Guess Where I Was Yesterday!

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art, art glass, Chihuly, Flower of the Day, glass, New York, New York Botanical Garden, NYBG

New York Botanical Gardens

Sorry for my absence of late from my blog and from all of yours. I’m continuing to have health challenges that limit my activity. I have to choose where to spend my energy and one of my best friends was in town this past weekend. Getting ready and having adventures with her took all that I had. I will be back later this week. I hope you have a beautiful day.

New York Botanical Garden: Chihuly Exhibit

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Chihuly, glass, New York, New York Botanical Garden, NYBG

Some of my favorite blooms in the NYBG were made of glass at the Dale Chihuly glass studio. Like this one.

Crazy Beautiful.

Looking at the glass as it was reflected and illuminated and ornamented with fauna was glorious. I believe the pictures speak for themselves. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

This is another one of my favorites.

I hope you have a beautiful day.

New York Botanical Garden: Thursday Doors

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architecture, Chihuly, flowers, glass, New York, New York Botanical Garden, NYBC, photos

We went to the New York Botanical Garden (NYBC) yesterday and it was glorious. This is a small, unidentified (as far as we could see) building at the rose garden tram stop. I will probably have more than one post about the rose garden. It was a sensual feast. So beautiful and fragrant!

Here is my rose garden teaser. This isn’t exactly a door, but it is a lovely passageway.

There is a Chihuly installation going on all summer so the conservatory door is hidden. I’m ok with that. He is a glass genius. If you can see his work in person, go. To watch the light and environment interact with his work is such a beautiful experience.

Here are one of the side doors to the conservatory and the library door. If you are a door enthusiast or are just curious about the world check out Norm 2.0 for the Thursday Doors challenge.

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.

*What colors can do

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altered art book, art, Chihuly, collage, gratitude, Journal, painting

This phrase* is from a book about Dale Chihuly and the quote is on the green page. I need to figure out a better way of getting my images into wordpress. The colors and the details are not great. My scanner is too small to scan the open book. If you have any suggestion, please let me know.

Some friends and I went to a local art museum and I was so inspired by Chihuly’s work. I am thrilled that the more I surround my self with creativity the more inspiration I find.

*”So, on the train, I made all these colors. Of course, in six days I could only make a few thousand colors and that didn’t even approach all the situations possible. Until you do that, until you start mixing all those colors, you don’t know what colors can do.” Dale Chihuly

The book that I am currently using for my journal is a book about seeing and I am really enjoying incorporating some of the text and visual images (tee-hee). I also have to comment on the leaves that are in this layout. The maple leaves are from a tree from my good friend and neighbor. She and I had a lovely walk and I picked the leaves as a memento of the walk. Later that afternoon when my teenaged son got home he gave me the oblong leaves from a tree he walks past on his way home from school. Words cannot express my gratitude for his thoughtfulness. I hope the image will suffice.

My first visit to the Paine Museum in Oshkosh. We also ate lunch at a fabulous restaurant on the river. It was nice to spend time with these friends in a different setting than our usual. I also got a beautiful Chihuly calendar so we can enjoy his art all of next year.

There is a kiddo who comes to my Mommy and Me art class who I am falling in love with. She gave me this drawing. We were using the crayons as a watercolor resist. Even at age 4 her love of art shines. I hope she never looses it.

Parent teacher conferences and my son is just awesome. I wonder if he will read this?

So many wonderful vegetables from our farm. I am making shepherd’s pie for the second time this month. I can put so many veggies in it and we all love it. I am painting all the paperwork from my former profession to use in my collages. It is already therapeutic.