Rose fairies, grunge and hot weather....

After the very long, cold winter and a long wait for spring, and then summer, it seems to be here - with a vengeance! Temperatures of good 30°, & even more in my apartment, seem to be addling my grey cells, especially the ones responsible for creativity, cooking, cleaning and doing anything else apart from languishing near the ventilator with one eye on the computer, one on the TV and one on a book - oops, was that one too many?? But I did manage to get some crafting done this afternoon, thanks to litres of iced tea, a generous portion of ice, ventilators right and left and a bowl of cold water to stop my feet from sizzling.
Used some old fashioned rose and fairy pics, tags distressed with TH inks, and decorated with hearts and wings cut with a TH *alterations* die.
Thanks for looking!

Back home and already on the receiving end....

Last Thursday I left Bad Honnef after a very pleasant stay of nearly 3 months and came back home. Managed to find a parking lot directly in front of the door - a big help, considering all my luggage! My mail box was full to the brim, partly with nice letters from England, and partly with the usual a-b-c mixture - adverts, bills and crap! When I reached my front door, I found a *welcome home* banner hanging there, put up by my friend B. More surprises from her were waiting for me on the table and in the fridge; a lovely card, flowers, coffee, brownies, bread, cheeses, meat, milk salad and butter, so I did not need to run out and go shopping straightaway. Thanks B for the very kind thought! Then the sporting part of the day started - carting all my luggage up 2 flights of stairs and getting it unpacked and sorted and the cases away. When I saw all those piles of luggage in my bedroom, I wondered how it had all fitted in my little *Panda*. After resting for a couple of hours, I opened my post and found lots of goodies waiting for me. An album page from *Dippy Dog*, complete with frog and prince, and in addition one of her beautiful wallets stuffed full of lovely papers, stamped images and nostalgic pics. And last but not least, a beautiful tag with 2 wonderful sides to it. Thanks Dippy! And another little parcel from Doodles Dumpkins was waiting for me, too, with a wonderful ATC, a card and an assortment of goodies for crafting - lucky me!! And the flow continued. This week I receieved another ATC from Carol G , together with a lovely doggy tag. I think if I were a dog, I would want to be adopted by Carol, too, and enjoy all those lovely walks in the New Forest and on the beach! And both Doodles and Carol used brown and blue, one of my fave colour combis. And that was not the end....today I found a parcel from Alma waiting for me to welcome me home, with a beautiful star-card, an altered wooden tag, and a lovely hand-made cushion - and ....AND.... A BOX OF MALTESERS!!! I haven't seen - or tasted- them for years, so that was a real treat. Thanks, all of you, for your kindness. It's nice to know that people care. I still think a lot about all the new friends I met in Bad Honnef, and I am missing them, too, and hope to be able to meet up with some of them soon.

The birds....or Hitchcock revisited.

Do you remember that scary film with all those nasty birds? At the moment it seems to be happening here....They showed us on TV that crows are attacking pedestrians and cyclists who come too near to their nests and their fledglings. Some parks and leafy paths have had to be blocked for a few days to protect people from the aggressive birds. There are a lot of birds in the park round the house here, they wake me up in the morning and chatter and sing all day, but no attacks up till now.... But actually I wanted to tell about my *word-birds*. Sue Bubbles sent me a template for making pretty little paper birdies some time ago, and as I am heading home next week, I decided to make birds with little sayings or verses written in tiny letters around the edges- hence the name, *word-birds*- to give to all the people I have got to know here as a little farewell present. At first I wanted to make ten, but the first ones *flew off* very quickly, so I had to make more, and they just kept multiplying, inspite of those who left the nest earlier than expected. I used papers from Anna Griffin, from the *Bridgeport* Stack from SEI, and from Sarapapers *Flea Market Fabrics*, all liberally decorated with bling and stickles, and each with a heart on the right spot, like the people I have met here.

More altered tags....

The weather has not been favouring us here in Bad Honnef the past few days. It was cold, wet and windy, and the mountains have hidden behind clouds and mist, so it was a wonderful opportunity to read, watch some old *Simon and Simon* videos to get a bit of Eighties feeling again, and of course, to do some crafting. Made some more tags - what else? but tried to change the style and colours a bit. This is the first time I have used some red - barn door - to distress, not really my colour, but blended with the other colours it makes a nice, warm tone. As usual, I decorated them with everything I could find, after distressing and stamping the backgrounds. The black gauze I have used on 2 of them was part of a cosmetic packaging, and the little bells were on my Easter bunny. It's fun mixing the embellishments!