Happy New Year

Welcome 2020 everyone. 

As I write this some of you are there already and some, like me, have not quite made it to the new year yet.  But it won't be long before the morning and the new year arrives for all of us.

It is time for new stories to be written, new art to be created, new books to be read, new places to visit...I am sure you get my point. It's exciting, and also a little scary. But I am going to put the little bit scary part aside because one must stay focused on the good possibilities. It is all part of the adventure of the new year. I am optimistic about 2020 as there are many good things ahead.

And I hope not just for me but also for you.

Wishing you all a wonderful year with lots of happiness, smiles, good health and peace. 

And since I see that Jo has a new challenge at Art Journal Journey, Something New, I thought this page for the new year would work and I am linking up.

Once again, happy 2020!

T Stands for the Photos that Didn't Make It In 2019

Hi everyone Happy T day. And happy last day of 2019. I'm not sure I am ready for it to be 2020, but I guess ready or not, here the new year comes. 

I can't complain about 2019, and I hope that will be true for 2020 also.

I'm also hoping we won't lose our power as we have a mix of snow and sleet coming down. We shouldn't, but I am preparing just in case. I've got the wood stove going and I'm writing this post early just in case we go down.

So today  I want to celebrate a year of T with photos that I took for T but that never made it into a T Day post.
So here we go, a different year of T.
Let's start with breakfast. There's a cup of tea and glasses of water.

Perhaps you prefer something more formal. There are coffee and tea urns  here.

Or how about an outdoor breakfast in Florida? OJ, some yogurt and a chocolate muffin.

But let's move on to later in the day. A late lunch perhaps. Or maybe make it cocktail hour.

There's quite a few tropical drinks to pick from. I took these back in late February when my husband and I took a trip to Key West, Florida.

And I had to try a few local beers over the 5 days of our trip.

And Key West is quite the party town. I can't say I am  a big party girl, but we did stop at one restaurant and sit on the deck and enjoy a rum drink with our meal.

And it made me smile to be about as far south in the US from New England that I can go and the recommended beer is Sam Adams out of Boston.

And then last winter we took a trip north to see my college team play hockey, and when there we had to try a local beer with our pizza. 

But it wasn't all about beer.

While out one day last spring we stopped for our first ice cream of the season. You can see my diet coke bottle in the cup holder.

And while visiting a friend, we went out for lunch (yes, we both had lobster rolls) and a glass of ice tea.

And someplace I had this Diet Coke. I think it was at Pop's, which I have taken you to several times.

And at some point we stopped for burgers at 5Guys.

And in late June my husband and I took a little trip to North and South Dakota by way of Minneapolis. We stopped at a Costco in Fargo and bought a bottle of pre-mixed margaritas so we could have a nightcap at our hotels along the way. The bottle cost around $10 (if I remember correctly) which is way cheaper than going out where we couldn't even get 2 drinks for the price of the bottle. Here you can see my fancy margarita glass.

And while driving between stops we wanted a little cold ice creamish snack. Not knowing the areas, and finding a MacDonald's right off the highway, we got a shake to go.

And for lunch one day we visited a brewery in Bismarck, North Dakota.

And this was my dinner one night when we got in late and there was a 24 hour restaurant near our hotel. (Dickinson, North Dakota). I must say I always enjoy chicken and waffles.

And speaking of Dickinson, North Dakota. Here is a cool tea set from the former Dickinson pottery that we saw in a museum.

And the night before we flew home, we went to the HardRock at the Mall of America to get my daughter a shirt for her collection. 

And during the summer we went with some friends as well as my daughter for lunch and split a pitcher of sangria.

And even though this is a brewery, after a summer day we split a pitcher of water instead of beer.

And I don't know much about this, but the cup said it was biodegradable. 

And now we've made it to Labor Day weekend, and when we went out with my daughter and her beau, we dinner drinks in these fun little fish bowls.

And one Friday after work my department went out for an after school drink. I didn't drink but had water which came in this really interesting glass.

And a museum view from the Wright Museum of World War Two that shows how an American kitchen would look at the time.  I guess it was breakfast with the items on the table.

And on our autumn travels, we stopped at this general store which are fairly common here in New Hampshire. 

And during some fall baking, I had a bottle of Diet Coke. 

