So Far Its Been a Good Vacation

I know, I have only been off since Thursday which is hardly long enough to really know, right?

But you can just tell.

A few chores done, some low key time, some studio time and some fun, what more could a gal want?

Yesterday was exciting.

My favorite craft store was having an indoor yard sale of sorts.

Cash and carry, lots of assorted new and used items. I got a few stamps, some velvet paper, some jewelry making chain and some stickers, some old photos, some charms...lots of items for 50 cents or a dollar or two. I love picking and and poking, and could have bought a bunch more stuff (though it was pretty picked through when I got there at 11, and they only opened at 10...guess I am not as good a picker as some people), but I limited the cash in my wallet just so I wouldn't go plum stupid and buy a bunch of stuff I didn't really need, which is what happens at these kind of picking sales.

Then when I got home (after stopping to run several errands) and found my bedroom floor finally being put down.

YAHOO!!!!

Dave got some help from Katie's boyfriend Brian-he's a much speedier worker than the hubby but they seem to work pretty good as a team.

I love it!

Not quite done yet but just maybe the hubby will finish today.

(or then again, maybe not. I am leaving that up to him...I am tired of being a nag about certain things...like the floor).

So I don't know what is on my agenda today,

what are you up to?

10 Things Saturday- a Travel Question???

Here's a question and challenge for you.  See if you can answer this in one sitting.

What are 10 places you'd like to visit that you haven't ever or recently visited in an area no more 100 miles around your home?  

You know, play tourist in your own backyard, so to speak.

I live in eastern New Hampshire, at the base of the Lakes Region and the top of the Seacoast. So here's my places.

1- I have never been to the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester. And I really would like to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's Zimmerman House.

http://www.currier.org/collections/zimmerman-house/

It may not be Falling Water or one of his famous prairie homes but I've never been to a Frank Lloyd Wright home and I want to see what all the fuss is about.

2-Explore Newcastle. 

New Castle, the only town in NH composed entirely of islands, covers approximately 500 acres (.8 square miles) and serves as a scenic residential and recreational community.  New Castle was founded in 1623, chartered in 1679, and incorporated in 1693 during the reign of William and Mary.  Today, in addition to a residential population of slightly more than 1,000, it is home to the New Castle Common recreational park, Wentworth-by-the-Sea Hotel, a UNH marine research laboratory, a Coast Guard station, and Fort Constitution and Fort Stark state parks.

http://www.newcastlenh.org/pages/index

I've driven through here once or twice in all the years I have lived in this area, and it is always like traveling far away. It is so quaint and crowded and so old fashioned. I want to actually visit the lighthouse at Fort Constitution.

3- 

Visit this state park-the Wentworth Coolidge Mansion. After boating past this for several years and not knowing what it was, I learned about 10 months ago what it was. Need to figure out how to drive here,  it is in Portsmouth and I am not sure exactly how I get out to this spot. I have an idea how to get there, but want to check it out. Looks pretty cool.

4.

Find the hiking trail to the cave in the town I live in.  The cave is called Devil's Den, and people talk about it but I have never been there (I've lived in this town 24 years) and am not exactly sure how to get there. Just a little bit of an idea how to find it. Maybe this will be the summer I do.

5.

Drive route 153 through Wakefield, Sanbornville.  I have been on part of this road, and the part I have been on is very very pretty. It is even listed in the National Geographic Scenic Byways book as one of the to do road in New Hampshire. 

It isn't very far from home either, so one of these days I must drive it.

6.

Find this sign in Maine.

I believe it is in Lyncheville, Maine. I measured it out; it is 82 miles away from my house.

Found a few other interesting road signs in Maine while searching for this one. I will have to explore them some more and report back.

7.

How about a revisit, since a big change. 

Our state symbol is the Old Man in the Mountains.

Can you make out the face?

Well 10 years ago in April the face collapsed and fell off? As you can imagine, it was a sad day in this neck of the woods.

But I haven't been back since that happened, haven't traveled that far north in my state.

I'd like to drive by and see what is there now, now that our state symbol is gone.

8. 

Pitsburg, New Hampshire

Not the big city in Pennsylvania, but the northern most town in the State of NH.

My family used to vacation there pretty much every year when I was a kid so my dad could go fishing.

I haven't been there since I was probably 18.

It would be cool to check it out again, not for a full vacation but for a view.

See if there's still a lot of moose on moose alley- Route 3 which in the very top of the state and travels in Quebec.

OK, just checked the mileage and this doesn't work, but I am leaving it anyhow. This list is pretty hard to do.

9.

Casco Bay Islands

I love Portland, Maine a lot. It is a little over an hour away.

And I would love to explore Casco Bay that services the city.

I have never been out on any of the islands, though I did go fishing once out on the bay.

10.Finally,

BoothBay Harbor, Maine.

This may be a little more than 100 miles limit too, not sure, but I have never been here and I have heard it is pretty and quaint. And I love the Maine coast, a lot, probably my most favorite place to visit.

What's on your agenda this weekend?

We're supposedly in for rain and clouds-

again!

I am motivating myself to work on some more decluttering of my house, which

at the moment is a mess!

