T Stands for Going on an Owl Hunt-Again

    Hi everyone. Happy new week to you. and to those of you who stop by Altered Book Lover Blog   (Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog)  for T day, happy T day to you.

  You might remember that a few weeks ago  I published a post about going birding. I saw 2 owls that day. One of the owls I saw that day was  a Long Eared Owl (Asio otus), but I could only see  the top and  back  of his/her head as well as hi/her ears.  I've been wanting to go back to where these owls have been hanging out, mainly  because I wanted to see if I could see more of an owl. These birds will soon be heading north to their summer home, so if I was going to go, I needed to make sooner rather than later.

  Here's that birding T day post from earlier this month that I mentioned, if you're interested: T Stands for Happy Birdday and BeeDay.

 I headed out one day last week on my search. It ended up being not the greatest birding day but also  a great birding day. The sky had a lot of high cirrus clouds which made it one of those not sunny but slightly bright days. It was also cold, just around freezing with a light breeze.

   I walked a couple of short trails by myself to see if there was any sign of the Norther Harrier (nope) or any other birds. Mainly I saw a few ducks, which isn't a bad thing.

   These ducks below are  Lesser Scaups. (Or so I believe as I am not familiar with very many duck species.)

And as always, you can find mallards.

   I had the dogs with me, and I took them for a short walk on the dune trail. They appreciated the walk.

    You can't see Maddie because being blind she needs to be leashed and was near me. However Pete is awesome off leash, and since there was no one around,  he just walked along with us.

   I did get this nice photo of a mockingbird who was sitting on a fence near where my car was parked.

   After my little walks I drove  back towards the exit. I saw lots of orange cones in a parking lot, and  at the cones I saw some people with their tri-pods and cameras. Oh boy, the long eared owl must be in view.

   And he (or maybe she) was. ❤

   He's very handsome, isn't he?  

  After spending some time with this group of birders, (and they were really nice people too-especially compared to one birder I met on my last trip), I needed lunch.  I was over an hour away from home, too far to wait, so on the way home I stopped at MacDonald's, which is NOT my favorite place to eat, but it does work for a quick burger. Well 2 burgers, one for me and one to split between the dogs. And the only good thing they serve at McDonald's is a large Diet Coke on ice. I like it better when they use the waxed coated paper cups, which some MacDonald's do, but this one didn't, sadly.  I know some of you are going to comment on the plastic cups, but in my defense,  I didn't know which cup they would use when I went through the drive through, and I do enjoy a diet coke on ice to go.

    That large Diet Coke kept me going all the rest of the afternoon, and I actually refilled the cup at home  again the next afternoon. Although you can't see any dink in this cup, here's my drink for T day this week. 

   And ha ha. The next morning I was out driving to meet some friends to go walking, and as I passed a farm, I had to stop because these guinea hens were not only in the road, but after I stopped so I wouldn't run over them, they thought they might like to come greet me. They all walked over towards my car. 👀

    Five minutes later these guinea hens decided to head off to the side. I guess they figured I wasn't getting out of the car to feed them. 😉

     Have a super T day everyone, and have a great week ahead also. 

Sunday

 Hi everyone. I hope you're having a nice weekend. Our weather hasn't been the most spring-like, more like   typical New Hampshire early spring. There's some nasty wintery weather potential in today's and tomorrow's forecast. AUGH!!!

  A few weeks back I finished knitting the sweater I've been working  on that I started in late winter 2024.  It's made with heavy Icelandic yarn in the Icelandic style, so when the weather warms up, I put it away  because it's too hot to knit with that wool then.  

   I'm going to share it today  for Nicole's Sunday in the Art Room, also known as sitar. And since it makes me happy, I'm also linking up to Gillena's Sunday Smiles.

    You'll have to excuse my photos because I was trying to find a good place to photograph the sweater.  I ended up laying it out on the rug on the landing that goes upstairs. I can't try it on and show me modeling it because I still need to do some hand stitching on it. Not only do I have some loose threads to weave in, but when you knit these sweaters you need to hand stitch up a hole that forms under each armpit. You can see I have some stitch holders in each armpit to keep me from losing the unknit stitches which, if  those stitches came out, would unravel that part of the sweater.

