Showing posts with label Friday Face Off. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friday Face Off. Show all posts

Friday, November 7, 2025

Friday Artful Adventures & Creations

 

Happy Friday!

This week was an okay week but I am lacking energy and motivation.

When do you start decorating for Christmas? I think I am going to start decorating this weekend.

I need some lights and Christmas decor to get me uplifted.

⭐️ 

This week I did create a little artwork and I managed to put together the last Vlog for October.

Have a look if you like. 


 Linking up today with Friday Face Off Hosted by the wonderful and talented Nicole 

Art for Fun Friday hosted by the lovely and wonderful Gillena. 

🌟 

This was done on Thursday November 6th on Pastel Paper,

I used my phone to work on a self portrait for Nicole's Challenge. 

 Friday Face Off

I am going to keep working on my self portrait with a variety of mediums to explore and learn more. 

I used chalk pastels. I feel I need a lot of practice with measurements and proportions. 

I do have a book that I am going to look over and It has technical lines and measurements that I can learn from.  


oh the messy lines lol
oh the ears lol oh my goodness 
a mess but this is good practice


I kindly won gouache paints from this brand on Instagram.

https://nevskayapalitra.com/

I am truly grateful.

A video of the swatches.

Painting with the gouache paints and testing them out.

I notice gouache paints dry flat.

I need to work with them more.



This week I also created an illustration. 
I used pencil crayons, crayons, water, markers, pencil and fineliner pen. 




❄️ ❄️ ❄️ 
In Other News
I kindly won a fragrance from Dave Lackie on Twitter. 
He is so amazing.
 It also came with a clinique headband. 
Perfect to hold my hair back when I do my skincare.
He is an incredible friend. 
I love this fragrance. Clinique Happy. So fresh and revitalizing fragrance. 
Thank you so much Dave!



Friendly Snail mail from a Wonderful Friend
Thank you Yaya!


If anyone would like to do a small snail mail exchange for junk journaling let me know.
I exchange things like small stickers, paper goodies and stationary goods. 
Email me if you like. bestdayblogger@outlook.com

Check out my previous post if you like

Hello November Rain

Beyond the Lines: Exploring the World of Notebooks & Journals With a Cuppa


❄️ 
Thank you all for your visit and your wonderful comments. 

Thank you from my heart and have a wonderful weekend!

Maria 


Friday, October 31, 2025

Happy Halloween! 🎃 Art and Journal Planning



Happy Halloween! 
Happy Friday my spooktacular friends. 
I am so sad that it is the end of October. 
So sad that all the trees will have no leaves anymore. 

A compilation of October in a mini video.


But I am very grateful for each moment. 
October truly was an incredible month.
Lots of Art, Tea and Journaling!

I would like to Link this post up with Nicole's Friday Face Off & Art For Fun Friday 
hosted by Gillena.

Thank you both for hosting lovely parties. 

I kindly received a Leuchtturm1917 Notebook. 
Thank you so much to Leuchtturm1917.



I painted the trees and the colours that I see around me.







Brrrr It's cold outside
I haven't started the Portrait Challenge yet.
 I will probably use a photo of when I was younger and start working on it next week. 
I did enjoy making this little portrait of how cold it is in the mornings. 



Another watercolour tree with lots of autumnal colours. 




I bought this sticker book off of Amazon and I love it. 
I have no idea how I can use this besides in my journal. Any Ideas?
Making cards? 


A flip through of the sticker book.



Finishing up my old Leuchtturm1917 before I get into the new one gifted to me for November.





Hubby's Photo from work
 Toronto


This Morning
Halloween 2025
Hubby's Photo From the 37th Floor



I hope you all have a wonderful and spooktacular Halloween!

Thank you all for your lovely comments!


Thank you Leuchtturm1917 for the new Cherry Coloured Notebook
I love it! *Feel free to use my code: MARIA for 20% off on their website. 
Not Sponsored.


 Thank you and Happy Halloween!

Previous Posts


Friday, October 24, 2025

Art Desk With Sketches and Doodles



 Linking up to the wonderful Friday Face Off hosted by the talented and wonderful Nicole & Art for Fun Friday hosted by the wonderful Gillena and for Art Journal Journey, hosted by Elizabeth, Erika and Mia.

Art Journal Journey


This week I was at my desk doodling and sketching.
I tried to stay off my phone as much as possible. 


Self portrait practice 
I am using the reflection in my window to draw the self portraits.






Doodling fun



More doodle fun



 Junk Journaling





 I really love the colours and patterns in this piece. It's a favourite. 



Spooky Fun






Markers and water


Thank you so much for being here and reading my post.
 I hope you all have a wonderful weekend full of creativity!
Much love and kindness. 
Maria







Friday, October 17, 2025

A Week of Creativity



I hope you are all well my friends! Happy Friday! I made a few art pieces this week and
I am happy I was able to stay creative.
✨🎃✨

Linking up with Friday Face Off hosted by the wonderful and talented Nicole
&
Art for Fun Friday hosted by the lovely and talented Gillena.

I painted the clay pumpkins!





 
I created a few collages, portraits and mixed media too. 
✨🎃✨

They are not perfect and I believe It's okay to have many mistakes.
we learn from mistakes right?


Mixed Media piece
 I used paint, markers, stickers.


