Corfu and Faces

Hi everyone. It's already Friday, almost the weekend, and already the end of May.

I hope you don't mind my photos from Greece. When in Greece you have to visit an island-right? After all, there are so many. Today's photos are from Corfu which is the only island we  really visited. I'll start with a  face for Nicole's Friday Face Off. I'm also linking up to Gilena's  Friday Lunch Break.

Here I am taking a photo of this vase that contained mostly rosemary.

     I really enjoyed taking photos in Corfu. Of course I love taking photos anywhere. But one thing I thought was fun was all the narrow alleyways in the old part of Corfu City.

And I also loved the blue. These first 2 are views from the apartment we rented. It was great except the beds weren't comfortable at all, but the views  made up for that. Those views were amazing.

And here's some  blue in this big evil eye on a wall.

Some blue  views from downtown.

And I'll end this post with another fun face that has some blue too.

Happy end of May and start to June to you all. 

Wrapping up May at AJJ

 Hi everyone.

    May is quickly winding down. I don't know what has become of this month, but I think my month has been mostly about my garden. I might be weird, but I love all the work it takes to get it going. However now I am definitely ready to sit back and just enjoy it. Well an occasional weeding will probably be necessary and hopefully I'll have some harvests too.😏

     As we are reaching the end of the month, Valerie and I will be wrapping up our joint challenge at Art Journal Journey. I had a lot of fun sharing this month with my friend Valerie. Thank you for inviting me to be your co-host. And thank you to everyone who joined in. I loved reading all the poetry everyone shared, and it made me want to move my  poetry books  off of the top shelf of my bookcase.

      For my last page I have a quote from something Friday Kahlo wrote. I knew when I saw this magazine photo exactly what I wanted to do with my page, and luckily, I even had this stamp to do it.

And yes I know this lady is not Freda Kahlo, but I like  how she is facing. That's why I put the quote where I did. It looks like she had just said it.

     I'm not sure this quote is actually a poem, but it is a very poetic line, and since poems can be very short, I am going to call it a poem. 😉

You have until the end of the month to join in to our challenge.  

Thanks for stopping by my blog. 

The Gambler

 Hi everyone. Happy Wednesday.

     May is winding down, but before it ends I have a couple more pages for Valerie's and my Poetry challenge at Art Journal Journey. Today’s page is one I started back in the winter but didn’t know where to go with it ( to finish it.). Then the other day I heard an old Kenny Roger’s song about a gambler, and I knew what I wanted to do to complete the page.

     I didn’t have any room for the song lyrics ( which could be a poem without the tune) on my page,  but I included them later in the post.

     I cut up some old deli paper that I used to work on.  I glued it down and added the cards  and man die cuts.  I also die cut the card  suits with gold paper, added some gold washi tape and die cut the gold outer  edge of the sun. I added gold glitter glue in the sun's open space and I used a chipboard moon next to it. I used stickers to make the words “ Lady Luck”, and the die cut Nefertiti statue was something that was sitting in my extras pile. 

   To finish my page I added the “good fortune” stamped quote mainly because I felt like my page needed something else, but the song lyrics/poem were just too much when I printed them out and tried finding the right spot for them.

Here's Kenny Roger's song lyrics that inspired my page.

On a warm summer's evening

On a train bound for nowhere

I met up with the gambler

We were both too tired to sleep

So we took turns a-starin'

Out the window at the darkness

The boredom overtook us

And he began to speak

He said, "Son, I've made a life

Out of readin' people's faces

Knowin' what the cards were

By the way they held their eyes

So if you don't mind my sayin'

I can see you're out of aces

For a taste of your whiskey

I'll give you some advice"

So I handed him my bottle

And he drank down my last swallow

Then he bummed a cigarette

And asked me for a light

And the night got deathly quiet

And his face lost all expression

Said, "If you're gonna play the game, boy

You gotta learn to play it right

You've got to know when to hold 'em

Know when to fold 'em

Know when to walk away

And know when to run

You never count your money

When you're sittin' at the table

There'll be time enough for countin'

When the dealin's done

Every gambler knows

That the secret to survivin'

Is knowin' what to throw away

And knowin' what to keep

'Cause every hand's a winner

And every hand's a loser

And the best that you can hope for

Is to die in your sleep"

And when he'd finished speakin'

He turned back toward the window

Crushed out his cigarette

Faded off to sleep

And somewhere in the darkness

The gambler he broke even

But in his final words

I found an ace that I could keep

You've got to know when to hold 'em

Know when to fold 'em

Know when to walk away

And know when to run

You never count your money

When you're sittin' at the table

There'll be time enough for countin'

When the dealin's done

You've got to know when to hold 'em (when to hold 'em)

Know when to fold 'em (when to fold 'em)

Know when to walk away

And know when to run

You never count your money

When you're sittin' at the table

There'll be time enough for countin'

When the dealin's done

You've got to know when to hold 'em

Know when to fold 'em

Know when to walk away

And know when to run

You never count your money

When you're sittin' at the table

There'll be time enough for countin'

When the dealin's done

I’ll be back tomorrow with my last page for May. Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Time for Another Challenge

 Hi everyone. 

