California Journal

 Hi everyone.  Happy Friday. I hope you've had a nice week.

Today I'm back with more of my California journal. Yes, I am getting close to finishing it. In fact I am ready to be done with it and  to move on. I didn't bring home as many bits and pieces from the latter end of the trip, so making pages actually became harder to do. Not hard in the sense of making the pages, but trying to figure out what I wanted to put on the pages to represent the trip was a challenge.

Today's  pages have to do with the drive up the Pacific Coast Highway-route 1 from Ventura to Carmel. Here's 3 photos (I've shared these before) just to refresh you memory what my pages are referring to. 

One item I have repeating through the journal is circles. In my emptying of my studio closet last week, I cleaned out my little sticker shelf, and  I found a few chipboard stickers that would work well in the journal. You can see them on my page below, as well as an acetate sun I had. Sorry about the glare on the California route 1 sticker.

I put the above page next to this page.

It took me forever to make this page (above). I might have been a bit too ambitious. I was trying to catch how there is a big drop off from the road along this stretch of route 1, and how there are mountains on one side of the road, and how the road gives you some amazing views.  I didn't have a photo from the trip in front of me when I laid this out, so this is more a collage of what I remember of many views, not one actual view.

I used acrylic paint, Gelato crayons, water color paint, stabilo pencils, white ink and a regular pencil.

Drawing the drop off was tricky, as well as making the steep mountain sides have a bit of texture. It works for me though, even if it did slow me down as there were so many steps that needed to dry before I could move forward.

My pages in this next spread  is about driving along this section of the California coast.  The left page is made with lots of torn pieces of some sheets of printed paper. You'll see this technique and style again a few photos down this post, and that next page was actually made before this page. I liked it so much I decided to copy it here.

I stenciled the quote, added a few stickers as well as stamped the month.

I made the writing tag by stamping  a line image a few times on white paper and cutting all the lines out as one piece. Then I hand wrote in my story.

Below I made a pocket to hold the info page I picked up when we stopped to see the elephant seals.

To make the pocket I used a strip of kraft paper, and added a scrap of this photo paper to it. Then I doodled in some lines and added the stickers. I stamped bits of the arrows  and added the dots.

And lastly, here's my other page made with torn pieces of printed paper.  I added the acetate hummingbird (found while cleaning out the studio closet) because  I had watched an Anna's Hummingbird while walking in Carmel. Hummingbirds and flowers in November was such a treat.

I can't say my pages all flow because their similar, but since these pages are a few examples of my various styles, I am linking up to Elizabeth's "What Your Style?" challenge at Art Journal Journey.

Have a great start to your weekend!

A Tag and a Winter Walk

 Hi everyone. Happy Thursday.

Today I'll start my post with a tag for Tag Tuesday. This latest challenge is hosted by Sandie, and her theme is King, Queen or Both.  This is a fun challenge Sandie. Here's my tag.

I stamped my tag with this Renaissance style background image, and then inked my tag with blue and grey ink.  I also stamped the red heart bullseye. I added 2 types of gold washi tape that I stacked, and then I added the Red Queen die cut.  She isn't anything I stamped or cut but came in an Alice In Wonderland image set. Finally I stamped the  quote, which stamped as one quote but I split it into 2 pieces. 

Last Saturday it was cold, but my husband and I bundled up, put the dogs in the truck, and went up to my MIL's home on the lake. It's about 30 minutes north of us.

She doesn't live there for the winter (she's at my SIL house in Maine); and the house is closed up with no power, no water and no heat. That also means it's not plowed. We had to find a space to park along the narrowly plowed road her property is on, and then we hiked in. We've had snow but also lots of sleet, which made the top of the snow crusty enough to walk on.

I am standing in the road when I took this first photo. And we've walked in a bit of the way in this next photo. I've turned back to photograph where we had walked already.

I used my cross country ski poles just in case it was deep or slippery.

And in this window reflection you can see I am wearing what I call my Arctic coat, maybe not quite warm enough for the Arctic but warm to -35 degrees F (-37 degrees C).

In this next photo you can see Mr. Pete down at the lake front. He discovered the lake was  frozen over, and he was thrilled to discovered he could go running across it and not get wet. He had that look of pure  joy on his face as he ran like the dickens this way and that.

I have no photos of Miss Maddie since she was out trying to see if her friend's (my MIL's neighbors) were around to visit, but no, it was predictably quiet.

