Seeing the World

Happy Friday everyone. 

I have a journal page for you today. I am linking up to Paint Party Friday. Thanks Eva and Kristen for hosting so we can  glimpse some wonderful art going on around the world. I am also linking up to Art Journal Journey. This month's hostess is Mary and the theme is maps, which is also fun.

So this page began with the quote which inspired me. I found it in an old FLOW magazine that I use for words and images. I painted the background, then added the map from the back on an old 1950's atlas.  The gypsy lady is painted, colored and collaged. 

Today I have an arty day planned.  Big smile about that.  A girl needs a little  play  after she's had a day full of chores and errands like  I did yesterday. But I got a several things accomplished that I needed to do. And we finally have hot water again since we were having some furnace issues the last few days and had to shut it off. That meant we had no hot water and brrrr.  Well water is extremely cold first thing in the morning. Yesterday I stood in front of the shower building up the courage to go in.

Anyhow the guy came and got furnace fixed yesterday so today I can have a hot shower. That's as exciting as having an art day.

Hope everyone  has a great weekend.

And as always- thanks for visiting.

Until the Sun Disappeared

No complaints about my first day of summer vacation. 

I enjoyed a morning walk, played in the studio, took a little siesta, read and even managed to get a little bit of cleaning in. :)

It hasn't taken me anytime to get into vacation mode this year.

Besides a little journaling today, I played with solar printing again. I had done a bit last summer, and its something I want to learn more about this summer.

So I recently bought a few bottles of of Jacquard Solarfast paint. You paint it onto fabric, place a dark mask on the painted fabric and then this goes into sunlight to develop. I printed a few altered photos as transparencies and then used those as masks to solar print. This was all an experiment, as I  never used Solarfast before and was really curious about it. 

I only got 4 pieces done before the sky turned black and the rain came down. You can see those 4 experiments while processing in the photo above.

I really liked how one of them turned out.

I liked this one.

And I learned a lot from the other 2.

Once you are finished you rinse out your pieces and that stops the printing process.

I plan on playing around with Solarfast more this summer. I am still trying to make some transparencies that really knock my socks off.  AND Its very exciting to experiment.  

And today I finally had one flower bloom on my peony plants. Its the first time they've ever bloomed.

 And my roses are looking gorgeous right now also.

That's all for me today. I've got a few errands on my list, but I'm not spending my whole day with chores. What about you? Up to anything fun?

The Beginning is Simple

Today the summer is a wide open canvas for me to paint. I just LOVE the feeling of having such a big chunk of time spread out before me without the rigidity of a work schedule.  Or a summer schedule. It was  a tough school year-oh I can say WAS instead of IS. :) 

I think my first summer project is to pick up my house a bit though. I've been busy the last few weeks and my poor house is screaming at me for a little TLC. Not only the house but my clean play space now looks like a storm blew through.

So today's journal  page is a really simple one. I collages the torn pieces from 2 Gelli prints (on deli wrap) for my background. I left the edge white on purpose. Then I added the face,  which is not mine but cut out from an old FLOW magazine.  I doodled the border and added a sticker.

So I also have a few ocean photos to show you. We went out in our boat on the ocean for the first time this season this past Sunday.

 We saw some interesting things.

 Two very large ships.

Paddle boarding dogs.

Fishing people and some others on the jetty.

Old houses, long empty.

A boat in a plastic bubble.

Open tread on a bridge, viewed from underneath.

Ropes hanging from the side of a boat.

And also, the bald eagles must be back at their nest on one of the little islands in the harbor. Here's one of them, but I don't know if this is mama or papa.

 And another view of the bald eagle flying high.

I have a few more photos to show you again some other time, but for today, that's all for me. Enjoy your day.

Thanks for visiting.

This Is It

Tuesday is here! It is T day.  :)

Monday was hot (around 91 degrees/32 degrees Celsius) and I spent most of the day in a hot third floor classroom (why didn't they run the AC I ask?) cleaning. When I got home,  I was tired and it was just my daughter and myself for dinner, so we went and got take out. Then we sat on the couch watching some episodes of that old series Breaking Bad while we ate our sandwiches. It was that kind of night. 

Stop by Bluebeard and Elizabeth's blog to see what all the T gang folks have been enjoying. They might like tea,  coffee, or like me, a diet coke. 

And besides lazy nights on the couch, how about some other enjoyable things about June.

Daisies are blooming everywhere.

And Siberian irises too.

Sunlight on the lake in the afternoon.

And even though school is just about out, summer is a great time for reading big books. 

And I've started painting this T rex. She's going to be quite festive if she comes out the way I am imaging her to look. 

I'll show you when she's done.

And look at this art storage piece I scrounged up today as everyone was cleaning out their classrooms?

Its one of those paperback book racks that you see in drugstores and libraries. It spins around and once I get some little bins to put in where the books go, it is going to be a really great supply storage holder. 

I am very excited to do a little more organizing, and after this afternoon, I will have plenty of time to do it.
Happy T Day everyone and enjoy your day!

Weekend Wind Down

 Sunday evening. This weekend summer arrived in her very glorious form. Warm but not humid, cool nights, blue skies...it was perfect summer weather. I hope all of you in the northern hemisphere get this weather. I wanted to do some gardening but when the weekend arrived all that ambition disappeared and I turned into the summer slug me. I think last week's end of  school stress really wore me out. But being lazy never felt so glorious.

 I took photos but I haven't the energy to get them off my camera tonight. Maybe tomorrow. I do want to show you the bald eagle I saw, the colorful lobster buoys, some very big ships and some other oceany views. And my roses which look gorgeous right now.

Did I show you these? I don't think so. These are some fun little sketch pages from my summer journal. I was very naughty a few weeks ago and bought some Pitt pens which I really love because they don't bleed through being India ink. 

The top 2 pages go back to Memorial Day weekend at the end of May and this last page was made a couple of weeks ago.

I am linking up to Art Journal Journey also because this month's theme is maps (hosted by Mary), and my second journal page has this freebie New Hampshire map for a background.

So 2 more days of work for me and then I am officially done for the summer. Kids finished Friday and all my grades are finished and posted. Big smile!  Tomorrow (Monday) I need to clean, order supplies for the fall, and we have a nice luncheon the parents association puts on for us. It will be busy but low key. Tuesday I think my department is visiting the University of New Hampshire ocean labs for staff development rather than working in house, but it is a weather dependent visit. I heard something about thunderstorms so we will have to wait and see I guess.

Anyhow, hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. And thanks for visiting my blog.

Collaged Journal Page

Last Saturday the hubby and I went by boat over to the heart of the local motorcycle rally. You might have read my post about this. (Bike Week).  We docked and then went for a little walk around the "festivities". While checking it out,  I picked up this free brochure and used it to make this page in spring-summer scrap journal. This is more of a memory journal so my page is just that-
My scrap journal isn't laying flat any more so I am leaving some of the edges visual. Otherwise if I crop it down to just the collage, the page looks really strange.

I am also linking up to Art Journal Journey since I included a map, which is his month's theme.  This month is hosted by the talented Mary.

And I have a second journal page today which I am linking up to Moo Mania. The new theme is anything based  this beautiful photo collage by Valerie.
I am also linking up to Paint Party Friday, hosted by  Eva and Kristen.

So the good new is exams start today and tomorrow is it with the kids. Yup, I am ready, even though I have a bunch of stuff to do between now and Monday.
But summer break is almost here!
Now I just need to keep my eyes on the prize and keep thinking positive. It is almost here.
(Good thing, too. And its not the kids-they've been mostly really great so far.)
Have a great day and thanks for visiting.

