T Stands for a Toast for Season's Greetings

      Hi everyone. Welcome to the T day folks and everyone else who stops by. This will be my holiday post as I won't be posting again until the end of the week. 

    Tonight we're due for some light snow, so it looks like we might or should be having a white Christmas. My daughter and my son-in-law are coming for Christmas day, and then my husband is on vacation for the rest of the week. I'm looking forward to some relaxing and fun family time.

     For T day over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog this week I have a drink filled post. Last was a busy drink filled week.

    In the above photo you can see my beer and also my glass of water. This past Saturday we went to visit my mother-in-law at her memory-care assisted living, and it was a really tough visit. She's losing her conversation ability, and I'm not exactly certain she knew who we were; I actually should say she had lost her conversation ability that day. It was a huge decline from when we saw her at Thanksgiving last month.  Whether it was because she was  very tired or because of having a couple of incidents in the past few weeks I can't say.

   After our visit we went and had a pizza for lunch and decided a beer would taste good with it. 😏

   We also had my husband's office holiday get together one night at a brewery in a nearby town. The party was at the Garrison City Brewery which is a microbrewery, and for my beer I had a pale stout. It definitely tasted like a stout, but was pale in color which I found very interesting.

     I looked up how they make stout beer, and I found some interesting info. Stout originally meant brave but then it took on the connotation of strength, and because this beer has such a strong flavor, it is called stout. I read that technically any beer can be called a stout as long as it has a strong flavor, so that might explain why my pale stout is a stout. 

    Stout is made by heating the ferment, and it is dark only if you use black patent malt while making it (like they use when they make Guinness in Ireland). But you can get lighter stouts by not using the black patent malt. I also read that the distinction between a porter beer and a stout beer is only that stouts have a stronger taste, which is why porters and stouts are often together on menus or in writing about beer.

     We also did a Yankee Swap at my husband's party.  I don't know if the term Yankee Swap is universal, and often there are different "rules:, so let me explain the rules we used as I explain what a Yankee Swap is. Everyone who brought a gift picks a number and all the wrapped gifts are laid out on the floor or on a table. People go in order of their numbers and pick gifts. Then they open them and  they can either keep their gift or  they can switch gifts with anyone else who has already opened a gift.

     Since the first person has no one to switch gifts with they get to do their switch at the very end. The worst number to get is #2, because you only have the first person to switch with. That is what I had, but I liked my gift so I kept it, at least until  someone else who opened  their gift later did too and I lost it when they switched. However, my husband had the last number, so he switched what he got so I could get my gift back. There was a Starbucks gift card, which I will pass on because I never go to Starbucks, and there were some fun little rubber ducks.  My childlike self really liked the holiday rubber ducks in the bag

so now I am the owner of 6 holiday rubber ducks. 😏 Grin.

    Here's 4 of them.

Smile.

    I also went out to 2 holiday lunches with some friends last week. However I was so busy talking that I forgot to take any photos. 😒

I'll  continue my drink post with this photo I took while shopping. I've never seen bottles of milk marked just for Santa.

    Coming from a house where we drink a lot of milk (and I know not everyone does) it makes me wonder if there is niche for this product so that kids can leave Santa some cookies and milk on Christmas Eve. Or if this is just a ploy for getting you  to spend money on this holiday bottle. And if you aren't aware, the tradition here in the US and maybe elsewhere too is that you leave Santa a little snack when he delivers your gifts.

    And finally a cup of afternoon hot cocoa in my Grinch mug. One side is naughty

and the other side is nice.

I won't ask which one you are. Grin.

Time to wrap up my post. Let me wish everyone who stops by a wonderful holiday season.

and/or

 

Weekend Post

     Hi everyone. Happy weekend. It's very very cold at my house this morning. And there's wind, making it even chillier. They say it feels around 5 degrees F/ -15 degrees C. I think it's a good day to run the woodstove, sit besides it and read as well as running the oven to finish baking some cookies ❤

     Today I have a page for Sharon's Snow theme over at Art Journal Journey. I'm also linking up to Gillena's Sunday Smiles.  You can see the snow on the house image I used on my page.

