A little change or two

... in how I do my posts for a while.                                         *Update added below

Hi there!

The time has come for me to start behaving.

                    ... no, I haven't been "carousing" or "letting loose"  but, whenever I use my laptop computer, I sit hunched over it in a way that hasn't done my bod any favours over these past few years.

Windflowers - at our back door

I'll reduce my  time online and  keep my post contents shorter (arrrgh... shorter sentences - what a challenge;D) )

Making those little changes will make a  big difference while I work out a good compromise.

* UPDATE:  27th April, 2017
A dear blogger-friend, Vicki, sent me an email with a possible solution which I'd like to share.
She suggests, from her own experience, a Wireless Keyboard and Mouse combo, and, as she explains,  the keyboard can sit on a lap, or wherever is most comfortable, and the laptop positioned where the screen is at the right height.  
Thanks so much Vicki xx

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great week and I'll catch up with each of you soon

Easter Flowers ~ Happy PPF!

Hello!

Still Eastering here ...

Had a little fun playing around with empty easter egg wrappers and ended up with this:

"Easter Flowers"
Created with Easter Egg Wrappers, Watercolour pencils and Impasto texture medium as glue

Quite a relaxing couple of hours, and here's a few progress pics:

First - lots of Easter Eggs needed to be consumed and so we applied ourselves diligently to that task ;D)
(ha ha,  our Daughter said... it must have been awful having to eat all those Easter eggs for the sake of art!!)

It was too cosy being hunkered down in my lounge chair to be bothered getting up to find some scissors, so I tore strips off the wrappers to make various shapes... some were petal-like, others were rolled into thin lengths to be left straight,  and others coiled.

Impasto worked well as a glue, applied with a palette knife, it stuck well and dried clear.
Sticky fingers happened, but a dampened sponge soon sorted that out. 

I drew the vase using watercolour pencils and then a quick brush with some water to activate the colour and the job was done.
 

Funny how these ideas pop up.  I've always liked the pretty coloured foil covering chocolate eggs, at last I found a use for them.

Linking to Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday, where the happiest of artists gather... and everyone's welcome!

Monday's Post - random bits and pieces!

Hello!

Easter time came and went pretty quickly here, and today I'm looking through our pics as we thoroughly enjoyed a visit from our Dear Son, so lots of lovely moments to treasure. 

I'd like to share a few:

Chocolate for breakfast...

Ahhh, power!!  I had two pairs of willing helpers to do my bidding lol ;D)
A production line to prepare lots of apples for the food dehydrator .... ↯ I cracked the whip mercilessly, [evil laugh] ha ha ↯

...  also, manpower to mix the crumble topping for Apple Crumbles.  Some for tummies, others for the freezer:

... a few dabs of butter and then into the oven

Meanwhile, I sat idly by playing with the remains of easter egg tin foil... 👯

I did label this post "random bits and pieces" ... so I'm jumping to the subject of our chooks now.

Henny Penny (the feral chook who stayed... previous post here), is on the far left.  She now allows the latest additions to the chook yard (1 Cockerel and 4 Hens) to be within less than a few metres of her!  Took a few months, but she kind of confirmed our thoughts that she was pretty lonely by herself, even though she enjoyed the safety of our yard.

A rare occurrence, Henny Penny and Rooster sharing a possible tid bit!

Feathers now spring to mind!!  and thought I'd include my feather collection to date in this post:

Some are from the chooks, others from Cockatoos and Galahs and even more that I can't identify.

Well, that sums up everything up for the moment.

I hope your Easter time was a happy and peaceful time, doing whatever took your fancy.

Apples, Pudding, Flowers, Birds, Painting - sharing my week!

Hello there, I hope your week is going well.

All good here.  Lots of things to do this past week or so and, as I'm no good at multi-tasking anymore, I've had to go slow on my blogging... both posting and visiting,  but I'm getting there!

Hubby harvested his lovely apples last week:

and so I got stuck in and peeled lots, well, 16 to be precise: (Update!! Hubby just read this and said there's 17 apple cores ;D))

Diced and cooked ready for the freezer for future apple crumbles!

... but, after that little effort, someone started whingeing and holding her arm, looking for sympathy and making lots of whimpering sounds!
Upshot is that hubby jumped online and ordered a "Magic Peeling, Coring and Slicing Machine"  which arrived yesterday.  It's a beauty too! (That was not an advertisement ... just sharing my joy :D))

So, with all those perfect slices, we can use the Food Dehydrator to make apple snacks for later.... plus, no sore arm because it will be MD hubby who'll be turning the handle ;D) (lol, win-win as they say!)

Before getting off the subject of apples.  With the cooler weather we're experiencing in our part of the world, we're a bit partial to a steamed pudding ... here's a pic of one I made last year with my own twist of diced apples, brown sugar and cinnamon:

Thought I'd share the recipe... it's so easy and quick:

Autumn rains fell yesterday and so I had a little fun indoors photographing the one remaining Protea flower for the season.  I'd had it in a vase for a quite a while - they last for ages.

Here it is in front of the rain-drenched kitchen window:

... and on the table:

This one is a pic I took the previous season.  I always love them wet with dew or raindrops.

... and, it seems to me, that the Little Wattlebird is the perfect accessory to the Protea (notice those matching pink wattles!)

Linking to Riitta's Floral Bliss - where so many lovely bloggers share their most magnificent blooms which never cease to delight:

Physio appointment this week, and I'm sharing one of the cute little drawings Ethan does as a reminder for me to actually do the exercises!!  (Spoilt or what!)... I love that all the faces he draws have smiles, here's one of them:

While we were there, and having time to kill before the appointment, I took some pics of the lovely artwork on the walls:

By Jan Davidson in 1984
It's such a detailed ink drawing - I couldn't take my eyes off it.

Update:  I've added some closeups of Jan's drawing:

Also, this huge tapestry:

This magnificent woollen tapestry is truly mind-blowing and is in
tribute to all the people involved in the workings of the Hospital.

and finally,

I've asked no one's permission to put these pics in my blog, but have respectfully done so because I admire them very much.  They're on public display at the hospital, and I've credited each artist.

Then we had a lovely lunch  afterwards - both vegetarian meals as it happened, very delicious too.

tasty relish on the side - yummy

Some birds in trees just outside the house which we've had the pleasure to see during the past week:

The Spotted Dove sheltering in the Ti Tree from the rain

A Bower Bird enjoying a rest on the Lilly Pilly tree.

A Blue-Cheeked Rosella gorging on the Lilly Pilly fruits

"yum yum" 

Linking to Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday - where bird lovers all over the world take pride in sharing their bird discoveries every week:

I've finally finished my painting which I'd originally started some 3 years ago!

"In a Jar - Geraniums"
Watercolour and inkpen on 180gsm coarse grain paper

... and some progress pics:

at this stage I needed to hit it with the inkpen but
was so hesitant ...  kind of lost confidence for a little
while, but, here goes.........

I do that all the time, hesitate before going in with the pen!
But, once I got started it's fun!!  Gosh, it's only a painting when
all said and done ;D)

The progression!

My portable card table desk with a view.

Linking to Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday - a welcoming spot for everyone, whether you paint, create or not... have a look by clicking on this image: