March Favourites

March was a month with not a lot of creativity due to work  being very busy - but I really liked a lot of what I did make. So here they are. Lorraine, you gave me the forsythia die. It's one that really needs to be hand-delivered or go in a parcel, but I always enjoy pulling it out and using it.

And with C working from home, I made jam doughnuts for morning coffee on one of my days off last week, since I had just put fresh oil in the deep fat fryer.  I am ashamed to say we ate six of them with our coffee. I was tempted to try them with marmalade, having just made the nicest marmalade I've produced in several years the day before, but I stuck with raspberry jam.

Along the canal

We took a walk this morning down to the chemist to stock up on basics, and came back along the canal. It was much more sheltered walking back, but unfortunately just as I was trying to take photos of the buds in trees the wind picked up even there, and they are blurred. No such problems with one of the houseboats tied up along the bank. It was the painted bit on the roof that caught my eye - I thought maybe it was a chimney and even as we walked I wondered how the decorative paint could withstand the heat; looking at the photo I see it's not a chimney at all. Recently when I was in the off-licence I got chatting to the guy serving me - he was telling me that he and his partner lived in a houseboat moored at the next lock upstream from our one. Like me, he was a reader, but with very limited space he had transferred a large part of his library to Kindle.

I really enjoyed the felted penguins I made at Christmas (thanks, Di), so when ALDI had some kits on offer a couple of months ago, C and I drove over to the nearest store and I bought most of them.  I think I passed on the flamingos, the legs were very peculiar looking. The kits are harder than the penguins in that there's no polystyrene form to base them round, they're entirely felt. And the instructions are minimalist, to say the least. I had started the koala at the time, and got no further than the body. It's been on my bedside table ever since, and I decided it was time to finish it off before I lost not only the instructions but anything else.  I'm quite pleased with him, though I think he could do with claws. 

He's sitting on one of a pair of socks I'm currently knitting. I've just finished a tunic which I also need to take a photo of - but I think I might have to model it to show it off properly as the photo I took flat on the ground doesn't look great...

Adding a card I finished off last night, using one of the images I stamped with milk for the technique challenge on SCS. It took a bit of experimenting, in the end I had the iron turned up as high as I could, and ironed it for longer than I thought I should. It was fascinating watching the images develop from being invisible. It brought back memories of standing in the darkroom beside my dad, watching him develop and print photos. Let's dream of a better tomorrow while we go through this time. 

A Miscellany

Inspired by Lorraine, I finally tried a paint pour.  I'd had the shot glasses on my desk since before Christmas, but never made the time to go any further. When I unexpectedly had Monday off work, it seemed like a good time to try - although I hadn't registered her inclusion of popsicle sticks in the list of helpful items. I took a quick outing on Sunday morning to buy some.  I'd bought some Deco Art pouring medium on the Saturday earlier in March when I visited my sister.

Since I did this downstairs, I just picked three colours of paint plus white to bring down,  and restricted myself to those. The first attempt was on a small (ACT size, pretty much) canvas - the one on the left-  and the paint was definitely too thick, So I thinned it down and tried again, using another canvas and some Grafix white craft plastic, since a magazine article I had read called for using Yupo. These pieces (6" square) took about twice as long to dry as the canvases. Now I need to figure out how to use them...

 On Thursday when I left for work I took my camera, and as the buses are positively flying in town these days, barely stopping at all, I had time to walk down the river to Heuston railway station where I snapped this cormorant in full breeding plumage, sitting on the wall opposite the station.

The following morning I didn't bring my camera as I knew I would be doing some shopping on the way home. It was so still, so I snapped this reflection in the river as I walked down. I saw a cormorant flying along - from the white markings, it could well have been the male in the above photograph. And I stopped to enjoy the froth of cherry blossom running along the tram platform and thought that even with all that is going on right now, it was good to be alive.

Spring Signs

Just as well we have never been much into celebrating St. Patrick's Day - it looks as if everything is off everywhere due to the corona virus.

This cancellation was for a different reason, though...the Liffey cruise.

For my St. Patrick's Day photo this year, I have the Civic Offices on Wood Quay, with the green, white and orange flags which are up all along the river.  Towards the centre you can see the sculpture outside it, which reperesents the prow of a Viking ship. When I was still in school, they were just starting work on the civic offices, and had discovered an important Viking site. Work was delayed, and I was one of the many who went in on a school trip to be shown around the dig. 

Some Spring colour - and texture. I always love the unexpected surprise of cowslips in an urban setting.  Further along the road the daffodils were interspersed with tulips, crocuses and a little blue flower which looks like an anemone, but I'm not sure what it's called. 

Stay safe, everyone. 

February Favourites

February was not just a short month, it was a busy and not very productive one - so I didn't find very many favourite cards. I did enjoying playing with alcohol inks on the Ranger brushed silver card, though...and the centre stage tutorial on Splitcoast was perfect for Mr. Toad.

This month's header photo is from Farmleigh, last March. Not sure what I will have from February for next year. I took my camera when we went for a walk along the canal this morning, but it was so muddy that it required pretty full attention on the path for much of the walk. Still, it was lovely to be out with a blue sky and sunshine before Storm Jorge blew in.