A Fun Ending To November

  It's a new week and finally I am feeling better after a nasty upper respiratory virus. This is a detail of the only piece of art I managed during that time. Here is the full journal page:

 I aptly titled it "Achooo!" This was a quick and fun page to do with random watercolor marks, scribbling with a pencil, splattering and dripping, and then adding the collage papers and threads which were on my table at my fingertips. No actual sneezing or coughing was done on this page:):)

Linking to Paint Party Friday.

 Sunday I felt good enough to go to a special exhibit and then  dinner. We went to a local art museum and this is what we went to see:

 You can read about it here. Do any of you remember Gene London? Both hubby and I watched his weekend morning show when we were kids. There were at least several write ups about this special exhibit and we knew we weren't going to miss this as we are HUGE OLD MOVIE lovers!!! 

                                     The cover and two pages from the brochure.

 Upon entering the museum we saw this stunning replica (one like Vivien Leigh wore) from Gone With The Wind. Look at that teeny, tiny waist!!!

These are also replicas from the movie - Rhett Butler's and Vivien Leigh's. Up on the second floor we went to see all the authentic costumes on display. Photos weren't supposed to be taken but as we were among only a few people there since the museum just opened for the day (and I saw a few others taking pics with their phones) I managed to sneak in just three. It began to get crowded quickly  and there were security people in each room watching. There must have been about 50 costumes and I was in heaven!!!

My top two favorite actresses have always been Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn (but my list goes on and on...:) and this is a gown Bette wore in the movie "Elizabeth of Essex". The photos I managed don't even begin to capture the opulence and shine and intricate details! 

And here is one Katharine Hepburn wore in "Sea Of Grass":

 and the last one I just had to get a pic of:

 The waitress outfit Joan Crawford wore in a favorite movie of mine- "Mildred Pierce". And again- that teeny, tiny waist-wow!!! I was completely mesmerized by every costume I saw and was surprised at just how small and tiny these actresses and actors were - they looked so much bigger on the movie screens! There was a Trevor Howard suit that looked like it belonged to a young teen, and the same with a suit worn by James Cagney in "Yankee Doodle Dandy"!  Most of the movies had been done in black and white, so to see these costumes in full glorious color too...wow!! There were small screens on the walls that you could touch on a photo of some of the displayed costumes and they'd show a film clip of the actors wearing them in the movies. There was a framed bit next to each costume that said who wore it, who designed it, and what movie it was from. I had seen almost every single movie that was represented here and was just in awe the whole time!! Hubby and I have already decided we want to make another trip to see this before it leaves on Dec. 22nd:) Oh, and Sundays are always free!

 Afterwards we had a nice dinner at a place that we had a GC for and wanted to use. I had been to the Marblehead Chowder House a few times for lunch some years ago. 

 I thought I had a pic of the reverse side (the actual menu) but I guess not...

We both had a nice Caesar salad, warm rolls, water. I also had a glass of Merlot and hubby had a Guinness. Cheers T Stands for Tuesday peeps!

 We also both chose the crab cakes(delicious) and a side of grilled asparagus which was done perfectly. We were too full for dessert but asked to see a menu anyway:

Our waiter brought this to our table and when I opened it up...

 voila! candies, and the dessert menu:) Tempting as it was we did not indulge. Nice atmosphere, generous portions, really good food, really good service. We'll be going there again for sure!

 I have just begun Christmas cards and for this year my plan is to go CAS (clean and simple) using gorgeous paper packs I recently got from my friend Maureen! It has been SOOOO tempting to order the gnome dies from Simon Says Stamp but I'm being good despite all the gorgeous cards using them showing up everywhere;)

 Half of this paper pad has gold glittered papers which are so pretty and sparkly like the one I used for this card:

 Products: white card stock; patterned paper (the Paper Studio); washi tape (Nicole- AC Moore). Joining the Simon Says Monday Challenge with the theme of "tape it up".

