Solo Art Retreat...Heaven in Vicksburg

Very thankful for the much needed last few days. The Hubs and I made a deal that I could get away for a weekend to work on our spring and summer designs after hunting season was over for him. Let me tell ya, I was READY!!!! I love my two P's, but they wear me out. Two under two is tough,tough,tough. So, I booked myself a room at Aherns Belle of the Woods  (www.belleofthebends.com)  in Vicksburg.

Trip Advisor said it was the #1 B&B so that must be so ;). Neat place. Built in 1876. An Italianate mansion.The owner Mary was personable and helpful. My room was quite large

and my bathroom had a tub (prerequisite if you know me!!). There is even a 170 year old crape myrtle there.

   I immediately got to work drawing out designs--the clock of was ticking!! After getting one finished , I header over to Rusty's Riverfront Grill (www.rustysriverfront.com)

. Delicious! Thank you to all who suggested it to me on FB. You guys were right--The fried green tomatoes with crab were heavenly.

Worth driving over from West Monroe for. But, get there early bc this place fills up quick. I sat at the bar beside some strangers and by the end of our meals, we were all sharing desert! Don't you just love the South ;). Then,  I got back to my room and worked till midnight on our designs.

I got a Louisiana Black Bear drawn that I really really love.

Did you know that is our state mammal.? Anyway, after a long soak in the tub, I crashed.
  Next morning, breakfast was served~ eggs, biscuits , gravy, fried apples, sausage ,etc.

Met a nice couple from Hattisburg. Then, back to drawing ;). By noon, I was stiff from sitting in bed so I went for a jog over at the Vicksburg Military Park It was quite large and hilly!

 But very pretty. Yes- I can run again since my accident but I do ache a little when I do.

 At the suggestion of Mary, I went and had lunch at the coolest funkiest little place off Hwy 61 South (like you are headed to Natchez) called The Tomato Place (www.thetomatoplace.com)

It's basically two shacks. Looks like a produce stand from the road. Reminded me of Sara's Kitchen in Ruston but with more color. Felt like I was walking into this secret club as I peeled back the plastic visqueen entrance.

Food was good, atmosphere was great for the creative soul and the lemonade was tasty.

Then, after a quick trip to outlets, it was time for a big long nap!! Hahaha. Pure heaven ;). When I finally woke up, I worked some more before heading off to dinner at Walnut Hill (www.walnuthillsrest.com)

LOvED this place!! Two cool dudes sang the Blues (they do this every Fri and Sat night 6-9)

and I had their amazing Fried Chicken-YUm!!!- guys, Im serious about some fried chicken-this was GOOD!

This Southern plantation home was built in the 1880's. I didn't get to sit at their famous round table since it was just me

, but I will def come back with a group to do so.
  Once back in my room, I worked till midnight again. I don't want to give too much away, but I'm excited about our new girl shirt. I also came up with a new Warhawk (promise we will have plenty of youth tees in this!) and new a Bulldawg design. I think total, there are 12 new designs. I'm feeling quite accomplished, and rested all in the same time. Sunday morning after breakfast, I took one last jog around DowntownVicksburg before I left.

Love old brick streets.

Two thumbs up for Vicksburg. And now back to reality..
  Big thanks to Brent for watching the kiddos!! Cant wait to do this again in another town-Natchez maybe??

Thanks as always for reading~
Lissy

P.S. Our first batch of Krewe of Black Bayou shirts sold out super fast-if you didn't get one, no worries, we have another batch on order and should be ready around the end of Jan.
www.mrpstees.bigcartel.com

Krewe of Black Bayou

Wheeeeew- This one was tough, tough, tough. Wanted to give up many many times and just say we will pass on this, but something inside me just wouldn't let this design go. I think I worked the longest on this one than any other design so far.
  We thought it would be fun to do a Mardi Gras shirt and I knew we should have animals involved but that was the extent of it. We also knew we wanted to print another long sleeve shirt and this one be a tri blend long sleeve shirt-Super super soft against your skin during these colder days.
  And then, it hit me one day while talking to my mom..."Krewe of Black Bayou" I blurted out!!! We weren't even discussing this shirt or Mardi Gras,  But she looked at me and said "That is it!!"
  Research time!!! What animals are at Black Bayou??? Who would know this first hand, but Robert Eisenstadt aka BOB. He is the treasurer of The Friends of Black Bayou (www.friendsofblackbayou.org) and friends with Rebecca who owns Miss Persnickety Joon (they are one of our retailers). Through many texts back and forth between Rebecca, Bob and I, I learned that Black Bayou has Gators, Alligator Snapping Turtles, Anhingas, Coons, Coots, Herons, Hawks, Eagles, Snakes, Deer, Possum, Blue Wing Teal, Nutria, Bull Frogs, etc etc etc.. WOW!! (and what in the world is a "Coot"??? A "coot" is a very cool water fowl that is also known as a "water chicken". Interesting~ learn something every day. :)

(photo taken from internet)

That Coot has some big ole feet!!!

 
  Now off to sketching... I first just started out drawing a bunch of the animals out there.

 But Brent was adamant that it needed to have a gator standing up leading the parade. So, here he is..

Def needed more. I tried scanning it in our our computer and playing with the colors and added a few swampy trees....My sweet husband and Mr P's Co owner informed me that it looked like a Frat shirt-OUCH!!!

