T Stands for a Second Look and Other Things

   Hi everyone. Happy new week to you. And happy new month too! The last couple of days I have been straight out. I'll explain  that in a couple of paragraphs, but needless to say I haven't gotten by too many blogs during that time. As you all know, sometimes life just gets in the way. 

   It's also time for T over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog and also this T day falls on the second of the month for it's time for Second on the Second also over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog . All you need to do for Second on the Second is repost a post from an earlier date.

  What's been up with me? This June means I've been called up for jury duty. That was how I spent June 1, in court going through a  jury selection process. I also had a fun tourist day with my husband, daughter and son-in-law in Boston over the past Sunday. More about those things in another post. 😏

  My big chore last week and once I get some time this week  has  been picking up my art space that became  an absolute disaster zone and that has needed some reorganization since some of the ways  I organized back this past winter are not working for me. I'm close to finishing that project, and hopefully it will be done soon.

   Plus our shower drain is leaking into the basement. My husband can fix it, but in the meantime my laundry area (which is also in the basement) has some water. Not a flood or even puddles, just a wet cement floor. Once the leak is fixed, I decided I wanted a new mat for the floor since the  one I have there now is stained,  worn, and owes me nothing since I've had it for a long time. 

    My husband and I went out last Saturday afternoon over to Sanford, Maine. There is a discount home store over there that sells flooring and floor coverings, and I knew I could find something for my laundry room floor there. I wanted to get one before we were too far into the summer season because what I wanted was an indoor-outdoor style mat. If I waited too long, they probably wouldn't have a big selection as this is the time of year people want outdoor mats. I found just what I wanted for less money that I thought it was going to cost so it was a worthwhile trip. 😏

    This isn't a great photo since the mat is still all rolled up, but here's my floor mat for the laundry room.

    After our home store trip we decided to get an early dinner at a place called Shaine's of Maine. I've mentioned this place before, but here's a photo of  the building.

    And here's an inside view. Shaine's of Maine is really known for their homemade ice cream.

   But they are so known for their food which is very reasonable. Here's my drink for T day.  I had their lobster roll  and chowder meal which was still only $14.99. It's not the biggest lobster roll, but it is less than half the price less that just about any place else you go including Pop's. 

    Plus with it being a little smaller I could also have some ice cream. 😏❤👍 My favorite flavor is coffee, and add some brownies to it and it was a win-win meal finisher. 

   I also wanted to share my Second on the Second view in this post. Three years ago in early June I was in Iceland with my husband. We were driving the ring road. Here's a couple of T day photos from that trip.

You can see the whole post from June 26, 2023 here. 

   That's all for me today. Wishing everyone a wonderful T day and rest of your week.

  

It's June

   Hi everyone.  Happy  new month to you. It's June. Holy cow, we're already into the 6th month of the year. 😲

   Since it's a new month, it's time for a new challenge over at Art Journal Journey. 

   Thank you Mia for hosting last month. And thank you to everyone who joined in. It was a lot of fun (for me at least) to make some bird inspired pages. ❤

    This month we're welcoming back one of the talented hosts who has been with us for a few years. This month's host is Matilde. You probably know her from her blog 100% Handmade. I'm excited to have Matilde back because besides liking her art,  I'm excited for her theme this month. This month Matilde's theme is   Houses or Buildings.

    Here's my first entry for the month. 

    I created my own structure by using some colored cardstock and also an old TH Sizzix die.  Then I took some 6x6 wooden plank designed paper and arranged my structures on it. I added some hand drawn details, and then also added a fussy cut door. It's June so around that door there are some flowers growing and a butterfly flitting about.

   Along the bottom of the page I added a strip of black paper. I took a white pen to add some wood like texture to the paper. Then I also took a zigzag die cut border. I outlined the bottom with a gold Sharpie and then I added to my page. Finally I stamped  the quote directly on my page. 

   Before I sign off let me mention our dreaded rules. Most importantly, please remember we are an art journaling challenge. We DO NOT accepted cards, ATC's, tags, etc. But do accept journal pages of any kind made with any type of media.  Also, not everyone has every type of social media (or even any social media), so if you link up from Facebook, Instagram or other site, we may not be able to leave you a comment. 

   Otherwise, I hope you're also excited for Matilde's theme. I can't wait to see your House and Buildings art over at AJJ this upcoming month. I hope you'll want to join us. 

Wrapping Up May's AJJ and Some Garden Views

   Hi everyone. Happy Friday. As I mentioned yesterday May is winding down and so today I want to share my last page for Mia's Birds challenge at Art Journal Journey.

