Everywhere I look lately, I seem to see fountain pens. Surprisingly I have never used one before. I bought a cheap one at the dollar store to use for calligraphy about a year ago but I didn’t even know that it was called a fountain pen. And I never got around to trying it out until just recently.

Our family embarked on a massive undertaking this week, as we decided to pack up our minivan with a bunch of suitcases, snacks, and all seven of us and drive the 25 hour drive to Texas. It was challenging, to say the least. Our youngest is in a bit of a screaming phase, and after a rough night in the hotel she proceeded to scream-cry for the better part of our second travel day. I must say that her older brothers were extreme troopers for all of it. We arrived last evening and I think we are all still recovering a bit from the last few days. We had to get our whole 7 acre property in order so that we could list it with the realtor while we are away. We were cleaning the house at 5am on the day we left for our trip. So, needless to say, some good rest time is in order here.

What does that have to do with the pens? Well, we took the kids to see Hobby Lobby today and while they were busy planning out new bedroom decor, I snuck into the art aisle and grabbed a pen and some ink refills. The boys went out to see the new Mario movie this afternoon with my husband, and I stayed back at the airbnb so that baby girl could have a much needed nap. I did the above doodles in my notebook while she slept. There is a cool tree in the backyard here, so I attempted to sketch it after she woke up and wanted to play in the dirt. It ended up way too busy and so I decided to color it in with the kids’ crayola’s so that you could see the design more clearly. I think I will try some more colored pen sketches like this. I actually have an idea, after traveling through so many desert landscapes along the way, to try and do a whole series of desert plant sketches. When I have access to my paints and canvases again, I would like to eventually turn some of those sketches into acrylic paintings or collages. So stay tuned!

I am historically not that great at remembering to take photos, but I will really try, and hopefully I can share some here.

I hope your week has been great, and thanks for stopping by!