 Next, I tried drawing out a bunch of these animals and moving them around on the paper. Wasn't working. Then, it hit me, what business do I have doing a shirt with animals from Black Bayou when I haven't even visited it!!!  So, the next day, I picked sweet Phoebe up from MDO and headed out to 165N.

 This place was nice-much nicer than I had envisioned.. and bigger too.

I was impressed and highly recommend anyone to go visit it.

The weather was terribly cold that day and I didn't get to take a tour, but I will be back.... I would love to take the kids on a canoe ride.
  So, back to the drawing board.  I added my own personal font was added.

After talking to my graphic friend Jeff, I worked on adding more of the animals out at Black Bayou and livening the design up.

Isn't that what Mardi Gras is all about-One Big PARTY!!??? I worked on the swamp scene some more and added a sax to the gator, rather than the wand. The shirt now consists of the gator, a snapping turtle, a coot, an anhinga (also know as a snakebird), and a coon.  Congrats to Kelly Jaubert and Lyndsey Avery for guessing the correct animals on our Facebook contest. The decision was made to keep it all in purple and not try to cheese it up with a ton of color.
 Here is the final product...

Yay! Hope you love it as much as we do!! These shirts will be available in about 2 weeks. Adult sizes S-XXL $31 and Youth 2,4,6,8,10 and 12 $26. The shirts look like this.. Adult

 and then youth

Thanks for reading!

To get to Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge, take US HIGHWAY 165 North and turn right onto Richland Place. This is about 1.5 miles north of CenturyLink.

Commander Christmas RiverMarket

The big Commander Christmas is happening on Saturday. Brent has been studying the weather and we have been trying to figure out our game plan for setting up. Praying the rain gets in and out in a hurry. I know "they" are expecting thousands of people to attend this event. Very Exciting!! I know we are suppose to be selling from 10am-10pm.

 

We ordered some mannequins to display our shirts-and let me tell you, Ive had a lot of fun decorating them up!! I remember getting to dress the mannequins when I worked at Abercombie back in my early college days.

  My thoughts for us....Trying to show our Artist meets Hunter style....Hey Anthropology...if you are reading this, I hope you are thinking you want to hire me!! :)   I first went and got some different dried material from Sanders Wholesale.

Then I added some things we had around the house.The female figure has  LOTS of pheasant feathers coming out the top.... Love these!!!

  And on the man one.. I had this shot gun shell garland that my "Close" friend Rachel and I had made years ago.

It is literally strung together by that old blue fishing rope. Perfect!!! Cant go wrong with curly willow, moss (plays up the beards!!)

, and more dried pieces to give it that swampy cool feeling. The twisted green twine helped hold it in place.

 

These will look good against the pallet backdrops that Brent built.
On the little boy one, I added lots of moss, curly willow and shed antlers-Fun!

 Here is a little sign I made to take. It was done in that chalk board paint on a canvas

 

  As far as inventory, We will have plenty of our signature bearded duck shirts-remember...15% of the sales of these goes to our local Food Bank until Christmas day. Its a Win-Win for everyone!!! We have already donated almost $675 to them so far. We will also have our super comfy sweatshirts, new youth long sleeve deer tees

mascot tees., and baby onesies. (even have some with the duck on them!!). Here is the schedule for the day.

Hope to see you there- Look for our Mr P's Logo sign.

 

Love,
Lissy

BLACK FRIDAY SALE (and Sat too!)

SALE SALE SALE!!

Black Friday and Small Business Saturday is almost here and we have been working hard to be stocked and ready for you guys.  For our customers who want the ease of not leaving their home, we are offering free shipping to ANYWHERE in the USA on Friday and Saturday. Just enter Promo code FREESHIPPING at checkout. So easy!!!! Website is www.mrpstees.bigcartel.com.
   For our customers in the Monroe/West Monroe area, we are having a big sale on our mascot tees. Stock up now! These make great stocking stuffers.

They will be $5 off all adult and youth sizes on Friday AND on Saturday. (We decided to throw Saturday in there too!!). This will take place at Miss Persnickety Joon on Antique Alley.

They are next to The Costume Shop. Love going to Antique Alley and seeing all the decorations for the holidays.

 So.... The adult shirts are normally $28, now $23 and the youth are normally $24, now $19.

We have rebel, tiger, ram, panther, eagle, lion, bobcat, gator, and mustang tees available. We have them all pulled and on a table ready. If you have never tried one our tees before, you are in for a treat!!! They are SUPER Soft and made of a tri-blend of combed cotton, poly and rayon. Once you have one, we promise it will be the only type of tee you will ever want to wear.

 

We are also stocked up on all the new designs.. the duck, Shirley the elephant, the deer, the donkey, etc. etc.
   Over at Herringstones in Monroe on Forsythe Ave.,

, they are stocked up with our Warhawk thermals, Duck sweatshirts, Deer sweatshirts

and tees, Tiger sweatshirts, Warhawk Color block sweats and Bulldawg off the shoulder sweatshirts!! Yay!!!
   Special thanks to our #1 fav (and only!! haha) employee Jordan who has put in some hours lately tagging and delivering shirts.

 

Also- we got a shout out about our sale in the popular blog www.jules-randomkitchen.blogspot.com

 

 

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are truly thankful for all of you.

 

Love

Lissy