August Favourites

How did it get to be September already? I had trouble finding a photo to use - last September was not very fruitful on that front - but I did find one of some little mushrooms on the front lawn.

And plenty of cards, as the Dare To Get Dirty challenge running over on SCS gave plenty of inspiration. I made a DIY gel plate from gelatine and glycerin as a couple of the challenges called for using one. While I didn't make a card for either of those challenges, I certainly had fun creating backgrounds for my own use and they feature on the panda card and the enamelled leaves.

Memories: we had a large fuchsia bush similar to this in the shrubbery in our garden, and we loved making the flowers into little ballerinas by threading a stem through the calyx to make arms. A neighbour down the road had a greenhouse and he grew many fancy frilled varieties, even more ballerina-like with their pale creams and pinks and multiple layers. But most of all they remind me of summer holidays - all along the west coast of Ireland from north to south, the hedges along smaller roads are filled with fuchsias and I have vivid memories of walking down to the beach along lanes overhung with them on our earliest childhood holidays up in Donegal.