April is Almost Over

 Hi everyone.  

 Friday is here.  And the month is very quickly winding down. April has flown by, hasn't it? The last few days have been on the cold and windy side, so I hope when May arrives it will warm up because it hasn't felt very much like late April.

 Although the month isn't quite over yet, today I am here to share my last page for Alison's challenge at Art Journal Journey. This month as you probably know the theme at AJJ has been Play It Again Sam. 

Thank you Alison for this fun challenge, and thank you everyone who joined in. I loved learning about some new movies and songs I didn't know, and I enjoyed seeing art for all the movies and songs included. I could say this month really rocked, no pun intended.

My last page started with some watercolor paints on the white paper. I then cut this solar image from a sheet of scrap paper and added it. 

I should say my page actually started while I was cleaning out some stamps and came across these 4 Zinsky people from Paper Artsy. I looked at them and immediately thought band members. I stamped them on white paper and fussy cut around them. I thought the solar background from my scrap paper looked a lot like something that could be created with lights on a concert stage. That's how this page really came into being.

As it is my last page for this challenge, I added the title with some stickers, and before that I added some torn bits of washi tape to create the curtain. Even the band member on the right looks like he is waving goodbye.

I didn't think of the connection right away for Alison's  Play It Again Sam challenge (other than the band having a final performance), but then I remembered the album and 1976  concert film called The Last Waltz by the Band. Here's the Wikipedia page about it in case you don't recognize it and are interested: The Last Waltz.

The Band was a mostly Canadian band back in the 1960-70's. For their final performance, they also invited many other big named artists to join them on stage including (but not only) Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Van Morrison. If you like watching concert movies and/or if you like old fashion rock and roll, then you should watch this film or listen to the music. 

I also want to share another tag for Sandie's  Animals: Tame or Wild (no insects) challenge at Tag Tuesday.

What's more gentle and sweet than a Mom and her baby? 

I am also linking up to Gillena's Friday Art Lunch Break (Art for Fun Friday #6) post. 

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you have a great start to your weekend and end of the month.

Maniac

Hi everyone.

This month is very quickly wrapping up. It's exciting to see how much more green the world is now compared to when this month started 28 days ago. I have some "green" photos further down in the post, but first I want to share another page for Alison's challenge at Art Journal Journey. This time I have a song from a movie.

Remember the film Flashdance that came out in 1983? One of the songs in that film is "She's a Maniac".

I saw this Art by Marlene girl on her skateboard in a booklet of images I have. In fact she looks like she might be dancing on her skateboard, which made me think of this song.

I started my page by stamping the big typed swirl images. Since I've been doing some supply cleaning as part of the spare bedroom project, I've found a few old supplies including this  set of clear stamps from Prima that I've had for probably 15 years. At least. I love finding things that haven't been used for a long time as it is like getting new supplies without having to buy them. Smile.

I stamped those swirls as well as the flowers from the same set, and then I used watercolor markers to color them. Using a wet brush, I I swirled some of the color from my images around on my page. Then using some white ink, I painted the dots and stamped some dots over them. Finally I added the girl. I  added lots of details to her with a white pen, and I used a black Sharpie to color around her so she would jump off the page.  Finally I used some those rub on letters to put in my words.

And notice the leaves on the pink flowers. Today for Rain's Art Date with the theme is leaves and branches.

Spring is always so exciting. The buds are getting really big on some of the branches in my yard.

My maple tree has been in flower also. 

 These leaves are popping out of the ground on one of my hydrangea plants.

And a few of my roses are getting leaves also.

Unfortunately I had vole damage to a few of my other roses. They ate right through the roots so even though the plant looks normal above ground, once you touch them, they come right out of the ground.

When it comes out this is what you see, a gnawed through root ball.

My peonies are really growing.

And the pop of blue and purple of my hydrangeas look pretty among the leave.

And my irises are really coming up too. 

 I've also been snapping photos of the cherry blossom buds on the branches of my weeping cherry tree.

The next step is flowers. I can see why in Japan Sakura or cherry blossoms are so revered. They're so beautiful.

Have a great day and thanks for visiting. 

 

Food Wednesday and Craft Room Project

Hi everyone. 

It's the middle of the week already. This week I feel like my day's plans revolve around things on my long to do list. And "the list" isn't getting any shorter. Oh no! 

