Brooches, puddles and shoes

Hi everybody!

Today was a really wet day - it poured all night and most of the morning, and so I found myself jumping puddles this afternoon. But I know we have had much too little rain in the past weeks, and the earth needs it badly.

At Moo Mania and More the challenge this time is 'shoes', which explains my tag. Actually, I do not have many pairs of shoes, as I mostly wear trainers, boots or sandals, so the other shoes in my cupboard lead a sad life and just get dusted off once in a blue moon.

I used stamps from Hampton Art to stamp the motives with embossing ink and white EP. Then I fussy cut them, coloured them with gel-pens, and mounted them with foam squares onto some black card, which I matted with some pink animal-print card. The sentiment has been written with a white highlighter. Finished!

At Artful Times the challenge is to make a brooch. Anything is allowed, but it must have a pin at the back. I remembered the little knitted brooches I used to do with the kids when I was teaching, they used to love making them, as they are quick and easy to finish and make nice presents for Mums, sisters, aunties etc. . We used to make them for our stall at the school bazaar, too. The 'needles' are toothpicks, with beads as ends. I spread some gluestick onto them to hold the stitches. The second one is the simpler variation - a ball of wool, glued together with the needles stuck through it.

And here are the pins I sewed painstakingly onto the backs!

And while I was at it, I knitted a little bracelet to match....

This afternoon was more or less dry, with just a few spots of rain, so I managed a walk round the block. The ground was very swampy again, so I had to be careful not to get wet feet.

But it was interesting to see the world reflected in the puddles:

Puddle jumping is a good exercise!

The sky beneath my feet:

Another of the paths that I love, it is always so peaceful walking through the woods.

Have a great day, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!