Monday's Mix

Hi everybody. After two sunny days last week, the weekend came cold, cheerless and dull. There was even a ground frost last night - it really can only get better! But I am watching the sun rising through some clouds just now as I write, so it does look a bit hopeful!

I had a good post day on Friday. Laura sent me my twinchies from the Gingersnaps art exchange. I have received six beauties, from Laura, Alexa , Annette , Suze, Kerry and Petra B. Thanks a lot Ladies, they will be treasured!

Then I got an envelope from Von, who sent me some goodies - a lovely exercise book, the type we used to have at school when I was a kid, and the other things were all hidden in between the pages - mini playing-cards, card-toppers, vintage images, a lovely serviette, ribbon on a ribbon flower, and a wonderful black feather, which I can't stop playing with! Thanks a lot, Von!

And lastly, a tag I made using my (NEW!!!) cabinet-card die. I stamped it from white card, distressed with antique linen and vintage photo. The background has been made using ink sponged through a ledger-template. The image is from LaBlanche, and the wings cut from another TH die using some of my hand-painted paper.

That's all for today, I will be back tomorrow with my tag for Tag Tuesday. Have a good day you all, take care and thanks for visiting!

Friday's Parties

Hi everybody, it's Friday, and that means double party time for me - Eva and Kristin are hosting Paint Party Friday as always, and Darcy's Postcard Challenge is entering its 11th week.

This week Auntie Cissie is off to Holland:

In the four weeks since Jason returned from Canada, they have been eating together nearly every day. Cissie was not delighted with the strange Canadian haircut, and makes a mental note to supervise future visits to the hairdresser. She was also VERY concerned, when she received a letter from her friend SANDI in Canada, who wrote* I've been so drowned in work just lately, I haven't had the chance to tell you that I met Jason during his sojourn in Victoria!

Well I didn't really "meet" him more like I witnessed him being here. It isn't everyday that our visitors so take to wearing the Canadian red & white and maple leaf.

He was also clearly taken with visiting all of our pubs and spirit serving establishments. Then "resting up" between by hanging about the statue of Queen Victoria on the lawn of the parliament building. I am sure many other visitors got charming pictures of this!

It's too bad that he didn't appear to have properly rested up before trying to board the ferry over to Washington state. I did think the Customs Agents were a bit rough dragging him back down the ramp! That would have been a nice additional excursion.*
They eat most days at the Chip shop. Cissie needs Jason to be there, as she is still trying to lose weight. She still orders a double portion for each of them, but gives Jason a few of her chips in return for half of his fish, as the doctor told her to eat plenty of fish. I wonder if he meant it to be deep-fried in batter? She has also reduced the afternoon cream cakes from 3 to 2. Most days, anyway! She shows Jason that she has taken off half a stone. He is not really convinced, as he notices her leaning on the bathroom sink while standing on the scales….
This week she is getting ready for her trip to Holland with Thelma. Jason manages to talk her out of buying yellow wooden clogs for the journey, so she wears her orange crocs instead….
Poor Jason has to drive both of the heavyweight ladies to the Victoria Coach Station and heave them and their luggage into the coach before thankfully waving goodbye and heading for the nearest pub.
After checking into the hotel in Amsterdam, they go shopping, take a boat trip through the *grachten* - canals, and enjoy the scenery.

Cissie is astonished that the town is not plastered with tulips, but the lady at the reception of the hotel recommends them to take a trip to the Keukenhof near Amsterdam, and there they see a sea of tulips as far as the eye can see.

Auntie Cissie and Thelma go to lots of cafés, and are amused that there are carpets on most tables instead of table cloths.

Then they wander down a side street, and see a *Coffee Shop* sign. Cissie insists on going on for a coffee. The proprietor is very friendly, and surprised to see the two robust, elderly ladies in his shop. Cissie buys some tobacco for Jason, and decides to smoke one herself, which results in her getting very giggly….she has not realised that the coffee shops sell marijuana. No wonder she felt strange.

