Big Thanks to All

Hi everyone.

 The end of the month is here, and that means today is my last day as guess hostess over at Art Journal Journey and the end of the In the Air/In the Sky challenge. 

Before I say anything more, I want to thank everyone who joined in. Your art was really amazing and inspiring. Wow.  What an impressive group of artists you are. I'm sending HUGE thanks to each of you. I really appreciate all your support. 

And I have one more page to share for this challenge.

Have a wonderful Friday, a wonderful weekend, and although I may be a day early, Happy June. 

Things With Wings in the Sky

Hi there everyone. I can't believe it is Thursday, May 30, already. This week is flying by. This month is flying by. In a blink of an eye it will be June. 

And since there isn't much time left this month, I am going to share another journal page

 for Art Journal Journey. The challenge this month has been In the Air/In the Sky.

I made my page by starting with a Gelli printed and stenciled page. I drew and painted the leaves on the left, and then added some of these trim flowers. I found a whole packet of them on Etsy and I love the texture they add. I then used another punch out from Studio Light , and I die cut the birds on blue paper. I stamped with with a diamond stamp to give them a bit of details. Then I trimmed back the bottom right corner and attached some green paper behind the cut area.

 And then  I added this quote.

The newest challenge at Moo Mania is Things with Wings so I am going to link this page up to that challenge also.

So after gorgeous weather last weekend we have been having more cold and damp/wet days. Sounds like today will be more of the same before we get to see the sun again. 

Guess that works when you have to be at work.

I hope everyone  else is getting good weather and those of you in the tornado zone get some improvement there soon.

Thanks for visiting.

You Need A Telescope for This One

I have a last few pages to share with you as my month as hostess at Art Journal Journey is winding down. So today's page fit the  In the Sky challenge, but you would need a telescope to see it. Today I have a page that is out of this world. Hee-hee! 

I had this image from space  that I cut out of a magazine page, along with the Cosmic Vibrations title. I put them onto a background that I created with spray inks, some Infusions, and some random scraps of paper. Then I painted around the edge of my cut out photo to make it blend into the background better. 

Finally I added a few shiny yellow gemstone style stars and stamped some white stars. I added the little rocket sticker, and finally the Carl Sagan quote. Carl Sagan was  a space guru who wrote several books and certainly made the cosmos more accessible to people who weren't astronomers.

That's my page today.

I hope everyone has a great mid-week.

Make A Mark

Welcome to the end of May everyone.  Big thanks to all of you who joined the party at Try It On Tuesday and helped us celebrate our 10th anniversary.

And since 2 weeks have passed since we posted the party challenge, it is time for another challenge to begin at Try It on Tuesday.

Our latest challenge is to Make a Mark.

We want to see your abstract patterns, girds, circles, squares, chevrons, or any other kind of mark.

I began by painting these upside down V's, not quite a chevron. I outlined them with black Sharpie and stamped some red painted rings. For those I used  a bit of  paint on some foam pipe insulation as my stamp.

I then gave the page  a spray of blue ink.

The girls and the little colorful trim above her are from my Studio Light punch out books which I am having fun using lately. To mimic the tulips on her dress, I painted some paper red and drew and then cut out the tulips. I cut the stems and leaves from some green paper scraps I had.  I thought this page needed a bit of girliness so I added the white cloth trim blinged out with a few sticky gemstones.  And I used stickers to create my words.

I thought the page was perfect for where I have been spending a lot of my free time lately.

And also, since this lady has clouds and the sky on her dress, and my page is blue like a beautiful blue sky day, I am also linking her up to Art Journal Journey. There's still a few days left to join the In the Air/In the Sky challenge there.

Hope to see you and your marks over at 

Try It On Tuesday!

T Stands for My Weekend Indulgance

Hello there everyone. It is Tuesday again. Time to share our drink related posts over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog. 

And the good news is she has power this week so T can go on as scheduled. Hurrah!

