These Boots Were Made For

Keeping your feet warm and dry. :)

I can't believe tomorrow is the end of  November and so ends Chris great challenge over at Art Journal Journey. Her theme is 101 Ways to Keep Warm,. Thanks Chris for such a fun challenge.  My post today is inspired  by my boots, which you can se on my feet in this photo.

So after painting these boots on a piece of watercolor paper, I then used bits of a painted transfer  to make the boots shiny. I made the transfer by painting on Yupo paper and then applying some gloss gel medium. Once the gel medium dries you can peel it right off the Yupo paper (and use the paper again). :)

My proportions with the legs and dress are off, but they were an afterthought since without any legs and dress bottom the boots looked kind of empty. 

And I don't know if you remember a few weeks back I showed you the new beaver pond forming on my walk. Well when I went by it last weekend I noticed those beavers had been busy.

The whole right hand edge of the water is the dam that's being built.  I marked the dam for you as well as a couple of  obvious beaver gnawed trees.

This used to be just soggy area, not this little pond.

He's been a busy beaver and there are gnawed trees all over the place.

I think by spring there will be a new pond on my walk. I wonder where the beaver(s) came from.
That's kind of exciting. I enjoy seeing how nature changes.
Thanks for visiting.

T Stands for Turkey With All the Fixings

Hi everyone. Another Tuesday has arrived and November is quickly winding down. Time to share our drink related posts over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog. It is T Day again!
 So I hope everyone who celebrates  had a wonderful  Thanksgiving. (And everyone else had a good day also.) I had a nice  quiet Thanksgiving at home, just the hubby and myself. My husband found it a little too quiet, but I really enjoyed the no pressure holiday.
I still made a nice meal for us. I started with my favorite part, the baking.
Since there was only 2 of us, I decided to make  little mini apple pies in a muffin tin.

And I bought a little 9 pound turkey and roasted it.

So along with the turkey, I made the standard dinner accompaniments: mashed potatoes, stuffing.  squash, green beans, gravy and we had a really nice meal.

And for my drink I enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine. I had bought this bottle last summer when we went to the Finger Lakes in New York State and went to a wine tasting.  I didn't remember what a nice wine it was.
Of course typical of Thanksgiving there was still too much food. In fact all weekend I seemed to eat. :) Now it is time to get back to healthy habits. At least for a little while until all the next round holiday food makes an appearance. :)
I will say though looking at my Thanksgiving dinner photo it is making me want another one of those meals.
Happy T Day ladies.

Sunday Afternoon Already

I title this post  with some melancholy because Thanksgiving weekend is one of my favorite weekends of the year. It's usually so relaxing and fairly low key before the crazies start. Crazy kids waiting for Christmas, holiday functions, trying to get all the pre-holiday chores done, short days... I was thinking how much I am looking forward to this time of year when I retire in a few years.Then I should have a little more time and maybe I can extend my long weekend relaxed mode a bit longer.

Of course it's good to have something to look forward to.

So I am writing this on  generator power as our power is gone from a tree that has been blown down. It's cold and windy today.

I wanted to share one more tag over at Tag Tuesday before the current music theme disappears. And I also wanted to join in over at Moo Mania with their latest stencil theme before that one wraps up also.

Earlier today we went to the Christmas tree farm near us to cut our holiday tree. We're not putting it up quite yet, but figured we would have it when our daughter next comes home since she wants to help decorate. I think it was also good to go early since the next couple of weekends it will be crowded.  I like visiting the farm even though with the wind today it was a chilly hunt for the right tree.

 We had to walk to the far back of the farm to find a tree. I think it's going to take these trees a few more years before they can be cut.

I love walking through the old fields.  I think I would love to live on a farm. I don't think I'd want to actively be a farmer though. But I would love to turn an old barn into an art studio and have beautiful fields to view while I create.

It's good to dream.

 In the far back the trees were a little more to size.

 And we found a good one.  We had to drag it back out once we cut it, which is a haul. I feel empowered though because I managed to pull it about a 1/3 of the walk, and I could have gone further. Walking those dogs has helped me build up some upper body strength I guess. :)

 The tree then went through the tree wrapped that puts string around it so it's easier to move.

And look at this solar panel the farm put up since last year. It's nice to see it. 

