Friday Faces- Lots of ArthropodsToday

   Hi everyone. Happy Friday. I hope everyone has had a nice week so far.  Today I'll be joining. Nicole's  Friday Face Off  and Gillena's  Friday Lunch Break.

 

Please note: I've been trying to publish comments this morning. I'm not getting fail to publish messages, but if you're on blogger, the publishing message goes on and on and on. It's like it's stuck in publishing mode. I'm out for the day today, but I will try back this weekend. But please know I am trying to comment. 😟

    Lately I've been noticing all kinds of arthropods, mainly spiders and other insects. My yard seems to be full of them. Like everywhere. In fact, if I look outside, there are all kinds of "things" flying by the window, not just birds.  🦋🐞🪲🐝  Here's a few I've seen this past week.

      FYI, I know not everyone finds these creepy crawlies as fascinating as I do. So let me warn you this post has some creepy crawlies, but most of them aren't too bad. Just scroll quickly past the first photo if you don't like spidery things.

   I'll start with this photo of a Daddy-Long-Legs.  I really like how I captured his or her shadow.❤

   For those of you who like pretty, here's a pot of zinnias in my yard.  These 2 Great Spangle Fritillary butterflies seem to love feeding at these flowers.  Can you see both of them in this next photo?

Here's a cabbage white butterfly on some  lavender.

  I've seen a couple of monarch butterflies this summer. Boy are they hard to get a photo of. I swear they see you coming and flitter off.  I haven't seen any caterpillars on my milkweed plants though, but I keep looking. 

    When I went out to check the bees the other day,  this grasshopper was just chilling on one of the bricks that holds the top in place.

And of course, here's lots of honeybees. 

   And here's my smoker for when I visit the bees. I like how the smoke photographed. 

     I'm hoping this weekend to go collect my honey. I'm very late doing it, mainly because of my shoulder.  I had to put it off because  1) I couldn't lift the hive box off  and  2) I need to assemble my spinner (that spins the honey off the  frames). I haven't been able to do a lot of heavy-ish lifting without pain, and both the hive box and the honey spinner are a bit heavy and awkward sized for someone short like me. 🏋

  I hope everyone has a super start to the weekend.  If you live where Labor Day or Labour Day are celebrated, I hope you enjoy the long weekend. I've scheduled my monthly book post for tomorrow, but other than that, I'm taking the weekend off from blogging. Let me also wish you a great start to the new week. ❤ I'll be back Monday night for T Day. 

Second on the Second- A Multi-Year Look Back

   Hi everyone. Happy September 2. I hope you had a nice start to the new month. We were supposed to have some much needed rain yesterday, but mostly it was just clouds. But  besides nothing more than a few drips falling, it made for a nice relaxing day for me. 😊 Today I am posting to  join Bleubeard and Elizabeth and Squiggles too for Second on the Second, where all you have to do is repost something from an earlier post.

   I recently started my 7th year of retirement.  Where does the time go? I decided  for this month's second look I would go back to the start of the last year I was teaching, September 2019.  It was fun  to look back and see what I posted and what life was like when I was working full time. 

Sept. 17, 2019

   Then I started to wonder what I was up to during my first retired September, right in the full swing of COVID and before we had vaccinations to protect us. 

September 30, 2020

   How had 2021 changed from 2020, now that I was vaccinated and felt a little more "free" to get out and about?

September 15, 2021

   I might as well keep going at this point,right?

September 6, 2022

   I remember making that 2022 page. Was it really 4 years ago? On to 2023.

September 27, 2023

   And then onto 2024. I also remember making this spread like it was yesterday also.

September 19, 2024

    And finally, last year. 

September 7, 2025

   Time just goes by too fast. However, I am glad I have a blog so I can look back and see what else I was up to during those months and years. 👍 It's a nice reminder of just how rich and wonderful life can be.

    I may be slow to comment on blogs today as I am off to my last play for this season at the Ogunquit Playhouse.  I'm looking forward to this one; it's The Producers by Mel Brooks, which I saw years ago in Boston. I remember laughing a lot.

   Enjoy your day!

Time for a New Challenge Already

   Hi everyone. I am back again with another post because it's Tuesday, and 2 weeks have passed. That means it's time for a new challenge at   Try It On Tuesday . 

   Thank you to everyone who linked up and joined our Inspired by a Song challenge. I always enjoy seeing what songs people pick and if I can guess them from looking at their art. 😊

   Our newest challenge for the next 2 weeks is  Emboss It-Wet or Dry. I made a journal page with lots of dry embossing on it. 

   To make this page I started with a sheet of watercolor paper  and some orange, green and brown juicy ink pads that I randomly rubbed over my paper. Then I took a sheet of glossy white paper (actually the back of some packaging) and used an older embossing folder (from Spellbinders)  to give it some texture. After I embossed the image, I rubbed yellow, gold and some light brown ink lightly over the embossing  so that part would have some color.

