Girls' day out

Hi Everybody!

Yesterday I got my new hearing aids. I have been spending a lot

of time getting measured and tested these past weeks

after my doc discovered that my hearing had diminished

alarmingly. I didn't realise that it was so complicated and

needed so many 2 hour sessions testing this and that, but

now the tests are over and I have temporary ear thingies

to get used to them. Next week there will be more tests,

and if all is well, sooner or later I will get the permanent ones.

Now I realise just how little I have been hearing lately - the world

suddenly got very loud! I need to adjust to them,

but I suppose this is just another milestone on the way to 

becoming a senior citizen! To cheer me up after all that I

had a 'girls' day out' with my lovely friend Nelya.

For Yvonne's lovely theme of 'colour in my world'  at At 

Art Journal Journey I have another piece made from recycled

materials - cardboard, tyvek and canvas.  The cut out figures

are from a vintage postcard of a Rembrandt painting. I got a whole

pack of vintage cards for a few cents at the thrift shop.

Once again, I did lots of sewing. The background was coloured

with oil pastels, and the tyvek was painted with metallics

and then bubbled with the heat gun.

Our day out yesterday took us to the Altstadt of Düseldorf. We visited

the Nautical museum, had lunch up in the lantern of the tower,

and then walked along the river to the Media Harbour. I will show the

 pics from inside the museum another day.

The post office tower:

No, this is not me taking my morning exercise routine,

but an advert for the Variety theatre:

Looking into the harbour with the Gehry buildings on the left:

This strange sign has been placed on the Rhine promenade to

show how many cycles pedal past hourly, daily, monthly etc.

I think the money might have been better spent making 

improvements to schools etc!

Loved this Art Nouveau doorway:

Beautiful Graffiti:

The ancient harbour with an old eel catcher boat:

 This statue of the man with the brass nose is in one of the little

streets in the Altstadt. If you rub his nose and make a wish your wish

is supposed to come true....I will let you know if it works!

In the evening dear Nathalie came and brought a delicious 

cheese soup packed full of good things

which we all enjoyed to make a happy ending to our

girls' day out.

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

T stands for This and That

Hi Everybody!

Hope your weekend was good.

On Tuesday we are starting a new challenge at Tag Tuesday

💡Steampunk💡

and our lovely Joan is hosting. You can see the delightful,

inspirational tags she created on the TT blog.

I made this tag using some recycled kraft card from

Amazon shipping envelopes. (You can cut lots of tags from

each one - waste not, (hopefully!) want not!). The background was 

stenciled using frayed burlap distress oxide ink, and the 

steampunk birds  (Paper Artsy)were stamped with archival

black. I sewed it onto some

recycled black card from an old calendar.

My second tag is a digital one. The background is from

the Graphics fairy and the lightbulb image is from a Serif set

by Gill.

I am also linking to Go Tag Thursday, tag it.

Today is also Elizabeth's T stands for Tuesday, so here a

warm welcome to all of the T gang. The postcards last week were 

won by Lisa and Eileen. Eileen, I need your snail mail addy, please.

Took this photo of the inside of the ice parlour last week, it

is now too cold to sit outside:(

Sorry, my coffee was almost finished by the time

I took the photo:

I had a lot of visitors last week, and baked these delicious

lemon muffins - help yourselves!

Mmmmmm, yummy!

We had a lot of rain which made great weather for staying home,

playing and reading:

These are the last photos from my trip to Neuss:

 Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Music and Machines

Hi Everybody!

Hope your weekend has got off to a great start. We've got a bit of 

sunshine today, although it's rather chill, so that's something.

Today I am sharing an A4 a mixed media piece using vintage

music paper sewn onto canvas. I dyed the paper and the canvas

with my home-made vintage brown ink, and kept it to

a sepia /neutrals colour scheme. The lovely quote is from

Picasso. I am linking to Yvonne's 'colour in my world' theme

at Art Journal Journey

Here are the last photos taken in Duisburg at the sandcastle.

I will be visiting again on Tuesday to get a last look before

they start to demolish it at the end of next week. Here you can see

the crane which they worked from:

I love the mix of old industrial buildings:

There is a 'beach' next to the sandcastle where kids can get

inspired to make their own:

 A feeling we all know -no comment necessary!

An old turbine house:

The souvenir shop is in the old fuse room:

Have a great weekend, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!