Nature's Calendar - Knapweed

Nature's Calendar - Surprise find

What a lovely little survivor in amongst the dead leaves on the verge down the lane.

A mini minibook & the weekly challenge

One of my teamies on UKScrappers found these instruction for making a mini minibook so I had to have a go.
here is my little book I am quite please with how it turned out but boy did it take a time. the actual construction was easy and quite quick it's the filling and choosing of photos that takes all the time.








As the minibook too so long to do I decided to do the weekly challenge, on UKScrappers, digitally
challenge criteria was to use a patterned paper for the background rather than plain cardstock, to add some bling and use 'time' in the title

Nature's Calendar - Blue Berries

I took a little deviation in my walk to Asda on Saturday and found these bright blue berries on a cultivated plant, I have never seen them before and don't know what they are, can anyone enlighten me?

Nature's Calendar - Berries Galore

cooking success & disaster

I have been cooking up a recipe, all by guess work. I was watching a programme yesterday about different ways to cook rhubarb. I couldn't get any rhubarb so decided to use the plums that had been in my freezer for at least two years. I wanted to make some relish to go with the gammon steak I had bought myself for dinner today.
I softened 10 plums and removed their stones. Popped all the ingredients into the pan and guessed that it would take about and hour..... ops..... far too long, relish reduced to nothing and baked hard onto the saucepan. I couldn't even chip it off with a knife. Pan ruined or so I thought, but decided that maybe, just maybe, good old fashioned washing soda may loosen it enough to chip it away. I put in about a tablespoon and filled the pan halfway popped it back on the stove and brought it to the boil. When I tried the knife on it again it came away in great big lumps, pan as good as new. So another attempt at the relish and this time perfect results.

 

it is a dark rich ruby red in colour and taste lovely with cheese. (too late to go with the gammon)
Think I'll make some more as a present for my son, he really enjoys this sort of thing especially at Christmas.
Next I'll try Apple cider relish 

Nature's Calendar - bejewelled

A misty moisty morning, opening the door for the cats, I spy what appears to be angel hair covering the rosemary. What spider would spin such a web and how fine it is criss crossing like a bejewelled net curtain.
There are webs everywhere, normal ones, but all useless for the spider with the moisture clings to every stand

Filling the frame

Last Christmas my son and daughter-in-law gave me a lovely picture frame. It is sectioned off into 6 6x4" little frames and is quite deep. I really wanted to do something special with it, but I didn't have any ideas until recently.

I started by putting in the photos of my cats, Sammy (the one looking out of the window) is no longer, she died earlier in the year and her photo has been the only thing in the frame for ages. I quite liked the curtain idea so I started the collage with that.
I had seen this

in a magazine and being a button collector it seems a good thing to add.

In amongst all the buttons, lace and trims that I have been given, inherited or picked up at jumble sales I had this lovely button card (I would love to know how old it is)


One of my Scrapping friends Shirley had done a super dressing dummy collage in a household matchbox. Bless her she sent me a kit to make the final aperture

the silver thimble was my mother's and the press studs came from her too.

so finally here is the completed frame. I have found a place to hang it but need help to get the hooks in the right place so next time Neil comes over I'll ask him to do it.

Nature's Calendar - Rowan against the dark fir

Nature's Calendar - Mahonia

sometimes with close ups it is difficult to know if the photo should be displayed landscape or portrait, but I think this is right :)

Keep Calm

I've jumped on the bandwaggon and produced my poster thanks to Jemma (Jimjams) and Sian
This super site is well worth the visit even just to create your own poster, but there is also a petition to sign if we want to keep this rallying war time phrase from being trademarked.

it is a well known fact that stoking an animal brings healing to the troubled mind

Nature's Calendar - Fallen leaves

Random jottings of a observer.

In town the other day I saw someone pulling a box along, the box was approximately 2ft x 1ft but 18" deep (don't know off hand what that is in metric)fair enough you say just like a small case, yes it was like a small case but on the side of the box was written 'Sandwiches' and the lid had two indentations for tumblers, boy was his lunch big.

Bright Autumn colours are good to wear I agree and I love to wear them, but the jumper worn by this 50ish year old man looked like his mother had knitted it from all the odds and ends of wool she had left over. He certainly stood out.

