Thursday

  Hi everyone. Happy Thursday. 

 With the end of the month quickly approaching, let me start off today's post with another page for my In The Good Old Summertime challenge over at Art Journal Journey  This challenge runs through the end of the month, which happens to be this upcoming Monday.

   I started with some white watercolor paper and an architectural stencil. Then I sponged on some dark blue paint to look like an old blueprint.  I decided I wanted to use this lady on her scooter. She looks ready for summer in her sandals, sundress and big brimmed hat. I fussy cut her out of the Ciao Bella Junk Journaling book that many of this month's images have come from. Before I placed her on this page. I used yellow paint to show some heat from the sun.  I glued the lady down, and I also glued down the golden paper sun.

   Finally I used blue ink and stamped the simple quote. 

   And not to be some kind of Insect lady, (and maybe make you cringe-😉-sorry if you didn't like the caterpillars yesterday), but along with those milkweed tussock moth caterpillars I posted about yesterday, I've also seen a couple of other interesting insects in my gardens lately. I hope today's insects are much less creepy than all those caterpillars were. 😀

   I'll start with this Katydid, who isn't exactly handsome, but is more interesting than a regular old grasshopper. I love how it's wings, when they fold back, look like leaves.  They even have green eyes to blend in.

   And along with their fun name,  they make a cool shadow too.

   And before I continue  I want to mention that Denise An English Girl Rambles from 2016 to... and I must be on the same wavelength lately. I scheduled this post back on Monday night, so I am not trying to copy hers. GRIN! 😉

    The other visitor I found while out in the garden this week was this Hummingbird Moth. Hummingbird moths are daytime moths that have a long tube like feeding structure (proboscis) and fly at very fast speeds. They can even fly backwards. That's how they get their name, because people often mistake them for hummingbirds.

   If you're curious about these moths and their life cycle, you can read this article you can read about them: Hummingbird Moths. This article was published by a Botanical Garden found in Central Massachusetts. 

   I'll admit it makes me smile if I spot a hummingbird moth because they are pretty cool insects.  

   That's all for me today. I hope you are having or have a super Thursday.

   

Friday Flowers and Faces

    Hi everyone. Happy Friday. Another week has sped by, hasn't it? 

    Today I have a bunch of random garden photos to share. I'll be linking  up to Friday Face off over at Nicole's blog and also Friday Lunch Break over at Gillena's blog. And just an FYI- this is a photo heavy post

                                        

     I'll start with these faces on these wild turkeys. I haven't seen them around for a while. I want to say "They're Back!" 😁

   Do you see the grape vine growing over my arbor behind the turkeys? Usually the new growth comes off the old woody vines, and this spring there were none. I thought I'd lost the plant. Then we had a couple days of actual rain, and after that, new shoots came out of the roots. And look at it now. No grapes this year, but the plant certainly wasn't dead. 

     How about the deep red of this lily flower?

A dragonfly hanging out on a tomato plant.

  This year I bought a few plants for a tiny spot next to the deck that usually just filled up with weeds. One plant I bought was a Black Eyed Susan, a favorite plant of mine. It's very happy there and looks amazing right now. Plus there's a face in one of these next photos of the flowers too.

    OK, I guess I got a bit carried away with black eyed Susan photos. 😉 Next up some golden-rod with another face, and then another favorite of mine which are now blooming.

Zinnias ❤

    The other day I noticed 3 Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies on this one bunch of zinnias at one time. I only captured a photo of 2 of them because one flew off as I walked over in that direction.

   These tiger lilies blooms have seen better days, but I still think the flowers are very interesting to look at.

Here's another face on some milkweed.

   This first dandelion photo is slightly out of focus, except for one seed that is breaking away over on the left.

   You can still see the dandelion break away seed here, but it is not so dramatic.

  I visited my daughter the other day, and my son-in-law pointed out this swallow-tail caterpillar that was in his garden.

And to wrap up this post, the son-in-law's sunflowers look AMAZING! 

