Travel Journalling

 This week's Simon Says Stamp challenge is nautical.

Thought I'd show you some of this travel journal I made a few years back.

Think its fairly nautical.

 We had travelled down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a friend's 50th birthday bash. 

Since we had never been there, the hubby and I decided to make a little summer vacation out of it too.

We stayed a few extra days and did some sight seeing along with the beach.

 This journal was made in 3 steps.

1- I put the base together before we left on the trip.

2-I made the journal while we were there-that's why there isn't a lot of stamping but far more die cuts and tags and stickers-easier to carry.

3- I did a few little finishing touches when we got home.

 Hope you enjoy this view of some of my travel journal.

Day Off

Long weekend Monday for me.  Where did the rest of the weekend go? It can't be Monday already, can it?

Luckily I am home all by my lonesome and making this day all for me.

Need a me day, very tired of doing everything for everyone else but myself lately.

Not that I mind doing things for others, but seems lately my needs seem to be in a low place on the priority list and that is what I am very TIRED of.

Sometimes we're all a little more selfish than other times and this I guess is my time to be that way.

But enough moaning and groaning.

Today's journal page is a home themed page I made recently.

I love this doily or snowflake stamp from Impression Obsession. Picked it up 40% off on a markdown table and I thought I could connect them kind of like a crochet afghan. Hence my home theme.

Photos are a piece of October Afternoon Midway collection paper cut up.

Technique Tuesday stamped image and some clear acetate word images (Postmodern Design) I cut up and used. Also found these on a markdown table for only 10 cents a sheet. A deal I couldn't refuse!!!!

So today is a studio day for me, and hopefully, if we do get to see any sun (haven't seen any since Friday), a little yard work.

There are leaves needing raking.

There is me needing some outside and sunshine.

I also want to read some more of one of my latest reads

A good gothic spooky read.

Perfect for this spooky time of year.

It is part one to this book

Which I read this summer.

Ok, so I am backwards...not much new for me.

But want to get caught up and so far, 

enjoying this read a lot.

So what are you up to today?

Thanks for taking a couple of minutes out of your day and visiting my blog.

addition:

So today-Columbus Day- was an absolutely gorgeous day. I sat on my screen porch and read and napped for like 2 hours.  I had to. It was such a nice treat of a day- and at this time of year, there's so few left, that I had to take advantage of it.

Today was the best- I spent hours catching up on my card making in the studio and some time outside. Didn't get all my chores done,

but oh well.

They won't go anywhere.

More Spooky

So yesterday was cloudy all day. Kind of a bummer but we spent the day doing some more cleaning up and organizing around the house that needed to get done. Organizing and cleaning out has become my mantra for 2013, and its great!

I also was craving pumpkin pie, so I put one of those together. You know, I never made a pumpkin pie before a couple of years ago and then I did, and boy are they pretty easy to whip together.

One of these days I might even try cooking down my own pumpkin instead of using canned pumpkin.

Plus, as bad as it may be for me, I feel like you can have a piece for breakfast and its ok on the nutrition scale.

Is that weird or what?
I must say it was NICE to have a low key but productive day hanging around the house.
Last week knocked me out, maybe because work was so busy and I was feeling pretty down from losing Emmie.
Now I am ready to have fun today.

So a few more spooky things to show you, starting with this card. I was very very naughty and bought one of Brother's new Scan and Cut machines off of Amazon when they came out 2 weeks ago. I really like it, except I think the sticky pads don't stay very sticky very long and it does take some exploration to get how it works all figured out. Not hard to use at all though, and it didn't take very long to get that down.There's a learning curve to figure out what it cuts the best though; that's probably the biggest thing I have been working on.

Not unhappy with the purchase though, and you can see this cool whole front card size spider web I designed and cut. I do love how I can take an image and save it, how I can make multiple copies of that image and how I can resize that image. 

Spider is from Sizzix.

And here's another sprayed background card. Image is stamped and cut out-its from Chocolate Baroque. The card shape was made by tracing a die cut shape onto a folded card and then hand cutting it to this final shape.

So are you doing anything exciting today?

I hope you get to make some art!!!!

Somebody's Having a Birthday

This young woman is having a birthday today and turning 29

again.

If my math is right that means it is her 55th year of being 29!

Lucky her.

This is my mom,

and though she doesn't read my blog

(but she should) 

I am wishing her a

Very Happy Birthday.

See you again soon.

Spooky Art

Been working on a Halloween Altered book .

Thought I'd let you see a few more little peeks of my project.