   I die cut the leaves with a Frantic Stamper stitched leaf die. You can see these have some stitched embossing on them. I cut them from this rusty orange paper, and then to add some depth, I lightly rubbed just a bit of brown ink on them. The sparkle leaves are some of those foam leaves you can buy that you often see in children's craft kits. I added a few gold half pearls under each to try to make it appear like the leaf was falling. The scarecrow  was in a set of fall felt images I found several years ago, and I added a few little confetti pieces to him to spruce him up.  Finally, I used the same  rusty orange paper and a quote from a Creative Expressions stamps set. I outlined the quote with a gold Sharpie. I also decided to outline the embossed centerpiece of my page too.

   As always, we accept any form of art as long as it has some type of embossing on it. Please be sure to check out the examples my design team members shared also. 

  I hope you have fun embossing and share your creations with us here at Try It on Tuesday.

 I will also be linking up this page to Sharon's Hello Autumn art journal challenge over at Art Journal Journey.  Please remember if you join Sharon at AJJ to only link up journaling, not cards, tags and other art forms. 

September is Here

   Hi everyone. Happy new month to you. We've been having a very nice summer in New Hampshire this year, well maybe it was a bit on the dry side, but overall, very lovely. However it is time to say goodbye to August and hello to September.

  This is the first of 2 posts I am sharing today since  the first of the month  is time for a new challenge at Art Journal Journey. Plus, 2 weeks have passed so it is also time for a new challenge at  Try It on Tuesday.  My TIOT post goes live in a few hours, but this post focuses on welcoming a new host to Art Journal Journey.

  First, I want to thank everyone who joined my In The Good Old Summertime challenge last month.  I appreciated all your link ups, and I enjoyed seeing how people interpreted my challenge. ❤❤❤

  Now it's time to introduce our host for September. My co-admins and I are excited to welcome back the talented journal and scrapbook artist Sharon. Sharon has hosted for us before and who you can find over at her blog That Girl Fritchey.  This month Sharon has chosen the theme

HELLO AUTUMN

      And ha-ha, I went from summer art last week directly into fall/autumn art this week. Luckily in real life the seasons don't change quite that fast.  (Although there are already some signs of fall starting including a night down in the high 40's (it was around 8.3 degrees C).

    To make this page, I started with a sheet of watercolor paper and some Paper Artsy Infusions. If you haven't used them, you shake just a little on your paper and when you spray with water you get some interesting effects. I used yellow,  rust, brown and some olive green because I thought they were nice fall colors.

   I then took a  wrapped ribbon/striped Cover a Card background stamp from Impression Obsession (another now defunct stamp company) and some black ink to create a place for my autumn scene.  The pumpkin is a very old Sizzix die (the thick kind they used to exclusively make). The pumpkin patch below it is a die from  Die-versions,  an old old company also no longer around.  I cut 2 of the pumpkin patch die. I used one complete one in the center and then cut the flowing leaf designs off each side of the second one. I added them to make the image large and so it fit across the bottom of the stamped area. I didn't realize it glued down so crooked until I saw this page in my photo. 😒 (But then pumpkin plants never grow exactly straight do they?)

   The mushroom is from an AALL&Create image set, and the little bird is a laser cut from an old 49 and Market set.  The quote is one of my favorites, and it comes from Unity Rubber stamp.

   I also must mention our dreaded rules. Remember, we only accept ART JOURNALING. Any kind of art journal works. Please, don't link up tags, ATCs, cards, etc. Unless of course they are on a journal page. And also, please  link up from a blog and not from any other form of social media as not everyone can comment on your link because not everyone belongs to every social media platform.

   I hope you are as excited about Sharon's theme as I am, and I hope to see you over at Art Journal Journey this month.

  

T Stands for Dead Batteries

   Hi everyone. Happy new week to you. And hello to all of you who stop by Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog for T Day this week.

  What's new with me?  My physical therapy is going well. I have some exercises to do to relax my neck muscles and to strengthen my back and chest muscles. They aren't hard and seem to be helping. 👍  I even vacuumed the other day with no pain, and although vacuuming is not the most exciting thing, 2 weeks ago even that simple task hurt a lot. 

  For T today let me start by showing you this view from the back of my husband's truck. There are 2 gas cans of gas for his boat, 2 boat batteries and a cooler full of drinks. Sadly when we tried to go out fishing last Thursday, both batteries were dead. One is just a backup, and who knows how long it had been out of juice. The other one, which was the one we'd been using when we went out in the boat, was also dead. It had been 2 weeks since we last used the boat, but none of the power draining switches had been left on. Whatever the reason  that the battery had no charge, it meant we could not go out on the boat that day.  (And FYI, the batteries normally stay in the boat. They are only here in the truck because we were taking them home to see if they could be charged.)

