Wrapping Up September

 Hi everyone. Happy Friday, and happy last day of September.

Today I am sharing my last piece for Neet's challenge at Art Journal Journey. If you have any interest in that challenge you know by now the challenge is Fur and/or Feathers.  Tomorrow we start  a new challenge as it is a new month. So if you want to join in with Fur and/or Feathers, do it fast as you'll soon be out of time for this particular challenge. 

My page today also has this lovable dog face, so I am also linking up to Nicole's  Friday Face Off .

And I know, not everyone is a dog lover, but they need their time along with all the cat pages that have been linked up to Neet's challenge this month-smile.

I started this page by inking my background with some golden yellow ink. Then  I layered some paper scraps and some 1 inch wide washi tape. After that I added some stickers I made (by printing one of my Gelli print pages on a circle sticker sheet). 

I really wanted to stitch on my page, but it is hard to machine stitch in a bound journal, so I created some faux stitching using a white Posca paint pen and black and gold Sharpies. Finally I added the dog face. I left that most white so it would stand out. I also added the stamped quote and a chipboard heart from my stash that I colored red.

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

And as September is ending, I thought I would share the touch of fall color we have. I took these photos on a couple of my morning walks this past week.

Before I sign off I want to send a big thank you hug to the lovely and talented Neet for hosting at Art Journal Journey. We hope you'll join us again also. And I also want to thank everyone who participated in this art journal challenge. We appreciated you joining us. 

I also want to send CJ a thank you for suggesting the name of an air purifier. I also got a Leviot and it is working great. So thanks for the info.

Have a great last day of September. And thanks for visiting my blog.

The Colors of Autumn-Life in New Hampshire Photos

Hi everyone. Happy weekend.  I have no big plans this weekend, but I have lots of chores I can do. Notice I said can, not would. Smile.

Also thanks to everyone who wished me a happy anniversary yesterday.

Thought I would share a bit of autumn color with you. These photos are from my recent morning walks. Still not a lot of red colors this year, but the foliage, which has definitely been behind, seems to be really starting to turn. The yellow is still beautiful though.

And my bees are doing well.  For those of you who like the bees, here's a few recent photos.

If you look carefully in this next photo (towards the bottom  left) you can see some larva hatching. They look like little ghosts with big eyes. Their heads aren't quite out of their honeycomb holes.

This block (below)  is a pollen patty I have been adding to the hive to help provide pollen, which is a protein source for bees. I will put more of these in the hive over the winter when it gets closed up. They definitely have been munching away. 

The bees are still out getting pollen from flowers also, but the amount of blooms has dropped off a lot. It's suppose to cool off quite a bit next week with chances of frost, so the blooming may just about over.

My heirloom chrysanthemums are looking amazing right now. I've mentioned before these were originally from my grandmother's garden, then my mom's and now mine.

And the colors of flowers on the one hydrangea that bloomed are so varied.

I hope you enjoyed a little bit of New Hampshire color today.

And enjoy the weekend also!

 

A New Month Arrives

Happy November everyone. October has blown out here (actually literally blown out of here, the wind is crazy right now) and after a week of rain, they say we shall see the sun soon. But our temperatures are also dropping off, and it is going to feel more like November.

Good thing it is November.

We start the new quarter at school today too.

And those leaves are coming down.

Time to rake.

Even the cover of my autumn board book looks like it needs to be raked.

And just a reminder our latest challenge at Try It On Tuesday is the Colors of Autumn.

And I think I'll see if I can manage Art Every Day, the November challenge.

Happy Friday, Happy November, and have a great start to your weekend.

Blooms, Blooms and Blooms

There are flowers popping out everywhere right now.
After the brown and white and grey of winter, it is so fantastic to see so much color.

As I mentioned the other day, I am especially excited because the lilacs are blooming.

And I love lilacs.

If only I could blog their smell!

These are just a little bit behind- spreads the color out a little bit longer!

Pretty soon my orange azalea will be bright with color- the buds are so big you can see the orange petals behind their thin leafy covering. They are  plump and about burst. And I'll have purple iris too since their buds look just about the same.

And then it will be lupine and perennial geranium too.

Never mind the rest of my garden blooms.

My gardens will be bright with color

and buzzing with bees!

Can't wait to show you when that happens!!!!

A couple of weeks ago I was in a card making mood. All these buds and blooms and greening up plants filling in the gardens inspired me, so  I pulled out my box of flower stamps and played.

I made the two cards above and  this one.

Products I used were the lilac stamp from Impression Obsession, the flower rectangle from Hero Arts, the 3 blooms right above us from Autumn Leaves. I also used sayings from Hero Arts, Flourishes Rubber Stamps and Penny Black. A little paper layering, a bit of die cutting and some embossing rounds off the techniques I used. In the middle card I used some color combinations that I don't usually play with.

