Rolling Into December

 

 Hola! Hard to believe it is the last day of November. Since very early this morning it has been dark and raining -  sometimes very heavily with some thunder as well-and it's 62 F outside!! 

Update- we had severe thunderstorms, the temp went up to 65, and we had tornado warnings between 3 and 5PM!!! Thankfully no tornadoes occurred and as things dissipated the whole sky cast a beautiful soft pink hue through all our windows. I hope these warmer temps are an indication of our coming winter months 😊 

 Here is how I prefer to see snow and cold:

On cards!

 These are meant for the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge (Anything Goes), and the Try It On Tuesday Challenge (Winter Wonderland). I began by spritzing watered down acrylic white paint on the kraft cards. Then I went to my Christmas craft bin to pull out some images. The Snoopy is recycled from an older Christmas card and the glittery snowmen are Royal Langnickel Rub Ons. I added the ribbon from American Crafts, snowflake stickers from Nicole, embossing paste, and Tim Holtz Small Talk Occasions Stickers.

 

 For the T Stands For Tuesday link up I will share this peach cake I made the other day. I am constantly baking as my hubby has to have sweets every day-two or three times a day! If I do eat any, I will have one small piece like this and then that is it. He eats the rest unless our son and DIL come over. Good thing he is so active with exercise, weight lifting, bike riding, and running 😁 

 At the top of this post is a journal page from the Dina Wakley Blue Media Journal. The denim and burlap pages can sometimes be a challenge but so far I have been able to come up with something on occasion.

 Here are two more pages I did for an Instagram 6 day gratitude challenge with a prompt each day. I shared two of the days in my last post. Here are two more:

 The prompt for day 2 was "Friends". 

 and the prompt for day 3 was "home".

 As you can see I am plugging through the pages in the two Dina Wakley Journals I have, along with using her stamps, (the large "home" stamp however is Paperbag Studios), scribble sticks, washi tape, collage tissue, and some bits and bobs from my stash. 

That's it from me today. Once I learn of the new challenges at Art Journal Journey and Tag Tuesday I hope to jump in for next week!  Until then you can also find me joining Paint Party Friday:)

 Happy week to all!

"Every one of us has an essential contribution to make, and we can do so only by taking the risk of being uniquely our own selves."   Carol S. Pearson

Thanksgiving and Gratitude

 

 Hello friends! Hope this past week was a good one for everyone. This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day in the US - a time when many families would normally gather in big groups for  a Thanksgiving feast with turkey as the center of the meal. HOWEVER, with all the increases of Covid 19, lockdowns, etc. this will be a very different holiday. Although I will make a turkey (not my choice but hubby is given one to bring home from his work place), stuffing and pumpkin pie - that will be all. And it will not be for a group. It is what it is, right? And we all want to keep well.

 Starting with T Stands For Tuesday I am excited to share these photos:

 Did you guess what it is? 

 It's the Boston Brown Bread Muffin recipe Erika generously shared after some of our requests when she shared her photo of the muffins and raved about  the recipe on her blog last week!

I couldn't wait to make it and had all the ingredients on hand (except the rye flour but as we don't care for rye so much I substituted white flour) and I made it the lazy way baking in a 7" x 11" baking dish. It's the way I make most muffin recipes anymore unless I'm baking for guests 😁. This is so delicious and moist that hubby had the equivalent of 3 muffins in one sitting! Thank you Erika for a super recipe!

 The art part:

 This journal page on denim in the Dina Wakley Blue Media Journal is for two challenges. One is for Art Journal Journey with the theme of "Birds", and the other is a gratitude art challenge on Instagram-6 prompts, 6 days, 6 artists sharing videos. This is day 4 for the prompt "Gather". I am so grateful to be able to enjoy the gatherings of the birds at my feeders and water bath. They bring me limitless joy.

 This is another page I created for the IG challenge- the first day (Fri Nov.20), for the prompt "warmth", and I will also join the new theme at Try It On Tuesday (winter wonderland):

 Most of you know I do NOT like winter and am constantly cold so I am very grateful for warm clothing, hats and scarves!