  I'm really happy with the colors, and I like the pattern I created for the yoke. I messed up the pattern that was in the knitting book (that I was using) right at the beginning of making the yoke, so I just decided to do my own design. I like it much better than the pattern that was in the knitting book. 👍

  That's all for me today. I hope you are having a great weekend, and that you also have a wonderful start to the new week. 

A Visit to the Garden Center

   Hi everyone. Happy Friday to you. It is almost the weekend.  And it is now officially spring, no matter whether you look at it astrologically or meteorologically. 💮☔🪺

  Today I am joining Nicole for her Friday Face Off and also Gillena for her Friday Lunch Break.   My post today is about a visit to a huge garden center that's in my area and that also stays open year round. Since they are located only a couple of miles away from where I dropped my sewing machine off for a cleaning, I didn't need much arm twisting to go by for (depending how you look at it) a very late winter or very early spring visit. 😉

    This place just makes me happy. Besides all the plants, they sell planting pots galore. The way they arrange them by color really appeals to my artistic sense.

    I have a couple of these small blue owl pots, and I'm thinking about getting a couple of the large ones. I have some dahlia bulbs that for the past couple of years I've planted in those cloth planting bags. The bags work great, but they aren't the prettiest. This year it's time to get a couple of big pots for them. I'm not certain what I want, but these owls are definitely on my list.

   And if you wonder why my dahlia's go into pots, it's because when I have to dig up the bulbs  in the fall I can find them easily. 😉

    This is one of the biggest ferns I have ever seen. I'm not sure if you can make out the height from the bar where it is hanging down to those people, but those fronds are several feet or well over a meter long.

My husband was with me, and he pointed out this water function to me. It is really cool.

And here's a face for Friday Face off. 

And can you find the face in this display. 

   I know not everyone likes to garden, but can you tell that I'm ready for garden season  to begin? Big grin.

  That's all for me today. I hope everyone has a great rest of your Friday and start to your weekend. And I seemed to have forgotten so I'll add in a Happy Spring to you also.

   

Everyone Likes Flowers, Right?

    Hi everyone. Happy Thursday to you.  Slowly spring is coming. We're back into some chilly chilly temps at night way below freezing. Brrr.  But at least the ground is about 85-90% snow free. And today we have no inclement weather in the forecast either. 👍

   Today I have a spring journal page  for Chris's challenge at Art Journal Journey. I am also linking up to challenge #124 at Creative Artiste Mixed Media challenge blog since I have used more than 3 types of media on my page.

   My page started with me using up some left over blue and green paints. It really was just a wipe off my brush page but it had potential. To pull it together I took a brick stencil and some white gesso.

   The actual flowers are from a punch out set of images from Art by Marlene. I arranged them, glued them down and then used 2 different green paint pens to make the stems and leaves. To enhance the flowers I took some yellow daisy cloth trim and clipped the daisies into separate pieces. I glued a daisy down in the center of each flower and then added a small confetti piece.

   I also had a die cut on my work table that I hadn't used. It's the shape of a card you'd wrap threads or yarn around. I didn't wrap anything around to but I outlined the edges with a white paint pen. Then I inked those edges with a blue ink pad  similar  in color to some of the blue on the background.

   I stamped the butterflies and quote. I also added a a bit of black and white color to the butterflies to make them stand out more. 

 If you stop by frequently you might have seen the photos of my jar of tulips. Sadly they never bloom very long, but even as the blooms start to go, I think they look pretty cool. They also make great photo fodder. Here's a few more recent photos I have taken of them.

And if I brighten up the photos a bit, here's what I get.

Have a wonderful Thursday and (if your an occasional visitor) have a great rest of the week.

Spring

    Hi everyone. It's Tuesday, and time for another new challenge at Try It on Tuesday.  It's also St. Patrick's Day, which even though I don't celebrate that holiday, is a big holiday in my area. 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀 

    Let me thank everyone who joined our Make It Feminine challenge. There were some lovely link ups, and I was glad to see such a variety too. This time our new challenge is  SPRING. 

