T Stands for No Drink Photos Last Week?

     Hi everyone. It's the first week of February and time for T once again over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog. February in my area started off with a little bit of snow. And cold, and then a little more snow.

     But the weather people are saying milder temperatures  as this week moves on. I'm hoping we have some days in the 20's (degree  F) with no wind which to me is perfect winter temperatures. 👍

     Last week wasn't a bad week with one very cold day. I went to the movies  that day with some friends to see the  Bob Dylan film The Complete Unknown starring Timothy Chalamet. I really liked it. 

     I had a small bag of popcorn  and water for lunch while at the movie, but did I remember to take a photo? Ha ha, no. 

     I also went into  Boston one day with my husband as he had to have some tests done at Mass General Hospital (all results were good 👍). It was a quick trip. We went in, he had his tests, and we left. We stopped for lunch on the way home, and I had this fried fish sandwich as well as some onion rings for lunch. BUT I noticed I didn't get my drink into the photo I took before I ate. Oh boy.

I also made another Lego, and my drink didn't make it into those photos either. 

     You would think, with all the drinks one has in a week, I would remember to take a photo. 😏 Well finally Saturday I did. My husband and I went out to run some errands, and we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at a local chain called the 99. 

      I had this fajita bowl, with some carne asada (steak) on it. It's like a hot salad with beans, rice, roasted corn, lettuce, avocado, tomatoes, peppers and onions. They served Pepsi products, so I had a Diet Pepsi which you can see in this photo. All this food is making me hungry.

     And other than a couple of other appointments, some art time, and a bit of snow shoveling, and of course reading time, that was my week. I hope yours was great, and that you always have a super T day and week ahead. 

      

      

 

Second on the Second

   Hi everyone. Happy second half of the weekend. It's not only Sunday and time to link to Gillena's Sunday Smiles  but it is also the second of the month, which means it is also time for  Second on Second over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog . 

   The exciting news (for me) is that we are midway through winter today. 😏 February is usually our snowiest month, and I am NOT a fan of having to shovel, but what I really hope is this new month isn't quite so bitterly cold so I can get outside more. I love my house, but I know I've spent too much time inside in January. 

     Today I have some second looks from February of 2022. At that time the AJJ challenge was Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's theme of "What's Your Style?". As I looked back at my posts from that month in  2022, I found some musical style too.

I chose these 2 art journal pages to re-share because this month at Art Journal Journey Vicki is hosting and her theme is "MUSIC".

And here's a new page for Vicki's Music challenge.

       I have a couple of concert ticket rubber stamps, so I stamped those each twice. You can see them on the right hand side of the page. Going to a concert is always fun, so I added the TH ladies. I gave them some washi tape benches to sit on. They look a bit ready for St. Patrick's Day too (or at least the middle one does in that fun hat), but perhaps the big show is then or perhaps the opening band is an Irish band. Or maybe- (ha ha) she just liked that hat. 

      I added a die cut musical cleft and the stamped and fussy cut singer. He's one cool musical cat-grin. I also stamped the quote. The background is made with a pieces of printed tissue paper, some pink paint spray and also some blue ink that was damp on a paper towel that I used to rub the pink paint. I love how it transferred onto my page though. 

     That's all for me today. Have a great rest of your weekend and start to the new week.

Hello February

 Hi everyone. Happy new month to you. 

      Before I move on to introduce our new Art Journal Journey host for February, first let me thank Mia for having been our January host. As you can see from today's page that my dotty stencil was still sitting on my work table. However, I want to assure you that  this isn't a left over page from January. And thank you everyone who shared dotty pages too. It was fun playing with dots, wasn't it? (In fact so much fun, I'm still playing with them. 😏)

     This month Bleuebeard, Elizabeth, Mia and myself want to welcome the talented Vicki who you probably know from her blog Stamped Smiles. I'm glad Vicki wanted to come back and join us as another month's host, and she's picked a great theme too. For February, it's all about  MUSIC.

     We've had a few challenges in the past about specific songs, but I am excited for the broader topic of Music. I have several music themed stamps that I haven't used in a long time (as you can see on my page today) that I am excited to have a  reason to use. 

     I decided I wanted some bright and cheery colors to celebrate the new month (even though winter isn't over, the darkest days of it are and we are also just about half way to spring  too). I decided to go with pink and orange. To create the energy of music I added the pink painted curves across the background.  I also added a small piece of music printed tissue paper.