 Lastly, I have one final journal page for Art Journal Journey with the November theme of "fruits and veggies":

 Thanksgiving in the US is this Thursday and I will be hosting a small dinner with my hubby, mother, son and his fiancé.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

" Reflect upon your present blessings - of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."        Charles Dickens

The Last Of The Holidays Are Upon Us

 First of all, I know I missed visiting some of you this past weekend and I do apologize. My hubby has kindly given me his upper respiratory infection so besides losing my voice and coughing I have been unusually tired. These viruses do seem to come with this time of year don't they...
 At the moment my focus is on Thanksgiving which we will celebrate next Thursday. This is a time I do send out some cards and share my gratitude for having these people in my life.  And speaking of... I have this journal page to share that I made for the IG or FB 'Year Of Gratitude Challenge' hosted by Ranger Ink and Dina Wakley. The prompt this month is "I am grateful for friendship":

  My friends are my family and I truly don't know what I'd do without them.  And whether they are close friends of many years, newer friends, or even long distance friends I've not met in person they hold a special place in my heart.

  In keeping with the thankful mode I made this card meant for the Simon Wednesday Challenge (Thanks/Thanksgiving):

 Products: white cardstock; patterned paper (Paper Studio); Versafine Onyx Black ink;  sentiment (Hero Arts); dies- Clustered Leaves, Wonky Rectangles (Simon Says Stamp).

 Grab a drink and join us for T Stands For Tuesday won't you? Share something drink related and join the link party, or just take a bit of time to visit everyone. It's such a lovely gathering of diverse posts each week! Thank you Bleubeard and Elizabeth for hosting. My ticket for linking this week:

 One of the breakfasts I had at our favorite breakfast place Oceanview Restaurant during our recent trip to Cape May. Some of you may recognize this veggie wrap which I get every time we're in town. SO good! I only ever can eat half the wrap and a few of the potatoes at one sitting. I love too that you get unlimited coffee refills- I mean if I want to stay long enough to drink a whole pot worth I can- for the price of one cup of coffee - $2! :)

 The challenge at Art Journal Journey this month is "fruits and veggies". This page was done in my Dylusions Creative Dyary Journal:

 The background is a napkin. Vintage label from my stash.

And finally I have a card (it's just slightly bigger than an ATC) which I will link to Try It on Tuesday(cold,cold,cold!); Moo Mania and More (peace and tranquility); and the Simon Monday Challenge (recycle):

 I began by recycling corrugated cardboard from a box, and the packing tape Ranger uses to seal and ship their boxed products. I love this tape!

 Dimensional trees, star rhinestone (ACMoore); modeling paste; Vintage Photo Distress ink; Tim Holtz Small Talk Occasions stickers; Falling Snow stencil (Simon Says Stamp).

 That's all for this week. Linking to Paint Party Friday with this post too!

" It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters."        Amit Ray

Time To Play Catch Up!

Well hello peeps - long time no see! Hope all is going well for you. The very beginning of November hubby and I spent our last time in Cape May for this year. It started out very cold and windy just the first day but got absolutely gorgeous and we saw the most beautiful sunsets each evening. And such really fun times meeting up with friends we met there each day...however since getting back home it's like all  he(double toothpick) broke loose. Been spending too much time trying to straighten health insurance claims wrongly submitted by the facilities themselves, trying to get through to set up for next years health care (oh the glitches with this too!), etc. etc. And just today - all my inbox emails just disappeared! Poof!! vanished!!:( :( :(  We did manage to host a record/vinyl party this past weekend  but I'll post on that another time. Let's get on with the art and other good things shall we?

       Let us not forget this day of Remembrance, Veterans Day

 Here is the complete card which I am linking to the Simon Wednesday Challenge and the Simon Monday Challenge for the theme of "thinking of you":

 Products: white notecard; colored pencils; sentiment (Hero Arts); poppies (Magenta); stencil (Prima); Versafine Onyx Black ink; Altenew Morning Frost ink.

