Hello! Did you miss me? I’ve been around just not keeping up with the digital world. Summer is passing so quickly and it seems as if the appointments and events are multiplying on the calendar. This seems to happen every year at this time.

I finally was inspired to do some art journaling. I started with a page I had used to clean my brushes and palette on during a long ago project. Having that base of color gives a jumpstart on building the layers that give depth to a page.

Pete's problem art journal page| Halle's Hobbies

After putting down some more colors it was a little too “in your face” for me. I took some white paint on my finger and mellowed out some areas. The end result made me much more happy than the beginning loudness.

I found the image of the old cowboy in a bin and thought his color scheme meshed well.

Pete's problem art journal page| Halle's Hobbies

Then it was the hunt for the perfect found text to give life to the page.

Pete's problem art journal page| Halle's Hobbies

I thought these words spoke to the worn down look of the old cowhand.

SecondlookI almost missed Second on the 2nd for the second time….that’s a lot of seconds! Fortunately I happened to look at the calendar a little bit ago. Did I mention that this summer is getting away from me?!?!

This post is from October 2009…take a look

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I recently got to take home this lawyers bookcase that belonged to my paternal Grandpa. I’ve always loved the cabinet. As a child, it sat in our guest room. It was filled with shells my mom had collected from her travels.


I had something a little different in mind. I’ve filled it with my art and some of my favorite things that had been packed away until now.


Recognize the bowl? It’s my handmade paper bowl. It’s the perfect size for some favorite rocks and my mom’s arrowhead collection.


This may look familiar. I use this is my avatar in Google.


This clock was one of first altered pieces. The swirl on top was hand carved by my husband’s Grandmother. She is an amazing artist.


This was also a piece I made very early on in my artistic journey. It was my very first assemblage. The butterfly inside is another carving by Grandma Rose.


My Road Trip book always makes me smile. This was my second round robin altered book. It took the better part of a year to make it’s way around the country before returning to me full of fun artwork.


The bookcase is ever changing in it’s contents. I love to rearrange decorative elements in my house and am often drawn to using something totally unexpected for the space. I think it drives my husband a bit crazy at times. He’ll just give me that “ok…if you really think that looks good” look.

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These are still some of my favorite things. The lawyers bookcase resides in a different spot and is slightly over loaded but I love it!

I’ve been slowly but surely working on the list since Rinda of Gallo Organico posted it way back in the beginning of June.

I missed the first check-in the end of June. This summer has gotten away from me. I have to admit, each year that passes, time speeds up exponentially whether I like it or not.

So on to the list….

flowers

1. A bouquet of flowers: This was in the waiting room at the eye doctor. Silk flowers arranged in a vase is technically a bouquet.

door knocker
2. An ornate door knocker: I found this at an antique/junk store not too far from home. The town is super small and hosts shops that are only open 3 days a month. They call them “occasional sales”. The rest of the month you are limited to several bars, a coffee shop and a gas station.

walking a dog
3. A person walking a dog (or other animal): I nabbed this photo before the parade on the 4th of July. You’ll be seeing more photos from that same day…just wait.

column
5. Architectural columns: This was taken at another of the “occasional shops”. Super fun antiques, remakes and junk to peruse.

turtle
7. A turtle: Two for the price of one. We knew just where to spot a turtle at the arboretum. They love that log in the pond.

tent
9. A tent: A couple more photos taken on July 4th. The top is the beer/entertainment tent for the carnival and street dance that is held on the evening of July 3rd. The bottom photo is the cub scout float in the parade.

college

10. A college or university: I took some classes at this community college many, many years ago. It’s just a few miles from The Mall of America and IKEA. I love IKEA…MOA, not so much.
potta potty
12. A public restroom, bathroom, or toilet: These were only a fraction of the port-a-potties on site for the Independence Day festivities and there were still lines as it got later into the evening!

carousel
13. A merry-go-round or carousel: Also from the carnival…

lake
16. A panoramic view, taken while standing someplace high in the air: I was going to use this photo for my natural body of water but the more I looked at it I realized that we were really much higher than Lake Minnewashta in the distance. This was also at the arboretum.

Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt 2015
17. At least two people wearing matching outfits or uniforms: Again from the parade. I could have had SO MANY for this one as well but most of my photos had the backs of heads in them. This one I was able to crop most out. :)

ticket booth

19. A ticket booth: I bet you can guess where this one was taken!

pond 1
20. A natural body of water: I honestly could have dozens of photos in this section. Minnesota IS the land of 10,000 lakes after all.  This was taken at the arboretum. Its a really nice pond with natural wetland surrounding it. They built some boardwalks so you can walk all the way around it. Just beautiful.
If you find something on the list too difficult, you may substitute one of the following items for any one item on the list, except for Item #21:

I’m not giving up on finding the rest on the list but I will post my alternates anyway.

Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt 2015
Alternative A: People eating outside: From the carnival before the parade

Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt 2015
Alternative B: Someone holding an umbrella: Very smart idea this man in the wheel chair had to shade himself during the parade.

Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt 2015
Alternative C: A rocking chair: I love my folding rocking chair! My kids laugh but I don’t care.

So lets see here…I got 13 of 21 so far and 3 alternates. Not too shabby.  But I still have these left to find.

4. People playing a board game or card game

6. A metal bridge

8. Someone “plugged in” to social media

11. A cellular tower or television satellite dish

14. A traffic signal

15. A flag pole with at least three flags on it

18. An overloaded truck, car, bicycle or other vehicle

21. A photograph of you with a sign reading “2015 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt”. Note: you may not use a substitute for this item.