   I am also joining Nicole for her Friday Face Off link up and joining Gillena for her Friday Lunch Break link up too. There are several faces on my page today, including the clock faces. 

   I started with a rock  stencil and a few green markers in various shades. After that I took some green watercolor paints and covered the page. I like how it slightly washed out the stone images on the middle left and made a place for my focal points. 

    The owl and the background behind it are an ancient stamp from LaBlanche. I stamped it first on acetate,  and then I stamped it again on paper. I fussy cut and colored the owl and then glued it down over the acetate image. The clocks and flowers are all fussy cut from some paper, and then I finished my page with a Tim Holtz quote. 

  And I thought I'd end this post with a few photos of the gardens at my house right now. I'm done with my planting-unless if I'm out and about I find something  that captures my fancy. 😉

  The veggies, and some seeds so I can do some succession gardening, are in. I still have basil seedlings and some flower seedlings in the greenhouse.  OK, I guess I am not done with my planting quite yet. But I think it’s still a little bit of time before these go into the ground. Grin.

    My azalea is looking fabulous. This tree is special to me because my dad had one this color, and it grew a seedling underneath that he gave to me. And here that little seedling is now, probably 30 years later.

    My garden along the driveway is the only one that is looking all spruced up. (The rest need weeding, already.)

  My  frilled irises have started to bud and even bloom. I know this color combo is pretty common, but it's actually one of my favorites. 

   And finally, I have some  root sprouts  from a rose bush a friend gave me earlier this spring. The bush itself (which she dug out of her garden) is just a woody stalk. I don't think it will do anything. However, I think like my azalea, I will still get a rose bush from it. I guess the roots were not dead. 👍

Have a super Friday and start to the weekend ahead everyone.

  

 

My Penultimate AJJ Page for May

  Hi everyone. As you most likely realize May is starting to wind down. Since our challenges at Art Journal Journey run for the month, that means Mia's Birds challenge only runs for the next few days.

 I have a couple of pages left to share, so today,  here's one of them.

   The tea paper background made me think this page needed to be a little bit feminine, so I added some paper lace. All the wildlife and natural references on that paper made me want to add the bird, daisy, bee and butterfly.  The tea paper also did not fill the page, so I added some polka dot paper above where the tea paper ended.

   The lady's face and the robin were stamps by 2 different sets from Paper Artsy. The woman came faceless, and I added a simple smile on her, because of course a cup of tea and some garden time are always worth smiling about. Off the top of my head I can't remember who made the daisy stamp, but I think it was from Visable Image.  All 3 of these stamped images were colored and fussy cut before adding them to my page. The quote journaling card in the center was cut out of a sheet of paper; all papers are oldies from Graphic 45. 

   I finished my page with some punch outs from 49 and Market. This includes the tickets, insects and laces. On the top blue strip I added some  little plastic flat beads to finish off my page.

   That's all for me today. I hope everyone has a super Thursday, or you have a super day whenever you stop by. 😄

 

Time for a New Challenge

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

  But first. let me thank everyone who joined us for our Keep It Simple challenge. And thank you Denise for being our guest designer.  I don't usually make simple pages, so it's fun to get ideas from all of you who really rock the simple style.

   This time our new theme for the next 2 weeks is GOING ROUND IN CIRCLES.

   The inspiration for my page started when I was cleaning and came across a pile of ATC's that I had made in the past. I decided to make one of them the centerpiece of my page.

   Not only are there circles on my ATC, but I decided to sort of mimic that in the background too.

   To make my background I began by using 2 shades of bright green acrylic paint. Then I decided that the play word that's on my ATC shouwldbe on the background too. Sadly I don't have that original play word rubber stamp any longer so the phrase rubber stamp I had would have to do. After that I hand drew some circles with a black Sharpie and then painted them pink and orange to match the ATC. To finish, I used a piece of scrap from a die cut border to create a spot to put my ATC. Between the slight bend to the page (it's not lying flat as it's at the end of a journal)  and my not so straight gluing, it does go down a bit on the left hand side of the page. In reality it doesn't go down quite as much as this photo makes it look.

   And please check out the design teams circle examples too. There is so much you can create with a circle.

   Thanks for stopping by my post. I hope you like circles as much as I do, and that you'll decide to join us at Try It On Tuesday. 

   

T Stands for Motown

    Hi everyone. Happy new week to you.  I hope you had a great past weekend also. Since it's time for T  over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog, hello to my T day blog friends. 

