The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Teague and I planned tentative dates for Summer Camp Ogunquit

2. We celebrated Tolkien day by watching The Lord of the Rings.

3. Repairman supposed to show up, but getting close to dinner. We ordered from Tony's. I had a delicious meatball sub.

4. A wonderful piece of Happy Mail was waiting for me after I got home  from the dentist

5. Seems I can't take antibiotics. Dr. J, Himself,  and Benedryl came to the rescue

How was your week?

Accordion Fold Book with Pockets - Cover and Days 1 and 2

Scrolling through some projects from last year in the Creative Hand Lettering & Doodling with Lindsay (Waltman-Ostrom) group on Facebook, I found an Concertina Book with Pockets with the theme of All About Me. The project took a month to complete making the book and filling the pockets with Artist Trading Card sized art (2.5 in x 3.5 in.) A prompt list was supplied. I used most of the prompts but substituted a couple.

The book was made from 12 in x 12 in. cardstock cut in half with a 2 inch fold for the pocket. A hard cover was made with chipboard recycled from cracker boxes. The book has a ribbon and Baker's twin enclosure. 

The title of the  book is Moi and features a picture of myself and Ink. He loved to sit on my shoulder. The picture was colored with colored pencils.

I found the perfect charm, too. The letter, C for my first initial with a little blue crown.

Day 1:Hoisting My Colors.

A small flag with colored stripes of Royal Blue, Black, and Red. These colors are my wardrobe palette.

Blue: The Favorite Color, Royal Blue is fitting for a Little Princess

Black: For Ink and slimming fashion sense

Red: The secret color and a little naughty

Day 2 Spirit Animal(s)

I have two. Ink and a Black Bear

The Black Bear ATC was done for an exchange in 2007, but was perfect for the book.

Whatcha Doin?

 

I have a dental appointment. Whatcha doin?

T Stands For Sketchbook Revival Online Workshops

 

Last week in a bit of serendipity, Anne from Anne's Creative Cornucopia, told me about Sketchbook Revival Online Workshops. I had already signed up.

Sketchbook Revival is a series of  FREE online workshops. The workshops began March 20 and will run until April 1 with free access to all the videos until April 20. You can still sign up. You also have the option of buying the workshops to have unlimited access to the videos.

Each day, you'll receive a link to two workshops for the day. You can watch the videos in any order and work at your own pace.

The theme for the workshop is color. The workshops are for all levels and are more of a way to draw each day and to have some fun being creative with the materials you have on hand.

My drink reference is the Doodle Blob creation I made while watching illustrator, Mike Lowry's workshop. I used a Tombow Brush pen to create a shape and to color it in on a scrap of Canson Mixed Media paper. Then using a permanent ink pen, (Micron Pigma pen), you add features to create an animal, person, creature. Whatever your shape inspired you to see and to create a little story. I saw a cat drinking a cup of tea. 

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

A New Excuse to Procrastinate

This past week, I noticed icons in the search bar on my computer. 

This one was celebrating the Vernal Equinox. Cool

I had no idea what this was about. When I clicked on it

Information about a Fire Rainbow came up. Looks like there's a new excuse to procrastinate. (As if I really needed an excuse)

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Harvey is showing a pink tree so Spring has arrived.

Timex (chipmunk) has been busy digging holes

The first robin so it's official. Spring has arrived

Christmas bulb lights moved to the daffodil patch double as Easter egg lights.

One day nothing in the daffodil patch and now lots of leaves with buds

Some crocus popped up as if by magic, too

Even outside the bed where they were planted.

And most exciting. I think these leaves are the Fern Bleeding Hearts that Anne from Anne's Crative Cornucopia sent me that I sprinkled on the ground in the Fall.

How does your garden grow?

Fun Facts About the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

 In 1987, the Neptune shell was selected as the official state seashell.

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week

1. We were without Internet access for 24 hours. A call to Verizon. The tech worked for 3 hours and got us up and running again.

2. Lunch at Point Breeze with the teaching assistants. Fun group of girls.

3. First Day of Spring

4. Nice day. I washed windows and changed curtains

5. Thursday with Teague

How was your week?

