GPPS Street Challenge No. 42 Strip Ease

Another fun challenge from Michelle Ward this time using strips of paper.  First off I got out some of my scrapbook paper and had a great time tearing it into strips and then radomly sticking it into my journal using the gorgeous Collage Pauge designed by Traci Bautista.  I really love this stuff!

While that was drying I decided to do another double page spread and this time went to my stack of tissue paper - you know the lovely multi-coloured pack you can pick up at the £1 store!  I tore that into strips and collaged pauged it (this is the glossy version) and then when it was dry I wrote some words that are important to me right now, like, journey of transformation, fearless, encounter, savour, flow.

I left them both for a few days while I pondered what to do next.  

For the multicoloured strips I decided to stamp in black archival using an old stop watch stamp randomly over the pages and then I gessoed the two pages to reduce the shine.  The final touch was using my new and much loved Tim Holtz flourish mask, again with black archival ink.

For the tissue strip pages, I added a light covering of gesso and then had a real hankering to add some fabric so took some voile and handstamped some script writing in black.  Then I  cut it into strips and stuck it on with some semi-gloss gel medium.  And I thought it would be fun to use the same mask but a different colour ink - this time purple

I'm really pleased with the results and the way you can still see all the colours of the tissue and the script and even some of the original writing.  Thanks again Michelle for challenging us and getting the creative juices to flow!

Thoughtful Friday No. 100!

(google image)

“The reason to travel: there are inner transitions we can’t 

properly cement without a change of locations.”

Alain de Botton

How does your garden grow?

A few weeks ago this is how things looked out on the patio!  But since then with all the lovely sunshine and lots of watering from me, we have this:

and this

and this

We've also had some produce:

french beans and mange tout - grown in pots and for the first time!

Lovely potatoes grown in a disused dustbin and garden waste bag

my first time growing courgettes which we made into Nigel Slater's courgette, lemon, tomato and basil dish from his book Tender Volume 1.  We had it with butter beans in olive oil and mint and our lovely new potatoes - it was a feast!

Thoughtful Friday No. 99

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, 

and only you can determine how it will be spent. 

Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”

Carl Sandburg

The Joint Quilt!

I've been busy and away for a few days in meetings but just wanted to 'show and tell' about the quilt my friend in Canada and I have been making together over the years.  It all started with a visit to Toronto to see my very good friend whom I have known since I was 20!  Peggy is a great quilter as was her mother and grandmother before her.  I have learnt a lot from her and we decided on that visit that we would do a quilt together.  Peggy found some 12 inch pattern kits and the idea was that we would each make these up and then choose more fabric in different colours, choosing different patterns to form more 12 inch squares.  My colours were red and purple (we agreed we needed to add off-white to each as the pattern kits (in green) each had some white) and I got the fabric on another visit to Canada some years later.  As you can see this has been quite a saga!  Anyhow I finally got to grips with choosing patterns and then cutting out and then finally sewing until - woo hoo I have finished mine!

In the picture you can see the three green ones which were already cut as part of a kit, then the two red and two purple patterns and fabric that I chose and made up.  There is also a blue one which is the only one Peggy has completed as yet although she is away this week on holiday with her sewing machine trying to finish the others!!!  It might not look like much hard work but remember we are each making double so that we have a duplicate set to send to one another.  We will then have an identical quilt which we can choose to border, back and bind in our individual way and then choose how to quilt it.  It's a great idea and has kept us in laughter and conversations about patterns and fabric over many years.  So watch this space for how the project develops!  By the way, I have decided I really do not like sewing triangles!!!!

Thoughtful Friday No. 98

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where 

there is no path."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Photo courtesy of google images)

GPPS Street Challenge No. 41!

When I first popped in to Michelle's to see what this month's challenge was, I was really excited by this grid idea.  My immediate thought was to use small tags in some way (I love tags) but how could I push my own boundaries a little and do something different which I haven't done before?  I decided to dye the tags using herbal/fruit teas.

I had green tea, blackcurrent and raspberry and elderflower in the cupboard and let the tags soak overnight then dry on a tray.  The colours were muted and there wasn't a great difference between the blackcurrent and the raspberry but it was fun to see what would happen.

I then drew my grid using some of my favourite tape from pretty tapes and then followed the colourway for the background using my distress ink pads and a blending tool.  The tags needed a little something so I got out all my small rubber stamps and did a different stamping design on each one.  Quite a fun result which I like a lot.

Time to 'play' has been a bit scarce again this month but I did just want to do another one!!

This time a simple design using some lovely scrapbook papers I had on hand and some of my even more favourite script tape to bring out the grid design.

Thanks again Michelle for organising this.  I am really loving these challenges.

Thoughtful Friday No. 97

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. 

But there is no real security 

in what is no longer meaningful. 

There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, 

for in movement there is life, 

and in change there is power.

Alan Cohen

Perfecting the art of relaxation

Someone here knows just how to do it. I wish I could join him actually.  This afternoon I found myself asleep at the computer!!! I know - what am I like!  Only for a few minutes of course but enough to make me realise that I had actually missed the last few minutes well and good.  I guess this might be because I had a wakeful night, the night before last.  Must try to get to bed early tonight!  But there is much to be thankful for here in the tea and toast household.  Last week at this time we (daughter no. 2 and I) were here:

where lovely daughter no.2 was having another operation on her poor foot.  We now have three weeks of bandage (no looking or changing dressing!!) until the stitches come out which means three weeks of hobbling about on crutches and not going very far.  So we are enjoying our time together, eating lunch in the garden and pondering what delights we might conjure up for supper.  And in between times I am up on the computer doing some work (and snoozing by all accounts!), and on the telephone etc etc.  But in the evening there are creative endeavours going on - daughter no. 2 is knitting a blanket for a friend's baby and I have just finished (absolutely amazing after a number of years - yes, years I tell you!) my 12 inch patchwork squares for the joint quilt I am making with my Canadian friend.  More on that another time, complete with photos.  In the meantime I leave you with a shot to the right of the entrance to the hospital which is just by the Thames and looks out on to the House of Parliament.  The ward she was on had this very view!

Baking fest!

First up it was a coffee and walnut cake using this recipe from Nigel Slater.  I've tried a number of C & W recipes but this was the best yet and got 10 out of 10 from some visitors as well as those 'in house'.  It's hubby's favourite so appropriate for Father's day I think.

Then there was this little number

which looks slightly sad in the photo but was delicious.  It is a 'Damp lemon and almond cake' by Nigella, recipe here and in her book "How to be a Domestic Goddess".  I think I would probably add some kind of icing or creme fraiche and raspberries if I were to do it again as it needed just a little something to set off the sharpness of the lemon and the density of the ground almonds.

Then there had to be more of this

'Cinnamon Bun popcorn" only this time I used real butter and not a butter blend and halved the time in the oven as my fan oven seems to be very quick indeed and it was much better than before!  Recipe here in case you didn't get it last time.  And if you are in the UK and like me haven't a clue where to get almond bark from then just use milky bars which work out really fine for the topping.

So I guess this side of the weekend as the cakes are now eaten (last piece of the C & W  for hubby with a cup of tea any moment now) we are all several pounds heavier - well maybe not!!!

Thoughtful Friday No. 96

"Art washes away from the soul

the dust of everyday life"

Picasso