Mid-week this and that and the postman's cat

Hi Everybody!

It's still very cold here and it snowed all night, I even have some snow on my balcony. And as I write, the sun is trying to break through the grey clouds, so that's great! Some people asked about my hospital /doctor's visits. Some of my toes have turned a rather nasty blue colour, and the fingers on my right hand are starting to go the same way, so they are trying to find a solution. I hope I am not turning into a Smurf! It looks like a necrosis, but the circulation is absolutely okay, and now I have to visit some more doctors (ugh!) to try to find the reason why and how it can be treated. I'll keep you posted, thanks for asking! I am hoping it's something simple which can be cured easily!

I put a postcard on offer on my blog from Monday, and the first name out of the hat was CJ, so she gets the coffee card. I pulled out 2 other names, Lisca and Mia, and will be sending them other postcards, so please let me know your snail-mail addresses.

I have been making lots of collaged/mixed media pages in my journal, as I cleared off my table, and filled a large shoe box with scraps. Here is one of them. I gessoed the background, added some  tissue from Sue and some JD and other tissue scraps saved from the UFOs on my table. I did some stenciling in the background using a light grey, and then doodled more branches across the pages. I added the feathers and a TH quote as embellishments, and a bird stamp which literally fell onto the page and was rewarded with being included:

For Tag Tuesday I made a tag using an image of Postman Pat - which I often watched daily (sigh!) with my grandkids when they were small. The image is from a kid's colouring book, painted with acrylic markers. The postage stamp on the left also shows Postman Pat, he was even honoured by the British post!

I am linking to Paint Party Friday.

On Monday afternoon I took a walk down to the Rhine to enjoy the sunset:

Our Patron Saint Swidbert is also over the gateway to the old hospital:

And lastly some progress shots of my kitchen hyacinths, taken each morning at sunrise:

Yes, the windows are dirty, but I will not be cleaning them till the temps rise a bit!

The blue ones have grown more quickly than the pink ones:

This is how they are today:

May your day be as sweet as their perfume!

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

T sTands for CelesTial Treats:

Hi Everybody!

Here's wishing you a great, new week. It's still very cold and frosty, but sunny here, and weather which would usually see me outside taking lots of frosty photos. But as I had a nasty cold I stayed home and rested, and had to be content with the sun and moon photos I could take from my balcony or windows. Just now the sky is beautiful and the sun will be rising in a few minutes, always a magical time for me.

Our 'Mail-art' challenge at Tag Tuesday is still running, and has another week to go, so hope to see YOU there. I made another tag, a digital one, which was made using a journal spread done at the weekend, so I'll start with the journal spread. I grabbed lots of fave stamps - including my beloved Mary Poppins - and stamped them onto tissue, before pasting them onto my prepared background made with gesso, water-colours and wax crayons. This way I could get MP looking in 2 different directions just by reversing the tissue. The Victorian lady in the middle is an old stamp from Paper Artsy, as is the Paris stamp on the right. I added postage stamps and did some random stamping with mail-art stamps. Elizabeth asked today on her blog if stamping is going out of fashion - I don't know. Sometimes I have very shaky hands, (which is a side effect from my medication and NOT from hitting the bottle), and then I can't stamp well, but I always have a certain amount of background stamps on the go to use when I make journal pages:

I then digitally cut out the Victorian lady in my graphics programme. The background and tag were also cut digitally from my journal page and I added a few elements from Serif to complete the tag:

Tuesday is also Elizabeth's T stands for Tuesday party, which always begins Monday evening, so here a warm welcome to all of the lovely ladies of the T-Gang. A lot of cafes and pubs here have a rack with free postcards which can be taken, and my friend H always keeps me supplied with generous amounts of them. I thought this one is very suitable for TSFT, and I will gladly send it to one of the T-Ladies. Please let me know in a comment if you would like it. If there are more names than one I will pull a name out of my hat:

These photos were taken at the cafe-bakery with my friend N:

Sunday was a real sun day, but started off cold and frosty:

The sky, before and during the sunrise, was very beautiful:

The moon was up while the sky still had the afterglow of sunset, and although I didn't get to see the lunar eclipse, it was still wonderful:

The wild geese on their way home to the lakes:

As it grew darker, the moon was large and very bright:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Sun, moon and mail art

Hi Everybody!

Today the sun is shining over frosty fields and the grey mist is beginning to lift. I had a hospital appointment much too  early this morning, and it was very dark and icy when I went out. The worst part was going down the frozen steps from the tram station to the path - 22 steps!. I wanted to hold onto the hand-rail, but my glove froze onto it straightaway. I was rather terrified, so went down step for step like a toddler, and arrived safely at my destination.  After this post has been written I'm heading back to bed to catch up on my missed sleep!

I made this mixed-media journal spread last week at art group, using stamps, stencils and some tissue paper that Sue sent me at Christmas - thanks again- over a gessoed and water-coloured background The tag is an old one which has been recycled. I stripped all the embellishments off it, added some tissue, lots of stamping and a stamp-image, also from Sue, and fixed it to the page. The string was also recycled from a birthday parcel. I am linking to Tag Tuesday - mail, postage stamps etc, Paint Party Friday, and Simon Monday challenge, recycle something.

The moon photos were taken a few days back:

Winter sunrises are always spectacular:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!