This  garden decoration of my MIL's was left out . It's colors have some sharp contrast against the white snow, and makes a cool shadow too. I hope my MIL wasn't too fond of it as it's looks like winter got to it a little bit.

And finally, a couple of pretty snow scenes.

I really enjoyed this walk, even if it was cold with a wind making it feel even colder. As I hadn't done any walking except around a few stores (grocery store, Home Depot), it was some much needed outdoor time.

Hope your week is going well, and thanks for visiting. 

To My Dad

 Hi everyone. Happy middle of the week. 

Today I'm celebrating what would have been my Dad's 98th birthday. He passed in 2004, but of course, he is never far from my heart and thoughts. I was definitely Dad's girl, and I definitely not only look more like him but have more of his personality  than that of my Mom. (Although I must admit I am getting slightly more like my mother in some ways as I get older.)

I don't know how old he was in this first photo, 

but he looks a lot older than a man in his late teens or early twenties in this photo taken during his service in World War 2.

I wish now I knew the dates of these photos since I can't ask him. In this next photo he is celebrating a younger birthday. I'm guessing he was in his twenties then. That's his sister, my aunt, in the background. The old washing machine is pretty interesting too. We actually had one like that when I was a very young girl.

He looks totally different without his glasses. With him is my Mom as a young woman.  I don't think they were engaged or married yet based on the ring she is wearing, and I'm guessing my dad was around 30 here.

The other day I made his favorite cake in honor of his birthday. He loved a pound cake with walnuts and maraschino cherries. I used to bake them for him when I was a teenager , and I must have the taste of it embedded in my memory so come around early February most years I need to make one.

This is an old photo. Even though I made this cake in this same pan the other day, I forgot to take any photos. Probably because I took the cake out the pan while it was too hot, and I lost a big chunk of it. I was very disappointed it broke. It tasted good though. My husband and I managed to eat most of the crumbs so now I have a cake that is an outline of a heart but not complete.

To make this cake you take any plain pound cake recipe and add some chopped walnuts as well as some drained, patted dry and then chopped maraschino cherries. I've never seen this combination in any recipes, and I don't know when or where my dad had it, but he always asked for it. 

I am linking up this part of the post to Kathy's Food Wednesdays.

And since I can't celebrate with him any longer, I made an art journal page in his memory. My Dad loved to go fishing in his little boat, so I made a fishing page for him.

If you look carefully in the close up in the background, you might spot a stamped fish or 2. I stamped these before I ink the background. The hooks, bobber and fishing pole are hand drawn. I added a tag (not one I made), a ruler sticker, a couple of Art by Marlene algae plants and waves, a stamped and fussy cut fish on a car image as well as some die cut borders made from a torn out page in a book which was also about fish.  Finally I added the little metal button sticker, a few little blue plastic pearls as well as a few things left over and sitting on my work table.  I wrote in the quote.

This quote was on a signboard that first hung in my grandparents camp, then in my Dad's area of the basement, and now my brother has it. It says: "All fishermen are liars, except you and me. And sometimes I'm not sure about you."

 

It's a quote that comes to mind when I think about my dad. 

Since this page is full of various eclectic items put together, something I like to often do, I am going to link up to Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's challenge at Art Journal Journey.

Happy Birthday Dad. I hope where ever your spirit is, you are out catching a big fish with your fishing buddies.

And to you who read through this post, I hope you're having a wonderful day and week.

Thanks for visiting.

All Loved Up

 Happy Tuesday everyone. 

I'm posting today with a new journal page because over at Try It On Tuesday we are starting a new challenge. For the next 2 weeks our theme is All Loved Up. 

Thanks to all of you who joined us for our last challenge which was  Add a Quote.  

When I made my page today I really focused on the background.  I'm not sure it's the most traditional Valentine's style page, even though I used some traditional elements.

I started with a page that had some black leaves on it. That's about as un-Valentine's as you can get, isn't it? Other than the leaves the background what white, so I used pink paint to color it. I was hoping I could make this page work for something other than fall or Halloween.

I found this sheet of pink printed acetate in some recent cleaning. It had lots of rectangular printed squares like a quilt would have, each rectangle different. I  cut out a few and added them on my page.  Then I took a rose covered roll of washi tape and used bits of that on the background also. 

Finally, I took some plain white tissue paper and stamped some heart and heart related images on it.  I cut out 2 of the big hearts and used matte medium to attached them.

