The Queen of the Crows and Some Fish

Hi everyone. Can you believe today is the last day of September?

First for today  I have  a tag for the latest  challenge at Tag Tuesday.  Sandie's choice is book pages. 

I have an old Japanese garden book which I used to cover my tag.  I stamped the two koi, colored them, and then stamped the big happiness word. Finally I thought the tag needed a little something, but I didn't want to cover the koi. So I used this TH paper bit, but the 16 doesn't really mean anything directly to the tag.

I also have one more TEXTURE piece for Jo's challenge at  Art Journal Journey. Jo, you've been a wonderful hostess this month. Thanks  for such fun challenge.

So I started a Halloweenish type altered book called Mystery, Mayhem and Magic.  Today's posted page is one page within this altered book. 

I started by using some clear modeling paste and a stencil. Once dried, I used some black spray ink. I also cut out the center of the page and added this printed piece of acetate. Then I put some silver tape along the edges and used some brads to hold the tape down better. Finally I added some feathers that I have picked up  on my walks.

Here's the back side of this page (on the left), which I am not sure I have finished. You can also see the crow page that peeks through the acetate.

And here's the cover of my altered book project.

Thanks to all of you who have joined our challenge this month. We'll be back tomorrow with a new challenge for October. Enjoy your day!

The Colors of Autumn

 It is time once again for a new challenge at Try It on Tuesday. This time we're asking you to show us the Colors of Autumn.

I went with a  traditional autumn theme for my challenge page.  I used some spray inks, and once they dried, I used some Tim Holtz leaf stamps as part of the background. I also used black ink and stamped both the quote as well as the black designed leaf from Paper Artsy. I thought the black gave some nice contrast with the autumn colors. To give my page a little more autumn color, I then added some painted wooden leaves.

For the next 2 weeks this challenge is open to any kind of art, as long as you use the colors of autumn. 

Be sure to check out all the beautiful art from our designers at Try It On Tuesday.

Since the wooden leaves create some texture on my page, I am also linking up to Jo's TEXTURE challenge at Art Journal Journey.

Thanks so much for visiting.

T Stands for the Past Week

Hi everyone. September is winding down quickly,isn't it? Last night I woke up and heard some rain coming down. I'd forgotten what that sounded like. Before last night we'd only had 1/10 of an inch (2.54 mm) all month. I was so happy to hear  the rain I laid in bed awake listening for awhile. 

 In the last couple of days some of the leaves around my home have really started to become quite colorful. 

Here's some photos from my last couple of morning walks.

Sunday we had some morning fog which made the colors pop a bit more. And also add some atmosphere to the photos too.

My backyard is starting to look pretty also. You can see my grass is disappearing because of our draught. The good news is that we are supposed to have 100% chance of rain later this week.

It is so dry there is no grass left near the back deck. The dogs haven't helped as they've kicked up the grass. I got sick of wiping down their muddy footprints on my floors  (mud from the morning dew), so I went out and purchased this piece of fake grass carpet. It might sound strange, but it is able to be outdoors and is just grass like enough that when the dogs walk over it, it brushes away the mud off their paws.

So far it is working perfect!

And actually gives a bit of geen to the lawn-ha-ha!

Last week was busy. I made some sourdough English muffins and a honey cake. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos. And I also went for a walk on the rail trail again.

I climbed up on the lifeguard seat to get a better view, and my friend snapped this photo of me.

I did venture out to lunch after my walk. The only restaurant in my town has a huge land area. They have the ice cream window (you've seen  my take out treats from that window  lately), indoor dining, and a giant tent they put out for outdoor dining. They have enough land that we've seen helicopters land there several times, even with the tent up.

My friend Deb and I chose the outdoor tent for lunch after our rail

trail walk.

It was taco Wednesday. I had some fish tacos. For my side I got butternut squash, a favorite of mine. And you can see my T day drink too. I had some ice water with lemon. And I was pleased to see they used paper straws too.

Don't forget to stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog   and see what the T gang has been up to. And of course you are welcome to join us if you haven't yet.

And look what I came across last week for Iris. A stone Henry!

And I can't forget my Sunday lunch ice cream. This week I had mocha/peanut butter ice cream.

Only 2 more weeks until the take out window shuts down. (Of course you can always go in and order ice cream to go. Which might have to be done-ha-ha.)

I had a good week. Hope you did also. And I hope you end the month with good things too.

Thanks for visiting.

Another Road Trip-Part 1-Mount Washington

 Hi everyone. 

Last week ended with some wonderful weather on Saturday. It was crisp (I actually needed my down vest), but clear clear blue skies. A perfect day for nice views.

If you stop by my blog frequently you might have read that last week I took a ride with my husband to his meeting in Northern Vermont. He was going alone and his meeting was going to be short, and for me, it was great to "go" somewhere out of the ordinary.

In fact, my husband and I both enjoyed going someplace different that we decided this past Saturday to go for another drive and see some different scenery. This time we headed north in our own state of New Hampshire and head into the White Mountains.

 The White Mountains are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. They are part of the northern Appalachian Mountains and the most rugged mountains in New England. (from Wikipedia)

We live on the eastern side of  the state and decided not to drive  across the state.  That meant we headed out and drove a couple of hours in a more or less northerly direction.

Just north of the town of  North Conway the road splits, and you have a choice. If you head  northeast, you will go through Pinkham Notch.  If you head northwest, you will go through Crawford Notch. In between these 2 notches is the mighty Mount Washington.

Mount Washington is the highest peak in the northeastern US at 6288 feet (1917m).  I know that's not very high compared to a lot of mountain ranges, but the Appalachians, of which the White Mountains are part of , are one of the  oldest mountain ranges on the planet. Therefore they are really eroded.

  Mount Washington is notorious for its erratic weather. On the afternoon of April 12, 1934, the Mount Washington Observatory recorded a wind speed of 231 miles per hour (372 km/h) at the summit, the world record from 1934 until 1996. Mount Washington still holds the record for highest measured wind speed not associated with a tornado or tropical cyclone. (Wikipedia)

OK, if this post has been a bit heavy reading, I just wanted to give some background info. We headed in the northwest direction., through Crawford Notch and beyond to Coos County where this big mountain is located.  Today I am going to share the mountain with you.

Here's the western view of Mount Washington. On the left  side you can see the railroad that goes up this side of the mountain. The towers on the top are for the weather station. The scars in the middle and right side are from avalanches, rock slides and water run off caused erosion.

The railroad that goes up Mount Washington is called the Cog Railway. We didn't ride it up that day. It is pricey, and really one of those things you only need to do once.  I had gone up with my family when my daughter was younger, and we were doing a local vacation. 

Plus although the temperature was around 52 degrees F on the bottom, on the mountain top it was only 26.9 degrees F.  And we had some wind too. So as chilly the as the bottom was, the top was cold.

Never mind the wind.

But it is fun to watch the trains. So we took a ride up and went out to see what was happening.

W did walk through the tiny free museum. When we arrived there were few people around, so we had the museum to ourselves. 

Here's one of  the trains on the way down.

When we rode the train it was still coal burning. Not the cleanest burning, but definitely historic. Now they have changed over to biodiesel. And at least the passengers aren't showered with black smoke and coal dust anymore.

We had a great view looking west from the parking lot. It was nice to just sit in the car for a little while, enjoying the warmth and sunshine. And the view too.

Another famous spot on the western side of Mount Washington is this vintage beauty.

The Mount Washington Hotel 

Some day I should like to come and stay here. But this trip was just a day out adventure, and with Covid, I am not yet ready to stay in a hotel yet.

The hotel was originally built between 1900-1902.  Originally the hotel was only open in the summer, but recently it was bought out by a hotel corporation and it is now open year round. There is a large ski area right down the road, and I think they also now own the hotel. I wonder what it's like inside? 

Maybe one day I will be able to tell you.

That's all for me today. I hope you enjoyed your virtual road trip.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Happy Friday

 Hi everyone. Another week has flown by, and it is almost another weekend. My week is ending with some beautiful fall weather. I am enjoying that, but boy do we need rain. I went to plant some flowers a friend gave me  and the ground soil is powder.

 Here's a river bed I walked by the other day. Not sure if you can make out with the sun glare how low this river actually is. People kayak and canoe in this river, but not now.  Now you could actually walk across this and probably not even get your feet wet.There is no more than a trickle of water. It is located in Wolfeboro Falls, but the falls are not even flowing right now. 

Today I have a journal page from my Garden Journal to share with you. I created texture by thickly stenciling on some black paint, and then adding both the matte board frame as well as the gold and orange colored butterfly. The flower is also from a stencil that I used a marker to outline, and then I painted and doodled upon to create.

The quote is stamped from one of Alison Bomber's sets from Paper Artsy.

I am linking up to Jo's texture challenge at Art Journal Journey Hope to see you join us before the month wraps up.

Since our weather is nice we are going to try to squeeze in one last boat trip for the season this weekend. It will be nice to go out on the water, and my husband is especially excited. It's always sad to see these summer  activities end. I think it will be especially true this year with Covid. I'm not sure I want to move inside with friends and the higher risk that poses to spreading the virus. So hopefully, some nice weather will last a while longer so the fall can be enjoyed.

That's all for me today. I have some chores around the house to do, and hopefully some art time too. Or maybe I should say I have some art time planned and hopefully my chores around the house will get done. That is closer to the truth. Enjoy the start of your weekend.

Another Autumn Page and

Hi everyone! Hope you're having a good week. I am going back to Bedrock gardens today with my friend. We want to see how things have changed in the last couple of weeks and take more photos. It's suppose to be a nice day fall day too.

So I have another textured page for you today. I left my background white and added this cut piece of paper. It was part of a 12x12 scrapbook paper, but I just used on edge of it.  The pear is actually a scrap die cut from my scrap bits pile. I gave the pear a bit more depth with some paint and just a whisper of sparkles.  The leaves are those foam kind you can buy but they give it just the right touch of autumn.

And how about a few more photos from Bedrock Gardens. These are from my visit 2 weeks ago.

A couple more of the lens ball.  This time it is sitting in a blue metal sculpture.

I love not only the big pot but the roboty (is that a word?)  sculpture.

Clever use of an old pitchfork.

Anyone know what these puffs are?

Hope you enjoyed your visit.

 

Autumn

Hi everyone.  Summer is now officially over.  Happy autumn to you! 

It was a good summer for me although it was extremely dry and for here in New Hampshire, we had way too many days over 90 degrees. That's not the norm for us, and it's been since the 1950's since there were so many heatwaves.  I love autumn  so I'm not really sad to have this new season arrive. (Now winter, that is another story.) 

I made this page to celebrate the new season.  I started with a stencil and some clear gel paste. When it dried I used orange, brown and some green paint as well as spray inks. The moon was an image I had. I stamped the autumn word and the fairy. The leaves are stickers that I had (I added the red paint dot berries.) The mushrooms are some die cuts.

 This page has lots of texture so I a linking up to Jo's challenge at Art Journal Journey. There's still a week to join us with your texture pages if you're interested. Any image theme is welcome, as long as it is a journal page. 

Keeping this short.

Hope you have a great Autumn season.