The Last of the Photos & Another Challenge

Good morning everybody! It's a chilly and windy day today, the wind was howling all night, and the temps have dropped considerably since the weekend; it seems that summer is really over and Autumn is blowing in. We had 30° on Saturday and just 13° today, less than half! The challenge this week over at Rebecca's *Blog Challenge Garden* is to make a tag with the moon on it. Moon and autumn always remind me of Halloween, so this is my first Halloween piece for this year. I used some of the paper I painted on Saturday to make the night background. The moon has been die-cut from metal foil, and I cut a scrap of gold foil to fit behind the houses to make the *lights*. The houses and the tree have been cut using TH alterations dies. Then I added a few tiny stars, and a witch and a bat to give the right atmosphere.

These are the last of the photos of Kaiserswerth for the time being. The pictures show the path along by the Rhine, the fire-brigade boat, the restaurant at the old Rhine Ferry, the Ferry in action and one of the lovely houses in the Church Close. The last picture is one of the little streets leading up from the Rhine. The streets in the old town are all very narrow, cobbled ones, they were not built for cars, and last summer my car broke down while I was driving through causing a traffic jam, which was very embarrassing....

Okay, enough for today. Think of me later, I have another appointment at the dentist's! Take care, have a good day and thanks for dropping in!

More Pictures from Kaisesrwerth & a Challenge

Hi Everybody, good morning! Today I have some more photos of Kaiserswerth to share with you, and the challenge I made for the *Dragon's Dream*. This week the dragon has been dreaming of Jon Bon Jovi and a bed a roses....so we are supposed to use metal and roses on our tags. For my tag I used some recycled card from some packaging, and stuck 2 strips of metal tape from the DIY shop on to it before embossing it with a TH music folder. Then I coloured it with Archival crimson, and highlighted the raised parts with archival black. The rose has been stamped onto another piece of recycled card and coloured with distress inks in barn door and forest green. The bee has been stamped with archival black onto a scrap of metal foil. I cut out the rose and bee (both stamps from LaBlanche) and fixed them with foam pads. I rolled the rose over my glue-stick to make it stand out from the tag. I put some stickles on the bee's wings and a few dew drops of glossy accents onto the rose.

And now for another walk through Kaiserswerth, showing pictures of the Rhine, the Church of St, Swidbert, and the castle ruins.

So, hope you have enjoyed your little tour! Have a good day, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!

Some photos of Kaiserswerth

Did I say we had good weather yesterday? Well! It started out sunny, and then we had a rather changeable day - torrential rain, thunder & lightning & sunny spells, something different every half an hour. At least it wasn't boring. Now we are back to *normal* - cool, grey and showers.
I visited a friend yesterday, and we watched *The King's Speech*, great film. It was nice to sit there on the couch, eating chicken legs and watching the DVD!

I wanted to show you the photos I took on Saturday here in Kaiserswerth. You can see my route through the park, where the moat used to be. The little bridge is where the main street crosses over, very small and narrow. Then 2 pics taken at the Rhine, followed by some photos of the main street with the pretty, old houses. Then the last 2 photos from the path parallel to the Rhine, which runs alongside the *Barbarossa Wall*, named after Kaiser Barbarossa who lived here in the 12th century. The last photo shows the steps leading back down to the moat. It's a pretty place to live, and there are some nice places to walk.

And here are the journal pages I made in the night from Saturday to Sunday as I couldn't sleep. I think I am on a blue trip at the moment; whatever, it was, as usual fun to make!

So, enough for today! Have a great day you all, take care, and thanks for dropping in!

Sunday sketches and 2 challenges in one....

Hi everybody, hope you are all well and fit this morning. We have had 2 nice days in a row here, almost unbelievable. Yesterday the thermometer showed 30°, I went for a walk along the Rhine, and nearly got baked. But it was still very enjoyable!
Today is Sunday, which means time for Sunday sketches over at Sophia's *Blue Chair Diary*. I have been doing a sketch with pen and ink each day for the *75 Day sketch challenge*. I find pen and ink sketches rather difficult, as you can't rub out or alter, but I have started with small and easy things, and hope to be more proficient at the end of the 75 days! Here are 2 of my first attempts.... my pens, and a little bottle of ink - both with a lot of room for improvement!

And then I made a triptych which I am linking to 2 challenges; *Newspapers* at the Three Muses and *words* at Just For Fun. I have used a page from an old German newspaper from 1900, which has been fixed to a piece of recycled card and given a coat of diluted gesso. Then I distressed it using TH inks in gradient colours, before doing a little stamping and dividing it into three pieces. The pens have been cut out of a sheet of *Graphics 45* paper, and I added some words printed onto acetate and some vintage scraps. To make the pens look more real, I rolled them round a thin pencil and fixed them on with foam pads.

I took lots of pictures while I was out yesterday, and plan on posting them tomorrow. Have a nice Sunday you all, take care, and thanks for visiting!