   Have a wonderful Friday and start to the weekend everyone.

Happy Weekend

   Hi everyone. Happy Sunday. I hope you're having a nice weekend. Mine's been busy, so if I haven't been by, I will be once things settle down a bit. 😉

    Today I'll be joining Nicole for her Sunday in the Art Room (SITAR) challenge and Gillena for her Sunday Smiles. I'm also going to start this post with another journal page for my In The Good Old Summertime challenge at Art Journal Journey.

    This page is part of a journal I made using some things from my stash along with some items  from a  Ciao Bella ephemera book. (I am NOT brand endorsing them, just mentioning this because I used a whole lot of this Rivera collection throughout my journal.)

    To keep the background light and summery, I used some green and some light blue paint to make some rough stripes. Then I took a piece of printed paper with some darker green and blue check and cut it  so it would make a slightly oversized frame for the photo. The photo is from a packet of Tim Holtz photos. I then added the citrus fruit stickers  to help frame out the old photo.

    I finished by die cutting the Adirondack chair out of white paper and inking it light blue to blend in with the stripes a bit. I finish by stamping the quote which is an old one without a brand on the wood base. Easy peasy. I love how just a few random assorted items can end up telling a story! It looks like it was a great day for this group of people. 👍

  I'll finish this post with a few summer views to go along with my summer themed page. Since there's flowers and plants in the background in the photo on my page, let me share the gardens/flowers in my yard. You'll also notice there aren't many close ups. With my shoulder issues I can't get much weeding done, but from afar, they look  thick and full of luscious growth in that later summer overgrown mode.

Have a super rest of your weekend and start to the new week. 

Happy Sunday

   Hi everyone. Happy Sunday. I hope you're having a nice weekend.

   Today I am joining Halle over at Art Journal Journey for her Fabric, Lace and Trims challenge.  I'm also joining Nicole for Sunday in the Art Room (SITAR), and I'm also joining Gillena for her Sunday Smiles.

    Here's another unfinished sewing journal page. Like the page I shared this past Friday, I made my page on some fabric I cut from an old pillow cover that I cut up. I will somehow be attaching this to a background piece of fabric, but since I just got my sewing machine back from the repair shop this past week (it was there for 3 months), I haven't been able to do much machine stitching lately.

   And yes, 3 months for a repair is a long time, but the man  I brought my machine to has taken a job as a teacher. He used to work for a local sewing/vacuum cleaner business, and he sold me my machine (which was used at the time) many years ago. Since then that business closed due to the owner retiring, and this man had chance to pick up a full time teaching job. He still repairs machines, but his repair business is at his home and happens when he has time. But the good news is that he is a pro at fixing machines, has lots of spare parts for old machines like mine (since you can no longer get them otherwise), and he charges a lot less than other comparable repair places. It was worth the wait.  

   To make the rest of this page (so far) I used a square piece of blue felt. I die cut Scottie dog from some scrap fabric as well as the bones. Then I used some colorful threads and lots of stitching. I'm not sure how I'll finish it off, but once I do, I'll share that with you.

   And let me finish off this post with some various garden photos. I have tomatoes, cukes and green peppers starting to produce. 👍

This pickerel frog has found a nice place to live in the garden.

I pulled out all my spinach since it had bolted. It doesn't like the heat.

My climbing rose is looking fabulous.

Lots of lilies are blooming. I just love these orange tiger lilies; I think they are my favorites. And my day lilies are blooming too.

Also in bloom are my delphiniums

some Shasta daisies

the hydrangea bushes

and my goats-beard is finally  blooming. That's taken a few years to happen.

Of course the milkweeds are still blooming too. I went out the other evening, and the smell of the milkweeds was heady. You could just step out the door, feet away from the plants, and smell the flowers.  I'd never really thought about night time pollination, but there were some type of  sphinx/hawk months busy pollinating the flowers. Sadly, I never got a photo of them though.

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