And here I am eating some fall baking with my mug of tea that I take to work and refill during the day. I am having a sweet snack of some tiramisu. I have a student who comes from Italy and he likes to bake (and  he is very good at it too) and about once a month he brings us a pan of tiramisu, his specialty. 

And a before dinner drink at my sister-in-laws this Thanksgiving.

And my 23 year old niece made me this grapefruit juice and beer mimosa to have with dinner. It was pretty good.

And I really like the glass.

But best of all is a glass or refilled bottle of water. (We don't drink our water so I refill bottles from a big jug).

Just don't drop or lose the top.

I'm taking home some leftovers.

Or should I say, have a great new year.

Don't forget to stop by   Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to see what the T gang has been up to.

Have a super T day.

And most importantly, I want to wish you all a very happy 2020.

Have a great new New Year!

The Alice Finale, for Now That Is

 Hi everyone. 

I am back with the last spread from my Alice In Christmasland book.

So a few questions remain.

Did Alice get larger and back to her normal size?  Did she do this before Santa arrived and  did she get to meet Santa? And hopefully she  has a happy ending.

Now I want to say that I wasn't really ready to wrap up my story, but I came to the last spread in my book. So I had to somehow end the story, at least in this journal.

Oh no.

So I kind of cheated a bit and didn't really end the story but did end the story.

 I hope it is not a huge let down.

Here's what it says:

Noooooo

Alice screams

And she went to pull herself upright and felt her head getting dizzy and dizzier

And even more dizzy.

And then Alice felt herself falling.

And there was something tangled around her legs. THUMP!

And Alice shook her head and found herself sitting on the floor

with her blankets wrapped around her legs

and Chessie sitting there looking at her.

I know, I didn't tell you whether Alice got back to her normal size.

You can decide, for now.

I made this page by using stickers for the Noooo letters.  I drew and cut out the bed and the pillows. I used some Studio Light/Art by Marlene punch outs for Chessie the cat and Alice. Although I added glasses on Chessie and I added arms and some hair fixing for Alice. And I made Alice's blanket with some felt and some paint.

And then when I read Yvonne's comment for my last Alice post, an idea just popped into my head. Instantaneously.

And so I have started Alice in Christmasland book 2.  

I hope to wrap up the story there.

I will be back with more posts, but you will have to wait a little bit for Alice.

I am linking this up to Yvonne's words and numbers challenge at Art Journal Journey.  Thanks Yvonne for this fun challenge this month!

That is all for me today. Thanks for visiting. 

Alice Part 6

Hi everyone. 

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend. Mine started off (and should continue) to be pretty quiet. I'm hoping for a little ambition as I have a couple of small projects I should do in the next couple of days, like vaccing up all the dog hair in my car. Right now the car floor looks like it is made out of fur. (OK, may that is a slight exaggeration.) But I will say I am into a good book right now and the studio is yelling my name, so tomorrow when the hubby is gone for the day I might have a hard time convincing myself to go do any work.

It is time to get back to the Alice in Christmasland story. Today I have just one spread to share, and then there is only 1 more to go. 

So let me recap since it has been several days since my last Alice post. 

Alice climbed up on the roof and ended up falling down the chimney. But at the bottom she realized she had shrunk, and she has been on a mission to get back to her normal size.

We last left Alice chasing the queen on a way to go find the caterpillar who might know how to help her.

And she does find Mr. Caterpillar. 

I made the background by first painting the page pink and then I used some crayons to make the swirly designs. I drew the caterpillar, painted and sprayed him with a bit of ink, and then I used a thin stream of paint to create his web chair.

The wording on this page goes:

It took Alice awhile to run any distance with her short little legs.  But finally

she saw a spider web and caught in the web

was the biggest caterpillar she had ever seen.

It is because I am so small, she thought.

And where was the queen?  There was no sign of her.

So Alice stopped and looked at the caterpillar.

Then she explained as briefly as she could her situation to him.

"I see" he said, snacking his lips as he spoke.

"And why should I know the answer?"

The caterpillar cut her off. "The queen said."

"She is a silly woman. What does she know?"

"But I will tell you a little secret."

Alice raised her eyebrows.

"You shouldn't see Santa. That would be very bad.

He might think you are a toy for some other child and

take you away in his bag of toys.

"And how can I get bigger before he comes?" Alice asked.