Blue Saturday

Hi everybody, it's weekend again. Doesn't make too much difference for me since I retired, but I know all those who have been working hard all week will be happy to have some free time.
Now I think I have to say this very quietly - we had nice weather yesterday. It was warm and sunny all day, unbelievable! And it looks like today will be the same.
I did some more painting yesterday, as this really seems to do me good. I made lots of blue backgrounds in different shapes and sizes, which I will use as backgrounds for some more pictures and cards for the Jewish New Year. I finished one, smaller than the one I showed yesterday for PPF. I used paint-board, as it is easier to send than a canvas, and the backgrounds which I will be using on cards have been painted onto torchon water-color paper, as it has a lovely texture.
I used stars and planets again, and this time I have just written *Shalom*, as I think we could do with some peace in the world.

Okay, that was it for today. Here's wishing you all a good Saturday, and for those in the States a happy Labor Day weekend. Take care of yourselves, and thanks for visiting!

Time for Paint Party Friday again

Good morning everybody. It's another PPF today, hosted by our Superwomen Eva and Kristin, so pop over there if you can and see what everybody is making.
I needed to do something calming before I went to the dentist's yesterday, and decided to finish off a painting which I started 3 years ago. I wanted to give it as a gift for the Jewish New year to some friends, but somehow never got it finished. And then I wanted to finish it the year after, but never made it on time. Last year I at least had an excuse for not getting it done, as I was in hospital for an operation. And now I have done it, although I may still alter a few things as I'm not quite happy with it, and it's still 4 weeks to the New Year celebration. It shows a stylised shofar - the ram's horn which is blown at New Year (Rosh Hashanah = *head of the Year*), painted in gold onto a blue background representing the sky. New Year is the holiday where the creation of the world is remembered, too, so I wrote the beginning of the first verse of the book of Genesis along the shofar, *In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was a formless void*. Then I painted more Hebrew letters randomly scattered with stars, planets, sun and moon. I will keep it where I can see it over the next few days, and then see if I have any other ideas. And the people I was originally painting it for have moved....I used gold and silver Edding pens to draw in the stars etc and do the writing, but the silver looks white here.

So, sorry if I have rambled on rather long, I just wanted to explain it....

Have a nice day you all, take care and thanks for visiting!

A pinch and a punch for the first of the month....

Morning everyone! As kids we always used this saying on the first of the month - anyone else remember it?

This afternoon I have to go to the dentist, which I am not looking forward to at all, so I hope it won't be as bad as I am imagining it to be!

As it's the first of the month it's time for my September journal pages. The kids here are going back to school now, so I have incorporated a blackboard into the first side. I painted some torchon watercolor paper with black acrylic paint and scratched some words into it while it was still wet, and then rubbed some white chalk into it, as all the blackboards at school were always scratched and rather battered. I wrote the *message* using a white wax crayon. I saw this quote recently on Sue's blog, and liked it so much I just had to put it onto my journal. Apart from that, the general theme is autumn, so I used orange, red, brown and green for my colors, lots of fallen leaves, some TH spiders' webs and some quotes about September and autumn. I made the colors paler on the second page, to try to give a misty look. I used straight lines, divided up into 2 blocks for the daily journalling, as I found this easier to use last month than the usual squares. It was fun to make, and I like using different techniques and colors each time. I will be linking my journal to the *Kathryn Wheel* journal challenge as soon as the link is ready!

And while I was in an autumn frame of mind I made the September calendar page for a friend, who gets a page from me each month.

And here's another of Narda's jokes:

A couple lived near the ocean and used to walk the beach a lot. One summer they noticed a girl who was at the beach almost every day. She wasn't unusual, nor was the travel bag she carried, except for one thing; she would approach people who were sitting on the beach, glance around and then speak to them.

Generally, the people would respond negatively and she would wander off. But occasionally someone would nod and there would be a quick exchange of money and something that she carried in her bag.

The couple assumed that she was selling drugs and debated calling the cops, but since they didn't know for sure, they decided to just continue watching her.

After a couple of weeks the wife said, 'Honey, have you ever noticed that she only goes up to people with boom boxes and other electronic devices?' He hadn't and said so.

Then she said, 'Tomorrow I want you to get a towel and our big radio and go lie out on the beach. Then we can find out what she's really doing.'

Well, the plan went off without a hitch and the wife was almost hopping up and down with anticipation when she saw the girl talk to her husband and then leave... The man then walked up the beach and met his wife at the road.

'Well, is she selling drugs?' she asked excitedly. 'No, she's not,' he said, enjoying this probably more than he should have.

'Well, what is it then? What does she do?' his wife fairly shrieked.

The man grinned and said, 'She's a battery salesperson.'

'Batteries?' cried the wife.

'Yes!' he replied.

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'She Sells C Cells by the Seashore!'


So, that was it for today. Think of me this afternoon when I am at the dentist's, I need moral support! Have a good day, stay safe, and thanks for visiting!