Just spoke with Mark, he’s in Kuwait now. I added a weather stamp doodie to the left, I’m not sure that time is correct though, and there are limited options to the cities which is fine, as long as it’s close I guess. :/

He’s not far from the Iraq border, and I may not hear from him for a couple of weeks now as they will be preparing and traveling to their final destination.

I reeeealy need to paint. I think I will try to start something once the girls go to bed tonight.

I’m back. Mark departed early AM for Kuwait, with stops along the way. He already called from the first stop.

The trip was wonderful, I arrived to find him waiting at the airport – we went to find our hotel and WEE that was fun! Have you ever driven a “roundabout”? Crazy I tell ya. Can’t you just make a left? No, you have to go down 2 miles and then follow this big circle and come back. LOL Once we figured out how a roundabout worked, we were good. 😉 Got checked in, and went to dinner at a Cajun restaurant next to the hotel. I tried so many new things, I’m proud of myself! That evening we started with stuffed mushrooms (yum) which were stuffed with a chopped crawfish breading. I had Stuffed Snapper (also stuffed with crawfish and topped with a creamy seafood sauce). Mark had Blackened snapper, and we both had seafood etoufee. (and wine, and beer!)

He wanted to get his fill of fast food before we left as well. So there was Taco Bell, McDonald’s and Applebee’s on that last evening for steaks, Long Island Iced Tea and Raspberry Kiwi Margaritas. 😉

Things are closed on Monday’s down there, so we didn’t get to go to the art museums in Alexandria as we’d hoped. I did get some neat pics that I’ll scan later on. We ended up spending Monday driving to Marksville and stopping at the Paragon Casino & Hotel Resort. BOOOOO we didn’t win anything! We lost. 🙁 It was fun though, we paired up side by side on some nickel video poker machines and lasted a good hour before we depleted the rest of our casino fun money. When we got back we had enough time (I think it was Monday?!) to hop over to the local zoo, where I got some more very cool reference pics to paint from.

Tuesday we did it! We got our TATTOOS! That’s just the pic of mine. Mark’s is on his left shoulder, and I did get more pics on my regular camera that I have to have developed. I took progress pics of JD doing mine, I hope they turn out well! Our Tattoo artist was amazing, and funny that we ended up selecting him, because he’s originally from Iowa.

I had picked up the book “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Tracy Chevalier and read it on the way down. Well the natives were restless, so I also did this in gel pens in my little notebook I brought along. I’ve been wanting to paint that piece for a lonnng time, and now that I’ve worked that little sketch I think I’m feeling brave enough!

On the way back, I had stowed some of my zoo pics in my purse to work from, and we had also stopped at Hobby Lobby and I picked up a smaller purse sized sketchpad and more india ink brush pens. On the flight from Alexandria to Memphis, I doodled this macaw and then from Memphis to Minneapolis I doodled this squirrel. I met a really nice man in the seat across the aisle who watched as I doodled and it was neat to see his interest in art!

Ok I’m done for now, more later!!

Missed you all!
xoxoxxoo

Today’s been one of preparing paintings to ship, running to Dick Blick for a few things (hangers, wire, etc.), scanning, preparing COA’s, signing, and shampooing carpets. (Had to throw that in the mix!)

I’m packed and ready to go, leaving early Saturday morning for a long day of flights (2 layovers, three planes) – This is going to be a “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” kind of day. I leave here, go to Minneapolis, then to Memphis, then Louisiana, grab a rental car, find my way to the base (1 1/2 hr drive from the airport according to Mapquest) to pick up Mark and a couple of other guys who weren’t able to get rentals, then to the hotel. I figure we’ll be settled in at about 8 p.m., after leaving here at about 7 a.m. It will be a long day!

So now I’m going to have to run to Staples, I ran out of paper clips, bubble wrap and full sheet labels to print my COA’s. Then I will spend the evening with the girls, finish packing in the morning and run to the post office.

Exciting, eh? Aaah the administrative life of an artist. I haven’t even painted this week, so I won’t have any new originals to list until a week after next. I may put some prints up on auction just so I’m not forgotten while I’m gone!

We lost our nephew yesterday. 🙁 Reason unknown, I don’t know when services will be, but I am hoping that it will be later next week so we can attend his funeral. Only 26 years old, it’s really hard to wrap your brain around it when there’s no reason. He was at home getting ready for work and his wife’s mom came to watch their baby (not even a year old) and she found him on the floor. I can’t even believe it. It seems very surreal. So those that pray, please include Jerry, Lisa and Cade in your prayers, Lisa will be needing a lot of strength, and Cade – poor lil guy will never remember the time he had with his daddy. My brother in law (Jerry) is a wreck too, as you can imagine.

Sorry to be a bummer about that. It’s pretty sad.

Ok, Jay is up from her nappy, best get to finishing the “to-do” list!

xoxoxo

I know this probably isn’t such a big deal to many, but it’s a rare thing for me to have a pedicure! I took the girls tonight to get our “nikkernaiws” done. They painted eachothers nails while I had this fabulous full resurfacing of my winterly hard and cracked feet. Don’t you love my shiny raspberry nikkernaiws? It’s got an iridescent-metallic type finish. I lurrrrrve how they turned out. I cannot wait for Mark to see my purdy toes this weekend! 😀