1,700 mile Journey from Danville to Sun Valley

I have never driven out of the state of California until this road trip and what a great adventure it was. We left on Sunday the 25th and drove all day, out of California and through Nevada, which was quite beautiful, into Idaho and stopped in Burley to rest. We got up Monday and drove the rest of the way to Ketchum which is the town where my friend Sharon lives and who we went to visit. I have heard about Sun Valley for years as Ben used to fly there often, years ago, when he worked for Thomas Wiesel. He has always wanted to show it to me so it was wonderful to finally see what all the hoopla was about. Idaho is charming, with it's lush countryside, quaint towns and mellow pace. Sharon lives there part time and she has a beautiful cabin/house and her husband has a condo which they generously offered for us to stay. We explored the downtown on Monday and had dinner at the "Pio" our first night. This is a real steak house, with cows, buffaloes, and moose heads adorning the walls. Good thing we weren't vegetarian, everyone had steak!

Tuesday Ben and I went for a mild hike looking for wildflowers and we took pictures with the tutu in the hollyhock fields. There was a large fire in Sun Valley a couple years ago and the forest was charred but in between the burnt trees were thousands of beautiful hollyhocks. Perfect for picture taking and frolicking in! Tuesday night was dinner at Tonga Lodge (Sharon's house) and we feasted on salmon, salad and homemade peach cobbler and met friends Norma and Kathleen. After dinner we sat outside near the open pit fire while Harry lite fireworks for our amusement.

Wednesday was our last full day and we planned to hike up Baldy Mountain, it's about 8,000 ft and the altitude was obvious as I went huffin and puffin on up to the top. We made it and took more tutu pics to celebrate. Off in the distance we saw dark clouds and before we knew it they were right on top of us, spewing lighting all over the place. The gondola and chair life were immediately closed (our way down the mtn) so we were offered rides down in trucks, very unusual. By this time it was pouring and cracking so we piled in and started our descent. As we were driving down there was a lighting bolt basically on top of us, I screamed and scared everyone in the truck, and even Ben said that's the closest he's ever been to lightening. I was ready for this adventure to be over and happily it cleared up as we got down to the bottom. I felt like we were in the movie Jurassic park for awhile there, geez, the weather sure does change quickly in the mountains!!

Thursday we wanted to get a bike ride in before we started driving and I borrowed a bike from Sharon and Ben and I rode to the town of Hailey (Demi Moore's ole stompin grounds). Hailey is a charmer and had a shop called "Vintage gypsy" much like a Hip Chick's with cute shabby chic furniture and accessories. It was 50% off so I was excited and purchased a few treasures to bring back to the studio....Then we rode back, packed up and said goodbye to beautiful Sharon and Sun Valley. We drove to lovely Reno (not) and stayed the night, setting off to Tahoe the next day.

Friday was great, we only had a short drive to Tahoe which is gorgeous this time of year and we stopped at the Sand Dollar beach to swim and lay out. Now I was in MY element, the beach and water are my favorite place to be, and the crystal blue water of Tahoe is breathtaking. I sat and painted the scene with my watercolors, while taking dips in the lake to cool off. We packed up and drove home in time for Ben to do his laundry, he had a trip on Saturday for a week so he didn't even have a day to relax. Good thing he likes to travel!

So here it is Saturday and I am getting back to business as usual. Posting pictures and then I will head on down to the studio and see if there is any business. I am only home for a week and then I get to go on another trip, this time to my favorite place, the tropics!!! ALOHA! Hawaii with the whole family and more fun and tropical tutu pics to follow....Thanks for checking in on hip chick's goings ons, and stay tuned for more adventures!!!

Tutus sometimes lead to boas....

Tuesday was a fun and special day in this hip chick's life. It was my 9 year sobriety birthday. This is a good reason to celebrate, not that I always need a good reason, but this was one. I went to a noon meeting with my sponsor Kae and my friend Kat and after wards we went to Chow's restaurant in Danville. We feasted on delicious food and Kae brought her customary sparklers to add the birthday flair for dessert. It's always a party when Kae is near which is why she is SO perfect as my sponsor. Kat and I took off after lunch in search of tutu's, she wanted to buy me one for my present and who am I to refuse? We went to a dance store and they had some, but not much sadly, we did find boas and wigs though, and took some fun shots before heading to a thrift shop in Hayward. Rumor had it they had some tutu's but this was one rumor that was dead wrong. ZILCH. Well being that we still had some energy left and we are determined crazy girls we went to yet another dance store and took more goofy photos as we realized tutu's weren't in the cards but pink boas certainly were. Kat generously bought one for me and one for her and we laughed our way outta the dance store. As we were driving home we realized matching pink lipstick would seal the deal so we stopped at CVS and found the perfect shade. WOW was it bright and we commenced to take photos with a little girl laughing at us all the while. What a fun and fabulous birthday and now we can add pink ostrich feathered boas into the mix. We realized we should've been Vegas showgirls and we might just work on our act and go on America's Got Talent, you never know, it's worth a shot!

