Past, present, future

Hi Everybody!

It's been another cold day here, and we have

been threatened with winter storms over the

next few days - I'm hoping they are wrong!

For Art Journal Journey, Erika's lovely theme of 

'tell me a story', I have a hybrid piece using  a canvas I made 

of some of my ancestors. I  placed them here onto a

grungy background. The original was made with various photo transfers, interspersed with scraps of old letters. My great grandparents are both there,my Mum, my grandparents, my great aunt, and I am hidden in the background.

I like having many layers, even though they are not all visible -

life is a palimpsest, one layer covering up and sometimes

erasing the other. People who lived before us are still

'with us'in our memories, they are part of us as we are a 

continuation of them:

And this is the tag I made for Tag Tuesday, theme 'silver':

'To speak is silver, silence is golden'

Would be a good tip for some politicians these days....

Some photos taken this week, mornings and

on my walks:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

T stands for today

Hi Everybody!

Today is Elizabeth's T stands for Tuesday party and is also

the start of a new challenge at 

TIOT 

*Use tissue*

I made a set of 3 little canvases (4x4") into a 

wall hanging for a neighbour. She wanted

something with yellow and green and

flowers. I used some small tulip

serviettes from my stash,

glued them with gel medium to

the canvases, and then gave the edges

a coat of paint - finished. I mounted them

onto a dark green ribbon with gold edges . I was

not really impressed with them, but the

recipient loved her hanging, so that's the main thing!

At this point I would like to welcome the nice ladies of

the T gang. We had snow this morning, so I was outside on

my balcony before it was light taking photos. I mounted one of them

onto a moonlit sky background, which I grunged up a bit.

I do feed the birds every morning, they are always

waiting in the tree, but the coffee is

just for me! I am of course linking to Art Journal Journey, Erika's lovely theme of tell me a story

Last week I cooked a huge pot of soup made from carrots,

parsnips and sweet potatoes, and spiced with

garlic and ginger. It was good served with a splash of sour cream!

My fave water glass has a black cat on it, she looks like my

Kitty did:

The clear circle on the other side of the glass shows the

cat again, magnified by the liquid:

And I love making patterns in my soup - perhaps

I'm in my second childhood!?

And this bread twist was delicious - filled with tomato and cheese,

and with lots of seeds on top!

My Scandinavian bird hopped down to have a look:

And the rocking horse came over too - I think she wants

to send best wishes to Elizabeth & her boys.

(The rocking horse was a present from dear Sabine)

And some photos from my snowy walk on Monday:

Photo bombed from a loudly squawking crow!

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Of dragonflies, strange faces and cracked mirrors

Hi Everybody!

Today is Elizabeth's 2nd on the 2nd,

where we share a post previously published.

I made the journal page in September 2014, using DP and 2 tags I had made a couple of months previously.  I used the same stamp set from Lawrence and Morgan for both. I added stickles for the wings. The tags were machine stitched to the background. The quote on the right tag is from Leonard da Vinci:

For Erika's new challenge at AJJ, 'Every journal page tells a story',

I made hybrid page where I got carried away, and it ended up

rather differently than I had planned..... 

The background was painted, collaged and partly crackled. 

I collaged lots of words cut from magazines.

Then I added the quote, the strange lady, goggles and hand digitally (Mischief Circus). The ravens are from Dezinaworld. This was a fun and 

silly piece made to cheer me up. And the story? 

Well, I would like your ideas for this! Don't be shy!

  

The photos today are from an exhibition at the Kunsthalle

in Düsseldorf, 'Wool and water'. It was interesting, but not

quite my thing- I am in some of the photos, rather distorted 

by the mirrors:

 Have a great day, take care

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Ring out, wild bells

Hi Everybody!

Happy New Year  2017.

We are starting a new challenge for the new year at

Art Journal Journey

and this month the wonderful

ERIKA

is our host. She has chosen the theme

'Every Journal page tells a story', and writes:

*My AJJ theme is a twist on a phrase that we say in the US (not sure about other places, so whether this is a universal phrase or not, I don't know). The saying is "Every picture tells a story" and I am switching it up to  "Every journal page tells a story".  I think we  tell stories all the time, whether we talk about books we've read, movies we've watched, or told someone about an adventure we've had during our day, Our stories come from our past and things we find interesting in our present. Sometimes we even tell stories about our dreams for the future. We describe people we know, those we wish we could meet  or maybe  have just met.  Our stories are often non-fiction, but they can be fiction too. So this month I want to "see" your stories and hopefully get to read a little bit about them too.*

My first page for this theme is a hybrid page, using  a part of

Tennyson's wonderful poem

'Ring out wild bells', which is about the new year:

And now for the story. Last week I actually dusted off some of my 

books - I say some, as I have a lot, too many to dust at 

one time. As I picked up this one  I thought about

my Auntie Clara, a wonderful old lady,

who gave it to me in 1964, more than fifty years ago.

It opened at this page, and thus the idea

for my journal page was born. There is even a little

Bible verse in it, which she probably got

at Sunday school  as a child.

She was an educated, kind and caring lady, and  also my God-mother,

and sent presents every single birthday as 

long as she lived. She had no children of her own,

but a huge family of  God-children.

I spent a week every summer at her house in the country, 

which I much enjoyed. She wrote a dedication in each 

and every book she gave me, and several of my 

glass treasures were also from her.

This was evidently a prize she got at school in 1914,

and is one of my special treasures:

These ducks/geese were given to me by an ex neighbour,

I do not much like them, and they sit on top of the

bookcase in the hall, and look down on people:

I just hope they don't fall on my head one of these days!

These vases are all blown  glass from Bohemia crystal

in the Czech Republic.  They are all etched with pictures of birds, plants or fish.

These lilac ones change colour and look blue in electric light, 

they have a certain mineral in them, 

but I've forgotten what it is! And they are very heavy.

Ha! I just had a light bulb moment and remembered

that it's Alexandrite glass!

!

This is another piece from the 70s:

The glasses from the 1930s belonged to my great 

Auntie Fanny, another very dear person:

These are from the beginning of the 20th century:

 1930's again. This colour was evidently much liked!

These are more space age pieces:

I will put more photos up when I have taken them!

Have a great day - week - month - year!

Take care, and thanks a lot for coming by!