Freedom Trail, Journies, and Home Again

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art journal, Boston, collage, Freedom Trail, gratitude, photographs

Sometimes synthesis happens in collage and it is such a fabulous feeling. This collage of the Freedom Trail in Boston has some moments of synthesis. If I may take a moment to point out my absolute favorite and one that is kind of sick and twisted but it tickles something happy in my brain.

1. See the guy with the backpack walking up the freedom trail into what looks like a tunnel into the Steeple of the North Church? That is my husband skipping up a hill after hours of walking. The section of the trail he is on is 180 degrees from the Old North Church. The “doorway” is a fabulous architectural detail from a Baptist Temple that did not seem to have any (tourist materials-reported) relevance to the freedom trail, but it was soooo gorgeous that I had to include it.

2. The Beantown Pub was such a spectacular find and it led us to this most magnificent Walgreens where you can buy B&M Brown Bread in a can. They served this bread from a can at this fabulous restaurant with baked beans. I have created a quirky trinity of images juxtaposing the sculpture for the Irish Famine with the Walgreens with the fabulous architecture and the Pub. What a city.

 

The last 2 pictures are included in the lower right hand corner because this 2 page spread was from my birthday and we stopped in Swampscott, MA at this unprepossessing restaurant for a spectacular view and meal. It was such a lovely ending for the day.

These pictures are in Boston and environs. They were meaningful for my family and I, but probably not super interesting. However, there aren’t a lot of photos of me in here, but my son took a nice picture of me kissing my husband so here I am. And here I am with my husband, and with my son, and behind a baby.

It took us 2 days to drive through all of these states, but we were safe and my husband loves to drive. Getting back to cats and beds and mail is so nice after a long trip. This was no exception.

 

A last blast for summer vacation was a Harry Potter movie marathon. This is the end of my sixth gratitude journal. Part of the reason I am still behind in journaling is that I’m having a hard time selecting a book for #7. I want the texture of chapter book pages, but not the commitment of 300 pages. I have been saying 3 things a day on facebook that I’m grateful for, so now I just have to do the artwork.

 

 

 

 

Zentangle Challenge #182 Stripes

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Diva Challenge, zentangle

I am way behind on my gratitude journal for a whole lotta reasons that I may or may not share. Part of the problem has been extensive technical difficulties with technology. Hopefully, life and time will allow me to catch up. In the meantime I used the Diva’s Challenge as a fabulous way to escape stress for a while. See what others have done with this challenge at

Does a bear sleep in this woods? And other adventures

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art journal, bear, Boston, camping, Chihuly, gratitude journal, Montreal, Mountain Creamery, Vermont, watercolor

This is my watercolor painting of our campsite. I believe we shared the woods with a black bear that had been seen in the area. We were sleeping in a lean to rather than a tent and I was feeling a little vulnerable. To say that I was sleeping may not be quite accurate. Clearly I survived. I am using a book that I finished reading on the trip as my watercolor paper. The pages have a very nice texture. This journal page also records my wonderful time in Woodstock, Vermont eating, talking, and browsing in art galleries while my husband hiked on the Appalachian Trail.

But back to the beginning of our trip…

We drove to Detroit to see Mike’s parents and his brother’s family. We ate well and had fun at the farmer’s market, the park, Culver’s, and playing at Paw Clawson’s house. We had a nice chance to catch up.

This page actually represents 2 days. We ended up spending a LOT more time driving on the 401 from Windsor, Ontario to Montreal, Quebec than we expected. Thus our time in Canada was not quite the leisurely experience we were hoping for. However, we saw some glorious architecture and sculptures in Montreal. Then we left for our campground in Vermont. The idea was to get there with plenty of time to set up our tent and explore our surroundings. Instead we had some adventures. And by adventures I mean we sat in our car being silly while waiting to cross the border from Canada back into the US. We had to cut out all unnecessary stops before heading to the State Park so we had dinner at the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory after the tour. I love my husband and this trip reminded me how well suited we are for each other.

And here I am finishing off this portion of the trip with Wednesday, August 13th. Yes, I am quite a bit behind in my journaling, but I will get caught up eventually. So, that particular Wednesday started up with packing up our campsite just before it started to rain. Then we went to our favorite place in Woodstock, VT – the Mountain Creamery for a spectacular breakfast. I took a few more pictures of this picturesque town and we hit the road for Boston, MA. I was so happy to see my son again. His performance was fabulous. We saw so many talented young people! Then we slept in a hotel that I’m 99.9% sure was completely bear-free. Sweet dreams.

Cabbages and Kings, I mean, Flowers

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Cabbage, Farmer's Market, flowers, Georgia O'Keefe, photograph

New Category: Photography

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.” Georgia O’Keefe

Peace Now

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altered art, art, art journal, balance, collage, gratitude, Journal, meditation, Peace, yoga

I have been out in the world having adventures and have gotten way behind on posting! Please forgive me. Before we left for our adventures I was going to post a few pages but our internet access was unavailable. I had been listening to more Jack Kornfield meditations and the line that really resonated with me is “What would you have to let go of to be at peace right now?”

 

Here is the page for another gratitude workshop. I have started to make up a stencil and some coordinating papers or other related items to give out at each workshop as a door prize. I’m having fun with it. Next month’s workshop will be using back to school supplies in fun and creative ways with some school supplies as door prizes.

Here is the Thursday before the trip (see the “balance effort and ease” as our yoga class intention) and it included a lot of packing and other preparations. As in the yoga intention, I have to be careful to balance effort and ease with travel and travel preparation so as not to exacerbate my migraines. Having Joanne Sharpe’s Whimsical Letting book provided some lovely moments of ease. I also included the first day of our trip on this page. We started listening to the audiobook of Bill Bryson’s Walk in the Woods. What a great way to start our adventure!

I did sporadic journaling on the trip and I have a lot of components that I need to bring together. I hope to update you on the trip soon!

Today I will let go of too many things on my to do list so that I can find peace. I will make time for meditation after putting a load of laundry in the washer. How can you find peace today?

Forgiveness, Flowers, and Fire, Oh My

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art journal, camping, collage, flowers, forgiveness, gratitude, meditation, stencils

This is the text of a forgiveness meditation by Jack Kornfield and it is so excellent. One of the things I’m working on to reduce my migraine intensity is how I relate to anger and difficult emotions. Metta meditation has been helpful, but this really is excellent. Jack addresses the need to forgive the pain and suffering I have caused others and myself as well as the pain and suffering others have caused me. The text is written over a few variations of stencils that my friend Sarah loaned me as part of the book “Stencil Me In” by Marthe Le Van. The stencils in the book are fabulous. The skulls from last week are from this book as are the poppies, below.

This was a busy day. We got another organic fruit share – blueberries! Much easier to freeze than cherries. I made a couple dozen muffins for family and the camping trip. Mike and I were ushers for our community theater’s production of the Wizard of Oz. I couldn’t resist using the poppy stencil for this one! We really are fortunate to have such an active arts community here in our small town.

Mike and I have not been camping in ages so we did a trial run before our trip out East next week. There were a few things we had forgotten, but overall it was a lovely little trip. He is still the fire master! We saw an owl and some beautiful views of the Mississippi River on our morning hike. When we got home the kitties were very happy to see me and followed me around all evening. I wonder how they will do next week?

I’m playing with different sized photos in my posts. Let me know what size you prefer.