It's Thursday

     Hi everyone. I hope you're having a good week so far. 

    It's getting towards the end of the month, and I want to share my penultimate journal page for my Home Sweet Home challenge at Art Journal Journey. This month I've shared lots of animals as part of my  journal pages. There's been bees, cats, cows, pigs, chickens, birds, bunnies, fish and frogs, but there's only been one tiny dog. Miss Maddie and Mr. Pete aren't too happy with me about that. Grin. 

   My page today celebrates people's best friend, or at least some people's best friend, their dog. 

    I used my ledger journal and some red, orange and yellow ink to color my page's background.  Then I stamped some paws around the page. The dog house, the big bones and the water dish as all die cuts (Cheery Lynn). After I colored the base of the water bowl I used blue watercolor paint to make the water, and since I don't know a dog who doesn't dribble some while drinking,  I made a few little drips over the edge to show that. The small bones on the doghouse and water bowl, as well as the background, are some little confetti pieces.

    I stamped, colored and fussy cut the dog (Pink In Designs). At first I drew in a few lines to have him, the water dish and the dog house to sit on, but I didn't like them, so I added a bit of white gesso to ground these pieces. Finally I stamped the quote (Impression Obsession) on white paper and fussy cut it before adding it to my page. 

    And what dog doesn't want to chase a squirrel?

    This is Little Red or one of Little Red's offspring. I see lots of grey squirrels, but only a few red ones. I had one a couple years back that knew how to open the feeder and crawl inside, so I named him/her Little Red. I know red squirrels can be scrappy,  but I like them because of that. This guy was out digging up bird seed off the ground Monday when we had some snow. 

Have a great rest of your Thursday.

    

Just a Fish in a Bowl

       Hi everyone. Happy Wednesday. I hope everyone's week is going well. 

       Since March is winding down I have several art journal pages to share this week. 

      My page today for my Home Sweet Home challenge at Art Journal Journey is one of the first pages I made for this month's challenge. However,  it doesn't seem finished to me yet. The only problem is I don't know what to do to finish it. Therefore, maybe it is done. 😏

    I started with a goldfish and fish bowl die set from Hero Arts. I die cut the bowl  by recycling some packaging plastic. I outlined it with a black Sharpie. Before I added it to my page I used watercolor paints, a Sharpie and also some gold glitter to create the contents of the bowl. Plus I added the fish too.

     I finished the page, at least so far, by stamping a goldfish (Stamp Francisco) several times and then using some blue watercolor paint to create some watery stripes. I also stamped the quote (not sure who made that stamp) several times.

    My challenge at AJJ runs until next Monday, March 31, so there's still plenty of time to join in if you're inclined.

      And on another note, I mentioned in my bee post last week how I'd turned on the electric fence around the hive, even though it has no bees it does have some honey. Thank goodness I did, because when we were away at the wedding last weekend, my daughter (who was taking care of the dogs) sent me this photo of my bird feeders. Or  should I say what were my bird feeders.

     I'd say the bears are definitely out of hibernation. 

    Luckily the pole is one of those  types that come in connecting sections. The part in the ground and the upper parts are fine, but I do need to go get a new lower post. I ended up with one broken feeder that can't be fixed, and my suet basket is gone someplace, wherever the bear dragged it off to. My meal worm feeder was undamaged, and the hot pepper seed tube holder top is the green piece laying upside down on the lawn. I took a little walk into the woods, and there was the hot pepper seed tube intact. I guess it not only keeps the squirrels from eating it but the bears too. 😏 No wonder why there's a small clump of hot pepper seeds still sitting on the cinder blocks. I would have thought the bear would have scooped that up with one paw first thing.

    Although this isn't the usual sign of spring for most people, myself included,  winter is definitely over when the bears are out. 🐻

     Have a great rest of your day!

    

    

T Stands for a Busy Weekend

      Hi everyone. Happy new week. Sadly we had a bit of snow at my house today (Monday),  but it will be warm again starting  tomorrow so it shouldn't last. Of course March can't leave without a bit of a final bluster-😉 grin.

    It's also time for T Day so I want to give a welcome to everyone who stops by from Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's  blog. FYI-it's kind of a long post today. 

    Last weekend was a busy one for me. It was all about ice hockey and a wedding.

   You might remember from a February T Day post that my husband and I like to follow our college Alma mater men's ice hockey team. This past weekend was when the semi-final and the final games were held for  the conference.  These 2 games happen after all the teams in this conference had a chance at a quarter final elimination round. The University of Maine (my school) made it to the semi-finals, and they won after an almost 4 hour game that was tied at the end of regulation and went into 2 overtimes before there was a score. I'm glad we watched that game on TV because it didn't end until 11:30 at night. It  was nice to be able to go up to bed right after it ended. 🥱

    The final game was Friday night, and I would have gotten tickets to go watch it in Boston except I was heading into the mountains of western Maine for my brother's wedding. I couldn't  miss that event, although, grin and ha ha, I was tempted. (Of course not really).

    The wedding was actually Saturday, but Friday evening there was a pre-wedding, after-ski welcome party that we went to. The wedding was held at Sugarloaf Mountain ski area and resort, the perfect setting seeing both my brother and my new sister-in-law are big skiers.  If you look on this ski map of Maine you can see where Sugarloaf is on the top left side. 

     The hubby and I wore our hockey jersey to the Friday night event since the big game was later that evening, Plus we were in Maine, and it's surprising how popular the jerseys made us. Ha ha and Grin. You can see my husband's beer in the far left of the photo below, and that is drink #1 for my T day post.

    We watched the big game on TV in our hotel room later that night. And all ended well. 🥳

Photo courtesy of Hockey East

    The wedding was later on Saturday so people could ski first. I gave up skiing years ago, and my husband gave it up more recently, so we went out for a drive that day. I have some  scenic photos to share  in another post. It was a bit windy but it turned out to be a beautiful day. The wedding was held outside on the still frozen golf course. They had planned for it to be held on a deck overlooking the golf course, but all the golf carts were stored there and couldn't be moved.

    In this next photo are my niece and nephew (who it was fantastic to see) doing readings during the ceremony. Sadly my niece's husband, who officiated the ceremony, had his eyes closed in the photo.

    And I love this next photo of the bride and groom because my brother was telling a funny story (yes during the wedding). 

    You see, my brother forgot the bride's wedding ring back at the condo where he had been staying. It was sitting in its box on the kitchen table. He didn't have time to go back and get the ring before the service because most everyone at the wedding was using the resort bus transportation  to get to and later from the event. By the time the ceremony started the buses were back picking up passengers at ski lifts and bringing them back to their cars. My brother also didn't tell his new wife that he forgot the ring.  Instead, he borrowed her sister's wedding ring, and when he went to put it on during the service, she said very loudly "That's not my ring.". That meant he had to explain. We were all laughing, including the bride. 

    Later on during the  reception someone who had a car went back to the condo and picked up the ring so the bride was able to get her own ring without too long of a wait. 

    The story was great because it lightened a very touching event. My brother had lost his first wife to cancer in 2019, so we're happy he found such a wonderful person to spend the rest of his life with.

    This post is getting long so I'll finish with a beer I had at the reception. It's name is for a ski lift, but may not be the best name for a wedding beer. Grin. But there were no bad moments at the wedding. It was wonderful to catch up with my niece and nephew as well as their spouses, and I actually met my nephew's newest baby who was born last fall. Plus it was nice to see my brother's ski friends who I've met at a few events before.  I didn't get many photos after the actual wedding  ceremony though because I was too busy chatting and dancing and having a fantastic time. (It was a really fun crowd. 😀)

    Have a fantastic T day and week ahead everyone.

In the Hive

      Hi everyone. I hope everyone is having a nice week so far. And Happy Spring to everyone north for the equator and Happy Autumn to everyone south. Since I live north of the equator, winter is now officially over unless Old Man Winter decides he isn't done  yet. 😉 (And from the extended forecast  it sounds like maybe he's not done yet-we'll see.)

     If you stop by my blog regularly you probably know I am hosting this month at Art Journal Journey, and that my theme is Home Sweet Home. You also might know that when I retired I started keeping a hive or 2 of bees because it was something I had always been interested in. My page today is all about the bees and their home in the hive.

     I am also linking up to Creative Artiste Mixed Media Bloc Challenge #113, Nicole's Friday Face Off and Gillena's Friday Lunch Break.

     My page is made with an inked background. Then I attached some torn pieces of this "bees in the hive" tissue paper. I also added a die cut set of honeycombs, which I colored in the centers of a few of the combs, just like you'd see in a hive. Then I die cut 3 bee hives and colored them some cheery colors. After that I stamped this giant bee image from Pink Ink Designs, colored it and then fussy cut it out before adding it to my page.I slightly mushed one end of my quote when I stamped it because the block slid a bit, but it's not so bad that I had to  add it stamped on paper over the other one.