I'm using an old encyclopedia for my book base and found this cool page with the Notre Dame gargoyles. 

The story in my book is a journal of a witch through the centuries.

She has a long life, this witch.

She has seen a lot and been to many places.

And a little humor too.

I linked these to Paint Party Friday and Art Journal Journey.

So we've made it to Friday.

Always very exciting.

Columbus weekend here in the US. I have Monday off. 

Long weekends are ALWAYS very exciting also.

Lots of possibilities-

bringing home the boat, its also my Mom's birthday.

I desperately need to clean my studio space.

Lets see if that actually happens

been needing a cleaning for weeks now.

Gonna watch more of Game of Thrones too-Dave and I are 5 episodes into season 1 and I am really enjoying it.

Who knows what else I'll be up to?

What are you up to this weekend?

Some Page that Aren't Finished

Thursday. We're almost at the end of the week.

Long weekend for me,

 but I know not for everyone.

Kids at school get an extra long weekend-

they have tomorrow off too.

Lucky them.

I just have a work day-

no

a meeting day.

:(

Oh well-

change of pace and I do have Monday off.

So today, some journal pages I am working on but haven't finished.

Kind of like how Thursday means the work week isn't quite finished either.

Or maybe my pages are finished.

Maybe they are meant to be like this.

Who knows what creative fairy will direct  me to do with them at sometime later.

So...

The top page has lots of stenciled designs which I colored and then sprayed with ink through a stencil.

 This page is made with some wet stencils and this fun skeleton face I die cut. I filled the

openings with glue and figure once I do add something more to this page, those eyes won't darken up.

Another will see.

And finally the wet stencils wiped off on these pages. Then I added some torn scraps from jelly prints. They look rich and fabric like. I really like those pieces. And this photo was added too, and then I stopped. 

For now.

What are you working on?

It Begining to Look A Lot like Autumn

Some photos for you today.

Although not the best year ever for colorful foliage-

it is still awful pretty out there.

Took these on my walks last weekend.

Hope you have a beautiful day.

Cook An Egg and Other Patterns in Journaling

Drawing and painting patterns,
STILL!

I love patterns.
I didn't realize that until I took the SEWN class offered by Dispatch from LA this summer,
but man, how can something so simple change my arting so much.
I have been making patterns.
Then using those patterns as my background.
Really like how that works out and how that looks.

This is a spread I did back in early September.
Kind of forgot I had photos of this one,
and came across them the other night.
And here's some other backgrounds I have started.
This one below is cheery and I'm thinking circus.
Lots of patterns.

And this one was doodled not painted nor stenciled.

And maybe I showed you this already, I don't know

but more doodled patterns.

Sprayed with some ink and I added this white paper lizard die cut I made, rather like him and his shape. Crawling over the patterns.

I am playing and playing with patterns and now going forward and adding journaling on top.

I will say that the SEWN class I took last summer from Dispatch from LA certainly got me thinking more than a lot of classes I've taken. A simple thought no less, just patterns.

Think it is taking me very far.

Happy Tuesday and thanks for stopping by.

Weekend Wrap Up

It was a tough weekend in my house- we released Emmie from her suffering Friday late afternoon and that let us all feel rather blah through the weekend. Add to that it was cloudy and even a bit wet on Sunday, so mostly we just kept busy and tried not think about losing her too much.

Still brings tears to my eyes.

I played hokey and stayed home with her on Friday. Here she is, getting a few minutes outside in the filtered sunshine. I like this photo in the fact that you can see she has lost weight but doesn't look quite so thin as she did otherwise. She was down to 3 pounds, more than 50% of her body weight. She wanted to go out, but didn't want to stay out for a long time, so she came in and laid with me on the couch and we watched the end of an old movie-Chaplin. 

Very glad I did that and had some quality time with her.

It helps but still, miss her a lot.

She wasn't the most demanding animal in my house-the 2 boys are much more so, but she was sweet, loving and undeniably tough.

Loved that about this little 7 1/2 pounder.

So the rest of the weekend I did things that made me feel better-

I made apple cider doughnuts-bad for my diet but yum.

I made my first pot of chili for the season.

Yum.

When Katie suggested we go to Target and T-J Maxx I went along, bought myself a new sweater at T-J Maxx and got what we needed at Target.

I started a new book by one of my all time favorite authors-

Bill Bryson-

And I also started watching an HBO series I really wanted to see

Game of Thrones.

which I am really enjoying. Katie and I watched the first 3

episodes Saturday night.

Yesterday was rainy and raw-time for the first fire in the fireplace.

