And the Color Is?

Hi everyone. This is the day we teachers in my school are all dreading. It's parent open house. It means we don't finish up until after 8 PM so it's a very long day.

But I can check it off the list once it is done. One step closer to next summer vacation.

Ha ha ha!

And today I have a page for Yvonne's Colour My World challenge at Art Journal Journey. The light washed up the upper right corner a bit when I went to photograph this, but you can see the swirly doodle lightly in the background. I really like the rainbow colors in the background.
My sparkle glue I used to attach the little stars doesn't look very sparkly in this photo. Once again, it was that evening light and the artificial light I needed to photograph.

I don't think I ever showed you these photos from my trip to New York State last August. On our way home we stopped at Saratoga Battlefield. Saratoga was a Revolutionary War Battle when the original 13 British colonies here in what became the US were fighting for their Independence from Great Britain. It was the turning point of the war when things started going in the way for colonists.
The battlefield was actually a very pretty place.

 This little house was the American army's headquarters. I believe it is the actual building. Before the war it was a family's farm house.

 That body of water down in the valley is actually the upper end of the Hudson River.

 

 And I love the corn flowers.

That's all for me. Hope everyone is having a great day.

Saturday Play

Hi everyone. It was a gorgeous Saturday here in New Hampshire. Blue skies, around 70 degrees (22 degrees C), and tonight is again crisp and almost fall like.  Good for sleeping for sure.

So I had a great day with LOTS of art time and even a little nap. It was my kind of Saturday.

Here's some more collage pages I finished up in my "travel journal" from my extended weekend in New York's Finger Lake region. I am making this in a blank  board book and cutting up lots of travel brochures you can pick up for free. I've also added some ephemera and a little paper tape too.

 The left hand page has 3 cards that flip up.

 In this view you can see them flipped up.

I've got lots of quotes, so thanks to Jo's suggestion, I will link up to Art Journal Journey and her great theme of Poetry in Motion.
And how about a few other random photos from the journey too.

 A mural on the side of a building in Watkins Glen. They have a major race track in the town.

 Some fun painted moose when we passed through Bennington, Vermont. (We had to travel through Vermont to reach New York).

 And we stopped at this wild gift store.  All the statues outside attracted our attention, which is the plan I am sure the store owners had when they put them there.

 I kind of liked this giant hotdog.

 They even had statues on the roof.

And at a brewery we visited, they had the really interesting bathroom sign.

And this is the view from one end of Seneca Lake at sunset one evening. We had dinner on the deck of a restaurant with this beautiful view.

And finally, some parting words of wisdom.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Back to School

Hi everyone. Yes I go back to school today but that's not why I titled this post as I did.

Here's why.

The latest challenge at Tag Tuesday is Back to School.  I thought the colorful leaves reminded me of fall, which is when school used to start around here. And I had this fun  paper tape, as well as the A is for apple little minnie banner piece.

So since its my back to school day, how about a little history lesson?. Have your ever heard of Glenn Curtiss?

When we went to the Finger Lakes a couple of weeks ago we visited the Glenn Curtiss museum. It was my husband's pick, since he knew about Glenn Curtiss. I learned a lot about this man at the museum.

So Glenn Curtiss was an inventor back in the very early 1900's. In fact, he ran a motorcycle shop in Hammondsport, NY and he actually set a world speed record that lasted until 1930 on one of his bikes.

What I found interesting is how motorcycles changed my motorized bicycles to later on something that looks more like a motorcycle. The museum had a collection of his motorcycles.

But even more interesting was Glenn Curtiss's aviation story. After the Wright Brothers made the first flight, Curtiss was building planes and actually flew on a frozen Lake Keuka, which is the second Finger Lake we visited. 

