This Page Makes Me Happy

 Hi everyone. Happy Thursday.

    Like much of the US and parts of Canada, we are under the heatt dome. Boy is it hot and humid. Our heat indexes are over 100 degrees F (just about 38 degrees C). Some people love this weather, but not me. I'll be hiding out inside with the AC's running since it's even too hot to use my screen porch. 😓

I have another page for Matilde's What Makes Me Happy at Art Journal Journey.

     I love a bit of organized grunge. Do you? I know many people don't, but when I art journal, I really just make pages that make me happy. That's the whole point of doing it.

     I started off by gluing down a scrap sheet of deli paper that I'd been working on (to protect my table) for quite some time. You can see that from all the colors and lines and blobs on it. I think it makes a great background though. Then I added a book page and a stitched frame that fit around the book page.  

     After that I die cut some flower from purple paper and glued them down. I then gave them a bit of detail. I then added some small confetti flowers above them, and finally, I colored in the image that was on my book page. To finish off my piece, I used some washi tape around the border.

       Here's a few more garden photos to finish off my post. My veggie garden isn't big this year, but so far, it's growing great. And I'm sure my plants just love this weather. It's so tropical.

cherry tomatoes

Cukes and zucchini. I'm trying them out in garden bags this year and giving the soil a regenerative year.

My package of spinach seeds mostly didn't grow, except for the 2 plants on the left, but my kale is growing like crazy. 

That's all for me.  

2 Pages from My Greece Travel Journal

 Hi everyone. Happy Wednesday.  We're in for a real summery day today, hot and very humid. I'm not a fan of humidity, but it is summer (or just about). Luckily it's not going to be a long spell of this super sticky weather.

     Today is also the newest US Holiday called Juneteenth. It is the day the last remaining slaves in the US found freedom in 1865, even though slavery was abolished by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. I find it hard to wrap my mind about the concept of "owning" people. Although today with human trafficking and racial judgments,  it's sad to think some things are still with us just under different titles. 

  I have a couple of different types of pages from my Greece journal. I am going to share them for Matilde's "What Make You Happy" challenge at Art Journal Journey. The theme of both of these pages are things I like to do when I travel. One is to try new food, including snacks, and two is to see the various signs we come across.

This first page isn't super attractive nor particularly artistic, but it makes my point. I don't know why it came out so blue, because I use the white adjuster in Photoshop to the maximum. You might also remember that we did an alphabet list of words relating to our trip, and I added a couple of letters from that list to this page. I also added some black dots to try to some something with these glued down labels. 

This second page also didn't photograph very well because it is a small page inside some larger ones.  It is my tribute to signs, especially all the cow signs we saw.  We never did see any cows though, which is the point of my page. 

     

That’s all for me.  Have a super middle of your week. 

T Stands for In the Garden

      Hi everyone. It's time for T once again over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog. Last week I had some friend time but forgot to take any photos. I went to my cousin's funeral and saw a lot of family, but I don't have photos from that. I also had my 2 mornings at the lake, but I don't really have to show anything for that either. I do have garden photos though, so that's what I'll share this week. 

My roses are usually in full bloom around July 4th, but this year they're a little early.

I've also got something going on with some of the leaves in a couple of my rose bushes. I finally got a hold of a spray that is bee safe. It's tougher to find, but since my bees visit the rose flowers, I don't want to kill them off. Most insect pesticides don't discriminate between bees and any other insect.

I have a patch of wild blackberries next to my driveway. The flowers are just about done, but you can see the blackberries starting to form.

The milkweed has gotten tall and will flower soon.

The garden plants are HUGE and have filled in nicely this year in my gardens.

And my second year bee hive is doing fantastic. This is the view from the top box, and the bottom one looks similar (but sorry, I didn't get a photo of that one). It's great to see what's going on in an established hive rather than only new hives.

I picked up some unpainted wooden birdhouses, and they've been painted. This past weekend my husband put them up for me. I'm also training my grape vine to grow onto my arbor. 

For my drink this week for T, I made a pitcher of cold tea that I'll put in a thermal jug and bring to the boat ramp with me.

We don't drink our well water which is why there's a jug in the photo. The cold water infusions aren't actually tea but dried fruit combinations. I let them soak overnight in cold water. 

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

Places in the World

Hi everyone. I hope you're having a happy weekend.

To all the dads who stop by, Happy Father's Day to you. 

     Yesterday the hubby and I had to travel for my cousins husband's funeral. I'll just call him my cousin though, since I was still a child when he married my actual cousin. After all these years, it wasn't like he married into the family. He was family.  In fact, I was ten and got to be a bridesmaid in my cousin and his wedding. That was such a big deal to me then. Sadly, he's the first of my cousins to pass. It's strange (to me)  when your parents and aunts and uncles pass, leaving your generation the oldest alive. And then when your generation starts to go, it reminds me that I am getting older and there are actually 3 generations alive behind mine.  Wait a minute, I was just in my 20's, right?