Concertina Book with Hinge Binding

There seemed to be some confusion about the Concertina Book with Hinge Binding that I showed last week.

I don't think I made it clear that the book in the above picture is just the book of pages. There is no cover. The white paper is the concertina binding

Here's the book with a cover. The binding is exposed.

I like the look of the exposed binding. If that's not your cup of tea, the binding can always be covered with a strip of paper the  height of the book and wide enough to attach to both the front and back cover.

The book looking into the pages

I'm not sure what I'll do with the book. Perhaps it will make a good travel junk journal for a trip to Camp Ogunquit next month.

Whatcha Doin?

 

Mr. Spock and I were discussing glue. I know using glue depends on what is being glued. I can't seem to find a glue that is easy to work with except glue stick. Either the glue doesn't come out of the bottle because it's very thick (Crafter's Pick and Aileen's Super Tacky Glue), or it runs out and all over the place because it is very thin (Bearly Art Glue).

Jacqueline Sullivan, the instructor for the Book of Marks class I recently took had us use the Aileen's Super Tacky Glue. She said she prefers the Crafter's Pick because it is a "dry" glue and won't crack when dry. The watercolor paper in the book was good to use with the Tacky glue. She said the Crafter's Pick is getting hard to find.

The Bearly Art Glue boasted it wouldn't clog in its bottle. It lied. However, it hasn't clogged the Sugarbelle Icing Bottle, but it's very runny. Crafter's Pick doesn't come out its own bottle or out of the Sugarbelle bottle.

Glue sticks are wonderful for gluing thin sheets of paper. No fuss, no muss.

Not pictured is the tube of E6000 for heavy duty gluing of metal and stuff like that.

So you mixed media artists that glue papers and heavy duty papers like 140 lb. watercolor paper, small charms, buttons, ribbon. What glue do you use?

T Stands for Brunch and Tea

One of our favorite, local restaurants, the UxLocale has started serving tea and brunch on Saturday mornings. I've written about the UxLocale before owned and operated by Chef Elaine. Elaine used to work at the Worcester Art Museum where I teach.

Himself opted to have brunch as he does not like tea or any hot beverage for that matter. He had the Italian Hawaiian Canoe Calzone without the thinly sliced Jalapeño peppers

 I, of course, was going to be treated to a tea.

You had your choice of 3 different teas paired with the tiers on the tea stand. Since life is short, I started with the dessert tea, Vanilla Oolong

While enjoying my first cup of Vanilla Oolong, my second choice, Earl Grey came out in a French press and kept warm over a sterno.

The Vanilla Oolong was served in a little teapot. I also asked for cream and sugar. The sugar was raw brown sugar cubes and served with sugar tongs. I didn't get a picture of my spoon which was a demitasse spoon. Very cute. I had 2 cups of the Vanilla tea.

The tea service include 3 generous sandwiches: Cucumber, sour cream, cream cheese, dill on brioche (behind the gold stand), to the left: Smoked Salmon, wild-caught smoked salmon, pickled onions, cream cheese, dill, brioche bread, and to the right: Tomato Caprese, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, basil aioli, brioche bread.

I don't really like cheese and the few cheeses I do eat, mozzarella, ricotta, or American cheese need to be cooked. An exception is ricotta and mascarpone because those are the cheeses in cannoli. Cream cheese is okay as long as there is other stuff to help mask the taste/texture.  Himself had the Caprese sandwich.

The middle tier tea I chose was my favorite blend, Earl Grey. I think I had 2 cups. The middle tier offering was a blueberry scone and an orange cranberry scone served with real clotted cream and strawberry jam. Elaine spotted me when she came out of the kitchen, and she came to say hello. It's always a delight to see her. She told me about making the clotted cream from scratch. A long, difficult process, but Elaine's endeavor was so worth it.

By the time, the top tier tea came, Irish Breakfast (remember I paired the teas backwards), I was ready to float, and I was still drinking the Earl Grey  pictured above with a Coconut Chocolate Chip Macaroon. There were also Macarons and Madeleines. 

