Home Again

 Hi everyone. Happy weekend. 

I’m home from my travels, and it’s good to be home. It was a busy week and a half away, as well as it being a great adventure too. But nothing is as good getting home again.  And I must admit I was starting to miss the dogs a lot too. 

Those of you who have read my blog for several years might remember I traveled to Iceland with some friends back in 2016. At that time my husband had health issues, and he couldn’t travel. 

Back in 2020 my daughter and I were going to go to Iceland for a short visit to try to see the Northern Lights.  We all know what happened in 2020. I had  a travel voucher that needed to be used before August of this year, and my husband, since he couldn't travel with me in 2016, wanted to go to Iceland rather than using the voucher to go elsewhere. I also wanted to drive the Ring Road, which is the road the circles this island nation. When I visited with friends we spent our time (mostly) in the capital west coast region. 

And that's what my husband and I did. We drove the Ring Road and took a few side trips along the way. We had  a fantastic adventure, and once I  go through my photos, I will have a lot to share. The scenery in Iceland is just amazing! My impressions of Iceland are that  it is very clean: the food is delicious, and if you speak English there is no language barrier (but reading and definitely speaking those Icelandic words is tough). It is expensive though, more than we expected, but I do highly recommend it if you're ever looking for an adventure. And traveling when we did, it never really got dark.  I'll write more about that in future posts.

Here's a few random photos off my phone just to show you what I mean. (I haven't lightened or straightened out any of these so they may not be the best.)

The Eastern Fjords-above

One of the glaciers-below

A view towards Selfoss-above

A view into Reykjavik-below 

This fabulous Viking ship statue in Reykjavik

me waving to you on a rainy morning from out in the lava fields

And finally a couple of views in a geothermal park south of Reykjavik

Today I want to share another page for Matilde's All About Numbers challenge at Art Journal Journey. This one is made in a journal that is getting fat and therefore my left hand pages (in the journal) are not laying flat very nicely.

And no, it's not my birthday or anyone's in particular. I used some messy deli paper as part of my background.  It had some colorful splatters on it and that made me think of celebrations.

I only used the deli paper on half the page, and I left parts of it wrinkly for some texture. Now looking at the finished page, I'm not sure the texture does much, but it is what it is.

I also had some bingo playing card cards with these circle numbers on them.  I cut out the circle numbers from 3 cards and decided they would make great balloons. They had red edges and white centers so I colored them in to be more festive.

I looked through some TH people and found these 2  who I'll call Mom and Tommy. Tommy looks ready for a party so I have him holding the balloons. I'm not sure it's his  birthday, but he is going to a special person's party and bringing them a balloon bouquet.  I also glued down a few little plastic sprinkles to liven up the color eventually more, and I added a scrap of green paper and some gold daisy paper trim to finish off the page. And I stamped the Happy Birthday quote too. 

I am also going to link up to Elle’s pick this month at More Than Words. This month it’s all about your favorite art supplies.  I love using stamps, messy deli paper, and various ephemera on my pages. 

I hope everyone is enjoying your weekend. And  of course thanks for visiting.