She was very impatient with all this now.

"I couldn't tell you." said the caterpillar.

Here are the other Alice story posts, just in case you read this and have no clue what story I am writing about and want to check out back posts.

Alice part 1

Alice part 2

Alice part 3

Alice part 4

Alice part 5

And I am linking up to Yvonne's challenge at Art Journal Journey. This month the challenge is Words and Numbers. I am enjoying it, and if you haven't yet joined in, you should.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog, and I hope you enjoy more of my story.

Christmas Wind Down

Hi everyone. Christmas is finally winding down at my house. My daughter left this morning and the house is feeling a little bit quiet right now. But I am meeting the hubby for a late afternoon movie when he leaves work. Hopefully we'll make it in to see Star Wars.

 The dogs have completed their doggy advent calendar.

And I am trying to be good and not eat another cinnamon roll that I made for our Christmas breakfast.  I wish the recipe didn't make 8. Smile.

 But luckily I was able to pile up the cookie tray I brought to my sister-in-laws holiday brunch on this past Tuesday so there is only a few left here at the house.

And my husband found these fun hats at the dollar bins at Target, and he decided we all needed fun hats. I look like Professor McGonagall from Harry Potter. Hee-hee. I went around giving our demerits all morning.

And now I start the quiet part of my vacation which I am looking forward to. I can make some art and read and maybe if I feel ambitious early next week I will start to de-decorate the house.

But maybe instead I will follow Maddie's lead and just lounge.

Smile.

And here's a page from my winter journal that I made earlier this month.

I will link it up to Yvonne's Words and Numbers challenge at Art Journal Journey.

The little penguins and igloo were stamped but I added the clothing to the penguins. 

The rest of the page is rubbed ink and some white paint, a bit of silver sparkle glue, a stamped phrase and some star stickers.
I also joined Mia's new challenge Craftlandia Challenge which is stars. And I have a few of those on this page!

I hope everyone had a fantastic week and if you celebrated the holiday, I hope it was wonderful.

Thanks for visiting.

T Stands for Happy Holidays

Happy holidays my friends.  Are you ready for Christmas if you celebrate?

I've been busy the last couple of days. But it was fun busy. I finished some New Years cards which I will get out in the mail Thursday. All the gifts are wrapped. Errands have been completed (amists the crowds) so if it isn't ready now, it isn't something that needs to be done.
There were also cookies to bake.

 (And a note to Jeanie if you read this post. This is batch 2 of your Drum Kickers recipe, since I think they are my husband's new favorites.)

Here's my T Day reference. I was enjoying this Diet Coke while I made a mess in my kitchen this past Sunday. And I had lots of fun making yummy treats.
It's no fun if you don't make a mess, right?

And I finished my gingerbread house that I showed you last post.
This is the kit.

And here's how I finished it.

 Most of the decorations came with the kit, but I used some pasta to decorate the roof as well as a few pieces of candy I had. I've made gingerbread houses in the past, but since it has been a few years, I  forgot how much time they take to make, especially when you are fussy about it like I am.

. And although I would have liked to do some more piping, it was a lot of fun to make. And other than the hard pasta you could eat it, but I am not planning on it being eaten.

And today (Monday the 23rd) was so gorgeous I decided the dogs and I needed a beach walk and a little outside time. I had had to drive down to coast for a doctor's appointment anyhow, so why waste the opportunity for the chance to enjoy spring like temperatures? (Especially since they are only supposed to be around for 1 day.)

The beach wasn't totally empty but I think most people were at the stores running errands or finishing their shopping.
These 2 get so excited on the beach that they can be hard to control (oh there are seagulls they could chase and swimming would be fun too), but they were good. I think they were ready to enjoy the day with a walk also.
And after the beach I took a little drive over to Nubble Light.

And right next door was this  Christmas tree made of old fashion lobster traps.

It was decorated with lobster buoys and these shiny fish.

It's really clever. 

And finally  a holiday page that I think is just right for this T Day.

Going to wrap this up so I can go watch Die Hard. ( Thanks Elizabeth for the reminder about this film in your recent movie post.) 

And be sure to stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to see what the ladies of the T Gang are up to.

Wishing you all a Happy Hanukkah and/or a Merry Christmas. Or Kwanza if that is your holiday.
May your day be filled with joy and peace.