Things with Wings

Hi everyone. Can you believe it is the last day of April already?

That means it is time for a new challenge at Try It On Tuesday. For the next 2 weeks our challenge will be Things With Wings. 

Think of all the wonderful things with wings. I chose butterflies but that's hardly scratching the surface.

My page began with me inking watercolor paper. Then I stamped a background image from a set of TH background stamps at a few spots on the page. I used some modeling paste and a stencil. I left the modeling paste white for contrast. I also die cut some similar pink paper with an interlinking circle die and added thata round the modeling paste. I added a few piece of a torn paper ruler (the ones you pick up to measure with in IKEA) as well as some Japanese stamps. Finally time to add the stars of the show, some TH butterfly images. I stamped some postmarks and a couple of phrases a few times over and finally added some stickers to make the title of my page.

Hope you have some time to join us at Try It On Tuesday with your winged art. I look forward to seeing your creations!

T Stands for Sourdough Bread

Hi everyone. It is time for T again over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog. Today I am taking you on a little culinary adventure.

So last Tuesday during my vacation I took a mini-road trip to Vermont.  My destination was the King Arthur Flour Baking School where I had signed up to take a one day Sourdough Bread class.

They have this great building with some outside eating area. The classrooms are on the right, their bakery and restaurant in the center and on the left is their bakers store.

I really like the home baker classes here. The teachers know how to give you just enough technical details so you actually learn a lot but at the same time they keep it fun.  Because home baking is suppose to be fun. But it is also fun to learn some new professional information and techniques.

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Plus since I teach microbiology I can get staff development to learn about all those bacteria and yeast in the sourdough starter. It's nice to double dip sometimes.

In class we received 2 ready made doughs to learn how professionals kneed, shape and finish off making loaves. Then we also made our own dough, which we brought home and could practice our learned skills. The class also talked about how to care for a sourdough starter, how to control temperatures and how that affects the rising of dough, and what sourdough actually is. 

 At break you get a free coffee or tea coupon so I went and got myself a cup of tea.
You can't see it here but I had some herbal  hibiscus-pineapple-lychee tea. 

This  is my drink related photo for the post.

And here's what I brought home.

My husband and I each had bread and butter ONLY for supper that night and managed to get through half of a loaf. Maybe not the most well rounded nutrition but it sure tasted good.
I hope you join us for T this week with your drink related post. And I am wishing you all a happy T day. Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Another Mermaid

Hi everyone.  Hope you had a nice weekend.

Our weather has clouded back in and some rain is on its way.  But I am back to work tomorrow so I guess the dark skies will keep the kids in more of a school frame of mind. 

April school vacation is now over, 

and I had a great week off too. No complaints about home time, seeing a couple of friends, getting in my morning walks and even seeing the new Avengers film.
And today I finished cleaning up the books in my daughter's room.

Good thing as she is home tomorrow night.
And my husband hung the bat box I got for Christmas today.

And he's a happy guy today since he brought his boat home.

It's a good sign that summer isn't that many weeks away. (Only seven weeks only until my summer break. This year we get out a whole week earlier than usual since we only have 1 snow day to make up.)

Time to share my last post for Wendy's Have Fun challenge at Art Journal Journey. Thanks so much Wendy, it was a fun challenge!

 Today I have another mermaid page. I used a baby wipe and a Dylusions fish scale stencil on some wet Infusions. Then I added the stamped, colored and cut out mermaid and also some Studio Light punch out images. I painted the seagrass, stamped a couple of tiny fish as well as the quote, and added some red  sequins.

Here's the quote which is a Hero Arts stamp.

That's all for me.

Hope everyone has a great new week!

Garden Love

Hi everyone. Happy Saturday.  We've had  a day of some heavy rain and a little more coming our way this morning.  Then a  very short break before the next round of wet weather arrives. There's a saying we have that goes, "April showers bring May flowers", and that's what I hope is going to happen. Once we see a few sunny warm days everything is going to explode into green. Which will be great in my book!

But at least rain is not snow, and it is good for doing inside things like art and reading and taking naps. Smile.

As well as trying to finish up my book cleaning project as my daughter informed me she will be home Monday night. That means she needs her bed. Oh the pressure, Smile. Dark weather sure doesn't lead you to a lot of ambition.

So today I have another journal page for Wendy's HAVE FUN challenge at Art Journal Journey. This is a page for my garden cloth journal.

