Crafty ladies, a walk through Bad honnef and a sunset....

Yesterday afternoon we managed to dodge the rain clouds and take a walk through town. Every time I see these wonderful old houses, alley-ways, little gardens and small cafés I have to get out my camera and start clicking....It is amazing that so many houses survived destruction in World War II, and still remind us of old times. If those times were better or not, I cannot say, but they certainly produced beautiful buildings which have lasted longer than many of today's houses will. As usual, our walk ended in a café where we enjoyed some delicous cake and coffee before strolling home again. The crafty ladies were taken one evening here, while we were decorating Easter eggs, as were the pictures of sunset over the *Drachenfels*. Except, of course, for the naked lady holding the flowers, who stands outside the Pizzeria day and night, waiting for customers....

Mini Tag Album

Made this little tag album from tags distressed with Tim Holtz inks and stamped with different motives, such as script, music-notes, diamonds, cherubs, skulls and crossbones, floral flourishes and little wings. It has been decorated with Tim Holtz clock faces, textile flowers from Prima, film-strips, metal embellishments, rub-ons and ribbons. I have written some sayings about time, mostly round the edges of the pages. It was, as usual, fun to make, thanks for stopping by to look!

A walk to Rhöndorf

Rhöndorf is a little district in the suburbs of Bad Honnef. The first German Chancellor after the second World War, Konrad Adenauer lived there, and his house - now a museum - can still be visited. Rhöndorf is also famous for its beautiful old houses, several of which are now *Wein Stuben* - wine restaurants, with a view to the vines growing on the slopes of the *Drachen Fels*, under the castle ruins, in the background. Well, today our afternoon walk led us there, in spite of hail-stones and rain showers. It was too early in the day to be drinking wine, so we went to an ice-parlour and enjoyed giant portions of delicious ice to strengthen us for the walk back to Bad Honnef, where we arrived just in time for tea....

Far, far away in a little town in Germany....

Today I drove with 2 friends to Linz, a little town on the Rhine about 10 kilometers south of Bad Honnef. Linz is a little jewel of a town, with ancient, half-timbered and stone houses dating back several hundred years, and 2 towers dating back to the middle ages. We almost ran from house to house, it was just unbelievable to see soooo many beautiful houses together. Many of the houses have hand painted sayings along the front, others were adorned with carvings, ornate lead plates, windows with hand made lace and artistically carved doors. One house - and its door - had been adorned with dozens of ancients tools, hammers, pliers etc. One old stone house had a wonderful double door with carved, 8-pointed stars set into it. I could ramble on for ages talking about it, because it was just one of those magical days where everything seems to fit - a parking lot directly opposite the old gate-tower, wonderful things to see, sunshine and blue skies, good company and last but not least a wonderful café with superb coffee and cake, and friendly, smiling waiters.
To cut a long story short - if ever you're somewhere near Linz, go and see it!

Arrival in Bad Honnef

So, yesterday I finally made it to Bad (*Spa*) Honnef, a pretty little town on the romantic part of the Rhine, near the *Dragon Mountain* and with lots of other small townships, mountains and ruined castles along this stretch of the river. It's not far from the *Loreley*, a famous cliff described by Heinrich Heine, the great German poet in his wonderful poem, *Ich weiss nicht, was soll es bedeuten, dass ich so traurig bin* - *I don't know what it means, why I am so sad....*
Today was not a day to be sad; the weather has turned really spring like, the sun was shining, and it was a pleasure to walk around here. At the weekend I will drive past the dragon mountain (so called because it looks like a lying dragon) and along the Rhine to the Loreley, and I will play my Heine CD in the car and listen to his unforgettable words while driving along. It's good to have a few weeks to take it easy, do something different, see different views and re-charge my batteries.

Unicorns and flowers

Well, I should have been busy clearing up and sorting out yesterday. But somehow I got magically drawn to try the stamps and colours I was trying to put away, and ended up with 3 tags and a card. I love unicorns and fairies, even though I (should) know that they don't really exist. But who knows? Anyway, I had fun making these. Now I'm off to do some clearing up, my stamps and inks are still all over the place....

Stampin' about....

Spent yesterday stampin' about the kitchen, playing with my new stash. Tried out some of the new stamps etc; alone, or combined with others I already had, and here are the results. I like them all, but the owl has to be my favourite! If I hadn't been sooooo tired I could have gone on all night! The tags have been distressed with TH inks, stamped, and then decorated, as always, with everything-within-reach. Two of the tags have been covered with some ads from an old Lady's magazine from 1901.It is slowly disintegrating, and the paper has become very brittle and yellow, and I am busy scanning some pages to preserve them at least as a memory, and others, which are in a really bad condition, are being scrapped before they turn to dust. Was great fun making them - as always!