October Favourites

 October felt like a very busy month, and I didn't feel I got a lot made. I did have a couple of Christmas cards I really liked, but have only included one here.

It took me a lot of experimentation to find photo paper which worked well with smooshed DOX backgrounds, but in the end I got lucky in Dealz (like a dollar store)

The card above was for a "spooky" challenge. I don't really do the spooky side of Halloween, but took my inspiration from these lilies I had seen in the Botanic Gardens, which instantly made me think "ghost flowers".

A long-ago leftover background and some leftover tinted paste gave me this

Sentiment to be added when I send it. The textured background had been in my box for quite some time - hot glue on card, with stamped and coloured tissue paper over it

This one I was very happy with - the challenge was to use a stamp or die in a manner other than that for which it was originally intended, and after a LOT of looking through my stamps, I thought I could turn this umbrella into a passable butterfly. 

Autumn fades

 I took a trip to Farmleigh one morning last week when it was bright and sunny - and on the chillier side. Most of the colour from my previous visit had gone, and the herbaceous borders had pretty much been cleared out. 

I really liked the decaying hosta leaf, and in the walled garden, a rose petal had fallen onto a leaf. 

Better late...

 All month I have been meaning to get back and add some photos from the Sculpture in Context exhibition. Life just seems too busy - but a singularly wet morning and a day off are a good combination.

All 74 photos I uploaded from my visit are HERE, but for anyone like me with less time, here's my quick pick of some favourites.

This was a whole array of raised dishes in a circle under some trees. The fallen leaves were a great addition

There was a companion hare to go with the fox

I'm pretty sure I remember a chickenwire sculpture from another year, a fox perhaps. I must look back. 

I can't remember the title of this, I think it had Spring in it. I would have called it Bird Brain.

September Favourites

 October has come in with a sudden drop in temperatures - a warmer duvet on the bed, heat on in the mornings for half an hour, and time to put away my cycling shorts till the Spring.

I didn't feel very productive in September - the darker evenings don't help, and of course we were away for a week. But here are my favourite cards... thank you, Lorraine, for two stamps and the stamped lighthouse image (plus your card to use as inspiration). 

This was a two-for-one stencil background - this was the stencilled one, and I added flocking to the deer's antlers, which turned out very well. The second monoprint background was used for the floral birthday card. 

A rainbow-themed challenge was a good opportunity to pull out this rainbow-coloured scratch paper - it's embossed, and then gently wiped with a baby-wipe.

Having put away my shorts and pulled out my leggings, I cycled over to the Botanic Gardens today and will be along next week (I hope) with some photos from the Sculpture in Context exhibition. 

Farmleigh in the fall...

 Today was a beautiful sunny day with blue skies and a distinctly crisp feel in the air. Since tomorrow's forecast isn't great, I decided to push myself out of the house after returning from leaving my sewing machine in for a service, and I went for a walk in Farmleigh.

There was a small clutch of relatively young moorhen chicks - they must have been the last batch of the season, because while they were no longer little scruffy balls of fluff, they weren't that big and they were cheeping madly. I also some some young tufted ducks, which were probably the ones I shared a video of a couple of months ago. 

Here are the moorhen chicks.

Also some of the general flora. I was surprised to see so much blue (not in the photos, but the herbaceous border had a lot, more monkshood than I've ever seen in one place before, but a couple of other things too. I always think of blue as a Spring flower colour...

I'm not personally a huge fan of hydrangeas, but I always think the dead heads look so pretty

The waterlilies on the lake are dying. I thought this one looked like a perching bird - in fact I did think it was a bird on first glance

And one utility box art which I snapped with my phone near work a few weeks ago. Our president has two Bernese Mountain dogs, and Aras is simply the Irish for "building" - so the president's residence is Aras an Uachtaráin.  I think there is also something written on the other end of it, but I haven't paid enough attention to it as I'm usually focussed more on traffic.

Hot off the needles

 I didn't get nearly as much knitting done as I expected while we were away - in fact, almost none. I started the sock for which I had knit so many tension samples - and got the first one finished yesterday. I'm glad to say it's a good fit, so I'll get the other one cast on tomorrow. It's an alpaca/polyamide/wool mix from DROPS (the pattern is one of theirs too) so they should both be cosy and wear well. The Latvian braid was new to me, and has a little stretch in it, good in a sock.

And then there is the scarf which I couldn't share in my last "hot off the needles" post. I really liked how this turned out, and might knit one for my sister for Christmas. I was probably a bit over-enthusiastic with the tassels at the ends, they are very bunched. There were some great owl designs when I went looking, but I liked this scarf a lot and purchased the pattern rather than using any of the freebies.