   Last week summer arrived with some hot and humid weather for a couple of days. Then it cooled off and we were back into early spring like weather. Then it rained. This week I think we're going to be back to normal temperatures. Maybe. The weather this year has just  been crazy and unpredictable. I'm not sure even the weather people can  forecast it very well. 😏

  I've still been working in my gardens when it's not too hot or too wet or even too cold, but I also had a fun day out last week. Some friends and I went to a play at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine.

photo from Wikipedia

   For the last couple of years we've gone to one play a season, and since we've always had a good time, this year we decided to try a 3 show season pass. Doing that meant we picked out the shows, dates and times we wanted back last winter, and now it's time  to start seeing those shows.

   The  summer theater season has started, and the opening  show was one of the plays we wanted to see, so last week we saw our first show.

   The first show this year is Ain't Too  Proud To Beg. It's about the life and times of the Motown musical group The Temptations. (You probably already know their music and name.) It was excellent, and there was a lot of great music. It was also really nice to see that an afternoon matinee was sold out. Or at least I didn't see any empty seats from where I was in the theater. 

   Photos aren't allowed during the show, so here's a couple I also borrowed from the internet.

    Before the show we went to lunch. Then we each got a drink at the theater. My glass of wine is my ticket to T day this week.

   You can also see a bag of peanut M&M's  ( my dessert for the show) I bought. 

   You have to buy a glass if you don't bring one with you to the theater. Well you can't bring just any glass. Once you buy one of these theater glasses you bring it back to the next play  if you want a drink. Then you just pay for your drink and not the glass too. The last couple of times I went I had a borrowed glass, but this time I needed to buy one. (But they aren't very expensive, and a good way to get people to recycle too.)

   We'll be back next month for another show, so now I just need to remember to bring my glass with me then. 😏 Next month the play is a classic which I have never seen, not even the movie version of it. Next up is Hello Dolly.

  That's it for me. Wishing everyone a great T day and week ahead. 

At The Botanical Garden

      Hi everyone. I hope you are having a lovely weekend.

     Today I am joining Gillena for her Sunday Smiles  and also Nicole for her Sunday in the Art Room   .

    My local botanical garden (Bedrock Gardens) opened on May 12th for members, so I went with 3 friends.We had a lovely time checking out not only what was in bloom, but also what was new for 2026. The woman who manages the bee hives for the garden was also there. I had a great chat with her for a while too. 

   I love taking garden and close up photos, and so today I thought I'd share some with you. It's always fun to try different angles and see if I can get any interesting photos. Sometimes they work out; sometimes they don't.  I hope you enjoy a little digital walk through the gardens.

The reflections in the koi pond look a tad bit like abstract art.

For some reason I really like this view of the clumps of grasses.

I wonder how many people actually notice the skinny red ball stuck up in the crook of the tree?

pink on green

And here's a few grander views.

   When I go back (hopefully)  in a week or two, it will all be different. It's so amazing how quickly gardens change, isn't it? 

     Wishing everyone a wonderful rest of your weekend and start to the new week.

Friday Faces-Fun Sculptures

    Hi  everyone.  Happy Friday. Another week has flown by, and here in the US it’s the start to a long weekend. Memorial Day is a day to honor fallen soldiers, and often is a time to visit cemeteries to visit loved ones that have passed, even if they were not fallen soldiers. And unofficially, it is the start to the summer season.

   Sounds like the weather in my area will be cool and even a bit wet but definitely not feeling like summer. 

   Today I will be joining Nicole for Friday Face Off  with some  faces. I will also be joining Gillena for her Friday Lunch Break.

 

  Last week my local botanical garden (Bedrock Gardens) opened for the season. I always get a season pass, not only to help support them, but also so I can visit as much as I'd like between May and October. The other interesting thing is that they are part of the American Horticulture Society. If a garden belongs then you can visit any other member garden for free with your membership. When we visited Magnolia Gardens in South Carolina last month both my husband and I were able to get in for free, and just that entrance fee would have cost more than my membership to my local garden. I love that I'm already ahead of the game. 😏 But not as much as I love visiting my local garden. 👍

   One of the original founders of these gardens is  a woman named Jill Nooney. She is also an artist who makes some fun sculptures with found materials. She sees things in those bits and pieces I certainly don't. She has many of her pieces displayed  at the gardens. 

     These first 2 are some new sculptures in the garden. 

     There were also a few sculptures at the little shop area at the entrance to the gardens. Here's a few of the choices you could buy if you had a little extra cash.

   I really like this next one. (And it's probably how I looked when the bear visited my yard last week at 3 AM.)

   Too bad her sculptures, although not ridiculously expensive, were just a bit pricey from my present budget.  😏 Wishing everyone a wonderful Friday and start to your weekend.