    And some of you have been  asking how my bees made it through the winter. Well the very sad news is that I didn't have any bees this winter. 😭

    Back in early October I had a very full hive with lots of honey and probably about 75,000 +/- bees.

    Then in mid-October our nights were getting cold so I decided to put one of the winter wraps on the hive. I was worried about them overheating, so under the cover of the hive I left the screen  on so there would be good air circulation.

      When I went back a few  days later and opened the hive I was totally shocked to find the hive completely empty except for maybe 5 bees. There weren't even any dead ones on the bottom of the hive.

     My bees had done not unheard of thing by absconding. It's not swarming, which is when half of the hive and a new queen leave mainly because the hive is full and they are splitting to form 2 hives. When bees abscond the whole hive clears out and goes. Scouts had gone out, found a new place for the hive to live and then all of the  bees from the hive then moved to that new place to live. I looked around (for several days), but I couldn't find where they had disappeared to.

   Why do bees abscond in fall? Well I found out it could be for many reasons. It could be because it's too hot (did I put the wrap to early?) or too cold? It could be a high mite load. I did check for mites, and I had some but not a really high count, plus I had treated the hive with mite "medicine".  It could also be lack of forage, but I had already been feeding my bees. Maybe other insects had been threatening the hive or surrounding territory. It could also be  just that they were being disturbed too much; the queen had died; it was too wet;  the air flow wasn't right, or some other unsuitable situation. Whatever the reason they left,I can't put my finger on it. I do worry the wrap made them too hot, but I have no way of knowing that. The sad part is most likely they moved someplace where they didn't get any winter protection and probably died from  the cold.

    I left the hive as was for a few weeks, just in case  they decided to return, although I didn't  actually expect that would happen. After that I closed it off to keep other "critters" from getting into it. When I checked it the other day, it was untouched. I did turn the electric fence back on though because there is honey in the hive, and I know a hungry bear coming out of hibernation could smell that. 

   This spring I am back to ordering new bees again. My new ones were supposed to arrive during April, but the cold winter down south has pushed that off until May. 

    I've read why a lot of people like bee keeping is because there are always new things to learn, and I can agree with that.  I'm trying a different variety this year; let's see what surprises these new bees throw at me.

    Have a great weekend and start to next week. I'm heading out this weekend as my brother is getting married. Some of you who have visited  my blog for several years may remember his first wife passed in 2019 from cancer, and so I'm happy he's found someone to share his life with. Plus, as a bonus, I also really like her. 

   

    

     

   

   

Spring Fling

 Hi everyone. It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge at Try It On Tuesday 

     Before I get to that, let me thank Deanne from A Little Bit of Paper for being our guest host for our last challenge. And thank you to everyone who joined For a Lady. There was some wonderful feminine inspired art.

    This week spring starts here in the Northern hemisphere, and that's what our new challenge is all about. It's time for a Spring Fling.

      I made a journal page with some blooming flowers, an Easter bunny as well as some nesting bluebirds, all of which are wonderful spring images.

     I started by stamping and coloring the 2 houses (Penny Black). Then I fussy cut them and added them to my page. I die cut the garden flower image twice to fit it across my page. After I glued it down and it dried I added some colors to it. Then I stamped and colored the bluebird as well as the bluebird and birdhouse images. I added those. I really wanted a fence, but I had no fence dies or stamps, so instead I decided to cut out the main part of an old Tim Holtz rosette strip die and without doing the fold use that for the fence.

   If you can't remember the die I'm talking about, here it is.  The first image is the original strip die that I have  and the second is the re-release that's more recent. 

                                       

    I finished by coloring the sky with watercolor paints, added a gold metallic paper sun, stamping the quote and then adding this little bunny sticker I found in my stash.

   Don't forget to check out the design team's pieces too. There's so many ways you could go with spring. 

   I am also linking my page up to Art Journal Journey. I am hosting this month and my challenge is Home Sweet Home.

   I hope you're thinking spring, even if you live south of the equator, and join us at Try It On Tuesday in the next 2 weeks. 

  

T Stands for a Fun Night Out

    Hi everyone. Happy new week to you.  And to everyone who visits over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog   for T Day, happy T day to you.

