T Stands for Last Week

 Hi everyone. It's already time for T again.  And it is hard to believe it's August (or if you read this Monday night it is just hours away from August).   It used to be ( for me) that August first always meant the countdown to going back to school. Being retired, I am happy that the first of August doesn't mean that the end of the summer is looming just a few weeks away. 😏

Last week was busy but also a good summer week. First of all I was very excited as I actually got back to Pop's for dinner one night. I haven't been there since May and before we went to Iceland. We did try to go a couple of times in July, but both times the line was so long we decided to skip it. We went last Thursday night, which we hoped would mean a shorter line since it wasn't the weekend and since the sky looked rather ominous. We hoped those 2 things would keep people away. And happily, the line was shorter, with only 1 family in front of us.

But just as our food came out, the sky opened up and it poured. Luckily we had ordered our food to go, and the hubby had already gone back to get the car so he could pick me up right up front. The food stayed dry, but I was drenched by the time I ran the 10 feet across the parking lot and slid into the front passenger seat.

It was worth being wet though because I had one of the best lobster rolls.

I don't like that Pop's went over to these plastic food containers for lobster rolls, but on the other hand, it did keep my sandwich dry while I ran to the car. If you look carefully you can see water droplets on the top of the plastic container.

The rain didn't last too long, so by the time we finished eating it had stopped. Where the clouds were moving out the sky had this strange color. Yet we did have a rainbow, even if the sky color somewhat overpowers it in this direction.

And when I looked west, you could see the sky really clearing. No strange colored sky there.

A few minutes later the sky color had changed again.

We could see the other half of the rainbow as we started driving home.

Also last week my friend from North Carolina was up visiting. We went out to Cisco Brewery in Portsmouth one day for lunch.  That's where my drink for T this week is from. I am linking this photo up to Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog for this week's T day.

I did not have the whale's tail pale ale like the glass says, but I had a strawberry lemonade beer. It was very refreshing, and it had an interesting taste. It was great seeing my friend, and we talked about doing another weekend getaway at some point.

In between all the busyness I also enjoyed some summer  downtime last week.  Finally by Friday my new hammock could get some use. 😀

I hope everyone has a great start to August. And a happy T day too.

Sunday Art

 Hi everyone. Happy Sunday. I hope your weekend is going well.

The weather has finally changed so goodbye to high temperatures and high humidity. Today is supposed to be quite comfortable. And so are the next several days too. Hurrah! I am finally going to turn off the AC that has been running straight since late June. And I am going to open the windows. It's about time. It will be nice not to have to constantly  turn up the AC and turn  down  the AC  during the day to try to keep the temperature as low as possible without just running the AC constantly on cold.  I can tell you my wallet is as excited as I am about the change in the weather 😏-smile.

Today I am sharing my last page for Alison's Come Fly with Me challenge at Art Journal Journey.  I've enjoyed this challenge, and I really wish the month hadn't become so busy for me. If I'd had more art time I would have tried out a few ideas that are still rolling around in my brain.  😀

I hadn't done any dragonfly pages for this challenge, so since this is just about the end of July, let me change that before it is too late.

I made my page by inking a page in a bound journal (that is so full I can't flatten the pages out as you can see on the right hand side of the photo).  I painted the clouds and outlined them with a  water based pencil. I used just a bit of water on the pencil line to get that lovely shadowy look. Then I added 3 Art By Marlene punch out dragonflies.  I also stamped this ancient Michele Ward/ Stampers Anonymous image 3 times. Finally I added the quote by stamping it on some white paper and adding it to my page. 

 And before I might be remiss, let me thank Alison for this really fun challenge at AJJ and also for hosting. Thank you so much for joining us. I also want to thank everyone who joined in also. Like every month, it is really fascinating to see how people approach the challenge. Thank you all for all the inspiration. 

Of course there's still a little bit of time to join this challenge before the month is over.  If you should be interested that is. Otherwise have a great rest of your weekend. I hope it's not too hot or too stormy.

Today I also want to share a tag for Valerie's Books challenge at Tag Tuesday .  I've started working on an Iceland travel journal with all the bits and pieces I brought home, and this tag will eventually go into the journal.

Iceland history is full of stories of trolls and little people. This image comes from a playing card. And the book page is in Icelandic. At one of the hotels (where we stayed) they had a shelf with books you could borrow, take or switch out.  One of them was in really tough reading shape, so I borrowed it. OK, so it won't get returned, but it is being put to good use. 😉

I covered my tag with book paper, added the playing card image, and added the title, which I cut from the map which I was given when I visited the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens a few weeks back. Then I added 2 different washi tapes and used a brown paint pen. Finally I added some brown and black  art "dots" to finish off the tag.

And finally, I am linking my entire post up to Gillena's Sunday Smiles.

That's it for me today. We're going out in my husband's boat because the rest of this weekend has been too hot or too stormy. I'm excited because the tall ships will be docked in Portsmouth, and we can cruise by them to see what sip is visiting this year.  Thanks  for stopping by my blog. 

Trolls-Part 2

 Hi everyone. Happy Friday once again to you. This past week flew right by as I had a visitor, and I also picked up an extra shift at the lake. Today I finally feel like I can take a big breath and have some me time. 😉

Last week for Nicole's Friday Face Off  and Gillena's Friday Lunch Break I shared 2 of the trolls from the Maine Botanical Garden. I hope you enjoyed them because today I am going to share photos of the other 3 trolls.

This imposing troll is named Roskva, and she is the guardian of tree trunks. She greats you as you walk over the bridge and enter most of the gardens.

And she has very cool feet too. 

 The rest of the trolls are off in a wooded area of the gardens.  You need to take a little stroll to get to them. The next troll we came across is the baby, Lilja., troll of the flowers.

I like the multicolored shingles she is made of.

And here's last of the 5 you'd find at these gardens. His name is  Birk, and he is troll of the roots. 

I'm sure the other trolls have these marks also, but this is the only one we noticed.

I now want to take a trip and visit trolls around the world. Since going around the world isn't going to happen, I'd settle for some in the US. Maybe both of these options would be a good future trip to plan. 😉

Have a super Friday and start to your weekend.

In Bloom

 Hi everyone. 

 I wrote this post the other day.  July is starting to wind down and I still have some pages I  want to share for Alison's Come Fly with Me challenge at Art Journal Journey. That makes this a scheduled post.  I figured I had better post another one today because  if I didn't, there wouldn't be much time to get them all posted. Smile.

I mention this because my friend from North Carolina was visiting, and  I also picked up another shift at the lake. I haven't had much time to comment for the last couple of days, so if I don't get to your blog, it's not because I'm ignoring you.  

Today's page comes out of my Charleston (South Carolina) travel journal that I finished a few weeks ago. Coincidentally, I took that trip with this same visiting friend, so this page works in 2 ways, for Alison's challenge and for my company. Smile.

 I don't make my travel journal with any particular challenge in mind, but if a page fits, then I might just use it. Smile. 

The flowers were blooming when I visited the city back in mid-May, and they were gorgeous.  I started with a piece of 6x6 Graphic 45 paper. I wanted to show the lushness of the spring blooms in the city, and my paper also happens to have a hummingbird and some butterflies on it. Perfect for Alison's Come Fly with Me challenge.

The wording is cut from a tourist magazine, and then to finish my page I added a chipboard doorway/window as well as a paper vase image, both from TH. Both of these images  reminded me of those you find in many of the historical homes.

We didn't have time to tour any homes on the weekend I visited, but we did spend an afternoon wandering around the city's historic district. It was really beautiful, and here are some photos that inspired my page today.

Have a great day!

Purple and Blue Butterflies

 Hi everyone. Happy Wednesday. 

It is  quickly moving towards the end of July. Summer is, as  usual, flying by, but my hope is that the  weather here in New England stays like it was last weekend so we have some beautiful summer weather ahead, and hopefully, maybe, not so much sticky,  humid and wet weather when we get into August. 😎 Today I am going to share a page for both Alison's Come Fly with Me challenge at Art Journal Journey and also this month's Anything Goes challenge #95 at Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge Blog.

Google added my photos in reverse order, so let me start with a close up. 

You can see I started by inking my background page and then stamping on it. I then added some blue paper I texturized as well as a blue-grey hardware store paint card.  I also added some washi tape, some die cut and embossed butterflies, a gold paper sun, as well as some mini confetti flowers and some black painted rings.

I might have gone just a hare too crazy with the painted rings, but oh well, I had fun stamping them.

And since butterflies love flowers, let me share a few more photos from my trip 2 weeks ago (boy that time flew) to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.

That's all for me today. Hope you week is going well.