     I covered my page with some printed architectural paper. The house is from a Stamperia chipboard set. There's other ephemera on my page like the old postage stamps, the TH girl and word box, an AALL and Create little puppy and old number sticker as well as some red fabric ric-rac trim along the bottom. I  stamped the postmarks around the old stamps.

   Not much else for today's post, so it's going to be a very short one. Have a super rest of your weekend and start to this holiday week.

 

Friday Again

  Hi everyone. Today is the last day of autumn,  unless of course you go by meteorological seasons and for that that autumn ended on November 30. It hasn't felt like autumn for several weeks at my house, although we still keep getting these warmer days thrown in-between the cold.  And this weekend is going to be very cold.

   Since it is Friday I am linking up today to Nicole's Friday Face Off and also to Gillena's Friday Lunch Break. Today I want to share the first Lego set I ever made. I made it just the other day, and I had a lot of fun doing it.

     I get Lego emails because my daughter and son-in-law are Lego fanatics, and a couple of times I have gotten them Legos  for Christmas. This year I got an email for a set that just screamed my husband. He's not a Lego fanatic, but he is talking about retiring later in 2025, so I thought I would splurge and get him this set for Christmas.  I thought it would be a good activity for him when he retires. (And if he wants to build  it sooner, then more power to him.)

    Anyhow, the hubby got the same email about the set and was telling me how nice it was, so I'm glad I ordered it for him.  This particular set was released on Black Friday, so I ordered it and received 3 free sets as their Black Friday special. One set goes with my husband's Christmas gift so he's getting that, one set looks like something my son-in-law would like so he's getting that, and the third free set was this holiday train. I decided I would keep it for myself and see if I enjoyed making it.

     I spent part of an afternoon making it, and I had such fun I think I need to start building Legos rather than making puzzles. The only problem(s) with that is Legos take up a lot of space once they are made and they are a lot pricier than puzzles. So we shall see about Legos in my future.

    And just a note, if you ever go to order directly from Lego when they release a new set, order early. That was the advice from my daughter when I had mentioned this set I bought my husband. She told me to order it as soon as I got up, because they sell out quickly.  I didn't even wait that long. When I got up in the night for a potty run, I ordered it on my phone. I am glad I did because by 7:30 in the morning, when I finally got onto the computer, it was already on back order.

     I think my little train looks great with my Snoop display. The 2 smaller pieces are hand-me downs from my daughter. She collects Snoopy village pieces and ended up being gifted some doubles. The big Snoopy and Woodstock are something I found at Costco a couple of years ago that I thought would work great with the little pieces.  And I like how they work with my train too.

     The Snoopy and Woodstock faces are my link up to Nicole's Friday Face Off.

     That's all for me today. For those you who I only visited on Friday's, have a wonderful holiday season, whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah. And I hope everyone has a great weekend.

   

   

Snowy Night

     Hi everyone. Happy middle of the week to you. I wrote this post yesterday, and I'm hoping this morning will be a more peaceful morning than yesterday was. We thought a battery in one of our household smoke detectors was beeping, but then when we did the battery replacement, we still had the beeping. Waking up to beeping and not being able to find the source is very annoying. 😒 Never mind it was scaring Mr. Pete. In fact, it wasn't the beeping that woke me up but the fact that he jumped into bed and was panting voraciously in fear. Maybe voraciously isn't quite the right word, but it reminded me of a dog scoffing down some food. His panting activity was shaking the bed so much that I knew something wasn't right. Turned out there was a carbon monoxide detector on the bureau in the spare bedroom that was beeping. No,(thankfully), we didn't have a carbon monoxide problem, but I don't know when or how the detector was put there. I didn't even know we had one there. Anyhow, I plugged the detector in, it gave one loud final beep, and then turned green for good to go and the noise stopped. That took about an hour of tracking down the beep. And about an hour later Pete finally stopped panting.  Now, it's kind of funny, but yesterday first thing in the morning before the sun even came up it wasn't such a good time. 

