attempt no 1

All the gear...



...and no idea!



But I'm actually reasonably pleased with my very first attempt at 'proper' card making.

I have made cards for a long time now but mine have always been, well, a little unorthodox! I suppose there really isn't a wrong or right way but mine have usually been created on the computer.  I tend to favour a more contemporary clean cut style usually, the more white the better in my book.  They've always been nice, I think, and seem to have been received with pleasure.

My alter ego however, tends towards a pared back French Provincial influence. And in spite of my best efforts, with the assistance of my trusty laptop, I always knew that there was another way to make cards.  The 'proper way'. But I've had absolutely no clue as to how to go about it. That was until one of my most favourite bloggers recently offered me, and her other readers, some indispensable advice - the essentials of card making.  Carly utilises a wide range of techniques and tools in her  magnificent and drool-worthy studio .  She has a great talent, an eye for detail and a clean and simple style that I love. 
Her cards are really very lovely.

So as a result of Carly's fab video I had a little shop yesterday, and then a play with my new toys while Woo napped.

I'm not really sure what the pros do with their cards.  Perhaps they're never sent and are kept as works of art.  However, I figured that any of my attempts, particularly if they're nice, should be sent out.  This card went to my darling sister Flossy, who is the most extraordinary friend and inspiration to me.

I hope you have a super weekend and that you have some happy mail in your postbox!

Thanks for visiting,

E x

winter bright

Winter is typically a little bleak in the garden. So we decided to bring a little colour to our porch.  And although it's been pretty cold lately, albeit mostly sunny during the day, these pretties are happiest like this.  

 I also found the macro setting on my point-and-shoot camera!!So in between laying new bluestone pavers I sat on my bottom steps and snapped away.

Tigs and Woo chose a plant each at the market last weekend.  They'd be the yellow polyanthus, which is ok,  and the purple pansy, which is just about tolerable but the two look awful together.   

   I won't lie, I struggle with it and these two stand out glaringly in my otherwise tranquil plantings. But I'm learning, as a mother, to relinquish control of the small things.  Well some of the small things.  Who knows I could even grow to like them!

And then there's this beauty.  It, and it's friends, look this beautiful at anytime of the year.

After a very chilly start to the day it's now beautiful.  The sun is blasting through the window and warming me to the core.

I hope that the sun is shining on you, wherever you may be!

E x

If you click on the images they should enlarge.

twenty

Saturday was one of those perfect days.  The sort where the sky is vast and glorious and the sun is warm, but the air crisp.  The sort that feels so magical.  I don't know why, but when I'm alone on those kind of days I feel like crying.  Somehow I feel uplifted, but so small in the universe that I weep. Fortunately this Saturday I had the company of my family to enable me to fully enjoy the glory of the day.  As you can see it was a day not to be wasted.  Just look at the sky and our beautiful city skyline in the distance.

We headed to the beach for breakfast and a play on the wooden boat park, kicking swimming lessons to the curb.  I wanted to relish the day together and not be bogged down with the schedule.  Tigs had been unwell for much of the week and had even missed a few days of school, so I was not too fussed about him swimming.

As you can see he was flat out enjoying the winter rays too.  In fact he was 'dead' on the ground.  His games lately, are so wildly imaginative.

Tigs climbed ...

...and Woo followed.  She's taken to parroting him, including every stance , hand gesture, inflection.  It's very funny.  She managed to have plenty of fun in spite of the fact that she is now falling prey to Tiggy's lurgy.

What a day.

This Saturday also marked twenty (yes twenty) years since my love and I first met.

 We haven't had the chance to hang out together much lately.

It was a lovely way to celebrate, simply and together as a family. 

ruby ela

At last ...

... a new baby girl cousin has joined the family.

Woo is delighted and wants to "pat da baby" and Tigs lamented, "Not another cousin!".

Welcome to the world baby Ruby, you're a precious gem and we love you.

luscious

Subtle, no?
Mother was not amused ...
She's wicked, unstoppable and unrepentant!

remembering

A flash of gold in an otherwise painfully grey day.

Too hard to believe that my precious Daddy died seven years ago today. I can't imagine when the ache of it will fade. One minute fine and the next a fleeting memory feels like a thump to the tummy.
Ugh. It feels like yesterday.
In a moment I am back there, laying next to him, waiting ...

He died on the most perfect, for him, day. The brilliant sun rose early in the endless Sussex sky, a small donkey roamed in the field outside the window, the birds chirped, hopefully. The crisp of the morning was pushed aside by the warmth of a glorious early English summer day. Later I lay out, face down, in the grass letting it warm me too. I remember feeling grey, looking grey. I have never experienced such pain, such anguish and oddly such relief that his valiant battle was over
- he didn't have the chance to share that day with us. But he would have loved it.

Daddy spent his career chasing the sun. He needed the warmth on his back and was miserable without it. Today I sat under the wide Australian sky, feeling the warmth on my back, my babies playing close by, full of life and energy and vitality, invigorated by the crisp air and sunshine, and I felt him close.

He died at the very end of spring. When the bluebells had been and gone. He managed one last walk in them. Daddy loved colourful flowers.
He didn't understand my love of the White Garden at Sissinghurst at all! So, today I searched for colour. Grey-green, greeny-grey, grey-grey was all that I could see,
 until a little ray of sunshine arrived in my gloomy day.

He would have guffawed, and said, "It's a bloody weed!"

Thanks for popping by today and indulging me in my memory of the most extraordinary man - to me.

I hope that you have been lucky enough to have someone like him in your life.

E x

relaxing

Relaxing.
In autumn.

Something's a little off here, though.
Why's her hair stuck to her forehead?
Is that a water droplet on her cheek?

Oh, now that makes complete sense! Doesn't it? No?


Autumn it may be and cold too but, she wanted to play in her water centre.
So the good Mummy that I am, filled it with 'bath' temperature water. Only I didn't mean take a bath!

Woo you are so funny!

I should add that these photos were taken about 4 weeks ago - I know, bad blogger - so it wasn't quite as cold as it is now but it was chilly, nonetheless!

She lay there for quite some time just being. Being happy. Being peaceful. Being calm. Being spontaneous. Being present. Being Woo.

And it made me think that we should all be a little more childlike from time to time. Just let our hair down, dance in the rain, throw caution to the wind, wear odd socks, eat breakfast for dinner. Who cares if it's cold out, she didn't catch a cold. Who cares if it's inappropriate? Well some people might but hey-ho.

Woo is Woo and we love her to bits and applaud her quirkiness.

May your weekend give you the chance to embrace your inner child and be a little left-of-centre, or even a lot if you wish.
And please let me know what you did!

Thanks for popping by,
E x