More of my Holiday Journal

Hi everyone. I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. 

I also want to wish a happy first day of Hanukkah to those who celebrate. 

The official snow amount for my town from the Friday into Saturday morning storm was 14.5 inches (about 37 cm). I'm not sure we got quite that much, but we certainly got a lot of snow. And it was so heavy to shovel. Yikes. The good news was our power came back on at about 4:30 in the afternoon.Which meant we were out about 12 hours. We had gone out to grab dinner, since we couldn't use the stove or microwave with the generator, and as we left we saw the power truck coming down the street. That was an exciting sight.

Today I am going to share a few more pages from the little journal I am making for the holidays. I started this journal with Thanksgiving, and I will go all the way through to New Years Day. As I mentioned the other day, I make a page for each day. My "rule" is that the page has to have something to do with the day, but that something doesn't have to be glaringly obvious. Some days it is; some days it is not.

Once again, please excuse the crookedness or poor photos since I have a bit of curl to some pages. Eventually it will get fully flattened.

Above, my page for Dec. 1 that started when I found this old calendar image in a packet of holiday ephemera.

Below is my page for Dec. 5. This is the day I took a trip to King Arthur Flour, which you might have seen in last week's T day post.

December 6th is below,

and here's the double page spread I started this book with for Thanksgiving.

Here's a page for Dec. third.

And for my last view today, I have a page I am linking up to Jo's Snowy Winter challenge at Art Journal Journey. I used up a lot of ephemera pieces on my work table to make this one.

That's it for me.

Have a great start to the new week.

Winter Has Arrived

Hi everyone. Happy weekend to you.

We woke this morning with no power. Oh no. And lots of heavy wet snow. Oh no. And it's still snowing, but we should be at the end of the storm. Oh yes.

Luckily the woodstove just needed a bit of fiddling to get it going since we had it going last night. And luckily we have the generator, and my husband is home to get it running. It takes some circuit breaker fiddling and specific connecting to get it going, and even though I have a long list of instructions how to get it going, I'll be honest, playing around with the generator kind of scares me.

I felt bad for the birds, so once it was light I went outside and cleared off their feeders.

The snow is pretty though. Just like a white Christmas card image.

And the dogs like it.

I'm not looking forward to doing some post storm clean up, but I am going to take advantage of limited power from the generator (about 20% of what we'd have if our power was on) and relax with my book for most of the morning. 

Have a great Saturday. 

More Faces From Hammond Castle (part 2)

 Hi everyone. Happy Friday to you. 

It's snowing here in my area of New Hampshire today; it's our first big storm of the year (but not our first snow). I'm not sure if we'll  turn to rain and/or ice in my area or not since my town seems to straddle the line on the weather maps, but if not, we are going to get a load of snow. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but I am looking forward to a quiet day at home.

Last week I shared some faces from a trip I made in Hammond Castle in Gloucester, Massachusetts back in September. Today I have more to share. If you missed last week's post and/or you are curious, you can check it out here: Hammond Castle Part 1.

This is my link up to Nicole's  Friday Face Off and also to Gillena's Friday Lunch Break.

Hammond Castle was built with a center main hall, and then 2 wings, one wing coming off each side of the great hall area. In one of the side wings, the rooms were more modern and made for everyday living. They now house the offices.  The other wing was full of art treasures and architectural items that Hammond brought back from Europe and was styled in a somewhat medieval  castle way. When you first walk into this wing, you enter an area with a pool, and a few rooms off of this pool.

 Last week I shared  the great room, and today photos show  some of the faces found in this open area  of the wing I'd described above. 

He also brought back bits of ancient buildings too.

As well as some old Roman grave stones.

The ceiling of this wing is glass and lets in a lot of light.

I have more of the castle to share with you, but I'll be holding those until the 30th since next Friday is the start of the Christmas holiday weekend, and I'll have something more festive to share. 

But before I get ahead of myself, happy start to this weekend and I hope you have a good week ahead.

Holiday Journal

 Hello everyone. Happy Thursday to you.

One thing I like to do between Thanksgiving and New Years is keep a little holiday inspired journal. I used to keep it more of a written journal with some art thrown in, but now it's more of just an art journal with a tiny bit of writing thrown in. I  number my pages with the date, and my "rule" is what I put on each page just needs to be something to do with that particular day. 

