When Life Gives You Lemons

Hi everyone. It is time for another gathering of  T, the last one this month. February always goes so fast, but that makes me glad because even though March can be fickle, not knowing whether to be spring or still winter, at least when you get to March you know spring is really just around the corner. (That is if you live here in the northern hemisphere.)
And since it is time for T again, stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to join us with your drink related posts.

Here in the US, and maybe other places (but I don't know), we have a saying that goes:

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

So that's what I did.

I wanted to share one last page for Rike's yellow challenge at Art Journal Journey. And share a pink lemonade toast, my drink this week, with all of you. Pink showed up better than regular lemonade color which is why I made it pink.

This is a pre-post since my husband and I have taken off for a few days to break up the winter.  I am hoping I can link this with my phone. I'll be back Friday and hopefully will have some photos and stories to share. And if I don't make it to your T day post today or tomorrow, I will stop by when I am home.

Happy T day to you all, and enjoy the rest of your week.

Thanks for visiting.

Just a Touch of Yellow

 Happy weekend!  Hope everyone has some fun plans for the weekend. 

Today I have another burlap background page to share for Rike's Yellow challenge at Art Journal Journey. 

It only has a bit of yellow but it does have some.

The burlap is a page in my journal. I used a transparency as my base to work on. I added lots ot TH art bits, stamped a quote, and the colored and added a vintage lady cut out that came from a set I picked up on Etsy.

It was a pretty quick and easy page to put together as the only wet media I used was a bit of glue and some yellow paint as the center on the black die cut flower. But it worked on the burlap page and it's fun to switch it up every now and again.

My husband and I are heading out for a few days later this weekend. I have a pre-post for T day. Otherwise I will see next weekend  with hopefully some good photos and stories to share.

Thanks for visiting.

Annie Get Your Gun

Happy Friday everyone. The work week is almost over and the weekend is almost here. Yesterday he weather warmed up and the morning's snow melted away. We're still white, but at least there is a little less on white out there.

Moo Mania's newest theme is women, and I had made this western style page in my journal awhile back. (Ignore the top left corner that I couldn't flatten out no matter how many books I put on top of it.) I think there's something fascinating about cowgirls, though I am sure the reality of the time is not  glamorous at all.

I added a little bit of lace and cloth trim since we are talking about girls. The saloon is a die cut and the other images are stamps some oldies from Acey Deucy, Oxford Impressions and also Artistic Outpost. I don't know what company made the stamped image at the top of the page.

Wishing everyone a happy weekend!

Red Roses in February

Happy Thursday everyone. We have some light snow on the ground this morning and the best thing happened. School has a two hour delay. I was able to sleep in an extra hour and we don't have a day to make up in June. Plus my grading pile is now quite small and I should easily be able to finish up all my work by tomorrow. Hurrah. Winter school break with no school work! That's what I was hoping for.

So I have a page today for Rike's yellow challenge over at Art Journal Journey. I never really used a lot of yellow but I have enjoyed using it this month. I think now you shall see more of it in my work.

Today I am bringing you summer-sunshine and roses blooming. The background is powdered with yellow Brushoes. The roses are hand painted and outlined. The 2 vintage style postage stickers just seemed to fit the page for me, as I am very ready for some nice weather and I am thinking how fragile those roses really are, even though roses are tough plants for sure.

Finally I added one of the paper Artsy/Alison Bomber  quotes that she is so good at finding.

And just a reminder to those arty folks that our latest challenge at Try It on Tuesday is powder it. Brushoes (or those style of powders), embossing powders, mica powders, or whatever powder material you can think of is welcome. We're hoping to see you there!

Hoping everyone else has something good in their day, and thanks so much for stopping by to visit.

Busy Week

Hi everyone. It is Wednesday and this week is flying. I know for me it is because it is a busy week. School vacation is next week and I am trying to wrap up my classes so we can start fresh when we get back in March. I have been giving tests and writing tests and grading tests. Never mind I have also been catching up on my other grading, and getting ready for when we come back after vacation so I won't be in a panic then. I am getting there with all that! Hopefully by Friday I can just cruise through the day.

And tonight we are suppose to get some more snow. I don't know how much because I have seen 2 contradictory forecasts. I hope not much because it means another chore,shoveling, and I don't want a snow day. We have not had any so far and the later we get into winter that means the less chance we will have any. It would be great to get out in the middle of June instead the end of June, but winter isn't over yet. So we shall see.

I am exhausted just from reading what I just wrote-ha-ha!

