Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Life Around Here - Part 1: My trip to North Carolina

Sorry I  haven't posted in a while, but family matters have awesomely interrupted my art journey.
Three weeks ago, I drove up to North Carolina to welcome my great nephew into the world.

Liam James

My sister and I both made it in time to see Liam's arrival (she, flying from Boston and me, driving from Florida).
I spent the next two weeks taking pictures of him and hopefully helping his mom and dad settle into parenthood.




I was able to take a side trip to Asheville and meet some of my artist friends that I had only interacted with on Facebook. 

I drove straight to Hendersonville and met Sandee outside the Art Mob where she and other local artists display their works.




We had lunch and driving back through town, we took a picture in front of the bear she painted for the Annual Hendersonville Bearfootin Bear Walk/ Auction. 

   "A special treat Downtown is the annual Public Art Display, “Bearfootin’ in Hendersonville,” featuring the return of the wildly popular bear statues. Visitors and locals love to hunt for bears and strike a pose in front of their favorites to create one-of-a-kind photo memories."




Sandee took me to the cutest Art Supply and Boutique, Random Arts, in Saluda. I met two warm, kind and funny ladies, Jane Powell and Joyce Berger. And, I shopped just a little :)

Later that night, Sandee and I met up with a couple more of our artist friends for dinner at Tupelo Honey Cafe - South. Actually, both Sandee and I knew Tiare, of Tiare Smith Designs, but we were excited to meet a new artisan friend, Nedine and Tiare's wonderful hubby, Robert. 




The next day, Sandee drove up to Ashville to spend a few hours with me before I had to head back to Raleigh.




It was such a fun day for me. We visited the Woolworth Walk. It was so awesome; two stories of art displays by various artists and a retro themed luncheonette. 

We had lunch in town and then had to say goodbye. Yup, I cried a little. It's one thing to interact online, but if you have the opportunity to meet someone who has been a mentor to you for a couple years, and then find that you have more in common than you even thought, you realize that these friendships go beyond your WiFi connection. Oh my heck, I get teary eyed thinking of the girls I met on this trip.

I headed back to Raleigh to spend my last few days with my niece, nephew and that wonderfull little life, at the beginning of this post, who just won my heart.



I WAS able to create a little art in NC and some here at home since I got back. To see that, stop back for Part 2. I'll try to catch you up in the next few days with a new post.