A little book

Hi everybody!

The weather here was a bit cooler today, but great for walking, and I enjoyed watching the clouds. There are still a lot of tree trunks and branches lying around, but I hope that it will slowly be cleared away. I watched a dog today tugging on a twig, but the twig was attached to an enormous trunk and wouldn't budge, and he seemed to be rather frustrated that he couldn't take it with him - too funny!

I have made a little notebook (about 8x4") with some coated cardboard I got from a shop where they frame pictures. They often have a box outside with off-cuts of the cardboard they use to make the surroundings, and anyone who wants can help themselves - I wanted, so I did!  I distressed the background with DIs in wild honey and forest moss. I used some background stamps - a flourish, script, some architectural elements and diamonds etc to give a basis, before going on to the focal stamps, the clockwork birds, the eyes, the clock, the raven etc. The top layer of stamps has been embossed with clear EP. Some of the images have been coloured with water-colour pencils. I added some patches of gilding using my wonderful flakes, too. The inside covers have been covered with striped paper and stamped.  I used a mix of math and drawing paper for the pages. I am linking to Fashionable Stamping challenges, like clockwork, and a Vintage Journey, wings and things. The stamps used are from LaBlanche and Paper Artsy.

I love watching the clouds, always changing, and always impressive:

The apples are starting to get quite big in the park:

And I gave this giant Hercules plant a wide berth, as it is poisonous and causes dreadful allergies, as I experienced myself some years back- it is nearly three meters high.

I love this corner of the town walls - in the background you can see people on the roof, doing some necessary repairs to a roof after the storm.

One of the little lanes in our town:

And last but not least, the horses relaxing and feeding on their meadow.

Have a great day you all, take care, and thanks a lot for coming by, and for your support and encouragement.

Stormy Weather

Hi everybody!

We had a really awful storm here yesterday evening, the worst one in many, many years. The sky went black in a few seconds, and I went onto the balcony, as usual to take some photos. I got 2, but the wind started blowing so hard I could hardly stand, and I could hear trees snapping and cracking. The wind here was blowing at  a speed of 145 km per hour. (Sorry about the bad quality of the pics, the weather was to blame....)

 For more than an hour it never stopped thundering and flashing; it was like someone was flicking a light switch all the time. In between there were enormous lightning flashes and thunder crashes, it really was scary. I am not easily scared, but I was shaking. Things like that make you feel very helpless. The rain was extremely heavy, too, mixed with hail-stones. The airport, which is near here, had to close down, and started flying again late in the evening and well into the night. I got woken up just after 5am by another storm, but it was not as bad as the night before. The Fire Brigade has been busy all day, trying to clear roads and chopping up fallen trees and branches. Many houses have been damaged by falling trees, and some roofs were ripped off by the wind. All roads leading in all directions were blocked completely or partially, there were no trams or trains because of damage to the lines or the overhead cables. I have never seen so many cars on the roads here, they all needed a lot of patience to get anywhere. I went out this morning to look at the damage, and take photos, and when I got back I heard on the radio that the whole town had been declared a 'no-go' area, and we were all advised to stay home. It will take days before all the fallen trees are cleared away.  Schools were closed, and a lot of people had to take a day off work, as they couldn't get anywhere. In North Rhine Westphalia 6 people died.  In our town a group of people trying to get home took shelter in a garden-house, and were crushed when a tree fell on it - 3 died, and others were badly injured. A cyclist was killed on the other side of the Rhine when a tree fell on him. I really feel devastated. But I would like to praise the Fire Brigade, Police, Ambulance men and other helpers, who really risked their lives helping others. I heard on the news that all in all they had 17000  emergencies. And we are expecting more storms this evening and/or in the night, and then the storm front will move on to other areas in Germany. I just hope that no more people will lose their lives.

All streets were littered with leaves, branches, bird's nests etc, and people were all busy clearing away and sweeping.

This is the little lane I go down to get to the Rhine, and it was totally blocked today.

I was intending to show some things I made for various challenges today, but it is hard to just get down to 'business as usual', so they will have to keep till tomorrow. 

Have a good day you all, take care, stay safe, and thanks for coming by!

Triple Tuesday

Hi everybody,

Hope you have enjoyed your weekend, and that the weather has been kind to you.

