Adventures in Charleston

Every year our family ventures to Charleston, South Carolina in April. The trip is arranged and executed by our lovely Grandmother. We venture down via Amtrak and spend a week absorbing sunshine, enjoying historic tours, and shopping until we can barely walk. It's lovely.

Charleston has a beautiful charm: the historic buildings integrated into the modern landscape, the secret alleyways with overgrown vines and cobblestones, and the water sitting at the edge of the city, allowing sea life to be closely admired by any who will take the time.





My Mum and me.

cuteness

So! I belong to the Applegang. We consist of four rowdy girls that grew up on an apple orchard together. The title was given to us pretty much at birth, and has traveled with me everywhere. Well, two of those girls are my lovely cousins, whom happen to be sisters, and they both just happen to be pregnant! I am so excited for both of them and couldn't resist designing them a card. I used the same layout but used the background to set them apart. Corey loves polka-dots and Kate loves butterflies. These cards were such a joy to make and I just had to share :)

the process

it's all about the process. this is my most recently completed painting: my heavy sand dollar heart.





i used watered down acrylic like watercolor for the octopus and sand dollar. i thought that would make them look more dream-like and fluid.




if you look closely you can see a clear stamp almost- in the middle right of the canvas. the light is hitting the painting just right in that spot. i actually stenciled a wallpaper pattern over the background of the painting with a gloss modge podge. it was more of an experiment than anything. it creates a cool effect that you won't notice at first. again, i was hoping this would give the painting a more magical, dreamy quality.