 For T Stands For Tuesday today I will share this photo:

 My future daughter in law Kyra invited me to go with her, her mother and sister to look for a wedding dress this past Sunday. She looked beautiful in everything she tried on, and when we all gasped when she came out in one in particular all we could do was cry. And she chose that dress so we celebrated with Prosecco at the shop. The shop was closed and only open for us. I was so touched to be a part of this. I love this girl so much!

 This journal page is meant for Art Journal Journey (theme is "fruits and vegetables") hosted this month by Rike; and I will also join Try It On Tuesday (theme is "autumn colors"). The fruit bowl is from a napkin.

 And lastly I will share a bit of the watercolor practice lessons I have been working on here and there. They are from Laura Horn's Watercolor Explorations online class. I am signed up for several of her classes as I just love her teaching and abstract style. I always had a love/hate relationship with watercolors but she is swaying me to the love:) I have learned so much in such a short time!

I am joining in at Moo Mania and More (theme is "circles"): 

 These are my reference swatches I made using my Daniel Smith watercolors and then some added mixing.

 This was for some mark making abstract practice.

 Here I was practicing making circles and mixing colors using only 4 original colors - and on the right page is what I got mixing all together what was leftover on my palette from the same 4 colors- just amazing how many colors came from this!! I was so tickled by the beach colors!

 Also joining Paint Party Friday again. Looking forward to catching up with all of you. Thanks for popping in!

"I define creativity as the person-centered process of imagining possibilities and taking expressive action to bring ideas to life." 

                                   Marta Davidovich Ockuly

Getting In The Spirit of Things

  Well, fall is finally truly descending upon us here in my parts. I finally put the flannel sheets on the bed, and the heat is officially on to try and keep warm. Time for soups, stews, and warm drinks!

 Halloween will soon be upon us so I made a Halloween themed page in my Dylusions Creative Dyary Journal and as luck would have it, it fits several challenges this week:) Here is the background I painted using black gesso and white acrylic paint along with the Tim Holtz Mosaic stencil and Wendy Vecchi Brick Wall stencil:

 and my completed page:

The tag was sprayed with a pearlescent purple spray ink (Inkadinkado). I splattered on some black ink. I then added the ATC print from one I designed for ARTchix Studio. The bat sticker, black enamel dot, and ribbon is from Michaels. The sentiment sticker is Tim Holtz. Black Soot Distress ink was sponged along the tag edges before gluing to the page.
 Linking to these challenges:
        the Simon Wednesday Challenge (Halloween)
        the Simon Monday Challenge (Spooky)
       Try It On Tuesday (Witches, Wizards, Halloween)
       Tag Tuesday (Anything Goes)

 For Art Journal Journey with guest host Eileen this month and the theme of  "Dreams or Wishes" I have this journal page to share:

                               Reach For Your Dreams, Reach For The Stars

 This page is on the watercolor paper in my Dina Wakley Media Journal. I used Dioxazine Purple paint along with Dina Wakley's Lapis paint with a wet brush. The page was spattered with Marabu Black Art Spray. I've had that hand image in my stash for a LONG time and decided I needed to use it when I saw it again. I also grabbed some scraps, the word, and loose black thread lying about and glued it all to the page after stapling the paper layers together with the Tim Holtz Mini Stapler.

 And for T Stands For Tuesday I'll share some photos of a recent lunch I went to with friend Lynn, her baby son Warren, her mother, and my future DIL Kyra. On Kyra's recommendation we met at a place called The Vegan Butcher.

 The menu when you walk in the door. This restaurant is no fuss and only opened this Spring in an old Taco Bell building. It is full of fun, retro, kitschy things all around, and on the tables are all sorts of old games (which you do have to move away in order to eat:) Here are some pics:

  Anyone can sign/draw on the large blackboard (this is only part of it).