Today I have a very simple page in my Wild West Journal.  It's made on burlap. The shrine in the background is a die cut I recently picked up on sale. I used very pink paper to cut it (it was a practice run), but I liked it so I used some silver and brown paint and ink to make it a little less pink. I added a stamped image with a heart and flowers, and then this cool  fake bone plastic hand.

One fun thing I did do this week was finish listening to my latest audio book.

I LOVED this book and I highly recommend it.  Here's how Amazon describes it.

For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life--until the unthinkable happens.

Wishing you all a great day, and thanks so much for visiting.

Powder It Time at Try It On Tuesday

Hi everyone. It's time for a new challenge at Try It on Tuesday  This time we ask you to use "powder" on your piece. It could be embossing powder, Brushoes, mica powder, any kind of powder!

Here's my take on this fun challenge.

I began my page with some watercolor paper and some lime green and a tad bit of dark blue  Brushoes. I stamped a bit of  writing (Paper Artsy for all the stamped images today) 3 times and then stamped the striped bird with embossing ink and some blue embossing powder. This little lady is then painted with some watered down mica powder  acrylics in orange and pink.  The line designs and the quote are also stamped.  I added paper tape along the bottom and some hand drawn, hand painted flowers. The flower centers have a small Prima paper flower center. I decided my page needed something a little different along the bottom, but lace didn't work, so I decided to cut the scallops and then stripe them in with blue marker. Finally, to finish off the page I added some round chipboard bingo circles I had in my stash.

This is my page. Hope you like it. Thanks for stopping by.

And most  of all, 

I'm really looking forward to see your Powder It page.

Hope you decide to join us.

T Stands for Breakfast Number 2 or Lunch, Call It What You Want

Hello T Day ladies, and to anyone else who stops by. It's time for another Tuesday and drink sharing post over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog.
I've been thinking about spring, and I am getting excited that signs of it are showing up.

 I bought a pot of tulips at Costco last weekend which are going to bloom soon. Tis the season for spring bulbs.

And at the local Tractor Supply store where I bought some bird seed they had their seed displays out.

But the Mother Nature doesn't seem to know that any of this is going on. This is what she had in mind for us today.

For T this week I take you out for a lunch time breakfast at my favorite local hole in the wall restaurant. My  husband and I weren't planning on going out to eat. We had gone to the our local transfer station-AKA the dump- with the week's trash and then we had a couple of errands to run. But my husband looked at me as we drove out of the dump and said he wanted to go shopping for a new hat for summer.  I guess he was thinking spring also. (And if this sounds unusual, it is because he is very sun sensitive.  He is permanently on immune suppression drugs being a kidney recipient so a hat has become part of his daily wardrobe.) 

This meant we were heading a bit further afield than planned. So to fuel us up for the journey, we stopped for a bite to eat.

 It was almost noon by the time we got seated and also Sunday, and this restaurant only serves breakfast on Sundays. 

But no fear. Pancakes and a side of something with a little more protein would work. 

Good thing I just had my morning shake for my first breakfast back at about 8 and I was getting hungry for lunch.

These kept me going all day.

 I like this photo of the hubby.

I'm posting this Monday night and I'll get to visiting blogs some time on Tuesday. I just graded a big stack of multi page lab reports for a class at school, and I don't think I can read any more tonight. 

Hope your T Day is a good one.

And thanks for visiting.

Nature's Best

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend. I enjoyed a productive Saturday and had lots of art time. One thing I made was a tag to share over at Tag Tuesday and Wendy's mushroom challenge.

I had previously mentioned how yesterday I took a personal day off from work and went to Boston with a couple of friends. We went to the Museum of Fine Arts (known as the MFA) to see a photography exhibit featuring Ansel Adams, people who inspired him and some art inspired by him. It was a fun day out, and a very nice change of pace from work and winter.

For those of you who might not be familiar with Ansel Adams, he was a 20th century American photographer (1902-1984). He is known for his black and white nature photographs. He  liked shooting photos of the west , and his photographs of Yosemite National Park in California are especially famous. 

 One thing I learned at this exhibit was that sometimes Adams modified his negatives to remove signs of people, like removing roads that run through a scene. I'm not sure how he did it since he lived before digital photography.

It was definitely difficult for me to photograph some of these photos between  the exhibit lighting and the reflections on the glass. Plus this exhibit was quite crowded so you couldn't always get a photo standing directly in front of the image.

But there was one photo I snapped that had a lot of reflection in it that I actually like.

This is a great photo in its original form. In the photo the front mountain is dark and and in that darkness is reflected  people in the exhibit space. But see those 3 ladies in the front? That's me holding up my phone to take the picture (in the center) and my 2 friends, one to the left and one to the right of me studying the photo.