 This is a fabric page in one of my junk journals. Another little cluster on a tiny black playing card that was part of happy mail sent to me. I added the threads and fabric scrap behind it and the washi tape heart on top. I actually did a bit of hand stitching with red embroidery thread too:).

Sharing this post with Paint Party Friday as usual😊

 So grateful for all my friends near and far.  Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating. Enjoy, and keep well!

" Wear gratitude like a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life."   Rumi

Thankful

 

 Another busy week for me- how about you? Finished clean up of outside things and then since hubby was off Friday we decided to do some thorough cleaning and polishing of wood furniture along with the much needed cleaning of a few downstairs windows. Feels good to have gotten it all done even though I would have preferred being in the art room😁

On Sunday (thankfully AFTER dinner was done!) we lost power due to a crazy windy storm that brought down power lines and trees. Glad we keep candles and flashlights of various sizes in working order. We finally got our power back around 5AM this morning. Thankfully it wasn't a cold day and night so we didn't suffer without the heat. 

 Speaking of grateful, I am also so very grateful that we were able to have our son's wedding festivities last month because now again Covid 19 has reared its nasty head with a vengeance! That means restrictions are heavily increasing most everywhere and who knows if it could lead to a lockdown here😖

 And that segs me into T Stands For Tuesday with two photos of the amazing food we had at the wedding  rehearsal dinner. I worked with the manager at Prime Steakhouse to choose the menu and such. We also had a private room and area. Everyone that worked there was so nice and accommodating, and everything was consistently being cleaned and sanitized. And the food- divine!! So much so that everyone ate everything served and all said how good everything was which made us happy to have chosen this place.

There was a chicken, vegetarian, and steak choice. I had the Chicken Gratella with blue cheese and a balsamic reduction along with roasted potatoes on the side. We were all served salads as well as fresh rolls, veggies, and desserts but these were the only pics I thought to take.

                   And this was the pasta primavera meal.

Cheers to the Tuesday gang!

 At the top of my post are side by side pages I did in a junk journal gifted to me by Patty S. Here is another page I just did in the journal:

 The little collage cluster on the black card was one of a handful of bits also gifted to me- by a lovely lady from across the pond I met on IG. I added some recycled dryer sheet under it and glued on the black threads that were sitting on my desk.

And here are two pages from a second junk journal gifted to me because of another lovely IG connection:

 The flower was a practice painting I had done using Dina Wakley Gloss sprays.

 And on this fabric page I used a scrap of handmade paper along with a clip art image. I am so thankful for the community of people I have never met in person but have connected with through blogging or social media!

 Finally, a simple journal page which is meant for  Try It On Tuesday (Traditional Christmas Colors), The Simon Says Monday Blog Challenge (Happy Holidays), and Art Journal Journey (Birds):

 

 Products: manila tag; Dina Wakley Black media Journal; large sentiment and patterned cardstock from old Basic Gray papers; washi tapes (Recollections); Tim Holtz Seasonal Chit Chat Stickers; glittery foam snowflake (Nicole); the snowman image was recycled from an old Christmas card.

 Linking with Paint Party Friday as well. I'll be around to visit throughout the week. Keep well! XO

" He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has."               Epictetus

 

Wedding(Part2) and Art

 

 Hi Peeps! Hope this week finds you all well. We have been experiencing the most gorgeous, warm (65-76 F degrees) and sunny days since last Wednesday and I am in heaven!! We still have Swiss Chard in the garden, and my hanging baskets and pots of geraniums are still blooming and quite beautiful😀 This is truly our Indian Summer!

 Before heading to more wedding photos I'll share this tag on a burlap journal page meant for Tag Tuesday for the theme of "texture":

My cluster tag inspiration is from both Dina Wakley and Megan Whisner Quinlan- both of whom have been sharing lots of art and videos on Instagram. I did lots of stamping and painting of images in the evenings and then cutting them while enjoying the sunshine outside in the afternoons. I also layed down lines of washi tapes on thin papers to collage with. You can see here what I did:

                  Lots of fussy cutting!

 Now for some more wedding photos- these are from the reception at the barn house at Barn Swallow Farm:

           The sweetheart table for the bride and groom.

