By Honey and the Hive

As a small business owner, I more often than not find myself up until 1 or 2 am in my studio painting away, packing orders, editing photos, answering emails...you name it.  I'm a one woman show here at Honey and the Hive, and sometimes that means working 7 days a week - which is easy to do, especially because my career is my passion.  But sometimes even I need to take a little break.  This week I packed my bags and headed to Chicago for a few days to meet up with one of my very best friends, Stephanie - you folks might know her as the talented lady behind Hello Halsted.

I met Stephanie last December when we shared a booth at Renegade Craft Fair, luckily it's a pretty short drive from Grand Rapids to Chicago so we get to see each other every couple of months.  I can't stress enough how important it is to have friends who are also part of the creative handmade community - it's so awesome to have a group of folks that you can share your stories with, celebrate successes with, bounce ideas off of, and learn with.  So my best friend from home and I drove down on Monday, and while this trip was definitely just for fun, it was still packed with inspiration.

We all spent our first day in the city walking around, seeing some sights and sampling some local cuisine, which I'll admit is definitely my favorite part of traveling.  I'm a total foodie, and there's no point in denying that.  After spending the day out and about, in true October style we went to a local haunted house.  I've never really been to one before, so I'll be the first to admit that I definitely had my pants scared off, but it was so much fun.

So, while this trip was a quick one, it was so refreshing to get away for a few days to kind of cleanse my palette and find some new inspiration.  It was so much fun, but I'm really happy to be back home in my studio and so ready to tackle the day with my paintbrushes.