     The last 2 weeks flew by, and it is already time for another challenge at Try It On Tuesday.  Before I get to that, I want to thank Alison at Craftytrog's Art Adventures for having been our host for our small things challenge. And thank you everyone who joined in with some great small things. It's always fun to see how people interpret a challenge.

This time around our challenge is

EMBOSS IT.

You can use any type of embossing for this challenge. On my piece  I used 2 embossing folders, but if you prefer embossing powder and heat, that works too.

Here's the 2 embossing folders I used:

     The jar is an old Sizzix die cut that comes with the embossing folder. I die cut and embossed some plastic from the outside of a craft supply package.  Then I embossed some paper with the TH typeset letters. I inked them with a yellow ink pad,  which didn't really show up too well, and then I went over them with black ink. After that I cut them apart. Some letters went underneath where the jar is so it looks like they are in the jar, and some letters went on the background.  The background is some Deli sandwich paper that I stenciled, glued down and then used gesso over so the colors would be more faded.

      This challenge at Try It On Tuesday goes for the next 2 weeks, and be sure to check out all the embossed pieces my design teammates have created. I hope you're feeling like embossing because it will be fun to  see what everyone creates.

     The quote on my page comes from a poem I had written. I am also linking up to Valerie's and my challenge at Art Journal Journey. For the next few days (until the end of the month) our challenge is Poetry.  Here's the poem the quote comes from.

WORDS

Behind the walls

In our secret thoughts

The letters make the words. The words come out.

We speak them

We write them

We dream them

We draw them

We read them

We hear them

We sound them out

We symbolize them.

They are good

They are bad

They are mean

They are sweet

They make us sound smart

Or not so smart.

They mean something,

And most of the time

Once they form and come out

You cannot take them back.

That's all for me today. I hope to see your art over at Try It On Tuesday with some embossed art.

T Stands for Summery Things

      Hi everyone. It's another week, and it's already the last week of May. Wow!

     I'm posting Monday night, and  in the US the last Monday in May is known as Memorial Day,  The holiday is for honoring military personnel who lost their lives in the line of duty. On a lighter and less official  note, here in my area it is also the start to the summer "season", but obviously not meteorological nor astronomical summer.  

      This year for the summer "season" I decided to go back to my lake job for a couple of weekday mornings. I did this job for several summers, and then I took a  10 year hiatus before returning last summer. What do I do? Well I hang out at the state boat ramp at the big lake in my town, and I check boats that are putting in or are being pulled out of the water for any invasive species that might be on the boat or on the boat trailer. 

       Besides having a lot of reading time between boats,  I get to sit by the water and look at the view. However today it was misty and  cold so I sat in my car between boats for my 5 hour shift. But being the end of the holiday weekend it was surprisingly busy with lots of fishing people as well as some people pulling out their boats after the holiday weekend. Here's a couple photos from one morning  last week when some fog was burning off.

One other thing  I was busy with  last week (when it wasn't 90 degrees) was the garden. My plants have gotten huge in the last couple of weeks especially when the warm weather arrived,  and one of my azalea's is looking amazing right now.

     This plant started out as a tiny little sapling that was growing from an azalea that my Dad had in my childhood yard, and he gave it to me to plant.  Now all these 30-ish years later, it is a beauty.

    This past Saturday the hubby and I, along with one of my sister-in-laws and her husband, spent the day doing some outside clean up at my mother-in-law's house on the lake. One thing that we got done was putting the dock in for the summer.  After it was in and all the other projects were done, I actually ventured in for my first swim of the season.

Mr. Pete loves to swim with me, so having the dock in made his day. 

     Since it is T day over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog again, I need to share a drink. The other morning, before we went and did our all day clean up at my mother-in-law's house, my husband and I stopped for breakfast at our favorite hole in the wall restaurant.

     We figured we wouldn't be having lunch, so I went for some blueberry pancakes with sausage, and my husband had the hungry man's special. His piece of prime rib was SO big I ended up having a few bites and even the dogs had a few bites that he took home  in a doggy bag. Needless to say they really enjoyed that treat. ❤ And I needed a caffeine jolt and something cold to wake me up, so it was a Diet Coke for me to drink. 

     That's all for me today. I hope you have a super T day and week ahead. 

The Animal Fair Poem

Hi everyone. I hope you are having (or had) a nice weekend.

     Today I have another page for Valerie's and my challenge at Art Journal Journey. As I've said before, the theme is Poems. I made my page around a poem from a children's poetry book that I thought was silly and fun.

     I am also linking up to GIllena's  Sunday Smiles  also.

