Second on the Second Plus...

   Hi everyone. Happy weekend to you. I hope yours is going well. Yesterday we had a family celebration because last week was both my husband's and my daughter's birthdays. This year we went out to my daughter's home which is a couple of hours west of us  to celebrate. It was a lot of fun, and nice to have a little change of scenery. (And so if I didn't get to your blog yesterday, that's why?)

   Today is November 2, which  means it's time for Second on the Second over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog. All you have to do is share a post you've already published in the past so people can have a second look. I'm also linking up to Gillena's Sunday Smiles.

   I am going to share a view of a journal page I made and published on November 25, 2021. November means it's Thanksgiving month here in the US, turkey time. It's one of my favorite holidays. Plus since yesterday I was out celebrating those family birthdays, today I need to take down my few Halloween decorations and put out a few turkeys. 🦃🦃🦃

   Those of you who stop by frequently know that some of the wild turkeys who live in my area have been visiting my yard quite a bit lately.

Neither my husband nor I hunt so we won't be eating any of those turkeys for Thanksgiving. 😏

   The dogs and I have been out walking quite a bit lately. With the colors that finally came out why would we want to miss it?

   My mother-in-law's house is about 30 minutes away, so I've been driving up there a couple of times a week. It's a nice place to walk because the house is on a long private road so there is hardly any traffic nor the crowds you get on a public trail. Right now most people have all closed up their cottages and left for the season too. There some year round folks on the road, but their homes are down closer to the lake than the woods so it's like they aren't even there.

   I took this last photo the same  day as I took the others. The clouds came in, and it looks almost menacing. I can't believe it's during the same walk.  

   That's all for me today. I hope you have a great rest of your weekend and week ahead. 

 

Relaxing Sunday Mornings Are The Best Moments of the Week

Hi everyone.  It is quite cold this morning, and a little grey, but I am having a an enjoyable morning. I love a lazy morning when there is nothing compelling I must do. :)

I love lounging bed reading for a couple of hours. I must admit it's a little guilty pleasure.

I haven't seen the show but I have been enjoying the book. It's a light read with lots of photos (actual historical photos and show photos).  Now I want to see the Netflix series.  Guess I need to "borrow" my daughter's Netflix password and take a watch. She'll be home next weekend so maybe she'll be interested in watching it with me. 

Yesterday my screen porch got it's winter plastic covering. It's always a sad time, but it is the right time.  Seeing yesterday we barely hit 32 degrees (0 degrees C). I would have raked those leaves but most of them were frozen on the ground.

I think I am slipping into hibernation mode.

  I started knitting a sweater with yarn I bought last summer. It will keep me busy while I lounge next to the woodstove or watch TV.

 And this lady  helps keep me warm while I read. She really wants me to shower her with attention. I guess since she's a good girl she does deserve a rub. :)

So an the arty side of life, I managed to get 2 of these giant books that were on discard in my school library.

 They are each huge volumes of around 1000 pages and the bindings are in excellent shape, so they should make good art journals. I can either rip out all the pages and have a good thick binding or I can rip out half the pages and have a book to alter. :) Lots of choices.

And I do have a journal page to show you. I am linking it up to Chris's fun challenge at Art Journal Journey.

One way to stay warm (in the 101 Ways to Keep Warm challenge) is with a nice cozy quilt.

I am also linking up to Try It On Tuesday and their latest challenge with is Home Sweet Home.

I had a lot of fun just coloring all the quilt squares. The above photo doesn't show the stitching I did on the page, so let me show you one that highlights that.

It's still a little hard to see the stitching but you can see the threads. The black stitching on the edges is actually a stamped image.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend also. 

Cold Hands

Happy Friday everyone! It's a cold morning.   Brrr.  Glad I didn't have to rush out to work and could stay in my warm bed a little longer. :)

 I took these photos the other day. You can see how the woods look more wintery now that most of the leaves have come down.
Time to rake.

And put the lawn furniture away.

 Now these berries look so bright and stand out without the leaves.

And we've finally gotten a hard frost. 

The cold weather does produce some beautiful skies.

 I have another page for Chris's challenge-101 Ways to Stay Warm- over at Art Journal Journey.

I really like my couple. I painted them first in grey, then a light coat of black, and then I used some watered down cream colored paint to add some details. Finally I used a white Stabilo pencil to draw in any final needed details.

Stay warm if it's chilly where you are. And enjoy the start of your weekend wherever you are.

It Was a Beautiful Saturday

Hi everyone. Yesterday was a gorgeous day. Warm enough for shorts and T shirts but no humidity. After a morning walk I did some fall yard work. And I enjoyed every  minute of being out in the sunshine too.

So I wanted to share one more tag with the latest Tag Tuesday challenge which is All Creatures Great and Small. I had a tag almost finished and figured I better do it yesterday or it wouldn't get done in time.

The printed background is some clear sticker paper that I ran through my printer and printed out a photo of a Gelli print I had made at one time. I love how I could create a background with it and how the uncolored areas let you peek at the tagstock.

The bird is a stamped image that I then outlined with with Sharpie and painted. The quote isn't very clear in the photo, but I love how it came out since I stamped it twice-once in white and once in black.

I hope everyone is having or will have a fantastic rest of their weekend. 

Thanks for visiting.

Too Much Going on in My Head

Hi everyone.  

