T STANDS FOR TUESDAY and ART JOURNAL JOURNEY

A new week and I think I'm ready to join the living again. It seems I've been missing in action forever but it's actually only been a week. I lost the battle with the cold I was fighting off last week and went down for the count. Not over it completely but at least I'm somewhat functional today. 

Even in the mood to do a bit of art :) 

Since several of my journals are almost full I decided to get a couple of new ones recently. A buy one one free sale  made it convenient and affordable to get several sizes. So now I have a larger size than I've ever had before :)  9" X 12"  which just happens to be my favorite size to work with ♥

So I picked out magazine pictures and started a collage. Of course I forgot to take the first stage photo. But here's the next step.

The deer where in a conservation magazine and the awesome door was in  a Home Depot Associate Magazine... the earth photo came out of a National Geographic . The bird was free hand drawn . 

Then filling in the background and adding some details...

Painting the bird and painting over the deer to make them look more like a fantasy creature. Also adding more details to the sky again for the fantasy feel I was striving for. The door was so pretty that I decided not to paint over it :) 

I'm not sure if it's done but I'm done for today ..but one more photo with the required drink... which is coffee for me today ♥♥

The garden is pretty much done for the year. I've picked the last tomatoes and pulled the plants out of the straw bales. I'm mulching down some flower beds and the spot where I'm going to plant garlic this week with the straw that's left. It's really not much like straw at all now. It has totally decomposed in the center is a rich black compost with straw around the edges. 

 The butterflies are all gone now. Out of 14 caterpillars we got 12 butterflies ... one that was hatched deformed and died right away and then two that just never developed in the cocoons. It was a great project and I'm looking forward to doing it again next year. We have already started preparing another Milkweed bed out back..

When I cleaned up the butterfly tote I would dump the caterpillar waste into my miniature yellow rose plant. It was struggling from so much rain this summer. Well it definitely liked the caterpillar "POOP" :) It just keeps on blooming. 
Today's Random Thoughts 

Don't forget to check out the other cool post at 
T Stands for Tuesday 
& 
Art Journal Journey! 
Just click on their buttons on my sidebar.
♥   

Paint Party Friday and 29 Faces in September 2015

Another week  has passed  and with it Summer has become Fall . This year it was hard to turn loose of Summer for me. The long cold and wet Spring that dragged out through the early summer just shortened it too much. I enjoy Fall but I am a SUMMER  girl through and through. 

So trying to embrace Fall I created this Gelli Plate print collage  and enhanced it with painted dots. 

The colors didn't scan as well as usual but I like it. 

I've also been working on my 29 Faces in Sept.  It was hit and miss withe faces this week .... here are #16 -#24  only one got painted and it is definitely up for a rework ...the proportions are totally off on it  ..  ...those shoulders have to go first and then we'll see what else needs fixed  ☺

During this challenge I do a lot of sketches and then come back later and paint them . 

The Monarch Project is going well ♥ We have released two so far and have two more to release later today. It's been very rewarding and we hope to raise even more next year. Even my husband has gotten excited and involved and is ready to create a new milkweed garden . He hates yard work and gardening so that's a major score to get him involved ♥

TODAY'S RANDOM THOUGHTS

 ♥

Art Journal Journal-Paint Party Friday- 29 Faces

What a week! 

One of those week where I couldn't stay focused on much of anything at all. 

I got my injection on Friday and it took longer to start working this time. But things are finally starting to feel better. 

However, they are now talking about surgery in the future and I think I'm beyond ready for that. I would like to hold off until the new year though for insurance purposes. So I'll just have to be more careful of what I do  until then. Shouldn't be hard with the garden season coming to an end.

So for the art this week, here's my entry for 

Art Journal Journey---Windows..

It's also Face # 11 and # 12 

for 29 Faces . Created while watching another YouTube video by 
Christy Sobolewski

For Face # 13 I reworked an old face from 2013 that I was never happy with...

....the before....

...the after....

I'm much happier with it :) 

Not much going on in the gardens.. a few tomatoes here and there and some squash. Will have a few peppers in a day or so but everything is small this year :( 

Finally My favorite Dahlia is blooming and it's small too ...

The last caterpillar is now cocooned so we have 8 cocoons :) 

Here it is the evening before it went into hiding.

So that's what's happening around here.. 

Random Thoughts for today....

Thanks for dropping in today and don't forget to check out some of the other great post this week by clicking on the buttons on my side bar :( 

♥

29 Faces in September 2015 & Paint Party Friday

OH MY!!
It's been one of those absolutely insane and busy two weeks here and right off the bat I fell behind in the 29 faces Challenge. 

The last two days have been calm finally and I was able to push my self to catch up... although yesterday I probably shouldn't have tried. When you see 4 & 5 you'll understand :) 

Face 1 was done on time...

...and so was Face 2 ..

....Face 3 was almost finished on time...

and then 4 & 5 were done yesterday ... I had taken 2 pain pills for my back and for some reason decided to draw and paint with my left hand---my non-dominant hand. What was I thinking? Oh ...that's right I wasn't LOL! 

4

 5

After 5 I gave up and went to bed. :) 

Today went much better..

Face 6

She was inspired by a YouTube video by

 Christy Sobolewski

Face 7 

A brush sketch inspired by a magazine photo

Face 8 

Another brush sketch inspired by a photo of

Jimmy Fallon 

Faces 9 & 10 

Painting of the same face sort of :) in the reversed pose. 

The garden is winding down and I have more free time now... 

which is good because I've adopted 14 Monarch Butterfly caterpillars and I'm raising 8 of them inside.

It's been a fun experience  and a learning one. I put half of them outside on the milkweed and brought the others inside to hand feed and raise. I have discovered 3 of the ones I placed outside dead already...attacked by wasps. So I'm going to try and find the others outside and bring them in too. They move around so much it's difficult to find them sometimes. 

Hopefully I'll be able to get some photos of the butterflies as they come out of the cocoons. It will be about 2 weeks before that happens. 

SO that's what's happening in my world this week. Tomorrow I get another injection in my back and the pain should go away for a few months. I just had too much going on this month and it all made things flare up :( 

Today's Random Thought

Got this from a fellow blogger this week and I love it. If only more people lived by these words ♥

"T" Stands for Tuesday--Birthdays and Travel

Just  have time for a real quick post and then I'm on the road. 

My father is ill again and was in the hospital over the weekend. He's better now and back at home but I want to go and check things outs for myself. 

I haven't seen them since December and it's been way too long. 

This was last fall. 

Hopefully my back won't give me too many issues and the trip is an easy one. 

Today is my daughters birthday...

This is a journal spread I did over the weekend :) 

Her schedule is so packed full of school work that it will be the end of the month before we get together to celebrate. She is working on her PHD and this is her "killer" semester. 

My "Forever" student :) 

Random Thoughts for today...

I'll try to get to everyone as soon as I can... the internet service at my parents is the slowest ever so it may be when I get back home. 

♥