11.00am

Now the sky is a lovely blue!

Sunrise, 5.20am

A brilliant sunrise today - photo does not do it justice.
I hope the rest of the day is good too.

Inchies Bookmarks

I made my first 'Inchies' yesterday with needlefelt backgrounds and simple embellishment - as there's not a lot of space on an inchie!
I copied the design of the bookmarks from one sent to me by Ati, Norway a stort time ago.
Then I had another play and made another amazing circle in Dumpr.

Vellum Tags

It's really Wednesday 25th.
I wish I could discover how to show GMT here!
I'm forever 'sorting' through things and this morning I came across a box of vellum tags I'd completely forgotten about.
I looked on an old disc and found these pics of cards traded some months ago - maybe they'll inspire me to do more.

What a lovely surprise arrived today! Thank you so much Maurenn (MoCross)for such a special ATC with a picture of my mum, - I'll carry it in my handbag so that I'll see it lots!
I was feeling "blue" this morning as my dear friend and neighbour of 47 years just told me that they will be moving soon. Not too far away but I'll miss Joan not being just a few houses away - we have shared so much of our lives since we first lived close.
This ATC arriving reminded me of how close new friends are - just a few clicks away! Now I feel much brighter.

Belle Epoque

This gorgeous rose was a present for our Golden Wedding last year. It has dramatic colour contrasts in the petals. In bud the outside is a dark brownish red, which becomes lighter as it opens. Inside the petals are rich yellow, tinged pink - again becoming lighter as it comes into full bloom.

It's wet and grey today so I decided to look in the bits box again and make a few ATCs. Well, I've managed two so far, from punchies pictures that were looking uninteresting. I've added stitching, braid and buttons. So now still not very interesting but they have more things on!
You can't win them all - I won't be upset if no one wants to trade, I enjoyed sewing on card for a change anyway.

Happy Memories

Happy memories twinged with sadness
to day as I remember my dear 'mom'.
She was born on 20th June 1904 and lived to be 91.
She left school at 14 as she was the eldest of three girls. She was Cathie, the others, Edie and Alice. Their father died in the 'flu epidemic of 1918 so she had to go out to work, as did their mother, to make ends meet.
She married Arthur and they had my sister Beryl and me. Sadly dad died of cancer at 61 and mom lived on her own for over 30 years.
She was a much loved and loving inspiration to all our family,
very knowledgeable, despite leaving school so young.
I owe much to her, not least my love of gardens, flowers, art, crafting and reading - a wonderful legacy I will always appreciate!

A lovely gift.

My "learn something new everyday" resolution turned out great today.
My cousin Megan called and I admired the dress ring she was wearing. She said it's Tanzanite gem stones set in gold ..... and would I like it as it's not one of her favourites.
After a few feeble arguments on my side she insisted that I should have it!
I haven't had a new ring for ages and I'm delighted.
And I've looked up tanzanite - it comes only from Tanzania, a semi precious gemstone in shades of blue to lavender.
What a lovely day this has turned into!

...... and tonight I managed to upload a clock - something I tried to do several times before without success ...... ooh, I've learnt a lot today, no wonder I'm tired!

Mosaic of Pink Flowers

1. Pink Petunia, 2. Snails on Convolvulus, 3. On a hot day., 4. Geranium and Euonymous, 5. Belle Epoque, full blown., 6. Frilly Rose, 7. Rambler Roses, 8. Snail and Bizzie Lizzie, 9. Rock Rose

A few of my photos, mosaic made in Flickr Toys.
Bright flowers for a dull day.

All the roses are lovely today!

Some Favourites

Some favourite photos from friends in Flickr.
Selected at random by Flickr toys.
1. Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, 2. Purple World(My 97th Explore), 3. La frutta, 4. ranuncolo bagnino, 5. Sciopero - Strike, 6. Black Eyed Susan Vine, 7. First Orange of Spring Ring, 8. Dogwood Card, 9. Macro Flower, 10. Oriental Blue, 11. Red Poppies 2, 12. ACEO- watercolor on paper, 13. Red River Bank, 14. Snail Detail, 15. sunflowers on felt no. 2, 16. Daisies on purple felt background, 17. experiments, 18. 16 BLUE INCHIES, 19. ATC Primeln, 20. b, 21. eglantine, 22. Handmade Brown and Navy Blue Cross-stitched Fabric Tote Bag, 23. Flowers On the Fence, 24. Handspun weaving - Tissage de fil filé au rouet

Half Iron Man

Just thinking this morning of our son Neil. This pic is last year, from the website, - it's come round again and he's probably just finished the swim and is off on the cycle ride now.
It takes all sorts!

Nigella "Love-in-a-Mist"

John has made up a flat pack chest of drawers for me so I should be tidying and re-organising my craft things but I had to take photos of "Love-in-a-Mist"and this gorgeous rose which will probably be faded tomorrow. The Pieris bracts have already changed from pink to green.

Gift Tags

Our monthly craft group will be here soon - and I need a gift tag for a belated birthday present for one of my friends - so I found these out. They're drawn with watercolour pencils or technical pens.
Edgings are with Crystal or Kryla Gold Pens.
I haven't made any new ones for ages, maybe I'll do a few this afternoon as it's a 'Do your own thing' meeting today.

I just discovered, by chance, that this ATC is No 49 in Flickr Explore on 30th May.
Well ... 500 pictures are chosen each day, but there are thousands submitted so I'm pleased to have one there.
Little things please me at my age! Connie.

Stitched on Paper.

My breathing isn't good in this hot weather so I have to wait longer before I can start fusing fabrics with my new soldering iron.
Also today I have been so lethargic - I looked in a box of bits and pieces I've made at other times and decided to use these stitched on paper parts for ATCs.
The papers have images scanned from fibres and are matted onto orange canvas (brighter orange than it appears)and pink fabric.
It's so hot that the parts are not sticking together well - I'll have to use some other method to get them in place when it's cooler.

Favourite Book .....

My favourite book is usually the one that I bought most recently.
Fusing Fabric, by Margaret Beal, came today and I've only flicked through it so far.
I had a soldering iron as a birthday present a few weeks ago and have been impatient to use it, but needed this book as I didn't know what to do with it!
It all looks exciting despite the warnings of fumes - oh dear, I already get breathing problems with heat embossing so I'll have to find the mask out.
The things we do for our hobbies!

A lovely June afternoon.

Gwen, Angy, Brenda, Helen, and me.
It's really lucky that us five docrafters live close enough to spend an afternoon together.
As docrafters do we talked incessantly, laughed a lot, had a cuppa and a cake and didn't craft!
It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

Eggs...traordinary!

Some images from needlefelting and embroidery....

....... and some from flower drawings
It's about time I did something with these images from dumpr instead of just playing with them so I'll print them on fabric and make a set of ATCs.

I'm still playing with Amazing Circles from dumpr.net I love to see the transformation of the photo - this is from the Purple Flowers ATC below. I can't think what to do with them, but they amuse me at the time!

I love the ideas in my new book 'The Art of Embroidered Flowers' by Gilda Baron and made this ATC from one of the colour schemes I saw there. Apologies to Gilda Baron for a very clumsy representation of the flowers she does so beautifully. I enjoyed making them though.
The new flickr group My flowers on ATCs is in its fourth day and coming on nicely. There are 44 members so far and many lovely ATCs to see. Lots of space for more members with enthusiasm for
flowers - please join us.

New group on Flickr

This is the logo of a group I recently started on Flickr.
It's called 'My flowers on ATCs' - any personal flower art that's on an ATC.
I'd love anyone who has a Flickr site and does flowers on ATCs to join. It's lovely to see lots of this art in one place.