A Good Book

 Hi everyone.  Today I have a short post with another journal page for Eileen's Dream challenge for Art Journal Journey

I saw this girl in a magazine and those she looked rather forlorn. So I put her on a stenciled background page that I had in my stash. Then I did a little table clean off and added the numbers of letters. 

I scribbled in the quote bubbles, which say (in case you can't read my writing):

left-What am I doing here?

right: She stood dreaming of a good book.

I can't say there's been lots of reading in my life lately. Those of you who stop by a lot know I am a big reader, but that has dropped way off lately. I did finish listening to Harry Potter books 6 and 7. Those are certainly fantastic books. But then I got bogged down reading my last book club which I didn't care for (Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver) and was really disappointed about too. So maybe this lady is rereading the Harry Potter series as that would be worth going home and picking up.

Thanks for visiting!

T Stands for Seasons Changing

Hi everyone.  It is time for T again. Stop by    Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog  to see what interesting things the T Gang ladies have been up to, or even better, to join us for T.

So the weather in my world has cooled off since last week, and it really feels (and looks) like fall.

By this weekend coming up I shall have some raking to do.
And bye-bye boat. The hubby took it up to his mom's where he stores it for the winter.

And this past weekend the hubby also closed up my screen porch.

The plastic helps keep that side of the house warmer in the winter as well as creating a good place to store the lawn furniture. Maddie had to check it out. She and Pete always enjoy an afternoon nap while I read (and maybe nap) on the porch during the nice weather. It's always a sad moment for me when we close it up. Winter is rather long here in New Hampshire.
And  back over the long Columbus Day/Indigenous People Day weekend  (which was the weekend of October 12th for those of you not familiar), my husband, daughter and myself went out for dinner one night.

 I've taken you to the Red Arrow Diner before.

We all met up after work on the Friday at the start of  the weekend. We just beat the dinner rush so we got a table without waiting. You can see my Diet Coke behind the menu.

On occasion, a diner dinner tastes good.

For dinner I had turkey meatloaf, mashed potatoes and cream corn, which was the veggie of the day.
Perfect food for a chilly night, at least for me.
And you'll have to take my word for it since I forgot to take a photo.
Hope you have a great day and thanks for visiting.

Ghosties and Ghoulies...and Witches Too

Hi everyone.  Hope you are having a nice weekend. Time for a little playful spooky art as we get closer to Halloween. Here's another collaged spread from my Witches Halloween book. 

You can see I used torn bits of paper. Then I gave it a little white ink spray. Some of the images are stamped, some are die cuts, some are little plastic bits and I painted the caldron. . Then I added a small witch's broom I had.

You can see my painted caudron better here. The expression on the cat makes me laugh.

And I don't know if you are getting sick of my autumn photos, but here's a few I took on my walk yesterday. I usually walk the same direction because there is less traffic that way so the views probably look similar.

Do you like my new fingerless gloves? I found them on sale last weekend, and I had been looking for some. They worked out perfect on this chilly morning stroll.

 I love the seedy remains.

 We still have some color but we lost so much of foliage with all the winds. Now there's lots of bare branches in between the leaves.

 And there's a few blooms left in the garden.

 My hydrangeas may not be at their peak but my chrysanthemums are.

Thanks so much for visiting. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and start to your  newweek.

The Leaves Are Falling

Hi everyone.  Happy weekend. I am looking forward to a "quiet" weekend; last week was busy and next weekend looks to be busy so it is nice to know I have a little me time in between all of these events.

So today I have another page from my autumn board book for you. On the left is a board book page, which is inked to start with.  Then I added some corrugated tape, a "fake" fall leaf (it is a silk leaf), a frame with a piece of napkin and a found relative photo in it, a crow die cut, and also some inked paper flowers. I needed to ink the flowers to make then a fall color rather than being spring pink.

And on the right I have a page from an old book, and  decorated that with a Victorian woman image as well as a stamp.

I am linking up to Moo Mania and their latest challenge which is die cut or punched pieces.

And after a lot of wind (some of it very strong)  and some rain this past week, the leaves started to fall.

Here's my latest foliage photos from around my yard. I snapped these last evening after work.

The screen porch will get closed up this weekend. One of the saddest days of the year for me (smile), but the temperatures have dropped off and the days are a bit chilly now. It is (unfortunately) time. Too chilly to lounge on my hammock out there at least. Time to pick up all the lawn chairs and the garden decorations, and if the wind dies down, maybe even time to take out a rake.

Wishing you a fantastic weekend.

Autumn Magic

Hello. I hope everyone is having a good week.  It's Friday (or since I am posting Thursday night, it is just about Friday), and we are already more than half way through October. Holy cow.

 I have another page for Eileen's Dream challenge at Art Journal Journey.  Here's a spread from my autumn board book.
 By October our days are getting  more than noticeably shorter here in New Hampshire. (And maybe/probably where you are also, unless of course you live south of the equator.)  It won't be that much longer until the clocks change and it will be dark by 5 pm  (17 o'clock).
Eeeks.
I made my page by collaging various papers. With the lighter background I could stamp  several images  in black and brown inks. Then I added a couple images to finish off my page. On the left I used a printed background, a fame and a TH relative. I cut off most of the body to get the framed view. And on right I used an image I had in my stash, which I stamped with the Dream and Discover quote.
Wishing you all a great start to your weekend.

Autumn Color

Hi there everyone. Wednesday is here, and days at work go fast when you have Monday off from work. (smile)

Today I have a tag for Tag Tuesday and their Autumn challenge.

