Dreamcatcher Page

As predicted the weather has turned a lot colder today and the first snow showers are already showing up. There is more snow to come and it's another day where staying in after that first dog walk seems the best option. That explains why I'm getting so much done at the moment. My trip yesterday to the dentist in Penicuik was the furthest I've been away from home since just before Christmas (and that was another dental visit!). So not only are my quilts progressing nicely but there is also plenty of time to fit in my classes such as Life Book 2015. This project is part of that and I had a lovely time playing yesterday. As I've mentioned before there will be no description here about how the pieces are made as that would contravene copyright for the class. There is still time to sign up if you are interested. Here is the link.

Dreamcatchers are a concept coming from North American Native Indian mythology and are usually three dimensional creations but in this class Rachael Rice shows us a way to make one that fits the page. I stuck pretty closely to the instructions although I choose different colours and my piece of lace at the top was substantially larger than in the lesson sample. It was the only piece of circular lace I found in my lace box. And I have to say I like the larger size.

The words I choose to put on my feathery pieces hanging down from the lace are also personal to me and I have probably gone a bit overboard with the sparkly stuff (as is my wont!). You can't catch that on the pictures but all those tiny dots you can see are sparkles.

 The glitters continue both underneath and on top of the lace.

One of the words I use was my word for 2015: Courage.

All the Pinks

Amitié Page

A new week brings a new challenge on The Documented Life 2015 (DLP15) site. It's still January so the theme is still about facing the blank page. The art challenge is: Writing and the Journal Prompt: Words with Friends. 

It's never difficult for me to use words (and the writing is hidden under the photograph)  but I had to think a bit about the friends part of it. Eventually I rummaged through my stash of gelli plate printed papers and retrieved one that I made while Lenna was here back in September when we spend a morning playing in my painting shed. Keeping that in mind I did some more searching and found the photo album Lenna had send me after she returned to Florida with photographs she had taken while here and found one of me taking photographs when we visited Dawyck Botanical Gardens on the first day Lenna was here.

All this came together but it needed a bit more so I used rubber stamps (from Dylusions) to add the swirls in the background. They were coloured in with my new Tomboy Brush Pens and I also outlined things with white and black markers. For the writing (words) I added the definition of the word friendship in French (amitié) from a vintage dictionary and glued that on too. More words came from a washi tape featuring vintage text, which I brushed with red). I will also use the same washi tape to add this page to the planner I'm using this year: Michel Designs Country Diary 2015. That planner also dictates the size of my pages this year. They are 7.1/4 x 8".

O my luve is like a red, red rose

 

In honour of Robert Burns who was born on the 25th January 1759.

 

Posted with Blogsy

A doggy sweater

These pictures were taken at lunch time when we let the dogs out in our courtyard as I wanted to blip the lovely sweater Troi is wearing. We are all still recovering though, from first thing this morning when we did the same thing and poor Troi slipped on the ice which was hidden under the fluttering of snow. She fell heavily and couldn't get enough grip with her long legs to get back up again and I think she also stunned herself. I  literally felt like my heart had come to a stand still when we saw her lying there. We rushed outside and lifted her up. And oh the relief when we discovered nothing was broken or even scraped. And after a few minutes and many kisses, hugs and cuddles she slowly got back to her usual self. 

She recovered her equilibrium a lot faster than I did, and I have spend the morning checking she was okay every few minutes! But all is well and she cheerfully went out again just now and posed obligingly for a picture. She has on her new Greyt Sweater, specially designed for greyhounds and available here.It can be worn inside on cold nights and outside too either by itself or underneath her outside coat. She is an old lady and greyhounds do suffer from the cold a lot. Doesn't she look pretty?!

No need for a coat as far as her brother is concerned. He is equipped with a furry red one all his own with which he was born. He too was quite upset about the events this morning. But as you can see those two are back to normal. It will take us a bit longer!

Up in the Air

This will be the last glimpse you are getting of my Up in the Air piece made for the fundraiser organized by Virginia Spiegel for the American Cancer Society. You can read all about it here. It's now little more than a week away and will happen on Wednesday 4th February at 10 am Central US time which I make to be 4pm here in the UK.

By being one of the first 100 people donating $100 to the American Cancer Society via Fiberart for a Cause you will a piece of art from one of the 100 artists who have donated their work. All the information regarding how to donate is on Virginia's website.  This includes the postage to wherever you happen to be in the world, also donated by the artists involved. The allocation of which piece you will receive is done by a random number generator so it will be a surprise. I love that part of it.

I will reveal my entire piece on the morning of the 4th February and will wait with baited breath to see where it's new home is going to be. And yes, I will also participate by trying to obtain someone else's work. The art made for this project is just fabulous and whichever piece you receive after your donation I can guarantee you'll love it! All the artists have put their heart and soul into their art for this very deserving project.

Cold Beauty

I could see during the dog walk that it was going to be another glorious sunrise, so after dropping Rueben back home I grabbed my camera and walked along the lane to a place where I could avoid those pesky power lines to capture some pictures.

These are shown in the order in which they were taken. The sun kept popping out from the clouds occasionally. When it did the whole sky became lighter and almost opalescent and when it vanished it was immediately darker.

 The pastels in the sky were so delicate and lovely.

As you can see we still have plenty of snow and it had also been freezing again overnight but the beautiful start of the day was followed by cold sunshine and a crispy look to everything.