A surprise postcard & a couple of strips of squares

It's been an age since I've posted & I've tried so many times to get to a new post but to do this you must first do that, to do that you must first do this & on & on! Story of my life  ; 0.

I got a lovely surprise in the post the other day. This gorgeous postcard arrived, out of the blue!

On the back of the envelope it says "Unsolicited post from Stephie Sounds" The name on the address label is Stephanie Norgaard. There's no blog address so if no one has got her blog address I will write .....a postcard!

On the back there's a great poem; you can see part of the poem on the front, too.

(I can't believe someone cast a shadow there!)

Poignant words indeed. I just want to say a really big thank you, I love it!

Two lots of squares today.

Bits & pieces from my bits box, firecracker paper surrounded by an envelope window - the boys were delighted to buy firecrackers in France! Bits of paint from my saucer pallet; I love soaking the old paint a little & peeling it off in sheets, then you need to decide which side to use! I've edged it in gold pen...of course. More bits from my box with a poor great tit's feather, ;( - I couldn't not keep it! Packaging residue & finally I changed  my scalpal blade & used that packaging.

This next row is just a start. I finally got an embellisher machine with my hard earned birthdaymoney!

 Oh my goodness it's such fun, I've just been making marks, as per the helpfull DVD that comes with it. I'd  seen someone make a ribbon flower, too. I am owed an hour's workshop...when I'm next 5 hours away in Edinbro, meanwhile I shall surf a bit for info & how to's. I'd been considering Maggie Grey's book on embellishing, does anybody have it? What else is helpful for a complete embellishing beginner? I'll be so glad not to be poking the single needle into, then out the other side of my finger, again! & it's so much more gentle on the hands...& elbows & shoulders ;) I shall certainly be investing in some more wool roving but I already have hundreds of bits & pieces of salvaged fabric that I can't wait to turn into new fabric. At least a lifetime's work, I think!

Squares & an overgrown bit of garden

Just a quick one  as I've got an extra shift at work today, the hight of the season & all that (I should have gone into food production!)

Some squares.

The parking ticket for the Highland games at the beginning of August - my eldest & my 'dil' came up specially from Edinbro to compete - he was 3rd in the 2 lap race, nearly exhausted himself but rallied for the long jump, joint 2nd & the hop skip & jump (same as the long jump really) 2nd. He came 3rd in the Scottish Universities Athletics last term, proud we were! So he earnt in prizes almost the cost of the car hire!

Next is from box of bits, a hydrangea squelched in gesso inspired by Julia, the gold wax didn't highlight as much as I'd hoped, packaging, the back of a needles packet, couldn't resist!, & coloring in inspired by a CPS demo of one of their DVD's.

This is a pic of our little terrace with a kind of one sided pergola/screen. When the stream is low there's a 10' drop so with the youngest being 4 when we moved into our home we had to make the terrace safe a priority. It also gives us privacy, tho there was a peep hole for the  stream - gone! It's the most exposed part of our garden so it's trial & error. I did the honeysuckle no favours (to the left of the Clematis Tanjutica) I must have forgotten it liked woodland conditions while planting it! But as you can see the clematis is very happy, about 5' deep in the middle! It has a white montana thru it for the spring so even tho I did cut a lot back early this year I need to forget about the spring flowers & not be a wimp about pruning next year. (The amount of 'compost' it made is amazing! ) There's the  new Vilchenblau rose with a new clematis on the left of the arch. My D sits with me very gingerly when we (& the midges) allow ourselves a coffee break as it is covered in bees. Love it!

Here's the Vilchenblau (sp?) rose just before I went away, as shown before.

I took this one towards the end of July, wonderful when all the tiny buds come out. They don't last long, just hanging on now. I guess Autumn isn't that far away after all, but, each day as it comes!

Bits of a summer garden in August

It seems that in hot arid parts of the Northern hemisphere summer is over, we're discussing seedheads & Autumn, already. Ok, so I collected some seeds today from my Aquelegia but I am not ready to accept Autumn yet! I guess it pays  to be in a moist part of the world after all, parts of my garden are still positively summery, so on this gorgeous, lightly breezy, therefore midge free, sunny day I took a few photos of my garden.

