Last Page for AJJ This Month

Hi everyone. It has been a quiet week in my world. I'm getting to know my new classes and working to get a rapport built up with the kids. So after busy work days (over 12,000 steps just at work each day), I've been pretty lazy when I get home, but I did manage last weekend to squeeze in a little bit of art time. 

I wanted to link up one last page for Jo's Something New challenge at Art Journal Journey. Thanks Jo for this fun challenge. It was good to think about doing something new with art.

So today's page is about new and old. For the old it is about using an image in a new way. I began my page in my Nature Journal but coloring the cloth page. (It is a Dina Wakely Journal.) I used a dry brush and some ink to color the cloth. And for my central image,  I used this card front I made a long time again. The image is made on glossy paper with some black stamped images and some ink coloring. 

After I attached it I used some bits of tape, a sticker, and a piece of book scrap. I also added a few metal bits to finish off the page.

Finally I cut the quote out of this student travel brochure I recently received in my mail. I am not advertising or supporting the company at all, but rather than throwing out this book, I am using some of the super "quotes" in it.

Hope everyone is having a great week.

And thanks so uch for visiting my blog.

T Stands for a Good Week in Retrospect

Howdy! It is Tuesday and time for T over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog again. 

Looking back over the past week, it was quite a good week. Funny at the time I was deep into end of semester exams and wrapping up grading at school so it seemed very  disconnected. Plus one of the dogs had surgery and my mom fell so besides having piles of work to do, there was some worry. Well the dog is back to herself minus the bald spot on her side where she was shaved, and my mom's fall didn't land her in the hospital. By Saturday (when I visited)  Mom was back up on her feet and having to be told to use the walker and to slow down. There was no apparent injuries. All good news since she is 90.

So with that going on I didn't have time to think about the good things.  But now that I am no longer focused on the worry and the work, I can see it was actually a very good week.

I found out I was going to be a great-aunt for the first time when my nephew's wife has a baby in July. 

The dog's lump biopsy came back as non-cancerous.

And on Friday a rare event happened in  my life. My husband brought me these.

He said I needed to celebrate being half way through the school year and getting closer to the halfway point of winter. (Close enough he said to call it halfway.)

They were much appreciated!

And one day before going into the grocery store, I took one of my walks through Hobby Lobby to get some more steps in. (And use the bathroom, as theirs is always really clean.) And that's when I noticed those bright orange markdown stickers and I had to go back up front to get a basket.

I don't know if it is good thing or bad thing that Hobby Lobby is next door to the grocery store.  I can admit that most of the time I walk through and come out empty handed-really.

And, I went out to eat not once but 4 times.  (That didn't even dawn on me until Saturday when I was able to look at the week as a whole.)

Last Monday was a no school holiday to celebrate Martin Luther King day. I should have been doing something to celebrate civil rights, but instead I went out to lunch with my daughter, who also had the day off from work.

I had a salad with a diet Coke.

And Thursday after work my book club met. We met for an early dinner, some book talk, and lots of catching up. We've been a book group for close to 20 years now, and even though some people have come and gone, three of us have been there from the beginning.  But we're all friends, so it is easy to get distracted from the books.

I had a Sam Adams beer with a fried fish sandwich.

And although I have no photos from lunch on Friday, most of my department went to a local Greek restaurant. We like to eat there because the food is yummy and they have fast service which is good since we have to get back to school. I had a veggie wrap, Greek green beans and a diet soda.

And lastly this past Saturday my husband and I drove down to check in on and visit my mom. We usually go down to visit her in the late  morning, and then stop for a bite to eat on our way home. One of our favorite places to go is the 99 Restaurant.

They serve popcorn while you wait for your meal. You can also see my diet Pepsi.

And I've had this meal before (and shown you before). Saturday's temperature wasn't really cold but it was raw and damp so a nice big bowl of pasta tasted good. And this bowl is so big I get leftovers to have another day.

That is always a good thing!

All my drink photos are my ticket to T this week. 

