This has been my secret name for myself lately, as playing in the art room has become my favorite place to be on the weekends. And this past weekend I had an extra day to play….and eat. Whereas I like to paint in my free time, my husband likes to cook. I LOVE that, but it sure it hard to lose weight when he grills hamburgers, torches creme brule, and stuffs jalapenos. Soooo delicious!

So here are a few good things that happened over the long weekend…

1. My husband found a 4″ king size memory foam at an estate sale for only $22! My bed is so incredibly soft now. We also had to purchase new sheets to encompass the now-thicker-than-normal bed. (and it’s so pretty!)

2. I planted impatiens in the flower garden right before the rains began again.

3. I finished a custom job that included staining boards and painting lettering over it. I wasn’t too happy with the lettering and if I ever do something like this again, I will need to practice a lot more before I agree to do it. Yikes…

4. I purchased Photoshop and watched a ton of tutorials to teach me how to use it. It is not intuitive, for sure, but I’m determined to learn it so I can create digital art to sell. The above photo (BRAVE) is my first attempt and because I need you to be my guinea pig, I would love for you to download it and tell me if it prints okay.

5. I slept late Monday…until 9:45 am! That is almost 5 hours later than I normally sleep, so let me tell you, I felt so rested. Just what I needed.

6.  I experimented with some monoprinting on a canvas. Next time I need to make the paint more runny so that it will drip off the canvas. As it stands, it will take a month or so for the canvas to completely dry!

How did you spend your long weekend? Did you do anything fun, or did you get a chance to relax?