Rain's Thursday Art Date - Ice and Jagged

Hi Everybody!

We had strange weather for January here again - 14°, part cloudy, part Sunny and very windy. I decided to walk along the Rhine to Düsseldorf . It's about

10 kilometer , so not too far, and I enjoyed it very much. And I enjoyed my cappuccino at the bakery when I reached my destination!

Today Rain has given us 2 themes - ice and jagged. Difficult. We haven't had any ice and snow this year yet, so I have no new photos to show. Good that Pexels always have so many brilliant ones!

My first piece is a tag made for Michele's theme at Tag Tuesday - winter scenes. The image used is from Gecko Galz. Other elements are from me, Mischief Circus and Serif:

Some altered photos taken in cold and icy times using added elements from Serif:

And in this one Erika and Peter are back again:

Some Pexel photos:

And some summer ice:

In summer we had a freak hailstorm, my balcony was covered in large pieces of ice:

My fave ice last summer - bitter choc - sooooooooooooooo good!

' Ice doesn't have a lot of vitamins, that's why we need to eat more of it'

My second fave in the ice stakes last summer - lemon with basil:

The end!

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!

Midweek Post with left-handed crafting

Hi Everybody!

Hope your week got off to a good start. Here it's still warm, wet and windy, but not really as we expect in January. But perhaps better than ice and snow!

Thanks for all the good wishes for my fingers, they are getting better. My skin is regenerating and the open spots are now drying out and healing, so I only have one bandaged finger now. It's still painful so I need to be careful, but it's definitely going in the right direction, for which I am very thankful.

On Sunday I decided I wanted to try some left-hand crafting, which is something new for me. I found some strips of a Degas calendar page which I had evidently sliced up at some time - no, I don't know why!! Anyway, after I had them on the table I started to arrange them in a loose weave:

Then I put some spots of glue under some of the flaps to hold it together, and

transferred it to a large sheet of white cardstock when it had dried. I used more spots of glue on the reverse to fix it to the paper, and started to look for things to add:

Then I decided to do some left handed stenciling - an adventure! My left hand does what it wants and not what I want. I held the Stencil Girl stencil with my right hand and used a sponge with Stazon ink to add the figures and sentiment. It took a long time, but in the end I got it done. It's all rather wonky, but hey, that's life! I gave the dancers some feathers to hold. No sewing this time, I'm not going to try that till my hand is better, but I'm happy I got this done. I'm linking to Jo's theme 'something new', at Art Journal Journey

and to More Mixed Media, anything goes with optional blue, as well as to

Curious as a Cathy

On Sunday I went for a long walk again, and then crossed over the bridge to the other side, walked to the next bridge over  the Rhine, walked through Hofgarten and then back home, after having a hot, crispy chicken roll and a coffee at a bakery. I am still using my smart phone to take pics, it's not ideal, I just can't manage the camera yet. But soon!

Saw lots of sheep, crows and ravens:

T sTands for Tag Tuesday and more

Hi Everybody!

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend. I got a lot of walking done. On Saturday we had dry and sunny weather and I walked good 21 kilometers and it was great. On Sunday it was a case of walking in the rain, but that wasn't bad either with my new umbrella to accompany me. My fingers are healing, for which I'm very thankful. I felt bad that I moaned about having to take cortisone, as there are so many people in this world who have no access to doctors and medicine, and their situation is so much worse. 

At Tag Tuesday we are starting a new challenge, this time hosted by our lovely DT member Michele, who has chosen the them of 'winter scenes'. You have 2 weeks to join our challenge, and tags of all formats, 'real', digital or hybrid are welcome. Michele has created 3 lovely tags to inspire you, and you can see them on our blog. Hope to see lots of people joining in this time. I have an altered photo tag, using a photo taken some years back when we actually had some winter! It shows the way leading past the castle ruins, and always reminds me of Narnia, especially in snow. I added Erika in her winter finery, and a photo of my husband when he was about 18 months old, together with his much loved toy dog. The shadowy people are from Serif:

Today is also time for Elizabeth's T sTands for Tuesday link party, so here a warm welcome to all of the lovely ladies of the T Gang who come by. As always I have been fueling my walks with coffee, my motor oil, to keep me going:

I discovered some beautiful cups and mugs in one of the stores:

On one evening I went to the snack-bar with Nathalie for a meal and we drank cola with our meal:

The sheep were grazing at the Rhine:

January flowers in a neighbour's garden:

I walked through the fields and through the castle gardens and village at Kalkum:

There's a cormorant perched up on the tower:

Why did the chicken cross the road?

There were hundreds of swallows enjoying themselves in the trees at Kalkum:

Have a great day, take care,

and thanks a lot for coming by!