Hello August

   Hi  everyone.  Happy August to you. It's already month 8 of 2026. And the second half of summer. I remember being a kid when summer seemed to go on forever, and now, it feels (as the cliche says) like just a blink of the eye. 😉

   Since it's a new month, it's time for a new challenge over at Art Journal Journey. But before I get to that, I want to once again thank Halle for hosting last month and thank everyone who joined in. It was a super month of fabric, lace and trim. Thank you again for hosting for us Halle. I hope you'll come back and host again.

   This month I am hosting, and my theme is In The Good Old Summertime.

  In the Good Old Summertime  is the name of a very old song. The music and lyrics were first published in 1902. I picked this theme because you could (obviously) make summer themed pages, but you could also make vintage themed pages. You can even combine them for a vintage summer themed page. Or you could make a journal page about something good. And although not a music themed month, you could make a journal page about this particular song or a summer titled song. 

    Several weeks ago I noticed this Ciao Bella ephemera and paper journal.  I really liked it, and it wasn't expensive, so I picked up a copy. It contains papers, items to fussy cut, and stickers. I then chopped it up and used items to make my own summertime journal. You'll be seeing lots of pages from my journal over the next few weeks.

I used part of a sheet of paper from this item to make the base of my first page for this month.

    I then outlined much of the page with a black Sharpie just to frame the image more. I used an older rubber stamp I have that contains the partial paint pan and the brush on the left (image by Impression Obsession).  I also stamped another older paint brush image, but I'm not sure who made that image. Then I used markers to color things in. To make the right side of the page less white, I splattered some watery blue watercolor paint. I like how it made the page look wet. Finally I used a great quote stamp (also from Impression Obsession). I think this quote is the perfect way to start off a new month of art.

   I must also add a couple of reminders to my post about the dreaded rules. Please, no cards, tags, ATC's unless they are part of a journal page. But we accept any type of art journaling. Also, please be aware we can't all  comment on  various social media, so please, if you  link up through a source that is not a  blog, we may not be able to comment.

   I hope no matter where you live, you'll find something to inspire you with this challenge. I know we'd love to see you over at Art Journal Journey. ❤👍😊

Lots of Faces for Friday

    Hi everyone. Happy last day of July. Today I am joining Nicole over at Friday Face Off and also Gillena over at Friday Lunch Break.  

   Last weekend we had a big family reunion with my husband's family from his Dad's side. All except 2 of the cousins came. The furthest came from California; there were a couple from Long Island (New York), one from Connecticut, his sister and nieces from Maine, us from New Hampshire and everyone else up from Massachusetts. I'm not sure what the final count of people was, but  someone said 38 people because of course almost everyone brought significant others and many people brought not only their kids but also some grand-kids came too.

  This plan started  two years ago my husband's uncle passed away, and at the funeral everyone decided it was too bad the only time we saw people was when someone died. Plus, when you reach a certain age you realize that things can happen and change  life way too fast, so it was the time to do this. 

  These are assorted photos that people shared. I only took a couple of these myself.  AND I know you don't know these folk, but you can get the gist of the party. 😉 Plus there's tons of faces here too!

    Someone tossed a left over shrimp into the pond next to the dock just to see if all the sunfish would go after it. And you can see they did.

   Plus we had to take a big family photo. 

   And ha ha, after all the cousins took their various photo combinations, we took a photo of "Those who were stupid enough to marry into the family."  Ha ha ha ha. They also told me I had to take my sunglasses off, which I think  makes me look weird because I'm used to seeing myself with glasses.

   . There was too much good food, lots of laughs, hugs and plans for another reunion in 2 more years.

  I hope everyone has a great Friday and start to your weekend. Plus just a quick note, I have a friend visiting from North Carolina today so I may NOT get around to visit blogs as quickly as I like. Please bear with me if it takes a bit for me to visit yours. 

Wrapping Up July's Art at Art Journal Journey

    Hi everyone.  Happy middle of the week. We're in the last few days of July (Really? Where did this month go to?) so I want to share my final journal page for Halle's challenge over at Art Journal Journey. By now you probably know her challenge is Fabric, Lace and Trims, Oh My!.

     I kind of got carried away adding things to this page, and I'm not sure I like it all that much. However with my right shoulder still sore I decided just to go with it and not make another new page.

  I did a lot of layering with papers and punch out images. I also added some paper lace to make a border. Then I realized that the background was a little too much for my stamped fashionistas, so I sponged on some gesso to tone that down. I also used some brighter colors to color in the styling ladies. They come from an old Inkadinkado clear set of stamps. The words come from an old Cornish Heritage Farms stamp set. I then added a felt flower that I pulled off of something I had, and I also glued down some chenille ric-rac. To finish those off I added the flat  beads. 

   Thank you Halle for joining us as our host this month. I loved your theme because it caused me to get out some fabric. Sometimes I think about doing that and then I don't actually do it, so it was good to actually get it out. ❤👍😊  Plus, it was a really fun theme.

   Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of your day.

 

T Stands for A Walk and a Lobster Roll

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

   So what's new with me? Last week I was trying to rest my sprained shoulder/rotator cuff. It's in my dominant arm which is not making it very easy for me to do. But I am trying. 😟  I am also trying to get into physical therapy, but places seem to take forever to get an appointment.  One place booked me in for me in for August 24, and now I’m waiting to hear if a different place can get me in sooner.

   Since we had some perfect summer weather (not too hot, not too cold), I would have loved to do some gardening, but that would have required both arms. Instead one day I went for a long and lovely walk. It was the perfect way to get exercise without using my shoulder. (Especially since I left the dogs at home so there was no pulling on my shoulder from any leashes.)

    Here's the rail trail I walked along. It goes by several lakes so the views are pretty.

   There were also lots of wildflowers in bloom which were also quite pretty.

   At one cabin along the way I came across this beautiful garden in their yard. It was a certified wildlife habitat garden,  at least that's what the sign you can see stuck into it said.

    And I had more pretty lake views too.

   Besides a nice walk and a few other random things, my husband's paternal side of the  family also had a family reunion this past Saturday. Lots of people came from all over. The furthest was his cousin and her husband who came from California. The party was at my Mother-in-law's home, and I know she probably wished she could have been there with everyone. We did raise a toast in her memory, but of course, there are no toast photos. Those would have been perfect for T day. More about that some other time since that event can be a post on its own.

   Therefore, to wrap up today's post I need to share a drink. 

   I finally made it back to Pop's to have my first lobster roll of this summer.  We usually try to get there once a month, but with the cost of life this year, I haven't been back since they opened in May. It was a really lovely night, and we could sit outside and eat.  You can also see the Diet Coke I brought from home and that  I had already been drinking before I got to Pop's.

    I had one small complaint though. I asked to change from the French fries that usually come with the lobster roll to onion rings. The woman at the window told me there would be a slight up charge. OK. That was new. But then, compared to the amount you used to get, there really weren't all that many. Not that I needed more, and these were quite good, but it's the point. Unless they had a shortage of onions, their serving size was smaller. Up charge and smaller, isn't that what life has become? 😩

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

Honey, Honey, Honey

    Hi everyone. I hope you're having a super weekend. So far mine has been busy and the weather has been almost September like  (warm without the humidity). ❤

   Today I'm joining Nicole for Sunday in the Art Room  and Gillena for Sunday Smiles . I have lots of bees in today's post so I hope this post doesn’t give you the heebie-jeebies. 

  The other day I went out to do a bee hive check. Both hives are doing really well. Let me share a few photos with you.

    A) I'll start with my new hive, the one where the bees arrived this May:

    For some reason a lot of these ladies like to enter the hive by going under the top cover and under the outer edge of the inner screen cover as you can see in this first photo. There is a small gap there, which is there so bees can go in and out that way. In the 6 years I've had hives, I have never had any that used that opening as their normal way in and out though.   

    The screen  is the warm weather inner cover because it helps air flow through the hive to keep it from getting too hot. In the winter a solid inner cover gets put on.

   When the bees first arrived in May, I only had one box on the hive. But then the bees got busy with laying eggs, raising young and making honey. In order to give them enough room,  the last time I checked them I added a second box to the hive. 

    The bees now use the bottom box for their brood and the top box for making honey. This is the honey they will need for winter, so I will not take this honey. In fact, I won't take any honey from this hive this year.

    I have still been feeding them with a food patty (you can see the wrappers in the next photo), just because there is a lot of bees, and I want them to produce a good store of honey for the winter. Even with that, they seem to go through a patty in about 2 weeks. 

  Here's some of them actually using the front"normal" hive entrance.

   These next 2 photos are looking down into the hive. This is the top box, and you can see all the white comb they are building. This is what they will fill with honey and then cap.

    And what a crowd they have building that comb. 

  B) I'll move onto the old hive, or the one that came in 2025 and made it through the winter.  In this hive the ladies always go in and out through the main hive entrance.

   One thing I find interesting about this hive is how little they care whether I am there or not. Even when I open up the hive. The new hive is not that way at all. The new hive is very curious and a lot of bees come check me out.

   Earlier this year I added a smaller third box to this hive because the second box, where they store honey, was already quite full. This smaller box is called the honey super, and the honey that gets made there will be for me.

   You might remember the weird comb they formed. ( The post I explained about this is here: The Art of Bee Keeping.) Now that comb is pretty much full of honey, capped off and done. They are also building newer honey comb in the frames that are in this box which in the next few weeks should be filled up with honey too. 

    I decided I needed to have a few tastes of their labors, so I poked the comb with my finger a few times.  It was delicious.

   This is the first year I've ever had a honey supper filling up with honey. Now I need to learn about how to collect that honey. 🐝🐝🍯

  I'll finish my post with this funny that CJ sent along to me. I liked it so much I saved the photo.