    This bunny is sure "hoppy" spring is coming (or maybe has arrived in your area), and I think he is dreaming about all the clovers he might be able to find and eat. Grin.

  To make my background I used a clover stencil and some green stencil paste. I only had this brownish green stencil paste, so after that dried, I took the same stencil and a green watercolor marker to make some brighter green clovers. Then I inked my page with some light green ink, which made the watercolor green clovers get a bit fuzzy looking. I liked that effect, so I decided to continue with my page as it was.

   The bunnies are from a Paper Artsy set designed by Elenazinski. I stamped him 3 times on white paper, colored those bunnies in, and then fussy cut them. I glued them down on my page. I added little green clover confetti pieces below the feet of each image, and then I used the hoppy word stamp  several times as well as  a spring word stamp to finish the quote. (And sorry, I can't remember who made the set with the hoppy stamp. I think it's from an old Paper Smooches set.)

  Be sure to check out the other spring ideas from the design team.  There's so many ways you can represent spring, isn't there?

   As always our challenge runs for the next 2 weeks and at Try It on Tuesday you can link up any type of art.

  I'm also linking  my journal page up to Chris' Spring challenge at Art Journal Journey. Please remember we only accept art journaling at AJJ.

  I'm so ready for spring after a tough winter so I am looking forward to seeing some spring art. I hope you include yours. And if you celebrate St. Patrick's Day, make it a great green day. I hope to see  you over at  the Try It on Tuesday website. 

T Stands for Some Baking and Other Things

     Hi everyone. Happy new week to you, and to those of you who stop by  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog  blog, Happy T day to you.

    Last week we had a lot of snow melt (and sadly even had a bit of new snow),  although we are not down to bare ground yet.  My yard always seems to be the last place to lose snow, but we have lost much of what we had. I'd show you a photo of my back yard, but where there is  bare ground is now a field of what had been frozen dog poops, so I will spare you that view. 😱  However, the side yard where my veggie garden is pop free and doesn't look so disgusting.  Here's the view Friday. Saturday we woke up to a little new snow that luckily was all melted by evening, and now today/Monday, we're getting a lot of rain.  You can see how spring is going in my area.

   Since  my garden brain has been turned back on,  I ordered myself a new raised garden bed because I have room for one more in this area. I also need to go get some seeds because in a few weeks the nights should be warm enough that I can start some seeds in the greenhouse. 

   Last week besides a beach walk and lunch with some friends (both which I forgot to take any photos of), I was in a baking mood. One thing I tried my hand at was making foccaia. It turned out great and I ate too much of it. 😏 I was able to cut this loaf in half and freeze half of it for later.

    I used garlic oil (olive oil with garlic) and also some fresh rosemary that I clipped off my plant. I would have put on more rosemary but my plant isn't very large. However, the good news is my rosemary plant made it through this winter on my kitchen counter better than it did last winter by the sliding door.

   I also made some sourdough pizza one night. I also forgot to take a photo of that too. 😒 I usually make pizza once every week or two,  but recently I haven't made one for probably close to a month.

    I am also loving the sour dough discard muffin recipe I have found. (You can find it here from when I posted it a few weeks ago.) Last week I made another batch this time with 2 chopped up bananas and a few chocolate chips.  A couple of weeks ago I made another batch with blueberries.  I freeze all these once I make them because that way I can have one for lunch, breakfast or even an afternoon snack when the mood strikes.

    And if you're wondering why they are flipped in all directions it's because I use a plastic knife and loosen them when they first come out of the oven as they are less likely to stick to the pan while they cool. (Even though I grease the pan.)

   For T day I need a drink. I kept forgetting to take a drink photo.  😒However, last weekend when I visited my daughter we split a can of seltzer water  and I can show you the mugs we used. The Universal Orlando one was my mug, and I chose it because I bought it for her when I went to Harry Potter World a couple of years ago. The other mug is a Disney World mug she had bought when she visited once. 

