T Stands for a Journey North Part I

This weekend my husband and I put the dogs in the car and headed north to Burlington, Vermont. We left our house with the sun shining but drove into a grey but pretty winter wonderland. 

Burlington is about 3 1/2 hours northwest of where we live  and is  great city.  It sits on the shore on Lake Champlain, and for once, it wasn't either really hot or really windy and cold. Lake Champlain is a very large lake and is connected somehow to the St. Lawrence River in Canada, and when it gets cold and windy in Burlington it is always worse than many other places in Vermont because the damp cold blows off the lake.

We actually went up for a hockey game because the University of Vermont is in Burlington and they were playing our alma mater team. We wouldn't have gone except that my sister-in-law's husband works for the Marriott Hotel chain and he was able to get us a dog friendly room for  $33 a night (they also went up). We learned about this on Wednesday and made a last minute decision to go and have a little change of scenery.

We had fun at the game, but I think the main theme of the weekend turned into food and drink.

I better not eat all week now!

It began with breakfast on the road.

 We stopped at this classic New Hampshire old farm that is now a place to stop for snack

or a half dozen apple cider donuts. That was 3 for each of us! I will admit I only planned on eating one but as we didn't have lunch until very very late I somehow managed to eat my 3.

(And they were very delicious too!)

We met up with my in-laws at a rum distillery since they were able to go up on Friday and we chose not take the day off from work. When we arrived my sister-in-law was trying this mini drink. It looked really tempting. So I had to try one too.

 This glass was actually smaller than it looks. (It was only about 4 sips.) The distillery wasn't a place to go seriously drink but  a place to taste their products. The winter daiquiri was made of rum, lime juice, and a spicy seasonal mixer. 

 I loved the drink but we didn't buy any rum from their store. I loved their store decor too.

And even though we could have brought the dogs in, they were sitting in the car watching the world walk by. Or else taking a nice nap and getting my car very hairy!  They actually like to ride in the car, and it was only around freezing temperature wise, so it wasn't too cold or too hot for them to wait in the car. Had the temperatures been either much colder or  much warmer we wouldn't have gone since we didn't have a dog sitter this past weekend.

After our drink, it was time for lunch, so we went next door to a local pizza place.

I just loved the door of the pizza place.

The pizza was delicious, and the beer was good although I wish this brewery had made something a little bit darker in color.

This was my husband's beer which I actually liked a bit better. I had a pint with my lunch and at that point I had had plenty of alcohol.

After lunch we went to check out our hotel and take the dogs for a nice afternoon stroll before the hockey game began.

And since it is Tuesday,  it is time to share this  drink related post over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog. 

Next week I will share the rest of our road trip, which was mostly about Christmas cookies.

Have a great T day and thanks for visiting.

My November Calendar

Hi everyone. Today I have my November calendar from the front of my drawing journal.

Or should I call it my monthly weather report! More daily doodles refer to weather than anything else this month.

I think it works for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's new challenge at Art Journal Journey. The theme is My Favorite Season or Tis the Season, as my spread brings us back to late autumn.

The calendar days are doodled but I decorated the edges with some Thanksgiving stickers I had in my stash.

That's all for me! Thanks for visiting and Happy new week!

Fall Flowers

Happy December everyone. We're already in the last month of 2018! Wow! 

Today I am joining in for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's challenge over at Art Journal Journey. This is a page from my calendar journal which seems really out of place here in New Hampshire right now, since we are crisp with some  crusty snow still on the ground. The tall flowers were already in the calendar for coloring, but I added the small stamped ones, the words, the yellow background spots and also stamped the postmark.  It is a nice fall garden view. One thing I love about the seasons is that they each have their own color, and these are definitely the colors of autumn.

I also have a flash back to 2014 and a card I made for a niece at Christmas which I am linking over at Second on the Second, also over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's. 

I made a little pocket on the backside to enclose her gift and die cut the skate from a Sizzix skate die.

You can see the full post here: Saturday Afternoon Project.

I'm off on a weekend mini-road trip so I probably won't get to link this up until later tomorrow.

Happy new month and thanks so muc for visiting.

November Wraps Up and Seasons Change

Happy Friday everyone! And happy November 30th. It is hard to believe this month is just about over and we will be in the last month of 2018.

Today is my last day as hostess over at Art Journal Journey and my challenge of Vintage or Modern. I am sending out a HUGE thanks to all of you who joined in and made my month more exciting and inspiring. 