 This table was on the left walking in and it held personalized lidded mason jars for each of the guests.

   Across from the table above was this decorated table with personal photos strung up.

The venue was filled with twinkling lights from floor to ceiling and it was just stunning!

Besides this hors d'oeuvres table there were hot hors d'oeuvres being served. Sadly I did not try one thing as Bill and I were busy greeting people before dinner.

                         The cake table setting.

This is the laser cut wood piece Kyra ordered from Etsy. It came from someone in Europe!

The cake was made to look like birch tree logs as they have a love of camping and visiting state parks. It was a deep dark chocolate and SO good! (No, there was NO smooshing of cake in the faces😉)

 And that's all we have for now. Hope I didn't bore you too much. I will join T Stands For Tuesday with this segment of pics- (the yet empty mason jar drinking glasses in the second pic, and I'm sure you'll find glimpses of glasses in other photos as well). Cheers!

 This last journal page is for Art Journal Journey (theme is birds), and Paint Party Friday:

 I started with the Collage Collective bird collage clipping. I then extended paint, drips, words and text paper pieces over and around the clip art to blend it better onto the page. 

 Enjoy your week everyone. Til next time...

" And I'm taking in the Indian summer. I'm soaking it up in my mind. And I'm pretending like it's paradise".       Van Morrison

 

A Joyful Time

 

                                       Mr. and Mrs. Todd Kunsman 💓

  Happy November! I am forewarning you all that this is a photo laden post- mostly wedding related but I will post some art at the end if you want to just scroll down;)

 Last Thursday was the rehearsal and dinner which went well considering it rained ALL day and evening. That meant having the rehearsal in the barn house rather than outside. We all prayed it would end for the wedding the next day-and it did!! However, it was very windy and bitterly cold making it quite uncomfortable for most of us, but, we got through it! 

 Here are some pics from the beginning. We don't have too many because we chose not to keep our phones out much of the time. It was more important to be in each moment of this special time. Some of these photos are from other wedding party members.  We'll  get all the photos we want from the professional photographers at a later date.

 Kyra and the bridal party began early Fri AM with champagne and a limo ride to the venue. Her mother and myself arrived a few hours later. The champagne is my drink reference to get in to T Stands For Tuesday this week 😀

 A few photos of the venue and surroundings:

The door just below the first window is the bridal suite where we spent much of the day getting hair and makeup done and then dressing. The guys had their suite around the corner.

 Fun pics before getting  dressed- but it was SOOOO COLD!!

 The guys all ready to go:

 

and a very excited father of the groom as well:

 They were married by Kyra's uncle.

 and a few more photos after the ceremony while guests went to a covered but open air pavilion for cocktails:

                                         mother of the bride Laura

                      with Kyra's grandmother (Laura's Mom)

                           with Todd's grandmother (my Mom)

                                   Todd and I

Just one more for this post:

 In the next post I will share pics of the barn house reception. FYI: masks were available for EVERYONE and the staff were all required to have theirs on at all times. No one was made uncomfortable in any way, and it was up to the wedding party  and guests  whether or not they wanted to wear a mask. 

Thanks if you stuck with me here-now on to art!

 This was done on a watercolor page in the Dina Wakley Blue Journal. I used DW paints, stencils, collage tissue faces and words, and a leaf stamp from the Be Willing stamp set. The background was painted using a technique from one of Dina's free Daily Demo videos about resist techniques.

 This page is meant for the Try It On Tuesday challenge (Embossed), and the new Art Journal Journey challenge for November (Birds) with guest host Wendy:

and a detail shot of the embossing paste I used through a stencil:

 Page Details: Dina wakley Black Media Journal; DW paints- Cheddar, Olive, Night, Lemon. DW stencil-Leafy. Liquitex black, white inks. Wonder sentiment is a Tim Holtz stamp. Fall leaves were fussy cut from a napkin, and the bird was fussy cut from a magazine. I extended the branch with brown and black paint. Images were outlined using a black Stabilo All pencil and water brush.

Linking this post to Paint Party Friday as well. Happy week everyone!

"Embrace the gift of autumn; where every flower radiates its splendor."   Lailah Gifty Akita