Weekend in TO and visit to Ottawa

Our "vacation" time this summer was spent in Toronto for a few days, visiting with our DD, and then to Ottawa, to get my passport and visit a few museums. We had a fantastic time in both places! We stayed in Toronto in a B&B near CJ's house (first time in a B&B, it was luxurious!) CJ took us to the ROM, where we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls, and lots more. Here are a few photos from that trip:

Mr. T!

Neat chandelier embedded into a canvas

This is the new added on "Crystal" to the ROM. It was added to the outside of the building, which you can still see on the inside. The crystal has added a lot of room to the ROM.

The garden at our B&B

next - Ottawa! Here is the National Art Gallery

Right under the spider you can see the special exhibit
sign for "From Raphael to Caracci-The Art of Papal Rome"
What an incredible exhibit! If you can possibly get to this, I highly recommend it.

The next day we were off to Hull, and the Museum of Civilization, a favourite!

This dragon was at the entrance of the new exhibit "Mythic Beasts, Dragons, Unicorns and Mermaids" We love this museum and visit whenever we can!

The first floor, First People's Hall

Looking at the Parliament Buildings through a waterfall

Lunch!

Well, I guess that's it for the summer. Back to work on Monday (even though I've been there almost every day this summer!) But more art is on it's way, I have several projects up my sleeve!

More Fun with Therese!

Therese and I also wanted to make a Coptic Bound book. We tried to read the directions, but they were very confusing! Finally we looked it up on You Tube and found a great demo. I can't show you my book because I can't get my camera to co-operate with Kodak Easy-Share (anything but if you ask me! Olympus was much better) We used crochet string because that is all we had, but I think I will re-do mine with a thicker string.

We also made a tag from an idea that I got from another blog, but now I can't find it (of course!)
You take some flat plastic from an empty box (recycling!) and you cut it into a tag shape, then you run it through the cuttlebug to emboss the design (I use a pasta machine, as I don't have a cuttlebug). The you make a tag and glue it on top. Easy peasy. If anyone knows where this idea came from, please let us know! Image by Altered Pages.

We didn't get around to playing with wax, we'll have to save that for another day! I love having Therese come and play for a few days!

Most Fun Weekend of August

The most fun weekend of August was when my friend Therese from Trenton came to visit for a few days. We wanted to do many things, one of which was to make books. She brought her zutter machine, and we started to punch out lots and lots of coasters to use as book covers. We then had the wonderful idea of making little books for our guests that we were having for dinner on Monday night. So we made 9 little books, each the same but different, and we had a surprise for our friends on Monday night!




Since it was a dinner party, we had 4 quotes that had something to do with food. We left 3 pages blank, ready for mounting a photo. During the party we snapped photos, and then snuck away and printed out 3 pages of 3 different photos, each person was represented in the photos (not all at once). After dinner (we had pot-luck appetizers, then Therese and I made salad and cedar-planked Salmon) but before dessert (cheesecake!) we brought out the books, photos, and lots of fibers and charms. All of our friends but one were stampers/paper artists. They had a ball gluing in the photos and personalizing their books, even the one who claims she's not artistic! So we now all have our own little book of that wonderful time together!

I had a lot of questions about the salmon, which was incredibly good, Therese and I just looked it up on You Tube, which is where the link above takes you, you can choose which one you want to see. The one we looked at and chose, of course, I can't find! Essentially we soaked the cedar plank (Loblaws) for 24 hours, the poured on olive oil, salt and pepper, put the fillets on (nice and thick!) oiled, salted an peppered them, and put the whole thing on a hot grill (turned down to medium I think, when we put them on). The fillets were very thick, they cooked about 25 minutes I think. And boy, did the air smell wonderful!! The bottom of the board was very charred and burnt, and the salmon tasted lovely and smokey. The only sauce we used was dill cream cheese, melted in the microwave.

Bad Girl!

Here it is, end of August, and I haven't posted for a month! After a whole month of journaling everyday, you would have thought a habit had been formed - oh, I THINK about it everyday, but I don't DO it!! And I do not know why. I find that strange, don't you?

I've had a fun month of August, starting with a trip to Niagara Falls to visit friends. On the first day we went to Jordan, a neat little village with interesting shops.

This fountain was in a garden shop - I love the sound of falling water!

Another neat little fountain, but very quiet, the water just oozes out of the rock

We ate lunch at a very cute little restaurant, with old record albums all over the place and a funky atmosphere

The next day it was pouring rain (par for the course this summer!) so we went to visit Jackson Triggs winery. It was the first time I've been to a winery, and it was very interesting! Apparently they built the winery with tours in mind, so (according to others who have taken wine tours before) we got to see a lot more than other wineries.

grape fields

This was actually near the end of the tour, where they put the wine into oak barrels. More interesting than huge vats of steel.

This is the outside of the winery. It was built to resemble a modern barn. The huge doors on either end open completely, and there are vegetable gardens in the front, and a neat watering trough fountain along the left side of the walk to the entrance. The best part of the tour, was, of course, the wine tasting. We tasted white, red and ice wine. We bought the white Riesling and the Ice Wine to take home.

That was the beginning of August!

July 28-29

Let my worries go. . .!

Childhood memory of eating loquats from the tree, when I was a child. My brother and I built a treehouse next to a loquat tree, and made a hole in the roof to drop the loquats through! I've haven't had one since that house.

July 26-27

The butterflies are from Altered Pages

If I could whatever I wanted, I could easily live on wine, cheese, french bread and olives!