After my background was dry, I thought it now looked loved up enough for this challenge. To finish it I stamped the be mine and the love you circle words (an old set from Technique Tuesday), cut them out, and also added some pen dots to the white space around the letters. I also added this cute TH couple and gave them each a mini heart sticker. 

As always, at Try It On Tuesday, you have 2 weeks to enter the challenge. All kinds of art is accepted. 

And I would be remiss if I didn't encourage you to check out the design teams art also. They have some lovely art.

 I am also linking up to Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's challenge at Art Journal Journey. This month the challenge is "What's Your Style?" , and this is an example of my experimental thinking as well as my  occasional romantic style. As well as AJJ, I am also linking up to Creative Artiste's challenge #79. The theme at Creative Artiste is always Mixed Media- Anything Goes, and I definitely have some various types of media on this page. 

I hope to see your romantic inspired art at Try It On Tuesday.

Thanks for visiting my post today.

T Stands for The Start of a Project

 Hi everyone.  Happy Tuesday or in my case Monday night  to you. It is time to stop by Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog for T day, where we share a drink related post. 

I hope those of you in last week's big snow got shoveled out and those of you who got ice didn't lose your power. After a full day of rain, the temperature dropped below freezing, and we had a little bit of snow (maybe an inch or 2), before we had hours of sleet. Luckily none of the trees were covered so the power stayed on. It ended the last work week with a dark, dreary and slippery day. It made it clean up  a lot of hard work. At least over the weekend we had sun, but cold again. We are definitely in the grips of Old Man Winter here in New Hampshire.

And for everyone else, I hope you have warm and sunny weather, or at least warmer and sunnier than here in New Hampshire-smile.

Other than, and even with the big storm, I had a fairly quiet last week, but that gave me some time to start a new project.

Welcome to the big mess. This new project at my house is both exciting and stressful.

This  (above) is my daughter's old room and our spare bedroom right now.

And below is  a photo of the walk in closet in the other spare bedroom,  now my art studio. You can see it is  partially cleaned out. No I'm not just cleaning out the closet. The first thought I had (last summer) was the carpet in this room needed to go. We put it in when my daughter was still in her crib, and she is now 30 years old. It not only has close to 30 years of wear, but it also has paint on it. When we had our 2 cats, the litter box was in a corner of this room. And we've had a dog accident a time or 2 on it also. Several years ago our dog Harley, who had severe noise phobia, ripped it up in one corner under my work table to hide there. This rug is more than ready to go. It is well past time to actually do it.

Step one was to start in the walk in closet. I emptied as much as I could into my daughter's room, pulled out half the rug, and then moved the bigger pieces I had in the other half of the closet onto the bare floor.  I could then pull out the rest of the rug.

This is the first time I've pulled out carpeting on my own. When we installed the rug I just ripped out, we had the installers do it. When we pulled out the carpeting in my bedroom, my husband and my daughter's then boyfriend did it. You can see I even got the tack strips up as well as pulled the staples out of the carpet pad. Wahoo!

One of the stressful parts is what to do with all my craft supplies (paper, rubber stamps, skeins of yarn, fabric, boxes of dies, paint, some old books for crafting, etc.) while I continue to pull out carpet. I still have more carpet in that room to remove and supplies in the rest of the room too.

Then we need to pick out a laminate floor and put that in also. 

The other stressful  and exciting thing is my husband and his idea. Let me explain.

This spare room is not very large, and the people who built the house (and that we bought it from) decided to use a quarter of the room as a walk in closet. Basically the room was left looking like a letter L with a big closet in one corner.  When my daughter was very little, it worked because we could put her toys in the closet and a twin sized bed in part  of the L  shape for her. Then when she got older, we moved her into the other empty bedroom of the house  (our house has 3 bedrooms) that fit a full sized bed where she could have a place for friends to sleep and more floor space to play on.

That's the time  I was really getting into art and when I took over this L shaped room as my studio.

OK, let me get to the next step of the big project. Do you see the wall on the left next to my vacuum cleaner?

If you remove that wall, plus a little bit of wall where I am standing, you can change the L shaped room back to a rectangular room.

And I bet you can guess what we are doing? Yes, we will be taking down the wall.

Not only do I need to figure out where to put things, but I now have a bigger project on my hands that will result in a wonderful space. I'll be able to move my work table out of the corner it is tucked into and move it under the rooms only window, a skylight.  (Hello excitement!) But in the meantime, I'll probably have a few months of commotion and stuff everywhere. (Hello stress!) Plus, I can't just stop making art; nope, that is my sanity. Never mind commitments and spending time doing what I love. (Hello more stress!)