I have more to show you another day. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Bright and Warm-I Wish

Welcome to a sunny day at the beach. Nope, I am home on my couch and it is not sunny here, but my art page is sunny and is set at the beach. I guess I want to be at the beach. Oh a girl can dream through her art, can't she?

But I a not at work and I heading off to an art museum today in Boston with a couple of girlfriends.  Smile! And I am happy I didn't have to buzz out again this morning before 7 to get to work since yesterday was one of those long open house days at school. 

So today's page started with yellow paint and a stencil. Then I added a bit of blue sky using watercolor crayons. I sketched and painted the lighthouse, as well as the rocks and ocean wave, and all those seagulls are Hero Arts stamps which I fussy cut once they were stamped and colored.

I am linking up to Art Journal Journey and Rike's challenge of yellow. I am really enjoying using this warm and summery color as winter is still here in New Hampshire.

That's all for me. I would have said more but the phone rang and cut into my post writing time. Errrr.

Enjoy your weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hi everyone. Happy Valentine's Day! And it is already Thursday. I knew this week would fly since it's been very busy with appointments, snowstorms and tonight is our second (and final) parent's open house at school . And tomorrow I am being naughty and taking one of my personal days and doing something fun with some girlfriends. More about that another day.
It's the day of hearts today so I splashed a few on my calendar journal page for this week. The background was grey and I left it this color, but added scraps of pink and orange paper to create some pops of color. I like the way it works.
And even though these photos are horrible, the buzz at school the other day was this one snow goose within a flock of Canadian geese. We rarely get snow geese here in New Hampshire.

 I didn't have my camera with me so I had to use my phone and I took these  from my classroom window which is on the third floor. But can you just make out the white goose on the left? That's as good as my photos of it gets.
OK, the photo doesn't really show you much but it isn't everyday that a bird is the talk of the school. For me it made a great spontaneous lesson with the kids.

 You maybe can see the white bird on the right here.

The next day I brought my camera in hopes that the snow goose would be back, but of course, he wasn't.

I hope everyone has  wonderful Valentine's Day. Thanks for visiting.

Vintage for Valentine's Day

Happy Wednesday everyone  A short post today since I have a partial tricky ride to work this morning. The schools around my house are cancelled for the day due to snow and ice, and  then as I drive towards work I'll move into ice and finally rain. Another one of these weird winter storms, and me working at the coast and living inland means I get to drive through it all as school is not cancelled nor even delayed. This has been the story all this winter, and I can say I am just plain tired of it!

Thanks for reading through my complaints. Getting it off my chest and I feel better already. Smile.

I have some Valentine's Day art for you today from my vintage journal.  Again no quote, as I haven't been very tuned into quotes I guess.

I am going to link this up to Moo Mania and their Love Is In The Air theme. I also want to remind everyone that Try It On Tuesday's latest theme of Romance is still going on also and we would love to see you there.

Thanks for visiting.

T Stands for a Revisit

Happy T Day everyone. It isn't snowing here right now (as it is Monday night) but by Tuesday afternoon the snow will be beginning. Sounds like we are suppose to be getting some significant snow with this storm. Oh my!

But cold wintery weather means it is a good time to sit back with some T. Stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog where we share our drink related posts every Tuesday.

Today I am taking you back to a restaurant I have taken you  before, but it has been quite awhile. Welcome to The Puritan Backroom.

This past Saturday my husband and I were out running errands. We ended up in Manchester, New Hampshire, about an hour away from home, and we decided to have a very late lunch or what became very early dinner.

It was just before 3 (15:00) in the afternoon when we stopped by, thinking we would have missed the lunch crowd and beat the dinner crowd. But when we walked in we found out there was still a fifteen minute wait. But 15 minutes isn't very long so we waited.

That was still a much smaller crowd than when we left at about 90 minutes later.

 The Puritan has been in Manchester in some form for 102 years. They are a family style place with a big menu, but they are locally famous for their chicken tenders.

My husband and I each had their chicken tenders. The meal comes with either a Greek salad or soup. I went for the salad. And my drink is an unsweetened ice tea with lemon.

 Their servings are huge. But that chicken is so yummy.  For my other side I had sweet potato fries. 

And I had enough to take home for 2 more meals. I love leftovers.
And since it is almost Valentine's Day, I have a little virtual gift for all of you.
Flowers anyone?

This is my latest page for Art Journal Journey and Rike's color yellow challenge. Who doesn't need a little spring in their lives at this point of the winter?

Have a great day everyone and big thanks for visiting my blog today.

