T Stands for a Curiosity

Happy Tuesday my T Day friends. Time to share our drink related posts over at 

Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog.

But before we have T this week, first we're going to go on a little outing.

This past Saturday was Smithsonian Free Museum Day here in the US. If you went online and supplied your email you could print out a ticket to let 2 people visit the museum of your choice. (Not all museums participate so this only applies to participating museums.) It was one set of tickets per email. Since my husband and I both have our own emails, we got tickets to 2 different small museums  in the town next to ours. Maybe w are cheating a bit but neither museum we visited was very large and could be visited in about and hour. He picked the Antique Boat Museum and I picked the Libby Museum of Natural History.

I took lots of photos, but today I thought I would share a few photos from the Libby Museum.

This museum was started by a Dr. Libby, a man who lived from 1850-1933 and during his life he collected many natural specimen. I think that was a common habit during the late 1880's and early 1900's. Between his collection and other donations, this museum has quite an  eclectic collection.

Like this polar bear.

I have never seen the extinct passenger pigeon before either.

A moose, although I wouldn't want to come this close to a wild moose. But back in college there was a baby moose that had been abandoned by his mother  in the wildlife sanctuary area. They had named the moose Alfie and he gave me a big lick once. (The area wasn't open to the public but a friend of mine worked there and took me back for a visit.)

And the museum had various owl species that live here in New Hampshire.

The expressions on some these owls are full of personality.

Most of these specimen are from when the museum opened in 1912.  I loved reading the old display info on the exhibit cards.

 A gator. Not a local animal here in New Hampshire.

 This cute face is a juvenile fisher or what we locally refer to as fisher cats. They are not cats but are actually related to weasels, only larger. And not so cute when they are adults. In fact you have to be careful they are not around if you let your cats or even small dogs outside.

 A raccoon and then a black bear.

 And this beaver looks pretty funny in this position.

Hope you enjoyed these animals. 

I still have some of the  unusual items they had to share with you. I'll show you more of those another day soon.

But first, after all that museum going, you probably need to sit down and relax with a little early dinner.

What do you say, Mexican food? We haven't had that in quite some time.

Let's start with a margarita and some chips and salsa. It is Saturday night after all.

Then we'll move on to a burrito and some rice and beans. Yum.
It was a good dinner and a great relaxing way to wind up a good day.
Thanks for visiting my blog.
Have a great day!

Welcome Autumn

 Autumn has arrived. With it has come crisp temperatures. It's almost as if the weather knew autumn was here (which of course it didn't), and that made it time to get rid of the humidity and the heat this summer was particularly good at being.

 Views from my morning walks.  Slight changes from last weekend.

 Warning: if you don't like creepy crawlies scroll down quickly past these next couple of photos.

 Meanwhile back in the garden.

 A bit of color is left.

 And some interesting seed pods too.

It was a great day to go pick a big bag of apples.

And even though we didn't buy a pumpkin nor any squash (since my garden has given me several this year), it is a sure sign of autumn when the wooden bins at the orchard are filled with these.

Happy autumn to you.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Happy Weekend

The weekend is here! This week sure flew by.

Yesterday I got to be part of a big art project at my school. Our Japanese sister city school is arriving for a visit in 2 weeks and we are decorating the small theatre our school has  and naming it after them. They named one of their whole buildings on their campus after us.

One of the tasks that needed to be done was to collage a couple of posts with newspaper that we brought back last spring. 

Once they fully dry they will be coated and then someone with a sure hand with paint some large Kanji letters on them. The letters should spell out words to show the friendship between our two communities.

 Since we had 3 hours between the end of school and the start of our parent open house, it was a great way to fill the time. 

There's a display case which will be filled up with some items that the school has been gifted with like a gorgeous fan and some school items. They've enlarged some photos for the walls and the school had a photo enlarged to be adhered on the door. I will have to show you more once everything is complete.

And my latest page for the fantasy challenge over at Art Journal Journey which is the theme of our fantastic hostess Yvonne has chosen. It's a bit of watercolor crayon, paint, stamping,  napkin, and markers. 

Wishing you all a good weekend.

The Beautiful Woman in the Forest

Hi everyone. Happy Thursday. Today I'm sharing a  mixed media fantasy piece . 

This page began as a magazine photo of red cabbage. I though the swirls and colors were cool so put pieces of it down on a piece of paper I wiped bits of excess paint onto. Then I added bits of a napkin and used some colored pouring media to give it a bit of texture.

I cut another picture out of the sewing pattern book that I recently picked up on the mark down rack. I am not sure if she is wood nymph, fairy or some type of magical princess. But she is really beautiful in that gown. After attaching the photo I softened the edges of the cut out with some silver glitter glue.  Then I stamped the quote and painted some green and blue stems.

I am linking up to Yvonne's fantasy challenge over at Art Journal Journey and also to the new Slap It On challenge at Try It On Tuesday

Hope everyone is having a good week so far. This week is going fast, but tonight is one of parent open houses at school so it's going to be a long day for me. Thankfully Open House is on Thursday night so I only have to drag myself through one  work day being tired before I get a weekend to rest up. 

OK, so maybe I am exaggerating just a little bit.

Thanks for visiting!

T Stands for Washi Tape and a New Mug

Tuesday has arrived again so Happy T day everyone. Today we share our drink (and often food) related posts over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog. 

So this past Saturday the hubby and I spent the day running some much needed errands. We ended up at a local hunting and fishing store because they are the one place my husband can get the shoes he likes to wear. While walking around the store I noticed that Yeti had come out with an insulated mug.

 I have a Yeti drink tumbler that I bought 2 summers ago that I love and quite literally use every day. It keeps ice in my ice tea all day in the warm weather and my hot tea warm all day in the cold weather. So when I saw that they had a yeti mug I decided it would be perfect for this winter when I have my after dinner cup of tea. It isn't as big aas my tumbler but it does have a handle that I really like.

So I bought myself a little present.  I haven't used it yet, but I am sure you will see it on a Tday post soon.
I also wanted to share my washi tape collection with you.

You can see my storage bin is very full right now. 
Good reason why I haven't bought any for quite awhile.

And I am guessing other than a couple of butternut squash, this is the last pick from my veggie garden.

Most of the plants are looking pretty sad and there aren't many immature veggies growing on those plants. But I had great garden this season so there are no complaints that it's winding down. I get busy with school anyhow so garden time drops way down on the to do list. Time to be done.
Hope everyone has a super T day and I appreciate you stopping by to visit.

Walking the Runway

Happy new week everyone. Hope everyone had a great weekend.  We're in the hot, humid and summer weather right now but luckily this humidity is suppose to break tomorrow when the highs and lows of weather making are suppose to change. But we are going to get a lot of rain tomorrow which surprisingly we can use. And it is  time for this humidity to go since this weekend autumn begins.

 I have a new journal page for Yvonne's fun Fantasy challenge over at Art Journal Journey I'm back with another fashion fantasy using Daniel Torrente stamps from Stampotique. 

This time I used bits of a napkin and some brown tissue paper  as well as just a bit of spray ink to make my background. Then I stamped my ladies and modified their outfits. It was a lot of fun to do a bit of designing.

Hope you're having some nice weather this new week. And thanks for visiting.

Signs of Autumn

Hi everyone.

One thing I love about the weekend is being able to get out for my morning walk. It is probably the biggest thing I miss from the summer when I was home all week.  

And I noticed this morning so many signs that fall is on its way.

Not big signs. A few leaves here and there with a bit of color.

 The asters are blooming and the ferns are starting to brown.

Rescuing newts from the road. 

And there are still lots of caterpillars about.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.