Windflowers ~ Floral Bliss

Hello!

Posting with some pretties this morning... Japanese Anenomes:

When out in the garden, they flutter gently in the breeze and remind me of graceful ballerinas:

taking a bow .... applause for that pretty ballerina in pink! 

These photos are from a bunch I picked a couple of years ago from Mum's garden:

and then photographed them like crazy indoors:

I love everything about them, right down to their spent middles:

Wouldn't you have thought I'd have graced them with a better vase!
Never mind, they're so beautiful that they even pretty up an apple cider bottle... clever little windflowers 😊

Linking to Riitta's Floral Bliss.

Why not pop over and see what's happening, you'll be made so welcome: 

Blue Eyes ~ Happy PPF !

Hello!

Couldn't think what to paint for yesterday's Paint Party Friday and so, once again, I had a look through some old journal pages and "Blue Eyes" is what I'd like to share this week.
I painted her back in 2014:

"Blue Eyes"
Watercolour, Watercolour Pencils and Inkpen on
journal watercolour paper 190 gsm

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

At home, in the kitchen...

Hello!

Sometimes it's nice to chop:

... I do a lot of thinking - when I chop.

It's nice to have the time.

I'm thankful, and grateful.

I love the funny little shapes our homegrown carrots come in!

Update 21st June 2017:  I forgot to show another cute invention by my dear hubby  -  easy on the wrists... made especially to suit my groovy fingers ... ah, finger grooves ;D) Thanks Debbie you prompted my memory in your comment:

I love my personalised chopper!

... stirring is good too - I'm good at that [wink]

So, I chopped and stirred today and we had some vegie soup for lunch:

With a nice, warm, buttered roll each

Can't forget the chookies... they love their boiled up mash from all the peelings:

I wanted to make some baked apples (we've still got lots from our backyard harvest):

I usually stuff them with raisins (and brown sugar and butter), but as I'm not so good on keeping track of what's in the pantry (can't think why ;D)) ....  I didn't have any raisins.

My Pantry ⤵️

Can't believe I'm sharing the contents of my disorderly pantry with everyone!

However, as I was also thinking ... while chopping... there's much, much, more (sadly) important things going on in the world than the state of my pantry, isn't there. 

... so I used prunes instead...

... turns out, prunes were even better than raisins (or sultanas) - they melted into a delicious, luscious tasting filling.   Topped with cream, mingled with the oozing butter, the sweet apples - it was pretty good.

There's always room for some comfort food isn't there

A little scene which I hope gives you a nice peaceful feeling 💕

... and a pink carnation ~ Happy PPF!

Hello! 

I hadn't painted anything this week, but there's been a lot of playing around with chooks and chickens though.  (A little update photo is at the end of this post).

Had a look through my photos and I kind of felt in a Carnation mood.  Don't you just love that beautiful cinnamon/peppery/sweet smell of Carnations or their smaller variety... Dianthus!

I made these cards below for loved ones last year and am delighted to share photos of them as my entry in Paint Party Friday:

They're all watercolour with inkpen on watercolour paper

Mumma and her two chicks are doing really well.
Their favourite game is to climb on to her back and slide down.
They were all enjoying a lovely sun bath in this snap:

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

Orchid ~ Floral Bliss

Hello!

I really hope your week is going along just fine.  

Things are lovely here.... electric blanket set to "sizzle" at night,  and  yet the days still have some beautiful sunshine!

Blissing out with Riitta over at her blogspot today as we all indulge in showing off the most gorgeous blooms created by Mother Nature.

Here's a sweet little Orchid growing in our garden:

It's a Crucifix Orchid... an Epidendrum of some sort.
A cutting of which was given to me by one of my Sisters and its vine
grew and grew!

... so many aerial roots

Standing under looking upwards...  I love these kind of shots!

When we look at flowers how can we not smile?

Thank you for visiting,

Sue xx

Linking to Riitta's Floral Bliss.

Why not pop over and see what's happening, you'll be made so welcome: 

Chicks!! ~ Happy PPF

Hello!

It's pretty much "Chick Central" here at home.  

You may remember from an older post  that our Chookie was sitting on, what we hoped were, 4 fertile eggs.

Happily,  2 were and they hatched this week.  They're a couple of lively little bundles of cuteness.

Here's our first photo of the first chick:

I gently lifted up Chookie to see where the "cheep cheep cheeping" sounds were coming from.
We'd heard of chooks shedding their chest feathers to add to their nest, and she had certainly done that.  

Seeing that sweet little chick with her proud Mum certainly inspired my entry for this week's Paint Party Friday:

"The First Chick"
Watercolour Pencil and inkpen in Journal Page

... and the next day, another cutie appeared, but not without a mini-drama though.

Hubby had gone to check first thing and found the second chick out of the nest - fairly limp and lifeless.  He kept it warm in his hands and we decided there was nothing to lose if we popped it back under Chookie and see what, if anything, happened.
I quickly went to get my "peck-proof " gloves and under it went.

It worked!!  So now, there were two:

Within a day they were running around and eating mash and chick crumbles with hearty appetites.

Update 10th June 2017:  The video**  below wasn't very successful unfortunately.  Can't work out how to do it properly with Blogger, so I've added a couple of photos I took this morning.  Lol, as I said... it's Chook Central in our little world at the moment!! :

Here's a very short (10 sec) video**  I took today of their first outing into the larger outside yard.

They certainly enjoyed a little play in the sun and some exploring in the grass:

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

A little red table ~ Happy PPF!

Hello!
I hope your week has gone well.
For my entry in this week's Paint Party Friday, I'm showing the story behind the little red table that we use daily for our coffee on the verandah (weather permitting at this time of year :D))

It came about after my dear hubby did some badly needed heavy pruning on the Calistemon (Bottle Brush) tree which is opposite our verandah:

He used some straight pieces of branches to make the legs for a coffee table,  and I decided to paint a design,  that I had found in a magazine, on the table top (*source details at the end of this post)

Here are some progress pics:

Undercoat, then topcoat

Tracing the pattern on to the table top

and then it was a matter of colouring in

Nearly finished.
I added gold acrylic edging at the completion, but it's hard to see in the photos.

Here is the source of the pattern.  A 1997 edition of Handmade Magazine that Mum had found for me in an Op (Charity) shop.  Not sure whether I'm infringeing any copyright here, but I include it to show where the original idea for the pattern came from:

Linking up with Paint Party Friday, where you'll always be made welcome whether you paint, craft or just like to have a look.