2018 Year in Review Part 1: Travel

Jan 4, 2019Sketchbook, Travel

I think I did more traveling and more drawing/designing in 2018 than ever before. I also had a few bizarre health issues. I had planned for this post to include sections for all of those, but since it’s gotten so long, I’ve decided to break it into several posts. First up, travel! Here are the the travel highlights broken down by month. 

I’m very fortunate to be able to travel more than my income should really allow, thanks to having friends and family who live in places I love to visit!

January/February

I turned 50 on December 10th of  2017 – and as a gift to myself, I planned a trip to Mexico for the first part of 2018. Thanks to some lovely friends, I had a beautiful house in Mazatlan all to myself for two months! I left for Mazatlan on December 30th with the intention of staying for 5 weeks.

I planned to spend my time drawing, writing, reading, planning, swimming, eating, drinking and resting. I managed to a little bit of all of those things, but not nearly as much drawing, writing, reading and planning as I had hoped.
But I did plenty of resting, swimming and eating! And a ton of walking. It was the longest vacation I’ve had since high school and it was amazing. I ended up deciding to extend my stay an extra three weeks, but spent the last few weeks easing myself back into work.
While in Mazatlan, I got to see some old friends and made some great new ones (shown below).
Some of my closest friends came down and spent a week with me and we celebrated my 50th birthday (endlessly!)
I had hoped to develop some good habits of reading and writing while I was there… I’m always always always coming up with routines that I want to establish. Sometimes I do them once. Sometimes not even that. I made a plan to start each day with a bit of writing and end each day reading. I did do a bit of reading by the pool most days.

I spent a lot of time alone in the pool and alone staring at the ocean. It was restorative. And I accidentally got ridiculously tan.

And I can’t end a post about Mazatlan without mentioning my favorite neighbor, Meliton – bringer of tamales and avocados, leader of tours and teller of stories!

march

Traveled to Dallas with my family to celebrate my uncle’s 80th birthday and see a lot of family I never get to see. I got to visit one of my favorite pieces of art that I ever made – a fiber piece I made in grad school that my uncle bought from me. 

Went to Atlanta over my nephews’ spring break. Stayed with one of my oldest friends. Visited with another of my oldest friends. I lived in Atlanta most of the years between ages 1985 and 2003 and have now been gone for 15 years. I can’t believe how much it’s changed… how crazy busy and congested absolutely everywhere is now! And here’s a random fat pug.

April

Took two little trips to Louisville. Hung out with Channing. Ate chilaquiles. Ate tacos. Saw a new doctor. More about that under the Health post coming soon.

Went to Atlanta over my nephews’ spring break. Stayed with one of my oldest friends. Visited with another of my oldest friends. I lived in Atlanta most of the years between ages 1985 and 2003 and have now been gone for 15 years. I can’t believe how much it’s changed… how crazy busy and congested absolutely everywhere is now! And here’s a random fat pug.

June

Traveled to Park City, Utah for my cousin’s wedding. Wow, it’s beautiful there! Discovered shakshuka, my new favorite food. Saw magpies for the first time. They seem totally exotic to me, but are so common there.

The wedding was also beautiful.

July

Traveled to San Francisco for a 2 week business planning session with the WBBP, Mary Thorsby. Managed to squeeze in some good food, great art, visit with friends and have a day trip to Napa in between our work sessions.

September

Traveled to Kansas City with Melissa Hall to take her photography/encaustic workshop at Studio Joy. Great workshop, and always good to spend time with Melissa and Amanda!

December

Tagged along on a trip to Pensacola Beach with some friends who were renting a house right on the gulf. Nice relaxing time. Good company, great food, crappy weather. Still beautiful, fun and relaxing!

Whew! That was a lot more than I expected to say about traveling in 2018. Stay tuned for the next post or two about art, work and health stuff.

FREEBIES, DISCOUNTS + UPDATES, OH MY!

I just want to draw pretty pictures... and I want you to have them! Sign up for my email list for free monthly wallpapers, occasional downloadable freebies, discount codes and more.

You're in! Check your email in a minute to get this month's downloads and see what else I'm up to.