Inchies - Mirror, Mirror

The theme over at Inching Artists this week is "Mirror, Mirror". Lynda has prompted us to produce an inchie (or inchies) that answers the question - What do you see when you look in the mirror? Do you like what you see?

This was HARD!! In the end I decided to stop agonizing and to use a little mirror tile. I added a question mark to represent my questioning nature and my constant self-questioning. I used Jones Tones plexi glue to draw the question mark and then foiled it. The mirror is wrapped with metallic fibre.

I am gradually getting used to working small - little one inch squares are about as small as I can imagine working on!

Wednesday Stamper - Moo Cards

This week's challenge at Wednesday Stamper is "Moo Cards". These are little cards (2.8 x 7cm) that were originally printed from a cropped photo or design as a small business type card (picture one side, details the other) - see here for details - but now they are being individually created as yet another fun size card for stampers/crafters and artists.

This was my first go at making them and the size certainly takes a bit of getting used to! I think they would be a great way to cut down and use up botched cards etc. All of my focal images are by Oxford Impressions.

MUST DO!

(A little distraction (fun!) this Saturday morning from a Sign Generator site!)

Gothic Arch - Fall/Autumn ( & A Long Week But A Long Weekend!!

(Photo)

Considering I had a day off on Monday, the four day working week seemed to take forever to get to the weekend again! But at least it is here and we have a public holiday on Monday over here in the west so I am determined to make the most of it.

(Scan)

I have just finished this week's Gothic Arch challenge of "Fall/Autumn". It was a bit weird doing an autumn theme when we have just burst into spring in the southern hemisphere but I love autumn colours so it wasn't THAT hard to do!

For the background I used a piece of paper towel that had been used originally to mop up excess colourful paint and ink from some canvases. I love the texture the towelling provides. I have added some autumnal leaf shapes cut from decorator napkins (not very visible in the finished product!), sealed it with Mod Podge, sprayed it with Moon Shadow Mist in a gold shade and then stamped (swirls and text) on it. The swirls were highlighted with gold gel ink and I used a favourite vintage image of a woman and, for a bit of fun, I used gold leaf charms to provide her with a bikini top. After darkening the arch edges with ink, it was finished off with some German scrap pieces (rubbed with black ink) and a couple of paper flowers and a brad.

(Paper Towel Background)

I have included both a photo and a scan of the arch because the scan is more accurate colouring-wise but it is a bit blurry because of the thick charms. The photo has too much shine and dulls the colours.

(Eva Nyberg's ATC)

Yesterday I received a wonderful fibre ATC trade from Eva in Sweden and today I received Natalie's wonderful pieces in the Jigsaw swap. You can see all of Natalie's puzzle here - just fantastic Nat!!

(Natalie Briney's Jigsaw Pieces)

I could tell you a very long and involved story about my jigsaw pieces for this swap but suffice it to say that although these are "giant" pieces they are relatively small when one decides to go missing in one very cluttered craft room. They can take HOURS to find. Not productive use of one's leisure time I can tell you! And in case anyone is interested the piece was eventually found, lightly adhered (surface friction?), to the back of one of my heavy books in the book case. Needless to say the books are often used to weigh down (flatten) my pieces while they dry. By the time of discovery I had however moved an enormous amount of stuff out of the room.

The latest Quilting Arts arrived yesterday and once again it looks like a fantastic issue - my bedtime reading for tonight!

OK I Think I am Back on Earth Again!

Tissue Paper Study by Michelle Bonds

Well it seems banishing the computer helps me get other stuff done! I think my other motivation was that there wasn't much point taking a day's leave (today) so that I would have more time to do stuff if I then wasted the weekend and had to cram three days worth of stuff into today!

Anyway the house is spick and span (first time for a while that it has had a really dedicated effort!!) and I have finished off a fibre ATC and postcard that I have been working on. Both are substantially made on the embellisher machine and then beaded. The "E" ATC is a trade for Eva in Sweden and the postcard is for Jaslyn in Perth because she was a big part of why I ended up buying an embellisher in the first place. The postcard was my first attempt on the embellisher and it is far from perfect but I have learnt a lot. Seeing the picture here also makes me realize I should have added some more hot pink wool fibres along the bottom but it is too late now!

