An autumn green man, ducks and fun.

Hi everybody!

Hope you have had a good day. Here we had great weather, so I was able to have a long walk after getting my dressing changed, and in our little town a new bank celebrated their opening with an 'Open Day', and fun and games - more later!

I made a second piece for the 'deep in the forest' challenge at Art Journal Journey. ! painted my paper (12 x 12") with diagonal stripes using yellow, ochre, and some red. I have turned the green man into an autumn man this time, and have called my painting 'Down in the forest, dark and deep, the green man prepares for his winter sleep'. I sewed it onto some corrugated cardboard in a deep, plum colour, and then added some of my embossed, natural leaves. I love working with them. I added in more colour with gel-pens and oil pastels.

I am also linking to Paint Party Friday, hosted, as always, by Eva and Kristin.

This morning was misty, but we had a wonderful sunrise, which is always a great start to the day.

Then I went to have my dressing changed, and when it was finished, set out for the dilapidated castle, Schloss Kalkum. On my way I saw lots of beautiful cobwebs from the funnel weaver spider, which were glistening like diamonds in the dew.

The wild ducks were flying:

Schloss Kalkum seems to get shabbier all the time, I don't know why the powers that be are letting such a beautiful place fall into disrepair.

I loved the reflections, which were wavy because of the slight breeze blowing.

On my way back, I met a group of three painters from Taiwan, who were very friendly, and told me that they are touring 'beautiful Germany' to paint. They were happy to have their photos taken, too. I found their paintings really good.

Back in our little town, I met some strange characters, like this funny fox. He is standing next to the wheel of fortune, where I won a small, cylindrical box filled with pencils and oil pastels, great for taking with me when I go out!

They had a replica of a medieval tent built under the trees in the middle of the road, where they were serving coffee and  waffles - free. Well, it would not have been polite to say no....This gentleman was drawing caricatures, also for free, and you can see him holding the one he drew of me. It's not exactly a good likeness, but at least he left off the wrinkles - nice man!

And these gentlemen were showing replicas of various artifacts from the middle ages.

It was fun to see it all, and nice to have something going on here!

That's all for today! (Did someone say, 'thank goodness for that!'?)

Have a great day, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

The forest is dark and deep

Hi everybody!

I have a scheduled post today for my first entry for the new challenge at Susi's  Art Journal Journey, 'Deep in the forest', co-hosted this time by Sheila.

I worked hard last week preparing stuff in advance because of the OP.

Update

The OP went well, thanks to all who left comments with good wishes. The 'nasty bits' have all been removed, and now it just needs to heal.

For me forests are dark, deep and magical. As a child I loved the fairy tales, and all the creatures who lived in the forest, and was quite disappointed later when I learnt that not all forests were populated by fairies and witches, families of talking animals, elves and gnomes. The background of my picture was painted with left over colours from other projects, and then repeatedly sprayed, dripped and dried, to give many colours and layers. I stamped over part of it with a crackle stamp to give the semblance of foliage. Then I outlined the drips using an electric blue gel-pen. The small leaves falling from the trees have been stamped, and then outlined with a black fine-writer. I drew and painted the little toadstools, and then added my 'inhabitants'. I think I have stayed a child at heart, and still love making magical pictures.

I am linking to Paint Party Friday, hosted, as always, by Eva and Kristin.

Some autumn impressions from the past days:

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by.

Another Double Tuesday

Hi everybody!

I have a hospital appointment today for a little operation on my right arm, so will not be able to get round and visit your blogs today, and perhaps for a couple of days. I don't know how I will feel afterwards, and how sore my arm will be, so I will catch up with you all when I am fit.

Today is another double Tuesday, that means new challenges at Try it on Tuesday and and at Tag Tuesday. At TIOT our theme is animals, and you have 2 weeks to create something, so hope lots of you will join in.

I made a large hanging, using an image of the 'Bremer Stadt Musikanten' (The Bremen Town Musicians, a German fairy tale). I printed the image onto some printed linen, and fringed the edges. I painted some scrap cardboard with rust Vivacolor and embossed the corners with Frantage aged gold. I sewed the linen to the cardboard, and sewed on a strip of braided string to hang it up. The beaded embellishment was once on a T-shirt many, many years ago, and has been recycled here. 

I am also linking to Art Journal Journey, living beings, as today is the last day of the challenge, which has been great fun.

At Tag Tuesday our theme is 'opposites'. I used my favourite quote from Ecclesiastes chapter 3, as it is full of all the opposites we have to deal with in our lives.  I had to leave out a few sentences as it was too long for my tags, so here is the complete text:

To every thing there is a season,

and a time to every purpose under heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die;

A time to plant, and a time to harvest;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

A time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose;A time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew;

A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate;

A time of war, and a time of peace.

And here some impressions from my walk today:

Not ripe tomatoes, but ripe belladonna - deadly nightshade - which is related to tomatoes and potatoes:

This lonely leaf was suspended in the air, stuck to a fine cobweb thread.

Here's wishing you all a great day, take care,  

and thanks a lot for coming by!

A real sun day Sunday

Hi everybody!

I'm happy to say that we had another wonderful day, a real sun day Sunday.

I spent a lot of time outdoors, walking around, and enjoying the scenery, sunshine and the good air. 

Yesterday I bought a packet of scarf-wool at the discounter's, and knitted it while I watched TV with my feet up in the evening. It was a special wool, with all the bobbles and fancy bits already in it. I just had to cast on 80 stitches and knit 10 rows in garter stitch and cast off, and my autumn scarf was finished.

Miss Plas-Tick, who hangs in my hall, wanted to try it, too:

In the afternoon I started making some tags, and botched twice.  I painted a tag and put it face down on some newspaper to dry, and then screwed up a piece of lovely craft paper by mistake, so I combined them to a new piece. I glued the crumpled craft paper onto the botched up tag, and painted it with some metallics in blue, green and rust, adding a bit of copper embossing powder from Frantage over some stamped swirls.
I am linking to Moo Mania and More, autumnal colouring

Then I sewed it to a corrugated cardboard tag, and sewed the lace and burlap on too. I used some of my embossed, sparkly leaves and seed pods, and a butterfly as embellishments. The photos are not good, it was getting dark and I had to use flash, sorry.

The little path along the stream gets narrower and more overgrown every day:

I went down to the lake, and spent some time there, just enjoying the peace, birdsong, and the sun sparkling on the water.

Then I met some horses on a meadow. The were busy grazing - what else?

At Schloss Kalkum the trees in the park are changing colour:

This duck spent his time chasing all other males away from his harem!

And the wonderful sky this evening wowed me with the beautiful colours, and made a fitting end to a lovely day.

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!