So, remember a couple of weeks ago when I warned parents not to take their kids to the New Art Festival (aka Art in the Park), because it’s just a lot of boring walking and shopping? I totally took mine! Isn’t one of the circles of hell reserved for those who can’t take their own advice?

Actually, it did not turn out too badly. I announced that I was going down to the park and both girls said they wanted to come. So I warned them, repeatedly and with vehemence, that there was going to be a lot of walking and shopping, and quite likely it would all be in the rain as it was pouring out. And I set up some ground rules, that there was to be a) NO complaining about being bored, and b) NO constant asking for snacks.

They agreed, and for the most part, stuck to the plan, and I was pretty impressed with them. The three of us actually had a really nice time traipsing through the park looking at art.

And also, shopping! Yay, shopping!

Last year, Sir Monkeypants and I were hoping to acquire some actual art for our house. We are both really depressed about the state of our house, since after seven years of living here we still have almost exclusively builder paint and builder light fixures, plus other than kids’ furniture, one couch, and one dining room table, we are still living with the mish mash of furniture that we had back in university. Neither of us really has the time or interest in beautifying our home, however, we are both sad and despairing about the ugliness of our home, so you can see, it is not a good situation.

Anyway, for a while now we have both been saying it would be nice to have some “real” art, instead of just prints from IKEA and Disney posters on the walls, but the two of us have widely differing taste in art so it’s almost impossible for us to agree on something. Last year we ended up seeing a couple of things we liked, but they were expensive and Sir Monkeypants and I are not only weak at home decorating, we are also cheap, so we balked.

And then we regretted it all year long, so this year, I was determined to BUY SOMETHING, for the love.

So, the purchases! This first one is by local artist Anne Remmer Thompson. It is called Lazy, Lazy Day.

The picture does not do justice to the fabulous blues in there. Also, the sand of the beach includes real sand! Cool.

Story behind this one: Sir Monkeypants saw one just like it last year at Anne’s booth and really liked it, and I thought it was nice too, which usually for us means BUY NOW, because these kinds of intersections of taste don’t happen often. But of course we couldn’t quite bring ourselves to part with the money, and plus we had three cranky screaming complaining kids in tow, so we decided to think about. Then I got it in my head that this painting would look great over our bed, and I would use it to create a beach-themed bedroom, and I even went so far as to create a Pinterest board on that subject. But by the time I decided to just Do It, Already, I called Anne up and it had been lent out on a rental program.

So I gave Anne my info and she said she’d call me if/when it came back from the rental contract, but eventually she called me to let me know that the contract had been renewed and it didn’t look like the painting was coming back any time soon.

Then, this week, for the art festival she painted a new one (yay!) but had lost my contact info (boo!), but then I went the show anyway (yay!) and it was still there (yay yay!) and I bought it (yay yay yay!). So now it’s hanging over our bed, and the rest of the beach-themed room will hopefully happen before I DIE, Jesus Lynn, get the lead out already.

And that’s not even all the art I bought. I saw lots of art I really loved, but I knew just would not be Sir Monkeypants’ thing (special shout out to Sue McNenly, who I ADORE, and will be on my wish list forever). But one artist I loved so much, I knew I had to have something of hers even if it was going to have to go in some back corner of the house (and actually, it is going over my new desk where I work all day, so, AWESOME).

The artist is Lison Salois and she is amazing. This one is called Encore De La Mouille, which I think means “it’s raining again.”

Love it. I’m so pleased!

Overall, a fabulous trip to the park. Now if only I could get my house in shape, we’d be all good.