Snippets

Snippets of a project I am still working on.

And since my photos are snippets, I will keep my words to that length also.

Thanks for stopping by.

Yesterday and Today

Not a great photo (got to get used to a phone that has a video camera along with a still camera-and be sure I am in the right format when I go to snap a photo), but you can see how pretty Lake Winnipesaukee  is. There is a loon in this photo, a not too happy one because we were probably too close to its nest- but then it realized we were not going to be an issue and it went away.

And you can see how rough it was-not cold at all, I even jumped in for a dip.

And this margarita was the best ever-a basic margarita with this pomegranate, blood orange and some other juice I can't remember. Man it was so refreshing and I had 2- and you can image how I felt when we left the Restaurant in Wolfeboro. We boated over and got out for lunch.

We got plenty wet from waves washing over the boat and had a lot of laughs. Was a super fun day out, and I loved it even more because Katie came with us, since our friends have a daughter who is her age-in fact it is how we met-when they were both 2 and in day care.

Anyhow, enough boring you with my fun day out.

This page is a bit yellower than in real life, just couldn't get the color right. But I used a bunch of Tim Holtz tape and some red and brown ink over them all. I added the girl, the tickets, and a the 2 pretty birds. I added some doodling for a frame and the small little wings stamped word.

And here's the flip side of that page...celebrating the last day of school-June18th. Spray ink and then a stenciled image to all blend together-then I used this old Hero Arts stamped word-I love the size of these words. I also used die cut numbers (Sizzix) that I outlined in white and added some sparkles (Hero Arts). Some white doodling...and the paradise word is stamped and cut out.

So today I want to have a quiet day- planning on lots of studio and garden time-I hope at least. The holiday week is over so I am expecting this whole week to be a bit more low key- but you never know, do you?

I need to do some major catching up on my summer scrap-journal-and finish a couple of small projects I have started. I also need to wrap up the work on my travel journal-since Dave and I leave next week.

I am getting excited about that.

How about you? A quiet or busy week?

Thanks for stopping by.

Roses are not always red

Yesterday was a quiet day-besides working at the boat ramp I did 3 of my little cleaning jobs (HURRAH!!), had a bit of studio time and took a nap! Naps are the best, aren't they?

Now I am ready to tackle one of the bigger projects for the summer.

When will I get to it? That is another story though.

So look at these gorgeous roses on one of the bushes in my garden.

It is just covered in flowers right now-

must love the spot it is planted in.

So the humidity has broken and we are off for another day of boating.

Today we are going out with our friends on Lake Winnepesaukee...

Should be a fun day out.

Thanks for stopping by.

Flip-flops and Beach Chairs

So today some more pages from my summer book. This past week I've done hardly any studio play-been so busy with all my other activities. I will say this week has felt like a vacation-even though I am on school vacation this one is like a real vacation-not just being home.

And I have TONS of photos of art and my week but most of them need to be Photoshopped since digital photos always seem to have a tinge of darkness to them otherwise.

So this page focuses on my sitting by the water. I started by spray inking my page-those of you who check in will most likely say "of course". Then I added some 8x8 paper from October Afternoon, a bunch of assorted paper tape, my photos and a couple of die cuts that have been embellished. Finally I journaled with a Sharpie, outlined it with a Sharpie and then a white pen and finally used a yellow Copic to color in the boxes so they stand out a bit more.

So I'll stick to a flip-flop/by the beach theme today. This page has some plaid paper and a red fabric scrap (though it looks like paper in this photo) plus a bunch of little flip-flop embellishments I made. I bought these flip-flop Papertrey Ink stamps (my first) in early June. I stamped the floral bottoms and then added some tiny yellow flowers I had (Prima) and a dot of red Viva paint pen in the center of each flower. I stapled down the photo and used a black square (7Gypsies) stamp 3 times over my shoes. The saying is from the Papertrey Ink flip flop set.