 One of the toys/games on a table.And yes, our son had one of these when he was little:):) I think it was called "Rock em, Sock em Robots".

 And as for our lunch choices:

 The name of the restaurant is a bit deceiving because it is NOT completely vegan although all items have vegan/plant based options which is what we all chose . I had the plant based Chips Burger and let me say that I could have even fooled my picky hubby into thinking this was a real beef burger! We all enjoyed our lunch very much. And since I forgot to  get any drinks in the above pics, I realized this next one will be my ticket to the T party...

 See it? Way in the back top left is Warren's milk bottle:):) These are the truffle fries. We also had the lemon fries and shared. They both were SO good! And this was definitely a splurge for me because I so rarely eat fries, and very little bread.  I'd definitely go again. 

 Here is another day of challenge art for the Gelli Plate Challenge that was on Instagram last month. This day's challenge was to use felt tip markers:

 These were done on index cards. For info on the techniques I used for this challenge I have links in my previous post.

 Joining in at Paint Party Friday this week too!

 Have a great week, and stay warm! Next week I will be taking another short blogging break but will be around to visit before then. See you soon...

" Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal."

                                                                                Tagore

Dreams,Wishes and Gratitude

 Hello peeps! How are you? We are continuing with warmer than average temps-just so delightful! It does get very cool by night but that's OK. Only had to put the heat on for a bit one night so far, but I am prepared and spent the weekend putting away summer clothes, etc. and bringing out the fall/winter things.

 Eileen is guest host at Art Journal Journey this month with the theme of  Dreams or Wishes. And at Moo Mania and More the theme is Thankfulness (Count Your Blessings) so I will join in with this journal page:

 Most all of you know by now how much I adore the sea/beach. It is a dream and a wish to one day live there. Yet I am ever so grateful that we live within a few hours driving distance and that I get the opportunity to get away at least several times throughout the year. This page was done with all that in mind. I cut a heart shape from one of my beach photos. I also used Tim Holtz Typography and Symphony Collage Papers, cheesecloth, watercolor paint and Golden High Flow paint.

 Speaking of the beach...for the gang at T Stands For Tuesday for my beverage reference I'll share one of the breakfasts we had at the Ocean View Restaurant  in Cape May last month (our go to place for breakfast whenever we are in town):

 On this day I chose blueberry pancakes. I should have cut it open so you could see how loaded these were with fresh blueberries inside-yum! These were quite large and very filling-even though this was considered a "short stack". And coffee as always:)

 The new challenge this week at the Simon Monday Challenge Blog is "All Things Pink" to honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I do hope you ALL get yearly mammograms!
Here is the tag card I made:

 Products: Scallop Tag Card (the Paper Cut); Tim Holtz- Wallpaper, Paper Dolls, Clippings Stickers; Distress Vintage Photo ink; washi tape (Recollections); tiny heart shape sprinkles (Doodlebug Design, Inc); butterfly sticker (Paper House).

 And finally I'll share some of the projects I did for Birgit Koopsen and Gelli Arts 30 Day Gelli Arts Challenge on Instagram in September. I wasn't going to do it because I already had other projects going, plus I was going away...but once the challenge began I just couldn't resist joining in:):) Here is the link to her tutorials on various techniques with the Gelli Plate.

  On this day the challenge was to use Pan Pastels. I had never done this before so I followed her technique video and was delighted with the results!

 I just don't use my pastels very often so I chose to use them again the next day for the challenge to use stencils:

 The cards on the left are first pulled prints and on the right the second pulled prints

 I definitely went grungy with these. For the challenge I either did my prints on index cards or circles so I'd have ready made backgrounds for the future circles challenge and index card challenge:)

 Posting to Paint Party Friday later this week - such a fun arty party!

 Also working through my Watercolor Explorations online class but that's for another post. Keeping creative makes me happy:) Wishing you a super week ahead!

" Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live."      Henry David Thoreau