Some vintage images and a small,new canvas

Good morning you all; here's wishing you a great Sunday!
When I went shopping yesterday morning, the bunches of tulips had been reduced to half-price, so I got 2 bunches, in yellow and orange, and for 2€ I have a giant vase full; it looks so sunny and spring like! And the bananas, pineapples and mangoes were also on half price, so I'm having a fruity weekend!

I have been clearing out and tidying a lot the past couple of weeks, and (re)discovered an interesting book at the back of one of the book cases. It's a calendar-almanac from 1897, printed in Vienna. At the front and the back are loads of old adverts, some with a very steampunky flair, a few of which I have photographed for this post. You are very welcome to download and use them for your art work if you want. Apart from that, there are lists with lots of important information, economic and political advice and comments, and a writing page for each month. Some of the pages have been written on, or filled with figures and sums. There is also an address list of all the important people living in Vienna at that time. The last picture shows a part of it, and just above the middle of the column is the address of Dr Sigmund Freud, and the opening times of his office. It was a strange feeling to see the name of someone known to the whole world for his work on psycho-analysis in the list of doctors!

I had a fun time leafing through it, and am trying to make up my mind if I keep it or sell it....

And I made a small canvas (10x10cms). It was first coated with some roughed up structure paste, and then I applied the colours - blue, yellow, black, gold and green in layers, alternating with liquid glue. When it was heated with the heat gun it bubbled and cracked, and showed the different layers. Then I coated it all with a thick layer of glue again - much cheaper than glosser accents! - and added small glass beads, gem-stones, an acrylic flower, a vintage frog scrap and a few other flying-around-bits and bobs. In real life the colours are a bit nicer, they have a lovely metallic sheen which does not show up well. It was fun to make something different, and I am linking to the Craft Room Challenge, where the ladies want to see some bling.

That's all for today. Have a great day, have fun and thanks for visiting!

Friday is Party Time

Hi everybody, another week has jetted by, and it's time for the next Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin, and Darcy's Postcard Challenge, which this week takes us to Israel with Jason.

Cissie very much enjoyed her week in Holland with Thelma. She buys three bottles of gin and some more of those *herb* cigarettes as she calls them. After they arrive in England, a customs officer gets into the coach to ask if they have anything to declare. Cissie shows him the gin. He says *Sorry, Madam, you are only allowed 2 bottles. One bottle will have to be confiscated.* *That’s why I bought it*, she says. *Everyone knows that gin in hot water is the best thing if you are constipated!* The customs officer swallows, decides not to argue, and gives it back to her, saying, "Well, if it’s medicinal – that’s okay.* What a good job he doesn’t ask about cigarettes or tobacco.... Jason is delighted with his *herb* cigarettes, and spends some pleasant evenings with his mates, but can’t work out why he always feels so hung-over the next day.
During the past few weeks Cissie has been trying to keep up with her diet. She tells Jason that she now only eats one meal a day. *Great* say Jason, while thinking, *Bloody hell! Her one meal lasts from the time she gets up till she goes to bed!*
They still go out regularly for their double fish and chips nearly every day; Jason doesn’t mind swapping fish for chips, and as she only eats 2 cakes in the afternoon, that leaves four for him, as there are six in the pack. He did half-heartedly suggest that Cissie could make a pack last for 2 days, but after listening to her loud, insulted silence for 5 minutes, he told her that the cream in them was very good for the skin, and that was probably the reason why she had so few wrinkles. So she forgave him, while Jason was thinking that skin with so much fat under it couldn’t possibly wrinkle....
This week Jason is visiting an old school-friend who lives in Tel Aviv. Auntie Cissie tries to impress on him that he will really have to behave there, if he is not to provoke any international political incidents. She wants him to have his hair cut short, so he will be able to wear a kippa (skull-cap) if he visits any holy places. He refuses, promises to flatten his hair with gel if he needs to wear one, and dutifully packs the rather moth-eaten kippa from his deceased uncle.
Jason enjoys the flight to Israel, especially the Israeli orange-chocolate liqueur that they serve after the meal. After negotiating the passport control, his friend Uri meets him and they drive to Tel Aviv. Jason is very impressed with the town – beaches galore, bars and cafés everywhere, and beautiful girls wherever he looks. After 2 days of relaxing, swimming, eyeing the bathing beauties and the evenings in bars and discos, they decide to do some sightseeing.

First they fight their way into the train at the central station in Tel Aviv. Uri is not perturbed, he says it’s often much fuller. Jason squashes himself onto a seat where an over-dimensioned lady – who, incidentally, makes Cissie look like Twiggy! - and her shopping bags are taking up three quarters of the allotted space. Uri sits opposite him, squeezed in by a young girl-soldier, complete with machine gun and giant back-pack. The train is so well air-conditioned that Jason thinks he’s in a deep freeze. They get out at Nahariya, and take a taxi to Rosh Hanikra, the last place before the Lebanese border. They wait in the queue with a lot of ladies and children to get into the cable-car to take them down to the under-sea grottos. Jason finds it *Friggin’ cool*, but is very pleased when they get back to *safety* and a nice, cool Beer.

After watching the sunset over the sea,they spend the night at a little sea-side bed-and-breakfast place in Nahariya, which also has enough pubs and cafés to keep Jason happy in the evening.

