Heather Hearts Art

03/06/2025

Think Spring 🌼🍀 Smith Mountain Lake Insiders Home & Garden issue is out now!

The spring Issue of SML Insiders is here -- online and in racks around the region! 🌸 Here’s what’s inside:

🏡 Our inaugural Home & Garden special section – Fresh ideas, top trends & expert insights

🏰 Exclusive home spotlight – Step inside one of SML’s most iconic estates at The Water's Edge Country Club

🛶 Essential spring events + our 2025 annual events guide
.. and much more!

📖 Read it as a flipbook or individual blog posts, find out how to subscribe and where you can pick up a free copy! 👇

smith-mountain-lake.com/magazine

📷: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Smith Mountain Lake Real Estate

McConnell Golf

05/24/2024

Congratulations, Smith Mountain Lake Insiders on a well deserved celebration and launch yesterday! I'm proud to be a part of this new publication with you ❤️

The inaugural print edition of the Smith Mountain Lake Insiders’ Guide has arrived! 👉 smith-mountain-lake.com/magazine

With a talented crew of writers, photographers and designers, our quarterly publication truly celebrates Smith Mountain Lake through stunning photography, compelling stories, expert advice and helpful resources.

Our distribution team will be busy getting the magazines into racks around the SML region over the next few days. In the meantime, please flip through the digital version, read individual articles, access resources and find distribution locations here. 👇

SUMMER 2024 ISSUE >> smith-mountain-lake.com/magazine

Cheers!

🥂 Andie Gibson and Jennifer Church, Publishers

Thank you to everyone who believed in our vision and helped make this publication a beautiful reality!

Creative Director: Heather Snyder, Heather Hearts Art

Cover photo: Air Views Media

Contributing writers and photographers:
Jerry Hale
Chris Gibson
Kristin Dunker, The Current SML
Heather Snyder
Rapid Imagery, LLC
Star City SkyCams
JBohn Bishop
Amy Hunter
Kathleen Riordan

Sales Team:
Franklin Swann and Molly Girling

Advertisers:
Allstate Insurance Agent: Thomas Agency
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Smith Mountain Lake Real Estate
Dana Montgomery Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices SML Real Estate
Jada Turner Realtor
JaneAtTheLake
Vicki Millehan Smith Mountain Lake Homes
Debbie Shelton
Bridgewater Marina & Boat Rentals
Captain Vic Sea Ray Services
Cooper Contractors
Deborah F. Beran Inc - Deb Beran Properties
Envisions Flooring & Interiors
First National Bank of Altavista
Franklin Glass
Gilbert Law PC
JBohnBishop Mercantile
Jo & Co Jewelers
Lake Retreat Properties Inc.
Glenda McDaniel and Steven McDaniel with Long and Foster Real Estate
Marina 66
Mariners Landing
ML Realty, Fred Cuffari and Mary Lou McDonald
Phil Hager Insurance Agency
Smith Mountain Lake Wine Festival
Spectrum Stone Designs
The Copper Kettle Co.
Turner's Dock Building
VitaZen
Nadine Bannard, REALTOR
Webster Marine

07/19/2023

For the 2nd year, I joined the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce as a volunteer alongside my fellow Ambassador Council members, Chamber staff, community members, businesses and sponsors, for their annual Pancakes with Pirates 🥞 breakfast at Mexico Viejo during the Pirate Days Weekend. We had a great time as wait staff, chefs, hosts and hostess, bartenders, and bussers, while dressed for the pirating. The best part of this event is seeing the smiling faces who come to eat, dressed for the occasion with elaborate costumes and faces painted. It's a great kickoff to a day full of special pirate events at Smith Mountain Lake and you can feel the excitement! I am super proud to be a part of the SMLRCC Ambassador Council alongside this amazing group of individuals. Thank you Casey Johnson, Realtor -RE/MAX for the awesome pictures! Until next year... 🏴‍☠️🦜

03/31/2023

We are beyond thrilled with this year’s visitor guide! After a number of years outsourcing the publishing of this annual guide, the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce took this project on in-house.

The SMLRCC distributes tens of thousands of copies annually of the free, 136-page soft-touch magazine in key tourism locations throughout the region and state. Website visitors can view the digital version online any time at VisitSmithMountainLake.com or request a mailed copy of the print publication.

The guide includes sections for on-water and off-water activities, dining, shopping, accommodations, events, real estate and lifestyle, as well as a comprehensive business directory and a pull-out map.

In this year's guide, the focus was promoting SML as a vacation destination while continuing to expand on the lifestyle at SML. With remote work opportunities on the rise, more and more people are expressing interest in moving to the lake region to enjoy the slower pace of life, temperate weather and, of course, our amazing outdoor activities. We felt this was important to continue since the goal of the publication is not only to increase tourism but make a lasting economic impact on the SML region.

