Where in the World is the Best Place

Hi everyone.  Happy almost end of August. 

In this post I want to share my last pages for Chris' Where in the World challenge at Art Journal Journey. I really enjoyed this challenge, and I also enjoyed seeing everyone's pages. There were a lot of great journaled places to explore, and it goes to show you how interesting the world is. 😀

Thank you Chris and thank you everyone who participated this past month at Art Journal Journey.

My final pages (there's 2) come out of my Charleston (South Carolina) trip journal.

Even though it's always exciting to go away, it's even better to come home. It's Where in the World the best place to be is.

When I went to visit my friend, I had an evening flight home from Raleigh (North Carolina) with a plane change in Baltimore. It should have been a quick and easy trip, but both flights had delays. I was supposed to have landed around 11 PM, with an hour drive home from the airport, but instead I ended up landing well after midnight. Luckily I only had a carry on  bag so I didn't have to wait for luggage, but it was still very late by the time I ended up at home. 

My first page is pretty simple. I inked the background, die cut the moon, stamped and fussy cut the plane, and then cut the word home out of a magazine.

I wrapped up that part of the trip with a second page, more about my going home travels and arrival time.

For this page I also inked the background. I also added the receipt for parking my car at the airport. I  die cut a watch fob, and I didn't add the "clock" to it. Instead I added in some sticker to show the time I arrived at home. I also made a small "tag" with some scrap paper, stickers and a "charm". The words around the edge in this photo actually are on the paper before this last page in my travel journal. They relate to that page, but they do look good as a border to this page too.

And that's all there is for me this month at AJJ.

Before I sign off I also want to share a tag I made for Wendy's OWL challenge at Tag Tuesday.

I used some orange spray ink, a tad bit of tissue paper, a TH Halloween image as well as a button and some little foam stars to make this whimsical owl tag.

That's all for me today.

Enjoy what's left to August. I'll be back on the first when our new challenge at Art Journal Journey begins.

Waterfalls in Iceland

Hi everyone.  Happy Wednesday to you.

August is winding down way too fast, but since I can't stop time, let me  post another page for Chris' challenge over at Art Journal Journey.  Chris’ challenge runs through this Thursday. Waterfalls are all over the world, but this page is in my Iceland journal because we saw a lot of waterfalls in that country.

 I  have already shared photos  of many of the big waterfalls we saw in Iceland,  including this one on my journal page. To make my page I used a napkin I received on the plane, added a postcard I picked up at some point in the trip and also included the parking ticket to this particular waterfall's parking lot. This lot was  crowded; you can tell this is a popular waterfall to visit. (Probably because you can walk behind it.)

I'll be back with one more page for Chris' challenge before August wraps up.

To go along with this page, let me share a few more photos from Iceland. These are some "small" waterfalls we came across. (Along with a few other views also.)

And I'll add a turfhouse that was "next to" one of the small waterfalls.

Even these small waterfalls can have deceptively strong flows. This next one had a trail you could walk up to the base  (not the top) of the falls.

I still have a lot of photos to share from my June trip, but this is all for me today. I hope your week is going well.

 

T Stands for Three Tickets for T

Hi everyone.  It's time for T again over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog.  For T day you just need to link up a drink in your post. In this post I have 3 links to drinks. 

Last Thursday my husband had to go to Belfast, Maine for a meeting. Belfast is a 3 hour drive from my house, part way up the Maine coast, and is a really charming little town. The hubby asked me if I wanted to come along for the ride, and I did.

We left just after 5:30 AM. Stop one was just before we got on the Maine turnpike, about an hour away, in Biddeford (Maine) for a quick  break and to grab some breakfast to go.

I rarely go to McDonald's  so I didn't know they had these fun little quotes on their drink cup lids. Here's my wake me up Diet Coke.

While my husband was at his meeting I took  a short walk and mostly read in the car. 

After my husband's meeting ended, he and I went downtown and had lunch. It was  a perfect summer day so we sat outside.

We had only a little bit of a water view from our table, but we did have a nice mural view.

I had unsweetened iced tea to drink, and this is my second ticket for T this week.

I was debating whether to have a lobster roll since I was in Maine (home of the Maine lobster, even though you can find them at the New Hampshire coast too), but they also had a grilled cheese crabmeat sandwich on special. I haven't had crabmeat for a long long time as you hardly ever see it on the menu at home, so I went with that. The hubby was surprised I didn't order the lobster roll, but since he was buying lunch, I bet he was happy I went with the special. 😉

After lunch the hubby had to catch up on some work calls from the car, so that gave me time to walk around downtown. I didn't take a lot of photos since I was busy browsing, but here's a few I did take.

I didn't check out the story behind this oldest shoe store in the US, but it makes a good photo.

This boating bear isn't a great photo, as I snapped it inside the restaurant as we walked out. 

It's also a good thing we didn't have the truck with us, as I would have wanted one of these cool metal arbors for my garden.

Do you need to sit a minute and relax? The car is an uphill walk. And I know, this post is rambling on a bit.

Here's one view of downtown Belfast. It's not a very big downtown, but there's some artsy stores in the mix. 

I loved these mugs in the kitchen shop, but they were way too pricey for my budget. These are ticket #3 for T this week.

When I got back to the car my husband said he saw a woman walking by with a huge bag stuffed with yarn. Had I found the yarn shop? 😉

My ears perked up like the dogs do when you say the word treat. Yarn shop? 