It was a heartbreaking day when my Dad died in 2001, on the first day of summer

New Altered Book Page

Finally, something other than a journal page!! This AB page was made with an ATC from Judy in my ABCanada group. A group of us swapped ATCs and we made AB pages from the one we received. The theme was 'Birds". This ATC page took awhile to formulate in my mind. I knew I wanted a quote, but couldn't find one I liked. I originally had another idea for the page, but once the page was painted it didn't go with my idea. The stamp I used popped into my head this as the perfect stamp to go with the owl, but I couldn't remember where it was (It's a Meer Image UM, I believe). When I found it and stamped it , the moon was lost in the darkness of the page, so I tediously colored in the moon with a Sakura white gel pen. I ran to the computer, knowing there has to be a good owl/moon quote somewhere, and I found it right away! So the page is born!

July 24-25

I have had this image of the horse and the jockey taking a bath for a long time - I never had the occasion to use it! It is one of my favourite images! The beauty on the left is from Altered Pages.


I am terrible, I haven't touched my long hair more than a few times in the last 40 years. But my GM had long hair, my Mom has long hair, so it seems to run in the family! I usually wear it in a ponytail.
Was very excited to see the new Harry Potter! Can't wait for the DVD so I can watch it agin.

July 22-23

This page is in honour of my friend Therese who is always sending me little surprises in the mail!



I love black and purple! Images from Altered Pages

July 20-21

I wish I could drive myself to places far away, I have a fear of driving long distances - even as a passenger. I will be a passenger, but I'm on edge most of the way. My friend Marg drives to Florida and back every year, I 'm always amazed with her fearlessness! I would love to go off to conventions and classes but thet are always so far away. Someday I will pick up the courage to do it!

Every Tuesday (and Thursday) I have lunch with my Mom. It's an oasis in the day for both of us, and we look forward to those two days every week! I did some gel pen doodling around the peas and avocado, but you can't really see it in the scan. It really pops in real life!

July 14-19

Some more pages! I can't believe I've actually gotten a page a day done! This is amazing for me!

July 10-13

here are my latest journal pages


The green border is a stamp I made with bits of unmounted stamps that I had cut off.





The ticket stub is from the new Johnny Depp movie Public Enemies. I can't remember where the mad hatter came from, but it was on a collage sheet with the "poison" sign







The woman's body is not checkered, it just scanned like that! The butterflies are a transparency from Altered Pages

July 8 and 9 pages

Two more pages - at this rate my comp book will be full by August!

I used punchinella to make the black grungy dots

I do love this page! I used Tim Holtz Stencil, tapped over it with a
white paint dauber. Love those things! My favorite group is a Goth Rock
group called Within Temptation. Never would have thought a 55 year old
would be into Goth Rock! Maybe I'm reliving my childhood,
maybe I would dress all in black and dye my hair if I were 14 again. . .LOL!

I've also been using Distress ink on the edges of my
background papers - and adding swirls-I love the look!

July 6-7 pages

Here are my pages for July 6 & 7

I used a Tim Holtz mask, first I sprayed with a mister colour, but it didn't work well, I got a lot of seepage under the mask -too watery, i dried it off and repositioned the mask and used my black paint dauber. I like how it all turned out!

This isn't one of my favourites. I need some new magazines
to cut up, I'm very tired of all the images I don't use!
But I do like highlighting certain words by printing the word on
another scrap of paper.

July 4 & 5 pages

Two more pages from my Comp Journal-

July 4 prompt was to tell about a trip taken with family of or loved one


July 5th prompt was what would you do to be a tourist in your own town?


I also have my Bird ATC for my AB Canada group, we send another person the ATC and they create an altered book page with it.

This one is dark, kind of Poe-ish, with a diamond for an eye

July 2 & 3 journal pages

Two pages today: July 2 prompt was do you remember getting your license?




July 3 prompt was what do you need in the mornings to get you going?



I left the left side blank to fill in at the end of the day.
Stamps by Tim Holtz.

July 1 page

Since I am trying to make 1 page a day in July, I will probably be posting it everyday! I'm in Kelly Kilmers Journaling group, and she has given prompts for paint, collage and subject. Today's subject prompt was what are you wearing, and what do you like to wear the most?

Kelly's prompts are for a single page, but since I like to do 2 page layouts, I will do the right side as per her prompts, and the left side will be a complimentary page with personal journaling on it. So I matched the top right and bottom left layering of background paper, and continued the diamonds from the paper on the right. The man in the photo is David Navaronne, I've always thought he was incredibly sexy!! Could almost be Johnny Depp! Those eyes! I've done a bit more journaling on the left side since this was scanned.

New Journal Cover

Here is the cover for my new Composition Journal. I'm trying something fun this month, I joined a journaling class with Kelly Kilmer. I'm looking forward to starting today! My last journal lasted 2 1/2 years, but I certainly didn't journal daily. This one may not last quite as long (if I keep it up everyday that is!)

Rolodex Swap

I have finished my cards for the Byhand Rolodex Quotes Swap. I did it in "serendipity" style. I know there's a new name for this, but I can't remember what it is! I decorated a page, then cut out the Rolodex shapes from it, then added my quote and extras. So they are all the same, but all different!




I used Ranger distress inks, Hero Arts script, Stamper's Anon. and gel.a.tins "Spiral Symphony" (one of my favorite set of stamps). I generated the quote on the computer, and the raised dots are all Pebeo Metal Touch. The hearts and stars are all grunge paper shapes by Ranger.