Happy Mail, Frida and raindrops

Hi everybody!

It has been a wet and chilly day here, this evening I am sitting wrapped in a blanket to keep warm, and it's August. This is a crazy summer, we have gone from stiflingly hot and humid to storms to wind, rain and very autumn-like temperatures. I still went out for a long walk along the shore and through 'town' this morning, and enjoyed it, well wrapped up against the rain and wearing my trusty wellies - what would I do without them?  Hope your weather was better.

I got some great surprises in the post yesterday and today - two happy mail envelopes from Silvia and Dagmar, and I just love nice surprises!

I recently wrote in a comment on Silvia's blog that I would like to try bistre sometime, after seeing one of her beautiful pieces. So she filled some up in little bags, and sent it to me together with a tag - thanks for the lovely surprise! I had no idea, as she asked another blogger for my addy so I wouldn't suspect anything! THANKS A LOT!!!

This is the gorgeous, textured tag Silvia sent:

This beautiful tag and mini purse came from Dagmar. There is a chip for a shopping cart in the little purse.  She received a 'Nettigkeit' - a nice little surprise from a blogger, and in return sent surprises out to three of those who visited her blog in a certain period. I was one of the lucky three. This means I will be offering a little surprise to three of the visitors who visit my blog and leave a comment in the next week. On September third I will pick three names out of all those who have commented, and they will each get a surprise.

I love this idea of getting and sending little surprises to brighten someone else's day. Thanks Dagmar for my beautiful surprise!

The quote on the tag means 'Creativity knows no boundaries'.

The tag is beautiful, here with more details:

Danke, Mädels!

And I have another Frida journal page to share. I made this collage, too, with things collected from my working space when I was clearing up last week, there were so many lovely bits I couldn't throw away, and my fingers just itched to put them together in a collage.

I am linking to AJJ, Frida.

And last but not least, some photos taken on my wet walk today. Our little town looks rather deserted:

The Rhein was grey and cold:

A few die-hards were out walking:

But the flowers looked beautiful crowned with rain drops.

Have a lovely day, whatever the weather, take care,

ad thanks a lot for coming by!

Tag Tuesday, the Blue House and more

Hi everybody!

We had a chilly day here, but it stayed dry most of the time, so it was fine for walking, and I love to watch the clouds and sky, always in motion, and always beautiful. I followed another little rabbit path through the meadows today, and it led me down to the shore, so I walked quite a way over the sand and shingle and rocks, and enjoyed it.

At Tag Tuesday our theme is India, which had me stumped. Then I decided to make a card showing Gandhi, a truly great person. I matted the image with orange, white and green - the colours of the Indian flag.

At Try it on Tuesday, the challenge 'Use your stash' is running for another week, so plenty of time to join in. I used a chipboard album which has been languishing on my shelf for years. I painted it blue, and added some random stamping with a stone pattern stamp. The two little dolls have been in my possession for over 60 years. I  made some additions to their clothes and style to make them fit into 'La Casa Azul', the  'blue house' where Frida and Diego lived.

 The chairs were made with a Sizzix framelits die and stamp set. I stamped and cut out the furniture, and then stamped the chairs directly onto the painted chipboard. I fixed the die-cuts over the stamp, moving them a fraction to the right, so that they seem to have a shadow.

The photos used on various pages were taken by my friend Donna when she visited the house in Mexico city back in June. Here I cut around the statues.

This is the bedroom:

I think this must be the hall....In between this side and the back are pages for journaling, some stamped images, postcards and more photos.

I am linking to Art Journal Journey, Frida

 This is the little path I followed today

 The sky and clouds changed continually:

I wondered how somebody managed to get home without his shoe:

I love these little 'still life' pictures:

And I would have liked to have taken this beautiful rusty stone home, but it was too heavy....

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

This and that for Monday

Hi everybody!

The weekend is over, let's see what the new week  brings!

It is also the last week of our Frida month, which has been a lot of fun for me, and I am enjoying seeing all the variations of Frida which other people have made, just fantastic!

Today I am sharing a Frida collage I made a couple of weeks back. The background was painted with acrylics. I used some of the images and scraps which I found on my work table, which in the meantime has actually been cleared and tidied. I used a photo of Frida as a child, cut out and surrounded by flowers and an owl. The quote is from Frida.  I finished it with washi tape, a scrap of lace and some doodling. I am linking to Art Journal Journey - Frida.

Today was very cloudy and rather windy, and I had fun watching the clouds changing, building up and scudding across the sky.

We are expecting lots of rain tomorrow, so I'm happy that the skies were blue today.

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Frida, water birds and horses

Hi everybody!

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend! Thanks to all who asked how my check up went. I get the results of the laboratory tests next week, but all other scans and examinations were good, so I'm happy about that.

And once again I have a Frida piece to share, made similarly to the one I showed yesterday. I stamped onto hand-painted paper using the second stamp I got from EBAY, and once again made some cuts in the DP background and fitted the image into it. I added some more colour to some of the BG motives using water-colour pencils, and outlined them with a white highlighter. I distressed the page with pumice stone and worn lipsticks DIs, and added some more of my Euro shop washi tapes as embellishments. I am linking to AJJ, Frida.

This morning I was awake very early again, and it was quite chilly and rather grey when I went out for my walk. I was happy to see a heron sitting on a stone in the Rhine, at the same spot that the swan always favours, seems to be a good place for a bird's breakfast! 

Then I climbed up to the top of the castle ruins, I like being there when nobody else is around, and the view from the top is wonderful.

The stones of the broken arch here remind me of a craggy face profile, with bushy eyebrows, a hook nose, and an open mouth - can you see it, too?

And these are 2 of the resident ravens.

And my friends the horses were busy with their usual daily grazing:

Have a great weekend, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!