Yesterday I also did a whole pile of experimenting with Shiva Oil Paint sticks and I had a lot of fun. The main purpose was to try and come up with a nice pattern for a set of fabric postcards I have to finish for an Australian exchange by the end of the month. I really like the various effects and I am just hoping that the suede like fabric I used does not have any treatment on it that will stop the paint from setting. It has a lovely feel to it and the paint was easy to use on the surface so hopefully it will be ok.

I also used a brush to try stencilling with the Shiva sticks and that worked well. I learnt a lot from having a prolonged play - the difference between the stencilling on the black and the blue for example - the black one is very messy as I used the stick straight on top of the large sequin waste whereas using the brush on the blue fabric was much neater! I have the book "Paintstiks on Fabric" by Shelly Stokes - it is a very thin but useful and informative book. If I had read the book properly first I would of course have known about the need to use a brush with the stencil.

As pictured at the top of this post, today's mail included the second of the Tissue Paper Studies from the Surface Design group exchange I have mentioned previously. This stunning piece of art was created by the very talented Michelle Bonds. She has posted information about the techniques she used on her blog (which is well worth visiting!) I love this piece Michelle - thank you!

This afternoon I am going to continue working on my giant jigsaw pieces which also need to be posted at the end of the week. They are fiddly - especially trying to get neat edges on all those curved shapes. Lesson learnt - not something I would do again as an exchange. Working on one or two pieces for fun would be OK but doing 16 pieces on particular themes is hard especially as the images need to be small. I have spent ages looking for appropriate small ones!! I'll post the results when I am finished if they look alright.

Not On This Planet This Weekend (Unfortunately)

Having one of those weekends where I don't seem to be able to settle at anything and just want to sleep or read. Housework is piling up and creative commitments are already piled up so I'm going to try and stay off the computer until I achieve something.

When I saw the options on the street sign generator site I couldn't resist setting up my own little Lost in Space Bypass to reflect my current headspace issue! I saw the reference to the generator on Johanna's blog so had to go have a look myself. I love mindless fun!! Speaking of fun, as a result of reading Kari's blog, yesterday I followed instructions and set up a little signature for my blog posts. Today I also worked out (finally) how to include my photo in my profile so I could delete the bigger one I had on my blog. I'm gradually learning all this stuff.

Bye for now

Artwords - Water

The current theme for the Artwords Challenge is "water" and as this challenge site is open to any medium I am posting a photo this time for a change! This is one of my favourite bath-time photos of my sons Josh and Zach when they were little kids - about 6 and 3 (I think). Baths were just another form of play to them. I love the way kids seem to have an extra radiancy after a bath (and it isn't just because the dirt has been washed off!!)

It wasn't too long after this photo that we had a field mouse come into the house and we discovered the tiny little thing in the boy's bath. Josh refused to ever use the bath again and only had showers after that. It's funny the way things affect us all differently as it certainly didn't bother Zach.

Wednesday Stamper - Fish

I've missed the last two Wednesday Stamper Challenges as a result of being away and then too busy, so I thought I would ensure I joined in this week by doing something simple and quick as a relaxing Friday night lead in to the weekend (a long one at that as I have a day off work on Monday!!)

As the theme is fish I thought I would use this lovely Pisces stamp by Chapel Road. I bought it in Brisbane (when there for Stamping Down Under) three years ago because I just loved it, but incredibly, this is the first time I have used it! How/why does that happen??? Perhaps I have too many stamps...

Anyway this ATC only uses this stamp and a favourite tiny text stamp by Collections (Julie van Oosten) and has a background which has been coloured with Starburst Stain (in a blue shade), Moon Shadow Mist (aqua and gold) and also gold, white & black inks. I used a gold gel pen to emphasize the wording. As per usual the glimmer from the Moon Shadow Mist doesn't show up in the scan.

Ciao for now...

Inchies - Little Wings (& Beautiful Mail too!)

This week's theme on Linda's Inching Artists Challenge blog is "Little Wings". I just had to use bees for my inchies as Deborah is my "proper" name (it means "bee" in its Hebrew origins) even though I go by shortened versions of my name most of the time. I have always liked the connection with bees for some reason. I can't think of anyone who has called me Deborah much besides my Dad when he was alive and my husband when he is trying extra hard to convince me he is serious about something.

So my inchies this week are made with a honeycomb style (mesh) background stamp by Lucy's Stamps , a small Collections text stamp, a mini alphabet set, black ink, Moon Shadow Mist in Gossamer Gold (I know - EVERYTHING I make lately has MSM on it!), a tiny bee punch and Dimensional Magic.


The highlight of today's mail was this wonderful tissue paper study by Doreen Kinkade from the Surface Design Yahoo Group exchange. I am so disappointed that my mail-delivery person bent the envelope (Tyvek!!) in two and shoved it into my letterbox even though it was obvious there was a cardboard layer in there trying to provide some protection from exactly that fate! Anyway I have had the beautiful delicate leafy piece flattened under heavy books for several hours and it is now much flatter. The Emily Bronte quotation is lovely - Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.

Gothic Arch - Gold

This week's theme on the Gothic Arch Challenge is "Gold" so I have gone for the aged tarnished and peeling religious icon look! It has come up looking more coppery than gold in the scan but there really is plenty of gold in there.

I stamped flourishes and old text images on the black leather look card stock using Gold Brilliance ink then edged the arch with Krylon Gold Leafing Pen. I cut the image from decoupage paper, used distress inks to tone down the vibrancy of the colours and added detail with gold and black pens, including outlining the image itself with the Krylon Gold. I wanted it to look really old so I used one of my favourite products (Helmar's Antique Crackle medium) and then rubbed burnt umber oil paint into the cracks (which don't show up much in the scan). I sprayed the whole arch lightly with Moon Shadow Mist in gold - the walnut ink part of the mist left lovely drops on the crackle finish. It is sealed with a coat of Dorland's Wax. I aged some gold German Scrap and added it to the bottom of the arch and then punched small holes around the two curving sides and added small gold brads/split pins to create a frame. It really does look better in real life - a lot richer.

Vintage Dressmaking Jigsaw Pieces

Today I received my fabulous jigsaw pieces from Jenny Crossley - this is a collaborative swap run by Annie van Leeuwin - eight participants all using the same 16 piece jigsaw and decorating two predetermined pieces for each of the other participants in their specified theme (including our own). At the end we will each have a whole jigsaw based on our theme. My theme is Vintage Dressmaking and Jenny's two beautiful pieces are just perfect!

I spent yesterday afternoon working on mine but I don't have any at the finished stage yet. I am also working on an embellisher ATC trade for Eva over in Sweden - check out her blog - lots of lovely photos and art!

Think Monday - Think ATC - Slide Mounts (& Other Stuff Too!)

So far I have had a great Sunday! The current challenge on Think Monday - Think ATC is to use a slide mount on an ATC. A few years ago when I was in Brisbane for the Stamping Down Under Convention I was lucky enough to find a very old box of plastic slide mounts while on a foraging trip through some op shops with Gaye Triggs and some other stampers. As a result I have a lot of slide mounts to use!!

I decided to do a very bright ATC this week so I have coloured the plastic mount with Adirondack Alcohol Ink (Wild Plum), Schminke gold powder and purple Moon Shadow Mist. I've used a favourite Hero Arts text stamp on the frame and also on the backing (also coloured with the alcohol ink and the mist) but it isn't overly visible. The stamped layer has been painted with Golden Green-Gold acrylic paint and glazing medium. This is my favourite colour from the Golden range. The stamp is also a favourite and is by Melanie Sage from her "Juxtaposed" limited edition range. I've punched out numerous size holes in the top layer so that the wild plum layer shows through. Not sure why I did it - just one of those "on the spur of the moment" things I guess.
I have also finished my six tissue paper "studies" for a swap I am participating in with the Surface Design group. Basically we had to do six inch squares using tissue paper as the main element - other than that there were no real restrictions. I've gone into a bit of detail regarding the technique in case any of the people I am trading with are interested. I started these ages ago when it was still quite cold and wintry and I was wanting to achieve an old rich but worn leathery "in the firelight" look. I have only uploaded one of the six as blogger is proving to be very uncooperative this afternoon!

I have used some of Dale Rollerson's Frescoes and Fragments techniques as learned at her workshop in March. My six pieces are all slightly different but are made the same way - a piece of crumpled tissue paper (I used printed kraft tissue paper by 7Gypsies) have been fused to coffee coloured felt. I have then sprayed them with various Adirondack Color Washes (butterscotch, pesto and wild plum) and walnut ink and mopped and sponged them until I was happy with the colours. They have then been sealed with Mod Podge and then sprayed lightly with gold and black webbing. I have cut out images of wine bottles from some decorator napkins and lightly painted the back of the top ply of the napkin images with diluted acrylic paint so that they would show up on the dark background. Once the were dry I used Mod Podge to adhere them to the tissue/felt layer. They have then been stamped with text and postmark images in permanent black ink and sprayed with gold Moon Shadow Mist. I fused vilene to the backs and stitched around the pieces. They are nice and light for international posting and can easily be mounted once they get to their new homes.

I have also finished another Lutradur & Lace experiment that I started a couple of weekends ago. I painted the back with gesso and it didn't seem to matter what I did to the front, it stayed too pale for my liking. I have used a huge range of paints, inks, shiva sticks, color washes and moon shadow mists on this one trying to get a colour intensity that I was happy with. These experiments are the result of a challenge on the new Fibre & Stitch yahoo group for subscribers to the new zine. On this one I used the embellisher to secure the lace and muslin pieces to the base rather than a sewing machine and I think it has been an interesting result. I would definitely use lutradur again as a base for the embellisher. In the end yesterday I also used color washes and moon shadow mists to colour the back as well. I finally think it is OK and I will use it as a base for fibre ATCs or postcards. The scan has come up a lot darker than the real thing. I quite like the texture of the back, hence the urge to try more embellishing on lutradur.

I'm off now to do domestic stuff and hopefully, later on I will get a chance to do some more work on my giant jig saw exchange pieces. So far all I have done is select backgrounds and images - I still have all the fiddly bits to do! Jenny Crossley is one of the artists in this exchange and she has finished hers - have a look here - it is stunning!

Gothic Arch - Family

This is my gothic arch for last week's theme of "Family". Vintage photo with retro feel!

Inchies - Under the Sea

I love the blogs that have been specifically set up as challenges or prompts to encourage us all to do creative stuff on a regular basis. Of course they are optional on a week by week basis but since I have joined in on the fun with some of them I am finding I am doing more mid-week creating.

The newest one I have joined is Linda Baldock's Inching Artists - I mean how hard is it to make a one inch square of art once a week in your choice of media (paper, fabric, clay, mixed, canvas etc etc)??? If you haven't had a look at this new blog challenge - click on the link and have a look! The more the merrier with these challenges and this is the only the second week.

As I haven't had much spare time I have just made the one solitary inchie for the theme "Under the Sea". It is blue fabric fused to felt with some Angelina fibres added to the top, a tiny piece of fringed fibre to imitate sea plants, some gold stitching and a darling little gold mermaid charm. I think I will have to create a little series of them to accompany her when I have time so that I can use some of huge collection of tiny sea shells. I still have heaps that I collected many moons ago when I was a kid as well as all the ones I have picked up since! I know, it is no wonder I feel cluttered sometimes.

The second little inchie picture is actually an inch square clay tile (what would you call it?). My friend Jude saved for me as she knows I love to recycle "stuff". I think it was originally attached to a store-bought card. I am going to try using it as a mould first with Model Magic and see if I can make little embellishments with it.

I have included another photo of my first Circles Journal page because I took the little flower sequins off and swapped them for old pink-red buttons - I think they go better with the vintage woman image. The sequins were really bothering me as they just didn't look right. I have done the background for the back of this page and hopefully will have the page finished later today. I'm also working on completing the set of six "tissue paper studies" that need to be mailed to my partners in the US & Canada by the end of the month so I am really looking forward to a relaxing creative afternoon! It is a bit cold but the sun is shining, the birds are singing and I have the house to myself for a couple of hours - what more could I ask for?

Artwords - Home

What a busy week - I can't believe it was Monday when I last blogged!

This week's Artwords theme is "Home" so I am posting a piece I had published in Somerset Studio's "white" edition. It is based around a gel medium transfer onto canvas duck of a family picture (from the first Beth Cote Ephemera book). I then painted and stamped a text background and glued and sewed on a variety of laces and trims, adding some beading and a zipper. It was meant to represent the family in their home surrounded by their particular history/story (the text) and love (the lace). The zipper represented those things being private and closed off most of the time from other people (but able to opened and closed when sharing was desired on a wider level).

In terms of technique I found the canvas duck a fabulous surface for the gel medium transfer as I put it between layers of waxed paper and heavy books to "set" but the paper stayed moist and was very easy to rub off as a result. The canvas texture shows through the transfer. Using the canvas duck also meant I could machine sew on it which made adding the zipper a lot easier.

