Journeys for 2nd on the 2nd

Hi Everybody!

Hope you enjoyed your weekend!

Today is 'Second on the Second' at Elizabeth's, so I am showing a 

piece I made 4 years back, to which I have made some additions to make it fit the theme at Art Journal Journey, Journeys, too. One journey I would like to make is one that would take me back through time to visit France and watch Vincent van Gogh painting his wonderful art. His life- journey was relatively short, definitely not easy, and very intensive. I copied his painting here using acrylics, and added a poem about our journey through life from birth to the grave which I wrote some time back. Mr Umbrella Man has made the journey to see where Vincent painted.

Here  the text is easier to read:

We all get born when we are small,

It would be hard if we were tall!

Then we start out on our way

Through life which takes us many a day.

At first we cry and bawl and scream

Get fed and washed and rubbed with cream,

With powder and I know not what,

All babies seem to get the lot.

Then come the teeth and baby ills,

And weight-control and potty spills,

We start to laugh and talk and run

A toddler's life is lots of fun.

The years at school go by real’ fast

We learn that nothing in life can last.

Then comes the time to learn a job

Now we are part of the working mob,

Doing lots of work for little money,

On the whole not always funny.

And then we fall in love and wed

Kids are born and must be fed;

The days go by like a flash of laughter

Running after son and daughter.

And they grow up and then leave home

Start on families of their own.

And we get older then and older,

But have no fear, old age makes bolder,

For we don’t care what others say

And spoil our grandkids every day.

And then, perhaps, an old age home

With senior games and never alone.

And sooner or later, the game is over

And we get buried under the clover.

What comes after that, is yet to be seen,

Perhaps an eternal Halloween?

But as we don’t know, enjoy it now,

The journey through life till you take your last bow,

When the curtain falls for the very last call,

Till then, enjoy life, and have a real ball!

My lovely tulips are now opening and still look

wonderful:

Have a great day you all, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

New Challenge at Art Journal Journey.

Hi Everybody!

Hope your weekend is going well.

Today is May 1st, so wish you all a great month, 

and hope that the weather here will soon be worthy of May!

Our hostess for this month at Art Journal Journey is Erika, aka

BioArtGal. Her choice of theme is

JOURNEYS.

Erika writes:

' Your journeys might be creative, spiritual or historical. They might be an actual trip you took or plan on taking. Or maybe your journey is one of love, over coming some obstacle  or  personal growth.  Whatever journeys you are on, I can't wait to see where you are going and where you have been.'

This is a wonderful theme which gives us lots of scope, and I am also looking forward to seeing where your imagination and flights of fancy take you.

I decided that every journey begins in the head. I made a hybrid piece using 2 of my paintings, a seascape and an abstract, cut the head to shape, and added the ship and compass digitally. The anchor is one of my photos. I glued it onto the first page in a new A4 Journal which will be just for challenges, and painted round the edges with metallic blue before adding some stenciling.

Today was cold, wet and windy, and the skies stayed grey all day.

In winter coat, cap and boots I went for my last April walk.

I love the tender green of the new leaves:

The Basilica was reflected in the puddles:

The Basilica and town are celebrating 1300 years:

I love this wall and little lane between the Basilica and Market Street:

The red beech makes a wonderful background for the 

cherry blossom:

And the fresh leaves of the ginkgo tree look almost luminous: 

Have a great day, and a good, new month. 

Take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!

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!