What's on My Kitchen Counter

 Sometimes your eyes or mind open and you see things you have never seen before..... This past week, I noticed a face in one of the boards on my floor.  I did a rubbing of it with a Stabilo pencil on some copy paper and created this card (it is a case of a card by  Stamperrobin at SCS  - she had fairies and magical elements - my magical element is that I found a face in my floor - lol).   Since it is T-day somewhere in the world I have my drink picture of the week and am joining the T -day crew at Elizabeth's blog.   Happy T-day friends! The mug is Dunoon China. One day, I got a speck of watercolor paint in hubby's coffee cup and he refused to use it again....  So I saw this mug or one like it on a post by Valerie (one of the T-gang).  I ordered it for him to replace the one I "ruined." He has finally decided to drink out of it after leaving it  on the mantel for 8 months. Have you ever had a week so bad you knew that only cheesecake could fix it?  That was my week la

 Cheers and happy T-day to everyone, but especially to the T-day gang at Elizabeth's Blog .  This porter tastes wonderful to me, but I had a few people try it and they hated it. It has a rich deep dark beer taste with strong chocolate and coffee flavors.  I will buy it again.  I love the name of the brewing company and it is local.  This past week, my daughter Crystal and I did a charcuterie tray for our bunco group. We love making them.  I really wanted to make it because I wanted to make that meat rose in the middle after watching a tutorial on TikTok - isn't it funny how something like that sticks in your head?  It went well with the yummy salads my sister, Sharon, made for the night.  A made a little art this week as well.  I have a spread for Neet's Type Theme at **Art*Journal*Journey* - it was going to be spooky but it took a turn and ended up hauntingly sad instead.  Funny how that happens....  The images are all DRS Designs, the stencil is Andy Skinner, and the back

Been a busy week already and it is only Monday (or Tuesday if you are in the T-Gang  - we celebrate Tuesday if it is Tuesday anywhere in the world).  A bit of stress relief here - 4 new books from the library and a Bud Light Blue Raspberry Selzer.  The Girl in the Walls is a ghost story of some type so you know it will be the first one read!  The ghost stories last week were my favorite - although, Beach House for Rent was really fun.  Happy T-day to all my friends who meet up at Elizabeth's (Altered Book Lover Blog) each Monday/Tuesday.  We would love to have you come join us.  All you have to do is share something drink related - could be a movie, a book, your favorite drink of the week (any type), art, billboards, signs, quotes, etc.  If you look at my picture above you see how easy it is.  Sharing some cookie pictures from the party my sweet friend Rachel threw for her daughter's 1st birthday.  They were soooo good!  I ate 1/2 of a rainbow one since I had a cupcake too - h

 I did a page in my travel journal of our trip to Sloss Furnace.  I had to do some corrective scapping on this one.  I realized I had mounted my top picture over one of the words and didn't want to redo the page.  I redid two lines and put one of them over my mistake.  Doesn't look as good as I thought it would, but it looks a bit better IRL.  Sharing this with the lovely tribe at **ART*JOURNAL*JOURNEY where the August theme selected by Neet is "Type."  Lots of type on this page.  The background was made by inking up an embossing folder (rectangles), spritzing with some water, and slapping it on the page.  I checked out the book  Haunted Birmingham , by Alan Brown, at the library this week.  There were hundreds and hundreds of people who died at Sloss Furnace.  It was a dangerous place to work with the moulten iron, the chemicals, and the steam.  There are multiple ghosts documented including dogs, deer, kids, women, and men. At some point in the history of the site,

 Happy T-day!   I re-joined the library yesterday after a 20 year hiatus (can't find my Kindle - lol). You probably guessed I would pick out some ghost books.  I am almost done with Beach House for Rent - I couldn't put it down.  The library limit is 15 books (per my daughter) and they have movies too.  They even have coffee (good coffee) - such a treat! For the T-day Gang at Elizabeth's I have two fun drink pictures from this week.  My first is a beer flight my daughter and I shared at Coosa Cleaver.  We were able to socially distance at the bar due to road work cutting down on the number of people at the restaurant. I only liked the one on the right and Allie really only liked the one on the left.   After a visit to the library we grabbed some fun coffee at a wonderful local coffee place in Prattville, Alabama - West Main Coffee House and Creamery.   Allie had the Blind Tiger and I had the Lougarou. I can't remember what was in either coffee, but they were both wonde

"Type" is the August theme selected by Neet at **Art*Journal*Journey* so this AJ page was born.  Blue watercolor background with white gesso clouds serve as the base for the little RedLead fairy who was stamped on the old devotional page.  Some scraps from the devotional were also worked into the background.  The word stamp has a typed look and is also from RedLead.   I forgot to share a very fun and very high mural we saw Saturday at Pepper Market. You can see a few booths from the outdoor market as well.  This weekend I had a chance to catch up on a postcard challenge at Splitcoaststampers.com. My sweet friend Jayne posted the challenge so I could not miss it!  I recycled an old Highlights State Map of Vermont to do this.  There was even a fake stamp on the map so I cut it out and used it in this strange collage.  Now, I just have to think about a cool sentiment so I can make it into a card.  Any suggestions? Thanks for visiting! Hugz, Nancy

 Isn't it fun when you find unexpected things? My daughter and I visited Sloss Furnace in Birmingham, Alabama this past weekend.  It is supposed to be the most haunted place in Alabama so you know I wanted to go.  Allie just went because she wanted to go to Pepper Market.  Since Sloss was 2 minutes away, she could not say no plus I was driving - lol.  When we entered the visitor's center, this sculpute is the first thing I noticed.  I knew my T-day and Coffee & Tea loving friends would enjoy it. Notice the sheep in wolves clothing  sculpture in the background.  Lots of cool metal art at the visitors center.  Definitely worth the trip.   Here is part of the story of the site and a few other pictures. We did the self-guided tour imagining how hot this place was and how many people died making iron or from the toll it took on them.   When we walked around, we didn't feel anything spooky but it was the middle of the day and there were a lot of people there. There was a spot