Planner Mash Up

It's a bit of a 'mash-up' today, of Planner

Pages that I've been decorating.  Above, is

the evidence of a more traditional style

planner that is dedicated to Harry Potter

style decorations.  I know, I know. You'd be

surprised how many adults out there are

obsessed. Anyway, I've had the bright

idea to have a 'Harry Potter feast' for our

grandkids this year, and fear I've bitten off

more than I can chew, as the saying goes!

A 'Hufflepuff' themed spread for the week of

Dec. 3-9. Hufflepuff is one of the Wizarding

Houses in the Harry Potter series of books.

Students in the imaginary wizarding school are

divided into Houses for living and educational

purposes. (There are some similarities to

 college fraternities or sororities, but the Houses

are co-ed with separate sleeping quarters.)

Sharing a few highlights today, since I've 

been so remiss in posting.

A few of the October drawings are

some of my favorites...

As we near the end of the year, it gets 

more difficult to write in my Hobonichi, as 

it has gotten quite chunky, and more difficult

to scan or photograph!  It's grown to 

about 2 1/4 inches in thickness.  Maybe

a few too many added layers of

collage?!

The December monthly pages in this mini

Happy Planner depict the impending Christmas

feast.  I even bought Christmas crackers this

year, which is a first.  Hope they have a nice

pop!  Click on the image, to see details of

the gold gnome in a tutu!

I don't make Christmas Cake myself, but my

son makes fruitcake, so we will have that for

Christmas Eve dinner. I also wanted to make

Treacle Tart, but the granddaughter wants

pecan pie, so we will see if it all gets done.

I made a treacle tart at Thanksgiving, (I just

used Karo syrup and the suggested lemon 

juice) as a kind of practice run, and

 thought that the cookie-like crust 

was a bit tough. Did I knead it too much?

Add too much flour?  Leave me your advise

please! 

Linking up for T Tuesday over at 

Altered Book Lover's blog, where we share

our beverage-related posts on Tuesdays.

Stop by to join in, or just visit!  My 

beverage drawings are hidden on some

of these pages. I think I counted six coffee

cups...did I miss any?

Thanks for stopping by...leave me a 

comment and give me your advice on 

making a more tender tart crust!

A Fantastic Month

Celebrating Fantastic Beasts for the

month of November

since the movie 'Crimes of Grindelwald'

is out this month.

Having fun drawing lots of 

magical beasts...

a photo-heavy post, because it's

been so long since I last updated this blog.

You've been warned...

One of my favorite characters,

Dobby, the House Elf.

The Hobonichi is getting more difficult to

write in, (and to scan) since the thickness of

the journal is causing a serious curve near

the spine. The binding holds up wonderfully

despite the bulk, but I am now being careful

to not write or draw in that area.  Some folks get

 so excited to begin working in their

 new planners, but I feel a little

 sad to leave this "old friend" behind. It

will go on the bookshelf for looking at from

time to time.

Some might maintain that all felines

can detect suspicious or untrustworthy

people...

I have many favorites from the 

Fantastic Beasts movies, but the Niffler

is so fun! I'm attracted to shiny things too...

just sayin'...

The twiggy little Bowtruckle is

so adorable. He looks fragile, but I 

have a feeling he's tougher than

he looks!

Wouldn't we all love to be able to 

become invisible when the need arose?!

Wishing you all a wonderful and 

blessed Thanksgiving!

Tales of Camping

Just returned from a short

camping trip to visit

Son and Family...

(click on any image to enlarge)

we are getting to be physically

challenged by sleeping on

air mattresses in a tent!

A peaceful campsite by a river

makes all the effort worth it. Plus

good times with family!

I've been enjoying making Fall

doodles in my Hobonichi...

My daily pages do 'double duty'

as participation in iHanna's

"365 somethings 2018"

daily art project.

Linking up with the T party

over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's.

P.S.  It ended up that our tent was relatively

dry when we packed up. There's usually

a bit of dampness from the dew, which is

fine. Sopping wet, not so good. This 

time we didn't have to set the

tent back up to dry when

we got home!