Must say I really enjoy having a log (love those fake logs) blazing. 

And going out to breakfast.

Yum.

No diet enforced this weekend.

Eating always does make me feel better.

This weekend's goal was not to accomplish all that much but to do things that made me feel good.

And what did make me happy is college hockey season started with some exhibition games.

My team, Maine, beat Dalhousie from New Brunswick 5-1.

Great way to start the season and I am hopefully when the season officially goes next weekend we will look just as good.

So add to that a bit of card making yesterday and actually getting a lot of school work done-

I guess I am in a better place today than I had hoped to be

the mourning will take a bit but I am tough and strong. Emmie would have wanted us to be.

That was my weekend.

How was yours?

Blogger's Challenge-Love

This week's theme is love, and though I haven't made any cards with that theme lately,

how about  a journal page?

The big heart is a stencil from Stencil Girl. I sprayed the red and used Copics to color the flower. Then I scribbled the doodles around the heart, outlined the ox with some orange and added the black dots.

Since its a page about shopping :)

I added a couple of tags to finish it off along with a small spray of orange on each edge of the page..

Not a tough page to make but I think it looks more complex than it is.

Hope your creative endeavors are full of love too.

Thanks for visiting.

Art I Want to Show You

I do like the background on this page. I am really really into making colorful backgrounds. Paint, spray inks, markers, whatever I can grab or that hits my head. Layer it on, maybe add some deli paper. Cut out, glue, doodle, write, draw...I think my style is those multi-colored backgrounds.
Or maybe I don't know what I am talking about.
After I made the background (with various paints and inks), I used a Sizzix die, cut out the flowers and then used the remains as a stencil for these white daisy like flowers.
I like how the background all melts together and I like the colors.

Library card came on a bag that was a Freebie when I ordered a pair of TOMS shoes.

Other cut outs are from a stencil package that I ordered from ArtistCellar.
Might as well get some use out of pieces that will otherwise end up in the trash as we make enough waste as it is.

I started coloring the ladies faces, was going to go spooky, but then decided I wouldn't. They still could use something more but I am moving on.
I think.
Tough day for us here today. Our vet appointment is this afternoon and I think we'll need to say goodbye to Emmie. (See yesterday's post). She's stopped eating and we know she's been battling either a major bone infection of cancer for several months now. We just don't want her to suffer, but still, I feel like a murderer.
I know its being more humane, but SOOOOO hard.
Thanks for all your sympathy. I do appreciate your thoughts some of you have shared with me.

Emmie

So I have been pretty sad lately.
One of my kitty babies is pretty sick.
Think it is time to put her down,
she's starting not to eat,
and I know she is hungry.
She is always looking for food and then doesn't eat.
She has cancer in her jaw and so there must be a lot of discomfort.
Poor poor baby,
this is Emmie
better known as Pie-Pie.
(How do we get these names? Not sure, she is a feisty but loveable sweetie pie. So pie from sweetie pie...)

This is her 3 years ago.

Looking at this makes me choke up.

Sometimes loving your pet babies is so hard.

Thanks for visiting.

Roses

What is it that makes roses so beautiful in the autumn?

Is it the cool nights?

The warm days?

Some knowledge that winter is coming and they want to flash their splendor with one last big show?

Or is it that since everything is turning brown and roses are hardier, they just stand out more?

I love this rose bush in my garden; it is my favorite of my few roses. I just love the colors of the flowers.

Plus the flowers are so big.

And my hydrangeas looking pretty spiffy too.

I am enjoying these last of summer's blooms,

now that we are really into fall.

Have a great day.

October is Here

Hey, October has arrived.

Amazing!
September was a beautiful month this year- but I always find work a little overwhelming in September and I am ready to move forward.

Have you tried this from Trader Joes? Pumpkin Spice Chai?  Tastes like pumpkin pie and whipped cream.  And if that isn't October, what is?

Right now Trader Joe's is like one giant pumpkin show with all these pumpkin products.

And October also means Halloween.

Here's a card I made for the college girl.

Background is stenciled with paint, some punched out and die cut images, a sticker and a cut out stamped image.*

Making Halloween cards and other things is a lot of fun.

A chance to be bizarre.

A time I let myself go spooky.

Its fun, don't you agree?

October is also the hubby's birthday, the daughter's birthday,

and my mom's birthday.

Add in my 25th wedding anniversary,

and it is one BUSY month.

So lets get the fun started!

*Items used in the card:

Martha Stewart cat punch

Memory Box willow tree die

bat skeleton-Inkadinkado stamps