I also like the white on white in this last card. Who'd think white on white could work so well- and it makes the colored flowers really pop.

Thanks for stopping by!

STILL...no computer

I'm working remotely, because I MISS writing my blog. I think its going to be awhile before I go out and spend the cash for a new computer...since I want a Mac...and it's not like they're $300.

So here's an OLDER tag I made, but to celebrate the sudden return of the sun- unexpectedly too- this works. Wonderful temperatures and weather have arrived-YAHOO! Just before the upcoming 3 day weekend which they say will be pretty good...but I live in a tourist area and I'm not sure I believe them since they want people to come up, which they won't come if it's raining- so sometimes I think the TV weatherpeople say nice weather when it won't be particulary nice. GRRR.

I got to get some photos though to show you have my studio organizing is going- FANTASTIC. The right storage systems (I am finding) hold more items in far less space than those storage containers that I had been using and didn't really work all that well...it's truly amazing to me. I got some CD/DVD shelves which don't jut out into the room very far and seem to be holding masses of supplies. Now I just need to figure out how to store my vast collection of paper punches-LOL.

So this tag started with stamping some writing (CHF) on a blabnk tag- then coloring with pink ink by rubbing the whole pad right on the tag. Love how it comes out kind of messy. Then I stamped the flowers (Hero Arts) and colored with with Jelly Roll pens. I stamped the lace (Invoke Arts) in brown to match the background words. The small stamp is off a French cube (???I can't remmeber who made it) onto greyish cardstock and then cut out and attached. The sun word-(Stampington) was stamped in black as is the circle word (Autumn Leaves). Shine, sun, get my drift? LOL. I love this Autumn leaves set-its one of my most used stamps. Amazing to me also how some sets of stamps you don't think you'll use much and they get used A LOT! Finally I sketched an outline of the tag- and Voila!

happy Day-

Hope the sun is shining for you!

YAHOO-Just about Vacation!

Sew beautiful...eh? This card is my latest sewing card. I used an Oxford Impression stamp for the background, which I stamped in dark brown and then distressed it. The three fabric scraps are not actually fabric- they're from an older set of Hero Arts that stamp fabric scraps...love them...and I stamped them in red, dark pink and light pink and then cut them with pinking scissors. The stitches on the card are not real stitches either but some Autumn Leaves stamps. So should I call this the fake sewing card?  Anyhow...the girl is from Hero Arts and the sawing is from Cornish Heritage Farms. Add some buttons, a snap pin which is from older set...then I pinked the top and bottom edge of the card.

So its Friday, the last day of work before vacation...I am SOOOOOOO excited. Easter weekend too...my tooth is feeling a little funky right now....it better not be an infection brewing to wreck my vacation...though I wish I was going away and I also so excited not to be not doing anything and being able to be home...play in my studio, clean my studio a bit...work in the yard...walk...read...find some interesting things to do.

YAHOO!

VACATION is almost here! 

Monday night

Writing this post Monday night though not posting it until Tuesday...not so sure what to expect today as they're saying more SNOW, ice, rain who knows what combination tomorrow-well today-Tuesday-starting as snow-and most likely it will be TERRIBLE driving. Monday was beautiful though-very COLD but the sky was so BLUE and cloudless. Katie and I took off and went to Costco, Trader Joe's and the mall...which was fun...got everything all stocked up and got what we needed to send Katie back to college this upcoming weekend.

So here's some photos for you-

ICICLES!

These are hanging off my back bay window.

I love the texture of this BIG one. Much bigger than any of the others. It looks like a backbone.

 And here-caught a drip. Yesterday it was just warm enough for them to melt...a bit.  Got to love it!

So I need to show you a card I made last week too... and since the next holiday is Valentine's Day...that's what you're getting. Ready?

Just plain fun.

No funky backgrounds, no special inks, paints or even trims, tapes or little extras. Just ink, paper, a bit of glue and a bit of red marker. But I lvoe how this came out...just fun as I said before. I stamped the background with an Autumn Leaves journey stamp-as is the explore word. The rocket, planets, stars and star trail are from Technique Tuesday. Fun way to combine travel images with space images-though space is a journey, isn't it? I cut out the heart from red cardtsock and outlined it in red...

Anyhow, well see in the morning what the weather's doing and maybe I'll add a bit more to this post, maybe not. Happy Tuesday!

****Tuesday morning weather update-snow, ice, sleet coming...school is on...will be a terrible drive homwith the timing of this storm, I'm sure...YUK!

Update 2 seconds later-just saw the cancellation-I'm home! Wow-wasn't expecting that. Good- the driving sounds like its going to be a MESS!