Life's Ups and Downs

   Well, it's been a week of good and bad, happy and sad, and thus my pensive mood. Let's start on the good shall we?

             my next door neighbors first poppy has bloomed!!

 And speaking of blooming I made this card using a newer Altenew stamp and die set:

 I adore this camelia build a flower stamp and die set! Other products: white card stock; brick patterned paper (Recollections); inks- Versafine Onyx Black; Archival- pink peony, leaf green; Distress inks- worn lipstick, mowed lawn; Staz-On- St. Valentine; Simon Says Stamp-assorted Moonshine Sequins.  Sharing this with the Simon Wednesday Challenge (anything goes).

 On a few sad notes... first off my heart goes out to those in England-again-innocent victims of yet another terror attack. Love and prayers.  Recently our local small zoo acquired two giraffes- a father and son. They were transported here from the Kansas City zoo. Three days later and poor Ernie the son was found dead. Of course there is an investigation going on and people are heartbroken. Personally I feel a bit sick about it and just don't feel good about zoos...

 And just one day after I posted last week- I found this:

 An empty nest.There were 4 babies only a day or so old and the morning I went to check on them they were gone. I looked all over but found nothing. And there was not one sign of any disturbance to the flowers, foliage or dirt in the basket. I'm not ashamed to say I shed a few tears for these innocent ones who didn't have a chance. I really thought they were safe. We do have young blackbirds, a pair of blue jays, cow birds and cat birds which are all predatory and can be a bit aggressive and perhaps one of them took them. Does anyone know- should I leave the nest - I mean, would another bird lay eggs in it-or should I  take it out?

 On another good note LuAnn and I went to McCarthy's again - to have some of that fabulous Caramel tea we had the other week and it was just as good!

   Sharing our pot of tea with Elizabeth and friends at T Stands For Tuesday.

 At Tag Tuesday the theme is "animals" so I made this tag:

 The bunny and flowers is a napkin. I added a sentiment-an old Hero Arts stamp, a little bird die cut, and a few of those SSS Moonshine Sequins I so love!

 Lastly I have a journal page to share. I created it in my 5 1/2" x 8" watercolor journal. It began like this:

 a first layer using my Peerless watercolors. Then came some stamping:

 using black archival ink and the Bokeh stamp set from Ellen Hutson LLC. After that I sponged on some white gesso to tone it down and begin drawing my image:

 And this is my finished page:

 I kept it quite simple and painted her with acrylics, then loosely outlined with a fine black pen. The dress is a deli paper gelli print. Pensive. And the Eleanor Roosevelt quote is just how I was feeling at the time. It's from a collage sheet by ARTchix Studio. Linking to Art Journal Journey for the theme this month of "circles", Moo Mania and More for the theme of "hair", a new to me challenge- Creative Artiste Mixed Media (anything goes) thanks to Valerie's post, and of course to Paint Party Friday!

 Have a great week and be well my friends.

          " Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light."    Theodore Roethke