Highlight of the week

My daughter took this photo of her two girls, my darling twin granddaughters as they were walking home. She asked me if I would use the photo in a journaling page. And this is what I came up with.
Much to my surprise and delight it was chosen as one of the hight lights of the week on Tangie Baxter's Art Journal Caravan blog. You can see it here along with the other pages that were chosen this week.
Patting myself on the the back and grinning ear to ear, that 2 pages in two weeks that have been features on web sites.

Featured on Digital Whisper

I created this page for a challenge at Deviant Scrap. We were asked to create a journal page about our wings . After reading this quote by Jean de la Fontaine which struck a cord in me I created this page. The background paper was from a kit by Rucola Designs and the balloon from DeivantArt_Pshoudini.
I also posted the photo on Digital Whispers where it was selected as one of their featured photos. Kinda nice to be recognized ;-)

Time marches on

Thinking of how quickly time is going as I had another birthday in January I created this journal page. The quote is from "The Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick. You can find the complete poem here.

Work in progress

A 2004 we were given tickets to tour a garden in Quebec called
 Les Quatre Vents or The Four Winds. The garden is owned by the New England Cabot family and is only open to the public twice a year for a few days.
I took hundreds of photo's as we followed the tour over 15 hectares and several hours of walking. Les Quatre Vents is a  truly spectacular garden that is divided into more than 20 areas from formal gardens, to woodlands, including an extensive Japanese garden and a field of the most incredible blue poppies I have ever seen.  If you are interest in learning more about the garden the present owner Francis H. Cabot wrote a book describing his family ties to the area since 1902 the development of the garden called "The Greater Perfection".



I had always intended to use the photo's I took to create an  embroidery.

Yesterday after so many years I finally started . I laid a foundation using a Embellisher. If you don't know what an Embellisher is check out this link.

To form the  bricks and plants I used mohair and soy silk fibers. Next step is to create dimension by hand embroidery. I plan on using several different weights of floss and a variety of stitches. Truth be known this is my favorite part, I love to embroider and find it very soothing.

More photos to come as the piece develops.

Looking for True Love

My take on a challenge from the Art Journal Caravan - Castle

5

These little ballerinas turned 5 today! I am blessed to live nearby and be a part of their lives.

Travelogue

I am back from our cruise and starting to feel as if I have finally caught up with "normal" life. I thought this post should be a little travelogue of my trip.

We boarded our ship the Ryndam on Sunday afternoon. It amazes me how very efficient the staff can process over a thousand people. Before we left port we had a emergency drill exercise. After all the terrible press of the sinking of a cruise ship off the coast of Italy we were quite happy to see that the Ryndam took emergency preparation seriously.
The ship had 12 levels and our stateroom was on #8 in the center of the ship. That was a great help when we hit rough seas, which we did several times during the cruise

                                       The Ryndam in port at Costa Maya
Our stateroom was a good size with a sitting room. The best part of having a stateroom is the balcony.

It was lovely sitting on it having breakfast in the morning or watching the sunset in the evenings.
Our first stop should have been Key West, Fla. Unfortunately one of the engines broke down and we were not able to dock. The Capitan was very apologetic and we were given glasses of Champaign in at dinner that night.

The next port was Belize City and our tour of Altun Ha & Belize City. The tour around the city was short and there was not much to see. The city was rundown and in disrepair. Altun Ha the Mayan site was about a 35 minute bus ride from Belize City. Our guides were very pleasant and knowledgeable. There was not much to see on the drive there, this part of Belize is very much a 3 world country. What surprised me was the amount of trash on the side of the roads. Altun Ha was well kept and we were happy to have had the opportunity to see it. At this site we were allowed to climb to the top of the pyramids. The steps are very steep and far apart. It was not for the faint of heart to make this climb.

I will admit my legs felt the result of the climb for a few days afterward.



Tuesday evening was one of the two "dress up" nights on board. It was nice to see so many of the men in tuxedo's and women in pretty evening dresses. We dressed up as well but did not go as far as true formal wear.