So my final page for this challenge is this winter inspired one.  I used this woodland paper and then added a bunch of these deer die cuts. There were white snow circles on the paper which is blinged up with a bit of silver sparkle, and then I added this very sparkly gold snowflake trim along the top and the bottom. And finally, the stamp which says "winter is magic" but didn't photograph very well.

And I am also linking up to the last day of AEDM-30 days! Wow! 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Seeing Red

It is just about the end of November.  There's been some amazing art over at Art Journal Journey. I really appreciate all the support and I've enjoyed all the inspiration. But before I get carried away, the month is still not quite over yet.

So today I have a modern page. I tried making some resist hearts by squeezing out glue into heart shapes. Once dry, I used some liquid ink pad refills to color my background. I think the ink refills made the resist hearts stand out way more than using the ink pad directly to color the background. (As I showed you in this post the other day Weekend Wrap Up.)

I stamped some images in red to add a little interest, and I also stamped some dots  in black, as well as the quote. And the bird seemed to belong, so I added her.

I don't think I have a real modern style. But it was fun playing around and trying to go modern this past month. It got me thinking about using less variety on my page, which can be a challenge but is also fun to see what happens.

I am also linking up to AEDM for day 29! 

Have a great day, and I'll be back tomorrow with one last page for the month.

Remembering Autumn

Good morning everyone.  This morning it is NOT snowing here, which is quite exciting. Yesterday we had quite a bit of new snow. 

You must be quite sick of my snow stories lately.  I sure am. I even ended up calling in and staying home from  work yesterday as we had over 6 inches of wet snow and at the coast where I work it was just rain. I thought the driving for a good part of my drive sounded like it was dicey. 

There's been so many of these crazy storms lately.

So I am going back in time to fall with today's art. I began with a Gelli printed background. I die cut some Gelli printed papers into leaves, which I then randomly attached to the page. I outlined them with  a Stabilo pencil. I die cut the birds, painted them all brown, and used some black marker and white pen to finish them off. After attaching them I used a Stabilo pencil to outline them. Finally I stamped the quote.

I am linking up to Art Journal Journey. Just a few more days for the Vintage or Modern theme. And I am also linking up to AEDM, just a couple of days left. It is hard to believe this month is almost over.

That's all for me today. Thanks so much for visiting. 

T Stands for Christmas Tress, Pizza and Beer

Happy Tuesday my T day friends-and to anyone else stopping by also. Time to share our drink and other related photos over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog. 

 Today for T we're going go chop a Christmas tree!

Last Saturday my daughter and her beau came to visit for the weekend. (They live on the other side of New Hampshire about 2 hours away.) It was a gorgeous winter day and  we decided it was a  good time to go get our Christmas tree. My daughter loves to be a part of the process and the weather was cooperating, so off we went to the Christmas tree farm located on the other side of my town. I like to support local businesses when I can, and since my town is very rural, one of our few local businesses is Evergreen Ridge Christmas Tree Farm.

 We had to walk to the back of the farm to get to the trees tall enough.

 But it was a pretty walk.

 And we found a good one that everybody liked. 

 The guys got to do their manly thing and chop down the tree. We didn't argue when they dragged the tree out.

 It was crowded at the tree farm. I guess lots of people had the same idea.  We had to actually wait in line at the wrapper.

It's a lot easier to handle the tree once  it's wrapped.

Of course all this fresh air made us hungry! 

We decided pizza and beer would taste good and give us enough energy to put up the tree.

So after filling our stomachs we headed home. And then we all put up the tree.

 The guys decided they wanted to put on the lights and we girls could put on the ornaments. 

 Maddie was waiting for the ornaments too. She wanted to help, only she forgot we are not taking them off the tree yet.

The results came out perfect!

And I even have some art today.

This is my page for Art Journal Journey today and the latest Vintage or Modern challenge.
I am also linking up to AEDM.

Stop by and join us for T! And thanks for visiting my blog.

Weekend Warp Up

Hi everyone. It's already Sunday evening. Wow- this 5 day weekend went by fast. And 4 weeks until Christmas for those of you who celebrate. I'm guessing that will go by as fast as November has.

So I am back today with another page for Art Journal Journey and the latest Vintage or Modern challenge. Still 5 days to join in if you've been thinking about it. And I am also sending out a huge thanks to all of you who have shared some art this month. Your support is very much appreciated here.

