Paint Party Friday and Cissie in Australia

It's Friday again - in case you haven't noticed - and time for Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin, and Darcy's Postcard Challenge, week 25. Our contestants are heading for Australia this week.

Cissie is not at home. Thelma knows where she is, but has been sworn to secrecy. Jason and Shannon think she is looking after a friend who has been ill, and enjoy having Cissie’s flat to themselves.
 In reality, Cissie has embarked on a diplomatic mission to Australia, to try to find Jason’s Mum, so she can come to the wedding. If you remember, she almost got eaten by a crocodile many years back, and since then keeps changing her name and moving home so that the crocodile can’t find her…. Jason hasn’t heard from her for years. Cissie knows she was last heard of somewhere near Canberra, and that’s where she heads for. The journey is long and stressful, and Cissie is relieved when she can at last move freely again.
 She spends a few days at a hotel, is able to see some of the sights, and make contact with a private detective who has promised to help her with the search. She visits Government House, Parliament House, and a wild-life sanctuary, where she can admire parrots, crocodiles, kangaroos and koalas. She does not have much time as she needs to find her sister, Queenie. She is at least happy that Canberra has plenty of shops and restaurants, even if she does not find a fish-and-chip shop.

(All photos courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)

The detective does not look like Cissie expects him to. He turns up in khaki shorts and shirt, calls Cissie ‘Mate’, and is very cool! He says he has some addresses for them to check out, and that they will need to be out and about for three or four days. Cissie packs her case, tells the hotel she will be back by the end of the week, and off they go.

Back in London, Thelma is getting worried. Apart from the postcard that Cissie sent on the third day in Canberra,she has not been in contact for ten days. This is something quite unheard of, as Cissie needs to communicate with friends and family several times a day.
The hotel hasn’t seen Cissie since she left with Dougie, the Private Eye.
 Where can she be??
Stay tuned….


For Paint Party Friday I want to share some of my heads (?!?). This isn't finished yet, I have just been playing around  this week with colours, just having fun!

So, that was all for today. If you want to know what has happened to Cissie, be sure to read next Friday's episode! Have a good weekend, take care, and thanks for dropping in!

More grungy tags

Hi you all. Today I have 2 more tags to share, both grungy, made with a blended paper background, gessoed,  and distressed with forest moss DI. The first one has an image from CI, the second one a rose rub-on from LaBlanche. Both have been decorated with my home made *Xmas* beads.

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

Tag Tuesday

Our theme this week at Tag Tuesday is *green*. I have used mostly re-cycled materials - green! and a lot of green stuff. The cardboard has been distressed, gessoed and then painted green, before being inked with gold and green. The image is from Graphics 45, the lace has been recycled, and the beads have been made from painted paper, rolled round a knitting needle. I made the beads to hang on presents last Christmas, put them in a tin, and forgot where they were....Last week I found them again, so here they are on my tag.

This is the tag made for 'The Cheerful Stamp Pad' *In the Garden* Challenge. You still have a whole week to enter! I made a tag from distressed and embossed cardboard. (What else?!) The image is from Graphics 45, mounted on a scrap of card, stamped with various motives in forest moss. I added 2 rub on roses and a feather.

That's all for today! Take care, have a lovely day, and thanks for visiting!

New from Old

Hi you all, it's been wet and windy  here up till now - what a summer! But today I woke to SUNSHINE! It's still a bit windy / cloudy, but how nice to see the sun!

Today I want to share my freshly painted and grunged sewing table. This week I want to start on a bookcase, but it will just be painted white. After adding the rose rub-ons to the drawers I aged and crackled them with a 2-component crackle varnish, and then gave them a bit of colour with green ink, some black paste and a little Inka Gold. I quite like the way it has turned out, and if I don't like it some time, I can paint it again!

Have a good Sunday, take care, and thanks for dropping in!

Buttoned up and Happy Mail

Hi everybody, it's weekend! It's still bad weather here, cold, windy and not a bit like summer, but it's good weather to stay home and craft and read.
Over at the *Out of a Hat* Blog Challenge, the ladies want to see something with buttons this week. I have made two little mini books. The first is a maze-book, made with some double sided 7 Gypsies paper. The covers are scraps of gold card. I have filled the pockets with little tags, and decorated some with lace.  The front has been decorated with a scrap of hessian, lace, a skeleton leaf, and of course - buttons.

The second book has been made using distressed, corrugated cardboard glued onto chipboard. The chipboard is from the back of an old water-colour pad. I inked and embossed the cardboard, and used images from Graphics45 mounted onto some scraps of a 7 Gypsies paper. The pages have been cut from drawing paper, and I have bound it with string, adding a little key charm (thanks Diane!). Buttons have once again been used as decoration, and a flower made of old book paper. The insides of the covers have been inked and stamped with various LaBlanche stamps.

Front

Back

Inside

 And I got a surprise from Tracey in Australia, who sent me a little packet of Australian tea to try out, and one of her lovely postcards. I got a letter from the post saying that I had to collect a 'shipment' from customs and excise. I had no idea who had sent me something. I had to open the envelope there, and show what was in it. The lady there was furious - not with me, but with the idiots  employees from the post, who evidently thought that it was a shipment for which I should pay customs duties! This seems to be bureaucracy gone mad! Of course, they didn't charge me. Thanks a lot, Tracey, for the nice surprise, and I have already tried the Afternoon Tea, which is delicious!

Here's wishing you all a great weekend. Have fun, take care and thanks for visiting!

PPF and Postcard Challenge

Hi everybody, welcome to another week of Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin, and Darcy's Postcard Challenge, week 24, where we are off to Italy, which for me means ROME, which is my third favourite town in this world!


Jason and Shannon loved the T-shirts from Lviv. The wedding is going to take place in August, and Cissie and Thelma spend a lot of time squabbling over the arrangements, each determined to outdo the ideas of the other one. But Jason and Shannon both have other ideas. Shannon wants a romantic wedding in white. Jason wants a cool event with all of his mates. Cissie and Thelma at least agree over the fact that their kids have no clue about how to organise things, and decide to send them off to Rome for a few days, to make up for the holiday Jason was not allowed to take in Thailand.
On the day before their departure, they go to the Chippie for their usual meal, and then to Cissie’s for their afternoon tea and cakes. Jason has a list of friends he wants to invite, and Shannon a list of her's. The *Oldies* promise to think about it if there is enough room at the reception. Jason is cross, and says, *’Ang on, it’s my weddin’, ain’t it, so why don’t I get to choose?* Shannon buts in and says, *Your wedding? What about me? It’s just as much MY wedding!!* Cissie and Thelma seem to have been practising chorus speaking, for they say, *And we’re paying!! * Cissie adds, *Anyway, we have to invite the neighbours and their families, they always invite us!* Jason asks, *Do you know that Latif and Munah have got 9 kids?* They’ll fill up the reception themselves!* *What?* Asks Cissie, They have 9 kids already? I swear she gets pregnant every time she irons his trousers! Reminds me of my great uncle Joseph – He had so many kids he couldn’t keep track of how many, let alone the names!* *And I hope you learn to keep your trousers buttoned!* says Thelma, *I don’t want no 9 grandchildren!*
On this happy note, Shannon and Jason decide to go home and get packed….
The flight to Rome is pleasant, and when they arrive  it is hot and sunny, a pleasant change after cold and rainy London. They are staying at a little hotel on the Via Pinerola, near the Piazza Re di Roma, which is very central. They are delighted to find lots of cafés, bars and pubs directly nearby. On the first day they do a round tour with a bus, and then spend the next days visiting the famous sights one by one– the Vatican, the Via Appia Antika, the Colosseum, the Pantheum, the Tiber, the Roman Forum, the Trevi Fountain,the Castel Sant’Angelo, the Baths of Caracalla, and many, many more. Every time Jason looks at one of the pretty girls he gets a sharp dig in his ribs from Shannon, and is told to look at something else!
Shannon has read the wonderful novel  in which the two protagonists promise eternal love by placing a lock on the third streetlight of Ponte Milvio and launching the key in the River Tiber.This ritual has become one of the new symbols of the city.The padlocks of love became hundreds, then thousands, were even stolen! Eventually  padlocks were put on the streetlight to stop it being stolen, which unfortunately fell apart because the locks weighed too much! But this does not deter Jason and Shannon from placing a lock there! The authorities have placed chains there now, specially to accommodate the love-locks!

Some of the famous sights: 

Some Panorama Views:

The Trevi Fountain was Shannon's fave place; Jason enjoyed sitting on the Spanish Steps and ogling the girls as they went past in their mini-skirts....

(Photos courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)

And this is the postcard they send home, taken on the famous Ponte Milvio, after they have sworn eternal love and fixed their padlock to the chain. Jason is lifting his *scrawny bird*, as he likes to call her, clean off her little  feet....

And for Paint Party Friday I would like to share another of my 'ancient' nudes, painted in 1995.

Here's wishing you all a good day, take care, have fun and thanks for looking in!

Thursday and grunge again

Hi you all, yesterday was such a cold and windy day here, more like winter than the middle of summer. But I suppose it could be worse! I have been busy painting, doing a little furniture up-grade. I have a little sewing table that I found in a skip back in the 80's, which I thought needed a freshen-up. It was varnished in dark brown, and now it is a nice, creamy white. But now it looks too new, so tomorrow I will grunge it up a little bit and see if I like it better that way. I forgot to take a before picture, but I hope to be finished by the weekend, and then I can show you the after photos at least.
In the evening I fiddled about grunging up two tins, one that used to hold pencils, and the other one throat lozenges. A neighbour saw them, and said they look like they have been at the bottom of a trash can for ten years, so I think that's a compliment. They may be a bit too grungy for some tastes, but not mine! I still have to line the inside of the tins with some patterned paper, but I suppose they will get finished at the weekend, too. My next project will be to paint another ancient table in the same creamy white, so it looks like I will be busy  for the next few days.
Here I remembered to take a before photo after I had started to put some primer on it:

And now grunged up and ready to go:

And the second one:

The roses are rub ons from LaBlanche.

And I also managed to make a tidy and non-grungy card for a change:

But I still like the grungy stuff better, it seems to be more me!

Have a good day you all, whatever you are up to. I'll be back tomorrow with Jason and Shannon in Rome, wonder if they can behave themselves there? Till then, take care, and thanks for dropping in!