Happy( early) Easter and Happy Weekend

 Hi everyone. Happy weekend, and for those who celebrate, Happy Easter.

       I found some unfinished wooden eggs at the dollar section of Target earlier this month, and I finally finished painting them. They're kind of a hot mess, but since tomorrow is Easter, I thought I would share them.

I'm not sure I needed the sparkles, but they look great with the bunnies on my dining room hutch. (Just don't look at them too closely-grin).

     I have 2 matching bunnies; this second one is next to the new honey pot I fell in love with and bought in Greece. We found so many artisan shops in Corfu. This is where I picked up the honey pot. The man was working right in the back of his shop turning and making items from olive wood.

The honey in Greece was amazing, and I saw beehives all over the place. ❤  I'm sure  I must have driven my friends a bit nuts pointing out hives every time I spotted them. 😏

At the breakfast buffet that came with our room (at our hotel) in Athens they had this fantastic fresh honey practically right from the hive.

      Today I'm also sharing my last page for Chris' On All Fours challenge at Art Journal Journey.  My page today is a pretty basic one. I colored the background, added a lot of Art By Marlene punch out figures, and did a bit of alteration to them.  But it does have lots of 4 legged animals on it. 😏

    Thank you Chris for all your great inspiration, as well as hosting. And here's a big  thank you to everyone who joined Chris this month also. I loved seeing all the animals!  There's still one more day to join Chris over at Art Journal Journey in case you're inspired. 

That's all for me today. Thanks for visiting my blog. 

Some Faces from Greece

Happy Friday everyone.

I'm posting today for Nicole's Friday Face Off  .  

     You might have read that I recently went and spent 10 days in Greece with a couple of girlfriends. My friends and I spent a couple of days in Athens. One of the things we saw in the city was the Acropolis (which I'll share another time) and also the Acropolis Museum where many of the excavated treasures from that ancient site are housed. I'm no expert nor an archaeologist, but I can imagine what it would feel like to be digging in the ground and see something ancient start to emerge from the soil. I also think it's amazing that so many of these pieces are still around.  It's too bad we can't take a quick trip back and be a fly on the wall to see what they were like when they were new. I'm sure there are many archaeologists and other people who'd love to be able to do that also. 

     I thought today I'd share some faces I saw in the museum. I don't have dates for each of these, but this collection contains  pieces produced during the Bronze Age  (3200-1100 BCE) right up through the  Byzantine period (330-1453 CE).  Most of the pieces I have photos of were from the period from 5 BCE right up to the early first centuries of the common era (or AD). ( And just a note, some area of the museum did not allow photos.)

     What is also really interesting is that underneath the walkway to and from the museum, is another archaeological site. 

      These buildings were from ancient  homes, including one that was what we'd call a mansion. If you're interested in more details let me know and I can do a post about this area.  

        That's all for me today. Have a great start to your weekend. 

 

Thursday "Stuff"

 Hi everyone  Happy Thursday. Today I have an assortment of things to share. Hopefully this post won't be too long. 😏

First for Chris’ On All Fours  challenge at Art Journal Journey I’m heading to the plains of Africa. 

 

   Zelda the Zebra is giving you her big sweet eyes. I think she is looking to see what the funny little zebra-bird might have been squawking  about. The sun is stamped.

For the background I used some pink and orange watercolor paint. Then I stenciled some white paint dots onto it.  I also drew the layers of Savannah grass along the bottom.  The sun is stamped, and to make it feel hot, I added some gold sequins.  Zelda and the silly bird, as well as the quote, are from a Pink Ink stamp set.

I also have a tag for Tag Tuesday. This time Michele is hosting and her theme is Gothic Arch/Gothic.

I accidentally covered up the point on the top of the arch, but I think you can still tell it is there. I stamped a few other elements, as well as doing some die cutting, fussy cutting and coloring. I added the dragon, and I also added a bit of bronze colored metallic paper trim along the bottom. 

And look at the Happy Mail I received. 😀

Thank you dear Iris for thinking of me. ❤ These scenes look very interesting, and I think I need to put Australia higher on my travel list.  And here's the stamp, which is the Sydney Opera house.