I began by cutting my tag from a time card. I went out looking for some new tags and could only find small ones. But I did find a packet of time clock punch sheets made out of tag stock. I could get 50 of them for not a lot of cash, so I bought them and die cut my tag. Sometimes I use the plain back, but today I used the printed front. I colored the page with ink pads and stamped the leafy vines. Then I cut out the squirrel and stamped some acorns, as well as the quote. 

And I thought I would share a couple more foliage photos from my Monday walk. They will probably be the last foliage photos for this year since tonight and tomorrow we are supposed to get a lot of rain and some very strong winds. So much for all these pretty colors.

Hope you have a fabulous day.

And thanks for visiting my blog.

Time For Halloween Fun

Hi everyone.  Tuesday is here and it is time for a new challenge at Try It On Tuesday. October means the seasons are changing and that means Halloween is coming. So our newest challenge is Witches, Wizards and Halloween fun.

I am not a someone who tends to be on the dark side, but  once a year I enjoy having some Halloween fun. This year I collaged a board book about witches, and this is my cover.

I started by using some matte medium and a couple of napkins. Then I used a bit of purple, silver and gold spray ink. When that dried I added a message pad slip with a stamped message. I also added this flying witch die cut, this Victorian gentleman sticker, a full moon sticker and a bunch of silver metal stars. I also took some white lace and painted it purple and added that to the cover also.

I look forward to seeing your Halloween fun over at Try It On Tuesday.

I hope to see you there.

T Stands for Happy Birthday and Weekend Food

Hi everyone. Time for T again.  Stop by  Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog  to join us or see what the T ladies have been up to.

This week for T we'll be celebrating my mother's birthday. This past Saturday she turned 90.

My daughter came home for the long weekend, and we headed down to visit Mom on the big day. I still have a hard time thinking of my mother as being that elderly. She lives in an assisted living center. Mom is really mobile but has some memory issues.  I'm not sure she knew she was turing 90, but she kept telling us she doesn't do birthdays anymore. We told her that she should celebrate because so many people aren't lucky enough to make it to 90, and never mind still be able to move around as well as she does. She wasn't buying that though.
 We brought her a little cake as you can see here.

(But she didn't want candles since she wasn't counting them anymore.)

We got her this fun balloon also, which was the same one we got her last year. She didn't remember it, so it made a big hit again. (We knew she liked it so much last year so why risk getting her one she may not like as much.) It also made a hit as we walked through the grocery store where we bought it and when we walked with it into Mom's assisted living building.

 And here's my drink for the week. I'd been drinking this Diet Coke for a couple of days.  I enjoy drinking a Diet Coke (as you can probably tell) but I never drink that much of it at any one time.)

 

 And I had my daughter take this photo of me and my mom. Some of my friends at work could not believe I was taller than my mom, since I am not very tall. (And no, this is not a comment on being short, but when you work with tall people,  and have many/well most students way taller than you, people don't believe that you could be taller than anyone.)

But no, I am not that much taller. When I shrink I will probably be her size.

And I also did some baking this weekend. I started a new Diet Coke on Sunday when I took this photo.

 I found this bread book in my attic a couple of years ago. I don't know why I put it away up there because every bread I've tried from it ends up being delicious. This past weekend I made a German Friends Cake with my sourdough discard. And once again I was not disappointed.

This coffee cake style bread had apples and walnuts. It also called for raisins, but I'm the only one to eat them in the house, so I left them out.  It also had a brown sugar crunchy top. 

And one more bit of junk food for the post. On the way home from my mom's, my daughter and I made s top at Trader Joe's. We picked up this bag of gummy spider candies, not realizing they were a mix of sweet and sours. We had a fun ride home having a sweet/sour candy adventure and laughing at our faces when we got the sour ones. They were pretty yummy. and  a good way to make the last hour of the trip a go a little faster.

Wishing you all a great T day.

And thanks so much for stopping by my blog.

So Far This Weekend

Hi everyone.  I want to start off this post with a journal page for latest Art Journal Journey challenge by Eileen:  Dreams. 

I used a little bit of a lot of things to make this page, including a stencil, paint, scraps of paper, some ribbon bits, some die cut bits, an old ticket, a couple of stamps and a TH found relative.

The foliage has really started to change around here . I think we might be at peak or close to the peak of color. Here's some photos from my morning walk today.

 This photo (below) may not be focused but I like how it shows motion. My daughter is home for the weekend  and walked with me this morning.

 I've shown you this before, but this is my dream house. I love this old farm on the rolling land. It also looks like it has some great outbuildings, one which would probably make a great studio.

I think I need to make this the topic of Eileen's Dream challenge at AJJ. I don't think this place will ever be in my budget.

And the swamp maples at the farm pond and in the beaver pond have already shed their leaves.

And there's a bit of color left in my garden.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.  Yesterday was a busy day but today I managed to watch a seasons worth of episodes of Mad Men with my daughter. I did force myself outside for a bit to work in the garden since it was a nice day, but then there seemed to be so many mosquitoes. We've had some local mosquitoes found with EEE (Eastern Equine Encephalitis), so after a short time I came in and went back to Mad Men.  What we need is a hard frost and then a nice weekend day so I can get out and finish all my garden clean up. There's a lot to do since the garden has been pretty much ignore since school started.

Oh well, what gets done gets done.

I have one more day off with this long weekend. The daughter has lunch and shopping planned for us.

Enjoy the start of the new week.