Friday Face Off

 Hi everyone. Happy Friday.

Today I have a page for Nicole's Friday Face Off , Gillena's  Friday Art Lunch Break, and also Valerie's Anything Goes at Art Journal Journey.

I hope you were able to say hello to the sun this morning wherever you happen to be in the world.

I inked my page, and then used a stencil and some black acrylic paint.  The sun is a chipboard piece I had in my stash that I painted yellow and then drew in the face. Finally I stamped the quote and added some tiny foam yellow stars.

There's sun at my house this morning, but more snow is coming to New Hampshire  (Friday) tonight and into tomorrow. They say this will be the biggest one all week; we could get a foot (30.5 cm) or even more. What a winter weather week it's been. It's a good thing I've had lots of art projects to work on. Smile.

Have a great start to your weekend, and thanks so much for visiting my blog.

Back to the Summer

 Hi everyone. Happy Friday. 

It's snowing right now, and I just shoveled off the back deck. Back to summer- I wish.

It's time for Nicole's Friday Face Off and also for GIllena's  Friday Art Lunch Break.

You might have noticed if you stop by my blog regularly I take tons of photos, and I have a lot of them that I haven't shared.  Since I'm still in my January hunker down at home mode, this week's face off photos go back to the summer. I figured some of you  might like a reminder of the warmer weather, and also, as it will eventually be summer again,  there will be more new summer photos when it arrives.

You might know that my husband has a small boat, and we don't live too far inland from the ocean.  It can be relaxing out on the water, as you can see in this first photo. Many of my photos today share faces.

I really like this photo of my daughter and her husband when they joined us one day.

And the seagulls always have something to say.

Finally a good photo of both dogs at the same time.

The main photos I wanted to share today was when a couple of tall ships sailed into Portsmouth last summer. We were able to boat by the ships and get a waterside view.

The one I am sharing today is called the Kalmar Nyckel, and it is a replica of a ship that sailed into the Delaware Valley in 1638 and founded Fort Christina. Fort Christina grew into now what is Wilmington, Delaware. This ship is sometimes known as the Swedish Mayflower. Here in New England we always hear about the Puritans and the Pilgrims who were English (obviously since we live in New England) and were the ones that settled in this area. Since 2 of my grandparents immigrated to the US from Sweden, it was interesting for me to see and read about a ship that brought Swedish settlers to the US not all that long after the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth. It is also interesting because Kalmar, Sweden, (where this ship sailed from) is not too far from where my grandfather was born and grew up. 

The original Kalmar Nyckel  was constructed in the Netherlands and was then bought by the Kalmar Ship's Company in Kalmar. Sweden.  The ship had a history of being a military ship for Sweden, but she also made 8 successful crossings from Europe to Fort Christina in the "New World".

The Kalmar Nyckel has lots of art on it, including lots of faces. These are called angel faces because of the wings behind them.

These faces  are people who have something to do with this reconstructed ship. Some of them have worked on the ship, and some of them helped in other ways with construction.

In this next photo you can see people waiting in line to tour the ship. You can also see a side view of the ship's figurehead.

And here's the art on the stern of the ship.

That's my post for today. I hope you enjoyed it. 

Thanks for visiting, and have a great weekend ahead.

Hammond Castle (part 3)

 Hi everyone. Happy almost end of 2022. 

 I hope if you celebrated any of the winter holidays they were lovely. 

This past year went so fast . I wonder if it did for you also. 

For my post today I am going to share more photos from Hammond Castle in Gloucester, Massachusetts. You might remember I shared some photos in a couple of Friday posts earlier this month. If you missed the first 2 posts, and/or if you are curious, you can find them here: Part 1 and here :Part 2 .

I have lots of faces to share since I am linking up with Nicole's Friday Face Off  . I am also joining Gillena for her Friday Lunch Break.

I know it's been a bit, but you might remember in my last castle photo post we were in the wing that was filled with European treasures that Hammond had collected on various trips.

Here's the rest of those treasures in that wing.

Our tour guide told us about this not so old statue in the next photo. This is Hammond; he actually had a statue made of himself naked. The guide said he liked to put this outside along the road going by the house, and move it around a bit like you can do with Elf on the Shelf.

Whoops, here's a body with no face.

And someone is about to lose theirs. Ouch.

I even managed a face in this photo. I don't know who this man is, but he was touring the castle like we were.

I have some photos of the actual rooms in the house, and I'll share some of these next Friday on my last Hammond Castle post.