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

Sunday in the Art Room- A New Fabric Book

   

  Hi everyone.  Happy Sunday. I hope you're having a lovely weekend. We were back in the snow again yesterday for a little bit. 😩 Not  a dumping, but enough to look like winter again. 

   Today I’m joining Gillena's Sunday Smiles  and Nicole's  Sunday in the Art Room  also known as SITAR .

   I finally finished going through my bookshelves, and probably one of the most inspiring things about doing that chore (besides finding a few books I want to reread and even a couple that got lost in the shuffle that I haven't read) is having gone through some of my previously made cloth journals. Now I'm inspired to get back to making a new  one and also to finish one I started over a year ago and then put aside.

   To get to that unfinished journal and to dig out supplies for another journal idea I've had, I needed to clean a  few bins that I had  stashed under my sewing machine table.  Well it was another spring cleaning job that needed to be done, and that one didn't take much more than an hour to do. 👍

   Today let me show you the partially finished cloth journal. This journal is being made on some 6x6 inch (15x15 cm) pieces of felt.  The theme is old linens and lace.  I’ve  collected some assorted  pieces of old linens and lace over several  years.   Some of these textiles were given to me and are  old, stained, or torn linens.   I  like being able to give parts of these pieces  more life in a new form. 

  Some of these pieces are old crochet doilies that I've picked up here and there. One place that I used to be able to get a lot of these types of textiles was a fair that  helped support the local hospital. I could find many inexpensive pieces because a lot of people from a generation or two ago would have had them, and now they really aren't the style so they were donated.  However sadly since Covid they no longer run this fair, but I can still find things with some looking.  Luckily I have enough to finish this project and probably even do a few more. 

   I'm using neutral colors in this cloth journal. Even though I have some peach, blue and bright yellow linens and lace, they'll have to wait for another more colorful project.

  Here's a piece (above) of an old quilt and a lace flower. I had a couple of these epoxy cameos and I added one to this page. And this next page (below) also used some scraps of old layered material  as well as a square of white burlap. 

  (above)  I hand stitched some old tan fabric pieces on, as well as this handmade button cover. I sewed it on in reverse because I liked the pulled detail. Usually that pulled detail would be on the bottom.

  Lace on lace on lace for this page (above photo).

     And above, I hand stitched this small lace coaster sized doily onto the felt directly. Then I hand stitched on some beads and some seed pearls.

  I'd sewn down some lace on this next piece, but that's as far as I finished when I picked up and put away the project . 

  I was playing around with this piece the other day, and I like this next view. It isn't sewn together yet though.  My sewing machine has gone in for a good cleaning/overhaul which is needed. (And for those who ask, I do clean my machine, but with a bunch of electronics,  there's certain things I cannot do.) I could hand stitch it, but I think I want the big cloth circle machine stitched.

Here's another idea I had for a second white felt piece.

     And here's me playing around with some ideas for some lace stitched onto black felt. I'm not sure what I'll end up doing with this page.

   I'm also not sure how I'll bring these all together, but that's part of the fun of this kind of project.

  That's all  for me. I'll share more of this when I get more completed. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up my sewing machine next weekend. Have a super rest of your weekend and start to the new week.

  

 

Bunnies in the Rose Garden

    Hi everyone. Happy Saturday. Today I thought I'd share another art page for Chris' Spring Forward challenge at Art Journal Journey.

   This page isn't a very complex one because in the homemade journal I'm working in I had inserted this piece of bunny paper as one of the pages.

    Sometimes printed papers are hard to work with, but I decided to add some more white bunnies. I really liked this background paper and didn't want to take away from it all. I stamped these bunnies with an old Impression Obsession set and then fussy cut them. To make a place for them on the page I cut this small framed rose image out of a sheet of printed paper. I added the bunnies, and then I stamped the rabbit phrase.

   And that's all there is to this page.

  And to wrap up this post, let me share a few more photos of my very spring pink tulips. They definitely make me happy. And they are really opening up now.

Have a great start to your weekend.