It's Thursday

    Hi everyone. Happy Thursday. We have some rain arriving today, but otherwise it's been a gorgeous weather week so far. 

     I'll start today's post with another journal page for Matilde's Houses and Buildings challenge at Art Journal Journey.

   This page is in my Dina Wakely ledger journal, so all the writing in the background was already there. I started by taking a stencil that had some wet stencil paste on it and cleaning it off with a wet baby-wipe onto my page. Once dry, I did a bit of fussy cutting. I also used some stickers (from Stamperia and Ciao Bella) and punch out images. Before I added the old VW onto the page, I used black paint to make the road. I decided not to add any road markings to it because 1) it would make the page too busy and 2) because of the car you can tell what it is. 

   After I arranged the main images, I added a couple of fake paper postage stamps (49 and Market) as well as a 49 and Market pre-printed tag. I added the string to the left side. I also stamped some postmarks using stamps I have in my stash.

  I also have a tag today for Lynn's Add Some Text challenge over at Tag Along (and ATCs too).

   I started with this wine colored paper that had the white writing all over it. I cut it with an AALL & Create die. In the same die set was the one for the backing layer. I cut this sheet out of tag stock and then I stamped a bit of writing on it using that backing page from an old set by Oxford Impressions (a long defunct company).   To finish off my tag I added an acetate image from 49 and Market,  a gold paper butterfly image, and another AALL & Create die cut.

   I outlined the edges of both background layers with a black pen. I added a bit for bling to butterfly. I stamped the word wings (a very old mounted stamp with no maker on it),  and I finally added these pink beads to the front. 

   And  to wrap up this post in case you aren't a paper art enthusiast, on one of my travels, when I went walking  on the road to my mother-in-law's house, I saw some cool shadows.

    You can see Mr. Pete was with me. Miss Maddie was spending the day at the vet having a glucose curve done to be sure her insulin levels hadn't changed for her diabetes.

    That's all for me today. Hope your week is going well. 

Garden Colors in June

    Hi everyone. Happy Wednesday. Hope your week is going well so far. 

    Last week I took another trip to my local botanical garden to see what was in bloom. Actually the whole place seemed to be in bloom.  There can never be a blossom overload, but this visit  was definitely getting close to maximum flower power.

    

   And next time I visit, all these fleeting  beauties will be replaced with other blooms.

   Have a great rest of your day.

T Stands for Muddy Road

    Hi everyone. Happy new week to you. And Happy T day to everyone who stops by Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog blog.

    Last week was plain hot and humid at my house. Too hot and humid for much yard work other than watering the plants, but this week is going to be less humid so I'm hoping to get some much needed wedding done. 👍 My husband also got the plumbing fixed for our leaky shower drain, so now I can pick up my laundry area in the basement and put down the new mat I shared a couple of weeks ago for T day. 👍

    Some of you asked if I was showing photos from the fort and from my trip to Boston today for T.  I will, but I don't have any drinks left in them, so I will  share those photos Friday for Nicole's Friday Face Off because I do have face photos to share.

    Last week one day I went to visit my friend Vicky, and she made us  a beautiful lunch. She asked if I minded if her husband joined us, and I said I didn't mind at all. I've known them both for almost 30 years because we met when our daughters (both named Katie) were in elementary school.  The three of us ended up sitting on her screen porch eating and chatting about a huge variety of subjects for 5 hours. And I was really bad because I didn't get even 1 photo.

   One of the things we talked about was how there is a brewery-pizza  place out in the woods further down on my road and how none of us have ever been there. Now my road is a gravel/dirt road that the town maintains but because it is gravel it isn't always in the best of conditions. This is especially true in the spring when it is MUD!  (As you can see in this photo I took back in March.)

   Anyhow, the name of this brewery is Muddy Road which is appropriate. And the 2 people who run it are very friendly, and they recognize me (not so much my husband) because sometimes when they drive down the road I am out walking the dogs. I guess I am the dog walking lady. 😉

  My friend Vicky and her husband Bob asked if we wanted to meet at Muddy Road  on Saturday evening because like us, they had never been there. Yes, we definitely did.