So yesterday boating we had a FANTASTIC day! Here's Dave (far back-my hubby) and then his sister Laurie and her husband Bob. We beached the boat on this sandy area in New Castle Harbor and went for a dip (BRRRR the north Atlantic is freezing).  We also caught quite a bit of mackerel and the Dave had a hit from a striped bass and Bob actually caught one 

Here's his fish before we released it. I can see why they call them stripers.

But the other excitement was the animals we saw. And of course, didn't have the right lens to get photos of.

It started with a seal-and in 3 years of boating I've never had one just swim by the boat. Then it was funny, I was fishing for stripers and a seagull swooped down and took my bait fish-which wasn't even a live fish. Then it started to fly away taking my line with it. I am sure that seagull couldn't figure out why the fish was being held back. So we're yelling at the bird and laughing too and finally the seagull drops the fish.  However just then this bald eagle swoops in to get the fish-wings flapping-talons extended. I yell that is it a bald eagle and we watch in amazement as the seagull comes back and chases the eagle away. The eagle lands in a pine tree just a ways off so Laurie pulls out her binoculars and sure enough, it has a nest there and a very large baby there. You can listen and here all the squawking from the baby and the other mate flies in. WE couldn't get the boat close enough since it is fairly shallow in this area of islands inshore, but kayakers are gathering in the area too. I didn't know there was even any eagle nests right in the islands in Portsmouth (NH) Harbor. Very cool. I can see why our country's symbol is the bald eagle as they are large and very majestic. It is also a conservation comeback. I had a similar (no seagull involved though) close encounter with a bald eagle last summer on the lake here in my hometown. 

Definitely a memorable moment.

Then we had a few more encounters with seagulls trying to take our bait fish but not anything as spectacular as the eagle moment.

So I need to go get ready to work at the boat ramp this morning. Have a fantastic Saturday and wear you flip-flops!

Boating Pages

Here's a piece of summer scrap-journal boat art- since I am off boating today. I used an old calendar page as my background and this cool rope frame stamp I had- which I embossed. The words in the frame are all stamped except the boating sticker word. Stamps used are (in order from top to bottom) Technique Tuesday-first 2 and then Stampotique -last 3 boxed words).

And here's a simple page (or part of a page) using plain blue paper that I lightly brushed with blue ink to give ink to give it a bit of some depth. Then I added the photo- a die cut and spray inked (Dylusions) in yellow circle to make a very bold sun. I also die cut the letters (Spellbinders) and outlined them in black. The 2 designs on either side of the word are from the same letter die cut set. I also highlighted them in black, added a black stamped dot and some blue Stickles. I did some journaling by hand underneath the voyage word but cut that out of the photo.

This is a horrible photo. I need to lighten, brighten and crop this photo down, but  you can get the gist. This is what we are doing today- some fishing. I used  some Paper Artsy stamps and a Technique Tuesday stamp on this tag. Plus some spray inks. Been spraying a lot lately.

Thought I needed to show a bit of art since it has been a few days. 

Have a great one- I got to run- I am off boating myself.

10 Things Friday

1- What a BUSY week. And it is flying by. What with the holiday, Dave taking some time off and working at the lake. Plus a very busy social schedule also-Love it. 

2- So last week I challenged myself to do 2 cleaning projects. I did get 1 completed- I organized the basement kitchen overflow closet. And I did do a bit of other cleaning up of clutter, but haven't yet gotten to the other things on the last.

3-It is vacation and I do need some down time! Why do I even challenge myself when I know (and said in the last 10 things Friday) that I doubted it would happen?

4-So I have accomplished some things this week though-even with everything else happening, and they are

a-lots of reading

b-worked on my summer scrap-journal

c-have been working 20 hours this week at the boat ramp

d-a small amount of gardening

e-maybe I can still squeeze in doing my cabinet in the upstairs bathroom (?)

f-made some food for the 4th of July cookout at my mother-in-laws

g- made my lemonade pie which didn't solidify like it was suppose to

5-I am having a blast this summer!
Did I mention that already?

