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......

Friday Finds (on a Monday)......'She wore flowers in her hair'

This is my contribution for Kim Klassen's 'Friday Finds' challenge (sorry I'm a bit late.....wasn't too well on Friday).
I have two 'finds'...a book and a planter.
I've been wanting a head planter for some time and finally spotted one in our local garden centre. I'm intrigued by how the look of it will change as the trailing plant grows and the pansies are replaced with other flowers.
We have a walled garden, which isn't always an advantage, but it is good for attaching things like this on to!

I altered my photo using Kim's textures 'Golden' and 'Magicedges'. I love the magic series....it always amazes me how a black texture can affect an image in the way it does.

The quote is from 'The God of Small Things' by Arundhati Roy (winner of the Booker Prize 1997). 

I love the description of the character Ammu...

'On days like this there was something restless and untamed about her.... she wore flowers in her hair and carried magic secrets in her eyes. She spoke to no-one. She spent hours on the riverbank with her little plastic transistor.....she smoked cigarettes and had midnight swims. She had a delicate chiselled face, black eyebrows angled like seagull's wings, a small straight nose and luminous nutbrown skin. Her shoulders in her sleeveless sari blouse shone as though they had been polished with a high-wax polish.'

I have the book on my Kindle but am only 15% through it. I'll let you know how I get on.
Have any of you read it?

I adore this time of year when every day there are new finds in the garden. I had a quick trip round with my camera this morning whilst the sun was shining. Angel wondered what on earth I was doing crouching on the ground getting that low-angled shot.
I treated myself to a Nikon camera a few weeks ago; there's so much to learn!! I'm still trying to get to grips with the aperture setting...... love those soft, blurry backgrounds :-)

Thank goodness for the warmer days and the beauty of Springtime; they lift my spirits when I'm feeling down. When we do meditation (in my yoga class) we sometimes have to imagine a favourite, soothing place......I always think of my garden.
Still searching for a diagnosis for my health problem .....I'm paying for a series of ultrasound scans later this week. 

Back tomorrow with Texture Tuesday and a recipe..... 

Friday Finds

This is my contribution to Kim Klassen's 'Friday Finds', which I am going to try and join in with on a regular basis.  I used Kim's 'Magic Scripted' texture on my photo, plus one of her affirmation brushes.......a great quote and even more appropriate as the flower has a flaw on one of the petals.

I decided to make a start on my garden journal yesterday.....which meant photographing the garden at its 'winter worst', in order to appreciate the beauty later on ;-)
I had a lovely surprise though when I found the hellebore flowering amongst all the duller stuff.
I remember buying it last year; an unimpressive stem with four leaves which the nursery owner assured me would become a wonderful plant.  Well he was right.....

I printed out a few sizes of the digitally altered photo and spent a happy half hour sorting through my collage boxes to find matching materials for a collage (or two).

Angel was on hand to give advice....

So at last I am going to start sticking and stitching!! Its been a long time.......

Back to the computer.....

I finally finished my domino book! I love how small and cute it is.....

I thoroughly enjoyed Terri's workshop. She has a lovely teaching style.......and lots of great tips and ideas. In fact there are lots more ideas in the videos that I haven't used yet, but I have plans for two more.
Terri's domino books are so beautiful, as you'll see here.

Some more pics of mine......

You may notice a few of my favourite Paper Whimsy images.....and some pressed flowers, torn text, dyed scrim, stamped images, inked edges, ribbons, beads and a charm.

Thank you Terri......I've really enjoyed this little project.

Since my last post I've been to Knaresborough to visit friends, plus I had a lovely day trip to Lincoln with my friends Maggi and Julie.

In Knaresborough we went to the RHS Harlow Carr Garden open day, where we walked miles in the sunshine, saw cookery and gardening demonstrations........

.......plus two fighting hares

..........and three gorgeous alpacas!

The colours of the wool are all natural.......no dyes needed.

There are two Betty's tea rooms at Harlow Carr.....we sat outside at the 'rustic' one and ate Fat Rascals with our tea.......

 ....whilst being watched by another fat rascal (after our crumbs).