The next day she visits The Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, where she is meeting up with her friend Valerie from Düsseldorf, with whom she went to school many years ago. They have a nice day together looking at the Van Gogh paintings and walking in the sculpture garden, although Valerie is a little annoyed that Cissie tells her that she looks very fat!

Cissie was also very indignant about this sculpture, and was horrified that a woman with such a figure should have a statue made of herself:

(Photos from Google)

Here is the postcard that Cissie sends Jason: the photo was taken in her new, Dutch T-shirt:

For PPF I have a WIP to show, but I don't yet know where it will be progressing to! I have used water-colours and Ranger colourwash sprays, and flicked a bit of gold ink onto it.

That's all for now! Have a good day, take care and thanks for visiting!

Still More Challenges

Good morning you all! This morning as I got up, a strange red object was to be seen in the Eastern skies. If I hadn't almost forgotten what it looked like, I'd say it's the sun rising - yoohoo, looks like a sunny day!
I have combined 2 challenges here with these LOs, the Craft Room Challenge, Shabby Vintage, and the Gingersnaps Challenge GC141, Grandma's Photo Album.
I have made 2 family LOs. For the first one I used templates from TH and My Tattered angels, and spray mist in Garden fairy green and Victorian velvet. Then it was a bit too bright, so I rubbed ancient paper distress ink over it to tone it down a bit. I used various leaves, flowers, lace etc as embellishments. The photo of my Mum and my 4 brothers and sisters was taken about 1941/2.

The second one has been made using the same technique, stamping with resist ink, inking, spraying, wiping it off to leave just a touch of colour, and then putting on 2 more layers. I stuck to Victorian Velvet, Forest Moss, Ancient Paper and Garden Fairy Spray, as I want the LOs to match. I used a transparency of my Mum with me when I was about 1 year old, and decorated again with lace, sugared vellum, flowers, and leaves etc.
Both LOs have been made using LaBlanche speciality stamping paper in white.

These pictures are really out of Grandma's photo album - mine!! Slowly I am getting back into the swing of things with challenges, and hope to soon get back to my regular routine. I'll be back tomorrow with Auntie Cissie in Holland, let's see what she gets up to there!
Have a good day you all, thanks for coming by, and take care!

Some Challenges

I am pleased to say that I managed to get some challenges done yesterday; having done all the cleaning - except for the windows - I had time to do some crafting.

First I made 2 tags for *Tag Tuesday*, where the theme this week is Mad March hares or rabbits. The first tag uses a TH branch-tree, die-cut from some paper painted with acrylics. It has been mounted onto a tag cut from Anna Griffin paper. The edges have been inked with vintage photo. I have placed a Beatrix Potter rabbit in front of the tree, and added the sentiment *Run, rabbit run*, the first part of an old song from George Formby, The second tag has been water-coloured with pink, green and yellow, and I have used a vintage rabbit pair scrap.

The last piece is a postcard I have made as my last DT piece for *The Cheerful Stamp Pad*. The background has been painted with acrylics, and the umbrella men has also been cut from some hand-painted paper. The theme this week is *Wet and windy days*

Today we had a power cut for some unknown reason, the whole northern part of the town had no electricity. No phone, no computer, no coffee-maker, no light, no TV. It was just beginning to get dark, so at least I could see enough to find a candle. And by the light of the candle, I was able to read my Kindle. And the original meaning of *kindle* is to light up or set fire to something....But it was a strange mixture of old and new! I was very happy when everything was switched back on again!

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

Red boots....

Good morning you all! Another day has dawned, and hopefully it will not be as cold and misty as yesterday, although it feels very chilly just now. The meteorologists have promised that spring is on the way, and that it will be warm by the end of the week. I sure hope they are right!

Yesterday I managed a trip to a shoe shop to get some new shoes, always a big undertaking, as I find it difficult to get shoes that fit, don't hurt, that I like and that are not disgracefully expensive. I think I struck lucky! I found some red bootees, made of a soft suede, and decorated with nice, punky chains and studs. I will probably look like something left over from Christmas, but do I care? I just fell in love with them, and they are sooooooooo comfortable and light! I am sure I should be buying sensible, old lady shoes, but I won't! But I did buy a pair of brown leather shoes to wear when I go anywhere where I have to dress as a normal being. And both pairs were reduced by 50%, so got 2 for the price of one!

