Just about ready!

Our hotel is somewhere here along Buckingham Palace Dr.

Will be seeing this in just a few days- along with Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and St. Paul's- I could keep this list going on and on.

http://photoguide.to/london/towerbridge.html

I am packed! The iPod is charged and ready- fresh with 2 movies to watch. There's a book in my backpack carry-on. Laundry is caught up. I am sooooooo excited. 1 more school day- which shouldn't be too bad. Just have to be up up early Saturday since our flight is at 8 a.m., and they are saying some snow...yuk,yuk,yuk! But not too concerned. All will be well, and it looks like it will be ok in London.

Tim Holtz posted his new stamps on his blog- wow. More excellent stamps. And I was bad today- ordered the new Oxford Impression plate (country-on the farm) today from Stamp Diva. Like I should spend money on stamps since I'm about to go on a pricey vacation. Couldn't resist though. Wanted them waiting for me when I get home.

Did have a great day to Rochester Opera House for leadership teacher. Learned stage combat- or at least a few moves, and learned about bricks (no, really interesting-they guy was a mason archeologist), and learned other theatre items. Was a lot of fun- had a lot of laughs.

Anyhow- most likely won't hear from me until next month when I'm home again-we come home the 1st. Bon voyage!!!!!!!!!

Busy, BUSY, bUSY me

The before trip business has set in. Me and my lists, can't forget this, must do that....There's a list on the kitchen counter and another one on my bureau. Partially packed...still need to do laundry...checking the weather in London...excitement building...what travel guides do I bring because books get kind of heavy....
And today my hives have been a pain, but got lots of work done at work...tests I gave today are graded, lots of labs graded, tomorrow I have leadership teacher at the Rochester Opera House so I'm not in school. Sounds like a fun day- I know little about the theatre except I watch plays. Going to learn about stage combat- sounds interesting.
Oh well, I am BEAT- too much planning and list writing- and I want to copy some things to my iPod for the plane ride.

Why you can't leave a comment

I shut them off because I never get comments. I'm the anonymous blogger that no one knows exists. Still. I have no blogging friends. Ok, so I am sounding quite pathetic which I don't mean to, and I don't even mind writing this for myself- its my verbal journal, but sometimes, just to be noticed is nice. I guess I don't quite have the skills to acquire on-line buddies, and I know I'm not up on all the blogging etiquette. Maybe someday. Maybe someone will at some point notice me.

Before I forget- 4 days and counting till London!

Valentine's from the swap

These are the Valentine's I receieved in the swap I was a part of. These pictures aren't great colorwise, but the postcards are so much fun I wanted to share anyhow! I love everyone's

ideas and how they're all unique.

Tulip mania!!!!

These tulips are my obsession right now. I bought this glass jar with the bulbs in at Costco a while back, and you keep putting water in-then you get to see the bulbs grow and bloom. Well these babies are blooming like crazy- especially yesterday when we had blue skies but bitter cold temperatures. Love them! Make me wish it spring!

Today the sun quickly disappeared and its been gray- and so did my mood-especially with a crabby 16 year old around...and now I am so blah. Dave put a gorgeous new floor down in the first floor bathroom but now the rest of the bathroom-which wasn't much to look at to start with- looks really sad. Ah...if only I had lots and lots of cash to fix up the whole house. I tried scrapping today and that went ok, but just wasn't feeling it. Need to stop punishing myself when I can't be successful. Plus, Katie has taken over my computer since she doesn't have one- made her own account on it, and its not that I don't mind sharing, but when do I get something for my own? She uses my car, my computer, obviously my house, which is all ok, but part of my blah is I feel like I'm I'm not taken as a me anymore-I'm just expected to be the mom first. Not that I don't love being a mom either- and I got all upset this morning because I know in just a little over 2 years she's gone and I'm kid-free. UGH. I don't want to be kid free. I think that's the heart of my blahs, that thought got me started on it. A dread for sure. Because even though I want my own computer, I really don't mind sharing my life with Katie.

Well, we leave for London in just a few days-suitcases came out today...5 days of school left...well 4 since I have leadership teacher Thursday. That will bea great family time! That makes me happy.

1 WEEK!

1 week! 1 week! One more week of school and then we leave for London. I am so excited. Although we don't leave until next Saturday morning, the critters go to the kennel (the doggie hotel as we tell Harley) next Friday, and since we have to be at the airport at like 5:30 or 6 a.m.- down in Boston at that, and that's a 2 hour drive- or drive to the bus and then take the bus in, so might as well say its only a week because its not going to be much of a sleeping night on Friday.

