view from my window

These were taken on the drive to and from church this morning.

I've been busy

These are my first inchies ever, done for a swap with the Christian Paper Artists yahoo group. I must say, they truly are addictive. I've managed to stay away from them for this long, but I think the avoidance is over now. Must. make. more. inchies!

The blue ones are done with my favourite gesso/newsprint background technique. The snowflakes are embossed. The holly leaves are drawn with my new (very cool) watercolour ink pencils and crusted with diamond dust. That stuff is cool too - so sparkly!


And here is one of 6 (so far) altoid tins I'm working on. I bought a kit from Ten Two Studios... Lisa has some lovely images for sale! (no affiliation, yadda yadda...) I just need to find somewhere to get more tins, preferably in Canada. Any suggestions?

Christmas

Christmas ornaments for a swap...
marbles for presents...
I love playing with paper!

typical, hey?

You pat yourself on the back because you've just done something you feel pretty good about, and BAM!, the universe sits up and takes notice and says "Hey, that one needs to be slapped down a bit!"

So yeah. I'm all "Woohoo, six months of blogging!" and then my life takes a small detour down a big hole. Nothing serious, just a small crisis of identity that left me questioning everything. And being who I am, I needed to retreat in order to figure it out. I don't know how to do my questioning in public. Some do. I actually really enjoy watching the process unfold in other people, and I really appreciate the vulnerability that they offer. I just can't do it myself.

But I'm back. Mostly. I still haven't figured it all out. And yeah, I know I never will. But I can hope, can't I?

the end. lucky me.

Summer is over.


Not that it ever was really here... I think we had a week of hot weather. Not enough to ripen even one tomato on my poor little plants. They grew well, though. And had lots of flowers. I guess it was a bad summer even for the insects.






I was the fortunate recipient of a batch of gocco notecards from Sarah at cloth.paper.string. Aren't they lovely? They're made from a sunprint of dill flowers, and I want to frame them and keep them forever!

Protocol?

What's the correct way to respond to comments?

Most of the time, I send emails to the commenter, since blogger lets me know their email address. Only sometimes people comment anonymously so I can't do that, and then I feel bad.

Should I respond in the comment section?

Ack. I hate not knowing what to do!

(But I'm really enjoying playing with my photos on picnik!)

Brewing

Two batches of mead, brewing on my kitchen desk. One is made of blackberry blossom honey, and the other is pumpkin blossom honey with cinnamon.

Have you ever had mead? It's like summer in a glass. Like sitting in the sunshine on a not-too-hot-but-just-hot-enough day, with no worries, just listening to the bees humming in the flowers.

But potent? Oh my sainted aunt, is it ever! You read about the Vikings quaffing it by the tankard full - if that's the case, then I have a very high respect for their ability to hold their liquor. It doesn't take much to help you drift off into a very sound, relaxing sleep.