My Birthday

My birthday was so great this year. Thanks everyone for your birthday greetings. I was blown away by how sweet everyone was.

I woke up early, 5:00am ish. Anyone who knows me knows that I think anything before 8:00 is early and even then it takes me a couple of hours before I feel ready to greet the world. I decided to puruse the web and so I got some coffee and pulled out my laptop. Facebook was bursting with birthday wishes and as I was checking that out two frineds saw I was on-line and two chat boxes popped up. It was a hoot trying to carry on two conversations at the same time. The time flew by and I realized that my dear frined Karin was coming by in a few minutes so I ran and got dressed. My kids started to stir and grandbaby came in to give me loves. Then my friend showed up with her husband too and we had the best visit. He is a photographer by profession and so he grabbed my camera and started shooting. I'm usually the one behind the camera so I thought it was very thoughtful of him to relieve me for a bit.
As they headed out the door another friend stopped by with presents. We visited for a while and caught up on the last few weeks.

After Dawna left, I got ready to spend the day with my dear husband. He took the day off to drive me around to all my favorite places. Let me just say, big points were made that day. So off we went to Portland and our first stop.

We went to lunch at a French cafe called St. Honore Boulangerie. The owner is from France and the little cafe was a piece of France or should I say heaven. I thought they might ask me to leave as I was moaning over every bite. I felt like Meg Ryan in "When Harry Met Sally" except my focus was on the food. I am so going back there.

Beautiful latte so creamy and rich

filled my tummy with foamy bliss!

Chicken salad with garlic croutons made from their bread.

OH, Oh so good and I could only eat about half.

Then there was this sweet little beauty. This is where the moaning got out of control. It was filled with a custard and just melted in your mouth. Just looking at the photos makes me want to go back there right now. Mmmmmmm :)

Then my husband drove me to Art Media for pens ( Pitt brush markers & micron pens in 4 colors) and paper (Fariano & Stonehenge). Next was Brighton to spend my gift certificate. I got the heart locket I pasted in one of my journal pages last week. Next it was off to J Jill for a sweater and Barnes & Nobles for a book on Ireland. We are planning on going there next year and I wanted to start checking out all the sights. Then, still feeling like I was floating in the clouds, we met the family at Claim Jumper for dinner.

I got the chicken pot pie. It was so beautiful but I was still full from lunch so I took most of it home along with the Motherload chocolate cake. We are talking 10 layers of fudgey chocolate cake that feeds your whole family and then some.

I shared my piece with you-know-who. The most precious person in the whole world.

It was a very good, perfect and beautiful day. It is nice to have one of those once in a while.

I have been working on some journal pages the last few days and experimenting with my watercolors. Paulette and my niece Janene came down to the beach to visit me and do some art journaling. We had a great time and the weather has been wonderful. I am still waiting for my new camera to come but here a few journal pages to check out in the meantime. They are not in date order. I used to be able to move them around in here and something has changed so, hmm, I wonder what to do about that. Oh well, enjoy them anyway.

On this page about my birthday, I actually traced my grandbaby's hand. Someday we will look at this and be amazed at how small it is. I wish I had been into art journaling when my own kids were little. I always had hopes of scrapbooking but with art journaling you can just trace it right on the page and is more spontanious which works better for me.

More camera trouble

It seems that I am doomed to have camera trouble this summer. I have pictures to show you and I can't. One minute my point and shoot was working fine and the next kaput. The way they make cameras anymore you just have to buy another one because it costs just as much to fix the one you have. So, I have ordered one and it should be here next week and the exciting part is that it has all these new features on it. I hope it is not too complicated. I love technology but I have the hardest time figuring it out. Anyway, I got out my SLR and took the pictures I wanted to show you and then the card reader I have broke yesterday too. What is going on around here? All that to say, you will have to wait to see the new journal pages, birthday celebration photos and my new tomatoes.

I'm not a gardener and so this year I planted four kinds of tomatoes in pots. My first tomatoes where picked yesterday and tasted soooo good. I am going out of town and have thought of taking them with me but that might seem a little weird. Carting around four large potted plants into the hotel.