Yesterday we had clouds and some light rain, and I decided I was only going to do 1 thing on"the list" and then spend some time making art. Boy, what a difference some art time makes to my state of mind.

The one thing I did  was finish staining and urethaning some trim for the bedroom project.   If I get this finishing work done, the floor can get started this weekend, which is the last big piece of this project. Hurrah! It is very exciting that it won't be too much longer until we finish up this project. I am missing some of my much loved supplies that are packed away. I'm tired  of the mess too, and I am so ready to get into this bright space.

Here's the trimmed out window which I have stained and put on urethane. I've also finished the trim boards that go at the base of ceiling and right above the finished sheetrock.

For Kathy's Food Wednesday this week I have some photos from when I went out to lunch several weeks ago. It was a rainy Saturday, and my husband and I went for a very late lunch, very early dinner at a restaurant not too far from the house called the Granite Steak and Grill. They have a good sized menu, and there are several items which we like on it.

As it was a cool and wet day, I went for the ultimate comfort (and calorie) food: macaroni and pulled pork.

They make their macaroni with Alfredo sauce, chopped dried tomatoes, fresh basil and  cheese. They also have 2 sizes to much of their menu, and this is the small size, which is still enough for 2 meals for me.

They also have a senior menu for people 55 and older. I've never ordered off it it, because not all of their meals are on it, but the waitress suggested I do that because I could get the macaroni dish along with my soda and a dessert for one price that would be less than just the dish and soda would have cost separately. I like when you get waitresses or waiters that are helpful like that.

Although all you can see of my dessert is whipped cream, I had a strawberry shortcake. The senior menu desserts are a bit smaller than the regular dessert menu sizes, but since the meal is so giant, the small size is more than enough. I shared this one with my husband.

That's all for me. I hope your week is going well, and thanks for visiting.

 

T Stands for A Mom Visit

 Hi everyone. 

Happy Tuesday once again. The weeks are flying by, aren't they? This is the last Tuesday in April, already!

We've been having true spring New Hampshire weather lately, colder mornings and days in the 50 to 60 degree range (10 to about 16 degrees C). We have had a lot of wind lately, cold wind too. It's been good walking weather though, but I am waiting (impatiently) to finish my raking for a day when the wind isn't so bad.  I want to get some mulching done in a few of my gardens so I need to finish raking. Plus I have more bees coming next week and I've had to get my new hive ready. Life may not be wild and exciting, but it has been busy.

Some of my daffodils are  blooming in my garden.❤

This past weekend my husband brokered a nice compromise with my daughter. She wanted to meet me at Costco to get another new pair of glasses. I have the Costco membership so she needs me to get into the optical shop inside the store. (For those of you not familiar with Costco: My daughter doesn't need me to buy her glasses, just to get  in as Costco is one of those membership stores, much like Sam's Club or BJ's Wholesale, where they buy items in bulk lots and then you get discounted prices but must have a  paid membership card to enter.)

I didn't mind going to Costco as the dogs favorite treats were on finally back on sale, and it was time to stock up. But I was also due a visit to my 92 years old mom who lives 2+ hours away. One of the ways I can drive to my mother's goes right by Costco, which is 1+ hours away. I had mentioned to my husband about wanting to combine my trip to my mother's with Costco due to the price of gas, which like most places, is high right now. 

The hubby had been on the phone with our daughter, and he mentioned what I had said about combining trips. Next thing I know I got a text from my daughter saying we should just do both things and go Saturday. That worked for me. I get company driving down to my mother's, my daughter gets to see her grandmother, and then on the way home we can go to Costco.

We had a nice visit with my mom, and before our stop at Costco we had lunch at the 99, which is a New England chain of restaurants.

My at the moment favorite meal there is this fajita bowl. It is more of a salad as there is no tortilla, but it has warm rice, beans, some grilled veggies, corn, and chicken (or you could pick beef or shrimp) , as well as some cold lettuce, guacamole, and chopped tomatoes.  You can see my drink which was a Diet Coke as I needed a caffeine boost at that point.  That's my link to T this week over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog.

I treated my daughter to lunch. She treated me to dessert after Costco when we stopped at a Cumbl Cookie  shop.  I had never had a Crumbl cookie before.

In my photo I was trying to show how big and thick my chocolate chip cookie was. This treat was a bit pricey, but it was a really yummy cookie, served warm. It had a real buttery taste to it. Just like I needed caffeine to fight the Saturday crowds at Costco, I needed the sugar boost to drive the rest of the way home since after our cookie dessert, I dropped my daughter off at the Park N' Ride. From that point on we drive over an hour in opposite directions.

One thing during our drive that made me smile was this view. If any of you are Star Wars or Mandalorian fans,  I followed this jeep quite a way down the highway. My daughter snapped this photo, but having Grogu (also know as the Child, and yes, for those of you who don't follow the show, he does look a lot like Yoda) looking at me while I drove was a little discerning. But I did have a good laugh also.

That's about all for me today.

Wishing everyone a wonderful T day and week ahead. Thanks also for visiting.

Superheros

 Hi everyone.  Hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

I'm back with another journal page for Alison's Play It Again Sam challenge at Art Journal Journey.

Today my page is actually about movies rather than songs. I really enjoy a lot of the superhero movies put out by Marvel and DC comics.  They are good entertainment, some relaxing escapism, and I like how they follow the characters over time.  I first started watching them to have something to talk to the kids at school about, and then I found myself really liking them (some better than others).

I have this older stamp set by Brett Weldele from Stamper's Anonymous, and I thought Alison's challenge would be a good time to use it. 

My movie for this page would be the first Wonder Woman movie that also goes by that name. It came out in 2017 and stars Gal Gadot.  I really like how this film has a strong girl power theme. 

The second Wonder Woman movie didn't have quite as good a story line as the first film. Another good girl power superhero would be  the film Captain Marvel.  That film came out in 2019 and stars Brie Larson. There are a few other women superheros, but for the sake of brevity I will leave it with these 2.

I started my page by watercolor painting the background. Then I stamped several of these gauges.  I added a strip of quote paper on the left side of the page. After that I stamped, colored and fussy cut my superheros. Finally I stamped the quote and used a blue watercolor pencil to create the air movement that would be created behind a flying person at take off. 

That's my latest page as we start this last week of April. Where in the world did this month go to?

Have a great end of your weekend and start to the new week.

Animals for Friday

Hi everyone.  Happy Earth Day. And happy "Bearthday" dear Elizabeth. I hope you have a wonderful day.

Another week has flown by. I've been busy trying to get a few chores done outside as it won't be long when (in a few weeks) the black flies hatch out and drive us back inside again. Luckily these little insects are usually only bad 2-3 weeks, but it is still annoying that when we finally get good weather, they have to drive you back inside.

To celebrate Earth Day and being green in all it's various forms, I have a page for Alison's  Play It Again Sam challenge at Art Journal Journey.

"It's not Easy Being Green" is a classic song from the Muppets.  Kermit the Frog sings it. The frogs on my page  are tired of being green, so they are now colorful frogs.

Or perhaps these frogs live in a tropical place where frogs have lots of color.

The one problem I have with using a bound bought journal (like the one this page is made on) is that it is hard to get a good flat photo of my page. My book is bulging.

I made my page by first watercolor painting the background. Then I used some sparkle glue over it to give it a bit of sparkle. Once that all dried, I stamped the grassy background with an ancient B-Line Design image.

The border is a stamped image that I fussy cut and  colored with markers. I stamped it several times in order to make the full top and bottoms borders. I also stamped the frogs, fussy cut them, and then gave them each a wash of watercolor paint. I then did a bit of doodling to give them a little more pizzazz. Finally I stamped the quotes, which except for the long one about eating what bugs them, came in the same stamp set as did both size frogs. 

The  spring peepers (tree frogs) around my house are really giving us a beautiful night chorus lately. It is a sign of spring when they start chirping. Some people might find them a just loud noise at night, but it is one of my favorite sounds, which also works for Alison's challenge at Art Journal Journey.

There is also a new challenge at Tag Tuesday . This time it is Animals, Tame or Wild, No Insects. It is hosted by Sandie.

I hope you can see the animal waving at you on my tag. 

Mr. Cat wanted to see a bit of the world and not add lots of carbon emissions to the atmosphere, so he chose to travel by balloon. As it is Earth Day, he sees lots of flowers and a pretty rainbow. He hopes the rainbow is a sign that people will learn and the earth won't be destroyed or drastically changed by plastics, climate warming and other environmental issues we are facing. 

I am also joining Gillena's Art For Fun Friday.

Thanks for visiting my blog. Wishing everyone a great start to the weekend ahead. 

Avians

 HI everyone. Happy Thursday. 

Today I have a few assorted views for Aviary, which is this week's theme over at Rain's Art Date. I don't actually have any aviary things to show, so I tweaking the theme a bit to Avians. 

My first birds are on the 2 page journal spread. The song represented isn't about birds, but it is a song you might remember by Katrina and the Waves. My page is for Alison's Play It Again Sam challenge at Art Journal Journey. The song is  I'm Walking on Sunshine which came out in 1983.

You probably don't remember the pink walking shoes I bought on markdown back in March, but I drew those and added these little Art By Marlene punch out white birds on the tops of them. I think these birds figure if they don't need to use their own energy to get around, they might as well go for a walk. 

I made my page by using some torn bits of yellow tissue paper on my background. I like how layering it gives me some various tones of the yellow. Then I used brown ink and stamped some images randomly around the page.

The sun is cut from 2 different yellow paper with a bit of yellow marker outlining on the rays.  I drew, colored and fussy cut the shoes, and added some punch out images around them. I also added some tiny yellow foam sunflowers and as well as some gold sequins. Finally I used some stickers as well as a Sharpie to add the words.

And I have another avian to show you. My daughter is a huge Harry Potter and also Lego fan, and for Christmas she wanted this Harry Potter Lego set.  The main part of the set is Hedwig (Harry's owl), and there are some  other assorted items that relate to Harry. When we went out to where she lives for our maple syrup making day back in March, I got to see the finished Lego.

And for a few more Avian related photos, here's the birdhouse I bought last fall (on my trip to Boothbay, Maine) that is now hanging my backyard. (Back view, sorry, you can't see the hole.) My sugar maple now has an acorn-smile.

And my husband also gave me a new bird feeder pole for Christmas which I  was finally  able to put out. I had to wait to put it up since the ground was frozen before.

I had to find a spot so the squirrels couldn't  leap down onto the feeder. One of them did decide to sit on my deck post and stare at me through the glass sliding door.  He gave me the sad face. Yes, he looked me right in the face, and I swear he had a big sad pout. I felt bad and put up my old pole which has taken a lot of abuse from bears over the years, and I hung it in the general vicinity but not close to the new pole. Hopefully since they can now only get to 1 feeder, many of those squirrels will go elsewhere for food.

And since I mentioned bears and my bird feeder, here's an old photo I posted in 2016 when Mr. Bear decided to have a sweet treat and drink the hummingbird food.

He's not an Avian, but he did pose for me. (Although you can see the empty hummingbird feeder.)

Although I certainly would not walk up to the bear, the ones around my area are used to people and usually take off when they realize you are there.  They usually grumble a lot as they lumber away too.  They can do a lot of damage, like bending my bird feeder poles over to a 90 degree angle,  and I certainly would get between a mother and her cub(s).

That's all for me today.  I hope your week is going well.

And thanks for visiting my blog.

Another Sign of the Season

 Hi everyone.

Today for  Food Wednesdays  over at Kathy's blog-Hummingbird Studio at the Lake I have a spring inspired post. It is always exciting when this flag is hanging outside of the restaurant in my town.

When covid first hit and eating in restaurants wasn't possible, my husband and I started a new tradition of having an ice cream for our Sunday lunch. We'd do this as long as the ice cream window was open which in our town is usually mid-April to mid-October. 

We've continued this tradition since then. This is the start of year 3. 

The restaurant in our town serves huge portions. Enough where an ice cream can be lunch.

I had one of my favorites. It's called Aroma Joe's. Aroma Joe's is a local coffee chain, and this ice cream (not made by them but is an ode to them) is coffee flavored with peanut butter chunks and chocolate chip chunks too.  Funny, I don't drink coffee, but I love coffee ice cream.

This is a bigger size than I usually get, but the new teenage staff that man the ice cream window lost our order. When we went to ask about it, I guess they felt bad and gave us giant ice creams.

But I'm not complaining. 

Thanks for visiting. 

 

I Can Hear Music

Hi everyone.  

The last 2 weeks have flown by, and I'm back again with some art for our new challenge at Try It On Tuesday  Big thanks to all of you who joined us for our Spring colors challenge, as well as to Koyel for hosting with her beautiful art piece. 