Starbucks today was a must, I had my usual Mocha and Cinnamon Swirl and thoroughly enjoyed it, but while I was in there well hidden away from any window I missed the most amazing rainbow, how do I know? a friend saw me while I was waiting for the bus and asked me if I had photographed it. Shame I would have loved that for my nature calendar.

We had been offered a proper shop type hanging rail for the Thursday sale and Ann and I went into town to pick it up. We thought we were going to have to walk home with it as it was big, I was looking forward to taking photos of us wheeling it along, but in the end we were able to dismantle it into 4 pieces and allowed on the bus. Hopefully this will last longer than any of the others we have been given over the years.

I found a quote today that I rather like
Childhood is the time of life when you make funny faces in the mirror.
Middle age is the time of life when the mirror gets even.

It's Zebedee said time, good night

Nature's Calendar - cracked and crazed

I don't know what has happened to these berries, looks as though they have been covered with crackle paint.

Counterfeit Kit Layer challenge

At the weekend I started sorting the many photos I have already printed, too many really because I tend to print and then decided that the size is all wrong. Well I came across some heritage photos (originals), taken in the early 1900s so I just had to do a page using some of my counterfeit kit.
The latest Counterfeit Kit Challenge is layering so rummaging through my kit I found some papers that would go together with the photo and produced this.

this photo is of my Mother-in-Law (with cat) and her older sister with a friend in the middle

Nature's Calendar - Rowan in Autumn Splendour

Nature's Calendar - Red Ivy

I've never seen Ivy leaves turn red before

Messy Play & Digi Play

I've been having fun today with distress ink pads and water. It all started with a wonderful tutorial by Shari Caroll and I just had to have a go.

I started with a sheet of Acrylic Art paper (because I like the texture) cut to 6x8
I stamped up my script stamp with the embossing stamp pad and heat embossed with white powder.
I then used Antique Linen on my acrylic block in the same way as Shari did, stamping this over the embossed area. I let it dry before using Forest Moss on the block and going over the rest of the page. Taking a baby wipe I rubbed it all over to spread the ink and also remove any residue from the embossed script.
Using this as my patterned paper I then stamped the heart using Milled Lavender Distress ink, heat embossing this with Deep Impression clear powder. This stamp is just a sponge type on a wooden block so I couldn't guarantee getting it back in the same place so I used my embossing pen to scribble over the heart and re embossed again with the deep impression powder this gave the pitted effect (an accident that I really like).

the photograph is from a postcard that was sent to my Father's older brother, not someone known to the family but the postcard must have meant something to have been passed down through the generations for me to get it (I also have the one sent to Dad and to his sister).
I then scanned the back of the postcard into the computer so I could print off the words that were written in great uncle Fred's own hand. I used Safmat for this a self adhesive printing film

the flowers on the heart are just a little bit of trim with some plastic leaves which I dipped in alcohol ink. and spritzed with glimmer mist.
I cut round the top edge of the heart so that I could slip the corner of the photo behind.
I finally finished the whole thing off by gently stroking it with the Distress ink pad Pumice Stone

I also have another page done for the digital circle journal that I am in. This time it is for Jane aka Dragonfly Jane on UKScrappers. Her subject is Cemeteries and I thought I would really struggle with this, but surprisingly enough it came together really easily and what's more I am pleased with it.
When I went to Cheltenham back in August I found this lovely church and such a special gravestone.


Today has been a good day. The sun has shone and I didn't have anything planned. I've been out into the lane just outside my back gate, taken photographs of leaves and cats and me. The kittens have played outside for a good part of the day, climbing everywhere, I had forgotten how agile a kitten can be, but also how easily they climb up but not so easily down again. I had to rescue Muffin from the frame my climbing rose uses, (shame I never took a photo before getting her down), but most things they seem to be able to find their own way up and down.
just some of the photos from outside my back gate

Nature's Calendar - Sun Rise

I never cease to marvel at the changing patterns in the sky and this time of the year it is so easy to watch the sun rise over the houses just down from my bungalow.

Nature's Calendar - Dahlia

I took this photo at 8am yesterday and didn't notice the droplets on each petal until I uploaded it onto the computer, how amazing is that (the droplets not my unobservance)