      The cassette tapes and  the playlist quote are from a couple of old Technique Tuesday sets. I stamped the cassette tape several times as well as coloring and fussy cutting them out.  The musical clefts and notes are from a single big die. And since there was a butterfly on the musical tissue paper, I decided to add a few images of them to my page. They are from an AALL& Create set of uncolored butterflies.  The way that butterflies flitter does remind me of the way musical notes move in certain music pieces, though as far as I know no composer has ever used a butterfly as inspiration for a particular song. But if you know of one... grin.

   Please remember that AJJ is all about journaling and NOT about card making. It's not that we don't love cards and card making either, but please limit your link ups to journal pages of any kind.  Hopefully you're as excited about music as we admins are, and I know I'm looking forward to see what people do with that theme.

   Have a great weekend and start to the new month also.

Friday Random Photos

    Hi everyone. Happy Friday. Happy last day of January to you also. I hate to rush time, but this month has mostly been about hibernating because it's not only been quite cold but quite windy too. I can't say I am too upset to have January wrap up with the hope that winter will turn a bit milder in February.

      Today I have some random January photos to share. There's a few faces for Nicole's Friday Face Off, and I'll also be linking to Gillena's Friday Lunch Break.

The other morning the  huge flock of wild turkeys was back eating up all the loose birdseed.

And if the turkeys didn't  eat the birdseed, then this guy then did. He's the only one who knows enough to jump from the deck into this feeder. But look at how dirty he's made it.

 I received a Trader Jo's white chocolate bear to melt into some hot cocoa for Christmas, which I enjoyed one cold afternoon. 

And here's a few more photos from my trip a few weeks ago to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

And I'll finish with a few more Georgia O'Keeffe photos. For those of you who missed my commentary on the exhibit, it was quite crowded and hard to get straight on photos. 

Have a great weekend and start to the new month.

Wrapping Up January at AJJ

      Hi everyone. It's the middle of the week, and not only that, it's just about  the end of January. This month has been quite wintery at least temperature wise at my house. I can't say we've had a lot of snow although we did get a  little bit overnight. 

    Today I want to share my last journal page for Mia's Dots challenge at Art Journal Journey. The challenge doesn't end until Friday so if you want to join, there's still a bit of time.

     Right before Christmas, Joggles (an online craft store) had some Dina Wakely stamps and stencils on sale, and I never see them on sale so I was quite excited. I am a big fan of Dina's art and her supplies, and I wish there were still more craft stores around because I used to enjoy taking classes with her when she was in the area. Even with this sale I was good and only bought 1 stamp set, and that's where the tags on my page came from. I used an old Hero Arts background dot stamp to add the dots to those tags. 

      My background is made with various inks and some of Dina's spray paints (already in my stash). While doing my big stamp clean out I came across this old Impression Obsession flower stamp which was one of the earliest stamps I'd ever picked up and forgot that I had because it was way down in the bottom of a box. I stamped it several times on white paper and then fussy cut all the flowers to add them to my page. I also used a hole pinch and made a few other dots to add. I finished my page by stamping an old Hero Arts quote stamp that seemed to be just what this page needed. 

     Thank you Mia for hosting, and thank you everyone who joined in. I had a lot of fun playing with dots. I hope you did too. 

     That's all for me today. I hope everyone is having a super week.

     

T Stands for Not Much to Share

      Hi everyone. It's another Monday evening and that means it is once again time for T. Last week was a really quiet week for me, but it flew by anyhow. Now here we are for T over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blogs .

     Most of last week it was pretty chilly,  and for a few days it was too cold to even walk. (It was -10  degrees F/ -23 degrees C a couple of mornings with wind so I can only guess what the actual feel temperature was. Brrrr.)  Here's a few photos right before that brutal cold spell, when I did get out walking.

The tree shadows in this next photo almost make the ice seem folded.

But the various textures the ice takes on is always interesting.

I particularly like these frozen pup prints. I'm not sure if they were made by Miss Maddie or Mr. Pete.

For my drink this week I'll share some homemade butternut squash soup that I made.  Since it was thick but didn't have any unblended additions  I could drink it from a  mug.

