Autumn Love.....

I've never really liked Autumn.
I'm a true fan of Summer..... sunshine, sea, sand, shells....all those s words bring joy to my heart.
But I'm mellowing with age I guess and I'm learning to appreciate the pleasures that Autumn can bring....and I do genuinely love a bright, blue-sky Autumn day.
Above is a digital collage I created last year but didn't put on my blog. The supplies are by Anna Aspnes......I love her stuff.   It's a photo of Dale Abbey; a village not too far away from us and one of our favourite places for walking. We have others; Calke Abbey in Derbyshire, Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, Shipley Woods near Ilkeston, Curbar Edge in Derbyshire, the Chatsworth estate....... to name but a few. We intend to do more walking and Brian and I have both just bought new Berghaus walking boots...

Their first outing was on Monday ....walking to the top of Beacon Hill in Charnwood Forest.
No blisters yet!

Well, the end of this week couldn't be more different from the beginning.....today is rather dull and wet, but that means I can work in my artroom upstairs.

On the left is a pile of prints from my Instagram gallery that I've just had done at Lalalab (an iPhone app). I'm so pleased with them; the colours are perfect. I used two of them for my latest collages that you can see on the table. Trouble is, they are glossy....which isn't ideal for my work.....I found I was getting smudges on them and bits of glue (I'm a messy worker ;-). So I tried an experiment.

I always coat my collages with acrylic wax when they are completed....it gives a lovely finish and protects the paper and fabrics. It isn't really like wax; its more like a cross between a matt varnish and pva glue.....but it does a great job. So, I plucked up the courage to coat the glossy photo with it....thinking it might possibly remove or smudge the ink and be a total disaster......but no; it was perfect!
Below you can see the before and after......on the left is a photo without the wax.....on the right is the completed one. The photo is now more flexible and has a nice matt finish.
Result!
As you can see, I get my acrylic wax from Art Van Go. Good stuff!

This one isn't quite finished; a few more seed stitches and tiny brass sequins to go. 

That's it for now.....time to learn more about Lightroom  (I'm working through the Lightroom Begin workshop by Kim Klassen....see sidebar)  I'm getting there.....

I'll leave you with one of my Instagram images.....

A Summer of Ups and Downs

Happy Autumn   And yes....I know....it's been a while  :-)
Summer came and went. Some of it was absolutely amazing......but there have been tough times too.

The amazing bits?

• Meeting my gorgeous friend Lynne Palazzo (from Canada) for the very first time and spending a few days with her in Cornwall. The four of us got on so well together; I didn't want it to end.
• Beachcombing in Norfolk......Wells, Brancaster, Holme, Holkham, Old Hunstanton  ......collecting pebbles, shells and driftwood. 
• Walking in the sunshine with Brian in our favourite places; Calke Abbey, Shipley Park, the Nutbrook Trail, Dale Abbey, Curbar Edge in Derbyshire, Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire.
• And spending time in our beautiful garden with Angel.

The bad bits?

• Ending up in hospital on my birthday because some chicken got seriously stuck in my throat (one of the hazards of having an oesophageal stricture). It was rather embarrassing as I was with my husband and friends in our favourite restaurant and they called for paramedics :-(
• Having to cancel our holiday to Skiathos because I wasn't really well enough (and the insurance company were being difficult). Haven't quite got over that yet.....
• No proper diagnosis for my balance problem (but ever hopeful).

I have lots more to tell; calligraphy, new photography classes, my Lightroom journey, more stitching, foraging, recipes.................but I'm aiming to keep my posts short.

Back soon......honestly ;-)

Something Fishy.....

I knitted Peachy a fish yesterday and filled it with polyester wadding and catnip. He's crazy for the stuff. He was so keen to play with it he was trying to grab it out of my hand whilst I was stitching the eyes and mouth on. I found the free pattern on Ravelry (brilliant website).
It kept him quiet for ages......

 

......until it was time for a wash. It takes a lot of effort to keep that fur sparkling white :-)

I've been adding transfer foil to the pieces I made with Maggi last week; she kindly gave me some to take home (now I need to find a supplier :-) I've never used this before and was amazed to find you can apply it with Bondaweb, Misty Fuse, FuseFX or glue. All give different effects.... I love it!

 Yet more on the theme of Autumn - this is a piece I did for Kim Klassen's Test Kitchen. Kim gave us the original photo and a tutorial on how to alter it. I did a number of versions and for this particular one I also used a mask/texture free from Jerry  (Shadowhouse Creations).

  "Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains,

                                                   a torch flung to the trees".

                                                          Faith Baldwin

Accept.....

I'm struggling a bit with the prospect of Autumn and Winter this year. I've never been a fan, but for some reason I'm dreading the next few months even more than usual. I'm trying to be positive though, hence the digital piece above is for me.

The next three are my tributes to Autumn.......I do love the colours of the leaves and berries; I'm just not so keen on the dark evenings, rain and howling wind.

 

Images are my own, textures are from Kim Klassen and Shadowhouse Creations. 

Masks and brushes are from Designer Digitals. 

Here are my originals.......apart from the rose which is a free photo from WikiCommons.

Last week we went for a walk around Elvaston Castle Country Park, just a 10 minute drive away from us. I thought I'd take some photos of the Autumn colours, but what I found was some rather gorgeous purple.



The berries are from a bush called Callicarpa americana .....more commonly known as 'Beauty Berries'. I've never seen them before and couldn't quite believe the amazing vivid colour.

Finally.......I've been having a play with Kim Klassen's PSE mosaic tutorial ('The Test Kitchen' - see side bar). I love the colours, but I still think I could do better....... (well its fun trying :-)