It might be just a little early for sunflowers to bloom in New Hampshire, but it is never too early for sunflowers, especially on a cloudy wet day.

Hope you have a good weekend!

An thanks for visiting.

A Nice Spring Day

Hi everyone. It is Thursday evening and this is the first day all week we had dry and nice weather the whole day. I took advantage of the weather and met a friend for a walk at the shore.

 We boat down the river on the opposite side of this antique rescue station, so it is always interesting to see it from the land side.

 This old munitions door is really inspiring, isn't it?

It was a little crisp with the breeze, but I'll take a little crisp to have some decent weather.

We met an old fort in Kittery, Maine called Fort Foster where the grounds have lots of trails and lots of people walking.  But it wasn't so crowded that I couldn't manage to keep people out of my photos.

And I have some art for you today.

I have a tag I made which I am linking up to 2 challenges. First of all I am linking up to Tag Tuesday and Michele's challenge of  faces. And with all these spring flowers I am also going to link my tag to Moo Mania where the latest challenge is Spring Fever. Any lady with flowers in her hair  certainly has spring fever.

Hope everyone has great end to your week and saying thanks to you for stopping by my blog.

A Vacation Day

Hi everyone. It was cooler and cloudy today and so that made it a good day to be inside. I spent some time in the studio and worked some more on cleaning out my books. Oh you gotta love these stay home vacation days.

I finished up this page in my calendar journal for Wendy's Have Fun challenge at Art Journal Journey. 

I began by painting and stenciling with a Dylusions fish scale stencil.  Then I added these fun punch figures from Studio Light, Marlene 3 Cut Block. I picked up this booklet of images ready to punch out of the page and then add to your art. I thought they were pretty fun images.

I stamped the starfish on the corners and also added some sequins. 

Here's a close up of the quote.

So there's still some piles of books to deal with, as well as a few things my daughter keeps at home for when she is home, but otherwise the project is moving along. Most of the piles towards the front of the photos are needed to be taken to a charity box, or binned up for my daughter to take. But I must say I am having fun doing this cleaning job as it is nice to rediscover books and organize them.

Hopefully I'll get it finished before I go back to work.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

T Stands for Signs of Spring

Hi everyone. Tuesday has arrived and it is time for T again. 

Every Tuesday it's time to stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's  blog and share our drink related posts.
Please note our lovely hostess Elizabeth lost access to her blog lately and the new blog address is https://alteredbooksandmixedmedia.blogspot.com/. 

Today for T I am sharing some of the signs of spring that have finally come to New Hampshire where I live.
 I know nature is WAY BEHIND here than where many of you live. 

 Besides the robins, great blue herons  and red winged blackbirds being back, the spring peepers are calling at night. Spring peepers, if you don't know, are tree frogs who chirp all night. It's been warm enough lately to sleep with the windows open and I love listening to them. But it isn't quiet. This is a sure sign of spring when the nights get loud with nature's calls.

And the buds on the trees are getting bigger. These buds (above) are on my weeping cherry tree which means it will be flowering soon.

And last week I had one crocus blooming. And now look at them all. 

 I know that many of you have had daffodils, tulips and even lilacs blooming. My daffodils are just peeking their leaves out of the ground.

 They too shall be coming, one of these days.
I saw a newt on the road today when I walked.

And the bears are back out of their winter denning.

I didn't see any bears, but I did see this when I woke up Saturday morning.

What might look like modern art is actually a pole I had  2 bird feeders hanging from, which was a straight pole. Goes to show you how strong those bears are to be able to bend the pole the so much.

I am just surprised both dogs slept through Mr. Bear's visit. usually they bark up a storm and we can make enough noise to chase the bear away. He had a Thanksgiving feast this time.

 On Easter Sunday morning I went with my husband up to my mother-in-laws home which is about 30 minutes north of us. My mother-in-law is  now living over in Maine with my husband's sister, and her house is closed up for the winter. But my husband keeps his boat there during the winter, and he is antsy to get it and bring it home. He went over to check if the snow was gone and if the road wasn't too muddy to pull it over so he can tow it home next weekend. I decided to hitch along and take the dogs for a walk. 

 At a few spots in the woods  there were bits of snow, but the road was clear and not even muddy.

The little blue tent looking thing in the photo are the tarps over my husband's boat. The black dog is Pete. He was waiting for me the slow poke to catch up.

