Monday, August 31, 2015

Summer Wrap Up

The last day of August; the first day with kids at school. The beautiful weather will hopefully be around for a bit but I am in summer vacation review mode right now that my summer break has become past tense.
Of course the weather is suppose to heat up again this week. It always does this once we go back to school! Makes you want to be swimming, not teaching, but there is a long holiday weekend coming up. (And if history continues, it will cool off and rain this weekend). Oh my!
Back in June I wrote this list about what I hoped my summer would be like. I love going back and looking to see what I wanted and whether it was what I ended up with.
(I'll warn you, this is rather a LONG post today!)

What Adventures  I Hope This Summer Brings

1-Relax and  enjoy (or continue to enjoy) the longer warm days, the flowers, the garden growing, the humming birds buzzing up to the feeder, the birds singing and all that jazz.

2-Read a lot of books while I am relaxing-and hopefully not napping too too much.

3-Make art! Have some good long uninterrupted studio time, try some new things, play with color, play with my camera...etc.

4-Do some new things not usually on my summer agenda. Actually I have already signed up for a 4 day baking  class-which I am hoping to learn and add some more tricks  and also a friend has paddle boards which I would like to try out one day too.

5-Go to some new places.  It is tough this summer for me.  Usually the husband and I (and often my daughter) head out for 10 days of exploring someplace out of our home area, but I have had issues with his kidney dialysis center scheduling anything. So I am going to find some new places to go near by, even if I have to go alone! Let's see where my sense of adventure takes me.

6-Come to some peace about my husband and his kidney issues and also about my mom and her dementia issues. Also I am going in to see if I pass step 2 in the being a kidney donor process and we need to get my mom placed in some type of housing where she will get more care for her dementia.

7-Do some old fashioned summery things like swimming, cook outs, raspberry and blueberry picking, and even a few campfires in the fire pit the hubby is building. All those kind of things.

8- OK, do a couple of house projects. The first one I want to do it finish painting my daughter's old bedroom, which means she and I have to (this is scary) clean out under her bed. I also have a kitchen over flow closet in the basement that needs emptying out, shelf adding and reorganizing. A good project for some hot humid day when the basement is cooler than outside.
And I have to finish purging my play space (but this one is actually enjoyable).

9-Go to a drive in movie.  The only one left around house is for sale and may not be there any longer after this summer. We used to go a lot when my daughter was little.  I want to do that again. And a few of my students are performing with a local theater company that does outdoor plays. I'd love to go see them. Guess the title of this number is redo some things that I haven't done in a long time.

10-And most importantly, not plan too much or be too busy so the summer just buzzes right by in a blink. Have a good fun and happy summer break. Live each moment. Enjoy my down time.

And how did I do? Well I didn't read as many books as I hoped, and the house projects, well, I didn't get a good grade for them either.  And somehow I ended up busy, but mostly fun busy, so summer did fly by in a blink, but doesn't it always do that? And the sad parts were losing my cat (still miss him terribly) and my daughter splitting up with her boyfriend and moving home, but she seems to be recouping from  that and I am enjoying her being home. So at least there there is a bright side. I also made it far further in the kidney donation route than I would have guessed, and getting my mom settled, which is such a huge relief. So looking ahead to fall, there's a lot that needs to be done and thing I want to do, but that's all for another day.
Here's some photos, just to recap summer.
First time at a tiki bar that you reach by boat. Ha-ha. Expensive but was a fun adevnture. Enjoying the sun and the water is what summer is all about. It is even better when you get to spend time with family and friends. 
Two dogs in my house now.  Good thing they really love each other.
The summer of lobster rolls.  I ate a few too many but yum!
Napping in the afternoon sun. OK, most of the time it was home on the screen porch, but when you get a chance, you have to enjoy the lake.

The dog learned to swim and retrieve her ball.  
Margaritas were the drink of the summer.  Not that I  am a big drinker.
I love Mexican food and I got out 3 times for it too.
I ate way too much food this summer!
Classroom at baking school.
Ocean days.  Blue skies.
Playing with some fabric this summer.
Fires in the fire pit and roasting wieners. I love cooking hot dogs on a stick!
 Road trips-driving down the highway. This pretty mountain view is in Vermont. But I headed out in other directions too. Never too too far from home.
Spending time with my Mom. She has settled into assisted living quite nicely. :)
And being a local tourist.
So many fun summer adventures. Sad those days have wound down, but fall will offer its own adventures.
But I can't think that far in advance right now.
Even if I did see a  this leaf on the road the other day when I was walking. And there was a few more around it!

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Stitching and Reading

I've only been back to school for 2 days and I am so excited it is Saturday!
What a working wimp I am!
Ha-ha!
 A while back I did some painting on canvas with a friend. I decided to turn my whole piece into an art quilt, and I've started some machine stitching to add some background texture. So here's a few snippets of my work so far. Keep in mind I have a lot more work I want to do on this.



