Sunflowers

For my friends who have visited in the last week, you may be thinking that Brenda has been slacking off. Well, no.

Hurray for me, I took time off from work to take a trip to my hometown during the big "peach festival" weekend. AND, the peaches were FANTASTIC! We didn't stay in town to watch the parade this year, had some family commitments to attend to instead. But I did find Brooke an adorable apron while in one of the antique stores. 

We relaxed, ate some fresh from the field sweet corn and did a little sightseeing on the way back home. It was lovely. Fantastic and oh, so needed. I did take along my Macbook just in case, but barely touched it. I had fun playing with my new camera, oh, did I forget to mention this? I bought myself a new Olympus E510 which is an SLR. I used to use a film SLR for years, never took it off manual mode. Now I need to learn this new one and had fully intended to read the manual while traveling. Well, napping seemed to take over every time I tried to concentrate on learning. I guess I was really, really tired. Anyway, I ended up only using the AUTO setting on this trip. 

I was really inspired by the rolling hills of the little 'ol  (Vanderbilt) BILTMORE estate, (not to mention the digs).

 

WOW, it sure was fun having that little fantasy of actually living there, servants attending to my every whim. The gardens were spectacular and the views were breathtaking. When I visit London, I stay at the former residence of the Vanderbilts which is now a fabulous hotel. Heck, I feel like one of the family!

We walked around Asheville the next morning and visited a half dozen galleries. I realized that I don't look at enough art...other people's art. I was so inspired after spending just half a day visiting galleries, I have a new commitment to myself to take time to be inspired. After spending time out in the country, I couldn't get sunflowers out of my head. So, I came home and went right to work on a big new canvas. Here's a glimpse of a section of my new painting. It's not finished yet, another day's work on it will probably do the job. I'll show it when it's done. 

I'm off later this week to visit QVC H.Q. and spend some quality crafty time with my new buddy the fabulous, the amazing, the ever entertaining Miss MARGOT POTTER! We're shooting a video, Yaaay!!! You'll need to come back next week to see the video and the finished painting.

Happy weekend, friends!

Comments

[kim]

Love Asheville. Used to drive through there on the way to Savannah every year in college. The Biltmore is a fabulous place to visit. I hope to go back again one day.

[Helen DeRamus]

Brenda I love the painting! The camera sounds great. Happy painting and snapping those photos.I'll be back to see the video and painting.

[Terrie Bailey]

`Fabulous` Pictures Brenda...Hope you had fun doing your video look forward to that!!!....
Have a great Week:)~X~

[Molly Smith]

Enjoyed reading about your trip! The pics are gorgeous. I'd love to visit Asheville, my favorite editor works for Lark Books. The painting is beautiful as is. Can't wait to see the final (and the video with Margot .. :) Have fun at QVC.