T stands for Tag Tuesday and a Trip to RaTingen

Hi Everybody!

Hope your weekend was good. We had some bad weather here - strong winds blew huge towers of clouds across the sky and we had patches of sunshine interspersed with rain, sleet, snow and hailstones in quick succession. Some places got 10" of snow and ice, which caused havoc on the roads. Here we were still able to get out for walks, with some hail-stone dodging in between, and well wrapped in multiple layers, caps and waterproof jackets.

On Tuesday we are starting a new challenge at Tag Tuesday, and this time our dear Wendy is hosting with her theme of 'sea-world'. All things relating to the sea are welcome, as are tags of all formats, and as always you have 2 weeks to join us.  I made a hybrid tag with a background which was painted, stamped and embossed using a stamp from Ryn Tanaka. The other elements are from Serif and Mischief circus:

It's also time for Elizabeth's T stands for Tuesday, so here a warm welcome to all of the nice ladies of the T gang. On Saturday we visited the neighbouring town of Ratingen, and found a beautiful cafe in an old and beautifully restored house for  our break:

Loved this huge cutlery on the wall:

There has been a bakery here for well over 100 years:

During the week I often had a coffee at 'my' ice parlour, too:

And this shop window is full of beautiful cups and mugs:

Clouds on Saturday morning:

In Ratingen:

Fun pillow-cases etc:

Beautiful, old houses:

The maypole at the market square:

The 'James Joyce' is a restaurant:

These photos were taken on an evening walk on Wednesday.

Nelya and Harry:

Here we had the evening sun shining in our faces:

And some hailstones picked up from my balcony on Saturday evening:

On the right-hand side of the tree the hail stones came down:

On the left-hand side we had blue skies. Both pics were taken at the same time:

We also visited a wonderful castle near Ratingen, but the pics will have to wait for another day.

Have  a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Mixed media, a snail and counting sheep

Hi Everybody!

It's weekend - enjoy! We are expecting some bad weather this weekend, so that might mean less opportunity to go walking and more time spent at home to catch up on some tasks here. I have been taking my long walks every day and making the most of the dry weather.

On the 5th of each month we start a new challenge at More Mixed Media.

As always, our challenges are anything mixed media goes, this time with optional pink. I made this A3 mixed media page back in March, and am glad I worked in advance as I still having problems using my fingers:

I started off with a painted background with some added scraps - a piece of painted, heated and bubbled tyvek, a piece of hand coloured silk, some pink sequined cloth and a piece of silver gauzy stuff, which were sewn on:

Then I collaged lots of tissues, mostly from Jane Davenport, and some painted blobs, before finally doing some more sewing :

The challenge runs for a whole month, and there are prizes to win, so it would be great to see you joining in.

And some photos from an evening walk by the Rhine:

This snail oozed across my path:

The sheep have been grazing here the past few days. Sorry for the poor quality of the pics, they were taken with my cellphone which is not so good these days after taking a dip in the toilet:

Have a great weekend, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Heads for 2nd on the 2nd

Hi Everybody!

We had a holiday for the first of May here, so that made a nice break in the middle of the week. It started out cool and misty, but this afternoon the sun came out, and I was able to enjoy a nice walk with Nelya and Harry. And of course, I did some cooking and we all enjoyed our meal - marinated chicken, Chinese-style veggies and brown mushrooms, yummy. Harry had an omelette instead of chicken as he doesn't eat meat, so we feasted well! And Harry bought us some very delicious Black Forest Cherry cake for dessert, so that was great, too. 

For Elizabeth's 2nd on the 2nd I have some A3 pieces from previous years to share, once again using my head....These were all made at the same time as the ones shown last month,  back in 2012, and all were made with a mix of water colours, acrylic paints and collage:

I called this one 'Losing my marbles'. and used hand marbled paper:

I am also linking to Paint Party Friday, hosted by Eva and Kristin.

And I have one more tag for Michele's lovely 'faces' challenge at Tag Tuesday

Images are from Wikipedia and the rust from my stash:

Some photos from this week. I visited Hofgarten again to see how the birds and flowers there are getting on:

This is the bird house, where sick or injured birds can be cared for:

These Nile geese were showing a very elaborate mating ritual, it was great to be able to watch them:

The black swan is still alone, but is sitting patiently on her nest and is being fed and cared for:

That's all for today.

Have a great day, take care, 

and thanks a lot for coming by!