ArT ReTrEaT

I wouldn't call it Walden Pond, I doubt he ate that well. A few weekends ago I decided to use up my last vacation day of the fiscal year and head home for a weekend. Whenever you go home for actual events you don't really get to spend time with people or relax; I needed a bit of both. I wanted good food, good company, a relaxing time and some space/tools to do art projects.

Thursday night after work, one of my roommates (we were so close to talking another into coming last minute) and I packed my car full of crafty potentials, a few snacks and headed down south Tweeting all the way. We of course made the request Sheetz stop (she'd never been and yes she loved it) and pulled in around 1am. Although my parents were in bed, they had turned down our beds and even put some Lindt chocolate on our pillows. Fantastic, right?

Friday morning we woke up, had Eggs Benedict for breakfast and began our art retreat. First on my docket was my 2010 blog journal. I had been working on it for a couple of weeks but just needed to buckle down and finish the whopping 310 pager. (And for those who have asked, you can make your handwritten font here.) When I finished, I gladly sent it to Blurb for printing:

#1: BLOG JOURNAL

After running a few errands (including picking up some paint) we came back and I began painting an old mirror I had that didn't fit with my room anymore. It started off brown, then two years ago I painted it black and now it's a salmony red. I just needed something to break up all my black and white and this was the easiest solution. But let me tell you, I forget how much I hate painting over black! Luckily I got a few coats on before we left to watch Cars 2 with my brother and his family. Cars was a bit snooze-worthy but the Flying Biscuit afterwards with its apple butter and biscuits made up for the fact.

#2 FRAME PAINTING

In between coats of paint on Saturday I began organizing all my photos, which I've been needing to do for, oh about five years. I created and condensed folders, went through old CDs and created back-ups by year. I still need to buy an external drive but I did the hardest part! It might only take three sentences to tell you what I did, but it took ALL DAY to filter, organize, burn and file five years worth of photos.

#3 PHOTO ORGANIZING

Okay, so it's not like I was sitting at a desk all day. My mom, SS and I took a trip to a few thrift stores (all super lame), made homemade fried green tomato and avocado sandwiches for lunch, and taste tested a few chocolate chip/oatmeal/macadamia cookies. SS and I even inadvertently ended up taking a back-country nature walk where we collected pine cones and commiserated about southern humidity. That evening we went over to my other brother's house and had a BBQ with his fam. We then played on the swings and few rounds of frisbee golf until it was little kid bedtime. Then, we went home and I continued my photo organizing--finishing up at 1am.

However, during that time I also put a coat of paint on my mirror and made my wall hanging project (shown below). I took a piece of old barn wood and drilled six holes in it at varying increments. Then, with a random assortment of drawer knobs I'd collected from Anthropologie (my fav is the scotty dog at the end), I created hooks to hang jewelry and other sundry items. It was a bit difficult sawing off the back end and tightening the screws, but overall I think it turned out rather well!

#4 WALL HANGING

Sunday morning we went to church, came back and finished the weekend off with some biscuits and gravy... and one last coat of paint on my mirror. Overall, it was a weekend of success. However, SS and I both agree that we are in need of another retreat in order to knock-off a few more things on our growing lists!