 Today I have an art journal page to share  for Sharon's Snow challenge over at Art Journal Journey.

    I started by using a very old set of swirl stamps from Autumn Leaves. Remember them? They've been out of business for a very long time. I used 2 stamps from this clear set and stamped them using blue ink. I then painted the bottom of my page white for snow  To finish off the background I used  some Dina Wakely blue paint spray.

    Once that dried,  I glued down this punch out tree image and also fussy cut out the owl. I stamped the postage mark ( from another very old stamp set) and also the quote, which I don't know who made it because it's another oldie. And to finish my page, I took some blue sequins and glued them down on my page.

    Last weekend we had some pretty chilly weather. Sunday my husband and I took a ride up to his Mom's house to check that everything was OK. There was ice on the pond, not thick enough to walk on, but it sparkled in the sunlight. 

     Even though we've had some wet weather as of late, we'd been in a drought all fall. You can tell because they let some of the water out of the dam in September (a normal thing they do every few years so they can do damn repairs and people can make waterfront repairs), and the water level still hasn't come all the way back up. I wonder when the ice goes out in the spring if that will bring the water level back up. I certainly hope it will.

     That's all for me. Have a great rest of your day.

T Stands for a Day Out with My Daughter

 Hi everyone. Happy T day to all the  people who stop by over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeths blog. And to everyone else, happy new week.

     Back on the 7th of this month, I spent  a really fun day in downtown Portsmouth (New Hampshire) with my daughter. She drove over for the day, and we met a local Park-'N-Ride. I drove us into town, and first we went out for a late breakfast, then we shopped (and window shopped) a bit, and finally we concluded our time out with an afternoon matinee theater performance.

    First brunch, which is also my ticket to T day this week. We both had the same thing, which was a popover stuffed with scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon and pan fried potatoes.  It was yummy. And you can see our waters. Even better, my daughter bought it. ❤

     I also ran into a former student who was working there, which was a real pleasure for me, and I think for him too. After a big hug we had a couple minutes to catch up. He was part of a group of kids I was particularly close to my last couple of years of teaching, and I've wondered what happened to them since I retired and they all left and went off into the big world.

And here are some photos while walking around town.

This view of my daughter glancing out of the parking garage window caught my eye, and below, the city's Christmas tree at Market Square. Plus you might notice the bear (grin) in the Santa hat out greeting people who strolled by.

Some festive views, and then this poor guy with the lampshade. 😬

Here's the first of 2 bookshops we visited. This one was new to me, but I would LOVE a space like this in my house. Especially with the leather lounger. 

Plus they sold used books, and what's better to browse through than shelves of books waiting for more attention and love? I broke down and had to buy a couple. 😏  This first bookstore even had a store cat who was wandering around while we shopped.

The second bookshop only sold new books,  but I like this arch that was in it.

And here's a few words of wisdom

Finally it's off to the theater.

    I knew the play would be good because the Ogunquit Playhouse puts on some amazing productions, but it was even better than I expected. It was 99% sold out, but I took this photo early before many people had sat down. It was a fun day out with the best company, my daughter. 

    That's all for me. Have a great T day and week ahead.

Weekend Post

   Hi everyone. I hope you're having a lovely weekend. It's been a  COLD couple of days with high temperatures around 28 degrees F (-2 degrees C) with a wind making it feel even colder. My husband went out Christmas shopping yesterday, so I took advantage of the quiet house and made some holiday cookies or the doughs and then chilled them. ❤

    Today I have some art to share, first a journal page for Sharon's Snow challenge Art Journal Journey and then some tags I made to put on my Christmas cards. I'll be linking the tags up to Pinky's Christmas challenge at Tag Tuesday

My dogs have always loved snow. In fact our last dog before Miss Maddie and Mr. Pete was Harley. He was a big German Shepard mix  who absolutely loved cold snowy weather. His ideal weather was when the temperature was bitter and there was snow on the ground and he would roll around and stretch out and even fall asleep. ❤

Harley was good boy, and I still miss him.

