Hamilton to New Jersey (Part 1)

Last Saturday, Pat & I were up at 4AM in order to make the 8-hour drive down to New Jersey for my friend Dorana's baby shower. This trip held a number of firsts for us:

• our first time driving so far into the US
• our first time driving in the US alone
• our first time driving a significant distance without Pat having studied any maps
• our first time driving a significant distance with me navigating
• our first time so close to the ocean

It was quite the trip & I'm proud to say we didn't get lost once! Here are the instructions I wrote out before leaving - thanks Google Maps!

And here's my sexy driver - I can't thank him enough for bringing me:

Before we left, I knew I wanted to document our drive - inspired by one of my favourite blogs, The Dainty Squid, I decided to take a photo an hour.

And then took some more in between. There was so much to see!

Since I have 45 photos of the drive there, I'm not going to show them all. You can head on over to my Flickr photostream if you're interested. I will post most of them though & I'll break them up into a couple posts to make it easier.

So let's get started shall we?

5 AM - departure

6 AM - duty free + border crossing

6:30ish AM - downtown Buffalo

7 AM - sunrise, with the moon still peeking through the trees

7:30ish AM - snow!?! We had to drive South to find it! Ha!

As you can see above, this area was quite hilly. And everywhere you looked - windmills. I don't know what it was about these, but they totally freaked me out. Chills-down-my-spine-freaked-out. When we returned at night I had to avoid looking outside because it was even worse in the dark. There was something so alien about them....

*shudder*

8 AM - quaint little town

9 AM - Dunkin' Donuts + more scenic countryside

We're making pretty good time, aren't we? We're almost out of New York and into Pennsylvania! Time to do a little shopping I think....

The next leg of the trip will be posted later today!

Wordless Wednesday

Mosaic Monday

It's Mosaic Monday! I hope you'll join us - it's really easy! Just make a photo mosaic - you can use whatever photo editing software you like, or a website such as the mosaic maker & photos from Flickr - & then post it on your blog. Go ahead & pick a theme if you want, but don't feel like you have to. Have fun with it!

Make sure to include a link back to my blog so that everyone can participate. Then come back here & submit a link to your blog post (using the "add your link" button at the bottom). I'll be looking at & commenting on each one!

Here's mine for this week: the ocean.

1. Ocean Cliffs, 2. Ocean Sunrise, 3. Sunset over the Ocean - Kauai, Hawaii, 4. Ocean Mist - Grey Whale Cove, California

Here's the list of mosaics for this week. Once you've blogged, click the button below to add your blog post link.

A Whirlwind

This weekend has been an absolute whirlwind! Try not to exhaust yourself while reading through this list:

• my parents came down for convocation on Friday
• Pat & I left at 5AM on Saturday to drive down to New Jersey for Dorana's baby shower. I didn't tell her I was coming, so it was a complete surprise. SO much fun!
• we drove to the coast & saw the ocean for the first time!
• we shopped
• we drove back Sunday & got home at 11PM - a short trip but well worth it!
• Monday we picked up a lenovo ideapad, so I've been playing with that pretty much non-stop since... I promise I'll put it down to go through the 600+ photos I have from the weekend! Here are just 2 to prove we were there:

Keep an eye out for Mosaic Monday - I'll be posting it in a few minutes. Then I'll bombard you with much more from my amazing weekend! Near the end of the week, I'm planning on posting a bit more about my special journaling project - along with a sneak preview!

Stay tuned!

My Creative Space

I've been busy preparing for my parents' visit tomorrow. Not only did the apartment need a bit of cleaning (oh did the floor need that mopping!), but they're going to bring some of my craft show stock and display home with them.

Here's one of the boxes I'm working on filling now:

Those little baggies are filled with my beaded ornaments:

They're pretty, but I haven't had much success with them at previous craft shows. We'll see how this one goes. I should also try getting better pictures of them & listing them online, but they're tricky. These photos obviously don't do the vintage glass & lucite beads justice:

The rest of the box is filled out with mini notebooks - Christmas ones:

I still want to make up some more with everyday papers, just for variety.

Besides that, I've been working in my sketchbook, preparing for my special project. I don't want to reveal too much, but here's a peek at one of my more recent pages:

Head on over to Our Creative Spaces for more inspiration!

Wordless Wednesday

Mosaic Monday

It's Mosaic Monday! I hope you'll join us - it's really easy! Just make a photo mosaic - you can use whatever photo editing software you like, or a website such as the mosaic maker & photos from Flickr - & then post it on your blog. Go ahead & pick a theme if you want, but don't feel like you have to. Have fun with it!

Make sure to include a link back to my blog so that everyone can participate. Then come back here & submit a link to your blog post (using the "add your link" button at the bottom). I'll be looking at & commenting on each one!

Here's mine for this week: autumn's last gasp.

1. Autumn Gold, 2. Autumn Gold, 3. Autumn Gold, 4. Untitled, 5. ~Autumn Gold~, 6. Maroon, 7. leather like, no?, 8. Fall colors, 9. Autumn in Maroon Bells, 10. Wheat Field, 11. Marooned maple, 12. Beautiful Fall, 13. Leaves Blown to Front Door Threshold

Here's the list of mosaics for this week. Once you've blogged, click the button below to add your blog post link.

My Creative Space

Angie's Monday Art Class was a fun one this week. In fact, I'm not really done with it & plan on playing around some more.

The task was to create a piece inspired by the Canadian artist David Blackwood. He paints amazing night seascapes, featuring icebergs with ships above and whales below. You really must check out his work!

I've been wanting to try my hand at drawing ships lately - no particular reason why, though I've read a few books partly set on ships. Not the new, sleek kind, but the kind with multiple giant sails, a worn wooden hull and ropes flying everywhere.

So that's exactly what I did!

I started by searching for images of ships & found a few that I liked. One in particular was a diagram with the parts of the ship labeled, so I thought that would be a good one to try first:

Then I went ahead & drew a couple ships based on the images I found:

I added a bit of colour because I love it.

That's all I've done so far. I'd love to revisit David Blackwood's work & try my hand at whales & icebergs next!

You can head over here to see some more lovely creative spaces!