The other breaking news, hot off the presses, is that my grandbaby finally gave me a name. He has refused to call me anything except mama. Then out of the blue, this week, he started calling me Mimi. It is the cutest thing and melts my heart when he comes running with arms out wide yelling "Mimi, Mimi, up!" Oh, what joy is found in the arms of a chubby faced child who loves his Mimi :)

New way of journaling

I am trying out this new way of journaling. I just sketch out highlights of my day and write about it. I am finding it stretches me a bit more and then later I look back and can see what my day was like. I really think I am going to like this a lot. This is in preparation for my experiment that I am going to start in September where I am going to combine my datebook with my journal. I think I have an idea of how I am going to do it but will have to think it through to make sure it will work. Finding the right journal and datebook is kind of like finding the right purse. I am always on the hunt for the prefect one. I saw the movie Julie & Julia. Oh my goodness, I loved it! Meryl Streep is amazing. It took place in Paris and New York. That sold me from the first moment. I could so relate to how Julia loved Paris and I wished that I was as fearless as she was. As soon as I left the theater, I wanted to go right back in and see it again. I also loved the Julie character because of how she was lost and then found herself through blogging. She said that she was drowning and Julia reached out and pulled her right out of the ocean. And to top it off, they both have the most supportive and sweet husbands. The whole film was just wonderful.

The last two days I have been in a funk. I think it is because the stretch of beautiful weather we have been having came to an end. I am glad for the rain because my plants and lawn really needed a drink but the gray skies give me a headache. Anyway, today when my morning got changed by the rain, I dressed myself up in my new boots and the amazing Ann Taylor skirt I found at the Goodwill and headed over to my nieces store to buy art supplies. She was having a great sale and we talked about travel and Paris and Ireland and all the fun places we should go to next. Then when I got home the books I ordered had come in the mail. It turned out to be a very nice day after all.

An August Monday

Mondays are usually days of low energy for me. The introvert in me is worn out from a weekend of being around a lot of people and trying to meet their needs in many ways. Mondays roll around and I am so thankful for the quiet and the mundane chores of laundry, dishes and catching up on emails and computer stuff. If I'm lucky I will even slip in reading a book too. It looks like today will be one of those days to take deep breaths and soak up the sounds of silence. Ahhh!
I would really like to create a journal page a day but lately it has been one or two a week. These are the two I finished this week. I am starting to transition my pages from just thoughts and ideas and quotes to things about my day. I am about to fill up my journal and start a new one and I have been thinking about combining my datebook with my journal. I'm not too sure exactly what that looks like but I may try it out for the fall and see where it leads. If I hate it then I can do something different and start fresh in January.

On this page I was trying out my panpastels and going off an idea that I saw Milliande do on Youtube. It was a quick way to get color on the page and the panpastels are one of my favs. I love her red hair and curls. OK, I guess I had better get going on those mundane chores I talked about.

Complete Yumminess

My husband and I went for a drive last night around dusk and we saw 5 different deer along the way. This cute little one was just sauntering down the lane without a care in the world. So cute. I snapped a photo as we drove by. Then before we got home we saw the beautiful round moon just sitting so pretty right above the tree line. I just love it when the moon is full and low in the sky.
Today I actually got inspired by my friend Michelle's blog about her blueberry buckle. It looked so good that I had to try it myself. OH MY GOODNESS! It is soooooo good. The recipe is actually not hers and can be found here.


It is loaded with blueberries and would be good with ice cream but I only had whipped topping to smother on top. Mmmm....................................................................................
I think I will end on that note. YUM, YUM!

Summer is fading

I can't believe that August is already here. I don't know that I have accomplished any of the things that I should but I have slowed down and relaxed into the days. I have tried to enjoy each day for what it was and not have huge expectations. We have had some huge transitions this summer and so I have just stayed home, been there for my family and tried to keep the peace whenever possible. Chaos tends to reign so keeping peace is a full time job, let me tell you.

Last week was so hot around here that keeping cool was the order of the day. I did get a couple of pages done in my summer journal. The top page was from things that came in the mail like catalogs and a note from a dear friend.

This page came from my daily reading of the bible in Jeremiah 17. I have come to a place in my life where I am past putting on a face for people. You get what you get and it is not always pretty but Jeremiah reminded me that when we are going through tough times it is easier if our roots are planted by a stream and have been allowed to go deep.

I met with a friend that I haven't seen in a long time and she wants to start an art journal. I am so excited for her because I find so many nuggets of truth through the pages of my journals. Letting the pages create themselves and then speak to me of who I am and where I am and where I want to go is priceless. It is a conversation for me not just a place to create pretty pictures. It might have been the gallons of coffee I drank while we talked for hours catching up but I was shaking with excitement when we were done. To find another art journaler on the brink of discovery brings delight to my artistic soul. Welcome to the wonderful world of art journals my dear friend. I look forward to taking this journey with you.