Weekend Post

      Hi everyone. Happy weekend to you. It's been really cold once again in my area with nights down near 0 degrees F/almost -18 degrees C, some light snow, and  wind that seems to be an almost constant in the last couple of months. They say we are in for a bit of a warm up later in the week, which I hope is true. 🤞

     We also have  a lot of  ice on the ground (as you can see in the frozen footprint photo above), and it's a bit treacherous to walk most places. I hope with the predicted warm up some of that ice will melt because I don't want to fall and break a bone or two but I do want to get outside some. Maybe I need triple fingers crossed for that to happen. 🤞🤞🤞 😏

     Today I have some other photos as well as a journal page for my "What's Up?" challenge at Art Journal Journey.  I am also linking  up to Gillena's Sunday Smiles.

   So "what's up" with me?  My journal page is all about the after holiday clean up and return to "regular" life which  you might be in or almost in depending on how long you chose to celebrate.   At my house the decorations are coming down (except for my winter tree that stays up through the end of the month or even early February.) Time to get back into the swing of the day to day. 

   Back before Christmas I found a couple of old greeting cards with these fun dog images on them. They were stashed under some things in a cabinet. I cut the couch dogs image out from one of the cards, and from the same card I cut out the quote you see on my journal page.. 

   To make this page I started with my golden background paper and a brick wall stencil. I used some white stencil paste through the stencil. Once that dried I added the couch dogs. Then I added a small moon to one of the windows. Using a brown Sharpie I then colored in the window frames. I took a grey marker and colored in the view through the windows. On the golden background the grey looks more like dark brown. On my work table I had a couple of leftover die cut party hats, so I added them, and then I die cut 3 balloons and added them.  I also used a strip of washi tape to finish my page. 

   The other day the wind was a little less blustery; there was no rain, snow or sleet coming down, and the sun was shining. I decided to get out of the house and took a drive down along the coast. It ended up just windy and cold enough to only be able to take a very short walk.  (And I thought since it was 32 degrees F/  0 degrees C which is a big warm up compared to most days that it would be nice.)  But the change of scenery was great.

   Here's a few photos from my drive and my short walk.

I'm guessing these birds might be starlings. Whatever songbirds they are, I like how these photos came out.

I braved the wind for a bit to check if there were any seals on the rocks.

They make me cold just thinking about them in that water. 

    I started my coastal drive in Salisbury, Massachusetts at the state reservation. Usually I see quite a few birds there, but I think I didn't hit it at a very good birding time of day.  Are the birds in this next photo loons or mergansers? I can't decide  from the photo nor could I tell when actually watching them. All I can say is that they were having a hard time making a lot of headway. 

Further up the shoreline in New Hampshire I watched this kite twist around in the wind. 

I also watched a refueling  plane make way for a landing at Pease where the Air National Guard station is.

I passed this colorfully decorated little store, closed for the season.

And had a full on view of the Isles of Shoals. These island  are 6 miles off shore.

     That's all for me. I hope your new year is starting off well, and that you have a great rest of your weekend and start to the new week.