The Marble Mine Trail

Somewhere around Summerville, Ga is a state park called Sloppy Joe Floyd State Park. There is this trail there that leads to an old mine, so being the adventurer that I am, I decided that I wanted to see it. So, my adventure buddy and I decided we were going to hit the trails again on our day off and head on up there. First of all, you have to walk across this bridge that goes across a lake. That was pretty cool (stupid me didn't take any pictures of it) and apparently they have mutant fish there. There was this huge fish we saw that was probably longer than my foot. HOLY COW! The problem with this trail is, it's not marked clearly. But hey, it's an adventure right? So we start on the trail and let me tell you, these woods are some creepy ass woods. It was kind of like something out of a horror movie. Anyway, we go a little ways down the trail and we get to this fork. According to the website I found on this place, going straight was the easy to moderate trail and going to the right was the harder one. Apparently, their easy to moderate is different than mine because this was a straight up the mountain trail with loose rocks and since it had been raining recently, the red clay (better know as sticky georgia clay) made it difficult to find footing without busting your ass. It was a nice little hike and it didn't take us very long to get to the mine. I thought that we would be able to go a little further back into the mine but it doesn't, which was a bit of a disappointment, but it had this little pool and a small little waterfall (of which I took pictures!!) I also apologize because some of the pictures are a bit blurry.

It was a nice little alcove but not what I was expecting. On our way back down the trail it started to rain, but we couldn't feel it because the canopy was so dense that it stopped the rain from reaching the bottom. All in all it was a nice little get away but not much fun because you couldn't even play in the little pool in front of the mine. Oh well. 

ON TO THE NEXT ADVENTURE!

Adventure Time Part 2

Last week I went back to the Keown falls with a friend to try and make it up the mountain to see the falls this time and not be a failure. Well we made it....but with there not being much rain lately, the falls were more of a....trickle. But, it was still a fun time and I feel accomplished that I made it. I ended up having to stop a few times along the way to catch my breath (and try not to pass out) but Bill, my 50 year old friend, didn't seem winded at all. I'm so out of shape. So today, in order to get back in shape, so I can climb a small mountain without almost passing out, I joined a gym. Hopefully I can get in better shape so that it doesn't take too much out of me to go on a small hike. -__- Afterwards, we went to another little spot where kids go to play in the water and waded around and skipped some rocks but then people started coming around so we left. Here are some pictures from our little adventure.


The falls run over this little alcove where you can sit behind it, looks like people mostly go back there to drink and smoke and who knows what else.

 A neat little bridge on up from the falls, there were two other trails once you got past the falls and this was one of them.

 Looking at the mountains behind us as we climbed up to where the falls were.

The overlook that is up past the falls. It's so pretty up there.

This is my friend, Bill. He's a goober. 

The little spot where we stopped to play in the water. The water was nice and cool but the rocks were pretty rough on bare feet. Next time I go somewhere, I'll have to bring some shoes to play in the water with.

Couldn't help but stop and take a picture on the little bridge a few pictures up. Such a photographer. :D

We have decided that we want to go on other hikes around North Georgia, I found some good ones but it's hard to get out when you work full time. Hopefully more adventures come my way and I can post more pictures of the beautiful North Georgia landscapes. 

It's ADVENTURE TIME!!!!

Went on an adventure today to The Pocket with dad. It's mostly just trails and creeks and mountains and all that fun stuff. I love all that stuff. I tried to hike up to Keown Falls but it's a pretty long way up the mountain and it's not all that fun to hike by yourself. My legs are still pretty sore. I did get some pretty awesome pictures though.

                 
                       A tree had fallen across the path and you had to climb over it to keep going.

                When we got back to town, Dad took me to Sonic. Watermelon Slush with nerds. yum.

Happy Birthday/Christmas To Me!!!

So I bought myself a new macbook pro and got it this week! I'm so excited to make the move from Windows to Mac. Everything is very different from what I'm used to using. The only thing is, I don't have any pictures on this computer yet so I'll have to figure out how to get them from my iCloud to this computer so I can post more of the art I've been doing. And while we're on the subject of art, I haven't really been doing a whole lot lately. Work has been crazy with the holidays coming and going (yay for working in food retail. NOT!) and I've recently got into Smash* booking. You can all blame Lauren for that. So I might post some pages of my smash* book on here as well. Technically it's art….I think. Anyway, I'm off to figure out how to get my pictures on this computer, once I've figured it out there will be a new art post! :)

-Niko

Been a few weeks....