Maggi, Julie and I had a lovely day in Lincoln. We visited a couple of galleries, admired the stunning angel bridge over the canal......

 ....and the wonderful cathedral.......

It says here that the cathedral was the tallest building in the world for 249 years (1300 - 1549). Some claim to fame, eh?

Maggi spotted the pretty reflections from the stained glass windows on the pillars inside. 

Which reminds me, I mustn't forget to show you the luscious threads she gave me on the day....all dyed by her fair (albeit stained) hands ;-)

She's even labelled the composition of each hank....how thoughtful! (She's a talented girl, as you'll see if you visit her blog. I must congratulate her on finally completing her C&G..... well done Maggi, your quilt is beautiful !)

Now I wonder..... are those thread colours really me.....???? 

I think that's about all for now.....except to say I've been doing Sally Jean Alexanders soldering workshop so I'll be showing you my efforts in my next post.

I can only hope I get better at it......... :-/

Sitting Stitching.......

I've been playing with my embellishing machine over the past few days...mainly to provide something for me to stitch onto :-) This started life as a flower corsage which went completely wrong so I chopped it up and felted it onto a (wet felted) background. Now it looks like a cocoon :-(

But this definitely isn't a landscape.......... ;-)

My favourite flower of the moment (now the bluebells have gone) is my Nectaroscordum.
I believe it belongs to the allium family. I love this one's bendy stem.

I'm taking photos of it at various stages of growth and have started doing some sketches and digital art with the intention of creating designs for a new project I have in mind. More later.....

Whilst I was in the garden today I spotted this brown blob on the hydrangea.......

.......got in a little closer......

...and touched it.......eeek!!!!!


Photo isn't brilliant but you can click on it for a better view.

One of the big garden debates this spring has been what to do with the dead cordylines....they are in gardens everywhere! Ours is over 5' tall.
I took off all the dead leaves.......

....and now Peachy uses it as a climbing frame! :-)
Fortunately its not on full view as its at the side of the house.

Apparently they can still sprout......but I'm not convinced.
I took a photo of the bark today; how many faces can you see???

I think I can see an owl too....... :-)


BTW...this is how it looked last summer (if you click on the photo please excuse blue bin and bag of compost) .

Nature's Artistry

I found these poppy seed heads in my garden yesterday and photographed them on some of my inky-splattered paper. They are so sculptural - like little minarets.

Couldn't resist altering the colours in Photoshop......

..........and fiddling with some layers.

Now they're making me think of strange writing implements!
Hoping to use these as inspiration for a fabric collage/embroidery.

I'm a little obsessed with hydrangeas at the moment and bought another one today to add to my collection.

Such gorgeous colour variations all on the same plant - and each separate flower is different; ranging from 3 to 5 petals. These are being pressed for future fabric and paper collages.

And finally..... I'm rather impressed by the way a branch of our clematis has decided to attach itself to the back of the garden seat. Nature's artistry eh?

(click for a closer view)

Flowers and Books

I bought some EcoArtboard from here last week.....its actually for a project I'm doing for the Suzi Blu Piety and Passion class (but more of that another time). Anyway, its lovely stuff; I like using thick card for inchies, twinchies and ATCs and this is REALLY THICK! (Its like wood.)
You can buy them in packs of different sizes - this is an ATC size....

Above is my Paper Whimsy flower (downloadable sheet). I've added fabric, hand-made papers and machine-stitching.
In Greek, anemone means 'daughter of the wind'.

 More digital art....

I know you can't improve on the beauty of a flower, so I'm just presenting these (from my garden) in a different way. I've done loads of these but I won't bore you with them all in one go :-)

I've also been making lots of Lotus Flower Books this week as I think I may have an outlet for selling them.

(Update: forgot to mention......the trees and the Madonna are stamps on Shrink Plastic.)

It was great to see some different examples of these books on Sue's blog see here. Her fabric version is very special .......

And finally........

Sharne at Sharne's Bits 'n' Bobs is having a great give-away........ such a pretty journal with a wonderful embellished cover. Don't go and enter because I want to win it...... :-)