My latest artistic endeavor… A love for painting cactus 🌵

#choosing2behappy, art, Cactus art, My groovy art, My musings

I love creative pursuits and recently I picked up my paint brush again. It has been great therapy and I have felt the need to use vibrant colors and paint cactus. I live in the desert and love cacti . They all have their own unique personality to me. A red mountain stands tall right in front of my house. One of the paintings represents that mountain. ❤️

#lovewhereyoulive #cactus #artist #painttherapy

Jenny

As the sun set, so did our love for all things Laguna. 

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Our adventure was worth it . We watched sunsets, saw high tide and played in the waves. The tide was so high, the waves unexpectedly swept our things out to the ocean, including my shoes. However, we quickly sprung into action and saved things. My shoes were brought back to me later, when two boys saw them come in with the waves and they ran out and got them. 🙂 We slept in the van, ate Tacos and gelato, and I bought toe rings. We saw old friends and made new ones. It’s a small world. We participated in a sunset candle light vigil for the people of the Las Vegas shooting. We each took a flower and walked out to the ocean and threw it in. It brought more emotions to the service than I had anticipated. My highlight was painting in front of the art gallery where Ashley has her art. There in Laguna beach, on the sidewalk of pacific coast hwy 101. The sunsets were amazing and I painted a picture of my representation of one 🙂 As the sun set, so did our love for all things Laguna. 

Adventure on, even when it scares you …

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Today I’m cruising down I15 on an Adventure with my daughter Ashley to Laguna beach while she participates with her art in the art walk there . We are taking her big old van and sleeping in it . Pray for me I’m scared to death 🙏 and as always don’t tell Mom till it’s over lol.  I feel it’s fitting to blog our grand adventure. Life can be hard, so adventure on when you can, even when it scares you. 

This tree. 

#choosing2behappy, Be Brave, birds, Choose Happy ❤, Faith, Flowers, forgiveness, Gardening, live well, Love, Musing..., My groovy art, My musings, Nature, Poetry, Reboot your life, Summer, Trials and growth

I have a tree in front of my house that blesses me. I put a bird house in it for birds to come visit and a wind chime to bring me song. It’s branches seem to grow different than they should and it’s a little quirky. I almost pulled it out a few years ago when I bought the house. Next year, I thought. 

I planted a flower garden under the tree and watered and tended to it. Over the next year it grew much taller and it’s branches became full with leaves. It’s still quirky however, so am I. If it fought so hard to thrive it deserves to stay planted, since I have fought so hard too. 

Jenny 

Strolling down hwy 101

#choosing2behappy, Choose Happy ❤, Flowers, Gardening, Love, Musing..., My groovy art, My stroll down hwy 101 Laguna, Nature, Ocean, Old signs, Photography, Reboot your life, Smiling, Summer, sunshine, Travel, Vacation

We were visiting Laguna beach area for the first time and fell In love with it. As we were walking down to the art studio where my daughter just recently got to put her art we passed this house. It makes my heart sing to see Porches pots, and succulents, oh my ! I love quaint cozy spaces and color !  I see why artist love it there, my creative juices ran wild. I love my #Cannon but I wanted to travel light this time so I used my #Iphone7+  as we walked some of the paths I paused to take pictures of the succulent and flowers. I picked 3 flowers shown in this bottom pic and smashed them in a book turning them into the art project in my previous post. Other than that I promise I left the other flowers to grow and bloom for everyone else to enjoy ! My daughter in heaven by her art at the studio #mysticarts 🙏❤️The big beautiful ocean shots I got that look like a postcard . No editing required . I want to go back to my salty adventure 

A Sea Side Adventure 

#choosing2behappy, birds, Choose Happy ❤, Flowers, Learning Curves, Love, Musing..., My groovy art, Nature, Ocean, Photography, Reboot your life, Smiling, Summer, sunshine, Travel, Vacation, wildlife

We walked down the path to the beach again and rather than take my #cannon I took my Iphone along for the convenience of my #Iphone7+ camera. Which I love!  I was focusing in on a picture and my phone died. I about threw myself in the sand and had a tantrum.  I guess the universe decided I wasn’t being present enough. It was a tough time. I missed a large rock with green algae sitting on the beige sand with the big blue sea in the back ground. A sail boat, just a neutral colored sail boat in the distance slowly moving along against the pale blue sky. I missed shots of a wonderful bird, the biggest waves I’ve ever seen at high tide and bunnies, live bunnies, munching on grass on the trail. There was a man singing and playing his guitar to a small group. Telling this story will help me remember. I took a zillion pictures overall. I captured the sun going down over the ocean our first night along with Mike’s first time ever to play in ocean 💦 water. Over the next few days I captured many flowers 🌺 and succulents with my camera on the trail. I picked a few flowers and pressed them into a book. I captured the waves breaking on the 🌊 beach. I got pictures of the sun setting and pathways, stairs, architecture, birds, sand and sea. A seal named freckles sat on a rock he visits everyday and posed for us. It was a buffet of colors and smells. I ran around on that beach gathering treasures, playing in the waves and climbing stairs till my calves screamed at me in pain. I got pictures of me and my love and pictures of my daughter and her art featured in a #Laguna art studio for the first time. #Proud mom. I savored every minute of it and can’t wait to go back. 

I Pressed flowers in a big old book with Grandma.

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I stumbled upon a old hardcover readers digest and I recalled being a little girl at my grandmas house picking flowers out of the garden and pressing them into the pages of a book. We would wait until we could open the book again to see the flowers preserved and pretty.  This week I pressed flowers again. IMG_3572I fell in love with this purple sage at the nursery after smelling it and it came home with me. IMG_3574My flower pressing project. I can’t wait to press flowers with my own grand daughter soon.

IMG_3787My flower smashing, painting, multi media art project.