Art Journal Days

Sometimes it's a challenge to sit down and

create a blog post, because of being

busy or because of time away...

but wow....a whole month away!?

Time to catch up.

So it's a photo-heavy post today in order

to catch up with all our 'doins'.

Had a nice visit to the Ohio State Fair,

where I sketched at the same time as

other members of Urban Sketchers Columbus.

I didn't really get a chance to spend any

time with the group, but managed to 

touch base with them before everyone 

headed home.

It was a really hot day, but I enjoyed 

drawing in the barns, hearing the Ohio

State Fair choir and band, and having an 

ear of corn on the cob!

What do you do when you have half a page

filled, and then leave the fair?  You've got 

half a page to fill when you get to the 

next fair!  Below, I was surprised to see

that Fulton County, Ohio had procured a 

piece of The Towers for a 911 Memorial.

It also happened to be a day when the 

American flag was at half mast to honor the 

passing of John McCain.  The flag pole 

made an effective 'divider' from one

fair to the next. 

 Oh, did I mention the Tractor Pull on Friday

 night? Hubby loves those events! 

 Daughter and I left him on his own

 after a couple of hours...just a little more noise

and fumes than we could handle. 

Daughter plays the djembe' with her church

praise band, and they played on Saturday

night.  She sang lead on 4 songs...very 

proud of her!

Fulton County Fair, near Wauseon, Ohio.

I seem to have an attraction to bunnies.

We also happened upon the end of a Llama and

Alpaca show.  They had been leading them 

through an obstacle course.  Very interesting,

and the animals seemed quite agreeable to 

jump low obstacles and even walk through

the flaps of a tent!  "Vanilla Ice" (on the right,

above) was a llama that was a creamy beige color

with long curly hair. He had one white eye and

one black eye.  His eyes had black all around

them like he was wearing eye shadow!  I think

maybe his 'nose' should have been longer in my

drawing, but he did insist on moving around a lot.

Daughter and Son in Law are 4-H advisors, and

 there is always a big push before the fair each 

year to plan and create the Fair Booth. The 4-H 

members set up a booth in the Junior Fair Building

to showcase their projects and activities 

for the year. As I was a 4-H member as a kid,

and so were my children, it brings back lots of

good memories.

The trials of livestock and animal ownership...

something got into the chicken coop at the In Laws

farm and killed a bunch of chickens.  We suspected a

weasel or a mink.  Eight (or was it 6?) dead 

chickens with broken necks, but left uneaten. 

 Apparently, whatever it was just killed for the fun of it.

Ugh. So bury the chickens and try to secure

the coop- which for a weasel means no 

openings bigger than 3/8 inch! SIL was

pretty aggravated. Took them all day to apply

additional screen over the chicken wire.

Labor Day spent with family...

I'm back to doing the Hobonichi Challenge

this month, which is a theme of 

"Experiment, Fail, Repeat,"  featuring 

technology and inventions.  A good way to

reflect on science that has changed our

lives.  My grandparents lived in the era that

saw the invention of cars and airplane travel. 

We are living in the Digital Age, and social

media is very impactful to our lives... 

kind of scary to me to realize there is a generation

of kids that would not know how to use a 

rotary phone or manual typewriter.

I'm showing my age!

How many tea bags did you notice?

In addition to my coffee, I've been enjoying

some Vanilla Chai Tea in the mornings. So

I'm linking up for the T Tuesday blog hop

over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's. It's 

been a while, but it's always fun to have a

beverage and see what the blogging friends

are up to. Join us!

*There were six tea bags*

If you are on Instagram, you can follow me at

www.instagram.com/dbcarey_2000

Fake Journal Wrap Up

April is the month each year that I

create a Fake Journal.  Four months have passed

and I'm just now getting around to posting

a Wrap Up of this year's project.

Stop by my Fake Journal blog,

Cottonwood Counterfeit Journal to see

all of the images from this year's Fake

Journal, and my thoughts on the process.

I think Eccentric is fun,

don't you?