Happiness

“Happiness is the process

of becoming your ideal self.”

Me at the age of 5 

- Mark Manson, Good Men Project Blog

- christina

Florida

Ah, vacation time!  I travelled to Florida in the middle of February to visit my BFF for a long weekend.  It was good timing because the weather in the Midwest has been crazy cold and I was beginning to forget what the warmth of the sun felt like.  My BFF had lots of art projects planned for us and I will write about them in a later post.  We also spent time outside and I was thrilled to be experiencing sunshine again.

One of the places we visited during my stay was Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens in Coral Gables.  I used to go there with my family as a child, but I had not been there in decades. 

Fairchild Gardens is a very beautiful, colorful, and inspiring place, especially to someone who has been bundled up for months looking only at the colors “white snow” and “dirty snow.”

I am very happy that I got to spend time with my BFF and her family (her husband, kids and grandkids).  I soaked up the warm weather, exercised my creativity, drank, laughed, and had awesome conversations.  We also cried a little together which is exactly what best friends are for. 

I made a new friend at Fairchild Gardens.
She just wouldn't stop talking!

I hope you get to spend time with your best friend soon.

- christina

Art Junkies - Collage

Every few months I get together with an art group that I joined through Meetup called the Art Junkies.  I first wrote about them in this post.  We got together again recently and created a collage on a wooden board.  The group leader suggested we use old-fashioned photos of women and she had an ample supply printed out for us from which to choose (photos that were free of licensing restrictions, of course).  I decided to do my collage using photos from my summer trip to Paris.

 The technique that I used on this project that I had never done before was “colorizing” the black and white photos.  It turns out to be easy to do using acrylic paint that has been mixed with a generous amount of liquid matte medium.  I colorized the photo of me with my sister and my BFF.  The most difficult part was painting my sister’s lips red, which had to be done because she always wears lipstick.

It's hard to see, but our cheeks are all rosy.

 It was a fun project.  I always like to see how each person’s work differs from the others.  Being a part of this group exposes me to new techniques, new ideas, and some very nice women.  An Art Junkie is the best kind of junkie to be!

- christina