Off the Map

Is it really Wednesday? You would think with this being the last week of school for the kids the atmosphere at work would be fun and light, but man, it just seems to be heavier and heavier every day.
Someone's going to break down into tears, I can just about guarantee it. (Well yesterday I had a kid break down but it was because of the horrible Orlando shooting so that doesn't count. My heart does go out to all those people and their loved ones and families.)
It is time for vacation already.
 Thankfully I have art and all you great people who stop by my blog and that helps sooooo much to break the stress.
So thanks for reading my belly aching.
Today I am have another page for Art Journal Journey. This month the theme is maps, hosted by Mary. I have another space page, and although this came out of an atlas, it might be more of a diagram than a map of the solar system. But I am going to take a bit of leeway and call it a map. The quote really represents how I feel right now, although I really don't have any desire to spend years in a space ship traveling to other planets,  But as you can tell, I really have a desire to be off the grid at work and away from my coworkers (many who are good friends of mine) for a little bit at least.
I used the entire atlas page as my background (the rest of the solar system is on the other page in the atlas still), and I drew and painted in the telescope and the rocket ship. I added some little metal stars, a bit of white nebula looking paint, the number 9, the letter stickers and also some stamped on acetate space words. They are kind of hard to see in the picture, but in person they stand out just enough from the black background as to not be too bold on the page.
I am also linking up to Try It On Tuesday. The theme is all about him, and I think space travel (although not strictly masculine) works for that theme.
Hope everyone enjoys their day and can you believe we are at the middle of June already?
Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

Is There a Roll Here?

It is Tuesday, T Day, once again! Happy hello to me fellow T gang! 

So today I have lots of yummy food for you to enjoy with your cup of  tea or coffee.

Starting with my lunch last Saturday.

Can you see the roll in this clam roll? I thought they gave me the wrong order at first.

I had this lunch last Saturday when my husband and myself went back to Pop's Clam shack.

I'd mentioned my lunch here in a T post a few weeks ago.  When I went there last month I'd wanted some fried clams but had been good and ate something a few less calories, but when I went this past weekend I wasn't so self controlled and decided to order the clam roll. I've never had a clam roll with so many clams in it before though.

I couldn't finish them all, didn't even need supper and this was only my lunch.

You might remember these photos, but if not, here they are again. 

So now that you had lunch you might want a little sweet dessert now. Perhaps.Sunday I did a bit of baking again.

 When I was getting groceries at Trader Joe's the other I found this jar of pie filling. I'd never seen pie filling there before.
 I like cherry pie but it is a little sweet. So I decided to experiment. I put in the pre-made pie filling.

 Then I added some mixed frozen fruit I had. There were strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and cranberries in the mix, along with the cherries.

 And I made the top crust using a star shaped cookie cutter.

I like how it looks.

It came out really tasty, but I made one mistake. I should have blind baked the bottom a bit first because I was soggy  for sure. I don't know what I was thinking-or not thinking. But I am definitely going to make this again if I can find that cherry pie filling again. It was super easy to make the filling because the pre-made cherry half was sweet enough I didn't need to do much besides add a bit of thickener and my fruit, no extra sugar needed.
Won't you enjoy a calorie free piece?

Stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog-Altered Book Lover to see what the rest of the T Gang has been up to. If you have something yummy to share (or anything T related) you can join the fun too.
Have a great T day.

Blue Mountains

Happy Monday! A new work week begins, and this is the last week the kids have school. Big smile on my face.

Excitement is building. I think I am going to make it without a nervous break down at this point.

Plus the movie Finding Dory opens on Friday (last day of kids), and I told my daughter we need to go see it Friday night to celebrate the almost end of school. (I have 2 teacher days Monday and Tuesday and next week.)

So the old atlas I have (which I have been cutting up) has some star maps in it, and I decided to make a page for Art Journal Journey. This months theme is maps and is hosted by Mary Nasser, and I thought this would be a different view of maps. 

The background is stamped and collaged with some cut out images. The owl is a die cut. 

I thought of the Carly Simon song Night Owl while I made this page. (Cuz I'm a night owl honey, sleep all day long...sleep, sleep....) 

 The rest of the page kind of came along as I was looking for images to put on this piece. 

That lady was cut out of an old postcard, and I can't decide if she is wearing pj's, a space suit or some kind of work clothes.  Hmmmm?

So this past Saturday we went for a boat trip, as I mentioned in yesterday's post. Since it was cloudy the mountains around the lake were very blue. And very pretty.

Thought I would share.

I always find it interesting how tree covered mountains can look so blue in certain light. I should be able to explain it, but I like to think its more magic than science. Maybe because the views are so magic.

Thanks for visiting me today. Come back soon.