Another batch of this and that

Hi everybody!

Another week has flown by and it's time for another Paint Party Friday.

I used the same colours to make two pages in my art journal. I showed the right side with the fire lady on Tuesday, and now it's time for the left side. I used various stencils to add the numerals, alphas and hovering ladies. The other patterns have been stamped.

This is a WIP. I am trying to paint a photo I took from my balcony some weeks back. I used thinned acrylics to paint it, as I wanted the structure of the canvas to stay visible, and then added more colour with pastels.

I still need to do more work on it before it is finished and I can use it as a journal cover.

 Yesterday I went for a walk to an old and rather dilapidated villa, standing in a park about half an hour's walk from here. This is another place which is slowly decaying because nothing is being done. There are several modern art 'sculptures' in the grounds.

I like the feeling of movement in this one, and that the ivy is growing over it.

This is an enormous sheet of rusty iron, the colours of which fit well with the autumn leaves.

The other side has unfortunately been spoiled by graffiti.

I couldn't really find anything I liked about this one, a huge block of concrete, also badly spoiled with graffiti.

But it was an interesting walk, just such a pity that so many historical sites are being allowed to fall into disrepair.

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

Happy Mail and Happy Cookies

Hi everybody!

Yesterday started off with a beautiful sunset, and we had a few hours of cold, but pleasant weather, before the clouds got blacker and blacker and the rain came down.

I had a good walk along the Rhine again. I discovered this little house on my way, and thought at first that a kid was standing in the window, until I realised it was a life size image. It's a little playhouse at some allotments near the river.

I love this view down the river.

These 2 shots were taken in the Church porch:

And I found this giant mushroom in the park, it was good 10" wide, I don't think I have ever seen such  a big one.  I wanted to put my foot next to it to relate to the size, but was not able to crouch down for the photo and stick my foot out at the same time, and I did not want to sit on the wet grass.

  I was lucky enough to get more happy mail .

This beautiful hand drawn and painted ATC was made by LonettA, we did a swap.It came presented in a red card, and is really beautiful. I will treasure it along with the art works of other friends. Thanks a lot!

And I got a fat envelope from my friend Narda in Illinois, who sent me all these beautiful stickers. I will have great fun using them in my cards and journals - thanks, Narda! She is also the lady who sends me funnies everyday in the mail to cheer me up, a lot of which I have also posted here on my blog, and a great lady to have as a friend.

 Yesterday I read on Christine's blog about some oat and cinamon cookies she had baked. I looked up the recipe and decided to bake them, as I had all the yummy ingredients here. I made a few changes - I used soft, brown sugar instead of white, added a bit more cinamon and some ground almonds. They were baked in 10 minutes, and it was really hard waiting for the second batch to come out of the oven
 so that I could take the photo. They taste delicous, and the rest of them are stored in a tin, and will make lots of yummy snacks. Would it be bad and greedy to hope that nobody comes by so that I don't have to share them?

But of course, you can help yourself!

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

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!