A Door and More....

Hi everybody!

It's been a cold weekend here, but I still got out for some walks in the (very) fresh air.

But it's also good to stay home, and sit in the warm kitchen and do some crafting when the wind is blowing!

The challenge at AJJ is 'doors', and this is my take on the challenge.  I used a piece of cardboard on which I have been cleaning my brushes for weeks, and a silver metallic pen for the lettering.

The challenge at So Artful is to make a tree, using orange and one other colour. The background has been painted in orange and yellow, and the tree and geese stamped with black ink and embossed with black EP. (Stamps from Lavinia)

I decided to make it into a 6x6 card, using various papers as matting, and some home made crackled leaves as embellishment.

And the sky here was beautiful today, in spite of - or perhaps because of -  the clouds racing by all the time.

This was taken this morning as it was just getting light:

And these pics were shot this evening just before it got dark. It looked like the sky was on fire.

That's all for today, took care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Mixed bag for Saturday

Hi everybody!

I have had a couple of chaotic days here. My printer went on strike, the fridge gave up its ghost, I got soaked when I nipped out to the post, and in the evening a lightbulb exploded when I switched on the light....

The printer is running again, the fridge will have to be replaced, and all the glass from the bulb has been removed from my bedroom, so things can only get better - I hope.

I had a commission to make a card for a male 90th birthday. Not easy, especially as I don't know the recipient. I layered various papers in gold and bronze tones over each other, and printed the photo onto canvas. Apart from that I kept it simple, and hope the Golden Oldie will like it.

The photos are from my Wednesday walk, when I went to visit an old villa set in a beautiful park. I showed some of them yesterday, here are the rest:

This tree was so beautiful:

The villa looks rather neglected:

I wonder who this is?

The remains of the old farm:

The porter's lodge :

The beautiful ironwork of the gates:

The village:

I am linking to Manon's Paper Saturdays.

Hope you enjoyed your walk.

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

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!