Yes, I am a believer in following bliss. It’s fun and delightful things happen on the journey. A great book on creative lettering inspired me to try my hand at a technique shown in the book. It is very detailed so I needed a short word. “Yes” happens to be one of my favorite words—often spoken with excitement upon finding a great pair of shoes on sale.

Erik and I went camping to Chevelon Canyon Lake last weekend. He fished, I journaled. Little did I realize that a simple meditation in word art could reveal so much charming detail and meaning. First let me say, though, that this is the first time in over 15 years Erik and I have done this. We camped extensively in our 20s, but buying our first house gobbled up every weekend and thus the fun was relegated to short day trips. I believe our last camping trip happened just before we got married.

Here I am sitting in my Kelsyus chair, blissfully working on YES with new pens I discovered at Arizona Art. Called “Gelly Rolls,” I did not take these as serious tools until I started using them. I was drawn to the neon colors and then quickly realized that the opaque quality of the ink and vibrancy of the colors shot my little sketch into the atmosphere!

As much as I try, images don’t do the work justice. Neon, siver, gold and bright white over the watercolor pencils is an amazing effect. It took me all weekend to complete. As I was finishing up I realized the letters “E” and “S” are connected by a heart. (The heart made it in there because my kerning was a bit off.) Being the first camping trip since we’ve been married, I dedicated the piece to us (E loves S) and drew our anniversary date in the water just below the jumping fish.

Yes!