That's all for me today. I want to go finish my latest book listen "Mr. Dicken and His Carol" by Samantha Silva.  It's a light and clever story about how Charles Dicken was inspired to write his most famous book (A Christmas Carol).  Last week I finished a highly recommended book about a teenage boy in Italy during World War Two, "Under the Scarlet Sky".  That book was one I didn't want to put down, and knowing it was a true story made it even more intense. I must say it is one of those books I keep thinking about, even now. 

Enjoy whatever is left of your weekend and happy new week!

The Long Weekend

Hi everyone. It's Friday evening here, and I am enjoying these few extra days off from work. It was a quiet but enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. Since Wednesday,  I've eaten too much, done a bit of shopping, watched the rest of  season one  of The Crown (on Netflix). Then I have gotten into watching this sci fi show Stranger Things, also on Netflix. The hubby and I have made it through most of season one of that show, and will probably be through all of that season  by the time we shut the TV off tonight.  We'll maybe even be in season 2.

You can see it's been a relaxing and not really productive few days off.  Exactly what it should be I think. :)

So far I haven't had any arty time (maybe tomorrow or Sunday but I also want to put out some holiday decorations), but I do have another page for Chris' fun challenge at Art Journal Journey. This month the theme is 101 Ways to Keep Warm.

I don't know about you, but a bouquet of flowers always makes me feel warm and toasty inside. If nothing else it makes me think of warm summery weather. :) 

I am also going to link up to Try It on Tuesday where the new theme is Colorful. I think this page is colorful, at least with seasonal and holiday reds and green. 

I doodled and painted the wintery bouquet on this sprayed ink and tissue paper background.

since we are taking a tv break having finished another episode of Stanger Things, it's time to go rustle up a little dinner and maybe a glass of wine from the bottle I opened yesterday for Thanksgiving dinner.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Thanks to You

Wishing all of you who celebrate a Happy Thanksgiving. 

And sending a big Thank You to all my dear blog readers for putting up with my editing mistakes, often poorly photographed art, my wacky doodles and for just being a supportive blog friend. :)

And I'll leave you with a page from last year.

Oh A Few Days Off

Oh life is good when you have a few days off with not much planned. That is what I am thankful for right at this very moment. But in the big scheme of life I have so many good things going for me  and for that, I am grateful. But not to bore you with a list, I won't go on. Instead I am going to be shallow and bask in the knowledge of a long weekend ahead.  Hee-hee.
Here's last week's Thankful page in my calendar journal. It's mostly some paper layering and this fun foamy turkey sticker I had.
I have a few other Boston photos to share with you today also. No specific theme today.

These photos below are of  the Holocaust Memorial.

It's a moving path to walk through. Along the path are some stories. You can see a snippet here. The whole story is about how the people of Denmark helped ferry people across to Sweden.

And moving on to some cool shadows casts by street posts.

And the city was assembling their skating rink and putting up their holiday decorations.

And then there's the old city hall which is quite imposing Victorian structure.

And some city views. The brick stripe down the sidewalk in the photo below is how you follow the Freedom Trail.

Happy Wednesday everyone.
Thanks for visiting my blog.

T Stands for T Party

Hi everyone. Tuesday has arrived again.The weeks are flying right by and it will be 2018 all too soon I think.

Stop by   Bleubeard and Elizabeth's  blog to check out all the T Stands for Tuesday posts. This is where we share a drink related post and often a little more too.

You can join in too if you'd like.

Today my T Day post is all about a T party.  Specifically, the Boston Tea Party.

Here's how Wikipedia describes this event in American History:

The Boston Tea Party was a political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The demonstrators, some disguised as Native Americans, in defiance of the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company. They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor. The British government responded harshly and the episode escalated into the American Revolution. The Tea Party became an iconic event of American history, and since then other political protests such as the Tea Party movement have referred to themselves as historical successors to the Boston protest of 1773.

The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act because they believed that it violated their rights as Englishmen to "No taxation without representation", that is, to be taxed only by their own elected representatives and not by a British parliament in which they were not represented. Protesters had successfully prevented the unloading of taxed tea in three other colonies, but in Boston, embattled Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to allow the tea to be returned to Britain.

