Time for a New Challenge

   Hi everyone.  It's Tuesday, and it's been 2 weeks, so that means it's time for a new challenge at Try It on Tuesday.

   Thank you to everyone who joined our Halloween challenge. It was so much fun seeing what everyone made. I love how some of you went spooky; some of you went sweet; and some are just plain fun.

   For our new challenge, I made a tag. This time our challenge is MAKE IT MAGICAL. 

  There's so many ways to go with the new topic. Think fairies, magicians, Christmas, new babies...and I'm sure you can think of so many of magical moments in life. If you can't, the design team has some great ideas for you. Be sure to check them out.

   I still had all my Halloween craft supplies out, and since I was working on a Halloween journal, I decided to go with a fun Halloween themed tag. Plus,  the background is made with stickers from a Harry Potter sticker book that I don't get to use very often. 😏👍❤

   I started by inking  my tag and then adding some of these Harry Potter potion stickers. The white centerpiece, the one that says "spells and charms", was the last sticker I added after the tag was finished.  I had a set of playful AALL& Create Halloween images, so I pulled out some of the potions. Then I fussy cut the cauldron from a sheet of printed paper. The skeleton behind the cauldron  was an extra one on my work table. He came from some Creative Expression dies I had been using. I left him plain except to color his hat and darken in his eyes.

   I glued down the top half of Mr. Skeleton and put the cauldron image over the space where I snipped off his legs. Then I glued down the potion bottles.  I cut some place trim using an ancient Cheery Lynn die and glued it along the bottom. Then I added some orange glitter glue to the cauldron, used a black Sharpie to color in Mr. Skeleton's eyes, and finally finished by adding the last sticker to my tag.

   Don't forget we accept any art forms that relate to our challenge. And as always. this challenge runs for the next 2 weeks. I hope you'll join us. 

  

T Stands for I'm Obsessed with Changing Leaves

 Hi everyone. Happy new week to you. And a big hello to those of you who stop by  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog for our weekly T Day meet up.

  Last week was a beautiful week  weather-wise. I managed to get out for a few walks and enjoy the weather. One day I could even sit out on my back deck and read for an hour while I had my lunch. I could have stayed longer, but I had a PT appointment. The thing about this time of year is you know what's coming next so you have to enjoy every warm and beautiful day there is.

 As the title of this post says, I have been obsessed by the leaf colors and other views this autumn.   They have been pretty amazing. And I know this is week 3 of my T Day posts with autumn photos, but  (sorry) I just can't help myself. 😉😈😀

Here's a few photos from one morning I took the dogs out walking.

    I thought this leaf was quite strange.  When I looked it up I discovered it was most likely caused by uneven chlorophyll reabsorption.

    Tom once mentioned what these black spots on the leaves are. I now know it's called  Tar Spot fungus, and I'm glad I now know what it is.  Thanks Tom.

When these leaves fall they look almost creepy. 

    This grass plant in this next photo almost looks like the seed tops are made of glass, at least in the sunlight.

  These next 3 views are facing east at sunset one night. It's looking down on the side yard of my house. In this next photo you can see my 2 beehives down there if you look carefully.

   And here's 2 views while standing in my driveway on a sunny day.

   And for my last 2 photos, this first one is the Dover (NH) rail trail where I went walking with some friends last Thursday, and 

afterwards my friend Deb and I went out for lunch at a small local chain called Tuckers. They close at 2, but serve breakfast all day. We both opted for pumpkin pancakes with water to drink. Those pancakes were to-die for delicious.  They were served with real local maple syrup, real whipped cream and in house made maple butter. Tucker's business model is to use as much locally produced food as possible.

   And yes, I was scarfing them down so far I almost forgot to snap a photo for T Day. 😉

   We also ran into one of our former school principals and the former school system director of the arts. They are both retired too, and it was great to say hello to them.

   And for those interested, last week I spoke to the orthopedic doctor about my shoulder and the MRI results. I asked so many questions she referred me to the surgeon. I ended up meeting with him, and I must say, I was very pleased with the results. The tear in my muscle-tendon area is an internal tear, not on the edge, so that should heal up nicely in another 3-6 months without doing anything. I still have some inflammation, and he recommended I come back and get a cortisol shot next month if its still bugging me. And I can stop PT, as long as I continue with my exercises  until the inflammation discomfort goes away.  Overall, it was good news!

   That's enough for me today. Wishing everyone a happy T day and week ahead.

   

Maud Lewis Part 2

   Hi everyone. Happy second half of the weekend to you. I hope yours is going well.

    Today I am joining Nicole for SITAR (Sunday in the Art Room) and also Gillena at Sunday Smiles. In this post I'm heading back to the Nova Scotia Art Museum in Halifax to share some more of the Maud Lewis artwork. Today I have some paintings to share. (And please excuse some of the photos for being a bit off center. It's tough to take photos in a museum between lighting and also since I am short, I am often shooting up.)

   Many of you asked me or brought up the film about Maud Lewis. Yes, I have seen it. The film is called Maudie, and it is from 2016. It stars Sally Hawkins as Maud and Ethan Hawke as Lewis. I'm not sure where you can view this online, but it is worth watching  if you have access as it is very well done. Plus you learn a lot about Maud Lewis too. 

 If you missed last week's view of her home,  you can see it here.

 One thing Maud seemed to love to paint was oxen.

   I didn't know this about Maud's husband Everett. But I love how it added to the story.

