The Weekend

Hi everyone. The snow has almost arrived. On the radar it is just a few towns away, and I bet by the time I finish writing this post it will be here.

It's been a good but also bad weekend for me. My Mom is off of oxygen (good news) and we are now in the process of figuring out how to move forward  to continue her care.  My daughter's flight from California this morning was cancelled (not so good). Yesterday was gorgeous and we had a nice beach walk. Friday night I went to my school's boys basketball playoff game and they won by 1 point to advance to the semi-finals (both good). But also my SIL, who has been fighting breast cancer, passed this weekend (not good and also very sad). Needless to say this weekend has been an emotional roller coaster (as the cliche goes) for me. 

But for my own good, today I get some art time! Hurrah! I haven't had any time at all, nor really felt like it, since my snow day last week. Today may or may not be the most productive day in my happy place but even making bad art is better for the soul than not making art at all. (At least in my humble opinion.)

 Back before we left for Florida I started a small 3 ring binder to use as a trip journal. I had picked up the binder at a local Staples on their clearance rack for under a dollar. Then I covered it with some matching pieces of colorful ocean print papers and some tropical washi tape. Then I added some stickers also. 

Everything on the cover I had in my stash except for the tape, which came in a set at Hobby Lobby that was on sale for 40% off,  so I picked it up especially for making this journal. Above is the front and this is the back.

 I'm hoping today to get work some more on this.

Here's the first page of the journal.

 At Christmas time I had made an order from Chewy.com for some dog treats for the pups, and this giant sized postcard came in the box. I saved it and decided it would make a great front page for my journal. I added the two big flowers (to cover the advertisement), and also added the tape along the bottom. I had to snip the corners  for it to fit into this binder.

I covered the back with some paper and tape, as well as added the journal tag and this fun flamingo cloth sticker.

 And finally for this preview, I made this page from this postcard sized striped paper I had. Not sure exactly where it came from but it was in something that arrived in the mail. I added the heart sunglasses and then 2 of those little jiggly eyes.

I am linking this up to Jo's spring challenge at Art Journal Journey. I know the tropics may not be really like spring, but for those of us living in a place where winter doesn't want to leave, a trip south can be a spring or late winter rite of passage to get a little bit of spring like sunshine and  weather. (Although those of you who have visited me for a while know I don't usually go south like this. This trip was for my husband, but I must say I did enjoy it.)

And since it is now snowing quite hard, how about a few tropical photos from Florida and a morning we spent in Biscayne National Park.

 Cool shadow view looking down from the top of the lighthouse.

 And view out the window of the light house.

Hope you're having an all good weekend. Thanks for visiting. It is always appreciated by me.