12 months in words and very few decorations, while January, 2016 waits in the wings

This was the first year that Kate at The Kathryn Wheel didn't have a linky link-up on her blog.  Since I'm not on Facebook or Flickr, I no longer had a way to share my calendar with others, except on my blog.  That may have been a good thing, though, because I never created drop-dead gorgeous calendars like most of my friends who make them.  But this year, I pared down even further, by taking calendar pages and gluing them to the journal I purchased three years ago.  I kept my decorations simple, never decorating the page until near the end of the month, when I could look back on it and see what was important in MY life that month.


For January, I actually stamped both the snowflakes and the sun/moon stamp.  In case you can't read the bottom lines, "Temps raised and fell faster than night followed day."


February was all about the NBA All-Star weekend and my friend Kathy's Kings and Queens altered book I was feverishly working on.  It was also the first month I used the teacup stamp on each Tuesday entry.

It looks like I spent a LOT of time working on my friend Kathy's Kings and Queens altered book as March Madness took over the sports (basketball is my sport of choice) enthusiast in me.

April was about recycling, NBA basketball play-offs, and birthdays. 

May's calendar is a perfect example of why I don't decorate my page until the end of the month.  May, 2015 was all about the rain, storms, hail, and floods.

June was a busy month, filled with lots of activities.  My calendar decorations were all about the great outdoors and spring turning to summer.

July had me on the computer most of the time due to an endless number of blog hops.  From SOC (Summer of Color) to Where Bloggers Create to WOYWW to Seth Apter's 7th annual Buried Treasure, I was nearly overwhelmed with blog visits.  My card reader quit working, too.  I still haven't replaced it.  Instead, I now take all my photos directly off my camera, a task that is even more time consuming than before.

I did very little "decorating" on this page, because, like a fool, I scribbled prices of some tape all over it.  Then I created the two rubber stamps.  I'd heard you could create a stamp from left over rubber, but I'm not really a hodge-podge person, so never considered it until I cut the rubber on some Stampin' Up stamps.  The leftover rubber became abstract stamps I mounted on a single piece of wood.   Even though the "decorations" were minimal in August, I was tickled with what I accomplished because I created these "stamps" from rubber that would have originally been thrown in the trash.

I've said before that I decorate the pages at the end of the month, when I know better what was relevant.  If you read the minutia, you will see there were lots of days I spent helping my friend Sally, where we took many things to the thrift store and sent some stuff to the trash, mainly because they were water damaged from sitting in her garage for many years.

I went for a bit of humor when I found all the dancing bunny stickers.  They reminded me of how many of the same or similar items I bagged for the thrift store, like more shoes than I could possibly count, more blouses than one needs in a lifetime, and for the women's shelter, more unopened beauty products and toothbrushes than any one person should ever have purchased in the first place.

In October, I decided to give this puny calendar at least one more year, since I had enough pages left in this Strathmore drawing pad I bought in December, 2013.   I took advantage of the changing seasons and used leaf rubber stamps as my decorations.

For my completed November calendar, I tried to pay homage to Paris, but I'm not much of a stamper.  I had some card stock I had painted autumn colors, then cut it and collaged over the pieces with snow inspired tissue.    I did this because we had an exceptionally warm autumn which turned deadly the last Thursday of the month when an ice storm hit my city.

I had planned to dig out some of my rubber Christmas stamps, but they were mostly too large for the calendar.  So, since I had a few stickers left over from years ago, I used them to decorate the page.  Nothing to write home about, but there never is in my calendars.

Turning the page to 2016,

it's actually starting out a big mess.  One of my pens leaked all over the page right after I created it.  Not sure how I'll make it right, but I'll figure ways to hopefully make it a bit more arty as the month of January progresses.

Most of my friends who create these calendar pages make lovely stamped or collaged images to accompany the small individual days they cut from scrapbook papers.  I've chosen the lazy way of doing it, but at least I can look back on the past five years and see what happened on this day in, say, 2012.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you have a wonderful New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.   May your 2016 be artful, creative, joyous, and filled with good health.  The very thought that you are sharing a bit of time with me makes me truly appreciate your visit as we count down to 2016. 

A look back at 2015

As I do every year, I look back on the best art I created from the current year.

January

Although I made art in January, I also joined this Grow Your Blog party.  Even though a few of you saw this post, I encourage those of you who didn't to please take a look at it, because it showcases some of my very old work as well as my newer art.

February

Even though there are several holidays in February, I was especially fond of this spread

I created for Chinese New Year.

March

Many of you watched as I struggled to finish this Kings and Queens altered book I created and worked on for over six weeks for my friend Kathy's birthday.  Thankfully I finished it with time to spare.

April

Most know I recycle, reuse, or repurpose during the month of April.  


Granted, I breathed new life into bent spoons used in necklaces, and keys I bent for hooks.  But I believe these were my favorite recycled pieces.  They certainly were snapped up quickly by friends as soon as I added pin backs.

May

In looking back over my May posts, I noticed many deal with my gardens.  So I chose this fun piece I created for Journal 52, where the prompt was "good advice."

June

Summer of Color started in June, and this is one of the pieces I made based on the color prompt I was given.  I was saddened that this was the final year of this fun venture, but glad I got to participate in it for four years, at least.

I also took part in ICAD or index card a day, where I didn't follow the prompts, but stuck with sewing, stamping, stapling, and spray mists, using scraps for all 61 days.  No glue was used, and even my "index" cards were cut from used file folders.

July

Part of July was spent out of the studio looking for items that needed to be photographed.  I ended up getting all of them, some very creatively, as well as the three alternates.