So real life has been keeping me busy and I forget to post sometimes...so sorry... anyway, I've been working on a ton of new projects! But, before we get started with that HAPPY HALLOWEEN to everyone! I hope y our Halloween is spooktacular!

On to the art now. To start off we have a painting I did for Halloween. I don't remember where I found this lovely poem/quote but I remember falling in love with it as soon as I read it. It's been on my phone for like 2 years and I finally painted it.

I don't like the spider web (i suck at drawing those btw) but that's the ONLY thing I don't like. The background is orange and splattered with purple. 

Next up is a commission I did for a girl at work, Sara. She gave me my choice of colors but she wanted a passage for the bible. She was going to give it to her dad (a pastor at a church) to hang in his office, so this is what I came up with. 

Again, it's splatter painted but with more colors. I had fun splattering this one.

Ok, next up is a commission I did for a different girl at work, Randa. She wanted the Serenity Prayer and anything pink. I did a basic painting for this one simply because this is all she wanted.

The last commission I did is for, you guessed it, another girl at work, Jillena. She didn't really give me any details of what she wanted but she wanted something Halloween. So after days of trying to come up with something and hounding her to give me any more details (which she didn't) this is what I came up with. This one has to be one of my favorites so far.

I think it turned out VERY nice and she was very happy with it.

My mom has her own beauty shop so I ran across this thing online that is called the Hairstylist's prayer (again not sure where I found it) and I knew she was love it to hang in her beauty shop. The zebra strips will be the DEATH of me and I swore I would never do those again EVER! (too bad I was wrong)

One of mom's customers is a nurse at the hospital and one day she was in mom's shop getting her hair done and she told mom that she LOVED the painting I did for the shop so my mom asked me to do one for a nurse and this is what I came up with.

The lady told my mom that all the nurse's she works with LOVED it so instead of hanging it in her office, she hung it in the nurse's breakroom. That is so awesome! My painting is in the nurse's breakroom at the local ER! :)))))

I have other things that I've been working on but I need to put them on the computer first. I hope you enjoyed this round of 'Art with Niko!'

-Niko

Been working on some new art!

So I know it's been a few weeks since I posted anything but I've been working my butt off at work AND I've been working on some new paintings. So I'll put four paintings on this post that way I can start with all the new art I've been doing, so let's get started!

I saw this saying somewhere on the interwebz and loved it so one day I just got the urge to just take random colors and just start painting with no goal in mind and I came up with the awesome background and thought, "this quote would go GREAT with this background." and that is how this painting was born.  

Next up is a small little painting I did when I was thinking about getting my clover tattoo. It's just a little something to remind me what my tattoo means and it ultimately made me decide what tattoo I wanted to get. 

This painting is one of my favorites. This was before I discovered that Sharpie paint pens are good for writing on top of paint. (which is what I use know anytime I have words that need to be written....it's SOOOO much easier!) Anyway, I have loved this quote since the first time I saw it. Funny story about this painting, I had it hanging over my bed for a while and suddenly one night it decided it wanted to fall on top of me and scare the crap out of me. Actually, I think there's a ghost in my house but that's another post for another day....

And finally, this is not really anything special. I was just playing around with paint and the background came out kind of crappy looking but the top colors are all bright and pretty and I really liked them so I decided to add this into my "art" stuff. 

And....that concludes this post. That's all the "old" art so the next post will start all the new stuff that I've been working on! If you want to see all the new art before it's posted on here please feel free to follow my instagram, Niko2theNiko (which is where I post all my art as soon as it's finished...plus all the other pictures I take in my everyday life.)

Hope you enjoyed this segment of "Niko has fun with paint." 

Not an art post!

So tonight I start working third shift. It's a huge weight off of my shoulders. I'm not in a position where I have to be responsible for anything anymore and I get more hours. Also, I don't have to run a register or deal with customers anymore! Most of the time, I don't mind dealing with customers but running a register is hell. I hated it with a passion. But now, I don't have to worry about it anymore. Now all I have to worry about is putting stock on the shelves. I can do that. I'm excited (and a little tired, not used to this whole third shift thing yet even though I do it every Saturday night) most people think I'm crazy for being excited for third shift but I am very much an introvert and I don't like people in general. I would much rather sit in my room, alone, playing video games or on the computer than go out and do stuff with people. My mom says that it's not good but that's just how I'm built. Anyway, I gotta go get ready for my first night on third shift. Wish me luck that I can stay awake all night LOL.

Laters
-Niko