Then I came down with a head cold last week, and I think sleeping Pete best describes how I spent a few days. 😏

Luckily I am feeling back to normal from that. 👍

    This week it seems like we're right back into winter with some more blustery days and maybe even a bit of expected snowfall.  But the days are definitely getting longer 😏 and the few extra minutes of sunlight on either end is really noticeable.  Plus, we'll be moving into February before the next T day arrives. I hope you have an excellent T day and week ahead. 

Sunday Post

     Hi everyone. Happy weekend to you.  After spending just about an entire week hanging low at home  (between very cold weather and then a nasty head cold), I finally ventured out yesterday. I didn't go  out for anything very exciting; I just needed to run some errands, but it is amazing how some sunshine and not bitterly cold weather can make you feel  improved. I have to say the dregs of my head cold are still hanging on, and I am sick of the drippy nose, but at least I am over the hump and ready to take on another wintery week. 

     Today I have a bit of art to share.  First there is a dotty page for Mia's Dots's challenge at Art Journal Journey, and then I also have a tag for Sandie's Add a Postage Stamp challenge at Tag Tuesday. My whole post will also be linked up to Gillena's Sunday Smiles.

     First here's my journal page for Art Journal Journey.  I made it using up some scraps that I thought were too good to throw out during my big-beginning-of-the-year art clean. I started with a dotty stencil and some various colored paints (mostly blue but not only). Then I added those saved scraps as well as 3 cut out of a piece of scrap paper  clouds. After I glued the clouds down I used some white paint on them to give them a bit of texture. 

     The golden paper sun as well as the black metallic paper bottom border are not scraps. I also  stamped the quote, but I  used a piece of scrap paper to stamp those words on.

      My tag below also used some left over scrap bits. First I started with a piece of tag stock  that I  embossed with a folder. I then inked it. The flowers, the musical cleft and the small black rectangle were also scrap pieces that I glued down. I used a white Posca pen on the flower. The postage stamp is out of my stash, and finally I finished by stamping  part of a postmark a couple of times.

  I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. Have a nice start to the new week also. 

A Visit to the Museum

      Hi everyone. Happy Friday. I hope everyone's temperatures are warming up, and unlike me, every one is feeling great. I came down with a major head cold this past week that has wiped me out. I'm grateful it is just a  cold and nothing more serious, and I'm already on my way to feeling better. 👍  If I haven’t commented on your blog, that’s why  

      Last week (as some of you may have already read earlier this week), I visited Boston's Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). Some friends and I drove down to go see the Georgia O'Keeffe and Henry Moore exhibit. 

     The tickets for this exhibit were timed and we arrived  90 minutes early, which was OK since we could visit a few other parts of the museum.  I think everyone had gone to see the O'Keeffe and Moore exhibit (which was a mob scene), so the rest of the museum was  wonderfully empty. 😏 One area I wanted to visit the Egyptian area, which isn't large, but had lots of faces. Here's a few  items I took photos of.

      I'll be these linking up to Gillena's Friday Lunch Break and also to Nicole's Friday Face Off.

     Much of the MFA's collection comes from Dr. George A. Reisner's Egyptian archaeological digs (1905-1942). Reisner worked on behalf of both Harvard and the museum. Some items were gifts from other sources. According to the MFA website, they have an agreement with the Egyptian government to have these finds on display.  

      Some of these items came from around the year 2000 BCE. I never think of the Ancient Egyptian Period lasting that long, but it went on for  a little over 3,000 years.  Add the 2,000 plus years since we went from BCE to CE, and that makes some items 4-5,000 years old. Holy cow. Compare that to our modern world and boy it was a long long time ago.

This next statue was very large, and you can see how it was reassembled.

Below, the inside of a painted wooden coffin. Years ago when I visited I was interested in the eyes on the bottom. I was told that they were so the dead could see outside of their coffin.

      That's all for me today. Hopefully since I wasn't feeling perfect this post makes sense when you read it. 👍And have a super start to your weekend. 

Going Buggy

      Hi everyone. Happy Thursday to you. I hope your week is going well. Like the temperatures for so many of you it's been a cold week at my house.  Yesterday morning it was -10 degrees F (-23 degrees C) without a windchill. And since this is our second very cold spell, I am ready for a bit of a warm up. I'm guessing many of you are too. 😏

     Today I have another Dots page for Mia's challenge at Art Journal Journey. If the weather isn't making you go buggy, my page certainly would. 