   You can tell right off the bat that Maud did not paint this next one. I think it's interesting how we all have our own style, even when we try to copy someone else's.  Maud's husband Everett did a great job with the oxen, and I wonder if perhaps Maud had painted those. I think they feel different from the rest of the piece. I'm glad the exhibit shared some pieces of Everett's too. 

  I think my favorite bovine (this time a cow) painting (at the museum) is this one. Ignore the light reflection in the side of the oxen that looks like 3 squares. 

   I love how when you look up close at the people's faces the details aren't clear, but in the big finished piece, you don't notice that. 

  I'll finish today's post with this gallery view.

   Since this post is getting long, next Sunday I'll finish up the Maud Lewis art.

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

Skeletons

   Hi everyone. Where the heck is October going to? It's already the 23rd. Only 1 more week and we'll be into November. OK, I am NOT going to rush that but...tick tock....tick tock...

   Time went by too fast for all the skeletons I have in today's post too. After all, they are all now just bones. Ha ha! 😉

   I am joining Nicole for her Friday Face Off and Gillena for her Friday Lunch Break.  I have a few photos today.  I'll start with some neighbors down the road from me who like to set up skeleton scenes every October. They change the scenes ever week. One week they had the Scottish World Cup fans when they were in the US for game. I never got a photo of that one. 😟

   I loved last week's though. They got the expressions on the skeletons just right.

   This week I think this is a skeleton  band, perhaps a band I don't know. Or maybe it's karaoke. At least that's what it looks like to me. Does anyone recognize anything specific? Those kilts the 2 in the middle are wearing are recycled from the Scottish soccer team.

   And I've been making some Halloween art. Today I have more skellies for you.

   Except for the die cut spider and web at the top, this page is made with various fussy cut paper images.

And above, I die cut the houses  (TH) and did a lot of stamping with an older Hero Arts set.  The moon is a gold metallic paper image. 

   Finally I used a bunch of die cuts (TH, Hero Arts and Creative Exxpressions), a lot of paint, a stamped quote and although hard to see, a little gold glitter on the star stickers.

  Have a super Friday and start to the weekend ahead. 

On the Road in Prince Edward Island

    Hi everyone. Happy Thursday. Today I have a few photos I snapped from  the car (well most  of them at least) while we were driving around Prince Edward Island.

    I'll start with some photos I'll label POTATOES.  It was the potato harvest season when we were there.

    I wish I had hoped out of the car to get this next photo, but I think you can get the drift.

 I managed  to get a photo of these potato trucks we saw everywhere. 

  These particular trucks were bringing their potato loads down to this  ship.  If you enlarge this next photo you can see trucks lined up waiting to unload. I was not in the car when I took this one.

    This next batch of photos I will label as SCENERY. 

   This next photo is one of my favorite views. The rest of these scenery photos are from various pull-outs we stopped at.

   And for my final batch of photos, I'll label these THE ROAD.  Ha ha, there's always roadwork before winter, isn't there?

  Can you see the tractor driving down the road in this next photo?

 I looked up why so many telephone poles on the island have this lean to them, but I never found one actual answer. Instead I found several reasons why. Hmmm. Any one know an actual answer? Or are there many answers?

   That's all for me. I hope you are having a super day!

Wednesday Art

    Hi everyone. I hope your week is going well. I'm posting today with a bit of art for a couple of challenges.

     First  of all I want to share another tag for Brenda's All Things Autumn challenge over at Tag Along (and ATCS too).

    This time I went with a more traditional autumn view. I used stamps that came  with a stamping magazine that I bought on a close-out table several years ago. The magazine is long gone, and it doesn't say on the set except that it was from Practical Publishing. My guess is that is from Creative Stamping Magazine.

   I stamped the images using black and some colored Versafine Clair ink.  I colored in the mushrooms using markers. I  lightly inked the background with a blue TH mini-ink pad.  The 2 little squirrels are die cuts from a Poppy Stamps die. And to finish, I added a strip of washi tape along the bottom.

   I also have a journal page that I'm linking up to Mia's Beautiful World challenge at Art Journal Journey. This page is rather different but it is full of interesting autumn bits. I hope you think they all work together. I'm also going to link it up to Creative Artiste's Mixed Media challenge blog #131 where the theme is always Anything Goes. 

   I started this page by gluing down this scrap of mushroom tissue paper at the top of the page. Then I wasn't quite sure where to go with it. I decided to take some yellow watercolor and paint the bottom of the page. Then I added the bamboo wreath image. I added the bird to that which was from an uncolored fussy cut image booklet from Mintay Designs. I fussy cut and colored in the bird with markers and a white pen. After that I took a bunch of random words and added them into the circle. To make it feel more a part of the page I used the same yellow watercolor paint and colored in the inner circle area. It still didn't look right to me, so I used an old dictionary and added some definitions, and I also used black paper and an old Cheery Lynn die to make and then add the "fall" word.

   Now I needed to finish the bottom. Hmmm. I ended up taking an old Hero Arts grass stamp as well as some Versamark Claire ink. I stamped the grass many times with brown, yellow and green ink.  Then to border my page I added some washi tape along the bottom.

   The center wreath area still looked a little bare, so I added some chipboard mushrooms that I painted and decorated with some confetti pieces. I also added a left-over die cut pumpkin image and some red die cut leaves that were sitting on my work table. Finally, to finish my page, I added a couple of wooden oak leaves I had in my stash.

  OK, that took as long to explain as it did to make. 😉

  Wishing you a great rest of your day.