A Little Bit Happy...........

Hi all. Today I'm really happy. Firstly, my niece has had her first baby, a boy...........welcome little Max. Now, I am not a card maker: there never seems to be enough room or space for me on a card..........I like a bigger stage, but, I have attempted a boy card for this beautiful and very happy occasion.

Secondly, the challenge blog, Our Vintage Affair loved my little "whimsical" egg creation and awarded me a prize for it. I was thrilled, and thank you very much. Also the very fun challenge blog, 123, liked my April entry: thanks girls and thanks also to Purple Pumpkin for sponsoring.

So that's why I am a little bit happy today. As artists, sometimes I'm sure we all have doubts, and question "is what we produce worthy ?...........is it even good ?.............and is it "good enough" to be "out there" where it will be publicly judged and scrutinised. So, every now and then it's nice to get that positive affirmation from other creative souls that say,"yes", your work is worthy and does have creative value.

Tea On Tuesday.........Yellow Quinces

According to Google, the quince was sacred to Aphrodite and Venus, the goddesses of love, and a symbol of love, happiness and fertility in Greek and Roman times. I just love every thing about them ! Their buttery yellow colour, their soft, furry film when first picked, their beautiful organic shape, but most of all their delicious aroma. 4 or 5 quinces left in the fruit bowl give off the most delicate perfume,  that for me, remind me of my childhood, of crisp autumn days and cosy warm kitchens.

Quinces are really hard and require long, gentle cooking. Their flesh is white, but after 2 hours of slow, poaching in the oven, they turn this gorgeous deep, ruby orange colour....where does this amazing colour come from ? !

My clever friend Gill made quince jelly this year and we did a swap:-- a jar of her quince jelly for a jar of my apricot jam. The jelly is the most beautifully coloured preserve and I love how the light shines through it.

We were given some quinces last week and so for tea today ( and desert tonight ) I have made a quince and chocolate tart. The recipe belongs to Maggie Beer, a much loved cook and food celebrity from South Australia's Barossa Valley. It's a little tricky to make, I don't think mine is quite cooked in the middle, ( notice I have put the cream where the gooiest bit is ) but definitely worth the effort. The tea is simple........English Breakfast. 

Thanks for visiting me today, and for more Tuesday tea parties visit here.

Matters of the Heart............

Heart:-    the seat of emotions and affections, feelings and sensibility. ( often in contrast to the head as the seat of the intellect )

After having so much fun with my "whimsical" egg , I have been playing again, with...........polystyrene hearts, paper serviettes, modge-podge, paint, ink, glimmermist, chipboard,embossing powders, Tim Holtz baubles and metal and pinkpaislee ephemera. This first heart is for a challenge at Sarah Hurley, where the theme is butterflies and things with wings.

 This second heart is for all the "Royalness" that has been going on this past weekend with "THE" Grand wedding in London.

Lets Get Shabby...New Challenge #23

The challenge this month at Lets Get Shabby is to create a page using the colours aqua and pink AND include some spots as well. Why these colours ?............because they are the site colours of this months generous sponsor Scrap Therapy. Please hop on over to the Lets Get Shabby blog for inspiration from the other DT girls and all the details you need to play along.

We would love you to join in at Lets Get Shabby this month using these gorgeous colours.

A Whimsical Egg.............

Whimsical:-    of an odd, quaint or fanciful notion.

I played with:-    a "cotton" egg,  7gypsies paper,  pinkpaislee ephemera,  prima flowers, gesso, modge-podge, paint, and Glimmermist.

I thought I would add my "egg" to the challenge at Our Vintage Affair, where you had to create an Easter decoration

Wishing every one a fun, safe and happy Easter.

Tea On Tuesday..........Green Apples

So much green lately ! Two recent projects were all about olive green and lime green and today I'm talking about apple green ! We have this old Granny Smith apple tree in our front yard, and this year with all the beautiful winter rain it has been loaded with big, green, juicy, " sour " apples. It does have the whitest,crispest flesh tho, and once picked lasts for ages and is fantastic for cooking with. This variety of apple was planted just by chance as a single seedling in 1860 by Maria Ann Smith in New South Wales. It is very common and popular in Australia, but most foreigners are wary of it, having serious doubts about eating a "not ripe" green apple.

So for tea today I have made a rum, raisin,walnut,apple cake..........dense, moist and delicious; and what am I drinking with it.........green tea of course, with Jasmine petals.

The other thing I wanted to share today was my warm glow of gratitude and appreciation

 I experienced yesterday. Don't you love it when someone surprises you with something special and thoughtful, some little unexpected thing. I purchased a small bundle of beautiful hand-dyed seam binding from an on line store called Tattered Inspirations, and it arrived in the post in the usual bubble envelope.......but !..........it was what was inside that was special. It was a brown paper package tied up with string, decorated beautifully with a doily, gorgeous vintage tags, pretty fabric flowers and soft pink seam binding................thank you so much Carol. xx 

So todays post has been a bit reminiscent of that Sound of Music song "My Favourite Things".........."brown paper packages tied up with string", and "crisp apple strudel"......only I had "moist apple cake".lol. Have a great day and if you would like to join us for Tea on Tuesday visit Art in Red Wagons.  

April 123 challenge

My page for this months 123 Challenge, it's always fun.

                                         Colour = Lime Green

                                          Word = Really

                                          Technique / Product = Fabric

I used some hand - dyed fabric in the banner and the flowers.

Once Upon A Sketch....challenge #1

I tried to follow the sketch, I have used it vertically instead of horizontally, and the other part of the challenge was that the journalling had to be hand written.

This was a great challenge for me..........I rarely if ever journal on my pages, not sure why,maybe because I  am so involved with the art/design process, and I know the story so well in my head, I don't feel anything needs to be written: but of course it does, it's so important for the future. "Expression" can take on many forms, and when you have images as well as words, the story is much more complete. Enough of my psycho-analysing guff........This is quite a simple page for me. I have used minimal elements,and minimal colour : I loved this photo, deliberately washed out, the pastel colours and the black. Once Upon A Sketch is a new challenge site; its simple, has a great DT, its different and it has made me think more about what makes up a "meaningful" scrapbook page, so thanks girls.

WW1 April Challenge

                                                  White + Olive Green + Twine.

Oh my goodness: I have only just posted my March WW1 challenge ( it was pretty late tho)  and here I am posting Aprils ! I love these challenges, and especially this one. I wouldn't say olive green is the "prettiest" of colours, but I do like its subtle earthiness, especially combined with twine; what a great idea. I had no white cardstock when I started this LO, (the down-side of living in a rural community, not a lot of scrapbooking suppliers nearby) but I was so keen to get started. Anyway I hope I have enough "white bits" on my page for it to be "legal."