I'm going modern today. My page began with me making some glue circles (by squeezing out the wet glue from the tube and then letting them dry).  I used a couple of blue ink pads to color my page, and after that I glued down some book page scraps that had green painted circles on them. That inspired me to do a bit of doodling.  To finish I added the deer die cut, stamped the quote and added some red ric-rac trim along the top and bottom edges.

Does book paper work for designer paper? I am going say it does so I am  also linking this page to Moo Mania and their Tc-tac-toe theme.

And finally I am going to link up to Art Every Day Month, day 25.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend.  Mine was busy between the Thanksgiving holiday, Black Friday shopping and my daughter and her beau being home this weekend. And although it was busy it was a lot of fun. I even managed to squeeze in some art time today when everyone finally cleared out of the house.  :) 

Have a great start to the new week. 

Lots of "Stuff" Today

Hi everyone.  It is a lazy Saturday morning here and I am procrastinating as I have lots of chores I could go do. So let me show you a few fun things starting with a tag for Tag Tuesday.

I was a bit upset my quote got a little shaky on the right, but I liked the rest of it enough to leave it.

The latest challenge is a tic-tac-toe set up.

I stamped part of an image from one of Lynne Perrella's new ancient Egypt set which I just had to buy myself. I do love her art and am always excited when she puts out some rubber stamps. Then I added a button and this little die cut bunny which I ended up not using on another page.

And then I have this fun retro science page that I recently made. Many of the stickers came on a freebie sheet from Google that was laying around the science copy room at school and that no one seemed to want. After several days of seeing them (and worried they would end up in the recycling trash)  I grabbed them with a robot page in mind. I had these robot stickers in my stash and was glad to finally have a reason to use them, because I think they are pretty fun.

And I read on Divers and Sundry's blog that today is National Evolution Day so I thought this page might be appropriate with all the talk on artificial intelligence. Maybe even if you are a fan of the old Jetson's cartoon or Lost in Space you might even think of these guys are friends or family, so I am going to link up to Try It On Tuesday and their friends and family challenge. 

My background is a piece of printed paper that I Gelli printed on, and then everything else is stickers or some sticky tape except the little silver stars which I glued on. 

I am also linking up to Art Journal Journey and my vintage or modern theme which runs through the end of the month. (Wow, November is flying-only 1 week left). And I am also linking up to AEDM.

And yesterday we had successful shopping. We got the dogs their treats (they are much happier this morning), my daughter her vacuum, and even found this dog bed on sale for our dog Pete who used to love his dog bed until Maddie decided a few years back it was just a big toy to attack and shred.

And when we brought the bed home to Pete, he took a sniff and walked away but the bed shredder Maddie took a look at it and must of had some second thoughts about shredding dog beds

The hubby and I were watching a netflix film last night and she went on the bed, snuggled up and fell asleep.

And I will leave you with this funny photo from yesterday's shopping.

You could buy this hat for your snowmen, but we thought it was funny just to borrow it for a few minutes.

Happy weekend!

Black Friday

I'm not sure about the rest of the world, but today in the US is Black Friday. It's all about consumerism and stores wanting to get people to spend money on Christmas gifts. I will admit there are some good deals out there if there's something you need, but to go wait in line and fight with the crowds is not my thing.

The hubby and I are going shopping later today, after all the crazy Black Friday shoppers for home to sleep and have their breakfasts. We are out of dog cookies (which is catastrophe-or dogtastrophy if you prefer) for the 2 pups, and my daughter asked for one of those Dyson battery operated vacuum cleaners for Christmas, so we are going to the local Costco wholesale this afternoon since they have  them $100 off to get one for her. I am still in shock that the girl is at the point in life where she is looking for a vacuum cleaner for Christmas. I know I would never want one for Christmas because somehow a vacuum isn't very exciting and just means someone wants you to clean, but I understand how when you are young and starting out buying a vacuum is tough on a limited budget. We've gone to the Costco Warehouse on Black Friday before and it is about as crowded as it is any weekend day so I am not expecting it to be too horrible.
At least I am hoping it won't be too horrible.
The funniest part of Black Friday is how my husband likes to go shopping to find deals (once the crazy crowds have cleared out) when for years he complained about the whole thing. Then one year he needed to go to one of the big chain hardware stores for some project he was working on and discovered a few things he wanted for Christmas on sale and so now he likes to go check and see what I can buy for him. What a guy!
So since today is all about shopping and Christmas, I have a holiday page for you.
I am linking up to Art Journal Journey and also to AEDM. This is a pre-post so I may not actually link in until later, depending on how much is going on around the house this morning.
Thanks for stopping by, and happy weekend everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving

I want to send a big Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who are celebrating the holiday today. But since today is a day of giving thanks, I also want to send a big thank you to all of you who visit my blog, even if you aren't celebrating Thanksgiving.