And I haven't talked about books at all lately.
Here's my latest 2 fiction reads. I've been off to colonial 1920's Kenya lately.
This book is a historical fictional account about Beryl Markham who was the first person/woman to fly from Europe to North America. I enjoyed it. Many years ago I read the book that supposedly Beryl Markham wrote about her life called West with the Night. I find this place and period of history fascinating for some reason.
 And it inspired me to reread this book which is set during the exact same time, in fact, a lot of the people are in both books. This book is the true account by the Danish writer Isak Dinesen-Baroness Blixen.
I haven't read it in years but what a lovely story she weaves.
This book inspired the movie by the same name in 1985 with Robert Redford and Meryl Strep, which I of course had to re-watch. My daughter had never seen it and she watched it with me, and she actually liked it. Yeah!
And I purchased a couple of new fabric art books. I haven't actually made it all the way  through them  (they are next on my list) yet, but they look fantastic!


And I also bought a couple of cookbooks too. 
 I haven't baked any of these cakes yet, but there are a few I can't wait to try.
And I made a BIG batch of danish pastry dough before I went back to school. The batch recipes in this book are huge, so I cut it into 4 pieces and froze them.  I'm hoping maybe this weekend to thaw one out and make one of the danish rings this weekend. I like the idea of making big batches of dough so you can have it on hand for when you want to have some on hand. Wish this cookbook had photos, but otherwise I am really impressed with the recipes. 
So we are off on the boat today. Going to enjoy some more summer while I can.
Thanks for visiting today.





Friday, August 28, 2015

Time's Up

Happy Friday everyone! 
It is Paint Party Friday already! Where did the last week go to?
Thanks to Kristen and Eva for hosting.
Here's my last time piece for this month for Art Journal Journey, Can you believe it is almost September? My husband always says there is only 1 month that goes faster than July and that is August.  How true is that?
This is a good piece that represents my life right now because of all the big changes that happened over this past summer, actually many of these from this week-now that I am back to school for another year. Although not official I think I will end up being my husband's kidney donor this fall, seeing I have passed all my tests-just waiting on yesterday's  mammogram results. We got my 85 year old Mom moved into an assisted living place this past week too. It went easier than planned and I hope things will stay on the good side because my Mom has been way too isolated and with her short term memory issues, she needs to be with people more often than she was. What a relief to know she is in a really good place. At least that's what many of the residents have told me. 
So any big plans for the weekend? We haven't been in our boat on the ocean in a few weeks and my husband is sooooo antsy to get out there, me too also, that if the weather is nice tomorrow we will be on the water. Otherwise I think I need to finish a few little projects from the summer that I want done before the school year really ramps up.
Thanks for visiting my blog. I love to hear from you too so please leave me a comment if you feel so inclined.
And have a great weekend!


Thursday, August 27, 2015

Time to Get Up

Oh my!
Oh No!
I am NOT ready for this.
I can't believe my 8 weeks of summer downtime have already rolled right by and now I am beginning another new school year.
Some time in my life I will get to take September off and enjoy the rest of summer. But I am happy to have a good job that I like. (I just like being home all summer even better!)
I spent my last day home doing just what I wanted to do. Paint play, reading on the screen porch, taking a long walk with one dog while the other was at doggie daycare, eating a big slice of lemon cake.
Linking this page to Art Journal Journey. This months theme is Time.
The words are part of a song. Not sure if its a kids song or what, but we used to sing it to my daughter when she had to get up as a kid. We would sing "Its time to get up" but I left off the its on this page.
My background is a Gelli print on printed paper. I used quite a bit of stamping, painted the sun rise, added the stamped and distressed clock, some gears and the back to school words from a flyer that came in the mail.
Going to keep this short. Seeing I goofed off all summer and never went in to my classroom at all, I want to get an early start today.
Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

The Circus


I pre-posted today's post since yesterday I had to go help move my mom into assisted living, and I wasn't sure I would be home or staying down where she lives 2 hours away. I did end up coming home, and the move went better than expected. Hopefully today I won't get any panicked phone calls, and when I call her to check in, hopefully she will be happy.
So a few more photos only today. More from my museum trip last week to the Shelburne Museum in Vermont.
Hope its not too boring!

 I thought this was so amazing-and fun! I'm glad these pieces made it into a museum and didn't get burned or trashed or ruined.








What a talented man this circus creator was.
And a few other fun  and playful views from the circus exhibit.






I am not even a circus  lover, but the display was so amazing I had to make a post about it. The circus building was very large, and very full of some amazing models and displays. This is only a very short section of the building. I bet it was at least 15 time longer!
Back tomorrow with some art before I head off to work. Work. Did I really write that? Can't be back to school already.
Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Views

This is a pre-post because I am dreading today.  I am off to help move my mom into assisted living. Not sure if I will need to spend the night down there, or if I can come home (hope for being able to come home). I am having a lot of mixed emotions about the fact that she can no longer live in her home alone, and also hoping she can deal with this move without a lot of confusion and stress. I am also worried how today will actually go, and I hope smoothly. My mom has been in her house for 50 years and this will be hard on her.
So no art today, but since I have shown you some folk art and other arty views from my museum trip last Thursday (the Shelburne Museum in Vermont), today I will show you more about the museum itself.

A view of the museum out of window from one of the museum buildings.
 There's an old steam powered paddle boat there too.  Along with a lighthouse from Lake Champlain.
And a covered bridge too.
The grounds are very pretty and the gardens are gorgeous.





 Just don't feed the ducks and watch out for those stinging bugs.
 But otherwise, I enjoyed the beautiful day and the colors of summer.

This is all for me today. Hope you enjoyed this little journey. 
Keep your fingers crossed for me that this move with my mom goes well!
And thanks for stopping by!