Doodle


an Elf 
I used watercolour and paint
I also used a little glitter 
not really happy about him but I will try and make another Elf


A watercolour landscape



Collage/Junk Journaling




Collage/ Junk Journaling





Autumn Tree
Watercolour





Lately I am not pleased with my artwork but I feel it's okay to feel this way and I must stay creative.
I have a feeling that I am very emotional due to my menopause. It's making me so emotional. lol


 I hope you had a wonderful week my friends. I wish you all the best and have a magical and wonderful weekend! Thank you for your visit and your comments. :) hugs!

Happy 10 Year Anniversary on Youtube! I can't believe it. 
I am so grateful for all my subscribers. A huge thank you to everyone who watches my videos!




Friday, October 10, 2025

Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend FFO & Art for Fun





Hello and welcome wonderful friends. I hope you are all well. How was your week? I would like to thank you all for the wonderful visit and for your comments. It's a pleasure to read your blogs and see all your wonderful photos, read your lovely stories and poems and see your artwork. I appreciate you so much.  

Remember you are amazing, wonderful and important!

Happy FFO!

Linking up to Friday Face Off 

ART FOR FUN

This weekend, here in Canada we have Thanksgiving. It's a long weekend and we get together with family. Growing up, my Greek family never really did a traditional Thanksgiving celebration. When I was dating my now husband in 1999, I went over to his house and his family celebrated Thanksgiving with all the festive foods like turkey, sweet potato, cottage roll, stuffing and cranberry sauce! It was so amazing to see and be a part of a big family and sit together and talk, laugh and give thanks. Since 1999, each year we have been getting together to have a Thanksgiving meal. Even though our table is now missing a few family members, we think and pray for our loved ones each year and miss them dearly. 

We actually missed two years of Thanksgiving gatherings because we were living in another province and one or two years because of covid. 

This was two years ago when we had thanksgiving on Prince Edward Island

It wasn't the same without our family.



I am really looking forward to getting together this Sunday with my husband's family.  

 My hubby and daughters love my food so much they always request a small thanksgiving meal again on the actual Thanksgiving day which is on  Monday, October 13th. We put on the movie "Rudy" and enjoy a cozy, do nothing day (for them) lol ( I'll be busy cooking)  and give thanks to the people before us and to the good Lord and to our friends and family. 

The menu on my Thanksgiving meal includes: Butternut squash soup topped with bacon, Roasted Chicken, (not a fan of turkey but I will eat it if someone else cooks it), sweet potatoes with brown sugar and caramelized marshmallows and pecans on top, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce from scratch, maple brown sugar carrots, cottage roll, stuffing, homemade gravy, biscuits and pumpkin pie for dessert. I like apple pie too. I won't lie it's a lot of work but fun to have my family enjoy the meal I cook. It makes me so happy. 

ARTS CRAFTS & READING

This week I worked in my journal and planner a lot. I also did a little more reading and found that Short stories and also short poems help with getting out of a reading slump! If you are ever in a reading slump try short poems and short stories or articles. Even a magazine or blog posts. :) 

Reading

Even though I am in the middle of two other books I picked up this one and so far I like it. 



ART

Work in Progress

🎃 I will be painting these little pumpkins either today or tomorrow. 🎃

I like pumpkins so I made three magical clay pumpkins


Made Ghost Girl in my Leuchtturm1917 Sketchbook
I used watercolours, ink, pen and pencil crayon
I also glued on glitter stars for the buttons and twine for the bow.
Not sure if i like the shape of her eyes or the tip of the nose but I might try making her again.




A few other creative videos that I made this week 
Painted on candles to make them spooky
Going to try a few more of these in the future


Made a sticker journal layout in the moleskine. I am starting to dislike this notebook because of the paper. It falls apart and crinkles too much and also bleeds to the other side. I started to glue two pages together to make the pages stronger. 




That is all my wonderful friends. I hope and pray the very best for you.

 Have a magical weekend and God Bless you all. I look forward to visiting your blogs. 

Thank you!





*Feel free to use my code if you are in Canada

Code: MARIA for 20% off your purchase with 

https://www.leuchtturm1917.ca/ 

would love it if you subscribed to my blog! :) 





Friday, October 3, 2025

October Pumpkin Art & Blog Hops

 Linking Up to these lovely parties!

Friday Face Off

Art Journal Journey 

T Stands for Tuesday 

*please someone explain the rules to T Tuesday! is it only post on Tuesday? is it post a drink? is it post only a previous post? please forgive me and let me know. :) 

PAST BLOG POST October 2022 when we moved from Toronto to PEI and lived there for two years! (currently we are back in Ontario)

Also if you have a blog hop let me know and I will add your button to the side of my blog. 

Currently

on my desk

always tea and coffee

This week went by so fast!

I tried to keep busy doing a lot of art. 

I did neglect keeping the house in order but sometimes I just have to do what I have to do! :) 

Acrylic Paints and pencil crayons

Pumpkin person




Pumpkin
Acrylic Paints




I also did decoupage this week! 
I bought a vase and napkins from the Dollar tree

It was very fun to make

I don't mind that there is texture on the vase 






October Journal Layout
The moleskin notebook threads are falling apart and I am not sure it will last but I will keep going and using tape. I don't like to start something and not finish it. 



Acrylic Landscape Painting



I also made little pumpkins but not sure why my photo is not uploading so here is the youtube short.


I am truly grateful and happy that I focused on art this week. 
 I do need to find a balance though. lol
I just keep going.


One thing I learned this week is to take good care of your self,
Treat your self with love and kindness.

Thank you all for your visit and your wonderful comments. 

I truly appreciate each and everyone of you!

 Linking up to these wonderful Blog Parties!

Friday Face Off

Art Journal Journey 

T Stands for Tuesday 

Thank you from my heart!

Maria