cup of courage …

with news that is cringe worthy each and every day I am trying to keep my balance and focus on the good…

being grateful for little things like fresh flowers and being able to arrange them in our new farm sink which is one of my favorite things about our recent kitchen remodeling…

I have noticed that WordPress no longer offers a way to click on photos to enlarge them or it could be my limited tech knowledge that hasn’t found the right button in the new format for creating blog posts…

so you may not be able to read my BE BRAVE canvas or see that the cup says: Cup of Courage…

I held off for months but now there is no longer a choice to revert to the old and friendlier way of drafting a post…

as our son would say these are “first world problems”…

I am joining the group over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover to wish you a Happy T Day (all are welcome to join in!)…

“Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go, it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.”  -Alice MacKenzie Swaim

 

turning over a new leaf…

typing on my new iPad that Mr Magpie surprised me with waiting to see how it works posting on my blog…so here goes…

WOW it works like a charm and it fits in nicely with my word for 2017 (SIMPLIFY is a word I have chosen as my  word of the year in the past…turns out it still needs work)…

these days I take so many photos with my iPhone it should be easier to attach those photos in my blog posts directly instead of having to send them to myself and work with them from the main computer… 

a more streamlined process that I am really excited about with some tricks still left to learn…

I am joining everyone over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover for T Stands for Tuesday…

wishing you a happy day (footnote: in the end I did have to fine tune a bit from my real computer but the iPad will definitely open new doors and I can stand instead of sitting all the time too!)

~*Happy New Year*~

sending every good and special wish your way…

“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.”  -Oprah Winfrey

coming to the end…

joining Elizabeth’s T Stands for Tuesday with a little look back over the year as I try to get back in the swing of things after such a long disconnect…

life goes on for everyone and I know you have all been busy creating and blogging and I have missed so much…

my creativity shifted from art journaling and creating to making decisions and plans for all the changes we’ve had going on here at home for the last many months…

our kitchen remodeling is finally complete and we are enjoying it very much…

after adding cabinets to the side of the room where the computer once was we decided to move the main computer upstairs and out of the main flow of things…

with only a cell phone and typing with my pointer finger I felt a bit limited and was not able to visit blogs or update my blog (one finger typing worked OK for short exchanges on Facebook)…

blogging has been a part of my life for so many years I have missed connecting with friends all around the globe…

thank you all for a wonderful year of connection and inspiration…

~*Wishing you Brightest of Blessings in the New Year *~

~* Sending Best Wishes Always *~

Hello dear ones … so much time has passed since I was last here…

I think of you often and hope you are well…

 

“radiant with hope”

to celebrate Elizabeth’s 3rd T Stands for Tuesday anniversary last month some of us participated in an ATC swap and I was the lucky recipient of Linda’s  precious ATC (her gelli print envelope is beautiful too!)…

she and I share a fondness for all things French and napkins too for collage… look at these lovelies that she tucked in the envelope…I thought of my tea and coffee drinking friends while doing a little window shopping over the weekend… the Madame Butterfly tea description almost makes me want to drink green tea…Anthropologie window displays turn everyday items into visual treats with a focus on ecology and nature…speaking of nature here is an update on our Appalachian Trail hiker who is still going strong even though he shared recently that he enjoys the camping more than the walking…

he has already hiked more than 1,800 miles/2896.819 kilometers and worn out a couple pairs of shoes (there he is with all of his belongings on his back including his green tent)…

right now he is making his way through the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire …

with some miles still to go…

“The US has enough on-shore wind to power the country ten times over.” #ANTHROEARTHDAY

Anthropologie’s wind quote made me smile thinking of all the crazy political news here in the US lately…

Blessings…

another inspiring theme over at Art Journal Journey for July…

many thanks to Yvonne of Meggys Way and all of the participants…

as a final offering I created a 9 x 12″ canvas inspired by a photo of a statue in the sumptuous gardens of Isola Madre on Lake Maggiore in Italy…

lots of layers (pattern tissue… citrasolv paper… cheesecloth… netting… vintage lace and trims adhered with my favorite soft gel medium)…at first I had stamped IMAGINE on tissue paper with some turquoise ink that was too light so that gave me a chance to change the word to BLESSINGS (Art Impressions, Oregon USA)…

I rushed a bit on this and intend to go back and add some touches of green paint…thanks so much for visiting ~♥~

“It is only with true love and compassion that we can begin to mend what is broken in the world. It is these two blessed things that can begin to heal all broken hearts.” -Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

Paris is always a good idea…

we treasured the extra days we got to spend in the city of lights both before and after our Best of France tour…

La Flamme de la Liberté above is a replica of the new flame at the upper end of the torch carried in the hand of the Statue of Liberty in New York … it became an unofficial memorial for Diana, Princess of Wales, after her death in 1997 in the nearby tunnel beneath the Pont de l’Alma…

it would not be hard to fill a journal with just Paris…

in going through a couple of goodie drawers here at home I found some great French bits and bobs which led to a few more art journal pages…

I made a tiny postcard to slide into a French velum envelope addressed to all of you lovely blog friends out there…

using some original French ledger and book pages felt good… (the first rip is always the hardest)…