I hope this week is  quiet  and goes by quickly. We shall see how that goes. My new classes started today (Monday) and it is still too early to tell what they will be like. First impression not bad except I have to get used to my non-academic class. For 12 kids I have a team teacher and 2 paraprofessionals. I guess they are going to be a needy crowd, seeing there will be 4 adults for 12 kids.  Other than that  I am happy the days are getting longer, the weather is predicted to be winter mild, and there are no big snow storms in sight, at least according to the weather this morning.  And that is good for me.

Thanks for visiting!

Alice so Far

Hi there. So today I am back with as much of my Alice book 2 as I have done so far. You might remember she has gotten up and it is a beautiful spring day. (Yes, wouldn't it be nice to be able to sleep through much of winter, or at least the cold and the touch weather parts-smile) She realizes she is very tall, and she hears a humming noise coming from outside.

So my next page is my take on the Father William part, which if you don't remember, he is standing on his head.

"You are old, Father William," the young man said,
    "And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head—
    Do you think, at your age, it is right?"

I made my William Uncle Bill.

Here's what my page says:
And she saw her Uncle Bill
but he was standing on his head.
"Uncle Bill, what are you doing?" Alice asked.
"Why I a doing my daily yoga." He replied.
"Oh dear,"  said Alice " I think I need some air."

The next page then says:

Outside it was a glorious spring day.

Birds were singing .

Leaves were popping out on the trees

Flowers were blooming and bees were buzzing.

And then Alice noticed 

something strange in the garden.

Why

it was a flamingo.

"What are you doing in my garden?" Alice asked.

Then Alice saw a face

she thought she should know.

"Think. Think. Think. Why should I know that face?"

"Come play on my team girl."

"Play what? I am Alice not girl."

"We are playing croquet of course.

That's why the flamingoes are here."

And the next couple of pages.

"Curiouser and curiouser." 

Sketches and doodles as well as some images from Art By Marlene. And yes, Alice has a different outfit on here.  Well, socks and skirt because all you can see is her legs. Remember, Alice has  gotten very tall. And the lady on the far right is the queen, who has been seen before.

I'll get back to this book and should have the rest of the story soon also.

Thanks for visiting.

Not New But New

Hi everyone. Hope you are having a great weekend. 

Today (Saturday) was my day to get a few things done that needed to be done. I got up and finished some grading that wasn't completed so I can post grades Monday, and then my husband and I took off and went down to visit my mother. I hadn't been down to see her since the holidays and it was weighing on me as much as the unfinished grading was. But I must say it's good to have both tasks completed. 

And since today was cloudy, damp and raw, it was a good day to get these things done, as well a couple of smaller errands, so tonight I feel totally relaxed.  It's a nice feeling.

I am back with Something New for the Jo's fun challenge by that same name at Art Journal Journey.

Well sort of new.

You might remember this page from 2018. (Yup, lousy photo.)

Well I was looking through this journal recently  and when I came to this page, I looked at it and just felt like it could use a bit of a facelight. It wasn't bad, but the man and his botany supplies  just blended into the page.  

So that's my "new". I used some watered down cream colored paint  and smeared it around the page just to make the background a bit less white. Now the man stood out better but the page needed a little color. So I found these red flower stickers in my stash and decided they would work with the letters in word Paradise. and I outlined those letters with black Sharpie.

I still left the green gemstones , although I did a bed job including them in the photo.

I'm not sure the page is better than it started, but I like the change. For now at least. Maybe in a couple of years I will look through the journal again and think it needs another facelift. (smile)

And thanks to a suggestion from Alison    I am linking up to the We're All Getting Older at a Vintage Journey

That's it for me. Thanks for visiting.

Skaters

Hi everyone. Another week is flying by. Today (Thursday as I am writing this Thursday night), I wrapped up my first semester classes. I'm a little sad though; I just finished my microbiology class. Last time ever. That class was my baby that I created and developed. But, this sadness won't last very long. It is just the ending and all the goodbyes as I transition into a new semester.  Tomorrow we have a mid-year teacher workday to get organized for the new semester, and then next week, I get 3 new classes.  And next week we wrap up January also.Before we know it February will be here. Wow!

So today I have another page for Jo's Something New challenge at Art Journal Journey. 

I made this skaters page in my winter journal. I was inspired by this image I had that included the 2 skaters you see here. It was a very vintage image, and I couldn't figure out how I was going to use it. And then I had the idea to make a more modern page and use the vintage people on it. That's what new (for me) with this page, the use of modern and vintage looking pieces together. 

I really liked how I could make all these cool shapes with my ink pad (on a page I showed you this past Saturday)so I repeated it on the bottom of the pages. It reminded me of ice. I used a different blue inkpad to make some sky. Then I used scraps of paper to cut these triangular trees. The clouds are painted; it cut the skaters of of the image, and I painted the clouds.I also used a bit of Stabilo watercolor pencil around the edges of the clouds. Then I used a vellum postmark which I stamped with the posted lines, and I also used a few TH quote words.

Hope you like my latest page.

Thanks so much for visiting.

Alice

Hi there. 

I am back today with another couple of spreads from my Alice book.  You can get a good idea of the size of this book from my fingers at the bottom of the page.
I left off in book 2 with Alice rolling out of bed on a nice spring morning, The sun is shining and the birds are singing.
The words on the left say
She walked to the table to get her breakfast and
for some reason the table seemed
very very short.  And Alice seemed
very very tall.

And on the right

Then Alice heard a strange noise.
Hmmm. 
Hmmm.
Hmmm.
Alice walked away from the table
and went off to explore the noise.

And I'll leave you with that question-what is making that noise?

Happy mid-week.
And thanks for visiting.

Time for a New Challenge

Hi there everyone. It seems like we just started the last challenge at Try It On Tuesday, and here it is time for a new one.

For the next 2 weeks we're asking for art that has whitespace or colorful grunge. Or maybe both.

My design team piece for this challenge started because I wanted to use this photo of the little bird on the snowy branch. I then used some various green paints on part of the page. My new fun  media is something very simple, but I am loving how it works. It is just a white wax china marking pencil (also called a grease pencil), and it is great how you can easily write on just about any surface.  I tried a white crayon and maybe it is the brand I had, but this white pencil is so much more white.

Maybe I need to get some other colors of these markers.

On my page I also stamped the little leaf design, as well as the quote.  I also did a bit of stitching in white, and added some white die cut snowflakes. There is a bit of silvery white glitter on each snowflake, but it is hard to see in this photo.

And since I am using something new on my page, I am also going to link up my journal page to Jo's Something New challenge at Art Journal Journey.

Be sure to stop by the Try It On Tuesday home page and see all fabulous art from our designers.  There is  great inspiration there. 

We are also looking for design team members, so if you are interested by sure to read what we are looking for.

Thanks so much for visiting my post today!

T Stands for Chocolate and Winter

Hi everyone.  It's been nice to have a 3 day weekend even though we had some snow and now the cold is back. Sunday morning when I went outside to clear around the bird feeders (and shovel a bit), I discovered  it was such a nice winter day that I took a little stroll around the driveway and the snowblown paths (that my husband had done), and I enjoyed a bit of time outside.

The sun felt so nice.

 You can see it wasn't a huge snowfall, but we still had to shovel.

My husband also cleaned snow off the roof so we wouldn't get any ice dams.

 I think this shovel is trying to tell me something.

And  a couple of views as I walked down the driveway.

The ones who love the snow the most is the dogs.

Sorry to bore you with dog photos. And to show you snow photos of nothing wildly new. But they lead me to T today.
OK, all that outside time and snow and you might want a treat.
So let me tell you about the baking that wasn't quite right.

So I made this sourdough coffee bread filled with chocolate and walnuts. And it was OK, but a little dry and overbaked.
We tried a bite, but none of us were too excited to eat it. It didn't taste bad, but it was kind of dry. Only it took some work to make it, and it seemed a waste not to eat it, so I thought about it a bit and came up with a new plan.
I decided to make bread pudding.
Bread pudding (if you don't know) is where you chop the bread into cubes and then make a mixture of egg yolks and milk which get poured over the bread cubes. And then the mixture gets baked.
I went for chocolate bread pudding so my liquid mixture contained both coco and melted chocolate.
May I offer you a bowl?

With whipped cream of course, and bottle of water to drink.
Now that was delicious.
Join us for T over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's. It's our Tuesday gathering where we share our drink related posts.
I hope everyone has a great  day.
And thanks so much for visiting my blog.

Wintery Weather

Hi everyone. The weekend is here as well as is winter. At least here in New Hampshire. We've had  some cold temperatures, and the snow is coming. Sounds like a good weekend to stay inside by a warm wood stove fire, watch more movies, read and make a little art.

Well I guess I might have to do a bit of snow shovelling tomorrow, which is not my most favorite thing. Yet it is some exercise and fresh air, so I suppose there is even good in that. (Well, I don't know if it is really my kind of good though. Smile.)

But the winter weather did inspire me to make a tag for Tag Tuesday and their latest winter scenes challenge.

The tag is not about the shoveling, but the pretty views that come after snow. I used this vintage image of some birds on a fence. I attached it to my base, which is actually a flooring sample from a local big box hardware store. I picked up a couple of these on a recent trip there as I thought they might be a good art surface. Then I attached some various items to complete the tag.

After finished the tag I decided to use it on a page in my winter journal. 

I call my page winter blue to celebrate the gorgeous blue skies that come after a snowstorm blows out. I used my ink pad to make some interesting shapes on the background paper as well as color it. Then I used some pieces of tape, my tag, as well as some die cut, plastic and metal snowflake embellishments. 

And since I have never used the plastic flooring sample in art before, I will like this page up to Jo's challenge at Art Journal Journey also.
I hope you have a warmer, less wintery weekend than we are having!
Thanks for visiting.

A New Journal Project

Hi everyone. 

It is almost the weekend here which is exciting as my work week has been very busy. The quarter at school is wrapping up with final exams next week so I've been trying to finish up the curriculum (to kids who are feeling the stress and are very cranky because everyone is trying to finish their curriculums.) But the good news is I was successful without causing too much pain (I think), and there is a 3 day weekend ahead. You would think with the holiday break just a few weeks ago this 3 day weekend would seem unneeded, but I am looking forward to some down time.

And yesterday we had more snow, and my morning drive  was horrible until I reached the coast and hit rain. But at home we had this.

And more snow is due this Saturday night. I am keeping my fingers crossed it isn't as much as the last forecast predicted.

Today I have a new journal cover to share with you and also over at Art Journal Journey. This month's hostess is Jo and her theme is Something New.

 I started with a blank kraft covered binder  and some blue paint. I spread it thick with lots of brush strokes so I would end up with some cool texture. 

Then I rubbed a brown ink pad over the blue to fill in the brush grooves. I doodled and painted the clouds, and added a bit of napkin to the bottom with matte medium. I die cut this cool southwestern sun from some copper colored paper, and used a bronze Sharpie marker to color in the sun.

 And then I added the letter stickers and a bit of paper tape at the bottom.

I wanted to make this journal cover as the hubby and I are heading out to visit our friends in New Mexico at the end of February when I have a week's break at school. I haven't been out there since 2017 so I must say I am pretty excited. It will be nice to see our friends and to get away from the snow (hopefully) for a few days.

Hope you have a great start to your weekend. 

New Ink

Hi everyone.
I'm a little late in showing this holiday page, but it worked out because it fits Jo's challenge at Art Journal Journey. This month her challenge is something new, and the background on my page made with some green ink that I hadn't used before.

I had picked up a  pad of this Dyestress ink back in the fall because I found it on markdown and also because really liked the green. I didn't have any ink pads of this particular shade.  (It is the green one on the far left, right underneath the blue.) I was curious how this ink worked  (and how it compared to the Tim Hotlz reactive ink) so finally around Christmas I tried it out.

