one leads to the other

Like I told last time I sought out my acrylics

to paint the canvas on which

Summer Solstice was mounted.

(it is in its new home on the wall now)

There still were some small canvases in my stash

and I gave them all a first layer of paint.

Today I started to play with them some more

Playing around with masking tape was the second step

I'm sure I will forget to take pictures

of each and every step

.....

I used some stencil I bought  (together with my Gelliplate)

but I'm making my own masks and stencils now out of thin foam.

For some reason I don't like to use the ones

everyone can buy in the store :

it has to be more "me"

*

And ohhhhhh yes, it is

MAY

The garden is mostly green on the ground

(with lots of forget-me-nots)

but the trees are the best at the moment.

Ginkgo and Malus in the late evening sun

I  LOVE  May !

a bit of everything

I'm still busy with my cuffs,

but because I had to mount one of my "Solstice" quiltlets

on a canvas (it's sold)

I took out my acrylic paints as well today.

(ahhhhhh ... that's been really a long time, but

that will get a follow-up now, I think)

Here are some of my special "Night" cuffs :

three Full Moons and one Starry Night.

Amazing :

the one on the left I made specially for Daughter !

(you can see the delicate thin wrist she has :

always looking for a bracelet .... but hard to find one that fits !)

(ha, one could throw a ball ...)

* 

Because it's school holiday here, the grandchildren 

are here on the days that Daughter is working.

The oldest is quite clever with her phone, Youtube and a crochet hook

(and Granny has some yarn)

This will be an amigurumi Little Bigfoot Bunny ...

and you can see she's skillful in doing her hair too !

*

Late this afternoon Daughter came in with a sad face 

she had been doing her laundry

and when she opened the machine

she saw to her horrer

her beautiful new felted hat lying on top of everything else

GRRRRRRRRRRR !!!

It must have slipped in with the clothes she put in the machine !

She came by so we could put it on the hat mold

PFFFFFFT

The hat was washed

but, thank heavens, it still fitted !

What a relief 

She must have done a pretty good job in the first place !!!

Earth day

Isn't that a bit ridiculous

one day only ?

I think we should be a bit more aware

of what this little blue marble in the vast universe

means to us.

We should be more careful what we do,

what we use up, change, spoil, pollute,

thinking we can go on without end

...

Earth is very good for us

and we are only part of this vast mechanism called life

part of it

!

An "Earth" cuff to celebrate this day

(in the making)

and a brooch

And here they are finished

;-)

colours .....

After I started with the few cuffs I made

out of the boxful of  fabric strips

it is almost as if I can't stop :

I have so many gorgeous fabrics in my (giant) stash !

It is so tempting to make new colour combinatons ...

It's like creating a new little story
over and over again.

The one on the right is finished,

the one on the left I finished late in the evening

because it fits só well to the yellow/green "Spring"sweater

that I wanted to wear to the Stitch'n Bitch yesterday.

Uhhhhm ..... I couldn't help it but had to make

a matching brooch too !

Today I finished of the ones that were only halfway done.

It took a lot of time

but I love them all to be neat when they're up for sale on the market !

Spring, Dusk, Seaglass and Dawn

The finished batch so far ...

(in front of my collection of children's picture books)

(I'm thinking about some earthy colours too to complete it ...)

I can  NEVER  resist taking a picture

when the Prunus (flowering cherry) is in bloom

...

SPRING  !

quiet ( 69 )

Today I celebrated a very quiet birthday.

No matter what I do next :

even when I stand on my head,

that will not change my age 

69 is 69

Well, sometimes you just don't want the fuss of a  b i g  party,

and this was a time like that.

Just Man, a few dear friends and some family

and LOTS of sunshine in the garden

made it in a beautiful day !

;-)

A rather early start with some presents

And the eggs a friend gave (yes, from her own chickens)

made a good lunch.

And of course there was ...

yummy cake !

*

In the past week I was busy making some good use 

of my box of fabric strips again

Mmmmmm 

vibrant reds and blues and turquoise for contrast

one cuff finished.

(Ohhhhh ... I have still so much more lovely fabrics !)

(to be continued)

Easter weekend (and 4 - 4 - 15)

Oh yes, 

spring is definately coming our way !

(though the weather isn't that nice yet)

The weekend started off

with a very lovely 

(loud, according to Man, when he came back)

group of creative women.

(yeah : "praten en breien tegelijk" = knitting while talking)

The group that used to come together at the Alpaca farm,

is this year "on tour" :

every first Saturday of the month at someone else's place.

(a few more to arrive)

A lot of show and tell

My own work (with Fiona's lovely yarn !) but I didn't

do a lot of the lacy-bit stitches this morning ...

*

On Sunday the whole family had an appointment with the Easter Bunny

and we were glad to have sunshine although

it wasn't really warm yet.

The fun started at th front door : chocolate eggs !

Looking for more eggs in the back garden.

It wasn't easy because the Easter Bunny had done a good job hiding them !

But, with  a little help (of my friends)

And then, when his big sister was making special cupcakes,

the little one was ready to assist !

Mmmmmmmmmmm !

(they were goooooood !)

Jewels

Pfffffft my cold is nearly over !

So after doing a lot of stitching together yesterday,

I only had to finish one big part today.

I couldn't resist

holding up one finished part to the light yesterday afternoon :

it truly looks like a stained-glass window

Mmmmmm just like the photo in Kaffe's book

(he only used a lot of reds instead of blues)

Here is that same part in the garden.

Mmmmm ...

all this lovely cloth on the floor is very tempting :

three big parts finished yesterday evening late.

And this morning

still more attention for the colourful bits on the floor.

*

This last photo I didn't want to post yestarday

because then some of you would have thought

it was just something for April fool day,

but it isn't !

This lovely trio is for real

and they are together for years and years now !!!

There is one woman and two males :

the goose being one of the male

When there are swan chicks

the goose has to stand back a bit

(but only a bit !)