Nighttime

    Hi everyone. Happy Wednesday to you. I don't think today will be as wintery cold as yesterday was, but we will see about that when I go out walking this afternoon. We started our woodstove yesterday;  it was that chilly😏. I know some of you probably already have snow... winter has arrived  early this year for so many. 

    Today I want to share a page for Wendy's Moment in Time challenge at Art Journal Journey.

   My moment in time refers back to the quote which is a very old Stampers Anonymous image. 

   I wanted to create a night page without making a solid black background, so I used this small honeycomb stamp and black ink. Then I tried to use some old black rub ons that didn't work well at all, so I used some printed tissue paper from Dina Wakely. I still didn't love my page, so I added some 49 and Market punch out flowers on the left. 

     I thought maybe I needed a border, so I used some white paper and die cut one, but then that was too white. Instead I added more flowers. OK, now my page wasn't too bad, not my favorite ever, but that happens, right? I finished my page by adding the moon and star stickers, adding a couple of crows on the bottom left, and finally  using the quote.

   Last week when we had the full moon the weather person said we could also maybe  see the northern lights, so I went out a couple of times to see if there were any. I had no luck seeing the Aurora Borealis, but I did get a couple of interesting sky photos on my phone.

   The moon was so bright and that made the sky a bit blue. It doesn't really look all much like night, does it? Except of course for the stars.

The com trail is obvious, but I'm not sure what the white blob to the left of it is.

In this next photo it looks like it was morning. I think it was about 8 PM when I snapped this.

And I like this photo of my house. And you can see the house across the street a bit too in the bottom left corner.

    That's all for me today. Keeping this post short since my scheduled one for tomorrow is very long. 😉

Ghosties

  Hi everyone. Happy middle of the week to you. More rain is due to fall at my house today-hurrah. Hopefully today's lighter showers will help the drought a bit. 😀

   Today I have a simple page for Elle's Steampunk, Halloween or Steampunk Halloween challenge at Art Journal Journey.

    I used a sheet of black designed paper as my background.  I took a very old Martha Stewart jack-o-lantern border that was 12 inches long, and I cut it into a few pieces. Then I chose a few pieces to use on this page. Phew-I'm glad to actually use these jack-o-lanterns because  it's been in my stash for maybe even 20 years.  Time to use some of these really old time items up. 😏

   I stamped a TH ghost, fussy cut  and arranged him behind the pumpkins. I glued everything in place. I darkened the ghost's eyes and added some black glitter glue to them. I also added some white glitter glue over the ghost. The quote is also from the same ghost image set, and I debated whether to stamp it on white paper and fussy cut it or whether to just stamp it on the page. I decided to go with directly stamping it on the page, even though it doesn't stand out all that much. Finally, I finished by adding a gold paper foil moon.

   And even though it seems later than normal, we finally have some leaf color. 👍 Hurrah! It's mainly because the oaks are starting to turn, which means it isn't really later than normal because the oaks are always at the end of the foliage season. Yesterday I had to drop Miss Maddie off at the vet for a teeth cleaning, so Pete and I went for a nice long morning stroll. I don't think leaf color mattered to him, but I enjoyed it a lot.

    I am always very attracted to the mix of colors in each leaf.

     And this poor tree has some kind of health issues. BUT, to my artistic eye, the black rings really make these leaves quite stunning. If I designed fabric these leaves would be a great inspiration for a bolt  or two of cloth.

    Then put all that individual color together, and you have scenes like this one.

   And ha ha, even the pumpkins were getting into the multicolors too.

  That's all for me today. I hope your day goes well for you.

Weekend Post

   Hi everyone. I hope you're having a nice weekend.  We're having a slight warm up which feels good after a few cool and very windy days last week. 😏 Plus my daughter  and her husband have been in and out of the house over this weekend. A good friend of theirs got married yesterday near our house, and they stayed with us.

   Since it's Sunday I'm also linking a up to Gillena's Sunday Smiles.

