Back From Stanley!

Yesterday, my husband and I got back from our weekend in Stanley, enjoying the beautiful Sawtooth Mountains. After checking into the hotel, we went over to the Sawtooth Artisan's Gift Shop and I spent a couple of hours doing inventory of my art, replacing stuff that is old, putting out new art and getting ready for this gift shop's new season of sales which goes from June through Labor Day. With the business end of things taken care of, the rest of the time was spent hiking around Redfish Lake and Stanley Lake, enjoying some of the most gorgeous mountain scenery in America! The weather was very odd. It was sunny part of the time, but it also rained, hailed and snowed! That is Stanley for you. It has dynamic and very changeable weather patterns.

While we were hiking, I did a few quick sketches of the scenery (posted above). I didn't get to do as much sketching as I wanted because the weather wouldn't cooperate. I am trying to improve my quick sketching skills as well as making a visual journal of some of the plants, trees, & flowers found in Stanley and other areas of the Idaho mountains.

During our drive home to Boise, right outside the main part of Stanley, we saw eight elk crossing the highway! It was SO COOL! We just stopped and waited for them to cross. I tried to get a photo, but they were not interested in posing for my camera. Everytime I go to Stanley I always say, 'Okay wildlife (and I don't mean the nightclub life) come out where ever you are!' Sometimes they cooperate, sometimes they don't.

When I got home I was delighted to find a check had arrived in the mail from the client who requested a portrait of her cat, Smoke. Yay! I will use her check to help pay for the hotel bill we put on our credit card.