Sunday, Moon and Journal Pages

Hi everyone. It's been a cold weekend here so far, yesterday when I went shopping the roads were still icy. But at least the ice on my windscreen had thawed, I so hate having to scrape the ice off!

I didn't really feel like doing anything yesterday, but in the end I made some more altered notebooks, and took photos of the journal pages I made on Friday. And once again I was fascinated by the moon. It was a bit darker than the day before when I took the other photo, but the sky was such a beautiful dark blue, I could hardly stop looking. This is the first time I have managed to get pictures during an eclipse. I am still hoping that one day I might have a proper camera instead of having to use my cell-phone, but it's still better than nothing!

My family was once again the theme in my journal pages.

I haven't taken pictures of the altered notebooks yet, so will have to save them for tomorrow. It gets dark earlier every day! Hope you all have a good day, take care, and thanks for visiting!

It's weekend once again!

After the storms had died down, we had nice weather yesterday; rather cold and windy, but sunny. At about half past three, I watched the moon rising in a sky that was still streaked with the last glow of sunset. I just love the colours of the wintry sky; I think I am a bit moon-struck just now!

Apart from that I had a crafty day. I made 3 altered notebooks, and a new journal spread, which I can't show you today as I haven't taken the photos yet. The notebooks have been covered with Anna Griffin paper, and I put a pocket for tags into each one, and used some scraps of vintage lace to decorate them.

And I played with one of the snow photos I took last Christmas; pink is in this year!

Have a good day, take care of yourselves, and thanks for visiting!

Paint Party Friday Week # 39

Good morning you all. We had a wild and stormy night here, so it looks like it's crafting weather again! Today is Paint Party Friday again, hosted by Eva and Kristin. Do try to look at what the other participants have made, too.

I am sharing a picture that I made back in 1991, that's 2o years ago! How time flies. It's was painted with tempera and felt tip pens, at a time when I was trying to come to grips with a lot of sad happenings. Painting helped me a lot then, as it still does now. The title, *Spiel des Lebens*, means *The Game of Life*. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose!

I didn't have time to finish my current painting yesterday, as I had an appointment in Bad Honnef, a little town about 100 kilometers further along the Rhine. It's situated at the foot of the *Sieben Gebirge* - the Seven Mountains, where there are lots of castle ruins perched on the top of the mountains. On the way there I spent a lot of time in a big traffic jam on the motorway, but on the way back I drove for a while along the Rhine, which is really very pretty. I never had time to take any photos today, but here are a few I took when I was there last year.

So, that was all for today. Have a great day, whatever you are up to, take care, and thanks a lot for visiting!

More journal pages

Hi everybody, hope you are all fit! It's under three weeks to Christmas now, so hope you are all well on the way with your preparations. I took all my letters to the post office yesterday. There is a new lady there, friendly, helpful and always admiring what I have made....wonders never cease! She is evidently from a different planet than the last one was!

I started making some more postcards, which I haven't finished yet, but I did finish my journal pages; once again with moon and stars, which seem to be fascinating me just now. I did the background with water soluble oil pastels, painted the moon and the silhouettes with acryl paints, and used pastel chalks to do the shading on the moon and round the moon dancers.

Have a great day you all, whatever you are up to; take care and thanks for dropping by!

Postcards

Good morning you all. It's another cold and wild day here, good weather to stay at home! Tomorrow I have to be out nearly all day, so I will make the most of my *at home* time today. I stayed from Monday till yesterday afternoon with my friend Inge, she's not feeling so good just now, but we still had a good time chatting, eating, playing and drinking coffee as always. Oh, and not to forget the biscuits we always nibble!

Yesterday I spent some time curled up on my recliner, just reading and relaxing, and then I heard the call from the kitchen to get in there and do something, so I did. I made 3 vintage postcards, using scraps of photos, letters, pieces of old books and some die-cuts that were still flying around. I applied the pieces in layers. The first one has squares of an antique book as a base. I then applied a gel transfer which didn't really work, it just left a faint, ghostly layer, so I just put the next gel-transfer - my first-day-of-school photo - on top. Then I inked it all a little bit with vintage photo, antique linen and Victorian velvet. It now really looks like a very ancient photo, and I have called it *60 years ago*.

