Happy May!

 

 May 1st is a lovely day in France where many give and receive cards and bouquets of Muguets de Bois or Lily of the Valley flowers. They represent good luck and I cherish the beautiful cards and wishes received from family in France. Wish I had these in my back yard. Happy May wishes to you! Lots to share this week so I'll get right to it - starting with the completed covers of my now filled kraft journal:

 I must say, the tricky part was the spine but I managed :). 

Here's a tag I made for the new theme this week for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog ( theme is "masculine" with an option to use Tim Holtz products),  the new Tag Tuesday theme which is "Add Some Stencilling", and the new theme at Try It On Tuesday (Use a Stencil)::

 Tim Holtz- Paper Dolls, Postal washi tape, Small Talk Stickers, Mosaic stencil, Linen stencil. Dina Wakley stencil- Shape Mash up. Inks: Distress Oxide- Peeled Paint, Fossilized Amber, Faded Jeans, Frayed Burlap. Versafine Onyx Black ink. Vintage label, German Scrap - ARTchix Studio.

For T Stands For Tuesday I'll share the recent lunch I had at a local diner with two of my best long time friends, It's been such a long time since we've been able to get together.

 Jo, please know that I visit your blog but it no longer allows me to leave a comment with my google account:(.

 Although this diner is only a few short miles from me and on a major road I had no idea it existed! We went at 11AM and it wasn't real busy at all so we enjoyed a wonderful lunch that lasted over 3 hours 😁. Because it wasn't busy we knew it was OK to stay for as long as we did. 

 The Hanover Eatery has a large menu selection for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The place is spacious and has tables and booths, is very clean, and our lunch choices were delicious. I chose a chicken Caesar wrap which came with fries and coleslaw. My drink choice was water because I already had my caffeine limit for the day and I don't like soda or sweet teas. The wrap is bigger than it appears so half went home with me. I know hubby will really like the food and the good prices so we'll plan a lunch date soon. Cheers!

And while I'm on the subject of food.... here's something I'll link to Food Wednesdays this week:

 I tried this recipe  for a Brown Sugar Mustard Glazed tofu "ham". 

 The house smelled so good- like I was actually baking a ham!! It tasted exactly like a baked ham and was so full of smoky delicious flavor! Hubby was quite hesitant to try it but once he did he was quite surprised at just how much it tasted like a ham. Only thing is that of course it doesn't look like a ham once it's sliced and it doesn't have the same color or texture. He'd eat it in a stir fry but not as a sliced meat replacement. Our son said the same thing although he and Kyra were also impressed with the flavor. I ate slices of it cold in a sandwich and it was yummy!  Final verdict- if they are hungry for ham they want the real deal😂.

 Back to art now. There was a free 14 day online program called Sketchbook Revival which consisted of two art lessons a day with 14 different artists. Thankfully the host extended it for another two weeks. Although I watched all the lessons I only got to the ones that most appealed to me before time ran out. Here are two of them:

 

This lesson was from Day 1 with Courtney Cerruti. She had us choose a watercolor color that spoke to us in that moment, then mix it with other colors filling your page with a shape (circle, square, oval, etc.). There is at least a tad of that pink in every one of those mixes! Once it was dry we were to draw/doodle in the shapes. I used a black and a white Posca pen for the doodles.

 This next one I really didn't think I'd like so much- until I got doodling and couldn't stop;).

This was a lesson by Terry Runyan on Day 11 called "From Blobs to Birds". We were to make random blobs of watercolor on the page which would then become quirky birds. I saw a few here but it wasn't doing anything for me... until I did this...

 Ok, now I could see more birds, and here they are:

 What fun this turned out to be! I will link to Art Journal Journey with the new theme this month (Birds) with guest host Matilde.  I'm so glad for these lessons which made me bring out my watercolors again:).

 More watercolor practice and lessons next post. Thanks for stopping in, have a wonderful week, and Happy Mother's Day on Sunday 💟 

  “Fair flowers are springing beneath thy genial ray, and a thousand happy birds are singing, all welcome to thee, May!”          Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon