366 Calendar Challenge-May

I was only two days behind in having my May calendar ready -- but have not been able to do the picture thing and the blog thing until now (too much real life happening -- gardening time, graduating high school senior time, getting ready to go on our beach trip time, and finally getting around to painting some gourds time).  But I am happy to continue to participate in the 366 Calendar Challenge hosted by The Kathryn Wheel, where each month the participants create an artsy calendar page to journal or doodle an event or thought on each day.

Here are my April pages -- all filled in.  Lots of sunny days, the driest April in 75 years I think the weatherman said.

And here are my May pages, in progress on the (too crowded!) project table -- note the gourds in the background.

For the background I smeared on leftover paint from the gourds as I was painting the gourds.  The colors and texture suggested the sea and beach to me, especially since we go to the beach in May, so I went with that theme and added some wave shapes and ultimately stamped some seaweed and starfish around.

Here is May finished and ready for the month:

The days are supposed to be scallop-like shells, although they look awfully like chef's hats, but I know they are sea shells, and that's what counts, right?  Or maybe they are actually jellyfish.   I decided go with a gratitude journal this month -- noting 3 or 4 things on each day.  Of course it's easy to be grateful in May!  The weather, the garden, the beach vacation, etc.  No real challenge there.  Not like August -- there's a hard month to feel gratitude in.  Today's gratitude?  Brilliant sunshine, and some good friends who hung out with me the bulk of the day despite the heat and high humidity and not so great turn out for my used homeschool book clear-out sale at my house.