Tags and Tags and Tags and Even More Tags

So I've had a busy vacation week. A lot of it had to do with paint.  I started a new painting, worked on a couple of others, and painted a wall in my daughter's bedroom.  Painted it twice actually, because when I finished the first time the color wasn't much like the color was suppose to be, nor was it what I wanted, and since it needed a second coat, I went and switched colors.
Now it is the color of coffee ice cream. Perfect choice for the room.

None of my art painting progresses are at a show you point- played with some backgrounds mostly, so today I will show some tags.

Still hooked on tags.

I am definitely loving the little canvases they are.

 Both of these tags have painted backgrounds. I cut the tags after I painted the backgrounds.

This tag has a half painted background and a piece of gelli print.

I have also come across some of my stamps that I have forgotten about. Its been so much fun to play with them!

I saw a card in a craft magazine made from white embossed designs, so I embossed these tropical hibiscus on painted paper and then cut them out.  They pop on this ink sprayed and painted background.

Every time I make a new tag I move onto the next idea. My brain has been jumping around a lot lately. Its like I want to try everything at once.

I still need to bind these into a book, and I am actively looking for the right old book to snag the cover from so I can make my tag journal.

Haven't found it yet.

But I have come across a few other assorted interesting things on my vacation adventures.

If you stop by my blog you might have seen this the other day, but for those of you who missed it, (not to be missed-ha-ha!)  this is a cool wall (and ceiling) mural by artist Richard Haas in the lobby of my husband's kidney specialist in Boston. It looks like there's so many real tropical plants in the bright sun. The photo doesn't do it justice.

I want to be in the warm place right now, just for a few hours.

But this (below) is more my reality.

At least, no snow to shovel this week!

 How about these ice fishing bob houses on the big lake (Lake Winnipesaukee) near where I live? The other morning I snapped these photos on a driving adventure I took. Some of them are quite funny.

How about the giant milk bottle on the left?  And the one with the flag and the deck on the right? Looks like a little log cabin.

My favorite is the little travel trailer with the trees set up around it.

It was a gorgeous day outside, just reaching the melting mark, with some beautiful blue sky. 

It did me good just to sit in the car with the sun streaming in the windows.

I went and bought myself some yarn to knit mittens.

More about that another day.

And this is a funky phone photo as we were driving out of Boston the other day and sitting a little traffic. The woman in her car really finishes the photo.

The yarn shop.

And how about this display in someone's front yard? That's Santa driving the digger.

And my furry four legged adventure companion. Who by the way decided to eat a pack of bamboo knitting needles and take a decent skein of grey yarn I had just purchased and tangled it into a mess! It has taken me over 2 hours to untangle it so far and I am still not done! Working on that project while I watched this excellent HBO mini-series.

Got to love these vacation adventures.
Have a great weekend. I'm off on a little road trip to Providence, Rhode Island.

But before I sign off,  check out all this week's art and artistic endeavors at  Paint Party Friday.

A Couple of Cards

 Last night I finished up a couple of cards that were partially done. I had just bought myself this set of stamps from Prima and Finnabair and I used them on this background that I had painted and then layered on some white card stock.

And this card didn't need a lot more to it. Originally I made the flower panel using an image from Chocolate Baroque and colored it with Copic markers. I layered it on a white card with some green card stock.  I also added the yellow and green dots, and my latest update was do make the black doodles around them. They just stood out too much and took away from the image. So yesterday  I embossed the words on the image, and used some Silks paints to make the flowers sparkle a bit, not that you can see it here.

Another day on my vacation. This week has been plodding along, always too fast but actually not at the speed of light.

And I have been having a really nice vacation. 

Big smile!

Hope you've been having a good week too!

Stop back again soon.

Winter Birds Dreaming of Spring

I've been home watching birds at the bird feeder, among other things, this week.

I always feel so bad for them, what with all the snow and the cold temperatures.

The feeder is only about 3 inches above the snow line (and yes the pole is pushed over). The ground feeders like all the seeds that fall out.

Sometimes, as you can see, there is quite a crowd.

They must be hating this long winter too.

Of course with all the snow and cold, I am wishing to be far away.

I usually travel this week, but life this year didn't put it on my agenda.

But next year, I will go back to Northern New Mexico.

I am missing it a lot right now.

This place really grows on you.

And yesterday we went to Boston to see the kidney specialist for my husband.

In the building where the office is I discovered this lovely tropical  painted wall.

The trees at the bottom are real, as is the fountains there, but everything at the top is painted.  I think they look amazing.

I looked it up on the internet and it was done by an interior mural artist named Richard Haas.

 I think one exciting thing about cities is that the outside of a building can look like regular brick or stone but inside are these hidden treasures. Who would even guess it was there?

Life is so full of unexpected turns sometimes, and here I am, in one those mazes right now.

But I can keep dreaming.

A year isn't so very long, is it?

Thanks for stopping by.

Tags and Such

A few more tags to show you today. 

This one started with a gelli print attached to an ivory tag. Then I painted, stamped and doodled a bit.

And the fish here are made by die cutting a tag on some watercolor paper I had painted with Silks. Love those mica based acrylic paints. The start and the sea horses are from a steam punk Chocolate Baroque stamp set called Funky Fish. I used more silks to paint them, along with some markers.

I painted the sea weed with Silks too, and then added some clear Viva paint pen bubbles.