Our next challenge is I Can Hear Music.

I thought these 4 friends looked ready for their high school prom in their pretty spring dresses with corsages pinned to their shoulders. We're getting into prom season right now at high schools here in the US. I'm not sure if proms are held elsewhere, or if people elsewhere even know what proms are. Here in the US they formal or semi-formal dances usually held for older high school students. In the school I taught at there was a separate junior and senior prom (the last 2 years of high school), but at my daughter's school they had one prom for both years combined.

The best things about the prom now, compared to when I was in high school, is that they aren't strictly boy-girl dates any longer. That certainly makes it less disappointing to someone who doesn't have a date to go with, as it was back in the day.

This theme of my journal page prom is In a Garden, and these girls decided instead of looking for dates they would go as a group of friends. They had a fun time picking out new dresses with each other  and also picking out their flowers. And they can't wait to dance to all the music that will be played. 

Just like Cyndi Lauper's song title, Girls Just Want to Have Fun. 

I made my page by first stamping lots of images on a journal page. Then I watercolored painted the flowers, and watercolored the background a different color.  I added the die cut doily and a strip of polka dot paper for my girls to sit on. I added some paint dots to the centers of the flowers, and also some flower sequins because this is a prom page and these girls want the night to sparkle.

You have the next 2 weeks to link your music themed art up to the Try It On Tuesday website. We accept any types of art. And don't forget to check out the design teams musically inspired pieces. They always have some beautiful pieces and lots of inspiration. 

It will be fun to see everyone's musical art.

I'm linking my page up to 3 other challenges. First,to Alison's Play It Again challenge at Art Journal Journey where the theme is to create a page with a favorite song or movie. You can probably recognize the song by its title on my page. I am also going to share my page over at River of Creativity, challenge #12, where the theme is Anything goes with an optional twist of Spring, as well as linking up to Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge #81, where the theme is always anything goes, as long as you use at least 3 types of media.

Thanks for visiting my blog, and hope you're having a good week so far.

T Stands for A Glass of Wine or Two

Hi everyone. 

I hope the new week has started well, and if you celebrated Easter or Passover this past weekend, you have a nice holiday celebration.

  It is already  time for another T Day post over at  Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog .

Before I get too far into this post, I want to share this pretty Easter card I received in the mail from our lovely T Day hostess.

Thank you dear Elizabeth and Bleubeard too. The rocking  bunny is a cute stamp. I also love your hand dyed background. The colors are amazing. 

 It is always fun to get happy mail! And I might (in the future) have to recycle some of that paper too. Smile. 

The last week has been a busy one for me. I did some yard work, took several walks, met up with a couple of friends, and also, along with my husband, had MIL duty last weekend. 

My MIL is 88 years old and has been in a long slow downward spiral for a few years now. Contrary to my husband's opinion, I don't think she is on her last legs of life, but she is at the point where she needs  some regular  care. Family dynamics are interesting though, and how much care she needs is not something my husband and his 2 sisters totally agree upon. Or I should be totally honest and say that level of care is something my husband and one of his sister's mostly agree upon, as his other sister only does the minimum she must do because she is really just concerned with what she can get out of something. 

Then you throw in us in-law children. My MIL has 2 son-in-laws and me, as my husband is her only son. One son-in-law is a really big hearted and generous man. The other one doesn't want to deal with my MIL at all. You can probably guess who is married to which daughter in the brief description I mentioned in the last paragraph.  As for me, the only daughter-in-law, I love my MIL, have known her more than half my life, but she is very different from my mother . Let's just say that some of the attitudes about life I learned from my mother are not my MIL's view of the world. I'm not saying either attitude is right or wrong or even better or worse, just different. 

 I don't want to get too heavy in this post, so let me just say that my husband's family dynamics can be exhausting. Thanks goodness my mother "trained" my brother and I along the same line of thought so we can be straight up with each other (and therefore have worked together really well) when it's come to care issues.  I must also say I hoped I've "trained" my daughter in the way I want to be cared for when I am at a point I need that kind of care also.

