30 years ago today!

These two little pumpkins were born!!  Here they are about 4-6 weeks old and you can see by the size of hubby's hands just how wee they were!  5lb 12 oz and 6lb 8oz they weighed when born 4 weeks early and now they are 6ft 1" and 5ft 10" and I've no idea how much they weigh!!.  I was only 24 and had been married two years. It was a special time but very exhausting to say the least as I fed them myself for the first six months. What a joy they were then and are now.  Lovely young women with so many gifts and skills and delightful personalities.  I love you my girls and I'm so glad you came into our lives! 

(my scanner isn't working and the drawer the photos were in is stuck shut so this is a photo of a photo but was the best I could do as I wanted to mark the occasion - roll on a new printer/scanner!!).

In car - will crochet!!

Yes, after a long journey to Cornwall and back and a very very wet holiday week, I had this to show for it:

and a closer look at the colours

so when we decided to travel to Paris in a day I had to take the next one with me!

which I finished on the way home!  These are for lovely friends, one whose birthday is coming up and one, just because...

These were crocheted with the same chunky acrylic yarn by James C Brett which I bought at PurpleLindaCrafts.  I have one more that I want to make for someone special and then we'll see what happens!

To Paris and back in a day!

Daughter no. 4 is now delightfully residing in Paris after we drove her there on Saturday.  We left at 5.00am and arrived at ' l'apartement' at 1.30pm.  Time for a very quick lunch and then back to the apartment to see the landlord and then hubby and I set off to catch the shuttle and arrived home at 10.30pm. Whew!  It was great to be in France again albeit a fleeting glimpse and we hadn't orginally planned to do this but it was a real treat to see her new abode which has this for a view on one side

This is such a great opportunity for her but I shall miss her lots.  Just hubby and Max here now!  Time for new beginnings!

Thoughtful Friday no. 105

"Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. 

It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the mind. 

As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life."

John Lubbock Sr.

GPPS Street Challenge No. 42!

Another opportunity to take part in this fun challenge event this time using text from magazines or newspapers and a  chance to become a little more familiar with typography, size, shape, colour etc.

Having had an incredibly busy month with visitors from the US, daughter no.2 going back to Uganda and daughter no.4 getting ready to go to Paris for the next 12 months and then a very wet week in Cornwall I have had to be quick about this one.   But I just had to have a go and got busy yesterday cutting out words from the various magazines I had lying around.  Interestingly I found that I couldn't just cut out any old words but the words themselves needed to be meaningful to me!!  So the two layouts below are the finished result.

I used some pages in my journal which I had already prepped using a layer of gesso, a page from an old book and some copper acrylic paint.  The words were then randomly stuck on using my new Sparkle Collage Pauge by Traci Bautista which my friend from the US brought over for me as a gift.  I am not sure you can see the sparkle on the photo but it is definitely there and certainly adds a little something to the page.

This page is a message all about my daughter who is leaving for Paris in the next couple of days.  She has been living with us during this second Uni year and I shall miss her a lot.  She is our youngest and this means an empty nest for the first time.  This season seems to be all about goodbyes so I found myself doing a little message to express some of what I feel just now.  I coloured the page first with blue, green and yellow water colour crayons and then wiped them with a babywipe to get a blended but not too wet combination.  Then again I used the Sparkle Collage Pauge to stick the words on, adding a little text myself (I suspect there will be more!).  Thanks for another fun challenge Michelle!

Thoughtful Friday No. 104

"The main task of a creative person is to move from his or her 

"everyday mode" to that quieter, deeper, more passionate,

more contemplative livelier 'space' where

the creative encounter occurs"

Eric Maisel

"..

The crochet hook has been busy!

Another couple of prayer shawls have been completed! The one above in a lovely blend of red colours for someone who is a good friend to my mother in law and the one below 

for a lovely friend in Wales.  I just felt to choose these colours for her and hope very much that she will like them!  And there is another one on the go - in pink this time, for another lovely friend's birthday at the end of September so it is coming with me to Cornwall where we go tomorrow for a week.  I find the easy treble stitch on these very therapeutic and simple to travel with!

Thoughtful Friday No. 103

What in your life is calling you?

When all the noise is silenced,

the meetings adjourned,

the lists laid aside,

& the wild iris blooms by itself

in the dark forest,

what still pulls on your soul?

In the silence

between your heartbeats

hides a summons.

Do you hear it?

Name it, if you must,

or leave it forever nameless,

but why pretend it is not there?

Don't think for a moment

the Mind

that designed the maple leaf,

the mountain, & the Milky Way,

(our endless need to love & be loved)

has forgotten you.

Listen!

- The Terma Collective -

Giving

I love to give and when I finished my portions of the joint quilt I am making with my friend in Canada, it was great fun thinking how I would wrap and send them:

So each 12 inch patchwork square was folded up neatly and tied with a tag, uniquely stamped and decorated and then put into a C5 envelope which was also stamped.  I then posted these so that my friend would get them one day at a time and amazingly it worked!!

Recently we have had a number of visitors, one of whom was my penfriend from France and we had fun celebrating many years of knowing one another.  She loves La Source from Crabtree and Evelyn and as I had some of this given to me while staying in a hotel, I decided I wanted to share it with her but by this time she was back in France.  So a little parcel was made up using voile fabric, stamped with my script stamp and tied with lace and a stamped tag.  She loved it!

Thoughtful Friday No. 102

“Change will lead to insight far more often 

than insight will lead to change.”

Milton Erickson

Thoughtful Friday No. 101

"Expect nothing.  Live frugally on surprise"

Alice Walker