I love to go places! I love travel adventure. I'm kind of a whimp when it comes to wild physical adventure, but I love the thrill of exploring a new place, seeing new things and seeing things you know about and have seen photos of. Like seeing the Colliseum in Rome- I just stood there and gawked. Wow- almost 2000 years old and I was actually there, in it, looking at it. Something I always wanted to see.

I can't wait to see London. I've read so many books set in London, I love British History (especially about the Tudors), I've flown over the city in the past and seen Big Ben from a plane window but I want to see it in real life. (And a few other things).The land of Dickens, Darwin, the Queens and Kings,the Beatles, wow-I could go on and on.

Love Conquers All, so they say!

Have a happy Valentine's Day! Enjoy it with either the one you love, doing something you love or maybe the best of them all, eating chocolate.
Posting this to Wednesday Stamper http://wednesdaystamper.wordpress.com/

Weather report

SNOW DAY! Lots of snow, then ice and then rain which has frozen on all the trees. No matter- we're all home with a snow day and I have done some chores and baked blondies with mini-peanut butter cups in them- and as soon as those blondies come out of the oven I am going back up to the studio for awhile. Then I can nap and read more of my Eat,Pray,Love book. I'm now in India.

Read a great quote today, which can be summarize to say something like this: The road is the journey, and we are always on the road, so enjoy the scenery as you go along. Not even sure who said it, but you can check out Ali Edwards blog for the full details.http://aliedwards.typepad.com/

Been watching London weather on the internet- and they've been having 40-50 degree weather. Will seem summery and balmy after our weather- and HOPEFULLY- will stay that way and we won't bring winter there with us. Can't wait- counting down- I week and 3 days til we go.

Been getting my Valentine's from the swap, but today the driveway is too icy looking to walk down and check my mail. Will post all the great artwork I'm getting-maybe tomorrow for Valentine's day.

celebrate light

Wish these tulips were in bloom in my yard instead of in a glass vase in my house, but I love the spring mood they put in the house.

I'm celebrating that for the second morning in a row, at 6 a.m. when Katie and I go out to the bus, it is getting light. I LOVE IT!

I don't love the big storm predicted for tonight though. I know, its only February and this is New Hampshire, but I can hope for a bit of a let up in the bad weather, can't I?

latest read

Having trouble uploading photos to my blog tonight, so I can't share with you some favorite faces. But here's my latest read, which I am very much enjoying, as well as reliving my Roman vacation (I only got to visit for a week unlike the author's 4 months-lucky her). But I have thought about how all my vacations end up with a "theme" like in this book. It may be a planned theme -more likely not though-just evolves while visiting. I'd say the root of the theme is because of what's moving me at the time AND depending on where I am. I've taken trips for particular purposes, but most of the vacations I go on are not just for 1 thing. I go to experience a whole range of things. That means its not an all consuming theme- where every event is that one topic, but the theme seems to turn up a lot. Take my trip to Rome and Italy in 2005, the theme was culture. I didn't go looking for culture, but between visiting Roman ruins and looking at art and observing how people make a pilgrimage to the Vatican (and not being Catholic that surprised me) plus never mind watching Italians and interacting with them in their own country. Big word for all that is my week of Culture. In Ireland last spring, the theme was man and nature- ruins left to waste and I was fascinated to see as many as we passed by), nature itself as we did some rambling at Giant's Causeway and at the Lake in the Wicklow Mountain National Park. AND it was nature being tamed- all the sheep in all the meadows. When we went on our Western Ramble-Vegas to Zion to Bryce to the Grand Canyon back to Vegas- the theme was geology, earth, nature in a way but more long term nature-millions of years of change. As I said, not everything on these trip was theme related- we shopped in Dublin, Ireland and drank Guiness. In Rome we people watched, in Vegas there wasn't a lot of signs of geology at the Mama Mia performance we saw- but themes are bigger things- aren't they?

Wednesday stamper

Was making my Valentine's today and ended up with this Asian/Valentine card. Thought I'd post it. Haven't posted here before, so not sure if what I'm doing is actually correct, but here I go.

http://wednesdaystamper.wordpress.com/

A few more tags

Been making Valentine cards today. These are a few tags from last Sunday. Think they came out pretty good and thought I would post them.