Wish me luck!

I’m finally linking up with Seth Apter for Buried Treasure again. I have somehow missed it since the very first time back in 2009. buried treasureI had so much fun going back to choose what I wanted to share. Ironically, the first one I chose was the same one I used in 2009. I guess I’m pretty proud of that tutorial. :)

Here is my original post from 2013:

20130406_1706After our snow yesterday…yes you read that correctly…snow on April 5th, I guess I wanted to remind myself that a new season is actually upon us.

It is Spring according to the calendar and before we know it, the weather will be hot and humid.

When I started this journal page I had no idea where it was going. 20130406_1705

I spread my super thin, lame gesso over the pages in my Watkins cookbook journal then kept adding layers of paint and stamping.

Next I wanted to try out some molding paste applied through a stencil…a technique I’ve seen several times on YouTube videos. I love the texture it adds. I’ll definitely be trying that one again!20130406_1708

I used water and walnut ink to age this library card which is placed on top of a bit of a forest scene magazine page. Love it when things like that work out.

Still looking for more texture I glued down a bit of flower trim.

I am incredibly happy with 20130406_1704the way this one turned out.

And look..the sun is even shiny bright today promising that the Season is actually changing.

 

 

 

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I must admit this is still one of my favorite art journal pages. Everything fell into place for me that day.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will again. Also a great big thank you to Seth for providing this chance to check out other mixed-media artists we may not have come across yet. Also thanks to my dear friend Elizabeth who gave me the heads up this year…I guess I’ve been on summer break too long. HA!

Last week was very hot and humid around here. Friday night or very early Saturday morning would be more accurate, we had a batch of crazy weather blow through. Lucky for us we had no real damage…just lots of small dead branches blown from our trees. There was a tornado about 20 miles west of us that overturned cars. Again…very thankful that didn’t come through here!

Since I was drinking so much water all week, I decided to change it up a bit and make some “iced tea”. 20150717_8252Honestly I think it’s more of a tea flavored water. I brewed three different teas in 2 cups of water added 1/2 tsp of raw honey then filled the pitcher with water. 20150717_8255It was actually quite tasty and a nice change from plain old water.

During the extreme heat the deer decided that it would be much easier to forage close to the house…they ate my beans and flowers.pesky deer

So we had to take drastic action with the gardens….deer fencing fencing

Seriously tall fencing around both gardens. But just look how full that garden is!!! This is what it looked like June 1st…update2

Yes I know it has been 50 days but wow! Those babies were started from tiny little seeds. Nature never fails to amaze me!

We were outside chatting about the garden and talked about possibly expanding into another space.potential garden space

The space is next to the garage…totally unused and a southern exposure. Perfect for a garden. We could double our current gardening space and still leave room for a wood pile for the fire pit!

Did I mention I canned some spicy beans yesterday straight from the garden?spicy beans

I love having a garden!!

Now that the weather has cooled down…for the time being at least, we’ve been enjoying some of the wonderful parts of living in Minnesota.

Relaxing on the patio….gracie lounging

Windows and doors open with a fan blowing in the nice cool air…50s fan

Like my cool vintage fan? emerson seabreeze

It’s from the 50’s…it been around.

Oh so punny…don’t blame me for both…Little J had a hand in one pun. :)

This photo is for Denise…We visited one of the libraries on her list yesterday.  It also happens to be the library…ok technically this is the new location…but the library that issued my very first library card. reader beaverThis reader beaver was donated to the library somewhere around that same time.

Are you tired of reading my ramblings yet??

I have one last thing to share…the beginnings of a journal page.start of a journal page

Not exactly sure where this one is going but I’ll be sure to share it when it’s done.

Today is filled with appts for the kids. Gotta get those appts in while they are out of school. Only 42 days left..not that I’m counting. *wink*

What are you doing today?

I’m sad…it’s over…The Summer of Color hosted by Kristin of Twinkle, Twinkle is really done with this last set of colors.

SOC 5 week 6 orange+orange+blue

1 orange+ 1 orange + 1 blue

I know the Golden color says red oxide but it is totally orange.

SOC 5 week 6 orange+orange+blue

Just look how dark orange it is!!

SOC 5 week 6 orange+orange+blue

I decided on some very Dr. Suess like flowers in blue for this weeks journal page. I used a Prismacolor watercolor pencil to draw the basic shape then went in with a water brush to give them movement and dimension.

My found text came last…although once auditioning the text on the page I realized it really needed a bit of white splatters so the text wouldn’t be so stark.

Once again thank you to Kristen for her hard work and dedication to the yearly challenge!

Today for T stands for Tuesday I’m sharing a little snippet of a local outing the kids and went on last week.

We went to the arboretum. It was a gorgeous day. Sunny but not hot.arb collageAfter walking around, snapping photos for a couple hours we headed off for lunch. We decided to try a place that we’d been very disappointed with in the past. Why would we do that? Well previously it was a dinner and it was at least 5 years ago. Why not try again? lunch dates

Little J and I really liked our meals. Big J was indifferent. His food was kind of tasteless without the specialty sauces that came with it…which he didn’t care for.

Overall it was a good experience that I’m glad we tried again…other than the price tag. Yikes! Oh well…we don’t go out that much and it’s summer. Gotta have a little fun.

I’m off to drop one at volleyball and do driving lessons with the other. I’ll be back to check in with my T stands for Tuesday friends as soon as I am able.

What are you doing today?

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