I'll finish this post with a few photos from Greece. I haven't gotten very far going through my photos, but I've started. Since we started our trip in Athens, I have a few views looking out over the city.

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

Hopping By

 Hi everyone. Happy middle of the week to you.

       I think I have finally readjusted to the time at home from the 6 hours ahead that Greek time was . If I'm slow at stopping by your blog it's because I have been ready for bed by 8 PM.  And I can't say I've been very ambitious in the morning either. 😕 Hopefully I can get back on track by the end of the week.

     Today I have another journal page for Chris' On All Fours challenge  over at Art Journal Journey .  This challenge runs until the end of the month which (as we all most likely know) is this coming weekend.  The dragonflies in the background don't work for Chris' challenge, since they are insects with 6 legs, but Mr. Happy Frog does work.

     I just love this frog die-cut. I don't use him very often, but he does make me smile.  I added him to a hand drawn lily pad. I  die cut the flower that is blooming on the lily pad. 

      The background is made with blue and green inks. Some of the ink is sprayed and some is from rubbing an ink pad. I stamped all the dragonflies. Mr. Happy Frog is colored with an ink pad, some paint pens, and a Sharpie.  The quote is a sticker from an Art By Marlene set.

     Before I left for Greece and while I was away we were having some lovely spring weather. Thankfully I came home last Friday night because last Saturday we had a big winter storm. By Sunday morning the sky was blue, the sun was shining, and that made all the ice covered trees sparkle.

      All of the ice didn't fall from the trees during the day, and in the light of the full moon that night, you        could still see some ice sparkle.

Thank goodness the ice and the snow from late March storms doesn't last very long, because I am not interested for more winter. 😏

That's all for me today.  Hope you are having a lovely day too.

T Stands for Welcome to Greece

Hi everyone. Happy new week. 

You might know that I missed last week's T Day as I was away on a girls' trip.

Photo I took at gate in JFK airport, NYC and no, it was NOT beach weather on my trip

      I traveled with 2 of my friends. The 3 of us taught together for many years, and we'd been talking about going to Greece since around 2017 or 2018. It was something we planned to do when we all retired. Between COVID and some other things in life, we finally got around to taking that trip. It was worth the wait though. 😊

        We didn't take a tour; instead we planned our own trip, rented a car and shared rooms. The fact that we didn't drive each crazy for 10 days is quite the achievement. 😏 Our trip was quite the adventure also. Greece is an amazing country, and the trip exceeded all my expectations in every way. ❤

          We started our trip in Athens. Then we drove northwest and inland to Trikala. From Trikala we first made our way  a bit north to visit Meteora, and then we went to the west coast and visited the island of Corfu. After Corfu we headed to Delphi and then it was back to Athens to fly home. Although we were sight seeing, we were also on a family  heritage tour for one of my friends. As I get my 3000+ photos squared away I'll have more to share.

           While we were in Athens, we were able to meet up for a couple of meals with Mia, who you might know from T day or from her blog Craftartista. Mia is such a lovely person, and not only did we enjoy the time we were able to spend with her, but it was great getting to know her a little better also. ❤

            At dinner one night, we shared a bottle of Greek wine that was very good. This is my ticket to T this week over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog. 

Cheers to friendship and adventure.

Mia also gifted each of us with some lovely items that she made. My gifts came in this bag with a pretty bow.

She had made a pillow cover that is now on a pillow on my couch.

Here are some of the other items I received from Mia.  I pushed them together so this post didn't end up being too  long so this may not be the best photo. 😞 I think you can see most of the items though, except the face on the girl at the top. 

Here is that cute face.

        Missing from the photo is a small zippered bag Mia made that is now in my purse with my Euro change (I still need to switch my purse back) and also a lovely pink and grey scarf that I ended up wearing for much of the trip. Since we only returned home late last Friday night , my friends and I  haven't had any time to do a photo swap. I had been hoping to show you a photo of me in the scarf.  Hopefully I will be able to do that later.

        Mia also gifted me a couple of stencils also. You'll be seeing those in my art soon I am sure. 😏

Thank you again Mia for such a lovely introduction to Greece and all these gifts. I know my friends loved theirs  also. ❤

This post is starting to get a bit on the longish side, so I will wish you all a Happy T day and week ahead.