6- So Dave took off Tuesday off and we went for an early morning kayak. He is taking today off and we are going out in the boat with my sister-in-law and her husband.

Next week he has a second interview with the company who interviewed him last week. Yahoo! It is movement forward.

7- I need to get past this waking up between 5-6 a.m. I do go back to sleep, some days, but man, I am on summer vacation. I don't need to wake up that early.  I have been staying up later at night though- actually getting some evening time. Must be the long days!

8- So last night we went to North Conway to Moat Mountain Brewery for a little road trip with some of Dave's family. Today we are going boating. Tomorrow I work the lake-hopefully the rest of the day will be slow and then we might go boating with some friends on the big lake-Lake Winnepeesaukee  (? spelling- after living in this area since 1987 I still can't spell that word). Next week I am definitely hoping for just a little quieter week.

But not too quiet.

Can you tell I am at that point where I am having fun and just trying to give totally into summer but desperately craving some down studio time too. I did have hopes of getting a bunch of projects done. 

I guess what I really need is 2 days of nothing during the week and then some days with some fun activities.

9-Next week  I must finish up my travel journal because we leave for our vacation to Glacier National Park and the Canadian Rockies in less than 2 weeks. Can not wait!

10-So let's see where I get to next week. I will challenge myself to get two more cleaning projects done- and maybe even start painting my bedroom! If I could do that-that would be a huge accomplishment.

But as I have said 100 times already-

it is summer and I still have weeks off so I will get done what I manage to get done.
And I should go visit Mom next week.
I need to go to the cell phone store next week and get a month's work of service to Canada so I can check on my daughter who will be home.
And work only 12 hours-much much better
and have some fun
and some fun studio time
and whatever else I stumble over/

I leave you with a silly photo of my daughter and the lobster statue at the boatyard where we keep our boat.

Happy Friday!

Happy Independence Day

Today is a big holiday in the US- the 4th of July or Independence Day. Last night I spent some time making brownies and a pasta salad for the big family cookout at my Mother-in-Laws this afternoon. I will be arriving a bit late since I will be working a 3 hour shift at the lake, but that's OK. Of course we are a bit showery right now so if the weather doesn't clear that can change everything.

And tonight we have fireworks in Wolfeboro- I hear Romney is walking in the parade there too since he has a summer house in the town. I can image there will be reporters everywhere.

Or maybe not.

But I am not a very political gal.

So yesterday morning was GORGEOUS! Dave and I went kayaking on the Merrymeeting Marsh and it was fantastic. Kayaking is the perfect summer activity. I saw some herons, ducks, lots of turtles...and we only passed 2 people when we were almost back to the ramp.

I had hoped to make something arty with a 4th of July theme, but that didn't happen. No art today, but I will be back with more some other time.

Enjoy your holiday if you are celebrating, and thanks for stopping by.

On the Water

I was playing with some of the photos I took Sunday at the airshow...well in the boat watching some of the planes fly over since we didn't actually go to the airshow. We even took a few dips into the bay from the back of the boat to cool off. I made this page for my summer scrap-journal, a digital photo shoot to break up the pages in the book, and I like how I figured out how to use a photo as the background to set the scene and add some small ones of us.

But we didn't do any fishing. This page is from a week earlier. I did my journaling on the photo using Photo- shop.The rest of the page is paper, stamping, paper tape and some white paper.

So yesterday I cleaned. It feels fantastic. I think what down time I have this week I am going to do some cleaning and decluttering. It just feels good and I can cross those chores off my to do list.

And just like last Friday-after I cleaned I went and lounged on the dock of my mother-in-laws on the little lake her house is on. It was a bit cool and windy to actually swim, but I read quite a bit of my book.

Today I am working at the boat ramp all afternoon-glad to get a good paycheck for this week. But this morning before work I am going to get my hubby to go out for a kayak on the marsh here in town. He's taking the day off. I am so excited-I LOVE to kayak and the marsh is the best place around in my opinion to kayak. I may even get some photos to show you later this week.

