Friday Finds....Bluebells and Books

Joining in with Kim Klassen's Friday Finds today.
(These are actually Thursday Finds.......but I don't think anyone will notice)

 Photo altered in PSE using two layers of  Kim's texture 'Coolgrunge'.

Beautiful bluebells from my garden plus a vintage book (Dante's 'Ad Astra') gifted to me by a lovely new friend. 

I had a wonderful day yesterday with Maggi Birchenough, Julie Mackinder and a group of her friends.
We went to see the new exhibition of work by The Textile Study Group at The Beetroot Tree Gallery near where I live. We also managed coffee at the Cachepot vintage tea rooms, lunch at Anderson's delicatessen and a rummage in Peartree Yard craft emporium, That's what I call a packed day! :-)
By way of a thank you, Wendy gave me a vintage book I'd admired in Peartree Yard....its very special and I can't wait to use it in my projects.

On the subject of books......I bought Alysn Midgelow-Marsden's new book this week.....

I know Alysn as she is the co-owner of The Beetroot Tree and I have worked for her there and attended many of her workshops. This is a fabulous book ....highly recommended! You can see some examples of her work here. The lucky lady now lives in New Zealand, but she visits regularly to teach workshops over here.

Finally......have all you iPhone/iPad users out there discovered Waterlogue app yet? I love it!!!
It's good to post on Instagram too and tag your photos to the Waterlogue link there.
Here are a few of my recent creations.....forgive me if you're an Instagram friend, I know you've already seen them  ;-)

Here's the bluebell/book photo 'waterlogued'.

 My blue muscari and pansies.

A cat we spotted in the churchyard at Edensor...plus my gorgeous white muscari.

And me!......Looking at you :-)  

(Well actually I was looking to see if I'd set the timer right on my iPhone)

Love the way the app has broken up my garden into patterns.....

Time to wade through my Bloglovin feed....I'm way behind.

Simple Joys

Kim Klassen's theme for this week's 'Texture Tuesday' is..... simple.

(Photo altered in PSE using Kim's textures 'greydayslate'. 'pinitonly6'. 'derek' and 'febmagicedges')

For me, the simple joys of a garden in Springtime mean so much; even the green bullets of the hostas pushing through the gravel are beautiful and make me happy. Spring flowers are my garden favourites; tulips, cowslips, muscari, forget-me-nots, clematis montana....... and very soon my aliums will be showing off their beauty. Bluebells are just starting to flower and then not long after the lavender will take over.
It's simple......... I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be at this time of year.....
And Angel agrees......

No positive news on the health front I'm afraid....when I go quiet at least you know why. I can't seem to focus on arty stuff and blogging when I don't feel good. Are you like that too?

But I have managed to finish my five needlecases which I hope to sell on etsy very soon. I just  need to make a few more to go with them ...... ;-)

Such a problem deciding on a price.........I spend ages on each one. I can't bring myself to ask a lot though; I'd be too embarrassed.

Here's another view of my own little bluebell wood :-) We are very lucky that we only live 20 mins from some beautiful bluebell woods in Leicestershire. Can't wait to visit this weekend.

Hopefully back soon......