Here's a journal page for Elke's theme over at Art Journal Journey. This month we are creating pages all about Landscapes of the Soul. I saw this head in the back of a magazine at work. It was in an ad for financial planning, but when I saw it I immediately thought of this challenge, so I snagged the magazine and brought it home.  Hopefully no one is looking for this issue. :)

I added the creativity takes courage quote piece because it easy for life to take over and eat up creative play time.  I'll speak for myself at least. But I do like the big idea lightbulb in the center of his head. 

Today (Thursday) is my Mom's 88th birthday. She told me the other day she doesn't celebrate anymore. At 88,  I think she has even more reasons to celebrate, but there's no telling her that. :) I am hoping to go visit her this weekend since she's a couple of hours away from where I live.

And as the temperatures cool  off and it feels more like fall, our leaves are really peaking with their colors right now. It's so pretty. I took these photos of this little river I go by every day when I leave my house. 

  They say there's a good chance for a frost tonight. It seems to weird to write that (even though we had a little bit one night already) because we've gone in and out of these hot spells all fall. But today was really crisp. Maybe fall has arrived for real.
And it's almost Friday. This week has flown by for me, but I'm always ready for it to be the weekend. I felt all day like I am fighting a cold (ugh) so I am ready for some down time to try to fight this virus (although I still have to work tomorrow) and hopefully this weekend I can do some more of my clothes switch over. Last weekend I brought everything out, and now I need to finish washing and putting everything away. Sounds exciting, doesn't it?
Ha-ha.
Thanks for visiting.

T Stands for the Weekend Wrap Up

It has been a  grey and  rainy weekend here in my world, but still, it was a good long weekend. Here in the US it was the long Columbus weekend, although lots of people did not have the Monday holiday off. I also want to wish a slightly belated Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends.

 The one chore I  managed to get done was to pull most of my winter things out of the attic. It's still  a bit warm for them,but I'm guessing it is going to suddenly get cold. It is October after all.  That was the one job on my weekend to do list so I am glad to have it started. :)

Sunday we had a wedding 2 hours away in Maine. I was hesitant about going, but glad we did as it was one of the nicest weddings I have attended.  We drove through lots of little towns and lots of miles of leaves which were starting to turn.

 And although it was raining when we left the house, the sun managed to peak out for ceremony. 

The couple got married under a covered bridge.

 The river ran underneath the bridge and you could hear it during the ceremony.

 And on our way to the big event, we passed this Maine roadside landmark. I've always wanted to see it, don't ask me why, but I think it's a cool sign. These are all Maine towns but it sure is a global smorgasbord.

And I managed to have lots of good art time.

I made a tag for Tag Tuesday's latest challenge "All Creatures Great and Small".

No, you're not seeing double either.  I stamped the quote twice in two colors.

And lastly, I can't forget it is time for T. After all that I need a good cuppa to relax and get ready for another work week.

A cup of tea and my knitting. Finally the season to knit some more colorful Christmas stockings. 

Stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to see what the T Gang has been up to.

And hope its a happy T day.

Life Lately

Howdy everyone.  Its Saturday evening and the space in my back between my shoulder blades is SOO sore. With some nice weather (before it all changes tomorrow they say), I have been raking and finishing up my yard work. Yahoo! Happy to do it and even though I am sore , it is all for good.

You can see how beautiful a day it was on my morning walk today.

Luckily my daughter was home today and helped me out by running the lawn mower over the backyard to pick up the leaves.  I only wish the lawn mower could go through the gardens and over the driveway where  some large leaf dunes had formed. But I got those all cleaned up today so should we need to clean snow in a few days we won't be shoveling wet leaves along with the snow.

 I'm a little worried that we might get  deep snow. But hopefully we don't, and if we do, I have the name of a plow guy.

So I hate to say my art output is way down lately. Last week I was back to work most days and then had to do some chauffeuring of the hubby home from dialysis. Never mind we've had visiting nurses and physical therapists coming and going from the house when I am home all day which takes up time. I did  manage to start some things because I had  a couple of  hours here and there, so right now I have a pile of slightly worked on pages which I am hoping I will get  back to tomorrow.  But as always, we shall see.

But sitting with the hubby and watching some TV with him in the evening, I did finish my first knitted Christmas stocking of the year.

I had fun playing with color and pattern. My goal  for this stocking was playing with colors and the black bear image that represents my and my hubby's college alma mater. 

I started another stokcing and this time I am playing with patterns from a geometric pattern book I have.

And in the book world I've been reading about food over the last few weeks.

 This cookbook and food read was interesting cake project that was part of National Public Radio's All Things Considered show. 50+ yummy sounding recipes for me to try as  Melissa Gray, the author, made one a week and took it into the Washington DC NPR station. I really enjoyed this book.

 This book was an enjoyable light and easy read. Maybe a little too light and easy, but I think a good choice for while the hubby was in the hospital and I was doing a bunch of waiting room waiting. It also has some yummy recipes in it.  

And I am inspired to make cookies for the holidays. I think molded cookies are gorgeous. and I have a couple of new for me molds that I picked up last summer at the hospital street fair (which is like a huge yard sale). I also got 4 for 99 cents and another one for  4 dollars on eBay.  But first, I want to find out what I need to do to make perfect cookies. 

And speaking of 99 cent and $4 cookie molds, I had a gold mine when the $4 mold arrived yesterday. Look  what the seller stuffed the box with!

Tons of dressmaking pattern paper! I think I might have even been more excited about  this than the cookie mold.  Ha-ha.

Not much else new. Still nursing the hubby and getting excited for Thanksgiving coming up in less than a week. 

Thanks for visiting.