The Golden Sun

Hi everyone. It a beautiful sunny Saturday morning here in New Hampshire, but the wind is whipping and it is cold again, even colder feeling with this strong wind. But it is Saturday and I am having a lazy morning watching a BBC show about the Yukon Gold Rush, checking out blog posts and getting an occasional update from my daughter who is on her way to Florida. (Lucky her to escape winter right now.)

I've managed to have a lot of art time these past couple of weeks, squeezing in a hour here and there over quite a few days. This piece is one I  made but that I am on the fence about whether I like it or not. 

It began with me using up some yellow paint as part of the background.  I then stamped the chicks, as I had one idea for the page, which actually never happened. I added the sun and painted the rays of golden light. I used some Stickles and a bit of  lighter yellow paint to make those sunrays glitter more. Although they are rather messy I do like how they glisten, just like real sunbeams tend to do. 

 I added the vintage mom and her little girls.

The house was an afterthought because the page looked a little empty, so I used some Stabilo pencils to sketch it. And with just a tad of white paint, I finished it off. 

It needs a quote, but I haven't found one yet. I thought it was worth sharing even without it.

I am going to link it up to Rike's yellow challenge at Art Journal Journey

Thanks for visiting! I appreciate you taking a few minutes to stop by my blog.

Vintage Romance

Happy Friday! The week is winding down and the weekend is almost here. It's been a crazy weather week, spring like, then cold enough for a little snow and ice, warm again for rain, and this weekend the cold returns. 

Sounds like it will be a good weekend for some art and reading, and who knows what else.

Since Valentine's Day is coming up in less than a week, I thought I would share this romantic page from my vintage journal. I actually reworked this spread as I didn't like the left side at all, but now I am happy with the results. So a page that wasn't originally meant to be so romantic ended up being just that.

It takes me forever to finish up one of these vintage pages. I think it is because it is not a style that comes naturally to me, but it is good to push yourself to try something different.  So I do a little bit, and then put it aside and do a little bit more. Eventually I get it finished.

The background of this page is some brown paper bag, some Washi tape, some gold and white spray ink, some gold paint as well as some black ink that was rubbed on.

Then I added a bit of TH vintage portrait paper, some red heart doilies, a die cut hinge, lock and key, some die cut hearts, a few metal crafting screw heads, some stamped quotes and 2 stamped and fussy cut people from B Line Designs.
I am linking up this spread to Moo Mania and their newest challenge of Love Is In the Air.
And don't forget that Romance is theme going on over at Try It On Tuesday.
Enjoy the weekend!

Happy New Year

 I'm a  couple of days late with this post but this past Tuesday was the Chinese/Lunar New Year celebration. It is now the year of the pig. 

I decided to make this week's calendar spread have an Asian feel.

I liked this background as it was, so I just added several stamped  and stenciled images to it. I stamped these cute little Chinese children on some white paper, colored and then fussy cut them. And the pig and the other Chinese zodiac animals were on a page of an old Flow magazine I use for cutting so I added them to both sides of my spread. 

Here's what I found out on the internet about people who are born during the year of the pig. (Info is from travelchina website)

Pig is the twelfth in the 12-year cycle of Chinese zodiac sign. The Years of the Pig include 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019, 2031, 2043...

Pig is not thought to be a smart animal in China. It likes sleeping and eating and becomes fat. Thus it usually features laziness and clumsiness. On the positive side, it behaves itself, has no plan to harm others, and can bring affluence to people. Consequently, it has been regarded as wealth.

People with Chinese zodiac Pig sign are considerate, responsible, independent and optimistic. They always show generousness and mercy to endure other people's mistakes, which help them gain harmonious interpersonal relationships. However, sometimes they will behave lazy and lack actions. In addition, pure hearts would let them be cheated easily in daily life.

That's it for me today. Hope your day is a good one.

A Single Yellow Flower

Hi everyone. The temperatures are cooling off here after a couple of gorgeous April like weather days. I even had my house windows open for a bit and was able to let in some fresh air. Smile. But it is only early February and so the return of winter weather isn't shocking.
Yesterday when I looked out my window at school I saw 2 flocks of birds. One was a flock of Eastern bluebirds, which I have never seen before. I know they are around but aren't common. But their blue backs were quite vibrant with the way the sun was hitting them.

(photo from internet)
 And I also saw a flock of robins. These birds are not uncommon here, but usually leave for the winter. Usually people say they are a sign of spring.

(photo also from AllAboutBirds.org on the internet)
But I think these are ones that are wintering here, but still exciting to see since it is only February.

 Today I a bit of art to share with you.

