks that we get are so nice.  It's kind of a chance for me to catch my breath.

My spring break started with a bang.  My husband suddenly developed a kidney stone and we've spent the last two days in and out of the hospital.  He's home today and the kids are out of the house, so we had a really quiet Saturday just resting and watching movies.

I am putting a hold on taking orders for a little while.  I need to catch up on the ones I've got before I add any new ones to the list.  I do have some super cute gift certificates available.  They ship easily and make a great gift.  People can order whatever they need whenever they need it!

Enjoy your break, too!

Liam

New customer, Amy White, ordered this 12x24 canvas for a baby shower.  She asked for colors to match the bedding pictured below.  She also asked that I be sure to use the orange in the giraffe.  I have to admit that I am not a big fan of orange, but it is so perfect here that I could just about change my mind!

I love doing this design with the dots around the outside and then stripes in the middle.  However, this bedding had the yellow chevron.  I decided to substitute that for my usual stripes.  Look how great it turned out!  I love it and I love this color combination.  It's so calming and that chocolate brown name just pops!

Here's the sweet bedding that was the inspiration.  It's from Target and I know I say this almost every single time, but if I were having a baby boy any time soon...it's just so cute!  That gator cracks me up!

Thanks, Amy!  Enjoy!

Yellowy Goodness!

It's almost spring time!  My favorite color changes all of the time, but yellow is always right up there at the top.  Always has been.  It is just the perfect color for spring!

It was always yellow and baby pink.  And then I did a lot of yellow and lime.  All of those were pretty, but the yellow and gray combination is so fresh and modern.  I love it!  Pair that color combo with chevron, and it is a match made in heaven!

This one was ordered to match a baby shower invitation.  It was going to be used on the table as decoration and then on to the nursery.  I love that idea - so smart!  Thank you so much for the order, Whitney!

This yellow is a little paler but still oh so pretty!  It is paired with navy blue and light blue - along with that gorgeous gray.  This one was painted for a third brother.  Click here and here to see the other two matching ones.  I saw that pic of baby Carter that you sent me when he was born - how sweet!!!  Congrats on the new baby, Laura!

How about the new look for the blog?  I am loving it!  A super big thanks to Jennisa for doing such a fabulous job.  You can also check out my new blog, Dream Custom Artwork Classes, for information on some summer art classes.  Yay!!

Show us Your Life - Favorite Vacation Spots

The Show Us Your Life Series from Kelly's Korner is featuring favorite vacation spots today.  I am so jazzed because we are a family who loves to travel.  We like to go lots of different places, see the world, and rarely visit the same place twice.  We have been to Disney...once.  While we enjoyed that experience, there's so much other stuff out there to see and do!

Here we are in Arizona.  My husband and I spent a few days extra after a conference in Phoenix.  That is a part of the country that we rarely get to see.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  We visited the local Native American art museum, went to a Suns game, and took a desert adventure in this amazing ATV.  We also used the city transportation and rode from one end of town to the other.  It was cheap and easy.  We also loved visiting the ASU campus area for lots of cool shops and places to eat.

 

Four our ten year anniversary we took a European cruise with Royal Caribbean cruise lines.  Our ship left port in Barcelona, travel through the south of France (pictured), and went all the way down to the tip of Italy.  We took shore excursions into France, Monaco, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Naples, and Sicily.  I highly recommend this as a safe way to travel in Europe and to see lots of sights in one trip.

For my 30th birthday, my husband told me he was taking me shopping.  He didn't tell me that he was taking me to the biggest mall in the United States!  We did a long weekend to the Mall of America in Minnesota!  There are lots of cheap flights and the mall is very close to the airport and tons of hotels.  There's so much more than shopping in this mall - including a theme park!  We had a ball!

I attended a Science Conference in New Orleans just last year.  We'd never been to Louisiana and were amazed at how different the climate is in that area.  We stayed right down in the French Quarter and ate biegnettes every night!  I don't recommend this trip for kids - save this one for just you and your spouse!

We do go to the Gulf Shores area just about every year at fall break for a little beach time.  We love the Perdido Key area because it is not commercialized at all.  It's very quiet and laid back.  We get a house in the Purple Parrot village. pack very little, and just chill for the week.  Heaven!  The kids love boogie boarding and the beaches and pools are perfect in October.

Probably our favorite vacation to date is the Moon Palace in Cancun, Mexico.  We jumped on a last minute deal through expedia and took a chance on a totally new place.  We were apprehensive to say the least, but it ended up being fabulous.

The chairs in the pool were my absolute favorite thing.  The all inclusive option made this a truly worry free vacation.  Everything we wanted to do was truly included - even food!  We are already thinking about taking a trip back!

As a matter of fact, I just went on a recent quick trip.  Today is my sixteenth wedding anniversary.  My husband booked us a room for a long weekend at the Chattanoogan Hotel.  We are only about an hour and a half away from Chattanooga, but it was still nice to get away without the kids for a couple of nights.  We've had a yummy dinner and a couple's massage .  Woo hoo!  Happy anniversary to my better half.  I love you bunches!

I'm already planning lots of new adventures for our family.  I can't wait to browse through all of the links today and see your fabulous trips!  Now, get out there and see the world.  Enjoy!

 

Shower Curtain Coordinate

Isn't this saying just the sweetest?  I've done it for several bedrooms and nurseries, but this is the first time for the bathroom.  It's for a sibling shared bathroom and was designed to match their custom shower curtain.  I love these bright colors and all of the dots and stripes!

The shower curtain is not exactly like this, but you get the idea!  I couldn't find the exact picture or link that I used to paint the canvas.  This etsy shop makes shower curtains, bed spreads, and all kinds of custom goodies.  I haven't ordered anything from them...yet!

So This Is Love...

Such a lovely quote for a bedroom with what was described as spa green walls, soft blues and grays, and black furniture.  I wanted to capture the peacefulness of those colors while still incorporating the black.

This was an 11x14 etsy order that shipped out about two weeks ago.  I love it!  It's that time of the year again for the Mansfields - anniversary!  We always try to go away and spend some time just the two of us.  Sometimes it's a big trip and sometimes it's just a little getaway.  It all depends on the schedule and budget!

We spent the weekend in Chattanooga and literally just got back.  I am delaying cleaning and unpacking by blogging.  Haha!  We stayed at the Chattanoogan Hotel, which was very nice, and had a fancy dinner at Hennan's.  It was delicious!  Today was so pretty that after a huge breakfast at Aretha Frankenstein's, we went down to Coolidge Park and rented bikes!  It was so fun!  After a quick stop at Target, the trip was complete!