Monday

Now this is a bit of a different style for me. This is my first page for a fantastic shape based journal exchange that I am involved in - this one has an upright rectangular shape (which I love) but the shape we have to incorporate in our design for this journal is circles. So as you can see I have gone for two layers of polka dot papers, circular stamps (Fancy Pants) in the background, polka dot ribbons and also circular alphabet beads.

I may have got a bit too wacky with my "OH MY" but I thought that the woman sort of looked like that might be what she was saying (even if her mouth is not forming a perfectly round "O") as she looked downwards - perhaps at the scales (hence the tape measure) or perhaps at her overly rounded toes!! I've said toes as we wouldn't want our beautifully rounded heroine to have body image issues would we!

Until tomorrow...

A New Challenge - for Inchies!

The first theme for this new Inchie challenge is "Swirl" and for anyone that doesn't know, an inchie is miniature art - in a one inch by one inch format. Up until now I have only made fabric inchies and I found those very addictive and a lot of fun so I thought I would try my hand at a paper based one this time. I made eight as they are easy to make as a group and as I think they will make good little trades or alternatively will look great mounted together on a card etc.

These inchies are based on a piece of Basic Grey paper which I have stamped repeatedly with a swirl stamp in black ink. I have stamped miniature text in red as well but the red ink is not distinct in the final piece. The edges are inked black and the swirl shaped paperclips are glued on. The inchies are finished with a spray of Moon Shadow Mist in Medieval Gold which gives them a beautiful golden glimmer but of course it doesn't show up at all in the scan!

Think Monday - Think ATC - Men

It is the last day for the TM - Think ATC theme of "Men" so I thought I'd have a break from some stuff I am working on and upload a scan of an ATC I did a while back in a themed exchange that ran for a couple of years. The scan is a bit blurry and there is a lot of glare because the biggish brad means it doesn't sit flat! Sorry about that.

This ATC is made out of a piece of thick red vinyl that I bought very very cheaply in one of those recycling (reverse garbage) places. It was hard to stamp on because the stamp sticks to the vinyl so the image is not a good example of stamping technique but I really liked doing something a bit different. The ATC is actually a lot darker and a much deeper red than it shows on my computer/scanner. The "General Failure" stamp is by Paper Artsy and its one I love. I used thin leather thonging and a bright red brad with Letraset numbers to create the X and darkened the edges with Black StazOn ink.

Now to get back to the six tissue paper studies that I am currently working on...

Gothic Arch Challenge - Moon

I joined in the first week of the new Gothic Arch challenge so really really want to try and make one each week so that I can make a book from all the pages and have a complete set. This week, which is the second week for the challenge finishes tonight so I am only just making it before the next challenge is announced! (Serious stuff, I know!)

So this afternoon I have created my arch for the current challenge theme which is "moon". When you are not well things definitely don't go as well either! My first arch was constructed of a transparency I printed and then layered onto silver glimmer paper which had been stamped with a favourite text image and then layered onto black cardstock. I machine stitched around the edges and then, fatal mistake, decided to add some extra bling by gluing some Judikins Silver Roxs to emphasize the stars on the transparency. The resulting blobs looked awful so I thought I would wipe them off before the glue dried and of course that removed significant quantities of the ink as well.

I chucked the whole thing in the bin and started again. This time I made an arch that was based on a beautiful piece of blue mulberry type paper that has little gold and silver flecks all over it. I layered that to cardstock and then decided maybe I could recycle some of the previous effort so I fished the first arch out of the bin. I cut around the little girls and the moon as they hadn't been affected by my earlier efforts and glued that portion to the same part of the new arch after stamping the text image repeatedly in silver ink on the blue background. I once again machine stitched around the edges and this time I limited my bling additions to some star sequins and silver pen dots. I have resisted the urge to do anything else although I really want to add SOMETHING (unspecified/unknown). Maybe it needs a "label" - a word or two - a reference to the moon maybe. Whatever it needs, I am not risking it.

PS I just saw that Linda has started an inchie challenge blog - the first week's theme is "swirl" - so of course I am going to have to join this fun too! If you like working small - have a look and join in!!

So Glad it is the Weekend!

Well I got back Thursday afternoon and collapsed into bed - I got sick on Tuesday as soon as I left town practically. It was a struggle to get through the three days away although it was made a whole lot better by catching up with my friend Jude in Meekatharra (she flew from Perth for the meeting on the horrible "cigar" plane - it is long and thin like a cigar, a 19 seater and you can't stand up in it. Very claustrophobic!). So yesterday I spent the day in bed (thank goodness the Esperance trip was cancelled) and today I am planning more of the same, but I was feeling so blog-deprived I have temporarily relocated to the computer. It is not helped by the fact that Joseph is even sicker but at least Zach has made a full recovery, even if he did pass it on - nothing like a family that shares!