Artist need people to believe in them

"As artists, we need people who can see us for who we are-as big as we are and as small as we are, as competent and powerful as we are, and as terrified and as tiny as we sometimes feel. As artists, we need people who believe in us and are able to see our large selves, and people who are able to be gentle and compassionate with our smaller selves. It is tremendously important to accurately distinguish who among our friends can accommodate each size."
Julia Cameron "The Artist's Way Everyday"

Yesterday I bought the book "The Artist's Way Everyday" and I decided to share this entry for today, July 14th. I LOVE how Julia Cameron validates the artist psyche and knows just how to direct positive encouragement. She has inspired me more than any other, so I happily share her words of wisdom. If I think of art as a way of connecting with the universe and not about how it might sell, be interpreted, be judged, be not good enough, etc...it becomes a tool and a means of connecting to the greater good. I need to constantly tell my ego with it's LOUD voice to go away, leave me alone while I try to make something beautiful. It's there at every step trying to sabotage me and convince me I'm not good enough, original enough, clever enough and on and on....SHUT UP! I have to scream at it. Often. It's tiring and frustrating. But worth it because when it does shut up and I can get centered and flow with the creative process, it's all worth it. Nothing please me more than making something beautiful. It's like the best high there is. The next best feeling is when someone else loves your creation too and validates you by telling you so. We artist's need this encouragement and it fuels us to keep creating. I love making a painting for someone and seeing their excitement and happiness, this makes me feel so good I could fly. Then I know all my efforts are in the right direction. I'm off to the studio to paint and create. I urge you to make something, anything, today that gives you a feeling of usefulness and pride. It can be as simple as a hand picked vase of flowers, just create for the sake of being able to do so......

My baby boy is turning 19, how could it be?

Wednesday is Alex's 19th birthday but he will going to camp so we celebrated on Monday night. We made the famous "mama's tacos" and the in-laws and Molly and Ann came to help us celebrate. Alex wanted a banjo for his birthday and he got one! It's a beauty and we all had fun playing it. Abby got her braces on so she wasn't feeling tip top but she had a good time nonetheless..
Tomorrow I go back to the shop after a nice break from my vacation. I am eager to paint my flower picture, start another for Melissa who commissioned one (thank GOD) and chat with Laura about the business. We are going to talk about way's to market hip chick and get it rockin' and rollin'. I love the creative side and I can use help in the business side so this is a good thing.
I'm lovin the summer so far, the weather is killer and I have two more fun trips to look forward to. Sun Valley is the end of the month, going to visit my artist friend Sharon, and Hawaii is in August. This hip chick loves nothing better than a road trip and the tropics so I'm pretty psyched. I hope you are having a fun summer and I'd love to hear from you about any ideas, inspirations or just feedback in general about how I can launch hip chick's business forward. Thanks for being on my team!!

Flowers and summer

It has been SLOW at Hip Chick's since summer started.  I was oh so wrong when I thought summer would be good for business.  OPPOSITE.  I am new at this folks and now I know summer time is slowwwwwtime.....so I have had some downer says I won't lie to ya.  But this hip chick is here to tell you that she has regrouped and she is gonna just 'cowgirl up' and do what she does best, paint.  Ok maybe it's not what I do best but it keeps me sane and I am fairly good at it...I was given a gift certificate to a posh salon by my dear friend Linda and while the adorable asst. was washing my hair she asked me about myself.  Naturally I told her about the shop etc. and she said they were wanting to trade out the art they had and let's see what you have.  I grabbed my phone and showed her the few pictures I had of some paintings and she loved the flower paintings and thought they'd be great.  Well of course I was psyched to imagine my paintings on their walls so I decided to do some BIG ASS flowers in the hopes that they would be interested.  This is my recent daisy painting and I am still working on it.  I am posting it because 1. I haven't posted for awhile and 2. I didn't know what else to post.  So I put the tutu series on hold (Robin will be so thrilled as she is anti-tutu) and I am in flower power mode.  Seems like flowers are more popular and would be fitting for interior decor so I'm going with it.  I do like to paint flowers and I have always admired Georgia O'Keefe and her work.  I like to paint them blown up like she did and in exaggerated size.  I am not interested in painting them in a vase on a table whatsoever.  So I will let you know what happens with this whole venue....
On a personal note I am off to our family cabin in Bass Lake tomorrow for a blissfilled week of R&R.  A typical Bass day is waking up whenever and either going for a run or swimming across followed by sunning and reading, eating sunflower seeds and drinking Diet Pepsi with my sister and her family and my husband and kids.  The cabin is right on the water, with the best view of the lake, the only thing we don't have is a boat.  But the neighbors do and they were so friendly and took us out for some boat rides, bless their hearts, and they will be there again so it's likely we'll get a spin about....I am excited to go on a road trip.  You know this hip chick needs her road trips for inspiration and rejuvenation.  Even though it's slow and therefore I am not exhausted I am mentally in need of a change of pace and scene.  I am always re inspired when I go on any road trip and I'm very excited to go to Sun Valley at the end of the month as I've never been there.  My fellow artist friend Sharon lives there part-time and Ben and I are going to road trip while our kids are busy doing their various summer activities.  Alex is a camp counselor and Abby gets to go to London for 2 weeks and stay with her cousins....sweet hook-up!  So I won't be posting til I return from Bass on the 10th and I wish all of you wonderful fans of hip chick a happy fourth of July and a happy week.  Thank you for your continued support!

