Loving the LEAF festival

Happy Halloween. We are getting all jazzed up to celebrate the holiday with trick-or-treating tonight, I've got two ninjas that I'll be walking around with.

Last weekend we attended the Lake Eden Arts Festival for the first time after hearing about it from so many of our new friends, it happens twice a year in an idyllic spot in the mountains of North Carolina and we found it to be the perfect blend of adult and kid friendly attractions. While there was live music that we wanted to hear in other parts of the large fair, we were hardly able to convince our kids to leave the "kids village" a special spot set up for children where we spent almost our whole day visit. The village was so full of fun things for them to do. My favorite was the kids handcraft market a special spot for children to set up and sell their own hand made things,

the setting on Lake Eden was picture perfect, a bit chilly to swim but there were canoe rentals and a zip line going down from the mountain into the water,

next year we hope to book one of the coveted camping spots and spend the whole weekend,

More sights in the "kid village", lots of active bouncy/climbing things to do, fairies parading on stilts...

our kids spent hours swinging in these hammocks, that were set up in the sand next to the tight rope line,

Carys became a butterfly,

and the kids visited one of the best costume tents I've ever seen, with a dress-up idea to fit every kid's fantasy,

We know families in Charleston who go to this festival every year with their kids, and I enjoyed seeing older children there who had obviously been coming for years and felt so comfortable running around without their parents, it was that kind of place. We'll definitely be back!

New Postcard Sets

In preparation for the upcoming holiday season I've updated the postcards sets in my shop. This is always fun for me as I enjoy thinking about what themes run throughout my work and what sets I can create around those themes.

This year I have created the Enigma Set, above. This set is all about mystery and wonder, I love all of those images and I can just see them framed on a wall together!

I've also updated my Deer Set with some new images,

I've created a Butterfly Set, which really was fun to put together as I got to chose some of my absolute favorites out of all of my butterfly pieces,

I updated my Bird Set with some new images,

and as always there is my Lotus Set, one of my favorites, this set makes me feel so calm and happy.

For even more variety I'm also offering a collection of all 30 of my postcards in one complete set, featuring one of each of these cards,

 And, in case any of the postcard sets are calling to you...until Halloween Day next Monday the 31st, please enjoy 15% off of anything in my shop using code AUTUMNLIGHT.

With all of these new sets and calendars in the shop I'm feeling a give-away coming on soon... stay tuned.

xo

Autumn in Asheville

 Last weekend we snuck away for a quick trip to visit my family's farm in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina. I've been trying to get back into the swing of our schedule here at home but my mind is still there taking in all of the beauty on the farm,

One of the great blessings of our move is that now we are only a 4 hour drive away form the farm (well 5 hours for us, somehow driving with the kids we always make so many stops!) and now we can visit more than just once a year.

The view from my aunt's deck is just breathtaking,

the perfect spot to warm up with a warm cup of coffee after a coooold night camping in the van,

Even with our sleeping bags and duvets we were freezing in the middle of the night, so we slept indoors the next night.

We loved seeing the autumn colors of the leaves, reminding us that it really is getting to be the end of October even though at home in Charleston it still feels like summertime.

On early morning walks we watched a flock of wild turkey foraging in the woods, Jasper stood stock still for a long time just staring at them.

It was a perfect weekend with all of the delights of being on the farm in autumn, country walks, crunching leaves and dirt roads, bonfires.

The kids made instant friends with the kids of the family that was renting the vacation rental on the farm for the weekend.

Other highlights included visiting the LEAF festival and harvesting the final bounty of veggies from my aunt's amazing garden, each of those deserves their own post that I'll share this week. I hope that you are having a good week!

2012 Calendar

I hope that you had a lovely weekend!

I'm excited to share that my 2012 Calendar is in featuring one of my favorite paintings on every page. Most of them from this past year.
Next year, just cut off the calendar part and you have 12 art prints to frame or share.

Its printed with archival inks, spiral bound, the loop on top can be hung right on the wall.

Seven and a pirate party

My boy turned seven last Saturday (7!), we celebrated with his class in their school yard with a special ceremony in which he held the globe and walked around a little model of the sun once for each year of his life as I told the story of what he did and how he developed in each year. Quite a sweet ceremony for my mama-heart as I was able to relive all of his milestones in his story.

Last Sunday we had our big blow out party at our house, a Pirate Party! My kids love picking a theme for their birthday and this year Jasper started planning his Pirate party back in the summer. Almost before we knew anyone to invite! Now we feel so thankful that through Jasper's school he has made so many friends so quickly. He really loved his birthday party, and I had fun planning all of the little details...

the banner and snack table,

silly "pirate" names for the snacks,

the pirate ship pinata,

Frank planned a complex scavenger hunt, which the kids did as a group, and really put their energy into!

and then there was the cake, which Jasper art directed and I decorated, we think it turned out well. The story is that boat has crashed on the island but the shark does not want to give up and one of the pirates has spotted the treasure,

What an exciting time we had, such fun, and now as the dust settles I have to get used to the fact that my lovely boy is already seven!!

Lovely Clusters

Its time again for the Lovely Clusters autumn catalog, I always enjoy flipping through the virtual pages, each cluster transports me to far away places and restful times of day. I want to open up that blue door below and walk through...

 My Lotus painting Hope is featured here on the Berry Tones page,

and can you believe these chandeliers in the photograph on this page, wow!

I hope that you are having a good week! I've been recovering from the Pirate Birthday party that we had last weekend, 14 young pirates took over our garden and searched for some treasure, exciting times!