This Week's Mishmash

 

 Hi lovelies! First I wish to thank everyone for the well wishes regarding my terrible fall the other week. Thankfully I can now say I have very minimal pain only on occasion so I'll be quite ready and healed for -ACH- our son's wedding this Friday!!! Hard to believe it's here and will be over in the blink of an eye. I'll share about it next week. So I thought I'd begin this post about love starting with this journal page which I will share with Art Journal Journey for the theme of "Hold The Line":

 

 The background was a mop up page from a stencil and Aloe Gloss Spray. I then spattered it with Ocean and Tangerine paint and also ran a "splotch" of watered down Ocean paint to anchor the Collage Collective images. The sentiment is from the Be Willing stamp set by Dina Wakley. I'm going to use the stitching I did for the "hold the line" theme since I really just stitched across the lines that were already on the heart image😉

 Continuing with love I'll share this photo with T Stands For Tuesday:

 This was taken at Hemingways in Cape May the evening of our 37th anniversary. I mentioned there had been a special surprise awaiting us. It was the gift of a bottle of champagne given by two older gentlemen (we know the one was 80) we had met there for the first time a few nights before. We hit it off so well with them that they asked us to make sure to return for our anniversary which we did. I do have a photo of them which they agreed to only after I promised not to share it publicly. I get that. Of course we asked for two more glasses and asked them to toast with us. It was just the nicest gesture they made and it really touched us. We'll definitely be looking for them the next time we get to Cape May💓

 Next up is a tag I just made for Tag Tuesday (All Hallow's Eve); Try It On Tuesday (Halloween); and the new Simon Says Monday Blog Challenge (Movie Inspiration):

  My movie inspiration? Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Raven'! The painted tag was one gifted to me by Valerie with a lovely packet of goodies . I added some black ink with a sponge. The kitty, spider ribbon and black enamel dot are Recollections. The moon and sentiment is from ARTchix collage sheets. Poe is a found photocopy, and the raven is an old unknown stamp.

  And lastly this journal page was inspired by a Willowing Lifebook 2021 Taster Lesson by Alena Hennessy:

 I have been wanting to paint a lotus for a long time and am quite happy with how it turned out. She did NOT use a lotus image in her lesson but I wanted to. My affirmation came quite easily after the lotus. A few more pics:

 I added little touches of sparkle with a gold glitter gel pen. There were so many wonderful lessons but alas I only got to two of them - the two that resonated with me the most.

 Of course I will also join in at Paint Party Friday! I may be a bit late in visiting those of you there but I will get to you . Thanks as always for stopping by. XO

" If you find someone you love in your life, then hang on to that love."            Princess Diana

T Stands For Timing

 

 Hi Peeps, hope everyone is doing well.

 I'm going to begin by explaining the title of this post. Last Sunday evening I took a terrible fall down our basement steps and found myself on the cement floor. I have no idea or recollection how it happened. Thankfully hubby, son and almost DIL were nearby as we had just finished dinner. Although a bit shocked, I was able to get up and didn't feel like I broke anything. So I just took it easy the remaining night. Pain started in during the night and I could hardly move by morning. Two swollen and bruised knees, pain on my right side from front to back with large bruising and a contusion. Took some hot showers, Aleve and tried to rest. By Wed. I needed to see the doctor. She had me take a muscle relaxer and ant inflammatory and Thurs. AM I had a bunch of xrays for possible fractures  in ribs, back, or a small puncture to my right lung. The knees were getting better so no xrays for them. I continued with the meds, ice, hot showers and rest (as much as I could-getting a comfortable position hasn't been easy). Thankfully nothing was fractured. And I can tell you that as of yesterday I have begun to feel a little better each day. 

 As for timing- it depends on how one looks at it. Our son's wedding is just over a week away. If it had to happen I'd say the timing was good because I have time to heal. I cannot imagine if it would have occurred the week OF the wedding! Here's another thing- my hubby fell while running only the week before and got some nasty brush burns and open areas on his right arm and leg, and then the other day my neighbor fell and is bruised up. I asked what is the universe trying to tell us and she said - "we're getting old and we need to slow down". Message received.

 Enough of all that, let's get to some fun! Above is a junk journal page I did after our Cape May trip. Here is the facing page and then both pages together:

and keeping with this theme I have a few more pics from Cape May which will be my ticket in to link at T Stands For Tuesday:

 

The waters were quite high as the result of a hurricane that hit the southeast off Florida. Each morning we walked along Beach Drive to and from our favorite restaurant for breakfast- Ocean View. They had both outdoor and indoor dining and since most ate outdoors we chose to sit at a booth indoors. There were very few people indoors each morning so we were quite comfortable. 

On this morning I had my breakfast veggie wrap which comes with home fries(yes, half of this went back with me for a later time;). Hubby had French toast. And of course we both had coffee! Cheers to the T gang!

 There is a new theme at the Simon Says Monday Challenge (Anything But a Card); the theme at Try It On Tuesday is "Halloween", and the new theme at Tag Tuesday is "All Hallows Eve" so I made this tag:

 

 Products: prepainted manila tag (Ranger Ink); Tim Holtz Paper Dolls, Small Talk Occasions Stickers; washi tape - Recollections; black eyelash yarn; orange Posca pen; Antique Linen Distress ink; pumpkin stickers, candy corn and cat moon papers from my stash.