Anyhow, my husband opened up my MIL's house so she could stay there for a few days while we've had MIL care. (She's been living over in Maine with one of my SIL's in the winter for the last several years, and my husband always closes up her house when she's gone.) My MIL's house is about a half an hour away, so we've been going back and forth between her house and ours, checking in, making and having dinner with her, doing some chores and trying to do a few things she'd like. My MIL is a very social woman, and she loves a pre-dinner glass of white wine (or 2) as dinner gets made.  I certainly wasn't going to make her drink alone. Ha-ha.

I raise a glass and say cheers to my MIL.

Maddie has also loved this weekend  as she's the first one, as usual, to go into  the lake swimming for the year, even if 2 weeks ago there was still ice on the lake.

And since my husband has spent quite a bit of time at the house this past weekend, he managed to uncover his boat. He stores it there covered up in the winter because since no one is at the house during that season, it isn't in anyone's way. He's always happy when he gets to uncover his boat.

I must say our care weekend was successful. Even though my MIL still thinks I can't cook (and tries to tell me how to make something, which I just say OK and then ignore), she told me  many times how delicious the salmon was, the ribs were and  Easter dinner was, etc.. One night we bought pizza, which was not something she thinks of as dinner, but it was from a restaurant she likes so no complaints. She ate well and slept in her own bed and got to spend some time at her house.  And of course got to enjoy her glass of wine also.

Thanks for making it through this post. I hope you have a nice T day and week ahead.

It's a Beautiful Morning

Hi everyone. I hope everyone had a good weekend. I have another scheduled post for this today, but I will be back  with a non-scheduled post for T day. 

I wanted to share another song  inspired journal page for Alison's "Play It Again" challenge at Art Journal Journey. My choice today is "It's A Beautiful Morning".

This song  is an oldie by The Rascals, which came out in 1968.  This little lady looks like she has sunshine and flowers along with her white ducks to enjoy.

It's a beautiful morning, ah

I think I'll go outside for a while

And just smile

Just take in some clean fresh air, boy

No sense in staying inside

If the weather's fine and you've got the time

It's your chance to wake up and plan another brand new day

Either way

I think this bit of the lyrics explains it all.

The background is a collage of tissue paper as well as a bit of a dictionary page. Then I used some watercolor paints.  I added to strips of polka dot paper, some white metallic paper trim, as well as a drawn and fussy cut sun. I stamped the flowers and the ducks, added some sticker dots, stenciled the musical staffs, and then added the TH girl as well as some Art By Marlene insects.

I hope you like it and get a little new week inspiration from the song. And I hope you're having a beautiful day too.

I'm keeping this post short, so have a great start to your week.

Happy Holidays

 Hi everyone. 

To those of you who celebrate Easter, I wish you a happy day. Also to those of you who celebrate Passover, I wish you a happy celebration also. 

This is a scheduled post as my husband (and that means myself in many ways) have MIL care duty this weekend. So far it's been going well. My MIL is happy to be in her own house, and I think the change of scenery is doing her a lot of good. 

Today I have this spring journal page to share with you. It started with some pink paper and pink paper tape that I ripped and collaged for the background, and then discovered it was too pink for the image so I added some white gesso to tone it down a bit.

The image is from the cover of a recent Vermont Country Store catalog that I received in the mail. After I tore off the cover of the catalog, I fussy cut around the image, and then I cut out the chicks which were located up on the top of the page.

I glued down the big bunny and garden image. I fussy cut the chicks  and added them to the bottom of my journal page. I then added a stamped image of the haremail postage stamp, which is a fun oldie in my stash. I also added a few foamy flowers around the stamp.

Finally I used some old letter stickers to reference my song. It's an oldie sung by Gene Autry who was an early to mid twentieth century cowboy actor and singer. It  just screams Easter. Here's some of the lyrics.

Here comes Peter Cottontail

Hoppin' down the bunny trail

Hippity hoppin', Easter's on its way

Bringin' every girl and boy

Baskets full of Easter joy

Things to make your Easter bright and gay

He's got jelly beans for Tommy

Colored eggs for sister Sue

There's an orchid for your mommy

And an Easter bonnet too

Oh, here comes Peter Cottontail

Hoppin' down the bunny trail

Hippity hoppity, happy Easter Day

Here comes Peter Cottontail

Hoppin' down the bunny trail

Hippity hoppin', Easter's on its way

Try to do the things you should

Maybe if you're extra good

He'll roll lots of Easter eggs your way

You'll wake up on Easter mornin'

And you'll know that he was there

When you find those chocolate bunnies

That he's hiding everywhere

Oh, here comes Peter Cottontail

Hoppin' down the bunny trail

Hippity hoppity, happy Easter Day

Hippity hoppity, happy Easter Day

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Jack Rollins / Steve Nelson

I can't say I put on Gene Autry as part of my regular listening music, so maybe my page doesn't work in the favorite song aspect for Alison's challenge (Play It Again Sam) at Art Journal Journey, but it's the only Easter song I can think of.   What the heck, I am calling it a link to AJJ. 