I have confessed in the past that I sometimes use copies of vintage ephemera but I am doing much better at using the real thing…

even though Erika’s JOURNEYS challenge is winding down for the month over at Art Journal Journey I have a second set of pages to share today…getting to meet Chris and Tony from the UK and Sabine from Germany  helped make some extra special Paris memories for us…

Chris enjoys coffee so she has a bit of used coffee filter by her and Sabine likes tea so I used the muslin tea bag from the tea we shared in a Paris cafe near Notre Dame (yup dried them out and took them home) … I enjoy both tea and coffee which is represented on the left hand page (after carefully opening the tea bags and putting the tea leaves in a special dish garden I noticed shimmery flakes on the inside of the tea bag fabric which for me symbolized just how magical our time in Paris was… thanks to The Graphics Fairy for the lovely ladies and cherubs … the Eiffel Tower is from a peeled tissue)…

(snapped a photo of the interesting ironwork by Notre Dame and noticed what was written on the marble on the left hand side when I got home: ICI LA REVOLUTION)

“Paris is always a good idea.” -Audrey Hepburn from the movie Sabrina

Meeting in Paris…

our last full day in Paris had been planned and anticipated for many months as a special blog friend from Germany took the train to Paris the day before to meet us and spend the day with us…

we were all atwitter with excitement…

I knew from corresponding with Sabine that her English was excellent and it turns out her French is great too…

we three got along like peas in a pod playing tourist hopping on and off the BigBus pinching ourselves that there we were in Paris together meeting for the first time…

Sabine and Jim were busy reading maps on one of the 37 bridges that cross over the Seine River…

Mr Magpie snapped a photo of Sabine and I warming up with a nice cup of Earl Grey tea (the friendly waiter was curious about the traveling teacup so we explained how it gets around)…

from beginning to end it was such a delightful day…

as we stepped out of the cafe where we had enjoyed a memorable dinner near our hotels La Tour Eiffel was doing her hourly five minute sparkle dance which never gets old…

thanks so very much to dear Sabine for making the trip all by herself and she came bearing gifts too sharing some delicious treats from the town where she lives YUM YUM

~♥Vielen Dank, mein liebe Freund ♥~

here’s wishing everyone a Happy T Day over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover oxo

“…God knows, when spring comes to Paris the humblest mortal alive must feel that he dwells in paradise….it is the intimacy with which his eye rests upon the scene. … A man does not need to be rich, nor even a citizen, to feel this way about Paris…” –Henry Miller

 

2015 in Review by WordPress

WordPress number crunchers have provided a review again this year and I want to thank everyone that stops by and those of you that make the time to leave a comment I appreciate EXTRA much … the top five always kind and generous commenters were Valerie … Elizabeth … Christie … Jeanie and Jo Murray oxoxo

your continued support of me and my creative journey mean so much as I use my blog as a visual journal to record some of my creative doings…

here is the link for the full report…

gift suggestions…

Christmas gift suggestions by Oren Arnold

“To your enemy, forgiveness.

To an opponent, tolerance.

To a friend, your heart.

To a customer, service.

To all, charity.

To every child, a good example.

To yourself, respect.”

my thanks to each of you for another special year of connection… friendship and sharing ♥ Wishing you a Merry Christmastime oxoxo

sunshine of life…

this past weekend was filled with enjoying nature and especially  flowers which is something I never get tired of…

on Sunday we visited a pick your own flower farm

and were especially taken with the sunflowers (they planted 25 different varieties that will bloom on and off for about four weeks) …

we brought the traveling tea cup along and placed it in front of the beautiful Gladiolus bed…

when I zoomed in on one of the rows of sunflowers I could not resist snapping a photo of a little girl enjoying the blooms…

Burnside Farms supports pollinator habitats which includes endangered Monarch butterflies…

there is something about sunflowers that always makes me smile…

speaking of things that put a smile on your face… 

a surprise package from Karla arrived traveling all the way from Brazil…

Karla’s thoughtful gifts were a delight to open and I could feel her kindness and friendship from across the miles…

wishing each of you a Happy T Day along with everyone over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover…

***in keeping with the spirit of sharing I wanted to direct you to Seth Apter’s celebration of 8 years of blogging and a chance to be a very lucky winner of his generous giveaway here***

tea cup art journal…

back in March while digging through some of my art supplies I came across a set of blank chipboard tea cups (if you’d like a closer look you can click on the photos)…

so I got busy sharing my progress along the way with you here…

I did not concern myself with the order of the tea cups…

rather I worked on the fronts and backs of each cup as the spirit moved me off and on over the months…

it worked well that there was no official “cover” so the pages can be turned and left open where ever…

it really was fun and a nice little challenge to work around the handle of each cup keeping the designs on the simple side…

a shout out to Elizabeth our hostess with the mostess… I was the lucky winner of her second anniversary giveaway and here are the lovely goodies I received (I confess the paper hound in me really swooned over the lovely star tissue paper which reminds me so much of my German heritage)…

here’s wishing you a Happy T Day along with everyone over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover…  thank you for stopping by I appreciate your visit very much…