So during the week I am a very healthy eater. But I like food, and life is too short to not cheat on occasion,  so most weekends I indulge somehow one day. This past weekend was a long holiday weekend, and my daughter was home for 3 days and her beau was with us for 2, and that called for a big yummy Sunday morning breakfast..

 Sourdough pancakes, mine with blueberries, some delicious sausage as well as some fresh cut melon.  I like my pancakes with blueberries, my daughter likes chocolate chips in hers, my husband likes his plain and my daughter's beau said he would eat whatever, so he had a mix of chocolate chip and plain pancakes.

And for those you not familiar with the dark liquid in the little glass pitcher, it is real maple syrup. I don't think it is from New Hampshire as I got them jug at Costco. I think  is Canadian maple syrup, which is just as good and delicious and as full of antioxidants and healthy minerals  as New Hampshire maple syrup.

I was really surprised to discover all the good things in real maple syrup like potassium, zinc and calcium. Of course it is full of sugar so if you need to watch your sugar it might not be the best choice.

And for my drink you can see I had some water with my breakfast.

We don't have public water in my town. We don't drink our well water as we have lots of issues with iron bacteria and iron in our water, and even though the facts and water testing folks say it is ok to drink, I think being safe is better than being sorry. So we buy water to drink. I know plastic water bottles are not really kosher, but we do recycle them. 

That's all for me today.  I am writing this Monday night as I watch Game one of the Stanley Cup final hockey series. 

Thanks for visiting!

What a Difference a Week Makes

Happy new week everyone.

I spent a good chunk of my Sunday working outside. My daughter and her beau left after brunch, and since it was a gorgeous day, warm but not horribly hot, but  finally summer like, I thought I would spend some time outside and enjoy it. 

Saturday my husband finally opened up the screen porch for me, so I spent a couple of hours with a bucket of watered down bleach and a mop giving the walls and ceiling a good cleaning. I also wiped all the furniture down too. Next step is to get it set up and arranged.

I am glad that job is done as it is not one of my favorites.

And I am excited it won't be long until I can use my screen porch.

And I also planted  a few things including these hosta I picked up Saturday at the garden center and some annuals in my pots on my deck.

I think I need to take some bleach water to my pots here too. They look pretty dirty.

Everything had gotten so green in the past week.

 My  peonies , which I moved last fall, seem to be happy in their new spot. They are getting so many buds which is not something they've ever done.

 And suddenly my grape vine has leaves coming back too. Maybe this year I will get some grapes.

 Flowers in the garden.

 And my azalea is almost ready for flowers.

I love it.

And here's a tag to share over at Tag Tuesday where gardening is their theme. Thought it would be the perfect complement to the garden photos.

And lastly a journal page.

First I want to share this with the big 10 year birthday party over at Try It On Tuesday

You still have a day to join in.

And I am also going to link my page up to Art Journal Journey with the In the air/In the Sky challenge. That challenge runs through Friday.

Happy new week everyone.

Happy Weekend.

Hi everyone. It's the long Memorial Day holiday weekend here in the US. It's not exactly the beach type weather we often get for the holiday, but it is still nice. I've been at the garden center spending a little cash (hoping later this weekend I will get some planting time). Plus my daughter and her beau are here for a bit of a visit. It's good to see them.

In today's' post, I have another page for Art Journal Journey and the In the Air/In the Sky theme. 

I think of this man as a weatherman on the TV giving a  report about what is going on in the sky. But maybe he is a man in the future trying to sell tickets for a vacation journey to the moon.

I started with a piece of black cardstock. I traced a stencil of the "globe" with a white pen. Then I added the moon images, the man and some letter stickers. Then I stamped the white stars.

Hoping everyone is having a great weekend AND I hope to see your art over at Art Journal Journey.

Thanks for visiting.

A Little of a Lot

Hi everyone. Hope your week is going well. It is already Thursday. Time seems to go especially fast when the weather gets nice, doesn't it? ( Or maybe it's just me being in the land where spring has taken forever to really get here.)