    Last week we had more spring-like weather in my area. I was even inspired to go get some bags of planting soil, and I'm thinking this or maybe next week I might go buy some seeds and see what I can get to grow.  I won't be planting  outside yet because the nights are still around or below freezing. Things can't be put outside in my area until May for fear of frost. But these warm days have inspired me to start some seeds inside. 🌱 

    I was also able to sit out on my deck in the sun and read a couple of afternoons last week with a fleece on. ❤ They predict another fairly mild week ahead, and maybe by the end of this week all the snow in my yard will actually be gone. Then everything just needs to dry out. Of course,living where I do we could still (and I think probably will) l get a little more snow, but hopefully just a dusting IF it even happens.

    Besides going for a few walks  last week, I also had a fun night out with a couple of friends. We went into downtown Portsmouth (New Hampshire), had dinner, took a walk around, and then went to an evening concert. 

     Here's a few photos from my walk around downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This first one is looking up the street at Market Square at the steeple of the North Church of Portsmouth. This building was originally built in 1657 and then rebuilt  in 1854 from brick. There had been 3 devastating fires in the city  in the early to mid-1800's, so all the new construction was from brick, including the rebuild of North Church.  This building is a local landmark.

    1657 is old for here in the US, but I know not even close to many cathedrals and other buildings elsewhere in the world.  

      Here's a few other photos. I didn't take all that many but these are the better or more interesting ones.

    For dinner we went to a burger bar. I hadn't eaten at this restaurant before, but  I liked how you could build your own burger. You could choose between various meat and veggie burgers, various buns and various toppings. All their burgers came with French fries, but you could upgrade to many other choices. I chose a very traditional beef burger with cheddar cheese on a brioche bun as well as upgrading to sweet potato fries. 

And I had water to drink.

    We ended the evening going to see a great concert at the local historic theater. This theater was built in 1878, and like the church, was built when the old theater burnt to the ground the year before. It is the oldest operating theater in New Hampshire and from what I read, the 14th oldest in the US.

     A. J. Croce is the son of early 1970's musical star Jim Croce. You might remember some of Jim Croce's songs like Bad Bad Leroy Brown and Time in a Bottle. (He had many others too.)  Jim Croce died in a 1973 plane crash when AJ was just a very young child.

     A.J. is fabulous musician in his own right. He's played with some big named bands such as Willie Nelson, Bela Fleck, and the Neville Brothers. He's also a songwriter, and his style is more a combination of blues, rock and rock-a billy. And boy can he play the piano. I later found out he is blind in one eye which makes his playing even more amazing.

    He treated us to a few of his father's songs as well as many of his own. It's was an great show and an enjoyable evening out.  

    And if you're interested in hearing him,here's one of the songs he played at the concert that I found on YouTube. It's a classic written by Billy Preston: A.J. Croce-YouTube,

   I hope everyone has a happy T day and week ahead. 

Weekend Post

    Hi everyone. Happy weekend to you. I hope yours is going well. We're having (for my area) early spring weather this year. I noticed the chipmunks have come out of hibernation, and the other day I saw a red winged black bird. Sometimes March is just a bear with a lot more winter, and I'm not sure I can let out that big breath and say it's actually say it's spring, but  after a tough January and February, I am loving this weather. ❤

      I  had a couple of days this past week where I could sit out on the deck and read in the afternoon sun that inspired me to make this page.  My page for my Home Sweet Home challenge at Art Journal Journey is a celebration of deck/patio/backyard days. For those of us who live where winter is ending, there will be many more of these days to come. I love when I can move part of my living space outside.

    I used a stencil and blue paint for the background, and then I arranged several  images to make the patio scene.  To make the brick  flooring I used an embossing folder that I then took that piece apart and arranged the pieces randomly.  I added the girl and the cat images, and before I added the sun, I used some yellow glaze  to brighten the sky. The sun is made with 2 die cut sun pieces and also a punched out gold circle. I had originally stamped a face on the sun, but I didn't like it at all, so I added the gold piece over the face. The word is stamped on white paper and then added.

    And speaking of outside, did anyone see the blood moon lunar eclipse the other night? I'm not sure where it was visible, but I had to set my alarm to 2:30 in the morning to get up and see it totality. I have seen the early part of a lunar eclipse before and decided that sleep was more important than watching it reach totality, which was why I set the alarm for 2:30.

🌕🌝🎑

     I didn't think ahead and put a new battery in my camera, nor did I want to rummage around for a fresh battery, so these photos were taken with my phone. When I zoomed in I didn't get the clearest views.

    This next one is zoomed in on the maximum,  which is not a great eclipse photo, but I actually like the effect.  I see a face in that moon, do you?

