We have just had the most lovely time attending the wedding of our nephew David and his beautiful bride Janine.  The little page boy stood like a statue and you can just catch a glimpse of the flower girl in the corner. 

There is only one thing more beautiful than a bride and that is a new mum.  This bride fulfills both of those criteria - their darling little girl is just 2 weeks old so everyone was full of love and happiness.

I always feel it is such a privilege to be invited to a wedding and although we both had/have dreadful colds we were thrilled to be there (but not too close to anyone).

Hopefully I will be able to post more pics of my ongoing collage - I added a few things last night.

 

still collaging

 More pics of progress.

wooden boxes and blocks

 I recently bought these wooden boxes and blocks in an online sale.  They were in a closing down sale and I paid the princely sum of $12 in total.  If I add up the price tags on them the total comes to about $300.  Have to be happy with that!!!

collage episode 3

This morning I started to make some lace on soluble film:  I am not sure which brand it is because I picked it up in an op shop with some other goodies.

This is the stitching before rinsing it out

It is important to make sure that the stitching connects and crosses over or you just end up with a long string of stitches.

This film was quite heavy so it was difficult to wash it all out - if you leave any residue the lace will be stiff and harder to work with.

Once I was sure that it was thoroughly rinsed I gently squeezed out the water being careful not to let it tangle or break threads.

This is how it looks partially stretched and still damp on the ironing board.

The machine stitching took some hours so in between times I painted the canvas with Gesso to make it more textured.

  I sprinkled some glitter on to the wet Gesso just to make it more interesting,

  It dried quite nicely.

 Tonight I will start to construct the collage.

update on collage

This is the next stage of my collage.  In fact it will be the basis of the collage (I think).  I have a lot of difficulty layering things, even when I want to.  I need something to tie it all together and this is it.  I found this lovely yellow fabric poppy in my cupboard and new immediately that it was what I needed.  There are also some little leaves made out of silk paper.

Tomorrow I hope to do some serious work on this.

bargain table

Feed time with the twins is becoming a bit of a challenge.  They are 18 months old now and they should be able to feed themselves but it can be pretty messy.

They sit in their little wooden high chairs (I bought the two from a restaurant closing sale.  2 for $14) and I use a a stool with a wooden top for a table (another bargain in a lot bought at auction).

This arrangement has worked well so far but now the two little girls delight in pushing their food off the table and onto the floor.  They pick up their bowls and spill the contents onto the table: 3 meals a day x 3 days every week.  Messy.

This situation has had me bothered for a couple of weeks.  I don't want to buy anything else: no room and I don't want to spend the money.

The little top of the stool (table top) is too small and slightly concave.  It is attached to the stool with two small screws so can be removed easily enough - but then what to use as a replacement top?  

A search of the workroom revealed a craftwood tray that I have had for years.  This will be perfect I think.  

A scrounge around in the shed resulted in suitable screws to fasten the tray to the frame of the stool - they are not the same but they work.  I just had to drill a couple of holes and paint (paint from the op shop) the tray and voila!

 
This is going to work so well and will be good for finger painting, drawing etc as well.


Although I didn't use it in this project I just had to show you my latest toy (I mean tool) it is a battery operated reciprocating saw.  Quite small and very useful.  I can have this after all my clever shopping at the op shops and online auction sites.

balancing the elements

I was up and about before 5 am this morning so I spent some time fiddling around with this collage.

 These dried flowers looked pretty on hand made paper.

This fairly chunky silk paper with some gold chain, mistyfuse and metallic frame might be a bit heavy.

I like the effect of this for its quirkiness.

Another try with the silk paper.  Still not right.

I'll mess about with this again tomorrow.

Any comments and suggestions would be most welcome.