Have a great end of 2022 and happy start to 2023 to you!

More Faces From Hammond Castle (part 2)

 Hi everyone. Happy Friday to you. 

It's snowing here in my area of New Hampshire today; it's our first big storm of the year (but not our first snow). I'm not sure if we'll  turn to rain and/or ice in my area or not since my town seems to straddle the line on the weather maps, but if not, we are going to get a load of snow. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but I am looking forward to a quiet day at home.

Last week I shared some faces from a trip I made in Hammond Castle in Gloucester, Massachusetts back in September. Today I have more to share. If you missed last week's post and/or you are curious, you can check it out here: Hammond Castle Part 1.

This is my link up to Nicole's  Friday Face Off and also to Gillena's Friday Lunch Break.

Hammond Castle was built with a center main hall, and then 2 wings, one wing coming off each side of the great hall area. In one of the side wings, the rooms were more modern and made for everyday living. They now house the offices.  The other wing was full of art treasures and architectural items that Hammond brought back from Europe and was styled in a somewhat medieval  castle way. When you first walk into this wing, you enter an area with a pool, and a few rooms off of this pool.

 Last week I shared  the great room, and today photos show  some of the faces found in this open area  of the wing I'd described above. 

He also brought back bits of ancient buildings too.

As well as some old Roman grave stones.

The ceiling of this wing is glass and lets in a lot of light.

I have more of the castle to share with you, but I'll be holding those until the 30th since next Friday is the start of the Christmas holiday weekend, and I'll have something more festive to share. 

But before I get ahead of myself, happy start to this weekend and I hope you have a good week ahead.

Hammond Castle-Part 1

Hi everyone. Happy end of another work  week to you.

Today I am joining Nicole for her Friday Face Off   challenge and also linking up to Gillena's Friday Lunch Break.

Back in late September, a couple of friends and I took a mini-road trip down to Gloucester, Massachusetts to visit Hammond Castle. We had a fun day out, and I thought today I would share some face photos from the day.

Yes Hammond Castle is actually a castle. Or looks like one. The man who built the castle was John Hays Hammond Jr.. He wanted the inside to  have all of the modern state of the art items, at least the items that were state of the art in 1926 when the construction of the Castle began. This building may look like it is ancient, but it isn't truly a medieval castle. 

 Hammond was a prolific inventor. One of his biggest inventions was radio control, which is the forerunner of modern remote controlled devices such as those used in military missiles and in other unmanned devices. He had over 400 patents for items he developed; here's a list of a few that I copied off of Hammond's Wikipedia page. (And I'm not certain what the numbers after each patent are for-perhaps that is the patent number.)

10/21/1919 – System of Teledynamic Control (1,275,741)
5/20/1922 – System for Radio Control of Moving Bodies (1,420,258)
11/6/1928 – Submarine sound transmission (1,500,243)
3/18/1929 – Multi-channel radio system (1,717,662)
12/29/1931 – Secret Radio Communication (1,838,762)
5/19/1931 – Paravane Torpedo (1,806,346)
12/14/1936 – Gaseous Detector of Radiant Energy (1,610,371)
5/27/1941 – Variable Pitch Propeller Control (2,243,095)
7/11/1944 – Radio Alarm System (2,343,499)

Hammond was also well traveled and an admirer of art. His wife was actually an artist, and it was she, after Hammond died in 1965, who helped maintain the castle as a landmark and opened it for tours and special events.

Here's one of the 2 fierce faces that meet you at the bridge over the water-free moat.

(I thought of you Iris.)

After entering through those gorgeous front doors, you enter into this great hall. Most items in this hall were brought from Europe (by Hammond) to make this room  feel more authentic. 

Here's a few more faces for you. I'm not exactly sure who the people in the photos are, but I am guessing maybe Hammond or his family.

The woman in the next photo  was our guide. You could tour the castle on your own, but we decided it was worth getting the back stories the guide had to offer.

If you look above the guide you can see some more faces on the wall.

In some photos it was hard not to get other people who were touring the castle also.

In the next photo you can see the pipes of a giant organ Hammond built. It is one of the largest organs in the world as it has 8,400 pipes (according to what I found on the internet). Hammond also had several patents for organ development also.

And here's the organ. If you look carefully you can see a few more faces in the framed pieces on it.

And here's a few more views around the great hall.

That's the photos for this Friday.

I'll share more of the castle and more faces next week. Have a great start to your weekend.

And as always, thanks for visiting.