      I used a ladybug (ladybird beetle) set from Hero Arts. I started by stamping those beetles  all over my page Then I used watercolor paints to make them colorful. I know you probably haven't seen a green, blue or purple ladybug, but that's the beauty about creating and being able to make them whatever color feels right.

      On all the white space I hand wrote lines (over and over) from this old Mother Goose Rhyme:

Ladybird, ladybird,

Fly away home,

Your house is on fire

And your children all gone;

All except one

And that's little Ann,

And she has hid under

The baking pan.

      In the middle of my page I placed a sticker quote (Art by Marlene) as well as a white frame around it. Then I sprayed my age with a bit of magenta paint. To finish, I stamped another  ladybug on some white paper. After coloring, I cut her out and glued her down. Then I added a couple of googly eyes to her.

And yesterday afternoon, at one point when I looked out the window, I saw this.

    Poor little bird. But it was cool to see this hawk. The hawk wasn't a very big bird so I think it was a sharp shinned (sharpie). I guess they have to eat also. 

    Have a great rest of your day.

     

Oh What a Night

     Hi everyone Happy Tuesday to you. Another 2 weeks have passed so I am here with my latest piece for our new challenge at Try It On Tuesday.

      Thank you to everyone who joined our Feeling Blue challenge. Blue is one of my favorite colors so I really enjoyed seeing so much of that color.❤

      Our newest challenge is  Oh What A Night. There's so many ways you can approach that topic. 

    I've been in the middle of a big cleaning out of my art space, so I am sharing a page I made last fall that was only partially completed in an old journal.  That explains the quote.  I still need to finish off this journal, and since I like to have themed journals, this one is all about the night. It's one that I am back working on now.

    I used paints, markers, tissue paper, printed paper, and owl rubber stamp, some small metal stars and also some stickers to make this page.

    As always, you have 2 weeks for this topic, can link up any type of art, and please don't forget to check out the other designer's pieces too. There's lots of ideas for you there.

    I love seeing how people approach the same topic differently, so I hope you join so I can see some other ways to make art about the night.

T Stands for Off to the Museum

     Hi everyone. Happy new week to all of you. Seems like so many people are in the cold right now. I hope if you are you're staying warm and toasty. My woodstove has been getting quite the workout this month since this is our second round of arctic weather.

      Since it's Monday I am joining Bleubeard and Elizabeth  for this week's T day.

   Last week I went to the big city on Thursday. I headed out early because some friends and I were going to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston. It's the last few weeks of a Georgia O'Keeffe and Henry Moore exhibit which was our main point of the trip.  

     We managed to go late enough to beat much of the morning rush but were early enough that we still had to wait for the museum to open at 10. But because the tickets were timed and we arrived early, we were able to see a few other permanent parts of the museum. More about that another time.

  If you don't know about Georgia O'Keeffe, she was an American painter (1887-1986). She particularly liked to paint nature, and she became famous for her southwestern paintings and  close ups of flowers like this one that was on display at the MFA.  You'll have to excuse my photos because it was VERY crowded at the exhibit, and it was hard to get straight for a good photo. In fact, I didn't get a lot of photos because of that.

And this one is a close up of a white rose.

     O'Keeffe painted many many flowers similar to the 2 I've shown, but there weren't many of her flower paintings on display in this exhibit. This show had  more of an eclectic group of pieces. There were some I have never seen before, including these southwestern architecture ones.

The flat topped mountain in these next 2 paintings is called Pedernal. I've been lucky to travel to this part of New Mexico several times, and  Pedernal is a very distinct feature in the landscape.

After seeing these Georgia O'Keefe paintings I really want to go back to New Mexico. 😏

 

     The other artist in this exhibit was Henry Moore. I knew nothing about him, but now I know a bit. He was  a British Artist and Sculptor who lived at the same time as Georgia O'Keeffe (1898-1986).  Like O'Keeffe, one thing he was interested in was bones.This display had a few of his sculptures and some of his paper art work.  I liked his sculptures shown in this exhibit, but with the crowd, it was really hard to appreciate them. Here's a couple of them.

If you're interested, you can read more about Georgia O'Keeffe here: Georgia O'Keeffe Museum  and Henry Moore here: Henry Moore . 

     After the exhibit, we had lunch in the museum. I had a Diet Coke with my sandwich, and this is my ticket to T this week. You can also see my friend's Diet Coke too in this photo.

  

     That's all for me this T day. Hope yours is a super and have a great week ahead too.