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

Friday Art

     Hi everyone. It is ALREADY another Friday. I seriously don't know where time is going to. Today I have an art post, and  I will be linking up to a few challenges. 

   First off since it's Friday, it's time for Nicole's Friday Face Off. That also means it's time for Gillena's Friday Lunch Break. 

    For my face today I have one more UNFINISHED cloth journal page. Just like the other ones, the background is a cut up old pillow case, and I will be backing it up on some other fabric one of these days.

  I printed the face on fabric using a paper  image I liked. I die cut two small circles out some scraps fabric. I also die cut the fall flower out of some yellow fabric.  The trick with die cutting cloth imagines and then sewing them on a machine is that you want images  that have simple edges. Because die cuts tend to be small, you can't have anything too complex at the edge because you have to be able to manage your machine around the entire outer image.

   Since my page today is made of cloth, I'll be linking a up to Halle's Fabrics, Lace and Trims, Oh My challenge over at Art Journal Journey.

   I also have one more tag to share over at Tag Along (and ATCs too). This month Brenda is hosting, and her theme is Favorite Colors or  anything goes.

    When I made my last tag I also made a second tag using the same seashell background. Instead of my favorite blues with my favorite shade of green, this time I substituted a favorite shade of pink for the blues. It's fun to see how changing up the color combos gives art a totally different feel.

   I stamped the shell background (Impression Obession) and then used pink, light brown and green ink pads to color the background. I  used some markers to color in the shells and also a white pen on the little clam shells. I edge the tag with a pink Posca paint pen. Then I added 2 peel and stick silver starfish stickers. Because these stickers just gave an outline, I filled them with some coppery colored glitter glue. I also added a little clear water drop crafty "gemstone" on each starfish. I finished by stamping my quote (Rosie's Roadshow) three times and then trimming them down and adding them to my tag.

  Wishing everyone a great Friday and start to your weekend. 

 

Ships Ahoy

     Hi everyone. Happy Thursday. I hope you're having a  good week so far.

      We've been out fishing and cruising in my husband's boat a few times this summer. So far this year we've passed some interesting boats. Well we always pass other boats, but for some reason this year a few have seemed more exciting to me for various reasons. For those of you who like ships and boats,  today's post is for you.

    This past Monday my husband and I went out fishing. As we went downriver towards the ocean this huge ship was coming up river in our direction.

  I don't know why some of the photos are so grey and some are not. I didn't change any camera settings while taking these photos. 😕

    I am a fan of the tug boats. I think if I was a boat instead of a person,  or better said, if I had to pick a boat that was most like me, it would be a tug boat.  

  This large ship  (below) was leaving the dock and going out to sea (I saw her out there later but couldn't get a photo), and as they untied it this little tug was holding the ship to the dock.

   Here's another big ship that was  tied up to a different dock. It was unloading salt at the locally famous Portsmouth salt pile.

    The cars on the road in the background are  going over  the river along the route 1A bridge.

   On the New Hampshire side of the river there are lots of big ships and some industry. On the Maine side of the river it is full of homes.  

   In this next photo you can see  the docks on the Maine side (the right) where there is a marina and the salt pile (on the left New Hampshire side) where the big ship is unloading.

   One of the smaller cruise boats that takes close to shore  tours around the area (and also explains what things are with their  history) is called the Heritage. We always say no boat trip is complete unless we see this boat. And every trip we see it at least once, but sometimes more than once.

     Some day we might even take a trip on it because I'd love to learn more of the local history.

   Speaking of history, the yellow house in the background is the Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion. It originally was the home of the Royal Governor of the British colony of New Hampshire named John Wentworth. When the colonists were stirring up anti-British rule, he fled in 1775. That left New Hampshire without someone in charge, so the colony drafted their own constitutional government. At this point, the other 12 colonies were still under British rule, but New Hampshire was not. We were the first place in the US to have self rule.

  

   Here's another difference between the Maine and New Hampshire side of the river. In the above photo you can see a submarine at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in for repairs of some sort.

   For years there has been a battle between which state the shipyard was actually in. Even though both sides  fight to save it whenever there are talks in Washington of making military facility cuts, its location comes down to taxes. Maine has state income tax, and New Hampshire does not.  Maine wants the income from the taxes; workers who live in New Hampshire don't want to pay the taxes. A few years back the courts decided that it was actually on the Maine side of the state line. They supposedly used old maps to come to that answer.

   Finally for today, can you see the boat on the left side of this lousy photo? This is actually a naval patrol boat that goes up and down in front of the shipyard. If you get too close (which has happened to us a couple of times since the fishing is quite good in that area and sometimes the current pushes the boat a little too close) they ask you to leave. It's a kind of scary vessel because it has a big machine gun mounted on the front.

   But sometimes, if the dogs are with us, the people running the boat just want to say hello the dogs too. Seriously. We are hardly threatening looking, especially with the 2 dogs. 😉

   I have a lot more marine vessel photos to share, but this post is long enough. Have a great rest of your day.