    I love the background I made, and I thought it would be fun for the poem. However, I think it's a little too busy unless you look close up. Of course, by the time I realized that my page was well on the way to being finished, so I decided just to keep it. The great thing about art journaling  is you're allowed to make mistakes because journaling is all about the learning, planning and practicing process. ❤

     The elephant is a Pink Ink stamp that I stamped, colored and fussy cut.  And I forgot I had this silly monkey die. (Is this what happens when you have too much stuff? 😏) I had been doing some supply reorganized again a few weeks back, still trying to get things to their optimal places, and I found this die. It was perfect for the poem and for the elephant because I could even get the monkeys to be hanging off the tusk and trunk. I just love their his silly expression and the banana too.

I'm not sure who wrote this poem, or even if it is just part of a longer poem, but I copied it out of my childhood poetry book as is. When I went to look it up I found many things by that title, and one thing I did find was that there is an old children's song by that title, but the words didn't quite match up.

And speaking of animals, look what I saw sitting on a telephone wire while driving home late one morning last week.

It's a Barred Owl. The owls are really active right now in my area. They are nesting and  calling out all hours of the day. I love owls,and I love living where they are plentiful. The one looked like he/she was considering whether a squirrel would be a good dinner, and they weren't too happy when I pulled the car over. I'm still trying to figure out how they would actually eat the squirrel unless they pulled off bits like hawks do.  But he/she sat long enough for me to snap a photo before they flew off. 

If you're in the US I hope you enjoy the long weekend, and for everyone, thanks for visiting and enjoy this day (or what is left to your day). 

 

Anthusa

    Hi everyone. Happy Friday to you. It's just about a long weekend ahead here in the US. I started my summer job at a local boat ramp this past week, and I work Monday and Tuesday mornings. That means I actually have to work for a few hours on the holiday.  If the weather is good I expect it will be busy too.

     Today I have some more Greece photos to share. I hope you don't mind more travel photos since I took a whole lot of them. 😏

    Today we're visiting a  very small village in the mountains of northwestern Greece where my friend's grandparents came from.  She had been told we probably couldn't get there because of snow and road issues, so we weren't really planning on finding this village. (You might remember my post when we drove up into the mountains. If you'd like to check it out, you can read it here.)  However, as we drove, my friend was using her phone's GPS, and suddenly she said we were just around the corner from the village. It was quite an emotional moment for her when we could actually get there.

    This first photo is for Nicole's Friday Face Off. I think this is a really fun fountain. I also wonder  if the face is anyone in particular.

I am also linking up to Gillena's  Friday Lunch Break  .

     This village is called Anthusa.  I believe my friend's grandparents immigrated to the United States during the 1910's (but I'm not 100% certain), but I do know that her grandfather went first, established himself a bit, and then her grandmother traveled over to join him. 

     I tired to find some information online about this village, but my internet kept sending me to Anthousa, which is not the same place.

       I don't know much about this village's population in the past, but I do know that other than a few year round residents, most of these homes are now nice weather getaway homes. I wonder how many of them are still in the same families. 

     I loved all the pavement tiles in Greece, and the one in the above photo is really interesting. I love how so many of the rocks are cracked from time. And speaking of rocks, you can tell that people used a lot of what they had on hand to make their village a home.

I'm not sure if this building is a restaurant, store or both. From this photo you can tell it wasn't open yet. There were lights on the metal bars that must hold an awning, so I picture tables out here in the better weather season. I bet it's the place to go in the village. 

Even the church looked closed up for the season.

Whoops, I forgot to flip this photo before I posted it.

Here I am in my bright pink jacket. (And shoes too if you look carefully😜)

And finally, here's a little stone bridge to cross from one side of the village to the other.

I like to imagine what life was like when this was a bustling village, and I wonder how it looked when my friend's grandparents lived here.  Sometimes I  wish I could take a few minutes trip back in time to get a peak. 

Have a great start to your weekend.

Precious Stones

Hi everyone. Happy Thursday.

Today I want to share another journal page for Valerie's and my challenge at Art Journal Journey. You probably know our theme is poetry.

     My poem today came out of my children's poetry book, and it's all about (as the title states) Precious Stones. It's written by Christina Georgina Rossetti. Rossetti was an English poet who lived in the  1800's. It was interesting to read about her, as I knew the name but didn't know anything about her. One thing I learned is that she was considered, along with Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the greatest woman poet of her era. Her poetry is still in publication today.

I decided to make an abstract page using the colors from the first stanza.

I also used lots of lines because when a precious stone is cut, it often has straight facets. Although I will say I've never seen a stone cut with facets like my page. 😏

We've been having some warm and humid weather. I'm not crazy about high humidity, but my garden certainly loves it.

My azalea will be covered in actual blooms by this weekend, if not by later today. Look at all the buds.

Last year I planted a bleeding heart and it's doing great. Since this one looks fantastic, I think I need to find another one for this area as I have a big space there.

My ground phlox is just passed peak, now but it looked so pretty in full bloom.

And soon the big showy peony blooms will be wowing me. 

I had a visitor in my yard too.

That's all for me today. Enjoy your day!