Wrapping Up November

 Hi everyone.

It is hard to believe it is the last day of November. I think November is always one of the fastest months of the year, and this year it seemed to go by twice as fast as usual.

Before we start new December challenges, let me send a big thanks to both Elizabeth and her sidekick Bleubeard for hosting at Art Journal Journey during November. I also want to thank everyone who shared their food, collage, or food & collage combined pages too.

Today I have my final page for Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's Food or Collage Fodder challenge over at Art Journal Journey. This is a collage that seemed to keep needing bits and pieces before it told me it was finished. 

I started with a page from an old dictionary glued down on some watercolor paper. Then I added some papers that reminded me of cloth, and I stitched them down using  my machine. You may have to look carefully to see the stitching.

In the middle of my page I added a paper doily and also this face that I cut out of a copy of an old portrait. I was still feeling like my page looked like cloth or a quilt at this time so I glued down some old buttons as well as a bit of actual lace.

However, my page still felt a bit unfinished, so I added a couple of bits of vintage style printed tissue paper to my background. Aftering glueing this down,  my page felt less like cloth. I didn't really like the way the brown tissue stood out, so I used some pink spray paint around the edge of my page. 

OK, this page still didn't feel complete to me, so I added the pine boughs stickers as well as the dried looking rose sticker. Now my page felt a bit like a vintage Christmas, so I added the stamped words. 

And there you have it. I tried flattening this page under some heavy books for several days, and it still didn't quite flatten out, but it flattened enough, although in these photos it still looks a bit crooked.  And even though it might have taken quite a bit to finish this page,  I do like the end results. I hope you do also.

And look, I have brussel sprouts in my garden.

I moved my  cold frame over my plants. I know brussel sprouts don't mind cold weather, but they also can freeze if it gets too cold. I just hope they don't freeze before the little sprouts have a chance to get a bit bigger. My goal is to pick them at the end of the week. . 

We need to put the cold frame away for the winter in case we get a lot of snow. I don't want the snow weight to crack it.  If I can pick the sprouts by this weekend, then the cold frame can go into the screen porch and my husband can cover over  the doors and close it off for the winter.  (Right now my screen porch is full of all the yard paraphernalia and all the panels are covered in plastic except for the doors. My husband is antsy to finish closing it off since it is almost December.)  I'm excited to see if the fresh brussel sprouts  taste any different from the ones you get at the store.

That's all for me today.

Thanks for visiting my blog. Happy last day of November to you.

Winter Wonerland

 Hi everyone. Happy almost end of November to you.

It is time once again for a new challenge at Try It On Tuesday.

First of all I want to thank Karen from karenscardcorner for being our guest designer for our Traditional Christmas challenge that wrapped up yesterday. And also I want to thank everyone who joined us for that challenge. The past 2 weeks did fly by, and now it is time for a new challenge.

For the next 2 weeks, our theme is Winter Wonderland.

I made an art journal page. A winter wonderland is often all about the white snow, so I went with a white snowy page.

I took a white page in my journal and smeared some white snowy grit paste over it. Once dry I added the stamped and fussy cut penguins. I also added some sequin snowflakes. I covered up the hole in the sequin with either a silver or gold little sticky gem. Then I added some light blue or pearly white flat backed pearls. To finish off my page, I added the stamped quote as well as smearing a thick layer of snow paste along the bottom for the penguins to be standing on.

And for some  other winter wonderland ideas, be sure to check out what the talented design team members have created. 

You have 2 weeks to join our Winter Wonderland challenge at Try It on Tuesday. All art forms are accepted.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. Your visit is always appreciated.

T Stands for Pumpkins and Other Babbling

 Hi everyone. Happy T Day to everyone who stops by with their drink related posts. I hope those of you in the US enjoyed the holiday weekend and didn't eat too much either. I didn't exactly succeed when it came to food self control. There was just too much good food. Now it's back to food moderation for me.

Speaking of food, I tried a couple of new recipes last week. First of all I made a pumpkin chocolate chip bundt cake, which tasted delicious. The only issue was I de-panned it too early, and since the cake was a little too warm inside, some of it stuck to the pan, so it didn't look pretty at all. Good thing I didn't need to bring it for Thanksgiving dinner. Smile.

I also tried a new recipe for a pumpkin quiche. I decided instead of making a single large quiche I would make minis and bring them to my sister-in-law's house for Thanksgiving appetizers.

I will  definitely also use this recipe again. The couple that didn't get eaten were scoffed up by my sister-in-law so she could have them for breakfast the next day. I won't paste the recipes here, but if anyone is interested let me know and I'll share them.

I even have a pumpkin drink to share for my drink for T day over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog. On Thanksgiving my husband's 25 year old niece Ally made a pitcher of pumpkin margaritas. Ally always finds the most interesting drinks to make. I don't have the recipe for this one, but I really liked it and managed to have 2 of these before dinner. (Good thing there were plenty of appetizers to go along with the pumpkin quiches. Smile.)

During the weekend my husband and I kept busy. We went and chopped our Christmas tree one morning at the Christmas tree farm in our town.

The hubby also put together a windbreak for my bee hive, and I helped him install it.

It looks on the large size (and it is) because hopefully next year I'll have 2 hives and  this temporary structure should fit them both.

