Maps, London, and Happy Mail

Hi everybody!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend.
We had a cool and blustery day here, but I am not complaining - it was still possible to get out for walks, and I am really thankful for all the mild and sunny days we have had.

I have been spending a lot of time with my computer, and I am pleased to say that it is not having so many serious glitches just now, and I hope that I have given it enough tender, loving care to keep it it running for a few months more. It's still having delayed reactions, but the delay is now seconds and not minutes or hours, and the big hissy fits have stopped!

I also managed to get some stuff finished that I have had on my work desk all week.

This piece has been made with corrugated card. I partly peeled a piece 14x13" and painted the background with white  acrylic paint. The image is  an old map of Whitechapel in East London, near where I was born and grew up. I added the borders digitally, and then coloured the carboard edges to match, using 'cake' colours, as Conny wants to see maps and these colours over at Mix it Monthly.

I printed out some photos of me as a child, and of some of the places where I lived, went to school, worked at a library as a student etc. I connected the photos with lines and used beads to show the places on the map, making it a map of my early years. I was born near the Tower of London, and went to infant school near there, too. The street at the bottom next to the Tower is where I was born. In the top photo on the left I am with a group of girls at Grammar school. The top photo on the right is the sweet shop on the corner where we used to go  when we had a penny to spare. Mr Umbrella Man is accompanying me on my journey back to past times.

I am also linking to PPF, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin, and to
Manon's Paper Saturdays

Today we had  a mix of sun, wind, clouds and here and there a spot of rain, but not while I was out!

Looking along the Rhine from the Church:

Towering clouds:

Another Easter tree:

 Horses by the river:

Last, but not least,  a lovely Easter card sent to me by dear Jeanette - thanks a lot!

Have a good weekend, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Oldies but Goldies

Hi everybody!

i have been spending a lot of time on my computer these past few days, just trying to stop the glitches and keep it going, and it is sometimes rather frustrating. For now, it is still working, but I will be sharing some 'old stuff' with you for PPF this week, as there was not time to finish anything more. I think I did show some of these paintings, made back in the nineties, but I am not sure if I showed  them all or not. Anyway, they are from a series of nudes I made using mainly blue, green and orange, and are painted in gouache.

 This is a caricature of me, drawn for me by a friend back in 1990. He drew caricatures and cartoons for newspapers, and I love this 'portrait' he made of me, with my red hair (where did all the colour go?), green eyes and of course, my dear dog Scruffy.

Yesterday I 'met' the sheep on my walk along the Rhine. The herds are 'employed' by the town to keep the grass short and the Meadows and embankments well trodden, which makes them stronger if the Rhine floods. They get a new grazing place staked out each day, and always have plenty of green and juicy grass - they seem to be happy at their work. They were 'working' on a patch directly at the embankment yesterday, so was able to get some photos without wading through the meadows. Some had bells round their necks, although I don't know why.

Time for a drink after eating:

 

I saw this beautiful decorated Easter tree outside a house in a neighbouring street, so wish you all a happy Easter:

 

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

A little bit French

Hi everybody!
A little bit French is the theme at Vintage Journey, chosen by the lovley Astrid.

I have made a large tag using lots of techniques from TH - embossing, distressing, stamping, and also used some die cuts, including, of course, my fave Mr U.M., who is visiting Paris.
I embossed the tag in my embossing folder, using a few tricks to get the whole of it embossed and the embossing all going in the right direction. The background has been distressed with tumbled glass, Victorian velvet, wild honey and forest moss, and then the embossed parts inked with Adirondack espresso, one of my fave colours. For the die-cuts I recycled the craft card from my rice packet. The background stamp with the French script is from LaBlanche, the Paris post-mark from Artemio and the tiny birds have been made with a MS punch. I am not really happy with the tag, the idea was okay, but I find it a bit dull now, but I am not starting again!

I loved seeing the spring flowers on the lawn by the castle ruins:

These photos all show some very peaceful corners of the Church Close, a place which I like very much, and which has a very special atmosphere:

That's all for today. Take care, have a good day, and thanks a lot for coming by!

Another Double Tuesday

Hi everybody!

My computer is really playing up just now, it seems to be on its last legs. Old age doesn't only affect people!

Today is a new challenge at Try it on Tuesday and at Tag Tuesday. Our theme for the next 2 weeks at TIOT is to make something with more than one fold. I made some maze books and a mini concertina book. The larger maze book has been made from one sheet of 12x12" double sided paper, the smaller one in the middle from a 6x6" sheet, and the concertina book from a strip of double sided paper 12" x 23/4". There are plenty of instructions to be found on the web to make these little albums. The large one has covers made from coasters, which I painted with metallic blue and stenciled with a darker blue round the edges. By folding down the corners of the pages in the maze books you can make little pockets for tags etc, and the middle book has some tiny tags in the pockets. The concertina book has a folded up lower edge which also makes pockets for tags.
I am also linking to the Three Muses - lime and turquoise. Well, I will link on Wednesday when the challenge starts!

At Tag Tuesday our theme is eggs. I am not an Easter card or egg-tag fan, but did my best. I made an egg shaped tag,  on which I stenciled some grass, a lamb and a cockerel. The image is from gecko Galz, and has been printed and fussy cut twice, and placed one over the other with foam pads to give some dimension.

 

Today was much cooler than it has been, and extremely windy. I still enjoyed my walk, and enjoyed watching the horses grazing and frolicking in the old moat.

This little figure is standing on a roof top near the old walls.

By the evening the wind had more or less blown over, and the sky was beautiful:

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