Clematis & Solanum, my birthday plants

Lots of feverfew from my old friend Jetta

I'll never tire of a foxglove still enjoyed by the bees

lacecap in my little woodland

wrong end of the country for a gravel garden, but still.

I missed out on annual sweet peas but still have the perennial ones

I need more Sweet William, it looks like a cluster of Pinks.

I had such fun making this for Billy's 18th ;) He'd just been fishing with a mate up the North end of the island & caught a huge Pollack which was delicious, as were the Mackerel. This looks nothing like either fish! I used, as you may have noticed, the same papers I'd made for my postcards. I 'borrowed' a 'fly' that Billy had in his collection of tied flies. He assured me it was a good one & will probably want it back. Also that you don't catch pollack with a fly - that's me told!

I've got 20 postcards towards my month of July, of course. Of that 20, 7 are 'missing' from my photos file so I'll have a browse around a few blogs to see if they were the ones posted about. If not, no matter!

I completely forgot on this bright day, to take a pic of my next strip of August squares. Too excited prancing around the garden in amongst the summer flowers!

A month of squares only 2 behind

I've finally compiled my squares for the month of June. I'm only 2 months behind, am I bothered? no, I'll get there eventually. Life's too short to stuff a mushroom. What I mean is, there's so much happening, just normal life, really, that my poor guddled brain can only take so much, so anything else trying to get in just can't ;) Simple. (It took me a couple of sleep disturbed nights to work that out, only a couple, honest!)

It's not the best photo in the world. After 2 beautiful sunny days here which I spent earning my living indoors, it was truly foul here today,  when I had the oportunity of getting some rays. Sod & his law, I guess. Meh. So, no light. I had a wonderful time tho, using up all the ink in the printer making little baby versions of 42 out of 50 of those postcards I sent around the world to celebrate my half century.  I look at them & can't believe they're my little pieces of work. I look at them all in one big month of squares & I'm delighted.

I might try & find the other 8, I know where one is & I've asked if i can 'lift' it off the blog post it's on. Can you do that? It must be possible otherwise why would people say not to use their images? Can anybody spare a minute to tell me how?

I've also made a strtip of 6 squares, after such a long time - this one's for you, Rini!

Again, excuse the lack of light, there's only so much you can do with auto balance to take away some of the flatness.

Bits & pieces from my box, coloring & stitching on a piece of metal ( tricky trying to avoid it looking like a face in a gasmask!) numbers & letters remains, more box bits, left from cardmaking. So this is the first strip from August. As I said I'll get to July. It took a while to make myself do 'today's' square instead of just trying to catch up with squares gone by. I seem to need order in my life, can't imagine why!

I've made a few cards, they do well in the studio.

I look forward to using some of this booty I got at the French brocante last month. I'm so envious when fellow bloggers get to go regularly to markets & finally after a while, I got my chance :)

Some lovely lace, books, bits of paper a baby grappling hook (?) & 2 hooks 'crochet' in French, rather apt but I might use them in my greenhouse.

I had fun making a birthday card for my middlest who was 18 yesterday - he had a good night out anyway! - if there's any light tomorrow, I'll take a pic.

'night.

Last holiday pics & a cuff for my 'dil'

I know, I know, they do go on a bit! The last day of our week was spent in a constant downpour at Villandry, where our host kindly took us. My only worry was that my skirt would get so wet it would ruin the bandage on my stitches (wound healing nicely)

These eager Koy carp greeted us as we crossed the bridge

Such symmetry!

Amazing Perovskia Blue - they even use it on roundabouts.

wonderful patterns & vines

Oh so wet but happy

Lovely tapestries

And finally, more synchronised diving from the boys ;)

I made a cuff for my 'dil' for her birthday last week.

 

It has two sides!

I think she likes it! ;)