T Stands For Bagatelle

For the first time since late February, I'm not at home.  I've actually ventured out after my eye appointment.  EDIT: It was an eye appointment and not surgery as Eileen sugested.  They think it might heal on its own, but only time will tell.

Everyone was wearing a mask, so I didn't feel too bad.  I was careful to keep as far away from people as possible.  And although there were people dining there, I got my food to go.  They were very careful and changed gloves with each order.

Although that was the only photo I took that day, here are some I've taken in the past.

This is my drink reference today, because I simply forgot when I got home and dug into my meal.

I won't tempt you with old photos of their cakes and cheesecakes.

Some of you mentioned you didn't have a driver's license and wondered what would be an acceptable replacement in order to vote in this November election.

I realize my scanner is on its last leg, but above are the other forms of identification you can use.  Gosh, they would have taken my conceal-carry handgun license (GRIN).

By now, I suspect you know the drill.  It's time to share your drink related post this week.  It can be photos, a place you visited, movies, postcards, books, sketches, mixed media, drawings, paintings, tags, scrapbooking, or other art that is digital, hybrid, or traditional, as long as it in some way relates back to a drink, any drink.  Regardless, please share below and Bleubeard and I, along with the rest of the T gang will be by to visit.   Please link only your T post and not your blog in general.  Old photos are acceptable because they may be taken any time, not just on Tuesday.  And since I don't pay for this link, it will only be open until 12 a.m. my time on the 2nd.  That is also a subtle way of reminding you about having your Second on the 2nd post ready, too.

One final journal page and my calendar pages

Since I have a few hours between Monday Murals and T Time, I thought I would share my final Art Journal Journey entry using Alison's (aka Craftytrog) Pockets and Tags theme.  I'm also joining Try it on Tuesday's latest challenge which is Splash and Splatter.  I'm getting in just under the wire on both these challenges.

I was actually inspired by Erika and this journal page she created.

This little TH paper doll

practically begged to be used in this spread.

He felt the tag was the perfect place

for him to rest his body.

He was glad I used some washi tape for him and the tag to stand on, a trick I learned from Alison Bomber.

For this page, I began by spritzing two of my handmade shimmering mists on the pink copier paper substrate.  Once dry, which I helped along with my heat gun, I laid down the washi tape, then added the tag and the TH paper doll.

For the tag, I started with a die cut tag cut from a used file folder.  I colored it using a water soluble crayon.  I slid one side of the tag across my Versamark ink pad and used clear embossing powder on the piece.  It didn't give me the look I was going for, so I heated it again and, this time, I used UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel).  It gave me more the look I was going for.  Then I stamped the three words on the tag using black dye ink. 

It's also obvious I found my altered book and have added all the pages I created this month that didn't have a home.

I'm also sharing my monthly calendar today, too.  

Here is the left side and

here is the right side.   I hope you enjoy the minutia of my boring life.
 
August is nearly complete and September is ready to be written in. 

Here is the full page.

This is the left side

and the right side.

Thanks so very much for visiting me today.  I hope to also see you at Try it on Tuesday and Art Journal Journey with your own mixed media art. 

Monday Murals: Black Lives Taken Too Soon

It's time once again to join Sami at Sami's Colourful World and her Monday Murals.  Even though it's still Sunday in my world, please be aware that Sami's mural link goes live at 11:01 a.m. my time today.

My foodie friend Sally told me about this mural.  She immediately thought of me and told me where to find it.  As soon as I saw it, I was nearly overwhelmed.  It is quite appropriate because on Friday (August 27), we celebrated the 57th Annual March on Washington.  Although the National Park Service, which granted a permit for up to 50,000 participants, did not “require nor enforce” the use of social distancing and masks, Al Sharpton, who organized the event said they required all attendees to wear masks and social distance wherever possible.  Each person received a temperature check and was given a small bottle of hand sanitizer, too.  Many of the families depicted in this mural spoke during the March on Washington on Friday, too.

Breonna Taylor was a beautiful 26-year-old African-American emergency medical technician

who was fatally shot by Louisville police

issuing a no-knock warrant.  

The dove of peace flew to the next person who died too soon.

Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17 year old was walking home from a convenience store when he was spotted by a neighborhood-watch volunteer

who followed him and shot him because Martin "appeared" to be on drugs or might have been a burglar.   Once Martin died, the murderer was released because it's legal in Florida to use deadly force in self-defense.

Later charged with the offense, the offender was sadly acquitted and is now free, while Trayvon Martin is still dead!

Emmett Till was only 14 years old when he was brutally beaten, had one eye gouged out, and lynched for supposedly speaking to a white woman in a grocery store in Mississippi while visiting his uncle, a sharecropper.   After the lynching, the kidnappers threw his body in the river, where he was later found.  The all white male jury acquitted the two suspects in the case.

Till's casket was returned to his Chicago birthplace, where his mother insisted on an open casket funeral so everyone could see what had been done to him.  Till's death and the subsequent photos that were shown in various magazines may have, some believe, sparked the Civil Rights Movement.  It was 65 years ago on Friday (August 28) that Till was murdered.

This mural has been at this site for nearly two years, from what I could learn.  It was painted long before George Floyd was murdered, which inspired the Black Lives Matter Movement, and before last Sunday (August 23) when Jacob Blake was shot seven times, three of which hit his back, by a police officer who was not wearing a body cam.  Blake is currently paralyzed and up until Friday was cuffed/shackled to a hospital bed because he was accused of a felony.  Now those charges appear to have been dropped.  This incident occurred in front of Blake's three sons, one of whom was celebrating his birthday, who witnessed the event from the back seat of their SUV.

