TGIF

Hi Everybody!

It's Friday and the sun is shining - what can be better than that? We've had good weather these past days, not warm, but dry and with some sunny intervals, so great weather for walking, and I have been out and about as much as possible, stopping off for a coffee and a rest here and there, too.

I have another 10" tag for our challenge 'birds, nests and eggs' at Tag Tuesday. You don't need to use all three of the ideas on your tags, any part or combination is fine. At TT it should be about having creative fun and not sticking to too many rules! I used a painted, dripped, stenciled and napkin-collaged background. My 'tree' and nest were made from twigs and dried grass, the feathers are found ones, and the egg is again out of a packet from the Euro shop. The quote is a TH stamp. The little birds are vintage German scrap. I sewed the painted paper on to a coordinating background:

I am also linking to Paint Party Friday, and Simon Monday challenge, play with paint.

And some photos from a little walk through Hofgarten, a park in the centre of Düsseldorf. Felix Mendelsohn Bartholdy has been given a purple scarf ( the park is next to the opera house):

This swan was busy cleaning itself:

Others were just swanning around and enjoying the sun:

The blossoms are beautiful:

My fave deer keeps watch over everything:

The grass verges next to the tram-lines are well planted:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Midweek post

Hi Everybody!

Hope your week is going well. We have had some cold weather this past couple of days, but today the sun is shining and I am looking forward to getting out for my morning walk. Thanks to all who asked about my fingers. They're still very painful, and I am trying to type with 2 fingers of my left hand and my right thumb - a bit slow, but it works!

For Paint Party Friday I have another A3 (18" x 12") mixed media collage. I started off with a mop up page onto which I had scribbled a bit with water colours. Then I added some textile scraps and did some background sewing before collaging it with scraps of TH tissue and Jan Davenport tissues. I love the textures from the underlying textiles. I finished it with 3 rows of crazy stitching round the edges. I am a bit frustrated just now as I have several other things I would like to get on with and can't, but I suppose I should be happy that I have a pile of finished pieces to show:

The painted page with the textile add-ons:

I am also linking to Simon Monday Challenge, play with paint.

And I have another tag for our 'Birds, nests and eggs' themes at Tag Tuesday. Once again I used a painted and textured background onto which I collaged some rusty die-cuts. I often see rusty bikes and objects in people's gardens, filled with flowers, so it inspired this tag, where the chicken is nesting here. The birds were drawn with a Dina Wakley stencil. I used twigs and dried grass fibres for the nest:

The full moon on the vernal equinox:

Some pictures from my walks:

Old houses and church in Kalkum:

The gateway into the castle grounds:

A neighbour's garden:

That's all for today! Have a great one, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!