The server kindly put the Irish Breakfast tea and the remainder of the Earl Grey tea in to go cups along with the cookies.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

A Little Visit

 

A text from the Niece-in-law to ask if they could stop by. They were on their way to an indoor playground not far from my house, and the Littles had something they wanted to give to me.

Most Sundays we are home, but wouldn't you know this Sunday we were on our way out to have lunch with last term's teaching assistants?

The NIL said they would leave the item in the front porch. 

Just as we were on our way, the Nephew was at the door with two,  sweet, little plants from his Littles. Just in time for the first day of Spring. 

 I walked to the car so I could thank the Littles and the NIL. We had a nice, little visit.

D picked the light pink plant on the left while his older sister, G, picked out the darker pink on the right. The plant is a Calandiva which is also known as Kalanchoe. The plant is a succulent,  it doesn't like direct sun, it doesn't like a lot of water, and sadly, it's also poisonous to cats. Hopefully, I'm not poisonous to the plants.

The little pots are 2.5 inches and fit nicely on the window sill in the studio where the kitties are not allowed. 

Thank you to the Nephew, NIL, and their Littles for thinking of me. You made my day.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Hey, Ma! It's snowing out

A wistful Calli wishes the snow would just melt. Oh, wait that thought was my thought.

Looks like mid January instead of mid March

The work of the plow guy so I didn't have to shovel

All I had to do was clean the snow off Moose

The gnomes were trying to make us believe we were in the jackpot area that got 30 inches of snow

But we only got 5.75 inches as measured from the top of Moose since I couldn't take a measurement from the walk

Fortunately, March snow melts quickly

Signs of Spring

Still snow on the back Tundra

Bulbs poking up where the oil man has to make his delivery

How does your garden grow?

Fun Facts About the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

 

The exterior of the Old South Church in Boston (built in 1874) is made out of  Roxbury conglomerate, or puddingstone; photo by Wally Gobetz on Flickr (noncommercial use permitted with attribution / no derivative works).

Another rock. In 1983, Roxbury Puddingstone or Roxbury Conglomerate was designated the official state rock.

The Friday Five Good Things.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

 Five good things that happened this week.

1.  A problem with an online account was resolved quickly at the bank. There seems to have been an error between the computer screen and the chair.

2.  We wanted to watch some mindless fun so watched Shazam followed by Lego Shazam.

3. Celebrated Pi Day with apple crisp in individual round dishes (sort of like an apple pie) and a half-assed Shepherd's pie

4. The Plow Guy showed up early. Plowed the driveway and shoveled the steps and walk. Such a nice surprise that I didn’t have to shovel the steps and walk

5. Another Thursday with Teague. We went for breakfast and plans for another Head Stoner trip to Holy Cross Cemetery in Malden as soon as the weather warms up a bit

And a Happy 104th birthday, Dad. I hope Uncle Francesco and your mama bake you a spectacular rum cake, Uncle Vincent plays the violin, and Uncle Louis sings for you

How was your week?

Concertina Book with a Hinge Binding

The Creative Lettering and Doodling with Lindsay group on Facebook were making a concertina book for the month of February. It was a structure I'd never heard about so I thought I would give it a try. 

The materials needed were a 10 x 3 in. strip, five 8 1/2 x 11 pages cut in half, 9 of those pages used for the book pages, and nine 3/4 x 4 in strips for locks. You could do all your pages with the same color, I just grabbed stuff out of the scrap paper box, and I used cardstock.

The 10 x 3 in. strip is accordion pleated and becomes the hinge binding. A slit is cut in the center of the book pages. The mountain fold of the strip is inserted into the book page.

The thin strip of paper is inserted into the "tunnel" of the accordion, and the strip acts as a hinge lock. The hinges can be left showing in the book or they can be glued down and covered with paper/collage.

The finished book structure just waiting for a cover to be attached and the book to be filled.

Whatcha Doin?

I thought I was going to be outside shoveling the walk and stairs. The plow guy showed up very early this morning. He plowed the driveway and even shoveled the walk and stairs.

All I have to do is clean off the car, but first a cup of tea. Temps are supposed to get above freezing today so if I wait long enough, some of the snow will melt and there won't be so much snow to move.

Whatcha doin?