August

In August, Sally and I went to the zoo twice.  The first time we rode the tram.  The second time we walked.  It was also at that time that Sally bought a year's membership to the zoo. 

September

September saw me working in my 7 Continents altered book, and helping my friend Sally clean out her garage.

October

One of the pieces I enjoyed making was this "house dress," an architectural play on words for Art Journal Journey.  I created it in my Houses altered book.

November

November was all about Art Every Day Month or AEDM.  Here is everything I created for AEDM.

December

As egotistical as it may seem, I spent a LOT of time showing my decorated home in December.

I seem to also have spent a lot of time at Art Journal Journey where Valerie, December's host, asked for collage with journaling.  It looks like I had 10 entries this month, some of which I shared with Moo-Mania and More where the challenge theme was Christmas.  Since I love how Valerie shows all her entries at the end of the month, I thought I would share mine, too.  Feel free to click to enlarge.

I hope you enjoyed this look back at some of my favorite moments from 2015.  Thanks, too for your visit and incredibly supportive comments.

And I hope you'll join me for a second look on the 2nd, where you share a post that you are especially proud of, or one you posted before anyone knew about your blog.   Second on the 2nd turns ONE that day.

T Stands for some of the best T posts of 2015

As I do every year, I look back on the best T posts of the year.


January
In January, I spent time with Wendy when I brought out a Wendy sized tea set.

February
In February, Sally and I went to a shop that sold cakes, cookies, and scones.  We each got a half dozen cup cakes because we had a coupon for buy 1/2 dozen, get 1/2 dozen free.

March 
 I spent St. Patrick's Day enjoying some lovely tea my friend Julia sent me from Great Britain.


April
I recycle every April leading up to Earth Day, so this is a T post where I made the cup from half a plastic Easter egg and two buttons.

 May
I celebrated Cinco De Mayo by creating this spread I shared over T(ea).

June

It seems to me that I went out to eat more over the summer months.  This is one place I went in June.

July
It was party time for T, although both Squiggles and Bleubeard refused to wear party hats.  T Stands For Tuesday turned two in late July.

A few of us swapped ATCs and had fun doing it, too.

August
Although the heat was steamy outside, it was cool inside.  Even the cup and altered book are black and white, giving the appearance of much cooler times and temperatures.

September
Every September these wild sunflowers bloom.  Not the normal ones most people are used to, but they please me every year.  So you know I'm going to share them with my T group.

October 

Before Halloween I showed the rather unconventional treats I would be passing out to my tricksters.

November
Just days after the horrendous attack on Paris, I created this tag and T post showing my support for everyone in Paris and France in general.

December
As with every year, I bring out the dishes my grandmother collected.  She somehow collected a set of 12 plates, cups, saucers, two different sized bowls, and 24 bread/salad/serving plates, as well as a compliment of serving pieces, two creamers and a sugar bowl.   My grandparents got these through their grocery store, where certain pieces were offered each week.  I have no idea how many groceries they had to buy to qualify for the individual pieces, but I'm glad they did, because these dishes, used only between Thanksgiving and Christmas each year, have so many wonderful and special memories for me.

Now it's your turn to share your T post.  Whether you are reminiscing or sharing something new, it makes no difference as long as it's drink related.  Whether you choose to share it with art, sketches, scrapbook pages, postcards, stamps, movie or book reviews, paintings, photos, or a day out and about, please link your post below so Bleubeard, the T gang, and I can visit.  It's obvious your T photos don't have to be taken on Tuesday, or even this month, for that matter.   


Please don't forget to rummage through your previous posts for Second on the 2nd, which turns ONE in January.  Hope you make it a habit to join each month on the 2nd, too.

Heading to the Snowman's Ball and a catnip Christmas

 We're all heading to the Snowman's Ball.  But before we do, we're heading to Art Journal Journey where Valerie is this month's host.  In case you aren't aware of the December challenge, it is collage with journaling.  And although this might be a bit of a stretch, I'm also adding this to Moo-Mania and More where their latest theme is Christmas.

For this pre-New Year's affair, created in my Coll-AH-ge Too altered book, I recycled some gift wrapping paper and the rest of a napkin Valerie sent to me.  The words were computer generated using the "Shotgun" font.  I just love how the snowflakes show through the white of the snow people.

Although I received a lot of gifts under my trees this year, I will show them at a later time when I have a chance to photograph them.  Today is all about Bleubeard, Squiggles, and the gifts Sally and I gave them.

That lovely cat bed is for Squiggles, although Bleubeard has never had a cat bed.  Apparently she has a lot of love for Squiggles, because she has never given Bleubeard a gift at Christmas before.    Another strange dynamic for "our family" (mainly me) to ponder.

The two mice, also filled with catnip, are to be shared by the "boys."  Since Squiggles got such an elaborate gift, I gave Bleubeard the 50 lbs of catnip pillow.

I got the lavender cat collar on the left for Squiggles, and the small sized dog collar for Bleubeard.  That size fits his neck better, especially in the winter, when he's all fluffy.  The cat collars don't extend far enough for his big head.  But don't tell him, because his head is big enough already!

As an update on Journal 52, the web site is back, but there are no new prompts after week 50.  I keep thinking if I stick around long enough, I'll learn the last two prompts.  But I fear it's definitely time to call this project concluded.

Now that we've all seen what the "boys" got for Christmas, let's head to the Snowman's Ball after we visit both Art Journal Journey and Moo-Mania and More where artists are busy creating art for your viewing pleasure that fits these two challenge prompts.

Thanks, too, for visiting and supporting my art.  Bleubeard thanks you, too!