It does look a bit like a garbage dump when you look in on the open side. I have bags  of leaves around the bottom to keep the cold out. And if you look carefully at the photo, all the little black spots you see, especially at the base of the hive and on the left plastic, are bees. It was a warm November day (around 50 degrees F or 10 degrees C) Sunday when we put the wind break in place, and the bees were out in full force. Too bad there isn't anything blooming for them to get pollen from.

And finally on Black Friday afternoon my husband and I went and did a bit of shopping. We don't go to typical Black Friday mall/shopping plaza type  stores, so other than when we went to Harbor Freight Tools, which was full of men filling up their shopping baskets (not exaggerating), we really didn't have lots of crowds. My husband wants a couple of things for his boat for Christmas, so we hit the marine/boat supply store. There was only one other customer there. The hubby picked out what he wanted, and the trailer jack, which was the most expensive piece, was 40% off so he's happy Santa is bringing him his wish list, and I'm happy I also saved a good amount of cash.

We also hit the 2 big box hardware stores in our area (Lowe's and Home Depot), and I found something in Lowe's that I really want for my art space.

It's not as big as most tool storage units are, and I like that it's on wheels and has the butcher block top. We took its dimensions and when we got home my husband and I measured the spot where I would put it in my art space. It actually would fit better than my tall plastic storage holders and would definitely be a lot sturdier.

And so Friday evening we went back to Lowe's.

I splurged and bought myself an early Christmas gift. Smile. And I was going to be so frugal on Black Friday- ha-ha -that didn't happen. 

Of course now I need to wait for Christmas before I can  use it because we need more strength than my husband and myself to carry it from the basement garage to the second floor. The new son-in-law will be here for Christmas, and he can help. (I  am sure he is glad we volunteered him-smile.)  Even though I have to wait, it does give me something to look forward to, besides seeing my daughter and her husband  for the holiday that is. 

OK, I think I've babbled on  enough for  this week. I hope everyone has a great T day and week ahead. 

Clues

Hi everyone. 

I want to share this page over at Art Journal Journey for Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's food or collage fodder challenge. It's actually a page I made back in the summer and never posted, but it fits the collage theme.  Since November is starting to wind down, I figured I better post it before I ran out of time.

 For some reason this page makes me think of a murder mystery, possibly because of the snippets of ephemera I added to it. (And/or maybe because I read a lot of vintage mysteries-smile.)

Mary Mastersleuth and her dog Charlie are on the case of the body in the flower garden. Mary is (as my page mentions) sassy, classy and a bit bad-assy too.And she is one good detective. 

Lord Slumberbun was an avid gardener, but also a man who treated his flowers better than any of the people in his life. After a particularly distasteful conversation with his business partner, Slumberbun went out to work in his garden. When he didn't come inside for dinner, his wife called the police. They found his body in the garden. After they questioned everyone, Lord Slumberbun's business partner was immediately put on the top of the suspect list.

But Slumberbun's wife didn't see how the business partner could have done it. She thinks it was some local "bad" youth who hang around the streets and attempt to steal  people's wallets. Of course what no one  knows is that Slumberbun's wife and business partner are in the middle of a torrid love affair, but neither wants to do in Slumberbun.  His wife won't inherit any of his money, and the business partner feels that the business will fail quickly without Slumberbun's name attached to it.

In comes Mary Mastersleuth with Charlie. She finds some scraps of paper as you see on my page, as well as a ticket from the Isle of Man. And what else does she find? Well, this page is only some clues, but I like this story idea, so I may have to give writing it a try. Smile.

There are still a few days left to join Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's challenge over at Art Journal Journey. The challenge runs through the end of the month. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend. 

 

Eggs for Breakfast, Lunch or Even Dinner

 Hi everyone. It's the weekend, and I hope you are enjoying yours.

Today let me share another page for Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's challenge at Art Journal Journey. This month their theme is Food or Collage Fodder or combine them both.

I found a page in a vintage cookbook about eggs. Actually there were lots of pages with egg recipes, but one page had this fun little take on a nursery rhyme. That rhyme become the centerpiece of my page.

I used and 8x8 inch piece of polka dot paper and put it down diamond shape on my page because it reminded me of a napkin. The chickens are stamped, colored and fussy cut. I hand drew and inked the eggs. I hope you have a minute to read this 1950's  egg "poem"; cookbooks just aren't written this way any longer.

And to wrap up my post, let me share a few more photos from Three Sisters' Sanctuary.

(fyi-not a real artist, it's a statue of one)

and for those of you who  like steampunk and rust

This next one is an amazing use of old spoons.

And let me finish with some cool reflections; first through glass blocks and lastly with the purple glass ball.

Enjoy your weekend. And thanks for visiting my blog. 

Lots of Faces

Hi everyone.  Happy Friday to you. It's also Black Friday if you're into shopping.

And I hope those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving had a yummy day yesterday also. And if you didn't celebrate the day, I hope it was still a good one for you.

Today for Nicole's Friday Face Off off I have lots of faces to share. These are all photos I took this past summer on a visit to Three Sisters' Sanctuary in Goshen, Massachusetts.  The artist who created these pieces must have had lots of fun with all these bits and pieces. I'm actually not sure if it was the same artist who created all of these.

I'm also linking up to  Gillena's Friday Art Lunch Break with these photos also.

That's all for me today.

Enjoy the start of your weekend.