"Bee"sy Times

  Aah, yes , that time of year here for Spring cleaning and changing curtains, pillow covers and linens to reflect the lighter brighter colors! It is taking ever so long this year for things outside to bud and open so the change of colors inside is a welcome sight. Do you have any Spring rituals?

  The bee is from a napkin and just a snippet from this tag I made using some of the new products I received recently:

 I covered a manila tag with Tim Holtz Typography Collage Tissue Paper then dry brushed a bit of white paint over top. Dina Wakley Aloe paint was applied on the left side using Tim Holtz Linen Layering stencil. Dina Wakley Heather paint was apllied through some sequin waste here and there. Flower and sentiment (Dina Wakley Always Flowers and Good Idea stamp sets) were stamped on white cardstock using Jet Black Archival ink. I painted in the flower, leaves and stem using Dina Wakley paints in Heather, Mineral, Aloe, Sand (her new line of pastel colors- love!), and Lime. Fussy cut image and sentiment and glued it in place. Distress Black Soot ink used to spatter. Lastly, the bee  (napkin bit) was glued in place.

 Joining the new Simon Monday Challenge for this week (Play With Paint), and Try It On Tuesday (Say it With Flowers).

 For T Stands For Tuesday I'll share a few photos from the recent baby shower I attended. The shower was held at a beautiful restaurant - Melt and let me say that the food was extraordinary though I only thought to take a pic of the dessert.

 The table was decorated with baby photos of the father and mother to be along with a bare tree on paper on which we were to add a fingerprint and our name. Here's a close up:

 My two girls (the daughters I never had:):

                               Lynn, and Kyra (our son's gf)

  

We all had a choice of 3 - 4 selections from each course, and by far the most popular dessert - and my choice- was the tiramisu. It was to die for!!! Best I ever had! I was nice and saved half to take home for hubby to try too:) And yes, my water and merlot went quite well with it all. It gets even better....

 These were our favors:

 a box of 4 artisan chocolates from a local patisserie. Are these a work of art or what? ALMOST too beautiful to eat (wink). Hubby and I each took a bite of the four of them after admiring them almost a week and oh my, heavenly flavors of ganache, cookies and cream, dark chocolate raspberry, and salted caramel. One of the rare times I truly enjoyed something sweet!

 Art Journal Page:

 One of the burlap pages in the Dina Wakley Media Journal. I do love the burlap! I thought this lady looked dressed for Spring (Tim Holtz Paper Doll) and I used spring colors- lime, turquoise bright pink along with some found ephemera and a Tim Holtz Snarky Stickers sentiment. Doesn't her expression just look like that is something she'd say? :):)

 Linking with Art Journal Journey (theme is "Hello Springtime"), Moo Mania and More (theme is "colour") and Paint Party Friday.

 Happy week to everyone!

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

Flowers and Springtime

 Wednesday marks the official first day of Spring here in the Northern hemisphere -yay! It's still a bit cold and it seems that trees, flowers and bushes are late in budding but it can't be far away now.

 Last Friday it was very (record breaking) warm and a perfect birthday day for me with sunshine, and some intermittent thunderstorms (which I love when it's warm and I can sit outside, or at least have the back door open for). I enjoyed a quiet day and evening and enjoyed  the surprise flowers and mail and phone calls:

 We spent much of Saturday downtown celebrating St. Patrick's Day festivities. The temp had dropped drastically from the previous day and it was VERY cold with very gusty winds but we braved it and it was worth it!

 No pics of the main parade as we chose to go in the hotel and watch what we could from the windows. However, we did get to see the doggie parade that took place outside of Donegal Square beforehand and I did take a few pics:

                                 This is an Irish dog- a Glen of Imaal terrier.

  There was a contest with prizes awarded (no idea who won what). There was a large turnout of dogs and humans and I loved getting up close with the dogs! It was not easy to photograph them as they were all too interested in checking out the competition:) It seemed that most of them didn't mind the costumes, and the entry fees all went to a local animal shelter. But, nope, I couldn't put any dog of mine in a costume! Oh, and a few even had socks on!!

 For T Stands For Tuesday I'll share the beer we enjoyed...

 at the Hotel Bethlehem amongst the crazy crowds, great music, and friends:

Next post I'll share a few pics of our friend Lynn's baby shower. You can tell just how cold the day was by my bulky layers!

 Art Time!

 Here is a tag I made to welcome spring, and for the Simon Monday Challenge (Miniature/Tiny Things) and Tag Tuesday (theme is Hares and Rabbits):

 papers, stickers, stamps, pompom from the Simon Says Stamp March 2018 card kit. The kit has been sold out but you can buy the supplies individually. Other products: Distress ink- Tea Dye; Versafine Onyx Black ink; Stickles glitter glue; alcohol markers; twine.

 Speaking of Spring, flowers, and my birthday, I was gifted with art supplies of my choice which literally just arrived:

 I love flowers and Dina Wakley so as soon as I saw these newly released stamps I knew I just HAD to have them!! I had purchased 4 of her paints to try and love them so much I also got a few more-the last four on the right are also a new release - of soft neutral colors. And lastly - a new Tim Holtz release of collage tissue paper -this one is "typography". I know it will be used often!

 This journal page is meant for Art Journal Journey theme is "Hello Springtime"), Moo Mania and More (theme is "Close to Nature"), and of course Paint Party Friday:

  The sentiment sticker translates to "my soul lies in the sun". I have used this on other projects as I was gifted with a set of these stickers both in French and English (sorry I don't remember who gave them to me). The darling bee is from a napkin my dear sweet friend Patty S. just sent me along with a beautiful photo card for my birthday.

  That's it for now. Wishing you all a wonderful week!

" Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn."  Lewis Grizzard

Spring Is Getting Closer!

  How is everyone? We turned our clocks this past weekend for Daylight Savings Time which of course means longer days of sunlight-yay! The temperature is slowly creeping up too so my color/theme choices in my art projects are definitely reflecting Spring!

This is abstract #3 of a series I am creating. I did just finish a 4th but I'll post it another time.

I have more Palm Beach photos to share and then I'll get back to more art.

 More window views from our friends' condo:

 We visited the area across the way with all the tall buildings. It's Singer Island. Very busy area with condo buildings and hotels galore:

 It looks SO beautiful from the condo window when we look across all the twinking lights on these buildings at night! Grateful to view it from our quiet space:)

 Our very favorite place to wander was the marinas and we walked it every day- sometimes more than once:

 Bill was in love with the palm trees and took MANY pics of them but I'll just share this one:

 and we also enjoyed some special Florida animal life while on our walks:

                                                    blue heron

                      these geckos were everywhere but quite harmless:)

 This seabird is called an Anhinga. We identified her (it is a female) after watching quite awhile and taking notes about her behaviors. She stood airing her feathers a long time after coming up from under the water because if she didn't completely dry the feathers she'd just flop into the water again. So cool to watch her!

 We also visited MacArthur State Park which had a lovely walkway across the water to the beach and a museum learning center and shop along with kayak rentals. We learned about various sea life including the turtles :

This loggerhead sea turtle was going to be released into the sea the following week which made me happy. One creature we did NOT see anywhere:

 and I am quite OK with that!

 On our final day before going for dinner we had cocktail hour:

and  this was the wonderful champagne we toasted with:

 Cheers to the T Stands For Tuesday gang and everyone!

 I made this tag for the Simon Monday Challenge (feminine/girly), and Try It On Tuesday (inspired by a word):

   I started with a tag that had been swiped onto a craft mat with a variety of water spritzed Distress inks. Other products: background stamped with DOX- Worn Lipstick, Broken China and Cracked Pistachio; black Archival ink. Stamps used were - Ellen Hutson Bokeh Dots set; Dylusions Basic Backgrounds set; Dina Wakley word stamp from a set; Wow! Wall art stamp set; and that darling girl is from Inky Antics Long Hair Flair set! Polka dot washi tape (her dress)-Recollections; pink paint marker; Peerless watercolors.

A journal page in my Dina Wakley Media Journal:

  Joining Paint Party Friday, and Art Journal Journey (theme is Hello Springtime") hosted this month by Jo.

 Thanks for popping in! I have a secret but don't tell anyone-shhh... on March 15th I am turning the big 6 0hhhh! No special plans but on Saturday the 16th hubby and I will spend the day downtown enjoying all the Irish festivities celebrating St. Patrick's Day. Of course I'll have a Guinness for you;)
Wishing you all a super week and weekend ahead!

" The winds of grace are always blowing; all we need to do is raise our sails."  Anonymous

Back From The Sunshine State!

 Hello Peeps, I am desperately trying to get back in the groove of things after an amazing week in the gorgeous sunny, warm weather and scenery that is Palm Beach!

 Reality set in quite quickly with this:

Four inches of snow the day we returned, and another five plus inches overnight last night (very sad face).

I'm working on photos and editing but I have a few to share to give an overview:

 Just several of the views from our friends' 16th floor condo. All windows had water views  including our guest bedroom!! Positively breathtaking.

For T Stands For Tuesday I'll share our snacks and waters we were treated to upon our arrival. We had a most wonderful week!

 I got my doggy fixes every chance I could get. Here along the marina I met Tillie (who gave lots of kisses:) and her owners who were heading to the Bahamas on their boat, yacht.

 One day we all went to Vero Beach to have lunch and visit friends we know from our beach vacations in Delaware. I'm with Bella who was anxiously waiting to get permission to go in the pool:)

 On another day my friend Lynne and I went to a special exhibit while the guys went to a men's luncheon:

  The Downton Abbey traveling exhibition was nearby in West Palm Beach!! I am such a fan and this exhibit did not disappoint. It was AWESOME!!! I took 175 pics-don't worry, I'm not posting them:):)

 And last pic (in this post) of our trip:

 Although I did NOT take art supplies as I wanted to take a break I did do lots of art before leaving, and this tag I made quickly today...

 I printed out two contact sheet size pics from our vacation and glued them to the tag. The background was made by spraying water on Distress Oxide inks smooshed onto my craft sheet then dragging the tag over it. I used gold mica flakes in a few places. The sentiment is not only a favorite stamp, but also a very favorite sentiment of mine:):) Sharing my tag with Tag Tuesday (my favorite stamp); the Simon Wednesday Challenge (anything goes); and the Simon Monday Challenge (whatever the weather).

 There is a new theme for this month over at Art Journal Journey " Hello Springtime" and for this I have this journal page:

   I thought this would fit the theme with those vibrant colors and the couple dressed in Spring/Easter finery. This was a mop up page from other projects. Paper Dolls and Snarky Small Talk sentiments -Tim Holtz/Ranger.

 Finally I'll share a calendar journal page from my Dylusions Creative Dyary:

 I used some Dina Wakley paints and collage tissue faces; Tim Holtz Snarky Small Talk stickers, layering stencils- Honey Comb and Linen; scallop stamp (Inky Antics); black, white gel pens.

 Joining Paint Party Friday also. And do pop in to visit the special 8th birthday celebration! Thank you dear EVA and Kristin for keeping us together every Friday to share our creativity. Mwah!!

 Have a wonderful, creative week everyone!

" Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,

places to play in and pray in,

where nature may heal and cheer

and give strength to the body and soul."

                                                                                          John Muir