Winter is Back

Happy Saturday everyone. Just got back from a walk. Although the temperatures were cold but not terribly cold, the wind was brutal. The Canadian Arctic wind. Feels like winter is back.  Plus we got a little more than a dusting of snow late yesterday and a lot of the are ground has a dusting of white. It won't take long to melt but with the cold wind, it is look much more like early March than April.

I have a page from my calendar for you today.

Don't you love this image? It's a stamp by Deep Red I have and it reminds me of when older women dressed a certain way. I'm not sure many do that anymore,at least around my world, but I do remember it as a kid it was standard fair for women of a certain age. My Mom is 88 and she prefers her jeans and a sweater not dresses, but I love these ladies with their big purses and their walking aids. I think they have lots of good things to say to each other.

I began by coloring the background the calendar came with, and then adding some details like background dots and white dots and stripes. I used matte media to glue down a scrap of printed tissue paper, then I stamped the ladies on a piece of white paper and cut them out. The quote comes from a set of tags I pulled out of any old FLOW magazine.

As the quote is recycled from a magazine and the tissue paper is a scrap, I am linking up to Try It On Tuesday, where the theme is recycle something.  I am also linking up to Art Journal Journey and Alison's fun theme of Recycle and Collage.

And I have been reading a bit lately. This week I finished 2 books and started 2 new ones.

First of all on audio I listened to 

I remember we read this book in 10th grade English and even though I can't remember my teacher's name, I remember her face and how she LOVED this book. I've been curious to read it again and so I listened to it . It was a great story. I must say I liked it much better this time then when I was 16 years old. 

I can say that Dickens was a great writer and he created some amazing characters those 150+ years ago. I had read a novel back in November about how he wrote his most famous work, a Christmas Carol, and that's what spurred on my interest in reading more by him.

I also read (most of it last weekend) this new book by Amy Bloom.

It caught my eye because it was about Eleanor Roosevelt, who was such an amazing lady. It is about her and her close friend/ lover Lorena Hickock.  I have never read any Amy Bloom and she is a talented writer also.  I think she caught the feel for the time and the characters and I feel like I learned a personal side of Mrs. Roosevelt. Yes it is fiction, but it states that the author did a lot of research to portray people as they were.

And now I moved onto a mystery which I am listening to.

Anne Hillerman picked up where her father left off and writes using her detective characters Chee, Manuelito and Leaphorn of the Navajo police. It is set in New Mexico and Arizona on Native lands. this is her 3rd novel and I am enjoying it as much as the others and her Dad's books. This is one case I am glad someone picked up the characters and continued the stories. I am glad I haven't read all of her dad's book yet either because I am looking forward to still having them to read.

And I am reading the Bird Artist for my book club, but it was already on my wishlist because it is set in the early 1900's in Newfoundland, Canada. The hubby and I are going there for a week in July, so I was curious to read about this place. When  one of the members of the book group suggested it I was a little surprised because it is not a new book., but glad to get a chance to read it for more than my own pleasure. It took my 25 pages to get established in the book, but so far I am loving it and it is a quick read which is great. 

And I have been reading in spurts here and there

It is quite interesting and I am learning a lot, but I am yet to decide if I love this book or not. There are parts that are great, and parts I feel the author strays a bit, so we shall see as I  get further along.

Guess that's all for me today. I should go be productive and finish cleaning out my winter clothes (putting out the spring/summer ones if I can ever wear them), maybe run the vac around the house or better yet, go play with some paints or other media for a while. The day is moving along but that's OK because it's good to be a bit slow for change.

Enjoy your Saturday-or what's left to it when you read this post.

And as always-thanks for stopping by to visit.