I am also linking up to River of Creativity. Their challenge is Anything Goes with an optional twist of Spring.

Have a wonderful Sunday and rest of your weekend. 

Friday Art

 Hi everyone. Happy almost weekend to you.

Today I have some art to share with you.  Let me start with my latest page for Alison's "Play It Again Sam" challenge at Art Journal Journey.

I had a lot of fun making today's page, and even though it may not be my most "finished" looking page, I think it represents my song choice. 

I wish I planned out the words better and had had room on my page to add: 

Why not. 

Make him stay up late. 

One of my favorite bands from the 1970's and 80's is the Talking Heads. For my page today I chose their song Stay Up Late. 

I made a slight twist to my page. Instead of a human baby as implied in the song, I used these Janet Klein images and substituted a cat. After all, cats and dogs are often our babies. 

I started by inking half my page in dark grey ink and the other half of the page in yellow. I drew in the clocks and the white circles. I stamped the stars and moon. I didn't bother to color all the stamped cats on the left because the star of the show is the tiger cat asleep in Blondie's arms.  That could have been my cat Leo, because I was his possession. 

And if you've had or have cats or dogs, it is fun to tease them back sometimes and try to get their attention while their napping. I definitely don't mean torturing them though, but just to see them roll up an eye and look at you. Of course they never think twice about waking you up when you're asleep. 

I also made another tag for Valerie's Blue and Green challenge at Tag Tuesday. 

I inked my tag, added this Art by Marlene figure, and used TH quotes to tell us something about Mrs. E. Pettigrew. I also added some little foamy dots and drew in a frame to finish off my tag.

And I am linking my entire post up to Gillena's Friday Lunch Box.

I'm not sure how good I'll be at commenting this weekend as we have MIL duty. My sister-in-law that  my MIL lives with in the winter has gone off on a 10 day vacation, so my husband is splitting her care with his other sister. Luckily for us we live close enough to my MIL's house (not the SIL she lives with in the winter but my MIL's actual home) that she doesn't need to stay with us, especially since the only spare bedroom (my daughter's room) is filled with many of my craft supplies, and is therefore not walker  friendly right now. 

My MIL doesn't need constant care, but she does need someone to give her her pills and to have dinner with.  It  means we shall going up to her house to visit each day, but I'm not yet sure what or how much time that quite entails. I just hope that my husband makes plans with his sisters about the summer situation because I can see this being a tough situation if and when she moves back to her house later on this year.

I hope you have a great weekend ahead! And thanks so much for visiting.

Japan- A Fond Memory

 Hi everyone. 

This week's theme at Rains Art Date is a Fond Memory. I'm in travel bug mode right now. Since the last April trip I took was to Japan in 2018 with school,  I thought I'd share some fond memories from that adventure as well as some journal pages I made when I came home.

Some sketched in my journal memories, mostly from the Nichinan area where we started our trip.

Here's a few photos from Udo Shrine in Nichinan.

And then we're onto the famous Inari Shrine in Kyoto. You might have seen photos of this.

And here's the bamboo forest as well as the Golden Temple also in Kyoto.

And finally, we're on the bullet train to Tokyo (Mt. Fuji was actually clear that morning which they say doesn't happen very often) and a few snapshots of that big city.

Here's a photos of saki barrels from another shrine, this time in Tokyo. The  barrels were beautiful works of art.

In a book store.

And finally for today, the view from my hotel room at sunset.

OK, that's a fraction of my photos and journal pages but this is already a long post. I would love to go back to Japan. It was definitely culture shock, but the people were so helpful and kind. 

I'm not sure if putting this post together helped take care of my travel bug much either, but it was good to look back and relive a few fond memories as well as seeing some details from this adventure.

Thanks  for visiting.