For example, on the 4th I finally got around to putting away my very summery clothes and took out my heavy winter clothes. And in the process I made a huge mess.  So here's my page for that day.

 I'm really trying  to be a little less specific and a little more abstract (in a broad sense) about what I am trying to show on my page. That's hard for me because my art brain doesn't really think abstract art, so when I look at my clothes change-over page I want to add something more specific to it. Like maybe an image of clothing.  But I am resisting as it's part of the learning and art growth process.

This journal is small, and since I am working on it on an almost daily basis, I haven't had time to flatten the pages out very well. You'll have to excuse some of my photos. In this next photo please excuse the tiny tip of my finger that was holding the page flat and the slight angle everything is at since  with the  major page curl going on it was really hard to photograph.

Rain's Art and Dinner Date theme this week is gift wrap. You're in luck (ha-ha) because I spent one afternoon wrapping my Christmas gifts and that was the theme of my journal page that day.

I took bits of the paper scraps and made a border, used a red and green pen to create the stripes, and I cut a Santa  out of a paper scrap. I also used some thin foil tape to make ribbon and outline my page. Finally I added some stamped and cut out postage images. It's a pretty bright page for my taste, and it's a little messy even for me, but it works.

And I have one more page with some gift wrap on it, only the gift wrap this time was the ready made  image and not my actual paper scraps.

There's no food for me this week since I've forgotten to take any photos. With snow arriving tonight and lasting into  tomorrow (and maybe even a bit of Saturday), I'm hoping it will  be a good time to start my cookie baking bonanza, so hopefully next week I'll have something interesting to share.

Thanks for visiting.

Wednesday Art

 Hi everyone. Happy midweek to you.

I'm posting today with another art journal page for Jo's Snowy Winter challenge at Art Journal Journey.

I started my page in one of my Dina Wakely journals that has some  brown kraft paper pages. I wanted it to have a more "snowy" look, so I used some gesso  in a kind of wind blown style.

I have a pretty big stash of holiday images, and it's time to weed them down a bit so I added this adorable vintage holiday picture.  Under the top of the image I added half of a die cut doily that I made from some kraft paper with some gold metallic polka dots on it. The leaves on my page look brown, but they are actually gold. This winter light at this time of year makes it hard to get a good sparkle photo. I also added the pine cone which is made of resin and that has some white sparkle snow on it that you can actually see.

I finished my page with a stamped quote. 

As I used gesso and my page has some sparkle I am also linking up to December's gesso and sparkle  art journal challenge at More Than Words.

And let me finish this post with some early December foliage. I snapped these photos one day last week when we had had a lot of rain in the morning, and it was still a very foggy afternoon.

That's all for me today. I hope your week is going well.

It's All About Santa

 Hi everyone. 

The last 2  weeks have again flown by, and it is already time for another challenge at Try It on Tuesday. Thank you Maz for hosting  our last challenge. And thank you to everyone who shared their Winter Wonderland art with us. 

Our newest challenge runs for the next 2 weeks and has a festive theme. Our challenge is

It's All About Santa.

I have a journal page to share.

I started by using a musc stencil and some soft molding paste. Once that dried, I used a red ink pad to give the musical background some color. The big image is actually a small sheet of paper. The smaller Santa is an image from a collage sheet.  I used some red metallic paper trim to outline both pictures. On the top right edge I added a small metallic paper bow. Then I added some red and white cloth trim along the bottom. I attached it by stitching it to my page.

I finished my page by stamping a few items and then adding this little gold metallic paper  Santa in his sleigh. 

And be sure to check out the variety of Santa art the TIOT design team members have shared. There's lots of variety, and my teamies are a talented group.  Also, I want to send an early thanks to Bleubeard and Elizabeth for being our guest host for this challenge since our next challenge is our 2022 Spotlight where we share some of the pieces that have yet to be recognized during 2022.

TIOT's It's All About Santa challenge runs for the next 2 weeks. We accept all kinds of art at TIOT.

I am also linking my page up to 2 other challenges. First of all I want to link up to Jo's Snowy Winter challenge at Art Journal Journey. (Please remember we only accept journal pages at AJJ.) 

I also want to link up to Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge # 89. Their theme is always anything mixed media  goes. 

Just an FYI- This is the last challenge we will run at Try It On Tuesday for 2022. It's time for  our annual holiday break. Our next new challenge starts on January 10th of 2023.  Be sure to check in however as we'll be posting our Spotlight Winners before our new challenge begins.