When we woke up Wednesday morning we had already docked in Mahogany Bay, Honduras. It was a clear and sunny day and it was so beautiful to look at the sparkling water and the white catamarans bobbing in the water as we ate breakfast on our balcony. Mahogany Bay is on the island of Roatan, which I had never heard of until we booked for this cruise. What a pleasant surprise it was especially after Belize. From the moment we got off the ship and walked to the port where we were picking up our excursion we could see the difference. There were beautiful lush gardens and urns filled with flowers. The tour of Carambola Botanical Gardens and the Roatan Butterfly & Bird Gardens were great. I especially liked seeing the exotic birds.

Our guild told us funny and personal stories about the birds that he takes care of.

We also made a stop at West End village beach which was super beautiful. I'm sorry I did not get a better photo of it. There we watched Garifuna dancers put on a short performance for us. The Garifuna culture dates back to the 1600 when a British ship sunk off of the coast of Roatan. The ship was carrying African  slaves who swam ashore and established themselves on the island.

Friday morning we docked in Costa Maya, Mexico. We boarded a bus to Chacchoben a Mayan ruin about an hour away. The countryside that we saw going to the site was very desolate but surprisingly the roads were in fantastic condition.

Chacchoben covers several acres of land and dates back to about 1000 BC. It was very hot at the site with almost no tree cover.

We were not allowed  to climb  any of the structures at this site which was just fine with me as I was feeling the heat and lack of water.

Each night our cabin steward turned down  our bed left chocolates and a towel sculpture. This was the fellow left for us on Friday night.

Our last day Saturday was spent at sea heading back to Tampa.

I hope you enjoy traveling along with me. Your comments are always appreciated.

A-B-C's of a new class & travel news

I love taking on line class and learn at  my own pace. This week I started a poster design class at Jessica Sprague. Our first assignment was to make a poster of the alphabet using 4 different fonts. I thought this might be a nice one to frame for my youngest grand daughters room. 
Now for the travel news. In a few days we are off on a cruise of the Mayan Coast . Our first stop is Key West, and then on to Belize City. During our stop in Belize City we will be going to see the Mayan City of Altun Ha. Next is Mahogany Bay, Honduras. There are no runes nearby to see instead we will be visiting the Botanical Gardens and having a tour of the west side of the island

Another stop on the cruise is Costa Maya, Mexico. We have booked an excursion to see Chacchoben Mayan ruin.

I am looking forward to this adventure especially after visiting the Royal Ontario Museum Mayan exhibition last month. I'm bring my Digital SLR with me to take lots of photo and have made a travel journal to keep while away.

I am trying out a journal that I made with a ring binding to see if that works better than fixed signatures. This way I'll be able to move about photo pockets and pages that work best for my days journal page. 

I hope I'll have lots of interesting photos to share when I get back.

Man of La Mancha

The Art Journal Caravan 2012 word this week was Quixotic. The first image and thought that came to my mind was Don Quixote de la Mancha. I found Don Quixote on DeivantArt drawn by Randis. I extracted him from the background and then went to work on the layout.
When I was in High School, many a year ago, taking grade 12 Spanish I was given the task of reading Don Quixote in the original and then translating chapters into English. All I can say now looking back on it, was the absolute despair I felt when starting out that there was no way I could do it. It did get done eventually and sad to think now I have lost most of that small ability in Spanish. I also saw the play  Man of la Mancha several years ago, I  was very moved by the songs and sadness. I'm sure I have the sound track somewhere around and will have to pull it out and listen to it again.

Fun Video to watch

I watched this youtube video and liked it so much I wanted to share.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpunQZ4cUyI&feature=colike

Journal Prompts

I am just finishing a 3 week workshop on Digital Journaling given by Jessica Sprague and Nancie Rowe Janitz. It's been a good experience working each day on a journal page from prompts. Here are a few of my finished pages and the prompt/word that we were given  to inspire us.
Family

Words of a song

Inherited from a parent

Introspection

Lost and Found

Escape

Music

Time

I had a lot of fun and enjoyment putting these pages together and would love some feedback.