And I made my second pie of the summer last night. A cold lemonade pie. New recipe for me that I found in Southern Living. I'll let you know how it tastes later too.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Tuesday!

And can you believe tomorrow is July 4th?

Tags

Tag for my summer journal.

One for each day-Sunday-Thursday!

Last week on a visit to my favorite craft store I picked up this roll of October Afternoon washi tape. Wanted to do something about my week so I used it on the background page I mounted my tags on. You can see that on Thursday's view right above.

Here's the tags put down on the page in my journal.

So had a great day on the boat yesterday, enjoyed some sun, some family together time and some cool-off dips into the bay. The Blue Angels were great but didn't seem to be as many other planes as last year.  Oh well, we had a good day overall.

And now it is Monday. Holiday week. 

Working at the lake quite a bit and not sure what else is on my agenda.

What are you planning for your holiday week?

Another Beautiful Day

Here's a snippet of the painting I have started. Not much to see so far.

I am using acrylic paints on canvas.

I am also a not very experienced painter.

Not much of a post today- we're off to watch some planes at the Pease Air Show in Portsmouth, NH from my husband's boat. Bringing a book with me to read since I remember last year it can be quite awhile between fly bys. That's all you get to see from the boat since we're not actually going to the airport to see the actual show.

Also this year I am bringing my bathing suit since I didn't last year and when you are anchored in a bay a nice little dip on a hot sunny day in July feels great.

Should be be fun-get to spend the day with my family and my daughter's boyfriend is joining us. That is the best part.

Here's my next book too-got a lot of reading done yesterday while working at the boat ramp:

Thanks for visiting and

Happy Day to you!

Wrapping Up June

Can you believe it is the last day of June? I can't. 2012 is half way over!

Wow!

It was just winter time and the year was starting.

But I am not rushing through the year and I am certainly NOT ready for winter yet.

So yesterday I listened to the cleaning devil in my head and I went and organized my kitchen overflow closet down in the basement. I was pretty pleased with myself. And I lounged at the lake on my mother-in-law's deck and enjoyed some quiet down time afterwards. I figured I deserved it after doing that cleaning job.

LOL.

Today I work at the lake and then we have dinner plans with some friends.

As you can tell, I am having a blast so far this summer.

So here's a few journal pages to show you.

I used an old calendar page as my base to journal on. Love trying new things and that was it on this page. And rainbow colored Viva paint pen dots.

This page I used some stamps (Paperbag Studio) which I then colored. I sprayed the page and added some acrylic ink to the hearts to make them pop off the page, but you can't tell they're popping here.

One more page for you today.

Doodling, coloring, watercolor crayons, some Tim Holtz watercolor markers and the clouds are stamped images from Hero Arts.

That's it for right now.

Have yourself a super fabulous last day of June.

10 Things Friday

This week sped by! Wow-eee-Friday already! I have to say I keep thinking it has been a day ahead all week. So yesterday I kept thinking it was Friday when it was only Thursday.
Really, I am not trying to rush the summer.

My list this week is a summary of my week and some previews of my week to come.

1-Been having LOTS of studio time. Got so many projects going on-Arizona scrap-journal, summer scrap-journal, Gothic arch project, flower project, my journal for our trip in 3 weeks. Oh yeah, and I am working on a painting and that is so much fun. Must mean I need to do some more painting. Maybe I need to take a painting course.

2-Lots of mental conflict though-I want to play and the devil in me says I should do so some of those little house chores I want to accomplish. Don't put them off until the very end. But I just started vacation. I am on vacation. It is summer. So not everything gets done. Who really cares?  I hate when my brain does that to me.
Doesn't it understand the FUN and RELAXATION I have been having?

3- I am loving being home. Not bored yet. Been out in the garden, been walking, went to visit my Mom, reading...Loving it.

4-Took my kayak out and cleaned it yesterday. Now, next week, I need to put it in the water and go out for a paddle.
I would today but it is gonna to be a scorcher.