This mural is found in a strip mall located at 13th and Hillside in Wichita, Kansas (USA).

If you enjoy murals from around the world, please don't forget to visit Monday Murals at Sami's Colourful World.  And PLEASE, if you plan to protest anywhere in the world, do so PEACEFULLY!!  The mothers of all these who have died are asking for that, too.

Breath

I've created another entry for Art Journal Journey featuring Alison's (aka Craftytrog) Pockets and Tags theme.  Remember, there are two more days for you to join in the fun this month before we announce a new host on September 1.
For this page, I started with a solid color background to create this entry that includes both pockets and tags.

My tags began as die cuts that were covered with lovely German text and beautiful flowers.

I delineated each pocket with a quote on breath and breathing,

thus the title of the post.

Each tag got a gold glittery ribbon, too.  The pockets were sewn together using variegated green thread.

I'd like to thank Alison for hosting this month and sharing so many wonderful entries with us, as well as taking her hosting duties seriously.  Thanks so very much for also joining me, and I hope to see you at Art Journal Journey. 

Friday Smiles 386: A return to the Eisenhower Museum

It's Friday, so let's join Annie (at A Stitch in Time) along with the wonderful ladies at Friday Smiles.  For those of you who don't care for this museum, of all the posts you will see, I think you will like this one the best.  I believe everyone will enjoy today's Smile.

This is where we left off last week.

Ike was home.  However, I want to go back a page and cover what transpired once he was home.

From 1945 through 1948, Ike became the Army Chief of Staff.  In this role, he oversaw the demobilization of the military and the administration of areas no longer under the control of Germany and Japan following their surrender. Ike also revamped the army, bringing it into the Atomic Age.  You might be able to see this in the center of the above photo.

After he became president of Columbia University in 1948 (you can see him in his cap and gown to the center left in the photo above), he and Mamie purchased a farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  It was the first home they had ever owned.

In 1948, Ike retired from active service.  It was at that time, he wrote Crusade in Europe.  While serving as President of Columbia University, in December Ike became a military consultant to the first Secretary of Defense.

In 1949, Ike served informally as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the newly created defense department.

The Korean War started in June, 1950.  In December of that year, and at the request of President Truman and the 12 NATO nations, Ike accepted the position of Supreme Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).  Ike's duties as commander of NATO, and Mamie's as his hostess at a villa near Paris, delayed work on their dream home in Gettysburg, which they finally completed in 1955.  You might be able to see him taking command of NATO in the center of the above photo, although there's lots of interference due to the glass walls.

Ike left for NATO headquarters in Paris in January, 1951.  He served there through June, 1952, when, after finally being persuaded, he resigned to return to the United States to campaign for the presidency.

Ike campaign signs, buttons, banners, and memorabilia are shown here.

Ike was a good campaigner because he was so well known on the world stage, but Mamie was the real campaigner.  She got more enjoyment out of it than Ike did.

After Ike won the presidency, he resigned his commission as General of the Army.

Ike championed peace.

He called it waging peace.

A quote by Ike above the globe reads: "Freedom must defend itself with courage, with care, with force, and with fairness."  (that sounds like something I might actually write)

Now it's time to leave the campaign trail and move into the White House.

Once in the White House, Mamie was a gracious host.  She was also quite frugal in her spending.

Mamie had her own style.  She had Toile made for the curtains and bedspread in her Gettysburg home.

It included her favorite color palette of pink and green.  All the important places they had lived were included in the fabric.  At Ike's request, the Denver Doud home where they were married was included in the fabric. She liked the material so much, she even had a dress made from the same fabric.

The "Mamie Look" included a full-skirted dress, charm bracelets, pearls, little hats, and bobbed hair with curly bangs.

Every year she was in the White House, she was one the 12 best-dressed women in the country.

Mamie had a fondness for a specific shade of pink, often called "First Lady" or "Mamie" pink. Now we know why there was all that pink clothing, housewares, and bathrooms that came out of the 1950s.

You can read about how Mamie enhanced the historic collections of the White House, like the china collection shown in the photo.

It's amazing the amount of presidential china she collected.

I really liked the design.

It's amazing the various pieces that were saved and donated.

Jewelry, matching purses,

bangle bracelets,

and matching gloves

were part of Mamie's day to day items she wore.

Imagine being hostess to a nation.  Mamie reinstated the White House Egg Roll and insisted that it be desegregated.

The Eisenhower White House was noted for its elegant, formal entertaining.  They hosted events for more heads of state from all over the world than any presidential couple before them.  An evening at the White House with Ike and Mamie was memorable, marked by high style, lavish entertaining, and warm hospitality.

After she and Ike left the White House, they retired to the farm in Gettysburg, where she lived, even after Ike died.

She is buried next to her husband at the chapel on the museum grounds, along with their son "Icky."

There will be no extra smiles today, because everyone should smile at least once in this post.  My favorite laugh was when I read about the pink bathrooms that sprung up in nearly every mid-century modern home.  I have friends who have one of those pink bathrooms in their own mid-century modern home.  They refuse to update it because they like the Mamie pink color.  I have another friend whose guest bath is mid-century pink with green trim and accents, Mamie's favorite color combination.

Now let's head over to Annie's because she knows how to put a smile on everyone's faces.  And whatever you do, please don't forget to start your weekend off right with a few Friday Smiles of your own.  And remember, if you would like to play along, Annie would love to have you join us.