A little sun and fresh air

Today was a nice day- but now it is once again SNOWING. It has snowed everyday since Tuesday- some days a lot, some days a little. But this morning- we had sun and high thirties. Katie and I went out shopping- she needs a raincoat for London. No luck finding one BUT, we walked from store to store in a few strip malls and it was REALLY nice.
Starting to get ready for London as we leave in 2 weeks. Always need to put together a few items-got to book our airport/hotel transport and need to finish my planning. PLanning for me is researching things to do and day trips we can take. Checked the weather there- and this week they are in the 50's. Think that can last until we get there? With our luck we will bring winter. GRRR. But signs of spring are everywhere- even tonight we have Nascar and football is over and spring training in baseball starts soon. Not that I am a sports fanatic, but those are always signs of spring coming.
And yesterday my new couch arrived. I am so happy, I have been waiting for it since November. YAHOO!!!!!!!!!
And to wrap up, these are a few of the tags I made last weekend. I really like them!

Hives again

I have so many hives tonight. Lip, fingers, bottom of my feet, my intestines are starting to squirm which means they're inside too. UGH. Have pictures on my camera I need to download so I can show you the tags I made on Sunday. They came out great. Too sore to do that tonight. Sorry. More snow due overnight ( we got a surprising 8 inches yesterday morning-thankfully I had the day off because Dave had some medical tests-good results too! Back to tomorrow- right now I'd love it to be a snow day so I can sleep and try to de-hive. But I guess it would mean another school day in June to make it up. I won't want that in June. Thought this Flaxseed I started taking would help these hives, and last week/weekend it seemed that way since Saturday I was hive free and Sunday just had a few. Now they're back! Short post, but that's about all I want to do tonight.

Just for the record-A Day of Mourning

Man, what a football game last night. Depressing. In the last 35 seconds to let the Giant's pull ahead- 17-14. The Pats did some silly things I'll admit, and they should have gone for a field goal a few times, and they didn't catch passes...but man. Bad enough not to win the superbowl but to not get the record of 19 straight wins. The superbowl was the cherry on top for this- and who will remember they still won more games than the 1972 Dolphins because the Pats couldn't pull of a Superbowl win.
I actually had sad football drams last night. Eeeks. I like the sport, but to dream about it. This really is a sad sad thing and today a lot of us New England fans feel like we are in mourning.
Time to go home and do art and feel happy again.

Postcards for Valentine's swap

Here's a couple of postcards for a Valentine swap I am participating in. Haven't been in a swap before, but its been fun so far. I love seeing what other people make- they're all so different from each other. FUN!

Check out my other postcards on my Flickr http://flickr.com/photos/7594576@N08/

Oh yeah- took my own advice from yesterday's post and decided to reread Emma by Jane Austen, even though I picked up Eat, Pray and Love at the bookstore yesterday.

And most importantly- being a New Englander- GO PATS!

New years resolutions revised

Ok, a short note. My New years resolution was to do an art "thing" a month. Not just do art, but submit something, or push my limits like doing a swap or a class. What I hope to keep up with. So far, so good, and I feel good pushing myself out of the little make art room where everything stays.
Last year I did the museum a month- and I did really well with it making it most months. Museum was for most part an established place but sometimes something more broad-like a national historic park or art exhibit. I wanted to try to keep up with it again this year- as I enjoyed it so much, and it was a really good personal change, not just something to check off a list. This January never got anywhere- but that tends to happen in winter when it seems so much harder to get out of the routine and go places. This month, going to London, I expect to more than make up for that.
But had a new idea. Been wanting to reread some books that I loved, classics often, like some Jane Austen, Bleak House by Dickens...Is that really a thing you should try to do each month to make your life better...since I do read a lot. Weird rereading a book, like when I reread Wuthering Heights or Accidental Tourist, or last year, when I got 1/2 way through Love in the Time of Cholera. (I should finish that off). Sometimes the books seem so different from when I originally read them. Not that the story is different, but what I visualize, how I feel, where it puts me. Guess that's age speaking.
Maybe won't make it a monthly attempt, but will try to read them. Maybe some Jane Austen on the plane. That is always a good read, all 3 or 4 times I reread Pride and Prejudice I loved it.

I love Fridays

A great old movie-have you seen it?
I LOVE Fridays. Today we got hit by ice, sleet, rain...it was a messy drive home BUT...once home, it was a great afternoon for a nap on the couch. I love to nap. And knock on wood...not itchy right now. Won't say the H word, but read my entried for the last few days if you don't know what the H word is. I don't want to jinx it.
I LOVE Fridays. Tomorrow I can sleep in a bit later. The whole weekend is ahead of me, and the possibilities for having fun is high. The routine is broken. I can crash early tonight if I want, or stay up late. More possibilities. And it is February today- the month we go to London. Just 3 weeks. I am so excited about those possibilities.
What about your possibilities?