  BUT, I must add, better to find them dead when we arrived and hadn't put the boat in the water  than to be dead  while out on the water.👍

   My husband was very bummed out. As was I, but not as much as he was. 

  Since we couldn't be on the water, we might as well enjoy some time near the water. At the marina there is a little seasonal restaurant (not run by the marina but rented out) called Lexi's Landing. Lexi's is a small local chain in our area that specializes in burgers, fish sandwiches, tacos, grilled cheese, etc.  We like to eat there, but hadn't been there this year, so I suggested we go have some lunch. That's what we did.

   You can see my drink which is a bottle of water, and you can see the boats that pay a huge fee to have a slip and keep their boats in the water. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of lunch. 😟

   After lunch we ran a few errands, and then, when we were almost home, I suggested we get an ice cream. There is an ice cream stand about 5 minutes away from my house. We hadn't gone for an ice cream in several weeks, and if there is any good reason to get an ice cream, today's disappointment was one.   How can you not be cheered up when eating ice cream?

  This place has 3 sizes. Kiddie, Small and Large. I ordered a kiddie in a cup. I ordered 2 flavors, cold brew chip and peanut butter pie.

   I think the girl who took my order misunderstood me. 😕 I didn't want 2 kiddies on top of each other. I just wanted 1 kiddie with 2 ice creams. (And she only charged me for 1.) Holy cow!!!! That was a whole lot of ice cream. It was humid and as you can see, there was some melt going on.

   Good thing it was later in the day because I didn't need dinner after that. 😏 But I have no complaints about having an occasional ice cream dinner. 

  That's it for me today. Wishing everyone a great start to September, a happy T day, and a super week ahead.

  

Wrapping up August at AJJ

 Hi everyone. Happy Sunday. I hope you are having a nice weekend.

 Since tomorrow is the last day of the month, today I am going to wrap up my journal pages for Art Journal Journey. This has been my month to host, and my theme has been In The Good Old Summertime.  You still have until tomorrow to link up, as the theme runs through the end of the month. 

   Let me also thank everyone who joined in over at Art Journal Journey this past month. There was some wonderful summer journaling, and all of you who joined are journaling rock stars for certain! ❤👍😊

  I'll also be joining Nicole for her  Sunday in the Art Room (SITAR) and  Gillena for her  Sunday Smiles.

  Today I have 2 pages to share. I was experimenting when I made both, and they both have a "summer travel" theme. First, let's head to the beach.

  This first one started with me just feeling like scrubbing to make a background. From there I saw this partial sheet of paper sitting on my work table, and I thought, it could be water. I cut along the bottom of one of the dark blue zigzags.  I decided to go with an underwater image so I die cut the shells and seaweed piece. I colored it in and added a small 1/2 pearl to the center. It also needed a border, and this strip of blue both trim seemed to do the trick.

   The lighthouse and black cormorant bird were both sitting on my worktable since I thought they would work for another page but then never used them. I used a yellow marker to make the light and to color in bits of the lighthouse. Then I stamped the quote.

   This other page is a little too busy perhaps? It started with an arched window stencil and a pen. I only traced the inner parts of the windows. Then I colored them in.  The camera, the plants and the girl are various cut outs from the Ciao Bella Rivera book and some other papers. The sun is a metallic gold image that I added a bit of color too. The cat is a chipboard image that I colored several times. I'm not sure he is even needed at this point, but I didn't have an overall plan for either of these journal pages. They just evolved as I went. Finally I used a couple of word stamp sets from Paper Artsy to add all the writing and I used a blue paint pen and a pen to put an edge on my page.

 

  That's all for me. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend and start to the new week.

Friday

    Hi everyone. I hope you're having a good week. It's Friday, so it's time to join Nicole for Friday Face Off and Gillena for Friday Lunch Break.

    I don't  have any  exciting faces to share this week as the art I've been working on is for September challenges. Plus it's been our week to have my mother-in-law's house, the last for this year. After Labor Day (the weekend of September 5-7 for those of you who aren't familiar with the holiday) there are no assigned use times and anyone in the family can go up there whenever they want.

   I can show you the 2 owl faces in my rose garden. I was worried I was going to lose these roses early in the season when all their leaves turned brown and fell off. It was weird having empty stems/canes with blossoms on them. But with some fertilizer and lots of watering, you can see they have mostly come back. 👍 Hurrah!!!! I had wondered (back when they turned brown and lost their leaves) if they were just too dry because at that point we were still in the drought that started summer of 2025.  I guess my guess was exactly right. 

   The dogs and I have been up to my Mother-in-law's home  to go walking a few mornings this past week too.

   And after our little walks and after a quick dip to cool off, here's their faces.

   Wednesday while at the lake I saw a bald eagle. He flew in my direction  and landed in a tree a few houses down, but was still too far off for a photo with my phone. These aren't the best photos, but again, all I had was my phone.