Today I have a little of a lot of things to share. I'll start with a journal page for Art Journal Journey and the In the Air/In the Sky challenge.  It's hard to believe that in just about another week the month will be over. So if you want to join in, you still have another week to do that but don't wait too long or June will arrive and this challenge will be over.

Of course I bet there will be a fantastic June challenge too.

Here's my page.

I decided  I wanted to try painting some spring trees. They came out ok, but I thought the view was kind of boring, so I decided to add this little dog running and then leaping to catch the red ball in the air. 

This stamped puppy is a riot.

And the other night we had the coolest colored sky. I didn't even touch this photo with photoshop.

And I have been reading up a storm lately, and since I haven't done a book post in a long time, thought I would share some of my favorites  ( not science though)  from the last 2 months.

(This helps me remember what I read and what I  liked when I look back, and I know some of you enjoy book reviews as much as me.)

You'll see my taste has been all over the place.

 I buzzed through the first 3 of these murder mysteries and have the 4th in the series ready to go. I like the main character, Dr. Ruth Galloway, who is a forensic archaeologist in Norfolk, England. I also like that these books have enough details to keep your brain happy but are not too much to plod through. The stories are good and I've learned some archeology too.

The school library has had the free book cart out a lot lately, and I've picked up some books, (Ok quite a few) including some Amy Tan books, all of which I read many years ago. I know I read this but I didn't remember much about it. Tan  is really good at mother -daughter relationships with Mom holding on to the Chinese traditions and the daughter being a modern American woman. I liked it the second time around, and now I remember what it was about too.

 An Easy Death is an alternative history thriller, and I believe it is the first in a trilogy. I wasn't sure I would like it as I hadn't read any alternative history stories, and the reviews said there was a bit of violence, but I did really enjoy it, even with the violence. I think it was just that the characters were that good.

My goal is to reread (well relisten) to all seven books in the Harry Potter series, and I just finished book 4. I love having the stories read to me! 

And here's another mystery series I really enjoy. Anne Hillerman picked up with  the Leaphorn, Chee, Manuelito characters that her Dad (Tony Hillerman) wrote about for many years. This is her 5th installment, and a really good continuation. These mysteries are set in the Southwest US and are fascinating how they get into Navajo culture.

Sofia Segovia is a Mexican author who has been translated into English. I liked this story set back in the early years of the 20th century Mexico. Her writing is really poetic. I listened to the book and enjoyed the poetry of her words and the way she used a lot of sounds in the story, as well as her great characters.

And this is my current read. Somehow I missed reading the Little House on the Prairie stories of Laura Ingalls Wilder as a kid, but I do remember the old TV show with Michael Landon. This book though is excellent and certainly does not make pioneer life seem romantic in any form. 

We have a long holiday weekend coming up and my daughter is coming home tonight for a couple of days. So have a great start to your weekend and I hope to be by again soon.

Colorful Skies

Here's a quickie page that's full of color and fun and what sounds like a great way to spend an afternoon to me.

I had a little too much blue paint on a page so I pressed this page to that page and that made my blue background, and I didn't waste any paint. Once dry, I drew the clouds and used various paints to color them. And those Studio Light punch outs have sure been a good deal since they were under $5 a book and I have barely used any compared to all of them in the book. They work out perfect for when time is limited like it is right now for me.  Plus they have some fun images. Smile.

The quote is part of a bigger quote stamp that I have had for probably 15 years, but I cut off the first part as the ending seemed to work perfect for the page.

I am linking up to the In the Air/In the Sky challenge at Art Journal Journey. I am so thrilled to see all the gorgeous art linked up so this month. Thank you to all you supportive ladies.

And I also want to remind everyone there is still almost a week to join in at Try It on Tuesday for our 10th year birthday.

Just make it colorful and fun and full of birthday joy. 

Happy middle of the week!