The Boston Tea Party was a significant event in the growth of the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, or Intolerable Acts, which, among other provisions, ended local self-government in Massachusetts and closed Boston's commerce. Colonists up and down the Thirteen Colonies in turn responded to the Coercive Acts with additional acts of protest, and by convening the First Continental Congress, which petitioned the British monarch for repeal of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them. The crisis escalated, and the American Revolutionary War began near Boston in 1775.

Last Friday I had to go into Boston for a doctor's appointment at Massachusetts General Hospital (better known as Mass General). My daughter took the day off also and came in with me. After my appointment we went for a little walk around the city and decided to explore part of the Freedom Trail,. The Freedom Trail  is a 2.5 mile  National Historic walk that brings you past some of the cities Revolutionary War historical spots. It was very windy Friday, making the 49 degrees feel like 25 degrees (9 degrees C feeling like -4 degrees C), so we only did a very short stretch of the walk, but as we also had to walk to and from the hospital we were both quite cold when we got back to the car,

One of the places we did visit was the museum in the Old Massachusetts State House, which you can see in the first photo of this post.

We decided to get out of the wind for a bit and paid to go through the museum in the Old State House. I had never been into this museum and it was really interesting.

And, they even had a couple of displays related to Tea.

So have a seat, kick off you buckle shoes and take off that tri-corner hat which is all the rage.

And if the silver tea pot isn't your style, you could go for this pretty set.

And of course the tea we will be drinking is not the tea that was sent to the bottom of Boston Harbor. Sorry to those of you coffee addicts.

 There's a choice. Earl Grey or T Party blend breakfast tea.

What you can't see in a gift shop. :)

Now I would have thought that those tri-corner hats had gone out of style centuries ago, but I guess I was wrong.

This crowd was outside of Starbuck's and notice the hat on the man on the right.

And a Starbucks had a cool teapot outside of their door.

It was even steaming. :)

This teapot has been hanging on this building in Boston since 1873 and could hold over 200 gallons of water. It is not something Starbucks put up. 

Wishing all you T Ladies in the US a happy Thanksgiving. And to all you T days, hope you have a wonderful day.

Thanks for visiting.

Smile-It Is Monday

Hi everyone.  It's a new week again. Since Thursday here in the US  is the Thanksgiving Holiday, I only have 2 days of school this week. That puts a big smile on my face.

Speaking of smiles, my latest journal page for Art Journal Journey is this page full of smiles. This month the theme is 101 Ways to Keep Warm, and at least for me, a smile warms me up. Way more than a frown certainly would. :)

My page is made with lots of doodles smiles, some spray ink and some bits of paper tape that had all these smiling sayings on it. And this little boy has a nice smile. 

So Saturday night's hockey game was a real bust. The team looked horrible and lost 7-0. BUT the hubby and I were meeting a couple of our college friends, and even if the game was bad we had a fun time.

Hope you have a fantastic new week.

Happy Weekend.

Hi everyone. It's Saturday afternoon in my world and it is a grey and raw one right now. I am off to a hockey game tonight over in Portland, Maine and I have lost all my excitement about going. This raw grey sky makes me want to go take a nap. :) But hopefully it will be as good as last night's game, which we streamed off the computer onto the tv. Our team played very well and won.  But time will tell.

And thanks to everyone who send well wishes for my appointment in Boston yesterday. They must have worked because all is well. I have no secondary issues that have popped up from the surgery.

So today I have a little art to share.

First of all here's is another journal page for Chris's 101 Ways to Keep Warm over at Art Journal Journey.

My page began with a Citrosol transfer from an old National Geographic magazine. I tried the Citrosol transfer technique last summer and didn't have much luck with it. I did get some of the sunflower image  on the page but not a lot. And this was the best one of the whole lot that I tired.

So I spruced up the page with some tissue paper, ink, book page scraps and some fake leather trim.

I love this little cowgirl and so  I thought about how page about good memories always warms your heart. 

And then I also have a tag for Tag Tuesday. Their latest theme is Music.

 As it feels like snow here (and not rain like they say is coming tomorrow) my page has a wintery theme. I'm not sure the music title (The barber of Seville is exactly and appropriate piece of music for this lovely little girl in her warm looking coat.  But it was the perfect sized piece of music paper to  fit on my tag. I was more or less thinking holiday snow music (like dashing through the snow) when I made my page.

So hope everyone is having a great weekend. I need to go get changed for my trip to Maine.

Thanks for visiting.