Right now I am thinking, what am I getting into? 

This week I am pulling up more rug, packing more items and figuring out where I can put the items I've packed up. And I need to figure out what I need to keep out because I'll want to or will be using. (AUGH!)

Let me share my drink too while I work away. I'm sure you can see it in this photo if you look.

I'll keep you updated as things move along. I'm keeping my fingers crossed they'll move faster rather than slower, but since my husband still works full time, and  he isn't the fastest of workers, don't expect results too quickly. 

Have a fantastic T day and week ahead.

And as always, thanks for visiting my blog. It is much appreciated.

An Ode to Gustav Klimt-My Style

 Hi everyone. I hope you're having or have had a nice weekend, depending on when you read this post.

I'm back today with another art journal page for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's "What's Your Style?" challenge at Art Journal Journey.

My page today uses an acetate image from Stamperia's  Klimt collection.  I chose the face of Adele Bloch-Bauer from the pieces in this set to be the star of my page. You probably recognize this face since Bloch-Bauer  was the woman in the portrait also called  The Woman in Gold or the Lady in Gold. When I looked up Adele Bloch-Bauer,  I'd forgotten that Klimt had actually painted 2 portraits of this woman.

On my page I used some gold paint as an ode to the original painting. Before I had used the gold paint, I rubbed a slightly wet side of a stencil  down on my paper so the slightly wet stencil created just a shadow of an image. I didn't use a lot of other gold or metallic paint because I didn't want to take away from the acetate image.  I also did some stamping, and I added bits of printed tissue paper, some cloth trim as well as a couple of metal flowers.

Here is the 1907 portrait just in case you aren't sure what I am talking about, but I'm guessing this painting is pretty universally recognized.

As I'm not an expert on Klimt, (and you might know more about this art piece than me), but the story of this painting is fascinating. In case you aren't familiar with this story,  let me share just a bit about of this story. The portrait now hangs in New York City after a  trial between the family of Bloch-Bauer and the Austrian government. 

Adele Bloch was born in 1881 and was married to Ferdinand Bauer. The couple lived in Austria, and they were a patron to the arts. Bloch-Bauer died childless in 1925 from meningitis, but before her death Gustav Klimt painted 2 portraits of her.  The Woman in Gold was one of them.

 During the Second World War, the family lost the painting. They were Jewish, and as with many Jewish families during the Holocaust, the Nazi's confiscated much of their valuable possessions. After the war,  the painting showed up in the Austria's Belvedere Museum. The museum claimed the painting had been willed to them. Austria considered this painting to speak for them as a country, since Klimt was from Austria,  but the family wanted it returned since it had been wrongly taken by the Nazi's. Shortly after the war ended, Austria made a law saying that if any wrongly seized artwork wanted to be removed from the country, the person(s) taking it would need to donate some of their other art to Austrian museums  before they would receive the needed permit for the to-be returned art to leave the country.

When the family first made requests for the return of their stolen artwork, their artwork was traced back to  the Belvedere Gallery and also even to Hitler's private collection. After  initial legal precedings in Austria, some of the family art was returned to them.  However, there were no Klimt pieces in this initial return.

In 1998 Austria changed their laws about the return of Nazi stolen artifacts and art. Austria at that point still refused to return any Klimt paintings to the family, although they did return some other pieces to the family. Austria stated the the painting no longer belonged to the family and would not acknowledge that it had been taken from them. That is when the niece of Bloch-Bauer, Maria Altmann, filed a civil lawsuit against the country to get the painting returned.

The cost of this trial was extremely high (over a million US dollars).  As a way to avoid these high costs, Altmann's case against  Austria was handled in the United States Court system (since Maria Altmann lived in the US). There was a trial where it was shown that 3 points of international law had been violated, and after going all the way to US supreme court, Maria Altmann and the family of Adele Bloch-Bauer won. The painting was returned. When Maria Altmann died she specified that she wanted the portrait to be enjoyed by everyone and that it should not be put into a private collection. That is why it now hangs at the Neue Gallery in New York City.

 There have been some films made about it including "The Woman in Gold" from 2015  starring Helen Mirren (recommended if you haven't seen it.)  You might even know about some other films that I am not familiar with. 

I am sure there are also many books written about this painting also, but I can highly recommend this one by Anne Marie O'Connor.

I read this book several years ago, but it is quite memorable.

