A Relaxing Weekend I Hope

 Hi everyone. Happy weekend to you.

I'm hoping things will slow down a bit this weekend. Not that last week was a bad week in most ways, but there seemed to be a lot of things going on everyday.

The weekend is supposed to be a time to slow down a bit, so today I have a page from my junk journal with one way to slow down. One of my favorite weekend things to do, especially after a busy week, is to sit back with a cup of tea, put my feet up, read blogs or my book and relax. 

And it's even better if I can sit outside and enjoy the sunshine, watch the birds and see what's blooming in my gardens. They say rain later today for me, so I'm not sure that will happen.

If you'd like to join me and relax with  that extra mug of coffee or tea be my guest, as I am sharing 3 mugs on my junk journal page today.

I also think the weekend makes great gardening time, so you can see that I used some flower images. Working in the garden also lets you watch the birds and insects so I added a few of those also. 

I used parts of a birch bark designed gift bag and also some pages from a Japanese gardening book to create my background. Then I cut out images from some ripped out magazine pages. These included the mugs, the birds and the  colored flower images. The oval frame, the punched out buttons and the black and white stamped images and words are all left overs from my work table. 

I am linking up  my page to Aimeslee's Flower challenge at Art Journal Journey.

And for those of you who asked about replacement bees, sadly at this time of year the bees are not available to buy as their boxes have sold out. They only can split apart so many hives to make boxes for sale. I am getting reimbursed, but  I  hope the small hive will be big reproducers and will make enough new bees to survive. 

And to wrap up this post, let me share a few more photos from the Magnolia Gardens in Charleston, South Carolina that I visited last Sunday. And I won't share any alligators today either. Smile.

Have a wonderful start to your weekend.

Unexpected Faces in Charleston

Hi everyone. Happy Friday to you. This week ended up being very busy for me. Seems like it was one thing after another. One of those things going on was that my other box of bees arrived. This box arrived with  over 95% dead of the bees dead. 😪 I feel bad and so did my postmaster. He told me he doesn't even like bees, but he had turned on the heat in the back room hoping maybe some warmth would revive them if they were just cold.

I left the unopened box in my sunny living room window for the day and added some food for them. The few that were left did revive, but of course the day they arrived it wasn't warm enough to add them to the hive. (Even though it has been warm every day, the one day they come it isn't warm. Figures.)

 I'm worried about how they will do as there are so few of them. When I did add them to my hive I loaded up the hive with extra pollen patties and food. My fingers crossed they'll make it, but they definitely need more bees. I am rooting for them though. 

The good news is my other hive is doing well. Here's a photo from that hive.

Since it's Friday it is time for Nicole's  Friday Face Off and Gillena's Friday Lunch Break. This week let me share some faces from my little journey last weekend. I flew down to Raleigh, North Carolina last Friday, and then on Saturday my friend and I had an early start. We were driving down to Charleston, South Carolina, about 4 hours away to spend the weekend.

Today I thought I'd share some photos from my journey, starting with this guy who decided to cross my path when we visited some spectacular gardens at Magnolia Plantation.

I was walking along, and suddenly Mr. Gator was just a few feet (maybe around 3 or 4)  in front of me, coming out of the water and heading across the path. He seemed to be minding his own business, and I backed up and let him cross. I must admit it was a bit exciting, even if it was a little frightening at the time.

I didn't know there were SO many alligators in South Carolina. The last thing I expected to see was as many as I did at these gardens. We saw so many alligators I lost count.

Magnolia Gardens are considered romantic gardens. I learned that that means they are not formal, and that much of the property was left in a more natural state.  This is what I go for at home, so this garden was right up my alley.

There were some azaleas still blooming, and the gardenias were blooming too. 

And then there were more alligators.

Part of the property is an Audubon natural swamp sanctuary, and we also visited that area. I saw more alligators there, as well as lots of turtles and rookery with wild herons, anhingas and egrets. I'll share those photos in another post, as well as more from the main romantic gardens. 

Let me finish this post with a few more photos. I took a lot here because this was definitely one highlight of the trip for me.

And if you look carefully at this next photo, you might find the gator that was there.

If I missed your post last Friday, I apologize. I tried to get to them all, and I think I did, but if you posted late I might have missed it.

I hope everyone is having a great week and has a lovely weekend too. Thanks  for visiting.

 

This Week The Color Is Red

 Hi everyone. 

Today I am posting some more fish for Mia's challenge at Art Journal Journey, and I'm also highlighting the color RED for Rain's Thursday Art Date as that is her color theme for this week.

I'm back with my little book of fish, and although these 2 pages are not side by side spread, they both have red fish.

This first page has a fish image that was in my stash (and I'm not sure where it came from) and this second page has a red fish I snipped off an old poster I brought home from the classroom. There are also 3 red fish on the fake postage stamp from an old collage sheet by Art Chix. You might remember them as they were a big company back before 2010. I wonder if Art Chix even makes collage sheets any longer. I searched for them, and they came up on Etsy, but I didn't see any results.

Both of my pages are smaller, and you can see a bit of the page underneath.

And here's some more red inspired photos.

 My roses are starting to bloom. 

And pink is just  white mixed with red.

And here's some red peonies I saw while visiting Bedrock Gardens recently.

And I've shown this next photo before, but a glass of red wine tastes nice sometimes.

And I will leave you sipping some red wine (only if you want it). Have a great day. And thanks for visiting.