The second one has a base layer of images stamped with vintage photo ink, and then I have added various dry gel-transfers one on top of each other. If you look carefully, you will see lots of hidden things. I have called this one *Macabre dance*, I am sure you will be able to guess why.

The third one again has many layers placed over each other. I have used scraps from an old ledger, from letters, from an antique book, a piece cut out of a picture, and various print outs and photos applied as dry gel-transfers. Here there is also a lot to look at in the different layers, see what you can find. I have called this one *Faces*.

That was all for today. I had an early night yesterday, so did not get as much done as on some days.
Have a nice day you all, hope the sun is shining for you! Take care, and thanks for visiting!

What was left of the day - err, week or 2 or 3....

Good morning everybody. First of all, I want to thank all of you who left kind comments yesterday. There are so many important events that we must not forget. This was one of those made very real for me by the contact I had to survivors. Your support means a great deal to me!

My journal pages were ones I made on Friday and Saturday after clearing my table - once again- of the huge heaps of stuff that was on it. My new journal is twice as large as the old one, so I need more space to work, and will - sob, sob - have to clear up more often. Or buy my next journal in inchie format!

And here the Christmas card I made for the DT at *The Cheerful Stamp pad*, where the challenge this week is to put the sentiment as the focal point. You still have 2 weeks to enter!

I had another rather unpleasant session with my Dentist yesterday, but only one more visit and it will be over and done with! I am lucky that I have such a kind and gentle doctor, or it would be really awful!

Today I have at last got all my Xmas post ready for posting, so it can be sent off tomorrow; a little bit later than I was hoping, but a lot earlier than last year, so that's something!

Hope you all have a great day. Take care of yourselves, and thanks a lot for visiting!

Journal pages

On Saturday evening I started off painting some journal pages red, black,and white, with a few flecks of gold ink. I was intending to use some templates to put some dancing figures on to it, but then the colours reminded me of fire and blood,and somehow it changed to a spread about concentration camps. I haven't named them, I think everybody knows those awful names, but I have used pictures of the gates which bore the same message at every camp - *Arbeit macht frei*. *Work sets you free*. This was a terrible, cynical motto, meaning that the people should work themselves to death, when they would be free. The average *stay* in a camp was about 6 months, for those who were young and strong, although some survived much longer in spite of inhuman conditions and hardships. I don't want to go into more details. During my time working at the old people's home here, I got to know many survivors. Some had survived over several years, often being moved from one camp to another. One of the ladies said; *My name is Chaya, and that means life in Hebrew, so I told myself every day that I would survive*. She died at over 90, and one can only admire such an indomitable spirit.

In my journal spread I have used many photos of children and others who died.Many children, women and older men were killed straightaway, so as not to waste precious time and rations on them. The images are mostly ripped and unclear, which I have done to show that their lives, too, were ripped and destroyed. The picture of the girl on the left hand page shows Ann Frank, who died in Bergen Belsen shortly before the war ended. On the right side I have written a poem from Nelly Sachs, which I am printing completely here, as I know my writing is mostly hard to read.

*O the night of the weeping children!
O the night of the children branded for death!
Sleep may not enter here.
Terrible nursemaids/ Have usurped the place of mothers,
Have tautened their tendons with the false death,
Sow it on to the walls and into the beams—
Everywhere it is hatched in the nests of horror.
Instead of mother's milk, panic suckles those little ones.
Yesterday Mother still drew
Sleep toward them like a white moon,
There was the doll with cheeks derouged by kisses
In one arm,
The stuffed pet, already
Brought to life by love,
In the other—
Now blows the wind of dying,
Blows the shifts over the hair/ That no one will comb again.*

The little spots of gold ink in the pages represent for me light and hope, especially the hope that things like this will never happen again.

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