    I didn't get tons of photos because once again we were too busy chatting (this time for only 2 hours because the brewery closes at 8). You could sit inside or outside at picnic tables, and there were 2 guys outdoors playing some good music. You could also order a pizza (they didn't serve any other food), which we had with our beers.

    And their pizza was delicious!

   I've had this beer before (mine is called Huckamore Brown) because the little local store in town sells it, but I think it was even better in the company of 2 good friends, my husband, a beautiful summery evening, some tunes and good pizza too. 

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

   

   

  

  

   

Sunday in the Art Room

    Hi everyone. Happy Sunday.  It's already Sunday, and it was just last Monday. Did Tuesday through Saturday get kicked off the calendar? 😉

   Today I have a journal page for Matilde's Houses and Building challenge at Art Journal Journey and also for Creative Artiste Mixed Media Blog and their challenge #127.  I'm also joining Nicole for her Sunday in the Art Room and Gillena for her Sunday Smiles .Sunday

   I'm happy with how my page for today came out, and I really like the way I created a hill going up with actually having to draw one on my page.

  I started with a page in my ledger journal and used some green-yellowish paint over the whole background. Then I used some pink paint and an Impression Obsession background stamp in parts of that background. I then took some purple paint and sponged it on randomly. I finished my background by using a handwriting stamp and added some handwriting in a dark brown.

   I then stamped the 2 house images and fussy cut them. I decided to leave them white so the the other colors on the page would pop more, and I also layered them.  I then used a punch out (from 49 and Market) of a strip of flowers along the bottom to anchor the houses and to create the hill. in the front of the houses I also added a fussy cut potted shrub (cut from a  sheet of paper) and a punch out bird. I stamped the quote at the bottom.

   I finished the page by painting some clouds above the house with white acrylic paint. I then outlined them with a black Stabilo pencils and used a wet brush to smudge the pencil.

   Last year I planted some chamomile seeds into a pot. We  had seen a lot of wild chamomile while driving around Greece in 2024, and when I saw this seed packet, it immediately brought me back to that adventure.

  This year this chamomile has come back with a vengeance.  Not only are they growing in the pot, but they've filled in the area around the pot too.

    

   I hope the whole area fills up the chamomile because they make me happy. And this is one spot we struggle to get grass  or just about anything to grow.

    And one thing I've observed this year is that when it rains or in the dewy evening, all the flowers move their petals downward. 

   And then, when the sun comes back out, they flip them upward. 

    Sometimes nature surprises me and creates beautiful gardens without me having to do any work to get there. Now I just need to figure out how to make chamomile tea. 👍

   Have a super rest of your Sunday and start to the new week.

   

Some Random Assorted Face Photos

    Hi everyone. Happy Friday. Today I'm joining Gillena for her Friday Lunch Break and Nicole for her Friday Face Off.

   As you might already know, a couple of weeks ago my husband and I spent the day in Boston with my daughter and her husband. I had lots of fun that day, and I had a blast  with my camera and all the photo subjects I came across. You may have seen some of the photos from that day in earlier posts. Today I have other random photos from our day with several faces to share.

   OK, and I have some flowers too. There were flowers all over the city. This flower display in front of a restaurant were all living plants.  Aren't they beautiful?

The face is some man on his phone.

A nod to history on the sign facing me as I walked down the sidewalk

This display isn't quite as lovely (to me at least-I would have gotten rid of the pussy willow branches) but still, all made of  beautiful living flowers.

The face of this building also had lots of flowers. I don't believe the flowers above the awning were  alive.

These were not all alive, but still looked lovely on the fence.

Another nod to history.

The face of this gate is quite lovely.

Need I say anymore?  I just watched a series on Netflix about George Washington, and he would definitely approve of the T shirt with his face on it.

A metal bird face

My son-in-law, my husband, and even a smiley face

Those window faces have some cool coverings

Lots of faces in the crowd, and a fun sign post

The face on a building

Lots of pansy faces

And finally

my husband  having fun at a statue. 

Have a great Friday and start to your weekend.