Thanks for visiting my page, and I hope you can join us at TIOT.

T Stands for Shopping

 Hi everyone. It is time for T, when we share our drink related posts over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog. And in my case, my post  probably has a bit of babbling too. (hee-hee)

Last week on one of our sunny days, I decided to take a drive over to King Arthur Flour in Norwich, Vermont. It's a bit of a drive, just under 2 hours from my house, so I don't go very often. I figured since I wanted to start my holiday baking  I'd stock up on a few items I knew I needed and that were hard to get at local markets.

It was also a gorgeous day for a drive, chilly but sunny. I could enjoy the sun through my car's sunroof and listen to my book. These short December days are making me long for sunshine, and since my house is dark a lot of the time during this season, the car is a great place to get some sun therapy. 

 I left  early. When I arrived at King Arthur the parking lot was pretty empty, but when I finished shopping, it was pretty full. What I didn't know until I arrived was that this particular day was King Arthur's friends and family holiday discount day. All your purchases were 20% off.  Wahoo! That made the drive even more worth it. ❤

I snapped a few photos when I first arrived, but then I got wrapped up in my shopping list so I failed a bit on the photo taking end.

Outside their main entrance they had some festive decorations.

And in the windows to their bakery, they had some festive gingerbread.

King Arthur used to have that cool logo:

Now, like so many places, they've redone it and have a more streamline crown.

I didn't get a lot of store photos, but it is a baker's paradise. They carry all of their mixes and a wide variety of other items that change over the course of the year. 

And of course you can buy their flour(s), which is what they are known for.

I managed to fill a bag (or 2) with  a few items. After I put those in my car I went back inside to their bakery/cafe. At their cafe they sell a few breakfast and lunch items, as well as a full range of bakery items of whatever the bakers have on their daily schedule. It was just about lunch time, so I grabbed a small salad to go. They also had this yummy gingerbread bundt cake, and I bought a slice that was big enough I decided to bring it home and split it with the hubby for dessert after dinner. And for the road home, I picked up a hot chai tea, which is my link to T this week.

That's my post for T this week. Happy T day and I hope you have a great rest of your week.

A Page for My Mom

 Hi everyone. I hope your weekend was a good  one. 

My weekend was busy as on Saturday since my husband's family had a holiday get together. It was mostly so that his Mom could have her kids and most of her grandchildren together, since with the speed she is going downhill, one never knows about next year, or even next month. Sadly it wasn't one of her best days, but it was fun to see everyone though, and there was lots of good food too.

Today I have another page for Jo's challenge at Art Journal Journey. Her challenge is snowy winter, and right now we have some light snow coming down. Luckily, it is not supposed to be anything more than flurries. 

 I must say my sadness over losing my mom has been turned into some good art mojo. Not that I want to be sad or troubled all the time, but I do hope my art mojo keeps up. Smile.

My page began with this chipboard violin I found in my stash.

After I finished using my snowflake stencil and some light molding paste one day, I took a clean sheet of watercolor paper and flipped my stencil upside down so the side where I had been applying the paste was now against the paper. I took a damp rag and cleaned off my stencil onto the paper. I didn't know how that would work, but once the molding paste leftovers dried I noticed a couple of snowflake impressions. I took some turquoise and dark blue inks and rubbed them over my page to finish off my background.

I added some various bits and pieces, including the chipboard violin that I colored, a sleigh made from a die that I "found" back in the late spring while redoing my spare bedroom, and some other bits and pieces. I had to really glob on the ink to hold down the ends of the felt ribbon, but since the dried glue gobs are evenly balanced, it works.

After years of lack of use, my mother's violin has dried out and  has seen better days, but as it was one of her favoured possessions, I have kept it for her. She even named it Susie.

Back in her youth, my mother played in several local orchestras. Even though some of her violin case stickers have worn away, there are still a couple that are interesting in themselves.

She used to tell the story about this music festival because she had to sleep in a funeral parlor for the days she played there.

And this next sticker is back from her college days.  Once she graduated from college she started teaching. One thing she was always very proud of is that both myself and my brother went into teaching, which was her career. Once she started teaching she also met my Dad, and after that happened, her public playing violin time started to disappear.

That's all for me today. Thanks for visiting my blog.