 This journal page is meant for Art Journal Journey (theme is Hold The Line) and Paint Party Friday:

 I used strips of Dina Wakley Collage Collective paper, washi tape, collage tissue, and paints(Sky Blue, Tangerine, Fuschia) in a vertical pattern down the page for the background. I added a bit of white gesso, did some scribbling with a black Fude Ball pen, and some doodles with Posca pens. The sentiment is from the Dina Wakley stamp set 'Be Willing', and the flower is from her set 'Always Flowers'.

That's all I have for now. getting in bits of art time as I am able. Enjoy what's left of October 🌳🍁🍂

  " The trees are about to show us how lovely it is to let the dead things go."    Unknown

Back To Cape May, and ART too!

 

 Happy new week all, and a happy Thanksgiving Monday to all our Canadian friends! 

This week I'll share a few more photos from our beach trip late September. The above photo was taken at the Cape May State Park. The trails and lakes are beautiful and many birders come here especially during specific bird migrations.

 Here we are heading down one of the paths to the Cape May Point beach.

 

A view of the lighthouse from the beach. It was cold and windy but beautiful nonetheless .Notice the 37 in the sand? Hubby grabbed a twig and wrote that and  a note for our anniversary:)

 And for T Stands For Tuesday I will share a meal I have been dying for all summer:

 

 We had gone to nearby Townbank to visit friends one day and on our drive back along the bay we decided to stop at Harpoons On The Bay, a place we had been to before. We had a perfect view of the sun setting over the bay from our table. I decided to try their lobster roll because I was not going to leave Cape May without getting one somewhere. This was the 4th one I've had in 4 different restaurants the last few years and this was by far the best I have had- filled to the gills with lobster!! To drink I had lemon water and a glass of Merlot- but really, this roll deserved a glass of bubbly😉🥂! Cheers!

 Art time...

 Each month Darkroom Door has a challenge on Instagram. We are given an inspiration/color board. We can make anything at all but do need to use some Darkroom Door products. A winner is chosen at the end of the month and receives a Darkroom Door stamp set and stencil of choice. I missed last month's so I was determined to get to the October one. I am also joining in at Art Journal Journey for the theme of Hold The Line:

 the inspiration board:

My journal page:

 and most of the supplies I used:

 Darkroom Door products I used are the ferns and circle stencils and the Fine Flowers stamp set.

 I also made a bit of time to watch and create from some of the Willowing Lifebook 2021 free Taster Lessons. This lesson was from Susan Nethercote using watercolors titled Watercolour Winddown. This was relaxing and it was so much fun to bring out my watercolors again and play with them in an abstract form. And yes, I was inspired by my beach trip😁:

 Playing over at Paint Party Friday later in the week as well. And that's it for me. Only 2 weeks and 3 days til our son's wedding and we are all getting ever more excited! Happy week all!

" Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance."      Bruce Barton

The Bridal Shower and Art Too!

 

 Hi Peeps! What a busy weekend I had. Saturday I picked up my dress for the wedding and then we had to look for a new microwave. Thankfully we found what we needed and there was one in stock😀. Although I don't use the microwave to cook I use it all the time to reheat things- especially coffee, or to make hot water. Also to defrost things, and soften butter. Then I had to empty a small china /tea cup cabinet so hubby could raise it a bit to fit in the microwave.

 And Sunday was Kyra's bridal shower which was a brunch held at the Easton Wine Project. I had never been there but what a great rustic place! We had a private room of course and it was the perfect size for the 20 some that attended. Here are some photos (if you want to go right to the art just scroll down;). I'll start with tables and displays:

 Each of the four seating tables had photos of both Todd and Kyra as babies.

  This was my plate. The food was buffet style and included 3 different quiches, a fruit platter, small bagels with a variety of toppings/spreads to choose from, a walnut and cranberry salad with Spring greens, and a sinfully delightful pastry filled with chocolate mousse. Our beverage choices were coffee, water, mimosas. Cheers to the T Stands For Tuesday gang- you will see several drink related photos 😉

 

 She got so many wonderful gifts from her registry, and we were able to get  everything but that huge box in front of her (it was a special sitting bench she wanted that her mother gifted her with) into the car!

 Kyra wanted new earrings for her wedding day and I wanted to gift them to her so she picked  out these sweet Kate Spade flower ones and I gave them to her at the shower, along with another special gift.

  . 

                             Me with Kyra and her sister Paige. 

                                                  

                   

 Maid of honor Paige, Kyra, and matron of honor Lynn. Not sharing any other people photos as I didn't get permission to share.

Still with me? On to the art then:

 This is the card I made for Kyra when I presented her with the earrings and I will share it with the Simon Wednesday Challenge (Anything Goes) and the Try It On Tuesday Challenge ((Autumn Colors):

 Products: large Ivory note card, patterned papers from my stash, sentiment- Inkadinkado, Archival Maroon ink, Fiskars border punch, silk flower, sheer ribbon, velvet leaves, large black brad, Moonshine Sequins(Simon Says Stamp). 

 Two Journal Pages and Tags:

 

 

 Joining Paint Party Friday with these pages and tags. Thanks for stopping in! I will be around to visit you as well-UNLESS you have Wordpress because I cannot leave comments on some of those blogs😕

 Stay well everyone!

"The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace."

                                                       Mahatma Gandhi