Orange Beach! Work-ation

Like a lot of people I know, the beach is one of my favorite places to be at. Total relaxation! I didn't think it was in the cards for us to go this year. I had already mentally hung that idea back up and figured next summer would be our time to go.... But Brent surprised me and had been secretly planning a 5 day get away for just the two of us!! The 2 Little P's would be staying back home in good ole West Monroe. I couldn't believe it!!! So excited!!! (BIG thank you to our families for helping this happen)
  You see, I just got a brand new job with Ouachita Parish as an Itinerate Talented Art Teacher. Yes- you read that correctly- I am going to be an Art Teacher. I still do not know what all schools I will be traveling to or if the kids will be in elem, middle or high school or All of the three. All I know is that I'm signed up to go to some new teacher orientation classes and school starts Aug 11th. I'm nervous, excited, and really want to be a great teacher to my kids. Paula Furlow (she is a friend, fellow artist, and my high school art teacher), has been encouraging me to apply for her job for the last 2-3 years. Now that I have children, I realize how wonderful a teaching job will be with them. I have been truly self employed since 2005 and I'm now really looking forward to working for someone else.
  That being said- the hubs realized that I needed some time to get away and work on all of our tshirt designs for Fall. Yes- we will still have Mr P's Tees. This means that our #1 employee will have to do more and if we end up having to hire her some help, we will.
   So off we went- Alabama here we come. First stop Cuco's in Hattiesburg. I miss this place so much back home.

It was a ghost town there (although we were arrived in the middle of the afternoon). We chatted with the owner and he said he always had folks from Monroe stop in on their way to the beach. Food was pretty good. Brent was horrified I was making him eat there. Not on the top of his list. I won't be surprised if the next time we come through, it is closed. I think part of the reason I love that place is all the fun memories I had eating there with friends in high school. It was our go-to birthday spot!
  We got to the beach later than we had wanted, but that was ok. I immediately got to work on some drawings. I had made a whole big list of custom orders people wanted and designs we wanted for Fall. I've never drawn so much in 5 days!! One single design can literally take at least 2 hours of true drawing.

It was rainy and overcast a good part of our trip. One morning, we laid around and watched Anaconda.

It was soooo bad, it was good-you know what Im talking about??!?. Poor JLo CAN-NOT ACT and the special effects on the snake were hideous but I couldn't stop watching it. Lol. We would never have time to watch a movie at home like this. So nice!!
  I got to do some jogging while I was there.

A group of us our training to run the Dirty South Half Marathon in WM in Oct. Our group is called The Jackalopes. Sweet group of encouraging women helping women. (Men are invited to, but we just don't have any). Nice not to have any drama out of these girls. Feel free to come run with us. It's free and we have all different levels. No Olympic Athletes here. ;). I worked on a cute design for the group.

Drawing it out...

Brent got to play a bunch of disc golf too.

He loves that sport so much.

It is tough to do!!

I worked on a funny "monkey basket" design for him.

I had to get him to pose on the balcony holding a disc....

(Notice the similarity between he and the monkey??! hahahah-just kidding hubs)

Another sketch of a monkey 

And then Brent in position

All for the sake of art-right??  Hehehe. monkey see, monkey do. ;)
  We picked up To go from Larigues (www.lartiguesseafood.com) one night.

Wow!! Best shrimp and crab claws I've ever eaten.

FRESH FRESH FRESH

This place was recommended to us from a couple (Gigi and Tommy Mosley) we met on the beach. Thank u!! Can't believe I've never heard of this place before. We also ate at The Steamer

one night at the recommendation of our umbrella guy. It did not compare to Lartigues. Not as fresh. We left feeling disappointed and still hungry. Got the kids some basics like jeans and pants from the Outlet mall in Foley. That is always good.
Overall, 18 designs were created. I sketched on the beach, I sketched on the balcony, I sketched wherever I could...

We got a bunch of little things ordered for Mr P's (like cloth camo logo hats) and some sweatshirt samples for fall/winter to see what we liked.
 My fav design created was "Duck Taylor".

You may of already saw his pic on our Instagram.

It Brent's idea! So funny!

Well, back to reality....we plan on having some type of online special for our 2 year anniversary in Aug.  We are also planning a little trunk show at Rodeo Boutique in Ruston on Friday Sept 12 (evening) and Sat Sept 13th (all day). More info to come on this. Also- you may want to check our their new blog ( www.therodeoblog.com). We also signed up for two booths at Cedartown at the Ruston Civic Center in November. Can't wait to visit with all of our Ruston Fans!!!

Thanks for reading and a big Happy Early birthday to Brent
Love
Lissy

On a random note, I had never used a toaster until this past week... (I know, Crazy!), and let me tell you, I am hooked!! Toasted ham sandwiches are better than not toasted. hahaha

Rivermarket~ Friends, Family & Fans

What I first thought was going to be a terrible day, turned into a fun one!

 We got to the Rivermarket this morning bright and early. Ready to set up and be together for the public by 10am. But when we arrived, there were quite a few wooden carts individually locked and chained inside our booth space.

WTH??!? When asked to get them moved, we were told no one was sure where the key was to unlock them..WTH??! Come on City of Monroe!!! Get It TOGETHER!!! Uggggg. Thankfully, a nice policeman (Thanks Officer Rodgers) went and got bolt cutters and cut each cart free.

(Here he is cutting and talking to Robby) Why were these carts even there to begin with~ knowing you are hosting a big Rivermarket with vendors paying for those spaces??? But---moving on....We were able to get set up in the allotted time. Mainly, bc we had a GREAT team who has done this before.  Our Dream Team of helpers consisted of Robby (the brother extraordinaire)

, Jordan (#1 employee), Allan (The boyfriend)

(Allan and Jordan looking cute in their Nutria Rat and War hawk Football tee)

, Brent (whose back was hurting) and me.