     My journal page today was made with blue watercolor paint and some white acrylic paint. I also die cut the dogs on white paper and inked them with some brown ink. The dog die also had a ball with it, but I made it white and sparkly to be snow balls. I also drew a pile of snowballs on the left. I used various stamps and black ink to add the words, and then I finished by splattering some white paint for a little more snowy effect.

    For Pinky's  Tag Tuesday challenge I have not one but 6 ornament tags. I had made a few earlier (and shared them for Try It on Tuesday), and then I decided they would be great for card fronts, so I made a second batch, using a few ornament dies I've had for the shapes. Here's that second batch.

     I used various items from my stash to decorate them, and the base for them all is some sparkle cardstock. I inked the edges and used some metallic and black  Sharpie markers to finish decorating them.

     I'm also linking up to Gillena's Sunday Smiles.

    That's all for me today. I hope your weekend is going well and that you had a great start to the new week ahead. 

      

 

It's Friday-the 13th!

     Hi everyone. Some of you might have seen this post since I accidentally forgot to change the date when I scheduled it on Wednesday.  😦 Anyhow I deleted it once I figured it out, and here it is again for those of you who didn't see it.

    It's Friday once again. I hope you had a good week. At my house it had been snowy and rainy with lots of grey weather until yesterday/Thursday. Finally we had some sun. ❤ Not the most exciting week, but here's a few random photos I snapped during it. Since it's Friday, I am linking up to Nicole's Friday Face Off and also to  Gillena's Friday Lunch Break. 

Here's the wreath on my house, and below, the winter wonderland view as I drove towards the coast back on Tuesday. Wednesday's rain got rid of all that snow. Of course there was NO snow at the coast even to start with.

Since it was grey and damp but with fresh snow at home it's not easy to walk on my road, so the dogs and I took a beach walk after a doctor's appointment. Not that the beach was any less grey or damp.

At the beach entrance someone put up a little tree.

And various people added some decorations. I love how many of them are dog related.

Back home, one of my rose bushes had a lot of ice on it.

This "Red sky in morning, Sailors take warning" sky says we’re suppose to have some not so good weather. Yes, it snowed that afternoon and evening on the day I snapped this photo.

And ha ha. This guy has figured out how to jump off the deck onto the bird feeder since he can't get around the baffle. 

I saw this pop of red under my rosebush when looking out the window, and there was the cardinal. A lot of the birds really like tucking into this bush. They must not feel the thorns.

Now most of the snow is gone, but it still looks a lot like winter. You can see the remains of the dog trail my husband snow blows for the dogs.

And here's my face for this week. Sometimes when Mr. Pete really falls asleep he sticks out his tongue.  What a nut.

But he always looks so comfortable.

That's all for me. I hope you have a wonderful start to your weekend.

 

There's a Moose at the Window

 Hi everyone. Happy mid-week to you.

    Today I have a journal page that you might consider a bit messy (because I do), but I still like it, especially if you don't look too closely at the painted edge.😏 And no, there was no real moose at my window, however on an occasion I do get a moose walking through my yard.

    I started my page with a scrap of holiday wrapping paper left from last year and that was in my stash. I glued it down and then used white paint around the border to blend it into my page

    I then die cut the window frame and the curtains (a Cheery Lynn/Maker's Movement die set). I used a pen to outline the curtains for some depth. I stamped the moose twice, once directly on my page (but that didn't work well with the bump from the die-cut, so I stamped and then fussy cut him out. I also added a bit of glossy accents into the window pains, which you can actually see. The window curtains are made with a scrap of lace and small piece of ribbon. Both the let is snow quote and the snow fun at the top are from a really really old set of stamps. Remember the company My Sentiments Exactly?  I did outline the bottom "let it snow" phrase, and I punched out a scalloped circle and stamped the image in it.

