At Home with the Artist: Art Teacher in Italy!

I know, I'm the worst at posting in the summer! However, this year I have a great excuse! After our Peru adventure, I spent two weeks in Italy learning landscape painting en plein air! It was amazing, and I learned so much. I ate amazing food, saw amazing sites and generally fell IN LOVE with Florence, Italy. Here's a taste of what I saw and my work while I was there.

On my way to my first day of my painting workshop. I was so nervous! Unfortunately, there are not many pictures with me in them because I made this trip on my own. And the ones with me are all selfies, of which I am not usually a fan. I apologize in advance :)

On the first day we learned a lot from demos from our instructor. We spent the first whole week in one location and there was a huge learning curve for me! But I learned so much and got much better

Here is my under painting for our first landscape. I gotta say, I was not impressed with myself at all! In fact I was feeling very down because I didn't seem to be getting it.

But as the week went one, I worked at it and really this first one came around. See how it was finished later in the post.

I saw so many amazing sites!

 The Duomo and Vecchio Tower

San Miniato al Monte and the view from Piazza Michelangelo

Another image of the Duomo, by far my favorite building.

I also loved the attached cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore

You better believe I climbed up that dome!

Here's the door to my apartment for the weeks I was there!

I saw David's Michelangelo and visited Venice

Santa Croce basilica and Santa Maria Novella

Now back to the more important stuff! The painting! It was all about masses and value, and once I got that, it all kind of sunk in and the image came a lot easier.

Finished product!

The second location we painted at was on a side street and we only spent two days there so this one is a bit unfinished, but you can see where I was on the first day and where I got to on the second day.

Our last location was up at Piazza Michelangelo where we got to paint a view of the city! It was an amazing view and this is my favorite painting!

Finished product!

Overall, my Italy adventure was the trip of a life time and a dream come true! Painting in Italy! I would recommend several weeks in Florence for anyone who is an art lover!

At Home with the Artist: Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu!

My husband's dream has been to hike the Inca Trail in Peru, all the way up to Machu Picchu. So this summer, we made it happen! I've already been to Machu Picchu once but I did not hike there ( I took the lame-o train). And man, what a hike!! It was almost all up hill, lots of stairs, and high elevation. All combined to create lots of work, but it was beautiful and wonderful and a totally once in a life time experience! Check out our pictures!

The start of the Inca Trail

Drinking some hot chocolate to stay warm at our campsite

The first Inca site that we saw!

The highest elevation that we were at (13,000 feet)!

We're so cute and you can see the Urubamba River behind us in that beautiful valley.

Another Inca site, they were an amazing people!

There's Machu Picchu

A view of the mountains around us when we were in Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Check out that amazing view!

At Home with the Artist: Europe Trip!

At home with the artist or should I say traveling abroad with the artist! My amazing husband took me to Europe this summer. It was a whirl wind tour of five different countries; Italy, France, England, Wales, and Ireland, with short stops in Prague and Iceland as well. It was amazing and the fulfillment of a life-long dream for me. So here is just a sample of the hundreds of pictures we took. Don't worry, if you want to see them all, I have no problem showing them!

Look at us, so excited for the travels! Our first stop was Rome, we only had a few short days there but man did we see a lot, and walk a lot!

Me at the Parthenon!

Trevi Fountain

Of course the Colosseum.

After we spent all day in the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica. It was amazing...

What a great view of the city on our last day in Rome! After this we journeyed by plane to Paris, France where we had more adventures, loved the food and did some relaxing. Because of a last minute flight cancellation (we're still irritated at Ryanair!) we made a quick stop in Prague on the way, so technically we went there too!

We did tons of sight seeing in Paris, including the Arc de Triomphe...

Notre Dame where you could light a candle and say a prayer along with enjoy the amazing architecture.

And of course the Eiffel Tower!

And yes we did kiss at the top!

We spent a ton of time at The Louvre as you might imagine.

And we did spend a part of a day lounging around in the park and sketching!

After our Parisian adventures, we looked forward to heading to England where we spoke the language and the temperature was much cooler. Instead of flying, we took a train the Calais, and then a ferry into Dover to see the white cliffs and then another train into London.

Check out those white cliffs!

While in London we made sure to see all the important sights, we took a bus tour and walked around on our own. We even went to the Natural History Museum for an afternoon.

 First thing on our list was Big Ben, then...

Trafalgar Square (which I cannot pronounce for the life of me!)

The London Eye

I had to have my photo with the red phone booth!

We took a river cruise on the Thames.

And last but certainty not least, we visited Platform 9 3/4 where of course I tried to escape from Keenan and journey to Hogwarts to spend the rest of my life! 

Our last stop in England was really in Wales. We made a day trip to Cardiff to do yet another dorky thing and take in the Doctor Who Experience. Which was amazing and I highly recommend it for anyone calling themselves a Whovian. I got to fly the Tardis for crying out loud!

Now on to our final destination, Ireland! We were so looking forward to this because other than kissing the Blarney Stone, our goal in Ireland was to relax and enjoy the breathtaking scenery and quite atmosphere. 

We flew into Dublin a rented a car. Eek! My husband drove on the wrong side of the road (from what we're used to) in a manual all the way to Wexford! It was a bit nerve-wracking to say the least. He was amazing and we had no serious issues at all. 

We stayed at this amazing B&B farmhouse and castle. It was beautiful, completely quite and serene and so cool!

We climbed up into the old castle ruins and it was just life a book come to life!

While we were there we did a walking tour of Wexford. The history of Wexford town was amazing and learned so much I didn't know in an hour or so. The image above is a church that the clergy weren't able to afford anymore so they took the windows and roof off and as a result it was legally declared a ruin and they didn't have to pay taxes on it anymore. Those sneaky priests!

Of course you can't visit Ireland without visiting Blarney Castle, which we did. Again, Keenan drove for which I was so thankful because the bus ride to Cork would have been horrendous!

You better believe I kissed that stone!

While at Blarney Castle, don't forget to check out the gardens and trails. They are seriously like some sort of fairy tale. I kept telling Keenan to watch out that he didn't step in a fairy circle and get transported to another realm. He laughed at me of course, but how could you not believe in magic in a place like this!?

Our last adventure was to fly home. From Dublin we flew into Reykjavik, Iceland and then onto Toronto and then a drive home. Whew! One cool thing was that we flew over what we're pretty sure was Greenland. Look at those amazing snow capped mountains! What an awesome adventure, I still can't believe we did all that, it was perfect!