Here's the Chocolate Baroque set. I've had a lot of fun with it!

There is a matching set that goes with it also.

This one is called Steampunk Sea World. 

I've also been having fun with this one too.

But what would you expect from me?

And one more tag to show you.

Lots of paint on this tag, along with some stenciling and stamping. The bubble edging is a sticker with some paint added. And this little turtle stamp from Magenta is one of my all time favorite images.

So far I am having a good vacation. We had a little break from the cold on Sunday and now we are back into the deep freeze for a day or 2. Yesterday was paint the wall in my daughter's bedroom day and today the hubby and I are off to the kidney specialist in Boston.

Oh such adventures.
While cleaning my daughter's room yesterday so I could actually paint, I came across this book from her childhood that I really love.

So I stopped my work and took a little lunch break to read it again.
Boy did it make me smile and forget life's troubles for a bit.
I think this book will vanish into my bookshelves. (Unless she asks for it back, which of course, I would give it back to her.) But until then, I think I will pull it out and read it whenever I need to remember what relationships are all about.
Or if I need a smile on my face.
I also found my old copy of Half Magic on her shelves.

The cover on mine is very different and the pages are rather yellowed but I remember I loved that book. My fifth grade teacher Miss Hodgson read it to us and I was hooked.
I snagged that book too.
Kind of makes me want to venture into the attic and see if I can find any of those other childhood favorites. 

Do you have any childhood books either from your own childhood or your children's childhood that speak to you?

I'm off for now.

Thanks for visiting and please feel free to leave a comment if you feel inclined.

Vacation, So Far

A few vacation views-what to do when you are spending a week local in cold and snowy New England.

What else-
eat ice cream!
Last Friday when I got out of work the daughter and I started my break off with a little spring clothes shopping (one can hope I will eventually be able to wear them) and dinner out in a diner. And we had to split one of these yummy treats,

Window art.
Oh please, No More Snow!

My trip north. More snow. 

I knew it was too much to ask Mother Nature for.

Weird how you can't see any snow in this photo. Little photo gremlins wiped the snow pixels right away.

But a great hockey game and a win.

I refrained. But a piece of one of these pies or cakes would have tasted beyond delicious I bet.

A pretty snowy morning as the storm cleared away.

I suppose the fact that these look really pretty to me, even when I am finished with snow means I am losing it.
I think I really am.

And some cool textured sea ice.

And as we drove through Portland, Maine, we passed this landmark, the B&M baked bean factory.
I wonder if they do tours?

And finally, thought you might like the view of downtown Portland from the highway.
So far, it's been a great vacation.
How was your weekend?

Thanks for visiting today.

Vacation is Here

I didn't think I would be so excited to be off from work for a week- what with being out for 5 days with my husband and his health issues and then having 4 snow days from school on top of that. But all the health issues were very stressful  and I am ready for a little play and down time. HOPEFULLY, not a lot of snow and not a lot of health stress issues.

I am ready to move this life forward.

My plans?

Today we are heading north into more snow (oh no!) to see a hockey game. It will be so good to do something fun with hubby. This entire month has been him being down and out with kidney issues along with snow.

Not fun!
If I can go all week without picking up and using a shovel life will be wonderful.
And besides our little road trip, 

who knows what other trouble I will get into and what other arty things will come from these hands?
Hopefully I'll zip through several hundred pages of printed book paper,  maybe do a bit of kitchen experimenting and possibly watch a movie or 2-even if they are just off of Netflix or a DVD.
Heaven!!!!
Until next time.
Enjoy your weekend!

Dragons, Fish and Snow-Oh My!

Here's a journal page I recently made. I actually had used this dragon stencil on another page with some spray ink, and this dragon was made by flipping over the wet stencil and pressing this negative image onto a clean piece of paper. Then I added lots of various colored paints and got this look.

This dragon is one of my favorite pages. I like the movement he seems to have and how all his colors  really look natural to me. Such a long way from the white page he started out on.

And here's a doodle journal page. I did this away from my play space and I didn't have a white pen. That's the one thing I wish I had  used on this page, but I am otherwise happy with my silly and slightly ugly fishies.

Its all about the play.

This artful play has been helping me cope with my husband's kidney issues. What a couple of weeks it has been.  Kidney issues were the last thing on our minds when the hubby wasn't feeling well at the end of January and now we are starting to prepare ourselves for the fact he is going to need a kidney transplant down the road. All this in less than a month. Yeeks!  

But the good news is my vacation starts today after work. Not that I have anything wildly exotic planned. I am just thrilled to be off from work. Sleeping in,  hopefully painting a wall in my daughter's old bedroom then getting my bookshelves put together (finally) and my books moved into them once the wall is done.  Time to get those long IKEA boxes off my living room floor (finally again). I am hoping for naps in the afternoon,  time to bake something quite yummy, and maybe a little day trip or something I haven't yet thought up. I might even be decadent and spend a whole day in my pajamas reading in bed and sipping hot tea-getting up only to make another cup of tea. That's the best part about the start of a vacation break-all the potential.

I have just one wish-No Snow!

But somehow I doubt that's going to happen.

I think all this snow and ice in my backyard will be here until July!

Thanks for stopping by my blog, and please check out all the great art at 

Paint Party Friday. It will be worth your time, I promise.