 I am linking up to Gillena's Sunday Smiles, and I have some art to share.

      Today I have a page for Matilde's What Makes You Happy challenge at Art Journal Journey. 

What makes me happy with this page?

1) I love finding items to use in collage. The elephant was on a postcard sized ad for a Yoga Studio that I picked up on my travels. I added a bit of color to it and (although they don't show up  in the photo) a couple of plastic gemstones in his turban.

2) I love the blue background with just a hint of stenciling. 

3) I like the items I collaged with the elephant. I wanted to create a bit of a mysterious  feeling. Meaning, I added things that you might come across in your travels that might lead you someplace else. You might follow a butterfly to see where they go. The colored mandala image  might be a church window or an item you see in a shop. It's always fun, interesting or even mysterious  to see where one thing leads to the next.

I also have a tag for Sandie's "Travel" theme at Tag Tuesday. This tag is about the state I live in, and it is also a place a lot of people travel to. Tourism is one of the biggest industries in New Hampshire.

     A few towns away from me is the center for Laconia Motorcycle  Week. It's the oldest motorcycle rally in the US.  The event ends today. Since I can hear the bikes out on the main road that is about a mile-ish away, I thought I'd add this scooter die cut to my tag. The stamped image is our state's symbol, called the Old Man in the Mountain. It was a natural feature in one of the mountains, but in May of 2003, it broke off and fell. The "Live Free or Die" stamp is our state's motto.  I made a bit of blue on the bottom for my state's 16 miles of coastline (It's actually somewhere between 14-18 miles depending on how you measure it). New Hampshire has the shortest stretch of coastline for any non-landlocked state in the US. The green on my tag is for the forests which blanket the rest of the state.

    That's all for me today. It's going to be a beautiful day (so the weather people say) so I don't want to spend too much time inside at my computer.  My gardens, and who knows what else, are calling me. 

 

By the Ocean in Greece

 Hi everyone. I am posting today for Nicole's Friday Face Off   and also Gillena's  Friday Lunch Break . I hope you aren't sick of Greece photos. 😏 Sorry if you are. I'm not quite done yet, but getting there. Today's photos take us mostly along the shore on our way back towards Athens. Our destination was Delphi, but our plan that day was to take a leisurely drive down along the coast after leaving Corfu. We had  spent the previous night  in Igoumenista, the town where the Corfu ferry came into.  On our drive we had some beautiful views along the way. 

And sometimes those views included boat basins or harbors. 

And sometimes we came across little towns nestled along the water.

I don't feel that every trip photo has to be perfect, because every photo tells a story. You'll have to excuse these next few photos since I was sitting in the backseat of the moving car when I snapped them. There was no place to pull over otherwise I would have shared that view.

And for some faces for Friday Face Off, we had some fun at a beach we stopped at.

We decided to stand in a triangle and take photos of us at each corner. I'm not sure what we expected them to come out like, but whatever it was, it wasn't very exciting. 😏

But they work for Friday Face-Off.

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

Beautiful Days

    Hi everyone.  

      I'm back today with another page for Matilde's What Makes You Happy challenge at Art Journal Journey  One thing that makes me happy is being by, on, or just in the vicinity the ocean. I sometimes think it's because I must have a lot of Viking DNA that was passed down to me. Ha-ha Grin!

      I'm also linking up to Creative Artiste MIxed Media Challenge blog. Their challenges are always Anything Goes, and this time it is challenge #105.

      This is a page from my Greece journal. The background paper reminded me of the many times I was near the ocean in that country including riding a ferry, driving along the shore, or walking near the shore.  The paper was only 8x8 inches, so I had some space on the top and bottom of my page. I filled in the bottom with some die cut waves (using a very old QuicKuzt die) that I then added some white glitter glue too. Along the top I used some fabric ric-rac trim. I would have loved to stitch down that trim in, but sadly the page behind this was already finished and I didn't want to ruin it with stitching. I also added a layered frame, an older quote as well as a die cut seagull.

     Last week after my allergy shot appointment I met up with a friend, and we went for a walk at the shore at Odiorne State Park. It was warm, but not really humid, plus there was a lovely breeze off the water so we had a nice walk. Thought I would share some photos today.

Did you spot the painter?

The path right along the beach looked like it had been re-sanded. It was pretty walking through this patch of beach roses.

Further along we came to pink ones too.

And along the trail, there was a patch of beautiful irises. This was an area of an old homestead, so maybe someone planted them long ago. I don't know.

I just love this part of the park and walking under these oak trees.

And of course the ocean is always great to see.  This view is at one end of the park overlooking a harbor.

The jetty marks the end of the harbor. Some day I am going to be here when the tide is low and when  I can walk out to end of this jetty. I think that the wet area just beyond the first rocks looks a little sketchy when there's water up around it.

And here's some views out to open ocean. (well mostly)

Tomorrow for Friday Face Off I'll have some ocean views from Greece.

Thanks for stopping by my blog, and have a great Thursday.