5-Next week I am working a lot at the lake. I appreciate it too since last week Dave found out he will be out  of his job in a couple of weeks. Poor guy. He's handling it well but you can't just lose your job and walk away without having some kind of reaction.
But since this is my place to be totally selfish and self centered-

I love my summer job at the lake-it is the perfect summer job for a teacher.
And I really appreciate having it and that Sue, my lake boss, gave me so many hours of work.

6-This weekend besides me working 4 hours on Saturday, we are going out on some friends' boat for cocktails and on Sunday we are  also going out in our boat to watch the Pease Airshow from the water. Katie and her boyfriend are coming which means we get to spend some time with her! Will be a fun but low cash spending weekend since we don't have to go very far in our boat to see the Blue Angels and the other flying planes.  Being out on the water (in the heat!) is such a summer thing to do.

7- So to appease the chore devil in my head, and I am going to try to do at least 2 of the following house things by next time I write this list: organize the basement kitchen overflow closet  (the whole closet doesn't need to be done-just the bottom shelves), start painting my bedroom, vacuum my car and/or the basement floor, or paint the wall by the sink the upstairs bathroom.

Think I'll be able to do 2? 

I don't know since it is the 4th of July holiday, I will be working 20 hours, and Dave will be home since he's going to use some of his built up time at work before the leaves.
Plus I have tons of garden tending to do...which depends upon the weather and if it doesn't get or stay too hot.

And if I don't do 2, or even I don't get to any of them, 

I hope my chore devil to go in hibernation or lock himself in some closet in my brain.
Stay there chore devil.

8- I also want to make this lemonade pie I have the recipe for-looks like a cool and yummy summer pie. Just got to go to the store and get a couple of ingredients I didn't quite buy enough of the other day. Like another cream cheese and a pack of lemon pudding mix.

9-And mostly, I want some low key relaxing time next week just like I've enjoyed this week. Slowing down. Just passing a summer day in low key mode.

Got to love it.

10-Still putting up some craft supplies on eBay.  Check it out-I am seller LittleHippyMom. Thanks to any of you that have stopped by and placed a bid. If nothing else gets done this summer the chore devil should be thrilled I am cleaning up some of those craft supplies.

And what is more summer than chairs and towels on a swimming dock?

And if you have chairs and towels on a swimming dock, you need a swimming raft too!

Have a great weekend if I don't get around to checking back in.

Journaling

Journaling.

This page is back from the very end of the school year.

Not right now. There isn't a lot of stress nor counting down right now.

Won't do any journaling today as I am taking off to go visit my mom in Worcester, MA.

Lots of driving ahead of me.

And yesterday I worked on a flower book I am making-but no photos-and I started a canvas painting I have been thinking about doing for a very very long time.

No photos there either.

Will get some though. But not today.

So yesterday besides a bit of studio time-

In the short stretch of sunshine we had I went and worked in my veggie garden. It was a successful day.

Have a happy hump day.

Scraps of summer

Don't mean to keep showing the same old type of things every day-but unfortunately I haven't yet taken any photos of anything else I have been doing in my studio. (And I have been doing some non-journaling projects-love that!) So here we go, more of my summer scrap-journal.

Fabric scraps and fun red stitching, along with some red Viva paint pen dots.

Everyone's journal needs some pages that are a little bit different.

No words, no real planned layout, no stamping, no die cuts.

I love this page.

So yesterday I planned on doing some cleaning but it never made it out of the planning stage. I did play a bit in the studio-but my poor puppy was having nervous fits with all the rain and thunder so I was trying to comfort him-if you can comfort a dog that is. And Katie was home so she and I went to see Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter at the theater. As usual, the book was a lot better but it was an entertaining flick. That is if you like that kind of film.And the best part was spending some time with my baby.