T Stands for Friday Date Night

Hi there. Tuesday has rolled around once again and it time to share our drink related posts over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog.

So this week I am going to share with you some views from last Friday night.  OK, it wasn't wildly exciting, but after work  the hubby and I went out to do  a bit of local sightseeing., Mostly we wanted to see how far along the spring blooming was and how summer looking the scenery was becoming.

It was a beautiful spring evening, actually warm enough to eat outside. Of course I must mention that after our cold May,  65 degree F, 18 degree C temperatures, felt blamy to us.

First stop was the lake near our home, Merrymeeting. 

Then we went up to Lake Winnipesaukee, also known around here as the Big Lake. (Mainly because it is the largest lake in the state, second largest in the New England area.) 

If the lake doesn't look all that large here it is because Alton Bay is just one long finger on the whole lake.

We were way down in the bottom right corner on this map. 

Alton Bay is not the richest area of the lake, but it has its homey charms. (However property here on the lake is still outrageously expensive.) Here's the old railroad station. The train used to run through here and bring people from down south, meaning Boston and the southern New England states,  here during the summers. The train is now gone, but along the route there are still some of the old train stations.

Alton has fixed theirs up and it used for tourist information.

And all this viewing left us hungry, especially me, since it was one of those days at work that I didn't get more than a protein bar snack for lunch.

And guess what is right across the street from the railroad station.

If you don't recognize that you might recognize this.

Pure heaven!

That's my husband's drink in the back but I also had a Diet Coke with my sandwich.

Happy Tuesday.

Birds for Monday

Hi everyone. Happy new week.
I finally unloaded my camera photos onto my computer yesterday.

I had it out because I heard the song and then saw this visiter trying to feed off the hummingbird feeder. 

 I haven't seen a Baltimore Oriole at my feeder in several years.

 So I tempted him to stay awhile by putting out an orange.

He really enjoyed it! I had to put a new one out this morning.

And the other day I had another visiter that I haven't had for a few years either.

 This is the rose breasted grosbeak.

And the hummingbirds are back too.

It's all very exciting.

And all these birds in the air inspired me to share this page for Art Journal Journey and the latest In the Air/In the Sky challenge.

I started with some feather printed tissue paper that I recycled from a package. I gave this a light wash of watered down baby blue acrylic. And a splash of watered down light pink too. Then I added this old check register ripped into some pieces. I stapled some bakers twine, and attached this Studio Light punch out.  I gave her a little bit of pink sparkle glue. Then I stamped the quote and added a few letter stickers, and there you go.

Thanks for visiting.

Spring and Yard Work

Hi everyone.  Yesterday was a gorgeous day with blue skies and comfortable temperatures. Things are really greening up.

As you most likely know, there always seems to be a long list of things to do come spring. Yesterday I got almost all of the bark mulching done, and if I had just 2 more wheelbarrows full I would have finished. Oh well, by that point I was exhausted anyhow and I suppose I can find a couple of bags of bark mulch to complete the job. But even without those last 2 needed wheelbarrows, I am really happy to get the job done.

 This is what I mulched  a couple of Saturdays ago. The plants have really filled in.

 And yesterday I mulched my rose garden. Then I put out my birdbath and my favorite owls. The roses are really greening up too.

The hubby worked on cleaning his boat all day.
And the boat gave the dogs a nice place to get out of the sun.

But even so, we were all wiped out by the end of the day.

Next on the garden list is the fun part. Time to get  what plants I need and put them into the ground!. But those of you who garden know this.
Next weekend is the long Memorial Day holiday weekend here, and in  New Hampshire gardening tradition,  it will be safe from frost to plant then. If I get ambitious, (because I have very little right now), I might run down to a couple of garden centers and so some plant shopping. Or maybe I will just wait until after work one day for that. We have grey skies and rain is suppose to be coming so it might be a better day to relax.
Hmm. I wish life could be full of only decisions like this one.
Happy rest of your weekend and start to the new week.