First of all I have another page for Rike's challenge over at Art Journal Journey. Yellow is her theme, so I added this big bold painted yellow flower to the page. The background is actually a piece of white watercolor paper with  some fancy cut out paper. I was lucky when I found a whole stack of this paper for under  a dollar at one of those dollar type discount stores a couple of years back.
 I added the flower while I contemplated what else to do. I had a package with 45 of these vintage ladies. They are just black and white pieces so I colored them yellow.  I added them to my page as well as some Japanese writing, which once again, I have no idea what it says.

And I also have another tag for Tag Tuesday and Michelle's hearts challenge.

This gentleman doesn't look very shy to me, so I thought he would be perfect for this tag. He's got the flowers for his favorite lady, and he hopes she'll be so happy with them he'll get a kiss. 

But I don't think he is going to to be sad if she doesn't thank him with a  kiss, because he is really in love.

And as I saw on Valerie's blog, I will link up my tag to More Mixed Media. This challenge is anything goes with optional red.

Have a great Wednesday everyone.

And as always, I appreciate your visit.

Time for Romance!

Hello everyone! Tuesday has rolled around once again and this week it is time for a new challenge to begin over at Try It On Tuesday.  Are you ready for ROMANCE?

Valentine's Day is here soon, and there's so many other romantic events, engagements, weddings, an anniversaries to name a few.

My page is was inspired by the scraps of a heart die. TH has a Sizzix heart die with cuts out lots of hearts. I used a small sheet of  sparkling paper to die cut  the hearts and when I looked at the leftover  paper with all the empty heart shapes I thought it was pretty itself. That became the first thing I attached to my page. I stenciled around this paper with some pink paint, and then I added some pink sparkly hearts that I used the same die to cut out from a different sheet of paper.

I painted the large chipboard flowers and added them, along with some pink bows. Then I added the  happy couple from TH found relatives as well as a couple of small wooden heart.

I hope you join us with some romantic art in the next 2 weeks. I'll be looking forward to seeing your creations. 

T Stands for Hockey Weekend

Happy Tuesday and another week of T. I always look forward to Tuesdays and seeing what everyone has to share for T over at  Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog .

This week I will share some photos from this past weekend. It was hockey weekend for me!

So some of you who've read my blog for awhile know that my husband and I enjoy our college's  men's ice hockey team. Not only is it usually a good game and a good way to keep our school spirit alive all these many years since we graduated, but it's a fun and  inexpensive night out.

Back in 1999 our University (Maine) was in the  National Championship game against the neighboring state (New Hampshire). The game went into overtime and  the first team to score would be the winner. Maine ended up being the winner and that started this huge  rivalry between our 2 universities.

We now live in new Hampshire and our daughter went to our state University. It was there she met her beau. This year the 2 games were being held New Hampshire (they alternate each year where they are held) which is only about a half an hour away from where we live. Friday night we went with my daughter and her beau to the game. Before the game we went out to dinner at a restaurant near the university.

 I enjoyed a local beer called "Old Brown Dog" with my yummy and warm (on a very cold night) chicken pot pie dinner.

It was a lot of fun going out with my daughter and her beau, including our little family rivalry. This time the game went to New Hampshire which they won in overtime, but that was nice for my daughter and her beau. Not so much for my husband who was hoping for the win. He's thinking of points to make it into the playoffs in another month.

Saturday night there was game 2 of the series. This time we went with a good college friend and his wife, as well as my sister-in-law and her husband. 

Before this game we did dinner again.

We were set to meet at a local pub style restaurant, but when we got there there were no tables available for 6 people. Since it was about 2 hours before the game chances are nothing was going to open up and still give us time to eat and then to walk up the game. So we went wandering looking for a place to eat. My husband was rooting for pizza, but that place was also full. My sister-in-law said there was a Thai place around the corner, which we all wanted except my husband. Asian food is not his thing, but they had a  big table in a quiet alcove so we could talk  so Thai food it was. (I love it so I was a happy!)

 We started off having some Sam Adams beer, but then we found out that we had ordered the last 5 bottles they had so for drink 2 we switched to some Asian brews. (Two drinks means a before dinner drink and a with dinner drink.)

 We all had water after that. 

I had a delicious cracker chicken dish.

 And my husband "suffered" through a noodle dish.

And then it was off to the game.

This time the game was a much better played game by both teams which made it more exciting. And to top it off, our team won! 

My husband was definitely more excited than he was Friday night.  And me too, actually. But most important was the fun and the people we spent the weekend with.

Hope I didn't bore you too much with my weekend dinners. 

Wishing you all a happy T day and thanks for taking the time to visit my blog.