And in case you aren't familiar with the other portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, here is that one, painted in 1912.

It is still beautifully done, but quite different in many ways from the Woman in Gold.

I hope you've not only enjoyed my journal page today, but also a little art history, even if it isn't new to you.

Thanks for visiting my blog. Enjoy what's left of the weekend. 

Books for January 2022

 Hi everyone. Happy  almost weekend.

It's time for my monthly book post for those of you who like books.

I can't say my new year started off with a big reading/listening list, but part of that had to do with my daughter being on vacation and being home for several days during the first couple of weeks of the month.  The other part had to do with cold dark nights and some interesting shows on Netflix. These books weren't going anywhere, so I enjoyed my non-reading distractions and gave my reading brain a little much needed rest. My reading brain enjoyed the time off, but that time off could only last so long with some tempting titles to lure me back.

Just like in 2020 and 2021, here's my monthly reading/listening list so read on if you're interested.

Listen number one for 2022 was this book, The Vagabonds, by Jeff Guinn. I decided to start the new year with something a little bit different from my usual mystery or fiction story.

I have never visited Fort Meyers, Florida, but my daughter has been there several times. I originally learned from her how Henry Ford and Thomas Edison had winter homes near each other in that area, and that was what piqued my interested to listen to this book when I saw it on Audible.

I think the title is a bit deceiving as these men didn't go on one long 10 year road trip, but developed a close friendship and did take lots of trips together, as well as sometimes taking their families along. They called themselves the Vagabonds. Also included in the Vagabonds along with Henry Ford and Thomas Edison  was Harvey Firestone who started Firestone Tires and John Burroughs who was an early environmentalist.

The title is also deceiving as the book is  mostly about Henry Ford and goes into many things other than these road trips (or what they called auto-camping). In fact the road trips make up maybe  half of the book. What I liked was how the author, when he wrote about events, also did a bit of history about each year or time period. For example, he wrote about how Ford's Model T made cars more accessible to general population  and with higher car ownership, these auto-camping trips became  more popular. At the same time the author  discussed about how motels and camping areas developed and grew.  I also didn't know that the Model T made car ownership levels in the US skyrocket in a very very short period of time. Nor did I realize the movie star like popularity that both Ford and Edison had either. 

Even though the title might not have been the best pick for this book, I still enjoyed listening to it.

The bad thing about listening to this book was that since it was January and this year January was cold and at times snowy, I also developed a burning urge to go on a long roadtrip myself. Smile. Too bad Omicron didn't allow that to happen. 

My next listen was another classic mystery.

At the end of the Moonflower Murders that I read last month,  there was a discussion of some classic mystery authors. One of them was Erle Stanley Gardner who wrote many mysteries starring the  lawyer Perry Mason. I remember bits and pieces from the Perry Mason TV show with Raymond Burr (it was my mother's all time favorite show), but I'd never read any of the books. It was time to change that and continue  my reading of some murder/mystery classics.

The Case of the Velvet Claws is the first Perry Mason book, published in 1933. I listened to the book, and I must say the narrator (Alexander Cendese) did a great job except he was not very good with women's voices. I think he had just too deep a voice. "Eva Griffin" comes to Perry Mason because she wants to keep her extra-marital affair with a well known man private from her husband. Of course that is easier said than done, especially when Perry finds out who "Eva Griffin" actually is. 

Perry Mason was a tough guy lawyer for sure, and Gardener's writing made this story easy to listen to. Mason might be a bit too tough guy for my taste, but I haven't decided if that's because of the story or because of the narrator. I guess I'll try another one of his stories in book form sometime to decide the answer to that question.

My first actual book of the month was Touring the West with Leaping Lena 1925. I didn't actually start reading any books until well in January, and I had just about finished my Ford and Edison listen at this point. I found this book on my bookshelf while looking for a 1915 cross country road trip book by Emily Post, (yes, Miss Manners herself), which I had read before and planned to reread.  Instead, I went with this one that I had never read.

Other than the introduction, this book is the journal of W.C. Clark that he wrote during a cross country trip he took with his wife and daughter in 1925. Clark was a journalist, and his story is easy to read as well as enjoyable. He talks a lot about the condition of roads, auto-camping, and the general environment whether it is agricultural or more city/suburban. It is interesting to note how many things have changed. For example, when they  visited the Black Hills and there was no mention of the yet to be carved and now  huge sightseeing draw of Mount Rushmore.  Another example is how tourists were encouraged to feed wildlife like bears in National Parks.  Somethings remain the same too, like not wanting to be around mosquitoes, dealing with traffic and not everything living up to what was hoped it would be. 