The next morning they go swimming in Achsiv, a little beach, which they reach after going through a beautiful park with the ruins of some ancient houses. They swim in the ancient harbour, where Phoenician ships anchored thousands of years ago, and even Jason manages to take his eyes off the girls long enough to admire the scenery…..

The next day sees them back in another extremely overfilled train to Acre, where they visit the old crusader castle and have lunch at *Abu Christo’s*, a fish restaurant built into the old city walls.

Then, in the afternoon, they go on to Haifa, where they look round the town, and visit the beautiful Bahai Temple.

From there they hitch a lift to Megiddo, where they see excavations of the Tell (hill) which take you back thousands of years in history. Megiddo is the *Armageddon* of the Bible. They go down a long stone staircase carved in the iron-age, leading to an underwater spring. Jason is once again very happy to get back up to the light again, where he admires two very pretty archaeologists.

They spend another couple of days pubbing, clubbing and admiring the girls in Tel Aviv, and then take the bus to Jerusalem. Jason is most impressed by all the sights, and of course, having his photo taken in front of some of them. This week he writes 2 postcards, one to Cissie, and one to Thelma. The first photo has been taken in front of the the Wailing Wall, and the second one opposite the Knesset, in front of the Menorah - the symbol for the State of Israel.

And he really keeps his promise to Auntie Cissie, he doesn’t do anything worse than a bit of winking at the girls, and manages to behave. Miracles do sometimes happen; Israel has been known for them.

For PPf I have another WIP, more heads, painted with water colours, colour wash sprays and stickles. I liked those from last week better!

Well, I congratulate all who managed to stick with this post from start to finish! Have a good day, take care, and thanks for visiting!

Sunny Thursday....

Good morning you all. It started out rather misty here, although not as cold as the days before. I have been watching the sun rise though the mist, and the frost outside is nearly gone. And it's already 3°!! Yesterday afternoon the temps went up to 15°, so was able to enjoy my walk, and it was positively hot in my car....The sun was shining down on it, and I still had the heating full on. Time to switch the air conditioning on instead!
I made several trips to the thrift shop, too, but this time I was taking things there. I am clearing out, and bit by bit I am getting some space in my cupboards, which all seem to be full of things I never use, but where I always think I might, possibly, need them some day....Anyway, I hope they will find new homes with folks that do need them!

I managed some crafting, too. I'm just sharing a little Easter card today, the rest is for Jason's travels and PPF tomorrow! The background has been inked through some starry sequin waste. I added some glittery flower rub-ons, and two little Beatrix Potter images. Was fun to make and a good way to use up some of those scraps!

And another little joke from Narda:

A little girl asked her mother,
"How did the human race start?"
The mother answered,
"God made Adam and Eve and they had children,
and so all mankind was made."

Two days later the girl asked her father the same question. The father answered,
"Many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race evolved."

The confused girl returned to her mother and said, "Mom, how is it possible that you told me the human race was created by God, and Dad said they developed from monkeys?" The mother answered, "Well, dear, it is very simple. I told you about my side of the family and your father told you about his."


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

Another Tag

Good morning you all! It's another very chilly morning here, with frost still on the ground, but the temps should rise again during the day. The sun is rising already - so I hope it will soon be more than the present 1°.
I have not got much to share today. Yesterday I went for a long walk, and when I came back I decided to put my feet up for half an hour. Well, it must have been a bit more; I read while I was drinking my coffee and then fell asleep. But it was a very relaxing day, even if I didn't get much done. I hope today will be better.

For the tag I made a gradient background with TH inks. Then I die cut the tree out of some sparkly paper, and sponged through the die cut waste to make the tree on the right. The one on the left has been colour embossed using a texture fade folder, and then I used foam squares to fix the tree in front of the others, to create a feeling of depth. I put the rabbits slightly behind the tree, and added some butterfly ribbon to finish it off. I need to do a few more, as Easter is almost here, so hope to get them done this week.

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

Tag Tuesday and More....

Good morning you all! It's still cold here, just 2°, and the field outside is white with frost again. But they keep promising us in the TV that spring is on its way - I'm wondering which way it's on!? But we are enjoying nice sunrises, and there's no rain or fog....

For my *Tag Tuesday* Tag I have once again used a Beatrix Potter figure, as the theme this week is geese, ducks etc, and the first one I thought of was Jemima Puddleduck, the poor, rather stupid ducky, of whom the clever fox wants to take advantage. For the background of the tag I have sponged ink through a tree template to create the woods where the fox had his hut. I have added a few flower rub-ons, and some matching ribbon and lace. The quote has been taken directly from the Jemima Puddleduck story.

The altered postcard has been made using some blended papers, gesso, and a gel-transfer. I have forgotten from whom the quote is, sorry!

The little notebook has been made using the TH cabinet card die. I folded the cardboard so that it didn't get cut on the folded side to make the front and back covers in one piece. The front cover has been inked with Victorian velvet using some sequin waste. I used one of the images I got from Von, adding some lace, a flower and a decorative pin. Inside there are 16 pages for notes.

So, that's all for today. Have a great day, take care, and thanks for dropping in!

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!