The blue flower

Hi Everybody!

It's been another cold and dismal day here, but it's not

stopping the spring flowers blooming, so 

that's good.

For Simon Monday challenge, based on a book, I have

a mixed media tag. The first layer was made with scraps of 

old book pages and letters, and a strip of corrugated

card. I gave it a coat of diluted gesso before going on to the next

layer,  for which I used pieces of paper napkins.

The butterfly was also cut from a napkin, 

pasted on card and fussy cut. I added stardust

Stickles to the wings, and antennas

made from gold wire and tiny, blue glass beads.

I added some glass leaves as embellishment.

The blue flowers always remind me of a poem

by  Josef von Eichendorff, a German writer

of the 19th Century, who wrote

'Die blaue Blume' - the blue flower:

Ich suche die blaue Blume,

Ich suche und finde sie nie,

Mir träumt, dass in der Blume

Mein gutes Glück mir blüh.

Ich wandre mit meiner Harfe

Durch Länder, Städt und Au'n,

Ob nirgends in der Runde

Die blaue Blume zu schaun.

Ich wandre schon seit lange,

Hab lang gehofft, vertraut,

Doch ach, noch nirgends hab ich

Die blaue Blum geschaut

 Roughly translated it means:

I search for the blue flower,

I search and cannot find it,

I dreamed that my luck

Will bloom with the flower.

I wander with my harp

Through countries, towns and meadows,

Always hoping to glimpse 

The blue flower.

I've been wandering  a long time,

And have hoped and believed,

But alas, I was not able

To see the flower anywhere.

My sister Cynthia brought me a card with this poem 

when I was a little girl, and it was the

first German I learned.

Today I am sharing some of the presents I received in the past

weeks, and would like to say 'thanks' again to all of

the senders.

The book came from Sandra, who is a talented and proficient 

author, and is really good, it's well worth a read!

(As are her other books, too)

The purse is also from Sandra:

These bottles are tiny, about 1" high, and were part of a huge

parcel of goodies sent by Gill, and all made with so

much loving care. I have shown some of the other pieces, and will

be showing more as I use them. She also sent a CD with digital images,

as she is a designer at Daisy Trail:

The gorgeous card is also from Gill.

These 2 cards were from Sandy, and accompanied a huge

pile of gorgeous paper napkins which I have been

using lately, and some water-colour cards:

Thanks Ladies!

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by.

Tea or coffee?

Hi Everybody!

It's been another cold and blustery day here. I went out

for my morning walk and was happy to get back home again.

On Tuesday we are starting a new challenge at TIOT 

☕-Time for Tea-☕

This fits well to Elizabeth's 

☕Tea stands for Tuesday☕

so I would like to give a warm welcome to all of the

nice T gang ladies and anyone else who visits today.

At TIOT you have 2 weeks to link to our theme, and projects 

of all formats are welcome- I made a spread in one of my journals. The background was painted, stamped and stenciled. I cut the cup from

corrugated card, painted it white and then added

a cup-themed napkin. I tucked in a tea-bag and a packet of

sugar (from my fave ice parlour). The drinking ladies

were cut from a paper napkin. The script

was added to make sure that everybody knows

which beverage I prefer!

Doughnuts, or 'Berliner' as they are called here, are one

of the staple foods of carnival. I wanted you to see them,

so I bought 2, one filled with jam and the other with eggnog cream,

yummy! I sacrificed myself for you again. Enjoy!

And cappuccino was on the table, too, as always:

The Rhine path was rather deserted this morning:

I saw this lady and her son making their way to the tram, she was dressed

as a cowboy and he was an old lady.....

I always like taking pics of the shop windows, where the

contents merge with the reflections to become

surreal pictures:

The window boxes in front of the old town hall have

been planted with spring flowers:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Spring is on its way - I hope

Hi Everybody!

I met a bunch a strange people waiting for the tram to take

them into the town for the carnival parades Today.

One group, all men, were dressed as 'Queen Elizabeths',

all beautifully decked out in pastel colours, wearing tiaras,

carrying handbags and skilfully made up - they looked

great. 

I have another  12" mixed media tag to share, this time made for

Go Tag Thursday, turquoise and brown. I used some DP

for the background, and cut some cogs from cardboard, which I painted with turquoise and embossed with Frantage EP. Tim's bird branch was cut out twice, Once in turquoise and once in brown, and placed over each other so that a narrow brown 'shadow' remained. I used some nature decorations mixed with fibres and fabric roses in turquoise. I sewed the various layers 

together again.

I am also linking to Simon Monday challenge, transport - cogs and the bird transporting a branch.

These rusty statues are in a garden near the castle ruins:

The ruins have decked themselves out in spring flowers:

The buds are getting bigger:

The hospital gardens are full of crocuses:

 Some shops are decorated for spring:

The lingerie shop has added carnival masks to the shop-window

mannequins, which gave me some very surreal pictures:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Weekend this and that

Hi Everybody!

I enjoyed watching the day grow light and a beautiful

sunrise again this morning, but there was a thick

frost on the fields, and there's definitely

a nip on the air. But the buds are growing bigger

and the birds are singing loud and happy,

so I hope that means that spring is on its way!

Today I made a simple tag for the transport

theme at Simon Monday Challenge. I wanted to use the die-cut 

balloon and cogs that dear Gill sent me in her wonderful

parcel. But I also wanted to make a balloon out of material,

so I sewed some little squares together, (thanks Chrissie) and 

cut them into a circle form to fit over the die cut.

I sewed 3/4 of the way round, and then 

pushed some padding into it to make it round. The 

background is a 10" craft tag, which got a quick coat

of cream coloured pain from Pentart, before being

collaged with stencils, a gift from  Sandy. I left the 

edges rough so that you can see the crafty BG. 

The wonderful quote is from Leonardo,

 and the threads for the tassel were pulled from a piece

of linen when I was fringing it. I sewed the whole thing onto

some recycled black  card from an old calendar.

I am also linking to More Mixed Media, anything goes.

Last night the clouds were rose and gold from the reflected sun:

Sunrise was beautiful:

Jack Frost had walked over the fields:

The buds are growing:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!