Of soup, shoes and autumn leaves....

Hi everybody!

Today is a grey and rainy day, I think the gardens and fields all need rain badly, and for me a nice excuse to stay home, cook and play....

I painted two sheets of scrap paper recently with some left over colours, and decided to use the paper to make some autumn leaves. I cut them with my old sizzix die, which makes a gorgeous selection of  leaves.

Then I folded along where the veins should/could be and distressed the edges with chocolate brown and aged mahogany.

Detail, showing on the left my thumb and finger, distressed to match....

 

Then they got a quick coat of paper varnish - I got this stuff in a sale some months back for next to nothing, and it is good, and dries very quickly.

By the time the last one has been varnished, the first one is dry and ready for a brushed on coat of crackle accents.

While the crackle varnish was drying, I chopped celery root, potatoes, apples and onions to make a delicious celery and apple soup, which simmered in the pot while I finished off the leaves, by distressing them again to make the cracks show up. The two coats of varnish make the leaves feel rather leathery, and they are good to work with, and keep their form.

 Here you can see a sneak-peek of some of the leaves in action....

And this is a bowl made of glass with an iridescent glaze, which is called 'carnival glass'. In this piece, the moulded leaves and berries are on the back of the bowl....

 

And I have put my leaves into it till I use them.

 

And look who flew through the open window to stick her long nose into my bowl - autumn and Halloween are coming nearer!

 

 

And this is the soup, which was really delicious, and has given me a full belly while I sit here and type.

And last but not least, the shoes. Aren't they pretty? I was in 'town' this week at the thrift shop, and saw these shoes. They were new, never been used, and still in their box. And MY SIZE! So I asked the lady what they would cost. She said 5€. And then the other lady there told her that I had given a lot of good stuff to the shop, and that I could have them for 1€. So I took them and galloped hobbled off home as quickly as I could. They are really soft and comfortable, made of SILK, no less, and look great with my jeans, a nice contrast! And I am sure there will not be many people walking round with shoes like this. Okay, probably there aren't many people who would want to, but I love them.

That's all for today, take care, have fun and thanks a lot for coming by!