And in case you are wondering, I do NOT usually put my boots onto my white couch - only if they are shiny bright and new!

The quilt is something I started last year, using some remnants of satin I got in a sale. I cut the material into strips and then rectangles, and sewed them together. The irregular pattern is because I had more of some colours than others. The whole thing has been sewn to a thin layer of fibre-fill, and the reverse has been made from orange satin. The quilt is light as a feather, and measures 1.60 x 1.20 meters, and is just right to keep me warm on my couch, when I am reading or taking a little nap. It hasn't been ironed yet, as my iron committed suicide last year when it leaped from the top shelf of my bottomless pit, aka hall (hell?) closet, trying to make a hole in my head as well. Fortunately it only made a hole in the floor boards, and since then I haven't been able to iron anything....

That's all for today, I will be back tomorrow with my tags for Tag Tuesday. Have a good day, take care, and thanks for dropping by!

Monday Mix

Hi everybody, hope you have all had a good weekend, whatever you were up to! Here it was quiet, went for some nice walks and to a second hand book sale at the Third World shop, where I picked up some totally tattered books to use in crafting. I did a little bit more tidying and dreaded H*******K, but I am taking it slowly, with lots of rests in between. After not being home for so many weeks, the whole place was unbelievably dusty and grimy; believe me, I don't do scrubbing for nothing!

I made some tags yesterday, the first one is for *Tag Tuesday* last week, with the theme *birds*, I am playing at catch up! I covered a manila tag with a book page, distressed it with ancient linen and vintage photo, added a die cut of T.H.'s branch-tree and some birds which Donna recently sent me. I made a bow out of some hessian, lace and ribbon and stuck some white painted twigs in it. It's something a bit different to usual, but I was somehow in a brown-beige mood!

Then I made a vintage style postcard, for which I covered a postcard with an old book page, distressed with the same colours as before, and stamped the background with the *sandwich man* from scrollswork before adding the umbrella men, cut from an old book cover, and a sentiment.

Then I found some scraps of one of my old newspapers from 1899, collaged two tags with print and adverts. The first one is showing a free-and-easy SUBSTITUTE for a corset, looks like a real piece of freedom!

This one is an advert for Müller's invalid stout, which is being shown as a wonderful means to help you put on weight, and especially recommended for re-convalescent people and nursing mothers! Times change!

And I want to share another three pics from my walk today. The first one shows the tower in Church Close that I showed on Saturday from the other side. Now you can see just how wonky it is. But as it has been standing there for about 800 years, it doesn't seem to be dangerous. And the other 2 show a beautiful old wooden cart, standing at a stable just down the road. Unfortunately the owners are just letting it rot - such a pity!

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

Looking for signs of spring

Yesterday I went for a walk down to the Rhine, and was busy looking for signs of spring, but didn't find many! Next week it is supposed to be getting warmer, so I hope that will make a difference. Here are some of the photos I took along the way:

Here the ducks all looked very agitated, swimming around on the little stream next to our house. Perhaps they were having spring feelings?

Then I walked along the Rhine, past the castle ruins.

When the sun came out the Rhine looked really blue and sparkly, but when it clouded over the water turned grey again.

The next two pictures are of two of my fave corners in the Church Close:

After I had had a cappuccino and a croissant in *Café Schuster* for breakfast, I started back home. I like this picture of the Castle taken against the light.

Thie is the window to what was probably the dungeons in the castle, wouldn't like to live down there!

Then I walked along the shore. This is the spot where the *Kittelbach*, the little stream where the ducks were, flows into the Rhine.

I wonder whose big feet are standing in the water?

Here the ferry across to the other Rhine side is just setting off:

And here you can see the buds on a tree starting to get fat - looks like spring will soon be here!

I very much enjoyed my walk, and after I had had a rest and a coffee at home, I moved my living room round, cleaned, hoovered etc, and it looks a lot better. Tomorrow I will have a go at my bedroom!

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