However, he was then sued by the Wright Brothers because they had a general patent on airplane design and they claimed he stole their design. However, he then worked with Alexander Graham Bell (the telephone inventor) to make a moveable tail piece. It gave better flight control, and in many people's mind, made his plane design different from the Wright Brothers. Curtiss even won a Scientific American award for flight, and won a challenge to be the first to fly from Albany, NY to New York City.  He started Curtiss Aviation and built lots of planes.  Eventually his company joined with the Wright Brother's aviation and they formed Curtiss-Wright Aviation.

The Wright Brothers are names that went down in all the general history books though. Not Glenn Curtiss. Here's a few examples of his planes.

 The Curtiss Jenny.  Several countries used this plane as a training plane during the Second World War.

 He was also the first to develop planes that could land and take off on water.

And he designed planes to lands on naval ships too.

(As well as he was the first person to design travel trailers to be pulled behind cars too.)

The museum had some other interesting antiques too. But those will need to wait for another day.

Thanks for visiting me today.

Scissors and Glue Equal Collage

Hi everyone! I am waiting for the less humid air to move in, which they say it will be doing anytime now. The breeze has just picked up as I write and I've already opened the windows so maybe it will feel a little less damp and more comfortable in the house.
Yesterday I went to visit my mom in the morning and then on my way home stopped and did a little back to school clothes shopping for myself. Got a couple of things which is always fun. Those first few weeks of school usually require summer clothes, and my work collection is getting pretty shabby,  (seeing for some reason summer fabrics never seem to stay nice as long as the heavier winter fabrics), and right now if you can find anything there are pretty good deals. :)

One thing I haven't done in forever is to cover a blank board book with paper. It's fun to cut and paste and see what happens when you combine all the scraps. 

I usually come home for a journey (big or small) with lots of free tourist brochures and other paper pieces I collect along the way. So this time I decided instead of making a travel journal I would cut and paste and college. I would see what the process gave me.

This is the first half of the book. I  like the fact that it isn't a huge book to complete.

And how about some more photos from the trip to the Finger Lakes. I can't believe we left 2 weeks ago. 

These thistles were in a field next to the hotel, and when we left one morning , the sun was trying to burn through some fog which made it rather intriguing. 

So tomorrow it's back to work for me. I am 50% excited to go back and 50% ready to retire. I guess the fact that I am 50% ready to go back means I am not ready to retire yet. :) It amazes me I am starting year 34 of teaching. Holy cow. Where did time go?
And on that comment, I will wish you all a great day.

The Eclipse is Coming

Hi everyone.  Its Sunday evening and tomorrow is the solar eclipse that is visible from much of the US.  Here in New Hampshire  we are only going to see the eclipse at 60%, but there are places in the US that will have a total solar eclipse.

The dark line shows the path of the eclipse and where the best viewing will be, and as you can see New Hampshire is way up on the right corner, far off from the total eclipse.  I am going to build one of those box pinhole cameras to view as much of the eclipse as we are going to have since I don't have any eclipse glasses and of course, you should never look right at the eclipse without eye protection.

Since tomorrow is a big day in astronomy, I have another page from night sky journal to show you.

To make my page I used a bit of paint, a sheet of old style computer paper (actually  12x12 printed paper not real vintage computer card), some stamps, a die cut, some stickers, some scrap paper and a little bit of sparkly paper tape. 

Blast off. 

I am planning on spending my last 3 days of vacation before I blast back into school having lots of fun me time. If I can spend  Monday in my happy place after I get home from my morning walk, life will be good. Going to miss my morning walks for sure once I get back to the classroom. I know I can walk after work but somehow that morning walk really gets me ready for the day.

And I also have some photos from my Finger lakes trip to show you. 

A little more glass perhaps from the Corning Glass Museum. Today I have photos of various (in no specific order) historic and cultural pieces.

Let's start with vintage scientific glass equipment.

 A section from a giant glass flask periodic table.

 A gorgeous stained glass screen.

 And window.

 And a close up.

And glass through the ages:

 This is a Roman goblet and horn shaped cup.

 Phoenician and Egyptian pieces

 And then some pieces that are relatively more modern than the ancient civilizations.

That's it for me today. Hope you have a wonderful start to your new week.