August Second

    Hi everyone. I hope you're having a wonderful weekend  and start to the new month. Blog wise it's another busy Sunday because there are 3 challenges today I'll be linking  up to. I'll be linking  up to Gillena's Sunday Smiles, Nicole's Sunday in the Art Room (SITAR) and also , because it is the second of the month, I'll be linking  up to Second on the Second over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog .

    Because Second on the Second is a time to repost something from the past, I'm going back to August of 2016. That month along my husband,  my sister-in-law and her husband,  I went on a weekend get-away to a part of the Hudson River Valley in New York. I love to collect odds and ends when I travel, and then when I get home, I like to make a little memory journal. Today I'll re-share  a couple photos of the junk-style journal I made when I was home. 

   Here's a few pages.  This first page is half covered with the brochure from a sangria festival we visited. The journaling pages come from this post August 28, 2016.

  Since my theme this month at Art Journal Journey is In The Good Old Summertime, I thought I'd also share a few summery photos I took on that trip.  You can  find these in some of my August of 2016 posts. Any of these could be a great idea  to make a journal page from too. 😏

   While on our trip, we had visited the Franklin Delano Roosevelt home and presidential library, as well as the Eleanor Roosevelt home. We also made a quick stop at a Vanderbilt mansion which was next door to the other homes and took a lovely walk through the gardens there.

    I took tons more photos, but these were the main ones I posted. One other thing we did while on our travels was visit a vineyard that was having a sangria festival. This potted hibiscus is a beauty.

    It was a fun weekend away. It was fun to relive it again.  And, it was fun to share it for a second time with you. 😏

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

  

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.