And last week we had ice out. Most lakes are now ice free, or at least enough you can maneuver a boat on them. The lake the MIL house is on is now back to water.
Another good sign of spring.

Both dogs went in to cool off after their walk (and boy that water must be cold seeing the ice just went out), and then Pete decided to go swimming so I threw him a stick.

And on the way home, we went by the bay to check and see if one of my favorite food places showed any signs of getting ready to open.

 I was excited to see this.

Those of you who have stopped by for T might remember the fantastic lobster rolls they make. I haven't had a lobster roll since they closed last early September.

And you can guess what I am thinking of doing on the weekend of May 4.

My mouth is watering already.
Smile.

This photo is also my drink related photo for the week. OK, no cups with liquid for me this week but there are several signs for Coco-cola on the building.

Hope you decide to join us for T this week. Hopefully by next week my grass will be green and maybe even I will have daffodils blooming.

Have a happy T day and thanks for visiting my blog.

Hope It Was a Nice Weekend

Hi there. I hope everyone had a nice weekend and if you celebrated Easter or Passover, you had a wonderful holiday.

My weekend was fairly quiet and relaxing. Although we didn't have tropical temperatures the weather sure felt tropical. 

And we had some rain. But in between raindrops I managed to get in a walk and some raking. Plus my husband put my new IKEA bookcase together and I am in the middle of cleaning books and reassembling the room.

Hopefully I'll get this project finished on Monday, unless it is nice and I can finish up my raking. There's a lot of grey and wet weather in the forecast this vacation week, so if it's nice, I should take advantage of that weather. But I am anxious to say this project is done.

And I also have an art journal page that I wrapped up to share with you.

I made my page by using a piece of Gelli printed deli wrap paper (why there is the center fold) that I attached to some white watercolor paper.

I drew and painted the jellyfish and gave them a bit of painted and doodled details. The scuba divers are stamped, and I also added some multicolored sequins. Finally I added the tag and the stamped quote.

I am linking up to Wendy's Have Fun challenge at Art Journal Journey. Thanks Wendy for such an enjoyable challenge. 

And thanks for visiting my blog, and I hope you stop by again sometime soon.

It's Fun Friday

Hi everyone.

It's Friday. Hurrah. I am ready for it to be the weekend and even more so, I am ready for a few days off from work. 

And I am wishing you  a Happy Easter if you celebrate and a Happy start to Passover to those of you who celebrate that holiday for the next several days.

And look what I found in my garden when I did a bit of raking after work one day earlier this week.

 The first flower of the year. There was some green hiding under all the wind blown leaves.

Spring is coming to my world. Smile.

And today I have another page for Wendy's Have Fun challenge at Art Journal Journey

How about some silly monkeys?

This is my calendar journal page this week. These monkeys look like they are all jumping around in their monkey ways or maybe they are dancing for joy with all these bananas to eat.

Either way they are having a lot of fun.

Hope your weekend is a lot of fun too.

Thanks for visiting.

The Rest of My Travel Journal Views

Hi there everyone. We're not quite at Friday yet but I am getting excited to wrap this week up.  I  think it is time to show you  the rest of my Florida travel journal. I start a new vacation after work tomorrow and it is time to move forward and put this journal to rest.

No vacation travels next week for me, although I do have a few fun days out planned. I am ready to have some home time and am hoping the weather will cooperate so I can get some yard work done, now that the snow is finally gone.
So my Florida travel journal has lots of collaged style pages, including the one above made with tape, a couple of playing cards and a camera sticker. And of course I have to include a few postcards.

Here I created a tag using some doodling and part of a die cut, as well as the back of one of a kid's learn about the 50 states cards. And  below  I used the do not disturb sign from a hotel room, as well as a few art supplies to switch it up just a little bit.

The mile 0 sticker is because we reached the southernmost point of US Route 1, which runs north to south along the eastern seaboard. I got a kick out of this as my school is located on route 1, so I ride a short section of this highway every work day,

And a couple of little paintings I did also.

I painted this age for our visit to Big Cypress Swamp. We did some exploring of the swamp along a gravel road and saw more alligators as well as lots of birds.

And finally a last page for our visit to Biscayne National Park and a short boat trip we took out to one of the keys in the park.
I still have some trip photos I might show you sometime, but that's the end of the journal. Time to start making a new one as the hubby and I are heading out to visit a couple of more National Parks this summer.
Hope you have a great day.
And thanks for visiting.