I stamped the leaves, and then with a wet paintbrush, I did a bit of smearing. I know that it isn't most wild or unusual technique, but I like the sneary leaves. I also used some grey-blue watercolor paint on the background, and I stamped the jingle bells words with some grey ink. The rest of the page is made with some stamped and colored images, some die cuts, a bit of red trim ribbon and also a cute little gnome picture.
It's the last mild today today before winter returns. They say more arctic cold is returning as well s a bit of snow. Yes, it is still January.
That's all for me today. Hope your week is going well.

T Stands for January Thaw

Hello everyone. Time to visit and share the weekly T drink post.

                  I'm joining everyone over at  Altered Book Lover blog for another Tuesday T day.                           

So this week I am going to share a beach walk on a Saturday that felt like spring.. This past Saturday the temperature reached a high of 66  (19 degrees C), and it was really gorgeous. It is January in New Hampshire which means it could be cold and snowy any time, and the way the weather changes around here that kind of  beautiful day doesn't come all that often. 

So my husband and I packed the dogs into the car and took a drive down to the seacoast and over the border into Maine. 

I've taken you here before but we are at York Beach in York, Maine.

The beach was crowded as I think lots of people had the same idea. It doesn't look crowded here but that's because we were down in the wet zone.

 And it was windy which created this cool ripple effect at the edge of the water.

 Unfortunately I didn't see the wave that came on on the left,  and it splashed right up over the bottom of my jeans and even into one of my boots.  Good thing my boots are warm and the air was too. But I did slosh along my walk, even though I emptied out my boot twice.

It felt good to get some sun and be outside for awhile. But a walk does make you thirsty.

And hungry too.

So we headed to our favorite local little hole in the wall restaurant. I've taken you here for breakfast and lunch many many times.

 I can offer you half of a tuna sandwich on rye as well as a few onion rings.

And for T a glass of diet pepsi.
Winter has returned in my world and the spring like weather is gone.  Sad face. But it is T Day and I wish you all a very happy one.
Thanks for visiting.

Alice is Back

Hi everyone.  Our temperature is starting off warm today, and although we have a bit of rain, it makes me think of March or April. By tonight we'll be back in the normal January chilliness, but this little January thaw has been super and I even managed a walk yesterday.   And a rainy Sunday morning means it is a good time to have a lazy morning. Hurrah!

The puddles and melt in the driveway made a cool photo with the reflections of the trees.

For the last few weeks I have been working on my Alice in Christmasland second book, since I ran out of paper in the original book.  And even if I wrapped up the story enough in book 1, I was having too much fun to stop.

 I didn't have another copy of the same type of book, so I went with something a bit different. For book 2 I used something I believe is called a zig-zag book. It has  2 hard covers and one long folded piece of watercolor in between.

Here is a photo of a blank one which is similar only the ones I have (I bought a few last year on a major markdown at Hobby Lobby) although mine have a few more paper folds.

To refresh your memory, let me recap part 1.

Alice climbs up on the roof of her home because she wants to look down the chimney to see how Santa can fit. In the process she falls down the chimney, shrinking in the process. Alice spends most of the rest of that story trying to get back to her normal size, and the book ends with Alice falling out of bed. I never said whether she was just dreaming and back to her normal size or not.

This is where book 2 picks up. Here's the first couple of 2 page spreads.

 As you can see it is now spring. The page says

" Oh Chessie, you are a regular sized cat." Alice said.

She had woken up on the floor wrapped in her blankets.

"I dreamt I was very very small and you were very very big."

Alice wiped her eyes and looked around the room.

"It was also Christmas in my dream.,

but it doesn't look like Christmas at all."

Myy spread is a mix of my drawings/paintings as well a bits of Studio Light/Art by Marlene punch outs. 

And here is the next section.

Alice walked out of her bedroom and noticed indeed it was spring.

The sun was shining through the windows,

and there was NO Christmas tree.

"And I am NOT very small." Alice said again in a voice that was very relieved.

This page is mad with some inking, painting, doodling, a die cut as well as some Studio Light Art by Marlene dots.

Just a tease. More to come another day.

Thanks so much for stopping by.