   

 Here's the lake one morning after our walk. We've  had some beautiful late summer days lately as well as  cool nights that make great sleeping.

 I can also show you this post of petunias which may not look very exciting except, I never planted any petunias in this pot this year. There must have been some seeds in the pot from petunias I must have planted in it last year.

    It's a nice surprise though, and the pot with the flowers looks great.

   That's it for me. It hasn't been a bad week by any means, just not one with a lot of faces. I hope you have a super Friday and start to the weekend ahead.

                               

Thursday

  Hi everyone. Happy Thursday. 

 With the end of the month quickly approaching, let me start off today's post with another page for my In The Good Old Summertime challenge over at Art Journal Journey  This challenge runs through the end of the month, which happens to be this upcoming Monday.

   I started with some white watercolor paper and an architectural stencil. Then I sponged on some dark blue paint to look like an old blueprint.  I decided I wanted to use this lady on her scooter. She looks ready for summer in her sandals, sundress and big brimmed hat. I fussy cut her out of the Ciao Bella Junk Journaling book that many of this month's images have come from. Before I placed her on this page. I used yellow paint to show some heat from the sun.  I glued the lady down, and I also glued down the golden paper sun.

   Finally I used blue ink and stamped the simple quote. 

   And not to be some kind of Insect lady, (and maybe make you cringe-😉-sorry if you didn't like the caterpillars yesterday), but along with those milkweed tussock moth caterpillars I posted about yesterday, I've also seen a couple of other interesting insects in my gardens lately. I hope today's insects are much less creepy than all those caterpillars were. 😀

   I'll start with this Katydid, who isn't exactly handsome, but is more interesting than a regular old grasshopper. I love how it's wings, when they fold back, look like leaves.  They even have green eyes to blend in.

   And along with their fun name,  they make a cool shadow too.

   And before I continue  I want to mention that Denise An English Girl Rambles from 2016 to... and I must be on the same wavelength lately. I scheduled this post back on Monday night, so I am not trying to copy hers. GRIN! 😉

    The other visitor I found while out in the garden this week was this Hummingbird Moth. Hummingbird moths are daytime moths that have a long tube like feeding structure (proboscis) and fly at very fast speeds. They can even fly backwards. That's how they get their name, because people often mistake them for hummingbirds.

   If you're curious about these moths and their life cycle, you can read this article you can read about them: Hummingbird Moths. This article was published by a Botanical Garden found in Central Massachusetts. 

   I'll admit it makes me smile if I spot a hummingbird moth because they are pretty cool insects.  

   That's all for me today. I hope you are having or have a super Thursday.

   

Midweek Post- Art and Moths

   Hi everyone. I really don't know what happened to August, but we're in the last few days of the month. Since this is my month to host over at Art Journal Journey, I want to squeeze in a few more posts for that challenge. 

   Today's journal page  is one I particularly like. As you probably know by now my theme is In The Good Old Summertime. 

  I made a simple background of light blue painted lines. The line background is kind of a theme I have on several pages throughout this journal. Then I cut out this picture from the Ciao Bella Rivera book I've been using on a lot of pages. It looks like a lovely morning or evening coffee or tea, doesn't it? Sitting outside and enjoying a drink is definitely one of summer's little pleasures.

  The two little potted trees and the branch on the left are stickers from this book. To finish the branch I added some sniped off flowers from a yellow flower trim and then put a flat yellow bead in the center of each. The quote is from an Andy Skinner set by Paper Artsy, but I think it works perfectly here. 

  Yesterday  Denise over at An English Girl Rambles from 2016 to... shared a great photo of a milkweed tussock moth caterpillar. I mentioned to her that I had recently noticed a lot of little ones on a  milkweed plant in my yard. 

Here's the cluster yesterday.

   I've never seen so many in one place so I'm wondering if a whole batch of eggs hatched on the underside of this leaf. I did notice yesterday that the top of that plant is missing all its leaves, so I'm guessing they've eaten them. I didn't know all that much about this caterpillar except that it feeds on the milkweed leaves so I did some research. 

    The moths are a favorite food of bats, BUT, they give off an ultrasonic sound to keep the bats away. That is good, because since the moths were once these caterpillars, and like monarch butterfly caterpillars, fed on the milkweed. That means they contain cardiac glycosides, which are poisonous to animals who then try to eat them. When these little guys molt into their final flying stage, the cardiac glycosides has stayed with them, thus protecting them as adults. 

    Here's a couple of photos I "borrowed" from the internet showing the adult moths.

    When their wings are closed, they aren't really much to look at, are they? But I like how they look with wings fully opened. 

   Here's a link to a gardening article that I read that I thought was interesting: Milkweed Tussock Moth if you'd like to know more about these creepy crawlies.

  That's all for me today. Hope you have or are having a good one.