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. 

January Favourites

A slow month, it felt like, but I was able to pick a few favourite cards. I really enjoyed making the kitchen bench card for my sister, to accompany her birthday gift of a recipe book. I included a note about tucking the flap through the slot - not taking anything for granted since C missed out on carefully letter flaps and slots A & B the year he took his unopened birthday card to Portugal. She laughed and said that when she saw the gingerbread men hanging on the wall, she knew that they must end up on a counter...
The little rat might be my favourite of them all. The stamp is from Katzelkraft and I love the different expressions they all have - but it's hard to know who to give a card with a rat on it to! So I asked C to give me the stamps for my birthday - that way, they don't need to earn their keep, I can just enjoy them.

In my November favourites I shared a card inspired by the window display in a florist near work. Here are two of their more recent windows. The P& T on the letter box is the old Irish script, coming from The Department of Posts & Telegraphs - the original government communications department, prior to becoming "An Post" in 1984, at which stage the "telegraph" part became Telecom Eireann. 

This gown, unlike the pine bough one, doesn't inspire me to make a card, but the combination of the soft feathery wings and very crisp metallic tissue-like fabrics was nice.

The blog header this month is a photograph of reflections in the Liffey, taken on the way to work one morning last February.

Around Town

I walked into town after work last Friday to leave my flute in a for a service - and since the shop is closed for lunch, it was a slow walk. Luckily it was a lovely day, and I got to see the more cultural end of Temple Bar, which isn't normally somewhere I pass through...

The first one isn't actually part of that walk at all, it's the Christmas window display in the local bakery near work.

Then we have some utility box art celebrating Handel's Messiah, just outside Christchurch. Love the hat the fiddle player is wearing!

The back entrance to Dollard & Co , this is the staircase...

Window boxes in the Clarence Hotel

I've often walked past Christchurch and have never gone into the grounds to see what this is - it's a memorial to the Armenian Genocide.

And this last one, I couldn't find any information about. It's beside the back entrance to the Smock Alley Theatre, and is obviously an interpretation of the stars and constellations, but I'm not sure what the boat represents.