spending a day with the queens

Dubbed "the four queens" in elementary school- Kim, Monica, Kristen and I have been lifelong friends. We met at the age of six -that's thirty years ago for those of you who are pretending you don't know our real age. (Nice try). Monica moved out to Colorado years ago and when she comes home for a visit we try to get in as much time together as possible. We finally introduced our children the other day during a festive play date that included our mothers. Sadly, Kristen wasn't feeling well and didn't bring her little sweeties. We also missed her dearly during our visit to Newport yesterday.

Kim and I picked up Monica and headed to the Newport Vineyards for a wine tasting and tour. The ridiculousness pretty much started the moment we stepped out of the car. As we were heading toward the entrance Kim said, "Mmmm something smells good"... (meaning food) and a dorky guy in short shorts and a Hawaiian shirt turned back with a flattered, creepy smile. Clearly thinking she meant HE smelled good - he said "Hi" ( oh FYI he looked like that sleazy guy from Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead). Kim, simply being polite, said "Hi" back and we walked into our building laughing like fifth graders. Dorko went into another building. We started our wine tasting.

Our host/bartender/tour guide guy was super corny but very nice and let us have several tastings - as he was having plenty of tastings himself. We chose wine after wine, sipping and chatting at the outdoor bar where the breeze was phenomenal. Then the tour started. Snooze fest times eleven. Listening to a tour guide is always brutal for me, I don't know what my problem is. I definitely couldn't have cared less about the grapes, the seasons, the barrels, the birds, etc. I focused more on the wet spot on the guide's shorts - wondering if he had spilled chardonnay or pissed himself. Kept me occupied for the better part of the tour.

Inside the room that held those vats was as humid as an armpit. We were so warm and bored. Kim kept making me laugh - it was just like we were those little girls back in St. Timothy's Church getting kicked out by the priest.

Post tour (and bonus tasting session) we stepped out for some pictures. After ten minutes of trying to do it ourselves we asked a young couple to snap a couple of pics of us... while we laughed hysterically. Kim's hair was stuck on Monica's face, someone was tripping on rocks that had fallen off the stone wall, there was laughter-induced snorting and a few tears  - it was quite a scene. We gave that couple a good show. Here is the one picture that is remotely okay for public viewing...

We bought a few bottles of wine (I finally settled on Landot Noir) and hit the road. But what did we find tucked into Kim's driver-side window?

 Driver, I think you are cute - text me,

guy you said hello to

... Yup. That is a note from Dorko McShortshorts who apparently has never had anyone say hello to him before. We laaaaaaaaaughed and laaaaaaaaaughed.

Then we headed to Bowen's Wharf to pick up tickets for our sunset sail. We tried to get a bite to eat but by the time the food came we had just four minutes to catch the boat. The girls packed up their sandwiches, I took five sips of boiling - but delicious - chowder and we grabbed our drinks to go. We managed to get the three worst seats on the boat - natch. Got some semi-decent pictures though...

This last one is really crappy quality but still so pretty; I love seeing the lights on the water. The picture definitely doesn't do it any justice. I wish I could recall all of the things that we laughed about but I know they wouldn't seem nearly as funny to you - (like Kim nearly going blind on the boat due to her tearing eyes and the driving wind). We made lots of great memories and had a really good day and night. But we really missed our fourth "queen" - Kristen, you weren't forgotten!

Cheers to old forever friends. I love my fours.

gum-chuckers

I stepped in gum yesterday. I had forgotten just how instantly pissed off you get when you step in something like gum or...

I was simply returning a book at the library. I debated whether to even turn off my car; it was maybe a fifty foot walk to the return box from where I had parked. I strode back to the car happily, mentally checking the errand of my list when my flip flop hesitated to come off the ground. I knew immediately. And I was LIVID. I looked back and sure enough there it was... a bright orange blob of sun/concrete-heated melty bubble gum. It had stuck to the bottom of my shoe and flung up clinging to the back of my ankle. Frigging gross. My thirty second errand took a turn.

I don't even remember the protocol for wiping gum off random surfaces. I just knew that whatever works best wasn't going to be found in my bag. What was in my bag? Antibacterial hand gel and Wet Ones. I spent the better part of five minutes hanging halfway out of my door - flip-flopless, sweating and mumbling my distaste for the four young boys who had breezed past me earlier chomping their gum. The phrase Little Bastards may have come up once or twice. Sure, they were going to the library instead of tormenting elderly people but they still had the disrespect to chuck their gum in between cars in a parking lot. These kids today, eh?

photo source

society6 - my store is up and running!

Last week I decided to start selling my designs with Society6. It is a super easy process - in short: you upload your designs, they produce, package and ship. You can make your artwork available on several items such as tote bags, pillows, hoodies, shirts, iPhone cases and skins, laptop and iPad skins etc. The files just need to be re-sized for the corresponding product - which can be a little tedious and time consuming depending on the design. Think: squeezing a horizontal print onto a teeny vertical phone. But you don't have to make other items available - it's all up to you. However, the more the better.

Like I said I just started last week so I don't have many prints available yet but I'm hoping to post several each week if I can find the time. I started by posting some artwork from a few years back that I had sold when I had my etsy shop. My store is bare bones right now, I think I have two followers - ha! I have hardly any "promote" hearts which I'm noticing are very hard to get. You basically have to figure out prime time to post - when the site is busy and people have a better shot of seeing your "new" post. I'm not ashamed to ask you all to sign up and heart the hell out of my stuff. I won't be mad if you spend five minutes doing so. It's basically the ole "needle in a hay-stack" situation - it's very hard to be found. 

Here are a few prints that are up and available: 

... and while I love the skeleton key print - the pillow is my favorite, I may have to order one or two (working against myself here) - 

So, if you see something you like - go ahead and promote it or buy it, whichever. I want to thank my facebook friends for your support and I appreciate every shared link. It's not easy to be stumbled upon so I can use all the help you've got to give! Thanks friends!

Also, if you haven't "liked" Sheribloggins on facebook you may do so riiiiiight HERE.