This book is a fascinating  glimpse into another time (almost 100 years ago) and the view points of people then. Some parts of the country were more "modern" than others.  I was amazed at how often tires went flat and how many accidents they witnessed, as well as the ever changing conditions of roads.

The editor if this journal, David Dary, included some old photos. These were not from the Clark family trip but ones that would be true for the time period (when the Clark family took their cross country road trip) as he could not trace down any actual family photos. Dary also included an informative little introduction which gives you a general background of the Clark family. 

For me, this book was the perfect follow up to my Ford and Edison listen, as it tied in many things I learned about road trips from that listen.

This next book, The Complete Birder by Jack Connor, has been on my book shelves for decades. An enthusiastic birding friend recommended it to me back in the 1980's when I was trying to improve my bird knowledge, especially when it came to hawks. For that same reason, I pulled it off the shelf this past month. My bookmark was still in the hawk chapter. I read that first, and then went back to a few other chapters. (There are some chapters that I plan to reread later when those birds are more "in season".) 

This book is not a bird identification guide, but more an informative look at types of birds, where you might discover them and how to identify them when you see them. I noticed on Amazon this book is still available in soft cover. I think that speaks a lot for the quality of work. For me it is a nice reference source  and a good reread (even if only partial) every few years.

Kate Quinn has been on my reading radar for awhile. She's written several historical novels about various time periods, and this is (I believe) her third World War 2 book as well as her latest release. This one is set in England, and the main characters are 3 women who  work as Nazi code breakers at Bletchley Park. This story also  jumps  forward to 1947 in several places to the wedding of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. The reason the wedding is included  is that one of the code breaker women in the story is Osla, who according to the author in her notes chapter, is  a lightly fictionalized version of a real woman named Osla Benning who dated Prince Phillip during the war years. 

I very much enjoyed listening to this book. It sucked me right in, and the story moved  along at a good pace. I read a few reviews on the book after I finished it, and yes, the beginning does start off a bit choppy, but I thought it didn't take very long for the story to get moving.  The ending was good, not quite what I'd hoped, but still very satisfactory. And yes, the Osla connection is probably very fictionalized later in the story, but it is fun fiction, the key word being fiction.

I learned many things about the lives of the British code breakers,  and I enjoyed getting to know these 3 very different (fictional) women who were the main characters in this story. If the details of being a code breaker are completely true (as the author mentioned in her notes chapter at the end),  the real men and women who were code breakers certainly did a lot for their country and did not get much back for it in the long run. It was so top secret the general public couldn't know what they were doing. Male code breakers were harassed by the general public for not joining the military. All of these code breakers worked with little time off and long shifts. It must have fulfilled them (especially the women) that they were doing something useful, but for some of them,  the secrecy must have also been overwhelming. 

If historical World War 2 novels are something you like, then I definitely recommend this book. 

I've had this book, Long Ago in France,  sitting on my bookshelf since back in 2020.  I had ordered it and a few other books off of Amazon  when we were in lock down. I hadn't read any MFK Fisher, but I knew some things about her from other books. I thought an  autobiographical book of hers would be a good place to start.

It is 1929, and 21 year old MFK Fisher and her husband have moved to Dijon, France where her husband is a student at the university.  This book made me want to be 21 again and to go off with those youthful and carefree eyes to see a foreign place for a few years. Yes the world has definitely changed since 1929, but this is a very fascinating look back. Fisher was a very good writer. I  enjoyed the escape of being taken back in time and living the student life vicariously though this book in Dijon.  As Fisher also wrote a lot about food since this is what she is most famous for, there were delicious moments (apple tarts with custard jumps to my mind) and some parts that weren't so appealing (like preparing the snails for dinner).

I can't stay away from mysteries for too long, so my next book, A Test of Wills, is a book in that genre. I believe it was Nita over at Divers and Sundry who had mentioned this series. I started with book 1, as I was not sure if this is a series you need to read in order. 

Ian Rutledge works for Scotland Yard after returning from the Great War.  He is emotionally battle scarred, and to make matters worse, this case is dealing with the death of a fellow soldier who was murdered. The obvious murder suspect is a decorated war hero. Rutledge is sent by Scotland Yard out to a quiet part of Warwickshire to solve the murder of Colonial Harris.  It is believed to be a no win situation for him.

