A few things

Hi everyone!

Painted by the best painter.

Crab Apples

 Time to harvest the lemon balm on the left that I grew from seed.  It makes lovely tea. My smiling bee buddy, a flea market find for a tuppence ~ 25 cents.

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Finished the bookmarks that I had a pic of in the last post. This is the back.  Definitely a trial run because I had a problem with the laminating sheets. Overnight the backing fell off, so I attached     another sticky side to the back, but it was hard to cut out properly.  Obviously, a laminating machine would work better.

Darker ink would help too, I reckon. Perhaps a heavier 005 Micron pen instead of the finer point, or, better yet, a Rapidograph pen.  Black ink does show up better than my favourite blue. 
*Squinting eyes.*

A fit? Not sure but a lot of tea does go well with a good book.

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Shawl progress. . . finished the nupps section.  In a you tube video, I recently saw someone use a crochet hook to pick up the five stands of the nupp on the knit side. The pattern says to pick the nupps up on the purl side. I found that a smaller needle worked well for that.  For you knitters out there, in hindsight, if you haven't made nupps before, I am sure the crochet hook method on the knit side would have been easier.

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Slowly putting my container gardens to bed, although, luckily, there are thriving bright spots left.

Pretty Verbena

Impatiens

Elegant Fuchsias

Begonia. Absolutely love this colour!

Mixing paint to match the begonia. I think the pink is straight from the tube. It's difficult to see colour correctly, so an easier way is to fashion a cut out 1/2 inch and a 1 inch frame out of heavy paper to hold against the flower, or even a photograph so that you can isolate the colour. ( Not sure where I saw that, but it's from those who know.)

 

After I said that there wasn't a bird in sight, a flock of Starlings arrived to feast on seeds in the trees. I was trying to follow them and I missed so the video trails off in the end. Do forgive.

Have a lovely week...

Cultivate a Dream

Stepping into September

Goldenrod

Kissed by the frost.  Fall changes are happening slowly.

Sumac

The birds aren't singing and I don't see very many out there.  It reminds me of the title of Farley Mowat's book And No Birds Sang.  Already, I miss and long for their songs.

If you stand very still in the woods you may hear a peep here and there. They are molting and resting for their journey south where they will have many stories to tell and songs to sing.

Squatters on the turtles' deck. 

My Chrysanthemum has come into its own. It loves the cool nights and cooler sunny days. 

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Besides enjoying nature, I've been throwing acrylic paints about and loving it. 

 

Cool Blues

And the brights

I finished this painting in August. They both will t be sealed with Krylon spray varnish.  I'll need to go to the great outdoors for that...ventilation and plenty of it is essential.

The annual autumn leaf pick-up has begun, although there are only a few "pretty" leafs just now. I'm thinking of adding leaves and seeds to my hawthorn berry painting that I painted last year. 

Using Arches watercolour block and Senellier paints for bookmarks.  For the front, I'll use the Jane Davenport paints. Unfortunately the paper for the colour coding is, for me, too slick for proper graduations, but nevertheless, as you can see, her colours are bright, beautiful, and transparent. What a lovely mix!

Laminated bookmarks would be nice, but the machines are expensive, so I'll try self-laminating sheets.  Ooooo. We will see what happens with that. I have visions of being stuck to the sheets. :)

Experimenting with different pens to see what works.

 It's difficult to say this but I know a few readers may have been in the path of the hurricanes, the earthquake, or the wild fires. I do hope you are all safe! Of course, I wish safety for everyone affected, and I do hope people are getting the help and relief that they so desperately need. My heart goes out to everyone.

'Til next time . . .

Seahorses

Hi there,

As I've said in other posts, I've always wanted to see seahorses. Now I can say for sure that they are really sweet. I find it amazing that the male carries the eggs in his pouch and births the babies too. Way to go.

Nearly there. Ripley's Aquarium Toronto.

Entering a fishy world. 

A bevy of  colourful Sea Anemones.

Fascinating Sea Pens. Who knew? Apparently if surprised certain species will glow in the dark.

Overhead, a shark weaves through the water in the Dangerous Lagoon.

 I finally made it to the Seahorse hang out!

One of my first watercolour paintings. It might look cute on a tote bag or back back for wee ones.

Sorry the pics aren't better. I left my big camera at home and was, I reckon, excited so that the cell pics are a bit water wavy.

What a spectacular place Ripley's Aquarium is. (click to check out the galleries on their site). I'm sure it be wonderful to be a diver. I really enjoyed my visit to the aquarium, but I did find myself wishing the inhabitants were free.

However, I especially loved the tunnel walk, where you are totally immersed in the world of fish.

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Next door at the CN tower. Can you imagine hanging over the edge like that?

I've been up there before and it took all my courage to step on the glass floor. And as soon as I did, a boy starting jumping up and down on it. Whoa! Give me terra firma!

It's time to organize.

Cultivate a dream. They do come true!

Thank you for reading along.  Enjoy the week. . .

Tuesday It Is

Hi everyone,

Since I've been on the go, it's been awhile since I've been here on Tuesday. 
I hope you all had a great summer, and or fall/winter. Not that summer is over yet, but I do feel that nip in the air.  And a few trees have been stroked by nature's paintbrush to keep us aware of the beauty yet to come.

Because I wanted to travel light, I only had a cell phone with me while traveling. I don't have the pics organized yet, but, hopefully, I'll have a few arranged soon, especially a pic of the seahorses that  I saw at Ripley's Aquarium in Toronto. I've waited all my life to see them. Sweet things!

Chrysanthemums . . . traditional autumn blooms.

I love the divine colour of these Begonias. 

My dahlias didn't grow very big, but they are appreciated.

 Common Arrowheads. So pretty!

Abigail--mission control.  

My first attempt at fashioning paper clay. A trinket dish painted with acrylic paint and stamped in the middle with a stamp I carved awhile ago. Can't wait to try another. Next time I'll try watercolour paint.
If you haven't tried Paperclay, I think you will love it. It's light weight and versatile.  It air dries in a day (no heat required) and you can paint it with acrylic or watercolour.  

 Water colour added to my sketchbook doodles. Tricky...you can only add a bit liquid or the paper lifts. My Stillman and Burn Zeta series sketchbooks recently arrived, so they should be better for watercolour.

Fern frond and maple seeds.

On the needles. . .

Swallowtail shawl.  Yarn Brooklyn Tweed's Vale... so lovely and squishy to knit with.

Cultivate your dreams.

  Have a lovely week...and enjoy a great long Labour Day weekend for my U.S. and Canadian pals.