   Today I have a page for Elle's Steampunk, Halloween or Halloween Steampunk challenge over at Art Journal Journey. Today's page is a mix of some Halloween images and then this steampunk heart-key image I had in my stash.

   I used some Halloween paper for my background and then I inked it to make it scarier. I added a clear vinyl image on  the left side.  

    I then glued down the heart (a Stamperia chipboard image), and added some sparkly bat stickers. I was very excited to find this sheet of bat stickers in with some non-Halloween paper. Better yet I noticed that the package had been marked down to 49 cents. I guess whenever I picked them up ( it might have been 2 or 3 years ago) they were accidentally put away in the wrong spot, but I finally found them just in time for Halloween. And I was happy to see I had gotten a good bargain on the stickers too. 😏

    I finished my piece by adding the TH quote.

   The other morning I took a detour on my way to run some errands. I drove up to the high point in my town  which is referred to as the ridge. There's one area on the road up to the ridge that has a gorgeous view of the mountains looking north-east.  So many people pull off to check out this view that the town even paved a small  extra edge on the road for them to pull over onto. 

    You can see the leaf color is just so-so this year, at least so far.  And here's the view as I slightly shifted to the left. You can see a little more color in that direction.

   Just beyond the viewing pull off there is a small family farm and these peaceful looking cattle were right along the roadside.  They were as interested in me as I was in them.

    It's a nice fantasy to think about living on a little farmstead, but I think the fantasy is ( for me) better than the reality would be. 

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

A Last Trip to the Local Botanical Gardens

      Hi everyone. Happy Thursday to you. I hope you're having a wonderful week. It's feeling a lot like fall at my house. And looking like it too.

    Last weekend the local-to-me botanical garden  closed for the season. Earlier that week I met a friend there, and we walked around with our cameras and also did a lot of catching up. Today I thought I shared some autumn garden views. Just follow the red arrow.

    This carved dog was missing for a while. He's actually flat, and I think he needed some repair. I'm glad he's back.From this angle he doesn't look flat, does he?

Cloud reflections in the koi pond.

Some perfect natural lighting around  this garden art.

Some white flowers,

 and these cool green seed pods, or are they blooms?

I love the scattering of pots around the gardens.

More flowers

and some more bumble bees too.

More unusual plant growth,

and a touch of autumn too.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you  have a lovely day.

Halloween House and Autumn Views

    Hi everyone. I hope you're having a nice weekend. and if you're celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend, I hope you're having some tasty food and good company.

   We've gotten a bit chilly at my house the last few days, but no frost yet.  Today at some point we're supposed to get  some rain moving in. Not enough to fix our drought, but anything is needed at this point.

   Let me start today's post with another journal page for Elle's Steampunk, Halloween or Steampunk Halloween challenge. 

    The background is a scrap of some printed paper as well as a steampunk gear-style stamp background image. Then I added the sticker on the top right corner. It's one of a couple I have left on an ancient Making Memories sticker sheet. I colored in the skelly face on it.  Then I added the house, the candles and the 31 images. I added some yellow paint to the candles and to some of the windows in the house.  I think the yellow candlelight makes the house even spookier. 😈

   And I'm linking up these autumn photos with Gillena's Sunday Smiles.

   Friday morning it was crisp (37 degrees F/ 2.7 degrees C) at my house, but there was no frost. The dogs and I had to be out for an early morning appointment so I took them up to my Mother-in-law's house to go walking afterwards. It was a lovely morning to walk.

Not only did the sun make it beautiful day, but even the moon was still out.

    At 37 degrees (F) it was a little cold for the bees to come out, but lately when they are out they have been hungry. In fact, I don't think I've ever had a batch of bees as hungry as these. Whether it's this hive or whether it's the drought making less food available for them  I'm not certain.

   I can fill these jars at 7:30 in the morning and by 11 they are empty. Keep in mind how small bees are and how little food each bee can transport. That's a lot of hungry bees.

    And even with the October chill in the air,  I have one very pretty day lily still blooming.

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