A Day in Hot Springs

For our last day in Arkansas, we rode horses in the morning and then headed into Hot Springs for lunch and a little shopping. We had fun using our Hipstamatic around the historic district. It was super hot outside and it made us appreciate living somewhere with an ocean breeze!

 The restaurant we ate at for lunch was so interesting and had a colorful past!

Lita convinced me to give a "come hither" brothel look which then proceeded to crack her up,lol.

 Lunch Crowd

Lita, checking in on Facebook!

After lunch, we walked around and snapped pics of store windows and other interesting things we saw:

 Aristocrat

 Bathhouse Soapery

 Friends Forever

 This skinny bottomed girl had a red velvet cupcake. And it wasn't that good. ;-(

 Chinese Lanterns

 Back in the Day

 Little Red & Wolf

 A bit of London in Hot Springs!

Zoltar! My hubby does a hilarious impression of Zoltar. :-)

After a few hours in Hot Springs, we headed back to the ranch and did our country photo shoot which I shared in an earlier post. Here are some bonus images to wrap up this Arkansas Adventure:

 Cowgirl Lita

The Simple Life

Our last day ended with a beautiful sunset:

And when we arrived back home to Florida and headed to our car in the parking lot, we were welcomed home by a full rainbow:

And so our adventure ends. Two friends with memories to last a lifetime. xo

Getaway to Vero Beach

This week I had a little getaway to Vero Beach to meet up with my friends Loran, Misty and Denise. Misty, Loran and I have traveled to London together before. Misty, Denise, and I spent time shooting together in Savannah with our other friend and fellow photographer, Phoebe. It's been way to long since I had seen them. Especially since Loran and I only live three hours from each other! Misty is on her second round of battling breast cancer but despite that, she always manages to keep everyone laughing and smiling and it was so wonderful to spend some quality time with her as well as Loran and Denise. I even got to meet another friend of theirs, a little cutie patootie photographer named George as well as Denise's son, nephew, mom and sisters. It was only for two days and one night but we made the most of it with food, drinks, conversation, a bit of shopping and for Misty and I, we even got up to shoot the sunrise together (We only got up because our room was on the beach,lol). Here are a few pics from the getaway, some taken with the iPhone 4s and others with my Nikon:

Today is Denise's Birthday! Happy Birthday Denise!

Taken while having Dinner at Mulligans on July 5th, 2012

The Four of us at the Ocean Grill. They have yummy mojitos and delicious desserts!

They also serve up one of Loran's favorite drinks: The Painkiller:

Cool cup too!

Blue Chairs at Mulligans

Before Misty joined me to shoot the sun rising, I had the whole beach, ocean and sky to myself:

Vero Beach Sunrise

 July 6th, 2012

Pool Deck Chairs

The Surf Hotel, Vero Beach

The Blue Umbrella

I discovered a time lapse app on my phone. I must have downloaded it a long time ago. We had fun with it, although we couldn't figure out how to make it go slower or how to get sound. Did figure out the speed situation after I got home and could see the teeny, tiny controls with my readers on. Sound, well, still working on that!

Damn Misty! You are fast! :)

Fast Beach Walkers! If you blink you'll miss the bird flying by!

Loran relaxing on the porch of a cute store we stumbled upon.

Misty surrounded by the bokeh lights and emitting her own beautiful light through those pretty eyes.

It was such a short trip but totally worth every second. It made me miss them all that much more. Hopefully, it won't be that long before we are all able to share some time together again. And dear readers, whatever your beliefs, please send prayers, healing lights of white and warming thoughts of love to Misty as she fights her fight against breast cancer. And I hope you all get to have a wonderful weekend with those you love. xo

Fun With Friends!

Me and Gina at Butterfly World

Howdy my dear readers!
Long time gone, I know. I had a busy couple of weeks which included my friend Gina coming down for a week of fun, food and laughter as well as a patio renovation taking place. I've had little time for art, although I did manage to create something for Lita for her birthday but other than that it's been all about taking Gina to some of my favorite places in Florida. So, come join us as I take you through our little adventure and check out my day with Lita at the end of the post...
*Shot mostly with the iPhone, although there are a few gems taken with my Nikon.

Mojito Time at The Outback!

We went shopping at the Sawgrass Mills Mall where we had a great lunch at Cheesecake Factory and spent WAY too much time in Burlington Coat Factory.

Gina, Glam Gator of the Glades

I took Gina to my favorite peaceful respite, Butterfly World:

Gina, ready to become one with the butterflies.

A Moment's Pause

Tweety Bird

 Pineapple

 Pretty Parrot

On one of the few days without rain, Gina and I headed to my favorite Florida destination, Sanibel Island. Our first stop was a morning spent on Bowman Beach for a little sun, surf and shelling:

Bowman Beach

 Lovin' the shells, surf and sand!

 Beachy Girl

Gina on Bowman Beach

 Gina heads off to gather some shells

Ah, this is the life!

 Lunch at Island Cow!

Sanibel Lighthouse

We had just one other great day of weather and we took advantage of that and headed to the Everglades:

Swamped

 Southeastern Lubber Grasshopper

Mosquito Crossing

 This guy was huge. We saw him take a big, deep breath which he exhaled slowly. We stared at him in awe for quite a while before moving on. It was a thrill to see one this big.

 In the Muck

Swamp Grass

Lunch at the Swamp Cafe

Gina and I love to shop so we hit up H&M in Palm Beach and had lunch at Brio:

Brio Tuscan Grille, Palm Beach Gardens

We even had a fabulous sunset to share with Gina during her stay:

Sunset colors captured with the iPhone 4s

The day after Gina left, our patio and pool renovation started which meant I would be spending a lot of time out of the house and away from the noise:

What a mess! They left piles of sand on the deck which Sookie thinks should be used as a litter box, so needless to say the cats have been forced to stay inside and have been driving me a bit mad!

Thank goodness Lita had some time to get together for a birthday day of shopping! More fun than sitting around listening to construction noise and viewing the mess out my windows!

Lita with the painting I made for her for her birthday. It's of her favorite butterfly and done in watercolor. It was the only art I've been able to create these past few weeks. She loved it! Here is a closer view of the painted butterfly:

Malachite in Watercolor

Of course we did some shopping in Barnes & Noble but then also headed to the Boca Town Center Mall to get some inspiration while shopping our favorite store Anthropologie:

 Artful Reflections

Of course, we found a mirror for a duo selfie! This one in Macy's:

Shopping Selfies!

All in all, it was a fun couple of weeks spent with friends and next up is another busy week that is going to include Sports Fanatic Bunco, a retro shoot with Leanne, a concert, movie and just maybe, a Heat/Thunder playoff game! Summer is all about having fun and enjoying life! I hop you all are gearing up for some summer fun too!