Under attack

Today was a beautiful day in sunny Kent and I am not sure but, I think it is the first day of Autumn. Tomorrow it is meant to be cold and wet so, I made the most of it and spent the day in the garden with the girls enjoying the sunshine. (I even got out the sun cream again!)

But as I went to pick the raspberries I was horrified to find that the raspberry patch was alive with those eight legged, big, hairy, beasties, called spiders! Loads of them on their strong webs strung from bush to bush! Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! Not to be beaten by those nasty things, I had to break my way through some (well quite a lot really) of the webs to get to my berries. Even though I don't like them I felt guilty about destroying all there hard work and honestly no harm came to any beasties I promise, hand on heart!

Lovely begonias still in the garden, they all have to be hung up very high these days, so a certain 3 bad ducks don't eat them. One of there favourite snacks, that and Busy Lizzies! Well I guess most flowers I grow are their favourites, so gradually things are getting higher and higher in the air!

I really love this colour, white with just a tinge of pink around the petals.

Just before you nod off, I will move onto a crafty piece!

Just made this yesterday from Claudine's course of course,(lots of courses there and no food in sight!) Boo last week this week, but I am way behind so I will probably be showing stuff for a few week yet! It is made from painted Sticky Backed Canvas, painted with Claudine's paints, cut out into circles, dried and frayed around the edges. Printed out script writing onto SBC, cut out flowers and stuck them on top of the painted circles. Backed the circles with fabrics that matched, then threaded cord through holes I had made through the middles of each flower. Put a few knots in the double cord, (seen done by Chris Dark on her web site )put some fixings on the end of the cords. A first for me so they will probably drop off next week!

I couldn't finish without a couple of pictures of my bother girls, spreading out to look for dropped flowers, I am sure they think that the best flowers only grow in mid air!

A good shot of my knees don't you think? Muddle and Puddle having a good wash and brush up and Wigwam is after my sandwich! Tomorrow if it rains they will dig up my lawn, in revenge for not sharing my sandwich! So apart from the beasties a brilliant day was had by all!

A Rubbishy Kind of Day

When the weather is totally horrible, it is nice to look back on sunny days and the wonder of nature. This sun flower was a wonder of nature, as I didn't plant it, the birds did! Or at least the seed we give them managed to move across the garden and plant its self in one of my flower pots and grow and grow and grow! As you can see it has grown (taken last week) to the height of the conservatory!

The bees have just loved it and the main flower, (now dead) one day I counted 7 bees at once sitting on it!

Anyway moving on from nature slightly, every month on the first Tuesday, I meet with two friends Janet and Anke and we talk and sometimes make cards together! We also take it in turns to make a challenge for a card for the next month. It was my turn, so I said "OK lets make a card with as many throw away rubbishy bits that we can".

Boy did I get into this! No rubbish was save in my bin! This card is made with a saved wipe, which I had used to wipe clean my stamps. I keep using it until it was really inky and painty, dried it out and then stamped on it!

The butterfly I cut from toilet paper, (not used) that I had cut by hand, sprayed with glimmer mist and put through the cuttlebug with a folder. The wire for his feelery things, was from an old Christmas cracker. I then put a bit of stickles and pearl pen on his back. (why is it a he I wonder!) Oh and the butterfly was mounted on a bit of cardboard from a thrown away box.

This card was inspired (and copied a bit ) by the very talented Hels Sheridan (sorry Hels no idea how to put your link in!) The back ground is an old B. bank envelope (saying I was over drawn) torn to pieces and stuck down, dried, inked with distressed ink, then stamped on. Next I stamped out the bottle (WV) onto the back cereal packet, cut it out, inked it, and drew a stem. Next I cut a bit of cardboard from a new saver packet that my son had for his birthday, stuck on an old book page, cuttlebugged it out inked it a bit, stuck on a bead in the middle.(which came from last years Crackers) Then I stuck it all on a card!

By Now I was on a roll! I couldn't stop the ideas for rubbish! Or rubbish ideas! (which ever way you prefer it!). The poppy heads are made from old wipes again, stuck on shaver card, (it was a big box for a little shaver). the Bottom bit is more shaver card with an old book page stuck on and inked. Lastly the back ground is a technique I saw on Create and Craft by an Ali someone (sorry Ali whoever you are) layers of toilet paper layered in a embossing folder , sprayed with glimmer mist (rather over did it, but I love that sapphire colour) then put it rather messily through the CB. You might have noticed I rather like my cuttlebug! Gently teased away the edges, dried, this took ages, due too me totally soaking the loo paper in the first place! Oh and the stems were the shaver packet too! Stuck it all together and Bob's your uncle! (Where did that saying come from?)

Finally, my girls are moulting like mad, feathers everywhere, it looks like they have mange they are so tatty!

Have a rubbish day too, it was fun, but was sooo exhausted afterwards it took me days to get over it!

Chuff chuff

Having moaned at Him indoors that he hasn't taken me out for years (unlike Jenny B who seems to be always be out and about) he surprised me by saying, " Lets go to the Bluebell Railway on Friday". Now we were bought tickets by very generous senior sis-in-law and brov-in-law over a year ago and never used them because Him indoors is always busy with his bands and work. So after I picked myself off the floor and recovered, I said " Yes Please". So off we went in the sunshine and had a wonderful afternoon.

So here he is Him indoors in Sussex at the start of our steam train journey in the English countryside.

Lots of engineery things to look at. The smell of the steam and soot took me right back to my childhood, visiting my naughty Auntie Freddie in London (She was the black sheep in the family and loads of fun). I remember so clearly (I know you think I am so old now and yes I am) pulling into Victoria station and the train sighing with a finial shhhhhh as it came to a stop at the buffers!

Masses of staff all so polite and cheerful in their uniforms.

All happy in their work

Pretty stations, sadly I forgot to take pictures of all the flowers in the gardens, which is just how I remember stations all full of flowers and coal fires. My son was amazed when I told him our local station had a coal fire in the waiting room!

This nice young man let all the children climb in to look at his engine (too scared to ask if I could, being a big kid) when we had a half an hour wait at one of the stations.

At the end of the journey we stopped for something to eat, being at the end of the day and being a veggy my choice of food wasn't that great, so these very cute and tame little birdies helped me out with my cheese pasty! So all in all a lovely day, thank you Him indoors and Senior in-laws.

Thought I had better add a bit of arty stuff if anyone is still reading this! As you all know (sorry I am boring) I am doing a great on-line course with lovely and talented Claudine Hellmuth, so I thought I would show you a canvas of sample techniques that I put together.

And I couldn't finish without showing naughty Wigwam who snuck in to turn the page of a crafty magazine I was reading and went out again!

Wish I could work out how to load my pictures in order, help someone, this has taken Him indoors ages to put all the pictures in order for me!