Hoping I get some of my bedroom floor put in.

Wouldn't that be GREAT? Since the floor has been sitting in my basement since last August.

Will let you know if that happens next week.

Happy Saturday.

Blogger's Challenge- Wedding or Anniversary

Here's a card I made for a co-worker's wedding shower just last week.

Haven't posted it yet.

Her favorite thing to say is Best thing ever so I used this Paper Smooches stamp-

from their Slang Gang set.

The die cuts are from Memory Box and Sizzix (little flowers only).

The tree layer is slightly altered- I removed part of the branch because I thought it looked better.

For the falling flowers I was thinking of how sometimes at weddings they throw rose petals.

Anyhow, this friend is getting married in Connecticut tomorrow and I hope they aren't getting the grey and wet weather we are suppose to have, just more of the same.

Thanks for stopping by!

How I spent the first day of my vacation and a journal page too!

Summer is glorious, even when the sky is foggy, grey and damp.

Here's a view a little after 8, after I dropped the dog off to get groomed.

I was planning on coming straight home, but then I saw a sign pointing me off on a tangent

A very good tangent

I haven't been strawberry picking for a couple of years and even though I was all by myself and even though it was soooo foggy and damp, I went and picked almost 10 pounds of berries.

One of the JOYS of summer.

And look what I made when I got home.

So I also spent my first day playing for a bit in the studio, doing a snippet of gardening, going out to lunch with my daughter, and relaxing.

GLORIOUS!

No, I am not having summer vacation regrets.

Not missing work either. But here's a fun journal page I made before summer vacation began.

Think this page speaks for itself.

(Photo booth pictures are a piece of October Afternoon paper that I chopped up.)

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Friday!

Summer Vacation Starts

Today is the best day of the summer.

No matter what-well, I can think of a few exceptions but for the most part

no matter what.
The best day of summer.

That is because it is the first day of summer vacation and it means there is a HUGE possibility of what lies ahead.

Kind of true about every day of your life.

Anyhow, I love it!
Summer vacation!

Anyhow, how about some art to view.

A splotchy colorful journal page. I made my own circle and dotty stencil and sprayed it several times with different colors. What I ended up with is a color explosion.

Ka-Boom!

Then I had all these pink die cut flowers laying all over my work table which I decided would summer up the page.

The die cut words are from Sizzix and I cut those just for this page because I decided it needed a main title.

Then I added these side words. I had a lot to say that day. It was a busy one- a Friday, the last day for the kiddos at school, the start of summer, the date itself.

Finally I die cut this little butterfly and added it just to finish off the page.

Oh yeah-

and I added a bit of stitching, which this photo doesn't really show.

Actually, the colors aren't are true to life on the butterfly and the the title- they are light blue on the page, not in the photo.

Oh well.

So what am I going to do on the first day of my vacation?

Not quite sure except I have to drop off my dog to get groomed so he'll feel silky and smell yummy.

(Not that he will think that! Poor guy!)

But whatever I do,

it will be great.

Have a great day whatever you do too.

Keeping It Simple.

Sometimes you don't need a lot of "things" on a page to say a lot.

Just keeping it simple. My favorite style.

So the exciting news is today IS the last day of school for me. 

I am SOOOOOOO excited and ready.

Scrapbook Style Pages

Another week is rolling along. I can't believe it is the end of June, already. 

So how was your weekend and start to the new week? I was busy. Work at the lake, an end of year school party at one of my department member's homes, 2 Bruins games (on tv), going fishing with the hubby, huge thunderstorms and rain-poor Harl, my dog, was home alone and buried himself behind my washing machine. 

And now we're into the heat and humidity- wish  I didn't have to be working but these teacher work days are very low key. Today I think is the worst of the 3-boring! At least I expect it to be.

So here's a few pages I've made in my summer scrap-journal. Some of my pages are more scrapbook pages, as you'll see today.  Sometimes I draw, as you saw last Wednesday .http://fat-emma.blogspot.com/2013/06/ive-been-drawing-little-bit-more.html Sometimes they are more journal pages, as you can see on last Monday's post .http://fat-emma.blogspot.com/2013/06/5-days-and-counting.html

Here's something a tad more traditional.

It's a little busy to me, but decided I'd keep it.

Spice up my book a bit!

The fish tape was the easiest-I just stamped this little fish on yellow tape.

Yahoo! 

It is fun to be able to do whatever I feel like in this book.  Paint, paper, pictures, drawing, you name it, it is there.

One more.A combo page!!!

If you can image that!

Top view and

bottom view

I really like how this doodling of waves came out.

I also like my anchors-which are stamped, colored and outlined.

What do you put in your journals?

I'd love to know.

Thanks for visiting.

How to Do Art at the Lake

Cool morning sun Saturday at the Lake when I went to work checking for invasive species on boats coming in or out of the state boat ramp.

With a 5 hour shift, I finished reading my book

Which was almost finished- just 50 pages left which I devoured.

And I just started my next book.

And I visited with my sweet hubby who brought me breakfast 

Here he is with the fugitive- our dog- who wasn't hooked (the sweet hubby's calling when he insisted the dog would stay by us) and the dog wandered off-all they way through someone's yard into the town beach. I sent Dave to retrieve him since 1) it was his idea not to hook the dog and 2) I was working and waiting for a boat.

And then I painted pages for my artwork.

Look.

and

and one more out of my bunch

I will cut these up for embellishments or for backgrounds or something.

Had to do all of these on my lap, as I was sitting in a lawn chair.

And I had to put them down when boats appeared- and

a lot seemed to-of course, because I was painting.

I finally remembered to pack a pad of watercolor paper and some paints.

I've had this set forever as well as the water brushes. They are the coolest inventions for painting away from a cup of water. Plus at the lake I could just walk over and fill them up in the lake. 

I am so clever sometimes!

HA! HA! HA!

Have a fab rest of your day!

On the Nightstand

Love this Sunday. Even though I have to work the next 3 days there are no kids. What a nice feeling.
Lots going on this weekend. Will fill you in one of these days.

So today, I want to show you a few books on my nightstand that I am reading and perusing  and educating myself just  a tad about.

First of all, my last pleasure book.

The ultimate road trip book- driving across country and eating one of my favorite foods-pie. YUM! The book includes a few recipes, some interesting insights and  fun girl type road trip stories. It is actually about 2 road trips on the pie search, a Volvo wagon called Betty and a even a bit of finding love. What more could a reader want in a book?

(Think it is also getting time to make another pie myself.  The book mentioned a bean pie- which is a new one to me. Not sure I want to make that right now, but one day, it could be interesting. Maybe after Wednesday when  have a bit more time I'll make me a big juicy fruit pie or maybe a cold lemon pie to beat the heat. Any other suggestions for tasty pie in this hot summer weather?)

The latest reading for fun book:

Just read the first chapter yesterday while working at the lake. I decided to read this since it is set in American southwest, and since I am heading that way in less than a month, thought I might get a little inspiration for this vacation. Haven't gotten very far into this so I can't judge anything about this book yet,will tell you more later. Haven't read any books in this series actually, even though some of them I think were first published back in the 1980's. Way back in time, practically a classic.

And also on the nightstand-or actually on my disastrous messy coffee table:

Getting ready for my trip in August seeing I know NOTHING about this country.
I also ordered a couple of other used volumes on tropical rainforest wildlife and plants.
Got them used on Amazon and I don't know if they're any good or not-but they looked pretty good. Plus, the price was just right. Gotta love getting some good used book for as little as a penny on Amazon!!!

This one got 5 stars!


I know NOTHING about this neck of the woods!

And in the arty department!

Bought this a few weeks ago and I have been reading it and can't wait to have some time to play with some of the ideas in this book. Pop up pages are intriguing me.
After Wednesday!
Man, feels like my summer vacation is never going to really start.

Educating myself about something I know very little about and want to know more about. I like this book because it isn't lots of in depth reading-you know, with lots of big words and little print and too much information, yet even though brief-this book is informative! I am getting a really good overview without falling asleep! When I have been working at the lake I read a little bit, one section at a time. Maybe by the time school  starts I will have finished it.
Or maybe sooner.

Finally, pulled this book off of the shelf. It's not new, but something I pull out and used while trip planning.

Yup, I'm planning driving routes for our July family vacation.
And I am
Planning on doing a lot of reading once I get past Wednesday!
(There's that mentioning of Wednesday again.)
Oh boy Oh boy Oh boy!
Thanks for visiting.

A very exciting day that only comes once a year

Summer has arrived!
In more ways than 1.
It officially the summer solstice today!
Wahoo!
And  this is what is rolling around in my head.

But I'll take the next 8 weeks.

I have 3 teacher work days next week-Monday-Tuesday- and Wednesday.

But today,

the kids are gone after 11:22!!!

Summer  just as well starts today!!!!

Happy Friday everyone!

Tide Pooling

With only 4 kids left in my zoology class since the seniors graduated, we have been doing some fun things. Like going out for ice cream after doing presentations. Watching Jaws. Doing a few more dissections. And going tide pooling down at Odiorne State Park.

We found a lot of crabs.

This one was so tiny.

And this one wasn't very happy.

It was a Where's Waldo of crabs?

Can you find any?

Last full day of school!

Tomorrow we just have exams in the morning and the kids get out early.

And today, those 4th block charmers finish up with me!

Yahoo!

I've Been Drawing a Little Bit More

Bought myself some Tom's shoes earlier this spring.

Being a science teacher, I get a lot of comments when I wear these.

The shoes themselves are watercolor painted but  I acrylic painted the page around them, first a blue coat and then I stenciled some orange paint around them.

And I drew my deck pots, or at least some of them. This was back Memorial Day weekend when I bought my plants and put them in

To finish off these pages I added this cute little die cut bunny and the heart.

Playing in the gardens and in the dirt is such a satisfying this for me to do at this time of year.
I got a bunch of weeding and even a bit more planting left to do.
But that is half the fun.
The other half to admiring the work and the colors and produce it brings.
Happy Day.
More Bruins tonight. Go Boston Bears!
Thanks for visiting.