No I hadn't found it. He was done with the phone calls so he headed out with me. I didn't need any yarn, but I did actually need a 40 inch sized 10 1/2  knitting needle (for knitting in the round) to work on my Icelandic sweater.  

They had just what I needed, and even though they had some very nice yarn, I walked out with just my needles.👍

Since it was Thursday and my husband had to work on Friday, we headed home fairly early. We did have to make one more stop though.

It had been a few hours since lunch-grin.

What flavor would you choose? I had a cup with half mocha chip and half espresso anise swirl. And since espresso is usually a drink, I might be able to count that as ticket #4 for T. Smile. 

Thanks for reading this far and visiting my blog. And thank you Elizabeth for hosting.  Have a great T day and week ahead.

 

Sea Adventures

Hi everyone.  Happy weekend to you. 

 I'm posting on Saturday since the weather doesn't look to be as nice today as it does tomorrow (Sunday). That means this weekend Sunday will most likely, weather dependent, be a boating day. There aren't too many weeks left before it just gets too chilly to be out on the water. It's really only about a month until it's time to start thinking of putting the boat away for the winter. Not, thankfully, that winter will be here that soon. Or at least I hope not. 😁

Here's another page for Art Journal Journey. This month you probably know Chris is hosting, and her theme is Where in the World.

Since August wraps up on Thursday, you still have a few days to join us, and we'd love it if you did. :) In this post I'm taking you for a boat trip on whatever body of water you'd like it to be. 

I made my page with a couple of stamps, a couple of sheets of printed paper, some ink pads, a stencil and some blue stencil paste.  Then I finished it off for a few assorted sequins.

All the images are cut out of the printed paper and layered onto my stamped and inked background.  After stamping the quotes, I finished my page by adding the stenciled corner images.

Most of this year's boating photos are still on my camera, but here's a few from early in the season. (Back in early/mid June)

Maddie and Pete really wanted to snack on my mackerel.

The old military prison at the Navy Shipyard. It's spooky enough in the sunlight, and  it's really spooky in the fog. (I'll show you photos of it once I unload my camera. There are missing windows, boarded up windows, some windows still have bars, and there are trees growing off the roof. What a waste of a big old building.

Here's a giant flock of Canada geese.

This next photo isn't very clear, but I think maybe it's a loon not quite in its summer plumage. These photos are from earlier in June.

The rocking boat lulled Maddie to sleep.

The hubby's first fish of the season. It was too small to keep, and he would have tossed it back anyhow.

This year there are so many cranes at the Naval Shipyard.  That must mean they are busy with projects, which is great for the local economy. They looked interesting in the fog.

And lastly,here's a lot of buoys for lobster pots on  the end of one of the commercial docks we powered by.

 This fisherman's color must be solid yellow or perhaps solid white.

That's all for me. Have a great weekend!

 

Random August Photos

Hi everyone. Happy Friday. I just realized as I wrote this post that it's the last Friday of August too. What? It can't be. I think it's always  bittersweet that (meteorological) summer is almost over.

It is raining again here today. I'm happy we had at least 5 days rain free this past week though, which is better than it has been most weeks. 😀 

August is always a busy season in my yard, so today for Nicole's Friday Face Off   and also for Gillena's  Friday Lunch Break  let me share some random garden photos, as well as a few other assorted photos from this month. There are a lot of faces in this post too.

I know some people don't like spiders, so I'll get these 2 out of the way. These arachnids were sitting on  leaves in my potted plants. I found them both when I was watering one day.

I've also had dragonflies in my yard, which is great because this year (with all the rain) there seems to be an abundance of mosquitoes. This Blue Dasher posed for me long enough to get a good photo.

This tree frog was hanging out on the outside of our sliding door one night.

And hopefully I've identified this butterfly correctly. It's an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

And I believe this next one is a Cabbage White.

Some of my dahlias are blooming. This photo doesn't show it, but this flower has a diameter of just about 10 inches (25 cm). It's huge!

This year I put my dahlia bulbs into some of those fabric  planting bags that are often used for planting potatoes. I did this since dahlia bulbs need to be dug in and put inside for the winter where I live. This way I can find them in October when I dig them up. This dahlia is on its second giant flower, and there's more buds too. 😀

The milkweed pods are forming.

 I also found this monarch caterpillar on one of the milkweed plants.

I've left some goldenrod growing in my gardens for the bees. At this time of year we can be in a pollen dearth.  Not only does the goldenrod attract my honey bees, but here's one of the many bumblebees  that like it too.

And here's a similar bee on a zinnia. 

This next photo just makes me smile. It's Miss Maddie at doggie daycare where she goes twice a week. She loves to go, so even though I am now retired I hate taking that away from her.  She doesn't look very comfy though, does she? Smile!

Here's an upside down photo (grin) of some cherry tomatoes in a pot on my deck.

My garden tomatoes are still mostly green.

Most of the cucumbers are still tiny, but I have picked a couple.

The second batch of kale is growing.

And the wild blackberries along my driveway are ripening. Boy these are so much better than store bought ones.

Not only do the tree frogs hang out on my sliding door, but the grasshoppers do too. 

And finally,

 I took this photo of Miss Maddie in my husband's truck. She  looks even more uncomfortable than  the other photo of her in this post. You'd think she's get a stiff neck sleeping in this position.

That's all for me. Have a great weekend!