Double Tuesday and a little Devil

Hi everybody!

Today it's time for new work at Tag Tuesday and at Try it on Tuesday.

At Try it on Tuesday our theme for the next 2 weeks is 'an explosion of colour'-

I decided on a journal page for my DT piece. The background has been painted with acyrylics in red, yellow and orange, and I added extra colours with pastels. The fire-lady is a digi-stamp from Gecko Galz.

I added more colours with gel pens, felt-tips and prismalos. I hope you will have a great and colourful idea to join our challenge.

At Tag Tuesday the theme this week is Proverbs. This is my take - a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush. Not very original, but I was tired after the fight with the little devil....(will be explained!)

I distressed a tag cut from speciality stamping paper with gradient colours in tumbled glass, Victorian velvet, wild honey and Forest Moss. The background stamp is from LaBlanche, the sentiment has been hand-written. The birds were cut with a MS punch. I mounted the tag onto some lace and a second tag made of black card.

And now to the fight with the little devil....

I have a Dirt Devil vaccuum cleaner, and some weeks back it went on strike. In the meantime I have been using my Swiffer mop to clean the floor, but wanted my little devil back. Today I took it apart. I washed all the filters and put them back in again. The motor was making the right noises, but it refused to suck up the dirt. Now, that sucks! So I took it apart again. And put it back together again. Same result. Then I said some words which I will not repeat here, and decided it was a write off. I went shopping, and whilst walking home, it occurred to me that perhaps there was something blocking one of the tubes or the hose. So, I took it all apart again, and looked through each piece with a torch. There was nothing in the first part, nor in the second. But the light did not go through the third one - something was definitely stuck there. I found a wooden cane and pushed and pushed till something fell out. And here is the culprit:

Now my Dirt Devil is working again like new, and my apartment is squeaky clean,

and I can say it  sucks.....all the dirt off the floor.

I am still wondering how that bottle of Stickles got in there!

Have a great day you all, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

The first Christmas tags....

Hi everybody!

Hope you have had a good and restful weekend.

The weather here has got a lot colder, and windier. Yesterday way grey and dismal, and it drizzled all day, but today it was so windy that the clouds got moved away before they could rain on us.

Yesterday I walked around the restaurant / galerie next to the castle ruins, they always have strange stuff standing around there as 'art' exhibitions-this is the same place where the Elvis Presley cadillac is rusting among the ivy.

The cars are  right in the beer garden, which has a good view to the Rhine.

And these exhibits were in the hallway to welcome peopleif they dared to go in:

(Well, it was Halloween)

There are some quite normal places around here, too....

Today I wanted to walk to the bridge which is often in the background of my photos, you can just see the large triangles built on it.

Well, it was farther than I thought. I walked and walked and walked along a narrow and muddy dirt track, being buffetted by the wind all the time

making my clean trainers very dirty....

And slowly, the bridge got nearer, till I could see the cars passing over it:

 Then I had to walk through the fields to get back up to the Rhine damn

The bridge was starting to shrink again, so I knew I was getting nearer home....

And after two and a half hours of being blown by the wind I was almost home, and passed this crossroads/roundabout art work, that someone had decorated for Halloween:

And the best was yet to come - creamed cauliflower soup to warm me up again.

(This pic is specially for Sandy!)

And here are the first Christmas tags, which are for a swap. I am not happy with them, but need to get them off, I think I must get into the mood of the Christmas season, my spirit is still flying around like a bat on the wind....

Well done if you managed it to the end - take ten points and go to the top of the class!

Have a great day, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

This and that again

Hi everybody, another week has flown by, it's nearly the end of the week, and time for another Paint Party Friday - well it will be tomorrow! I have made a journal page. I painted it with gesso, then used some remnants of sprays to give some colour, which I intensified with pastels. The sky is blue like it has been here today, and I have collaged various photos of people and places. I added the numerals and alphas with stencils. At the moment I am having fun with bright colours. I am linking to Piarom's 'Mix it monthly' , where we need to use orange and yellow and blue, a crowd, and texture, which is unfortunately not really visible here, but it is there! And, of course, to Paint Party Friday, hosted, as always, by Eva and Kristin, and to Simon Says Monday Challenge - anything goes

Yesterday I walked to the Discounter's to get my shopping, and saw some interesting things along the way. This is the Flintstones' car. It was built by Michael Fröhlich, a car fanatic, who also has a large place selling brands rather out of my reach - Jaguar, Bentley, Rolls etc. But of course, great for all the rich people, who are saved having to go into town to buy their exclusive cars. He also builds fantasy cars like this one. The sun rays must have come from the glass wall of the car showroom at the back. As far as I know, it really works, too, but I have not yet seen it action.

And this one is mounted on a column in front of his business:

This  little chapel is more or less opposite the car show rooms. It used to be kept open, but in the meantime has to be kept locked because of vandalism. No comment.

This pretty horse is in front of an old house where they sell exclusive - and probably very expensive - children's fashions.

The headless couple reside in the garden of a cafe:

And planes fly overhead every few seconds, as it is directly under the flight path of the planes.

Hope you enjoyed your walk!

Have a great day you all, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

A tag and a castle

Hi you all, hope you are all well and fit!

This is another of the tags which I made from the stuff piled on my table before clearing it all away. The tag had already been painted with red and yellow. I used a strip of lace (thanks Yvonne), some more of my painted and crackled leaves, some leaves printed onto transparent paper and fussy cut, and a heart made in a mould (mold for those of you on the other side of the big Pond) from candle wax leftovers, melted in the melting pot, and rubbed with Inka Gold in gunmetal. The wired beads were from Debbie (thanks!)

 

Here are some pictures of Schloss Kalkum (Kalkum Palace), a moated castle about 20 minutes walk from here. It is set in a beautiful, wooded park, with duck ponds and a stream - a wonderful place for a peaceful walk. Unfortunately, the powers that be are letting it decay - and are even thinking of selling it, which probably means it will end up as a luxury gated property for those with plenty of money of spare - sad!

Lions keep watch at the bridge over the moat:

 

You can see what a bad state of repair it is in:

 

And here are some of the present inhabitants. The photo is not quite sharp, but it reminds me of an impressionist painting:

 

 Have a great day, take care, and thanks for coming by!