More Journal Pages

I've been busy keeping up with the Digital Journaling Class at Jessica Sprague.
The lessons have been a good review for me in various Photoshop techniques.

The photo I used for this page was taken in the summer of 2010 by a very talented local photographer. I added our family's newest addition who was born last May.

 The word of week two of the Art Journal Caravan 2012 was Propinquity. I had to look it up to see what the meaning was! In case you don't know as well it means "nearness of relationship"

I though it would be fun to continue with the story I started about Monimia. Can you guess what her time of need was?

Digital Art Journaling

Jessica Sprague and Nancie Rowe Janitz are giving a class in Digital Art Journaling which started on Monday. Nancie has created a fantastic set of brushed that create the effect of painting. Our first day we were asked to create a journal page using a heart.

Today the word to journal was Treasure.

Word of the week from the Art Journal Caravan 2012 was Clandestine. That was a bit of a challenge! I decided to have a bit of fun with the LO and create a little story of a sweet young thing having secret meetings with a rake.

The postcard reads My Darling we must meet my heart aches for you. Do you think she meets him?

YIKES & Symbols

I have spent the last week or so catching up on finishing projects and starting on some new ones. Most of the new thing are in the digital realm. Art Journal Caravan 2012 started off by asking us to create a symbol for ourselves and make a mind map.
My symbol is a Triguetra - harmony for mind body and spirit.

And my map of where I am going over the next year turned out like this.

Ancient cartographers drew sea monsters and dragons on maps representing unknown territory adding the label "There be dragons". My Mind map is unknown territory entering into the Art Caravan Journey for 2012

I also finished some of Tues. Templates from Jessica Sprague:

And last but not least!

365 Project

I have been thinking about doing the 365 project. In case you don't know what it is....
You take a photo each day and at the end of the year you will have a record of your life. I believed it was first started in 2004, you can read about it here. You can do it digitally  with  Becky Higgins or informally on your own. There are a number of sites that sell 365 templates. I have made my own templates to be used with 8 1/2 x 11 paper and can be printed on most home printers.

As a gift to readers here on my blog  you can download my templates on this site.

Courage

Starting this post with best wishes to all for a Happy and Healthy 2012.

I spent the first day of this year finishing or at least trying to finish up old projects and mending that had been sitting in my studio for awhile.
Feeling quite virtuous and gave myself permission to play and make a layout for a monthly challenge at Deviant Scrap  on courage. I had been thinking about this word and a image kept coming to my mind of a Norman Rockwell painting of a little girl's first day of school.

Courage comes in many sizes. When I think of personal courage I remember this painting by Norman Rockwell of little Ruby Bridges starting her first day of school and breaking the segregation barrier in New Orleans 1960.

Comments are always appreciated.

New Years Eve.

Where has the time gone. I just realized that I had not posted for a month.
So to bring you up to date:
Trip to St. Augustine went well. The town had lots of things to do and see our accommodations a house built in 1793 was just fine. The slow trip ending up being a not as slow as expected. I worked on my journal each day and came home with a very full book.
This is what it looked like at the beginning of my trip.

And this is what it looked like at the end of the trip.

One of the days that we had the most laughs was on my friend Cynthia's birthday. Cynthia talked us into having our photo taken at a studio and here is the result.

What can I say except we did laugh a lot.
I've also been busy making Christmas gifts. The book below is one that I made for my daughter. It was made from a template by Heidi Swapp & Jessica Sprague.

I must say some of the instructions left a bit to be desired, but the finished album was quite a hit.
I've also completed two more Art Journal Caravan challeng layouts

This one the challenge word was Shelter.

And this one # 53 the word was Love.
My Christmas card looked like this with two of my darling Granddaughters in it.

Template Tuesday over at Jessica Sprague also got some attention from me with these layouts.

And the Heritage and Out of the Box challenges got these Layouts.

And thiat it for 2011. Wishing you all a very Healthy and Happy 2012.