Silhouettes of a beautiful evening

 I couldn't resist re photographing the sculptures at sunset.
Meet Lady of the Lake and Sir Knight, they stand guard at the pedestrian crossing from the beach to the surf club. Everybody stops to check out what the regals are doing.

I love the light through the shrubs

Today i....Op Shopped till I dropped

Schools back and that means some unrestricted me time...

Today was enrolment day for the craft group I attend. I will be joining my good friends in patchwork again and can't wait to get started next week.We start our day with coffee/ breakfast down the road at the EDGE Cafe...a funky 70's style coffee shop that has the most amazing salads on display and make a really good vego breakfast.

I knew I would be hanging around for a while at the sign up as my friend kirstie is one of the group leaders/ coordinators this year and we were going op shopping together afterwards. So I brought along some crochet to do and decided to  use the wool that has been naturally dyed..it was actually the wool wrapped around my bundle that I showed you the other day. So my cream wool has become a lovely variegated pinky-brown

Op shopping was great fun as I haven't been able to do a lot of it when working full time.
I fell inlove with this print in one of the first shops we stopped at and only $6.50..bargain
I dont particularly like the mountboard surround its in , it is actually a pale green silk and is set awkwardly in a teak wooden frame. I think I can live with the frame and a plain mount board would be to my taste...but the print is divine.

 Another little treasure found is this cute egg cup. I have a few now and will happily dig them out for you in the near future.

For my sister I bought yet some more white/milk ware. I bought her a piece yesterday as well, so she is doing really well this week!

And for the sewer in me I couldn't resist this pattern

I also bought a bag of bright green crochet cottons, about five golden books and a few other older picture books
A total of 10 shops visited, not a bad effort. So happy to have done that mad dash of shops. Lucky a few of them are grouped together on the same roads.

Geranium leaf Stamp

I quite like the look of Geraniums and always think of those lovely sunny pots set out on the stairs - big red floral displays splashed against the white washed buildings in Greece with a brilliant blue ocean in the background. Sadly I can't stand the smell of the plant so refuse to keep them. They are a nice hardy plant in the blazing sun though and this would make them appealing to plant.

My neighbour has a pink geranium growing and it hangs over the fence. Sometimes when I walk out to hang the washing on the line I look up into the leaves with the sun shining through and am fascinated with the patterning of the veins in the leaves

This week I have tried some eco dying. I utilised old eucalyptus leaves and rosemary and only obtained a slight leaf imprinted ( I really should be more patient and leave my bundles much longer), So I decided to over print my naturally dyed material with my newly carved stamp

 

 I've mixed yellow red and a hint of blue to obtain a sour yellow colour - very subtle. I mixed only small amount as I am running out of yellow fabric ink and didn't quite make the full length of my material

Hence a bit of blue mixed into the left over colour on the stamping pad to make a bluey - green

And a little of the end of the day ( a stinking hot day)  spent on the balcony of the local looking over Seacliff beach (about 9pm)

PUZZLE BLOCKS

Story Blocks part 2 : Puzzle Blocks

Following the creation of the story blocks utilizing Golden books, I thought that I might be able to incorporate the whole picture to capture the essence of the story and also create a puzzle.

Some of the Golden Books lend themselves well to a whole picture puzzle - You just need six different pages in a story to get a four block picture puzzle and then carefully decided where the best point to cross cut is to get a complete picture 

Cinderella

The Little Mermaid

Snow White
My favouriteis the old hag with the apple - I suppose that speaks volumes!

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!

Some of the things that make Australia a fantastic place to live

A place of wonder and beauty

Rich in joy 

Fun places to visit and enjoy

Great People and great tastes

I Love Australia!

Story Blocks - A Golden Book Block Buster!

Last year I specifically bought Golden Books to make gift tags, VIEW HERE. I bought the books that looked dilapidated but  still had nice pictures in them. ( I bought a lot of books to keep because I dont have the heart to cut them up as well.)

Some time ago I got my dad to cut me up some wooden blocks. My original intention was to make up sets of blocks with the seasons on it. That didn't work out and my efforts looked really trashy. So in the back shed the blocks sat until I saw someone else had made up block with Beatrix Potters Book pages on them. Mmm ..that got me thinking about all those little golden books sitting in my cupboard.

So here are my collection of story blocks. If I can find a second copy of the books I am going to make up little gift sets for young children. Stacking blocks to play with and follow the story


GARFIELD

ANIMAL BLOCKS FROM THE LION'S PAW

THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE ANTS

SESAME STREET : I THINK THAT'S WONDERFUL

SLEEPING BEAUTY

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS