Saturday, August 24, 2019

Saturday This and That

Hi everyone. Happy weekend. Today I have some art and some photos of my little spot on the planet to share.
Yesterday we got our driveway fixed. (If you remember the photos of the wash out we had last weekend, you'll know we had very deep water carved ruts down both sides and at the base of the hill.)  Hurrah! Hurrah!  The rocks on the side are for drainage during big storms. Even the hubby was happy. He is very critical since his specialty is designing airport runways so he knows how the site needs to be prepared before paving. That means the guy did a good job. (Which I would have said from looking at it but what do I know about site work. I will stick with biology and what I know of art and take his word for it.)
And I had a self-seeded  tomato plant growing on my steps. I left it there to see what it did and look, it now has some tomatoes forming.  Not sure what kind since it self seeded from last year. My guess is some kind of cherry tomato?
And here's my flowers this week after some rain.




 The last of my lilies, I think.
And I looked for any monarch butterfly chrysalises but didn't see any on my milkweed.

But now there's lots of milkweed tussock moth caterpillars also on them. 
With school back in session my gardens start to go downhill as my garden maintenance time is more limited.
And I do have a journal page today for both Moo Mania. and Art Journal Journey.
The latest theme at Moo Mania is numbers/letters.  I used this cool paper I tore out an old Somerset Studio magazine when I was cleaning a pile  this summer  that I used as my background, and then took this leftover bit from an alphabet/number die cut. It was in white, and I used matte medium to attach it to my paper. Then I rubbed 2 shades of blue ink over it. I also used the dark blue ink to enhance the top and bottom of the page.
I added some blue gemstone style dots along the bottom. I stopped at Hobby Lobby the other day to return a can of spray paint that wouldn't spray, and then made the mistake of walking back to see if there was anything good on the clearance racks. I managed to find about 10 packets of alphabet stickers as well as some of these gemstone dots all substantially marked down. That explains why I used so many on the page.
And then I added the mermaid, dolphins and the quote. These are all from a set by Visible Image that I picked up this summer. The mermaid and dolphins are fussy cut after being stamped on white paper, except for her trident which I stamped directly on the page and then colored it with a gold metallic marker.
As the mermaid has eyes and the quote mentions eyes, I think this works perfect for Gill's challenge at  Art Journal Journey
That's all for me today. It's beautiful weather, slightly feeling like fall, which is quite exciting after all the humidity we had earlier this week.
Thanks so much for visiting.



14 comments:

Gibby Frogett said...

Great phots and art Erika.
Beautiful page - the stamps you used are really lovely.
(And thats a nice quote too.)
You must have a lot of patience to place all those little gem stones along the bottom :)
Thank you for sharing with AJJ.
Good to see your drive done - love the colours of those rocks.
Hope your weekend going well... Gill x

Valerie-Jael said...

Wow, your drive is looking fantastic, what a good job! How fun to get some surprise tomatoes, hope they taste good when they are ripe. Great journal page, too, love the colours. Have a nice weekend, hugs, Valerie

froebelsternchen said...

Amazing Erika, I love the plant impressions and I ADORe this wonderful page! What a stunning post!
Great that the driveway is fixed- looks very good, always nice to have a pro for such work..lol!
And you are also a pro in biology ( green thumb) and art!

A dreamy pro couple...lol!

Happy rest of the weekend!
Thank you so much for supporting Art Journal Journey and Moo Mania & More with this absolutely beautiful mermaid piece! I love it!
Susi
xxx

Words and Pictures said...

Good to see your driveway looking navigable again, and how happy do those flowers look after the rain?! The caterpillars, however, are terrifying!!

I love your mermaid page - the large letters are so cool, and I love the golden trident and the bubbles of air echoing the bubbly background.
Alison x

Let's Art Journal said...

Wow, your drive is looking wonderful, so glad that you are pleased the work being done 😁. Your flowers look so beautiful, I love how you captured the roses with the water droplets and oh my that's a lot of caterpillars ...lol 😉. Your mermaid page is fabulous too, so magical! Happy weekend! Hugs, Jo x

Pink Rose said...

Hi Erika love the fixed driveway,awesome to have a clever hubby.
Oh you have beautiful plants in your garden the roses are beautiful.
Well done with your card its so pretty,beautiful work my friend xx

CJ Kennedy said...

Hooray for getting the driveway fixed! Your garden looks good. The roses and the black eye susans are so pretty. Yum ,cherry tomatoes. Himself’s plants are fizzling out. Love the color on the mermaid page. The quote makes me think of the changing of seasons. I’m longing for Summer

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Your driveway looks better. I like the rocks for drainage, but the driveway still looks like it's a bit uneven. I hope that is my eyesight and NOT the driveway.

Your garden is still doing SO much better than mine. Everything is now dead, dead, dead.

I was super impressed with your journal page. I studied it asking myself how, if you stamped the trident, you got it so perfect in her hand, but in front of her elbow. Quite a feat, I believe. Thanks for sharing this gorgeous under-the-sea beauty with us using Gill's theme at Art Journal Journey.

Anne (cornucopia) said...

I'm glad to see your driveway repair got done already. It looks great. Lovely water droplet photos. The flowers are beautiful. I like your sea art journal page. I'm assuming you've been enjoying the same fantastic weather I've had this weekend. It was a little brisk overnight, but much better for sleeping compared with so many hot nights we've had.

Divers and Sundry said...

Congrats on the driveway job well done. That's satisfying :) Your black-eyed susans are still lookin' good. Mine are fading, and I finally replaced the photo of them on my Facebook profile with one of the basil (or coleus, or whatever the heck it is lol) It's still August, but I can tell Autumn is coming.

craftytrog said...

Lovely garden photos and a beautiful page Erika! X

Rike said...

The fixed driveway is looking good - and when hubby was happy then the guy really did a good job :)
Your self seeded tomato plant looks exciting, the tomatoes seem to will be delicious.
Your flower photos after rain are excellent! Your caterpillars are very busy, I had to laugh!
This is a wonderful underwater artjournal page! I love this mermaid and the dolphins, but most of all this gorgeous background! The quote is great too!
Big Hugs-Rike
P.S. Yes, this is a little scorpio horoscope stamp on my blog, because I am scorpion - and I wrote "Rike" in this stamp :)

Jeanie said...

The rocks and driveway look great. Glad the drainage is under control.Always nice when the husband is a happy camper! Love the blooms too!

Rosie said...

Beautiful photos and an amazing journal page

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