I just finished this book last night after I'd finished writing this post. ( I wrote this with about 50 pages left in the book, so hopefully won't want to change much about it.) I very much enjoyed it. It is a well written traditional style mystery. I also don't know much about World War I, or the Great War, and so the details of this book were really interesting.  I also want to know if Inspector Rutledge ever gets control over his own war demons. I definitely plan to read more in this series. Also thanks Nita for mentioning it.

And here's my last book/ listen for January.

A few years back I found a list of the best selling fiction books of the twentieth century by decade and year in the US. I decided I was going to try to read a few of those books over time.  If you read my book posts you might able to tell I enjoy reading books that have stood a test of time. Giant was part of an Audible sale during January, and I hadn't read any Edna Ferber, so I decided to give it listen.

This book, published in and also on the best seller list in 1952, is set in Texas. Most of the story takes place starting in the 1920's when Calvin Coolidge was president. It took me awhile to get into the swing of this story. One was because of the narrator (Courtney Patterson) who reads this novel.   Patterson was an excellent reader, but some of the  voices she used  were quite jarring at first, especially since I'm not used to hearing the Texas "twang" on a regular basis.  The other reason  it took a bit to get into the swing of this novel was  because Ferber wrote with lots of adjective strings when she describes details. The descriptions are fantastic;  it just took me a bit catch onto that style. Like many books, I decided it was best not to quit too early on, and before I knew it I was invested in the story. And I must say, loving it. 

 Lesley Lynnton is now Mrs. Jordan "Bick" Benedict. This educated, socially conscious, and curious Virginia lady is new to Texas and ranch life as Bick is the owner of one of the largest ranches in the state. This novel tells the saga of the Benedict family, their  life on the ranch in the early part of 20th century Texas,  and also  of Lesley's life as a new Texan and wife. I really enjoyed this book, and now I want to read more of Edna Ferber. She was a talented author, and even when the story isn't moving at break-neck speed, the details she included put you right in the middle of cattle ranching on the wide open Texas plains.

I also watched the 1956 movie Giant as I hadn't seen it for years. It's a good one and captures the essence of the book, but like most movies based on books, there are a few differences between the book and film. And although it's a well made film, the book is still better. 

That's my list for the first month of 2022. 

As always, if you have any recommendations I would love to hear them. 

Enjoy your weekend also. 

Thursday Art

 Hi everyone. Happy February 3 to you. I hope those of you in this latest storm zone didn't get or aren't getting too much snow or even worse, ice.

We're once again on the storm watch here at my house. We have rain today, turning to ice  and then over to snow with totals around 6-12 inches of new snow through tomorrow/Friday afternoon. Yikes. What a winter so far.

Today I have some challenge art to share.  

First of all I have a steampunk tag for Valerie's steampunk challenge at Tag Tuesday.

I stamped the gears and the face on the tag, and then I colored the tag with some ink pads. I outlined and colored the gears with pen and marker, and I am really pleased how they came out. I found the round clock sticker when I was reorganizing last week. It's from Trader Joe's, and I added it because the man on his "bike" looked steampunk. I needed to cover the words Trader Joe's, so I added the quote there.

I like to think the gentleman with the monocle is an inventor, and his new invention is this flying unicycle that works if he gets peddling fast enough. When he's too tired to ride that fast, the helicopter blades would work as a fan to keep him cool as he works up a sweat. He might think this is a great idea, but I'm not sure sure he's thought this invention all the way through.

I also have a page for Bleubeard's and Elisabeth's "What's Your Style?" challenge at Art Journal Journey. This time I didn't  focus on my art style (even though it is there as I made the page), but this page  combines music style and clothing style. The words come from a holiday clothing ad book I received in the mail from Amazon back in November.

I started with a piece of very white printed paper that comes in Somerset Studio magazine. I've got a small pile of this paper from old magazines, and I decided to use this one for a background. I  stamped the music score on the background as well as the instruments.  I've had this TH set of instrument stamps for a few years, and I've used them a lot. Funny though, when I first saw them, I didn't think they'd get a lot of use, so I wasn't interested in them. A year or two later I found  a set on mark down so I decided to pick them up. I'm glad I did. They are a well inked set in my stamp collection, and even better, they work perfect on this journal page-smile.

I then added some pink paint to my page. I drew the border, and that didn't come out quite like I wanted it to look. I'll put that on the messy list.  I also added the stylish  TH couple as well as the rose and the words I cut out of a Christmas Amazon clothing ad magazine. I finished with a few plastic "pearls". 