Here it was hot, hot, hot, interspersed with cloudy intervals and thunder grumbling from time to time.

Today I have three challenges to share with you - Tag Tuesday, Try it on Tuesday, and MiFoc.

At Tag Tuesday our theme is 'The Fifties', which made me think of my childhood in London and school. The background of the tag is a school paper from Graphics 45, and here I have used both sides, as I couldn't make up my mind which one I liked best....

The photo, which has been matted with black card, shows me with my brother-in- law, a 'GI'. My sister was always determined to marry an American and move to the States, and that's just what she did. The picture was taken in 1954 when I was 7. She had lots of GI friends, and they always brought me candy, so I liked them a lot!

At Ty it on Tuesday our theme this fortnight is 'For the Boys', so we want to see your masculine creations. I have made an easel card with very masculine embellishments.

At MiFoc Manu has chosen the theme 'alltäglich', daily/every day for this week.

I have chosen a photo of the wonderful jam I made last week. I do not make jam or marmalade every day, but I do like to eat a spoonful every day, mixed into my yogurt. I never buy any, as I find the taste of the shop ones very disappointing. Here I am showing 2 sorts I made last week, rhubarb and ginger, and nectarine special. I have put ginger and spices in both sorts, and 'disinfected' them with liberal amounts of cognac, and they taste really wonderful. I am now looking forward to the blackberries ripening....

Today I saw that the hay is already in bales - it's very early this year.

I love these wildflowers I discovered:

And I always love to look up to the sky and watch the clouds:

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

This and that on Monday

Hi Everybody!
Hope you are all having a good weekend.
Here it is sunny, very hot and humid, and with occasional thunder-storms and rain-showers, but I still managed 2 good walks, and sat by the Rhine watching the ships, which is something I always enjoy, even though I do it almost every day. Or perhaps that's the reason why I do it every day!

This tag was one of my DT pieces  for Gecko Galz this month, for the cross promotion between GG and  Optic Illusions. The steampunk lady is a digi-stamp from GG, printed onto transparent paper and fussy cut, to let the underlying patterns show through. This was the last piece my printer printed before giving up the ghost for all eternity, and  she turned out dark blue instead of black,  but better than nothing.
The background paper is from the Optic illusions 'moments in time' kit, and is paper 14.1. I glued the paper to an 8" tag, which I mounted onto a second, larger tag cut from black paper recycled from an old calendar. I used the honeycomb and numbers stencils from CWS to do the background patterning, and a diamond stencil with mineral embossing paste for the raised diamonds, which I coated with some gold stickles when they were dry. I used fragments of old letters to give the background more interest.
(Material list: tags, embossing paste, stencils, BG paper  14.1 from 'measure of time', digi stamp, ribbon and embellishments.)

And once again I have some pictures from today - one of the lovely paths through the fields, flowers growing in hedges, and the beautiful variety of grass sorts blowing in the wind along the Rhine and through the fields.

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

House and home

Hi  everybody!

We had a very hot and rather sultry day here, and it looks like this weather will be staying with us for a few days,  probably bringing some thunder and lighting, too.
It's good to be able to go out in summer clothes and sandals.
Hope you are enjoying good weather, too.

This month's theme at AJJ is houses, and at Mix it monthly, homes, so I have combined both challenges in this mixed media piece.
I used a photo showing a house which is closed up prior to demolishing or 'renovating' it, in order to build luxury apartments. This phenomenon is happening in many  big cities around the world. The example shown is in London, but it is unfortunately not the only one. Property dealers and  owners want to make money regardless of how many people lose their homes in the process. For many 'normal' people, it is getting more and more difficult to find  places to live at a reasonable place. There are millions of homeless people sleeping in shelters, doorways, under bridges or where ever they find,  and that in a rich and civilised society. Not having a house or home is for me an important aspect of the theme, even if it is sometimes rather uncomfortable to think about it.

I cut into the edges to symbolise the destruction, and added a homeless man who is begging, again a familiar sight on our streets these days. The background has been painted with acrylics and gelatos, and I outlined the images with a neon yellow gel pen.

And here are  a few more summery pictures from my walks today.

I like this last photo, showing the houses from the opposite side of the road reflected in the window of our shoe-shop:

Have  a great weekend, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!