And my Art Journal Journey page for today is a retro vintage take on something many women of the past and present, get to do today. And I will also add many men too because I know plenty of men who will be in the kitchen today also.

Those men may not be wearing one of these vintage style aprons though.

So those of you who are roasting turkeys or mashing potatoes, this page is for you. Or better yet, for anyone who is cooking today. I don't personally wear an apron, but I remember my mom wearing them. Do any of you wear an apron?

I am also linking up to Art Every Day Month.

Keeping it short as there is things to do today!

Not Sure

 A couple of shots from yesterday's 8 inches of snow. This is my street.

 And my backyard. While this snow may not last all winter, I don't think it is going to be a quick melt at this point. It is pretty to look at.

And my art today is this recent page from my calendar journal. I don't know if I would call it a more modern or a more vintage page. 

I made it by layering some paper. Then I added many of these gold leaf stickers to make the background before I added this wise man who is giving us his advice.

I am linking this up to Art Journal Journey and this month's vintage or modern challenge. If you're interested there's still time to join the fun.

And I am also linking up to AEDM, day 21 already.

Today I'm home starting my Thanksgiving weekend break. This is always such an enjoyable weekend with my husband home and lots of good food. My daughter and her boyfriend are coming for part of it too. And I don't think we're suppose to get any snow for the next 5 days either. I am definitely thankful for that!

Wishing you all a fantastic day.

And thanks so much for stopping by my blog!

T Stands for my Daughter Taking Us Out to Dinner

Happy T day my friends. Its another snowy day here in New Hampshire. And after this Tuesday snow (they say maybe up to 6 new inches/around 15 cm),  the bitter cold is coming back. All this wintery weather is making me want a nice warm meal, and it was great that last Saturday night because my daughter took my husband and myself out to dinner.

I had some maple glazed salmon with rice and some butternut squash. (OK, I could eat this again right now as I write this post.) And for my drink I had a diet coke. I figured I would skip the alcohol and save some of my daughter's cash and just have a diet coke as my drink. 

Stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to see what the T Gang is up as well as joining in and sharing your drink related post. 

I also have a page for Art Journal Journey today and the Vintage and Modern challenge. Yesterday I showed you my modern man, and today I have his gorgeous modern girlfriend.

OK, when I used matt medium to attach her to the page she got a little wrinkled. Maybe she is a little more vintage and that's why she has some wrinkles.

This lady is also from my sewing pattern book, but I created a collage at the bottom of her image using some of the bits and bobs I cleaned off my work table.. 

I am going to link her up to Moo Mania and their Tic, Tac, Toe challenge.

I am using designer paper, a die cut and some circles. The circles are the little green gemstone dots on the right side. I could also do the diagonal row that goes tissue paper, washi tape and circles. 

And finally I am linking up to Art Every Day Month. 

That's all for me today. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog.

And for those of you who I only visit on T day and celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you have wonder holiday. 

A Modern Man

Hi everyone. It's Sunday evening here in New Hampshire and once again we're on the snow watch. Looks like it could be another nasty morning commute tomorrow. 

And it's only November.

So today I have a page for Art Journal Journey and my Vintage or Modern challenge, and I am going modern.

I'm heading off to someplace warm and tropical to escape this early winter weather.

I found this man while looking through my sewing pattern book, and his outfit really caught my eye. I know there are boys at school who would wear this outfit, but I certainly couldn't see my husband in it. So I think that alone inspired me to try to use him on a page.

So I created this beach background with some paint, marker, and water based pencil. Then I added the stylish man to the scene.

A HUGE thanks to all of you posting entries to AJJ so far this month. And if you haven't yet had a chance but want to join in, there is still plenty of time.

I am also linking up to Art Every Day Month-Day 19!

Happy start to the new week, and thanks for stopping by my blog.