(Brent in the new Bullfrog tee, me in our Champ the Bulldawg tank and Robby in the new Cowskull tee)

  The space ended up looking fantastic if I do say so myself). Thankful we rented 2 spaces to spread out more. Here are a few more pics of set up.

We added a little patriotic fun to our signature white deer

One of our painted signs and mannequins 

We had a bunch of items hung up on clothes pins 

We saw tons of friends and fans! Loved it when people came by wearing their Mr P's Tees

Here is Erin and Randal. She had on our Honey Bee Racerback tank

And above is sweet Stella aka Luna in her Shirley the Elephant Tee.

Then we saw Anna Kate. She is one of the Hawkline Dancers at ULM and had on the new tank we created for them for camp!! And here is Annie Mae and Dave Reeves. We LOVE Annie Mae's salsa and Dave is quite the musician.

Annie Mae got our new Cowskull Tank and put it on right then. Looked fantastic on her. That is my new fav tank of ours.

And here are two of our fav girls, Kristi & Amber. Kristi had on our White Perch Tee and Amber had on the Bald Cypress Tee.

This is the cute little Megan who put her cypress tank on as soon as she got it!! Awesome :)

And then, Phoebe's Fav babysitter Megan her and Fav Dog Gidget came to visit!!

 LOL!! And then we were visited by these two patriot people!! Love your spirit!!!

Brent and Robby made sure they got a few Prom Poses in...

And here is a shot of the Adorable Parker in his Warhawk tee!! And one more little cutie named Keller. He was sporting our original tri blend bulldawg tee.

These precious little girls just enjoyed wearing our stickers!!!

And we even had a little group that just hung out and ate their snow cones in the shade :)

Our sweet niece Katie and her BFF Marley came by and ended up staying for awhile so we put them to work!! They straightened shirts and put them back in order. 

Both of these Girls are wearing our brand new Rebel Man Tanks. 

Got to see fellow artists Joni Dollar and Clint Downing too. Hey Guys!!

And here is our buddy Chris Zagone and his beautiful daughter Lillie Beth. Thanks so much for helping up tear down the booth!!

One of the things I always look forward to when we work a Rivermarket is the Famous King Egg Rolls that my friend Leigh Rodgers makes. She and I used to work together many many moons ago at Outback Steakhouse. If you guys go to The Rivermarket in the Fall, stop by and try one of her hand made egg rolls and special sauce to dip them in. Or if you want to order some before then, give her a shout at 318-805-1688.YUM YUM YUM

Talk about service....she even delivered to our booth!! Another cool thing about today, was getting to be "Almost" neighbors with Taylor and Libby.

They are two of the
most talented people around.  They have created a website called www.itsmethodology.com. Its a neat site that helps people with "make it Yourself" projects and also offers creative workshops. Taylor was making Mason Jar Terrariums with succulents and air plants. Libby had handmade goods from Rwanda.

So cool!! Taylor made me one of the Terrariums and I love it.

It was a good long day. We will def be back in Fall. 

Thanks for reading, now off to bed. 

Love 

Lissy

To order online, go to www.mrpstees.bigcartel.com

Prepping for Rivermarket

The very last Rivermarket is tomorrow (10am-4pm) until they start back up again in the Fall.  Our two booths will be across from the Courthouse at Sycamore Hall #29 and #30. We have been working hard to be ready for it. We really try hard to go all out when we do one of these things. I feel like if you are going to all the trouble to set up your designs, hire a baby sitter and be away from your kids for the day, it needs to look good. Like you care!! And WE DO!! I realize how important presentation is... I wouldn't call myself a detail person, but I do like to plan. I actually went and measured our booth spaces and then graphed the whole set up out on graphing paper....

My girlfriends who have helped us in the past always laugh at me bc I have a certain way I like the orange tissue paper to be folded when our shirts are wrapped up. ( I promise I'm actually really laid back!!) lol
  Our #1 Employee's mom (Marina Raborn) found these old wooden tshirt displays

that we are going to incorporate into our setup. Some were missing pieces so Jordan (the #1 employee) went to Hobby Lobby and worked her magic on them. This is her painting them gray.

She even got her sweet boyfriend Allan to come help.

  I got it in my head that we needed to incorporate fireworks into our mannequins since this was the July 4th weekend. I took sweet Phoebs down the road to the firework place

and got a few. She loves to ride in buggy's!

Can't wait for y'all to see how they turned out... This is me working on the little boy model. Yes- that is a plastic cup, oasis, and sparkers to start with.

Here is a pic of all the mannequin "heads". Have to pack them up separately  

We also made a trip to Office Depot to stock up on essentials (tape, pens, paper, Etc). Poor Phoebs gets drug everywhere-HA!

So, what will we have tomorrow? We will have the new kid designs (Bayou Bullfroggin

and the Hot Pink Dragonfly). Plus all the other popular kid designs. We will also have all of our tanks and dresses

(love this pic I saw on Instagram that one of our retailers took). As well as all of our adult tees, including the new Adult Bayou Bullfrog and Cowskull. Brent is shown wearing an adult large Cowskull.

So, we were quite busy on this 4th getting ready, but we did mange to have some fun at one of our neighbors pools. Thanks Beth and Rodney!! Here is Stuart and Lilya Jaubert with Phoebe and Pearson.

See ya tomorrow-

Love

Lissy

P.S. Our Half Off Mascot Tee sale is still going on until Sunday. This is online only www.mrpstees.bigcartel.com. Great time to stock up for school.