Our Executive Director, Andy Bruns, who happens to have a degree in journalism, has brought valuable knowledge and experience for taking on this project. “After a career in publishing myself, along with the extensive experience in advertising design our Membership Director Erin Stanley brings, we were confident that we could take this project in-house. However, we couldn’t have done this without the invaluable help from Project Manager & Contributing Writer, Andie Gibson of Smith Mountain Lake Insiders, Graphic Designer & Digital Publications Editor, Heather Snyder with Heather Hearts Art, and Regional Sales Lead Tommie-Jo Walker coordinating the advertising sales for this edition. She will continue to be the advertising sales point-person going forward and can be reached at [email protected]."

Copies of the 2023 publication are available at the Smith Mountain Lake Visitor Center at Bridgewater Plaza. The chamber is always happy to provide boxes of the guide for area locations where they might be picked up. To read the guide online or to request a free copy by mail, log onto visitsmithmountainlake.com/visitor-guide.

Photo by Trevor Smith of Anchor Title SML and JBohnBishop Mercantile and the 2023 Leadership Academy. Cover photo by Rapid Imagery, LLC

03/31/2023

03/31/2023

We interrupt The Hunt for Smitty with an exciting announcement! We open for the season THIS SATURDAY, April 1! The Marina store & JBohnBishop Mercantile will be open weekends only until Memorial Day, then it's 7 days a week folks! We can't wait to see y'all, and for you to see J Bohn's refreshed space and Steve Stinson's incredible BOOK! 😍 Heather Hearts Art, thank you for this artwork that is soon to be in postcard form and available at the Marina!

03/28/2023

It's always an exciting and fun time when an art project request comes around! Thank you, JBohnBishop Mercantile, for trusting my artisitic process to help bring your vision of Gills Creek Marina & Lodge into an illustration worthy of display at the marina and to share with those who visit there. 🥰🖍🖼

It feels just like yesterday Jerry was asking us if we were interested in taking over the tiki hut inside of the marina store with our collection! And now, here we are... going in to our second summer of being at Gills Creek Marina & Lodge- opening for the season on April 1. Hours are weekends only until Memorial Day then it's 7 days a week all summer long! 😎 Shout-out to our girl Heather at Heather Hearts Art. She makes all of our visions come to life! These will soon be in postcard form! 👇 Hey Drifter's & Smith Mountain Lake Coffee House, do you see what we see?!

03/02/2023

I'm super proud to have been a part of this project and of the final piece we created ⭐

We are beyond thrilled with this year’s visitor guide! After a number of years outsourcing the publishing of this annual guide, the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce took this project on in-house.

The SMLRCC distributes tens of thousands of copies annually of the free, 136-page soft-touch magazine in key tourism locations throughout the region and state. Website visitors can view the digital version online any time at VisitSmithMountainLake.com or request a mailed copy of the print publication.

The guide includes sections for on-water and off-water activities, dining, shopping, accommodations, events, real estate and lifestyle, as well as a comprehensive business directory and a pull-out map.

In this year's guide, the focus was promoting SML as a vacation destination while continuing to expand on the lifestyle at SML. With remote work opportunities on the rise, more and more people are expressing interest in moving to the lake region to enjoy the slower pace of life, temperate weather and, of course, our amazing outdoor activities. We felt this was important to continue since the goal of the publication is not only to increase tourism but make a lasting economic impact on the SML region.

Our Executive Director, Andy Bruns, who happens to have a degree in journalism, has brought valuable knowledge and experience for taking on this project. “After a career in publishing myself, along with the extensive experience in advertising design our Membership Director Erin Stanley brings, we were confident that we could take this project in-house. However, we couldn’t have done this without the invaluable help from Project Manager & Contributing Writer, Andie Gibson of Smith Mountain Lake Insiders, Graphic Designer & Digital Publications Editor, Heather Snyder with Heather Hearts Art, and Regional Sales Lead Tommie-Jo Walker coordinating the advertising sales for this edition. She will continue to be the advertising sales point-person going forward and can be reached at [email protected]."

Copies of the 2023 publication are available at the Smith Mountain Lake Visitor Center at Bridgewater Plaza. The chamber is always happy to provide boxes of the guide for area locations where they might be picked up. To read the guide online or to request a free copy by mail, log onto visitsmithmountainlake.com/visitor-guide.

Photo by Trevor Smith of Anchor Title SML and JBohnBishop Mercantile and the 2023 Leadership Academy. Cover photo by Rapid Imagery, LLC

02/20/2023

Meet Heather Snyder with Heather Hearts Art, who is a member of our 2023 Ambassadors Council. Heather's brand specializes in Graphic Design, Illustration, and Creative Brand Building. Heather is a native and resident of Martinsville.

A lifelong lover of art, technology, and computers, she merged her passions in order to build a career in graphic arts. Fueled by a drive for learning, she has grown her talents for design alongside the development of and utilizing the Adobe Creative software platform over the past two decades. This journey has led to many graphics and marketing projects for a large range of small businesses through the years, each with their own unique clientele and market to reach.

As a Chamber Ambassador, she hopes to lend her expertise to the benefit of her Chamber business partners while helping with events and welcoming new businesses to the community. When she isn't busy with client projects, you may find her snapping photos, working on her yellow cottage in historic uptown Martinsville, or trying out a new art trend. Heather loves spending time with her husband, children, kitties, and soaking up the sunshine and green spaces outdoors whenever possible.