And today I woke up feeling like I've had a week off and it is time to start some house projects. Not just cleaning. So my plan is to go buy a gallon of paint to repaint my bedroom. Not changing the color-I love the pale grey-lavender that it is, but I want to refresh it and clean it up so when we get around to putting in our new floor, the paint will be done. (We had this 30+ year old disgusting carpet in my bedroom which we pulled out in April and right now my floor is just the plywood base.) I probably won't get to do any painting today by the time I run errands, but it will be there for when I am ready. And if the rain ever stops I will definitely go out and try to turn my gardens back into gardens from the lawns that they are now. With last week's heat and the last 2 days of rain, they are looking green-but the wrong green.

So I found out last night the piece of weed (natural stuff-not the drug variety) I pulled off a trailer at the boat ramp 2 weeks ago was in fact an invasive species so I get credited with a save! It is exciting.

And here's my latest read-another light fun kind of book.

Enough of my random babbling for today.

Make it fabulous.

Monday is a Rose

Simple photo on a fairly simple background. I used a Crafter's Workshop stencil which I sprayed to create the center flowers and then I flipped the wet stencil over to make the images and blobs on the page. Then I used some Prima thread designed stamps with some various colored ink to fill in around the stencil. I just love circles, and the thread stamps are great circle items.

I also thought the page was helped by this tiny section of red doily (Cheer Lynn Designs) die cut sticking out the bottom.

I added the photo and the words (from a Postmodern Design stamp) which I stamped, cut out and inked.

And here's another related page. I used the same flower stencil and some pink and orange Dylusions spray ink. Quite LOVE the background.  Then I used a Sharpie and outlined the words, which I then painted in with some various liquid acrylic inks. The orange ink I used in the gardens word is from Viva, the others are some very old acrylic inks I bought years ago at Michael's.  Once dry-I used a white pen to doodled on my letters. Finally, I stamped the word bloom.

So did everyone have a nice weekend?

Here in New Hampshire we had a really nice weekend-but a good sized thunderstorm Saturday afternoon that broke the super hot and humid weather. I spent a lot of time on or near water-lake and ocean. We went out in Dave's boat yesterday and went mackerel jigging and caught a bunch of these fish. I never realized how pretty they are. Well Dave caught a bunch and I only caught 2-and we each caught a squid too. But it was really a fun time! Enjoy spending time with the hubby-we always have so much fun with each other. 

And what I love about going out in the boat is that every time we go out I discover something new.

You can see what a gorgeous day it was.

A real summer day.

And last night we had True Blood on tv.

It was a really really good day.

Have a great Monday and the new week ahead!

Sky and water

Yesterday was a day I spent a lot of time looking at the sky and at the water. From 7 AM when I started work at the boat ramp until almost sunset while visiting my mother-in-law at her place on another lake. Got come cool photos, which I will share a few with you right now. 

Morning

Mid-Day

Late Afternoon

After the storm/after dinner

Sometimes a day just develops a theme without you even picking it or seeing it coming. When the day wraps up and you take all your photos off your phone, you realize that you had been shooting the same thing all day. Well, the same theme. As you can see, that way my day yesterday. Something about the sky and the water must have been calling me.

Happy Sunday.

A Little of This and a Little of That

In my leisure time I have been playing with a bit of photo shop and the camera on my new phone. I love this view of the lake from work last Saturday. Cool pink to the clouds and sky view. The actual view is nice but a little less spectacular.

And rather than using some funky filter, here's some daisies on the side of the road. The roadsides are blooming beautiful right now.

How about some more daisies.

The hairdresser next to the post office has a new sign out this week too.

I got a few dreams I am hoping will come true.

***

And here's a journal page for you to see- simple  but I really think the background does the photo justice. 

Lots of Dylusions spray inks. I used a Sizzix die cut to cut the hexagons from some printed paper. Added the May stamp (Hero Arts) and a Tim Holtz phrase tag with some twine tied around each end. A small amount of journaling-which I find harder to do than to go on and on-but finding just the right words without saying too much really makes a page....

***

Lastly

I'm reading a new book now too...total trash book too.

Has anyone seen the movie? Is it any good?

I'm up early and off to work at the lake.

Have a great day!