   There you have it. I hope you're having a good week. We've had some dreary wet and snowy weather weather so far, but today it's all rain. I'll be glad to see some sun (hopefully) tomorrow especially since I have walking plans.  I hope you've had some lovely weather and enjoy your day. 

Last New Challenge at Try It On Tuesday for 2024

Hi everyone. Happy Tuesday. It's time for our last new challenge for 2024 at Try It On Tuesday.

    Before I get to that let me thank everyone who joined our Traditional Christmas  challenge. There were so  many great holiday cards and other  art pieces too. I definitely got a few ideas for some holiday art by looking through all the pieces for that challenge. ❤I also want to thank Diny who was our guest designer. 

For our final 2024 challenge we've picked another holiday theme

Santa Claus is Coming to Town  

     For my entry I made a journal page using a Santa die I found on an after Christmas holiday markdown a few years back but had never used. It's a big one and it just about fit across the 8 inch width of my page.

     I started by watercolor painting my background with some light blue paint. Then I used green paint and a mountain stencil. After the green mountains  dried I added some white paint, not to cover them up completely but to show that there was a light dusting of snow. I used markers to color in Santa, the kids, the bunny and the other parts of my die cut.  Then I attached it to my page and  added a few pen details to it. I  painted the bottom of my page white.

     I painted in the sun, added the die cut birds and also the die cut "Merry Christmas". Finally I used some peppermint style shaker card embellishments to finish off my page.

     Don't forget to check out the design team's take on this challenge too for some wonderful ideas. They are talented ladies with some wonderful ideas.

     Just so you know, here's a few dates for you regarding our Try It On Tuesday holiday schedule.  Our next new challenge will be on January 7, but be sure to stop back to see if you made our spotlight, which we'll be sharing on December 31. And of course stop by next week to check out our top 5 for our Traditional Christmas challenge.

    I know this is early, but for those of you who I only visited from here at Try It On Tuesday, have a happy holiday and wonderful start to the new year,  (For everyone else, I'll still be posting during December.)

I'm also linking up this challenge to Sharon's Snow theme at Art Journal Journey.

 

T Stands for Getting Ready for the Holiday

     Hi everyone. Happy new week to you. It's time for T again over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog, and this week, I don't have any trip photos for you. That may be good or bad, depending on whether you enjoyed the trip photos or not, but I do have some getting ready for the holiday photos instead.

     Since it is  time for T day, I also have a drink in this post too. 😏 But first, we've had a couple of small snow events in the last couple of weeks. 

     There's been enough snow to shovel more than once. Welcome winter. 

     But the weekend before it snowed we went and cut our Christmas tree at the Christmas tree farm on the other side of our town. The yellow sled next to my husband, if you're wondering, is for pulling out the tree.

     It was a busy morning when we went. You can see the line of people waiting to get their trees "wrapped" in twine for easier moving. Besides getting our tree, on the drive home we get the pleasure of this pretty panoramic view, which never photographs as well as it really looks.

     It took me a few days to get the tree decorated, but it is up and now in its finery. 

    But ha-ha- for some reason we couldn't get it to stay straight in it's stand, so we have some fishing line guide wires holding it in place. 😏

    We have an assortment of ornaments that go back to some my parents' had, one I made in kindergarten and various ones the hubby and I have collected over the years including some my daughter made back in her childhood. It's always fun to put them out, and they bring back some good memories.

   After we cut our tree we went out to our local hole-in-the-wall breakfast place and had a good breakfast. Most mornings  at home I have a very unexciting protein shake for breakfast, but I love pancakes with fruit so I often have that when I go out for breakfast. This time I had blueberry pancakes with a side of sausage. It was actually more like brunch or lunch because we didn't eat until it was after 11:30 in the morning.

    For my drink you can see my water as well as the remains of a mug of hot chocolate I had while I waited for my food. I figured if I was going to have pancakes why not go all out and have hot cocoa too. 😏 

     And I'll finish my post with a couple of other views of my decorated house for those of you who enjoy those types of things.

Have a great T day and week ahead.