I wonder if this couple knew they were going to cross paths with a brass band when they went out that evening.

That's my post for today. Thanks for visiting, and I hope your week is going well.

Second on the Second

Hi everyone. Happy February 2, Groundhog Day. Today's the day (in the US) the groundhog determines how long winter will last depending if he sees his shadow or not. I'm not sure as I write this if the groundhog saw his shadow, but I am sure it doesn't really matter whether he sees it because winter is New Hampshire if going to go on as long as it will. The good news is that we are half way between the solstice in December and the equinox in March. 

On the second of the month, you can share an older already shown post at  Second on the Second .This month for Second on the Second over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's  blog, I thought I would show some earlier art when my style was a little different from what it is now. I'm picking style as my theme because our hostess for Second on the Second is my friend Elizabeth, and she is hosting a style challenge over at Art Journal Journey..

Here's a couple of Cards for my Mother that I made back in February of 2014.  They might have even been a little different than my usual card style in 2014, but I knew they would be what my mother liked.

 And for the latest Art Journal Journey challenge, here's a page that not only represents some people's style of dressing (definitely not mine), but symbolically represents something else I like on a journal page, and that is a little bling and metallic richness.

I'd never wear those pants that are on my page, but they certainly sparkle.

This gentleman looks quite good in his outfit.

I made my page by first using up some left over  paint off of my work table. Once that dried,  I used  copper metallic paint and stencil. After a day or two, I used a music rub-on  over various parts of the background. I added the model that I cut out of a high fashion magazine I rescued from the trash at my MIL's, and I used gold stickers to write the word bling. 

There you have it.

I hope those of you in the US storm zone are staying safe and not getting too much snow and rain (or even worse ice). This same storm when it gets to New Hampshire is supposed to start as rain, and then change to snow, with a fairly high amount expected. That could change.  Right now all I can say is "Not Again." 

 Thanks for visiting.

What's Your Style?

 Hi everyone. Happy February to you.

First of all I want to share a big thank you to everyone who joined in to my Let's Face It challenge at Art Journal Journey last month. There was some wonderful art and all kinds of faces. It was fun to see the variety. And of course, it means a lot to me that you shared your pieces.

Now that it is a new month, it is time for a new challenge. This month we actually have 2 hosts, the furry Bleubeard and the talented Elizabeth. You probably know them from their blog Altered Book Lover.

This month Bleubeard and Elizabeth have chosen the theme  What's Your Style?

When I think of style, I think of many things. There's my art style, my clothing style, the style(s) of music I enjoy. There's also the style I decorate my house, the style of food I enjoy, the teaching style I had when I was working, even the types of books I read could be considered a style.

Style:   noun: a manner of doing something or a distinctive appearance verb: design or make in a particular form or designate with particular name, description or title

We all have our own style (yes, even you Elizabeth-smile) because each of us creates work with its own distinctive appearance (even if you don't create strictly one type or style of art),  but the beauty about art journaling is we can try other styles and see if they work for us, because let's face it, style is not static but an ever changing and exciting thing. 

My first page is about my current art style. Color is probably the first thing I think about or get excited about in a page. I see color before I see other details. And right now, my style is messy, mainly because I work fairly fast and also because I happen to like a ripped page, a crooked line, a splatter or a partially stamped image. Coming from a science background, it is freeing for me to be messy. 

I started my page by using a paintbrush and a few bottles of acrylic paint. I randomly painted my page, mixing colors and trying to make the paint as messy as possible. And then to make it a little more interesting, but also messy, I sprayed some dark blue ink on it.

The paintbrush is hand drawn, colored, fussy cut and then a bit of paint is added. The paint tube is stamped and fussy cut, the artist set stamp is partially stamped, and the jar with the paint brushes is stamped and colored as is the water color set. I added the crown because sometimes I feel like the queen of messy, but also because I liked it there. Even though I am messy, my page needs to be cohesive and (using my more logical science brain) follow some basic design "rules".

And speaking of rules, remember Art Journal Journey is an art journaling challenge. Art journal pages of any size or form can be used, whether they are in a journal, loose paper, cloth or digital pages, but please, no cards, tags or or dimensional art.

This should be a fun challenge. Thanks Elizabeth for choosing this theme. And to those of you who read this post, I can't wait to see what your style is.

And Happy February to you also.