Saturday this and that

Hi Everybody!

Today is the last day of our 'For the record' challenge at Art Journal Journey. Linda has been our wonderful host this month, thanks a lot Linda, for hosting so well, and visiting all the participants. It was a fun challenge which I enjoyed very much.
Here is my collage of some of the pages  I made this month:

And this is the last page I made for the challenge, it was hiding under a pile of stuff and I just found it in time!  It is Hey Jude from the wonderful Beatles:

I am taking part in a swap organised by dear Elizabeth. This month the loose pages for my bird book are from her and Bleubeard personally - thanks for all the hard work you put into them, they are just great, and I am looking forward to putting them into my book. The pages are so varied, with so many different details:

And this one is extra special, because it has a built in accordion book, using the wonderful illustrations from John James Audubon:

The book is fixed in with velcro dots, and can be opened:

This is perhaps my favourite, because of the words 'Fly Free', as that is the beginning of a little poem I wrote for my baby daughter, who was still born. I called her  Chaya Zipporah - Chaya means life, and Zipporah is a bird. It was a long time ago, but some things can't be forgotten.

Lots of sewing here, and the pocket holding the gorgeous tag is also

sewn on:

I wish we had these birds here!

And Elizabeth braved an unfriendly post employee to get so

many wonderful stamps onto the envelope!  And one stamp disappeared between posting and arriving.

And last but not least, a packet of goodies which I can use in my journal pages and 2 lovely little bird stamps.

Thanks again Elizabeth, I will treasure your pages!

And a few photos from the morning sun and my morning visitors:

The ravens were trying to hide in the leaves:

And Mr Jay is top of the greedy list today!

I will be back tomorrow for the start of the new challenge at AJJ, 

so don't miss it!

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Friday Mix

Hi Everybody!

It's time for Paint Party Friday again, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin.

I am sharing 2 more mixed-media double pages from my 'new' journal.

I am really having fun just doing what I feel like, using up scraps, trying out colours etc. I am also linking to Moo Mania and more, floral.

The last 2 days started off with lots of clouds and a little sunshine, which

soon disappeared.

On my walk yesterday I saw this collection of bottles, very neatly arranged on the wall round a tree by the Basilica - the mind boggles! Was it the vicar?

Was it people from the assisted housing for the elderly? Or just a few naughty youngsters who tried not to leave a mess? We will probably never know!

Today a neighbour brought me a beautiful bunch of flowers to thank me for

taking in her parcels, as she is mostly not there when the post-man comes. I

take in parcels for the whole house, and do it gladly, but it was  lovely

to get such a wonderful  surprise:

Today was a little warmer, the sun came out here and there, and blue skies and clouds were both trying to get a winning hand:

Tomorrow I will be showing the beautiful pages I got from Elizabeth

in a swap she has organized, so come and have a look!

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Turn, turn, turn

Hi Everybody!

Today I have some more pages from my 'new' journal, this time featuring some wonderful verses from the Book of Ecclesiastes, which were sung so beautifully by the Byrds in 1965. The song was written by Pete Seeger in 1950. I have written the text in English and in Hebrew.

I am linking to Art Journal Journey, for the record.

More photos of my visitors:

 The little tits (chicadees) are so pretty, I love watching them flitting about.

The horses are all wearing their winter coats again:

These three were racing about, having fun:

The Rhine is very full again:

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Living with nature

Hi Everybody!

It is really freezing here again, I soooo hope that spring soon comes

back and stays with us.

For my tag at Tag Tuesday, with the theme 'go rural', I decided on a sheep die cut, which has been flying around in my bit box for years, and the morose Farmer, who appears in Shaun the sheep. The background was made from recycled scrap card, which was gessoed, inked and painted. The tree was embossed with a TH texture fade folder and then inked. I mounted the tag on a second tag made from peeled and painted cardboard to give a rustic look. The fence is a TH die cut, and has been distressed, painted and embossed. I mounted it with foam squares and curved it slightly.

And some photos from today:

This huge raven was sitting on my balcony yesterday morning and took off , screeching loudly, when I dared to open the balcony door. Scary!

The pigeons are not my faves, although they are very pretty. They love to trample my flowers flat and eat EVERY crumb they find, and no matter how often I tell them to bog off, they fly once round the trees and come back to attempt to find more food....

The jay is nearly as greedy, but not so destructive or messy!

Have a great day you all, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!