This blue poppy is teeny tiny and I painted it when Abby came to the shop with me on Wednesday....

Fathers Day

Sunday was Father's Day and we had a fun time celebrating Ben, my husband and the best father I know.  Growing up Father's Day was dreaded for me, I had a step father I loathed and I had to 'fake' being all lovey dovey with a father's day card and celebrations for a man who I never felt was a good father.  I married a man who is the opposite of my stepfather, Ben is kind, gentle, caring, a good listener and always eager to help.  He models great values to our children and for this I am grateful.  So we planned on going to the DeYoung museum in San Francisco to see the latest impressionist exhibit on loan from the museum de Dorsey.  We had a traditional fry-up (British term for breakfast) with tea, juice, fruit salad, crescents, eggs, hash browns, bacon and sausages.  Then we toured the museum looking at paintings by Degas, Renoir, Monet and Cezanne.  These paintings are all so familiar as they have been in art history books everywhere and to see them in person was amazing.  I was struck by the use of line and color, namely the way the line was undefined and the palette was muted.  I also noted the high sheen of the varnish and the way the brush strokes were pronounced.  It made me want to use oils instead of acrylic, as they have a rich depth and texture.  I used oils until recently and only switched to acrylic due to cost and convenience.  Acrylics are so easy to clean and I am so lazy, and paint is expensive!  So I shall get good with acrylic and then start using oils for my future work....anyhow....back to fathers day.....after the art education class we scooted on over to North Beach where there was a big party, lots of interesting people, food and the like.  We had some calamari and listened to the blues while soaking up the rays of the sun then we walked around the booths looking at jewelry and things.  It was a leisurely day full of ice cream and good times, we stuffed ourselves with gelato and kettle corn so the spaghetti dinner was postponed til Monday.  A successful fathers day spending time together, taking in the city and all it's offerings!

Finney road field trip

Today was a field trip photo shoot on Finney Road in Danville with friends Molly and Ann Taylor, and my wonderful son. Alex (my son) and I were brainstorming some tutu ideas and we thought it'd be interesting to combine tutu's on a man and a women in an unusual setting. So Ann and I inspected Finney road the other day and found much to our liking and we planned our photo shoot for today. Tutu's and props in hand we shot pictures at the old schoolhouse. As the pictures show my models LOVE getting their pictures taken and are up for ANYTHING! My son happened to have red high heels from Halloween and let me tell you he can walk better than I can in those babies! Molly looks darling in anything she wears and her eyes always captivate the camera. After we shot at the schoolhouse we went up the road to where there are alpacas and they actually came to the fence and said hello. I was excited to continue the tutu series with a new twist and I have some great shots to ponder as possible paintings.

As for darling Daisy my 1972 Ford she needs a new engine and I was quoted $3,300 last week to 'fix' her. This was harsh news and I thought I had to say goodbye to my sweet truck until I found another mechanic who gave me HOPE with a much better quote. Nothing is set yet but it looks like Daisy might be rescued and once again I will have my girl running. I am not one to give up easily and Daisy had been a challenge from day 1. My error was not taking her to a mechanic and having her looked over and buying her strictly on looks and the sellers good word. Lesson learned ok! It' been one thing after another and by the time we're through she will have had almost everything done that could be done to get her running. But what can I say I'm a sucker for a pretty face and she had me at hello.

So that's what's been happening at hip chick's, the shop has been slow and steady, my painting is in a flow, and I am ever grateful to be creating my own niche in business. These are challenging times for any business so I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to stay afloat and do my thing. I couldn't do it without support and you people who read my blog help me to keep on truckin. Knowing that someone actually cares about what I'm doing gives me energy and drive to keep creating. I am rewarded by the happy faces, the interesting people and the fun I manifest with my newest idea. I can't wait to see what's next!