Lake Darbonne Art Retreat

They don't call this "Easy Living Lane" for nothin'! Pure easy going bliss. I am fortunate enough to have some wonderful giving friends (Johnny and Karen) who offered me their camp while they were on vacation.

The Nichols are like second parents to me. Mrs Karen said she vividly remembers those days of having two young children and needing a break for some "me" time. With Brent's blessing, I grabbed my back pack, some guacamole makings, and my art supplies and hit the road to Farmerville. It's amazing how much work you can get done when you are by yourself. The goal was to work on some drawings for Summer and Fall and also a couple of commissions that I had been behind on.
  I planted myself in a orange(!!) chair on their deck

with a cozy blanket and a breathtaking view of the lake.

What is it about water that just makes you feel good?? I don't want to give too much away but got a real funny Nutria Rat drawn. Our son will love it! Here is the initial pencil sketch.

And the final pen and ink drawing...

And I also worked on a cool view of some Louisiana Bald Cypress trees. Did you know that is our State Tree??

And here is a pic of the guacomole and chips I made.. Yum! I like it chunky and with Tonys in it to spice it up. Always served with the Tortilla Strips because they don't break as easily.

For dinner, I picked up To-go from the Ol' Hickory Cafe.

Delicious. It was located further into town.   Also enjoyed just walking around snapping pics of all the different textures in one back yard.

And here is my view once the sun started going down-Heaven!! (Brent, if you are reading this, we NEED a camp with a view like this!!)

The Nichols camp felt like home away from home. So comfy and stocked with everything you could need. Love you guys and so appreciate you opening your camp up to me.

Thanks for reading!
Love
 Lissy

To order our designs, our website is www.mrpstees.bigcartel.com or you can find our designs at Herringstones in Monroe, KSera in West Monroe, Rodeo Boutique in Ruston and Patton's Western Wear in Lake Charles.

Photo shoot for Bayou Life

Rough couple of weeks in the Compton Household. The stomach bug hit us and it hit HARD. Everyone got sick but me (not sure how and I'm still knocking on wood). Then P got an ear infection and then Poor little Phoebe got very ill. So sick with an infection and the stomach bug that she stayed at St Francis for a 5 days to get fluid and antibiotics.

Why is it, that everything always happens all at once??
  We had a big family photo shoot planned that we had already had to cancel once before with Heather Land (Two Suez Photography). Heather and her best bud Katie May own this photography visit. Brent and I have been friends with them for years and years and years. Our plan was to get he and I and our kiddos in some cool pics for our website and for a write up in BayouLife magazine.   But, plans changed when Phoebe got sick.
  I ended up calling Brent's niece MaKenzie Compton to see if she and her best buds, Adrianna Smalling , Anne Bishop and Annmarie Cash could do this shoot for us. Thankfully, they could at the last minute! They had modeled for us before last summer at WMHS stadium in our Retro Rebel tees.  I was so thankful! We still wanted the boys in the pic so Brent and P headed out to Heathers house with the girls. It was a quick shoot. Rain was on its way, and

they were limited on natural light but Heather kept it all going smooth. I wish Phoebe and I had been there :(. Brent kept texting me pics the whole time.

Here is P "overseeing" the whole photo shoot! Love this view of him, Heather and the girls.

And then, Apparently, P gave pretty Annmarie some flowers!!

And a big hug!!

What a stud!!?!! And had a ball playing with Heathers girls.

Heather got some pretty shots of the girls

and got a big group shot of everyone that we were pleased with. Here is the May edition of our BayouLife writeup.

And here are a few pics of the girls.....
This one is of Kenzie in our new gold Warhawk tee. We had printed on maroon and gray in the past so decided to go for the gold this year.

Looks great on her with her skin tone. The next is of Anne. She is in our purple and gold Tiger shirt.

Love seeing it with layers on and all the long necklaces. And now we have Annmarie who is wearing our Louisiana Proud Honey Bee tee.

So cute with the grass and flowers. Lastly, here is a pic of Adrianna in our ole school Indian tee~

A definite throw back to NLU. Looks good with her blue jean shorts. Did you notice that all of these girls have amazing hair??? WOW!
 Even P changed his shirt and posed a few times in his Bee tee..

I think he has great hair too :)


And to wrap it all up, Im happy to report that things are getting back to "normal" hahaah for us. One last pic of sweet Phoebe and our half lab/half boxer name Penny.

Thanks for reading!! 

Love Lissy

To order any of the above designs, check out our online store at www.mrpstees.bigcartel.com

To see more of Heather and Katie's work, visit www.twosuez.com.

You call 'em Sac A Lait, We call 'em White Perch...

Never knew the White Perch was such a big deal!! But, my husband did. And who knew one little fish would have so many different names. I was clueless!!  Brent has been pushing for this shirt since Jan. I did my part and drew a white perch aka crappie aka tin mouth aka speck, etc etc etc .... while I was on a self imposed art retreat in Vicksburg a few months ago.

(first I drew him in pencil and then I went over it in ink)

Mr White Perch

I even threw in a Black Perch for good measure.

That will make him happy!! Over Achiever!!! Lol. And then the design process began and it went on and on and on and on. I think this one took longer than the Krewe of Black Bayou design.
One fish?

Two Fish?

Red Fish?

(Ok- there is nothing red on this, but you get the idea...we moved those fish around a BUNCH)

Blue Fish?

I felt about as mixed up as Dr Sues. Loved this model....

heheheheheheh

We decided it needed to have all the different names incorporated in it but how?? I tried a bunch of different ways.

Everything was competing with itself. Words vs Fish and no one was winning. Then, I tried to "reel" (get it!! hahaha)  it back in with Brent's Suggestion.

I hand wrote all the different names out in this one. We were getting warmer, but it was hard to read. I really do not have the best handwriting. 

Im sure Jeff the graphic design guru was getting frustrated with us on this. He suggested using different fonts on the computer. Ok- so I went home and got to work....AGAIN!

And Voila!!! YES!!! THIS WAS IT!!! Thank the good LORD. :) Brent was happy, I was happy, everyone was happy. 

 The gang at the printer sent me a pic of the first one that came out. I was pleased. Brent was pleased. Everyone was pleased! hahahah I made Brent go outside and pose in his shirt..

He was not in the mood. Please smile Brent..

and one quick one with Mr P

So, here is the finished product on Roger.

He is shown wearing an XL. The shirt comes in adult sizes only. S-XXL  $28. We have them available online at www.mrpstees.bigcartel.com OR in town at KSera in West Monroe. They are open M-Sat 10am-6pm. This would make an excellent gift for Easter or Fathers Day.
As always, thanks for reading ~ Happy fishing!!

(Riding on the trails in "Daddy's Jeep"...fun fun fun)

Love
Lissy