The sunrise photos are quick shots I took over our side fence before I left on Tuesday morning - it was really glorious and I wish I had a better camera and better photography skills. I like the way you can still see the moon in the first one.

The next photos are of one of the quite famous and very unusual Antony Gormley statues that are installed on a salt lake - Lake Ballard- outside of the now very small town of Menzies which is north of Kalgoorlie. This statue is the one closest to the road but there are 51 of them altogether, scattered across the lake. Because we were taking a bit of a short cut using dirt roads to get to Meekatharra (it takes at least an hour, probably more off an 8 hour plus drive) we were on the road that goes directly past the Lake so there was an opportunity for some quick photos. A work colleague took the photos with my camera - I was already feeling very feverish and wasn't get out of the car to trudge across the salt and to stand in the very cold wind!

The little hilly island sits in the lake and is really quite magical I think. You are not supposed to take vehicles or motor bikes out on the lake but you can see from the pictures that some people have and it cuts up the surface a lot which is a shame. It is quite a hike around the lake if you want to see them all so I guess people try to make it quicker by using bikes. Here are a couple of links to some more information about the statues if you are interested: Shire of Menzies and ABC Goldfields

Postcard by Karin Hutchinson

And to make sure this post has something to do with my arty crafty pursuits I have included scans of the results of the latest fibre postcard exchange that I am in with a small group of fellow Australians - it was my turn to chose the theme so it was "fragments".

Postcard by Coralee Barker (needle felted)

I love all the different interpretations! The next theme is "pattern" and I need to get started on them along with a whole pile of other stuff for swaps that are due by the end of this month.

Top postcard by me and bottom one by Fiona Mortimore

Hopefully later today I will get enough energy to make some pieces for all the weekly challenges that I have missed so far this week.

Back on Thursday!

I haven't had time tonight for a proper post before leaving early tomorrow morning for a work trip - I'll be back (briefly) for Thursday evening before a day work trip to Esperance on Friday. I might even get a glance at that beautiful ocean before turning around and heading back to the dusty dry inland.

Things I am going to be planning while I am away - my entries for the following challenges - Gothic Arch "Moon" , Artwords "Literature" and also Think Monday - Think ATC "Men"! And by the time I get back the next Wednesday Stamper theme will be announced as well.

The photos are of one of my altered book spreads so that this post has something arty about it! Wishing everyone a happy creative week...

A Progress Report on the Weekend So Far!

Lutradur & Lace Background -
a technique from the new Fibre & Stitch Zine

Playing around with alcohol ink backgrounds

Well I had great plans for a creative weekend and so far so good! I have however, given up on trying to do something for the Artwords theme of "cupcake" - unfortunately it is just not happening for me so I will have to skip this week's challenge.

My embellisher postcard for Doreen Grey -
based on two colours of panne velvet with ribbon, beading & stitching

I have been working on some alcohol ink backgrounds (using Adirondack inks which I have had for quite a while now but never got around to opening!), doing some cards for a Stamping & Papercraft "With One Stamp" challenge, finishing my first two abstract fibre postcards made with my embellisher and also having a play with the Lutradur & Lace technique from the new Fibre & Stitch Zine. I also made an altered postcard for Joseph for Father's Day - a bit of zany fun really.

My embellisher postcard for Jane P - felt, tulle and organza with ribbon and beading

Family wise - Zach has a bad head cold and throat infection so is rugged up on the couch and is totally engrossed in the first two books of Christopher Paolini's "The Inheritance Trilogy" - I went to the library yesterday morning but they were already out on loan so I went and bought them at the bookshop. Book One was devoured yesterday/last night and Book Two is getting a fair bit of attention today! Seems they are "epic". It is a beautiful day here for the start of spring so Joseph is mowing the lawn and doing some gardening and in between my creative bursts I have been cooking (yummy buckwheat pancakes with berries and bananas for Joseph's Father's Day breakfast in bed!) and doing the rest of the washing. It is so nice to be able to open up all the windows and air the house properly without making us all too cold. I am using my scented oil lamps to infuse the house with the smell of lovely rose geraniums and it never ceases to amaze me how much pleasure nice smells give me!

One of my altered book spreads - "Travel"