     And even though you get a very wide angle view, on no zoom my photos came out great. Too bad the moon is so small.

     This last view is just me taking some random dark sky photos. I just liked this one of a big old oak tree against the sky. 

    I'm also joining Gillena's Sunday Smiles with today's post. That's all for me. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. 

Some Views from a Winter Walk

 Hi everyone. Happy Friday. Another week is quickly wrapping up.

     Today I have some photos from a late winter walk I took last weekend, and  I'll end this post with a journal page. That page is  for both my Home Sweet Home challenge at Art Journal Journey. and is  my face for Nicole's Friday Face Off.  I'll also be joining Gillena's Friday Lunch Break.

     With some warm March weather, we've not only been getting a lot of melt but the frost is coming out of the ground. That means a lot of MUD. Last weekend the temperatures hovered around freezing during the day and were even colder at night, so the dirt roads solidified a bit, at  least enough so I could walk.👍

   Puddle ice made some interesting shapes.

Some lichen.

       Here's some signs of last year and a sign that nice weather is coming.

     Today's photos are from the  walk I took on the road out from my mother-in-law's home. She lives way down this road where it narrows, and it is now even more narrow from snow plowing. Her house is closed for the winter and the driveway isn't plowed, so we parked in a pull off area. My husband took the dogs and went trekking in to check on her house, and I headed down the road for my walk.

    I need a face for Friday Face Off, so let me share another nostalgic journal page. I'm dedicating this one  to my Nana  because she loved to cook and made some really fantastic food too.❤❤❤

     This lady is a Tim Holtz image, not my actual Grandmother.

    Two of my prized possessions are her recipe  cards  and her cast iron skillet.  I was very close to her and we used to do all kinds of things together like go to the movies and even take a few trips.  I still miss her a lot as she was also someone I could talk to while growing up.

     Have a super rest of your day and a nice weekend ahead too. 

We Don't Live in a Barn

 Hi everyone. Happy Thursday.

     Today I have another journal page for my Home Sweet Home challenge at Art Journal Journey. My inspiration for today's page was a comment my mother used to make whenever (as kids) one of us would leave a door open. She'd always say, " Close the door. We don't live in a barn." That quote had me thinking about all the animals whose home is in a barn.

     I started by drawing and painting the barn and the silo behind it. Notice I left the door open. Grin. The weather vane is a bit large for the barn, but I think the barn needed one so I stamped it on the peak.  Then I colored in the lawn part with green markers, the dirt area with brown and tan markers, and I painted the sky with a wash of blue water color paint. To add more depth to the environment, I then went back and collaged in some paper scraps over the grass. I also used white paint and a water based Stabilo pencil to fill the sky with  clouds. 

     Last fall I picked up this set of farm animal stamps that were marked down from the now out-of- business Stampendous stamps. I thought the animals were cute. I hadn't stamped anything from this package yet, so I opened it up, stamped the animals on white paper, colored them in and then fussy cut them.  I also added the bike image as well  the image of George and his dog Sam (which are TH pieces). George and his dog Sam  biked over to the barn to visit the animals after school one day.

       I'll finish this post with a few more photos of my tulips. They have now passed, but I actually like them as much when they start to die and dry out as when they first bloom. They may not be as beautiful as the fresh tulips, but they are interesting to look at. And the colors really seem to become richer for a little bit too.

Have a great rest of your day!

Mid-Week Art

      Hi everyone. Happy middle of another week to you. And thank you everyone who sent along  belated birthday wishes.

      Today I have another journal page for my Home Sweet Home challenge at Art Journal Journey. I went vintage with this one and made it in my  ledger journal.

      Other than the quote there's no stamping on this page, but there is a lot of die cutting and embossing.  You can see the embossed utensil piece which I placed down on the center of an inked page. The embossed piece is inked the same red as the background.  The vintage lady with the apron and the stove are from an old Sizzix die set. I inked the lady in black and used markers to another old die that I think is from Cheery Lynn Designs to make the heart border. I added in some  foam confetti hearts as they fit perfectly in the open center of the trim hearts. Finally, I added a heart sticker, outlined it and then added the quote. 

     I'll finish my post with this photo  that I took when this view caught my eye. My husband started working on the mega-Lego set I gave him for Christmas. When he starts a new bag of pieces he likes to lay them out all organized before he assembles them.

    I think these pieces look cool all laid out and organized. However, for a man who functions so well with disorganization, I find it "funny" that he has to organize his Lego pieces. 😏

     That's all for me. I hope you're having a great week so far.