T Stands For.. time for a new month and a couple of gardens

Hi all, what a strange week it's been - from heatwave to shivering. 

First my Calendar Journal which I am linking to Art Journal Journey and Neet's 'Type' theme.

I used some stencils with different size letters on over my page with Faded Jeans, Shaded Lilac and Blueprint Sketch Distress inks.

I used a number stamp by Aall and Create and Blueprint sketch and then added some spritzed stencil to make some texture. I also stamped another with black ink.

It was only when I started to fill in the first square that I realised that I had stamped July.

It's fixed now!!

Now for the gardens.

Great excitement last week as we arranged to visit a garden with my son and two of our grandchildren.

On the arranged day - we had to prebook - it was raining, so with umbrellas and raincoats we set off to meet them.

We went to Houghton Tower in Lancashire. We hadn't booked for the Tower as we didn't think it would be what the teens would want, but when we were offered the chance ( folk had cancelled) we all said yes!

The Guided tour was very interesting, the teens asked questions and commented afterwards too! By the time we came out the rain had stopped, although still windy and a bit chilly.

We decided to take a short walk in the gardens, which was just as well as that is all it could be!

Not very aptly named unless they were referring to the woodland (private) around the edges,

a small rose garden,

and finally a terraced garden with a strange maze.

The redeeming feature here was a look over the walls towards the Lancashire coast - I bet it's great when it's not rainy

We learnt that the standard is one of the oldest in England and that the white cow was once wild in the area

So, off we went, the guide on the door kindly opened both gates for me to take a photo - I think he surprised hubby.

Oh! The other garden!

Before we went shopping last week we called into a park we have driven past hundreds of times - the access was up a side road.

A bowling green and a Wildflower patch

It has a nice looking cafe...but not today Thank you!

An amusing bench - dedicated to tortoises

Some bee friendly plants

A gated area to enjoy watching the birds, there are feeding stations..

....although these are the only birds we saw

This is the best thing I've seen in ages, free bags to collect later in - no excuses about not being able to carry everything leftover from a picnic to the bin.

On the way back to the car we saw these..

..and the largest head of Hydrangea flowers I have ever seen

As I kept forgetting to take photos when we went out here are some cappuccinos we made with our coffee machine with a pot of Cantuccini biscuits 

It is after all still T Day - so I am joining Bleubeard and Elizabeth for T stands for Tuesday.

I apologise for being late - we can only use one device at a time on our internet and hubby has been booking a holiday!!!!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Keep It Simple for TIOT

 Hello everyone, it's time for a new challenge at Try It On Tuesday. Our new theme is 'Keep It Simple'

The Design Team came up with some really good ways to do just that - please do take a look here.

I had my Crafty Individuals typewriter out on my desk and decided to make a card. I made an addition of some floating letters from a Carabelle Studio stamp and drew in piece of thread to tie the tag.

Please take a look at the Rules and Regs here.

As usual the challenge runs for two weeks so come on - you can 'Keep It Simple'

Thanks for looking, Chris

Just My Type

Hi everyone, I enjoyed my trips to the Countryside at Art Journal Journey last month. Thanks to Alison for hosting a lovely Summer theme. 

It's time to stay in for a while - just as well as the weather has cooled down a lot here - I went out in a coat on Thursday and yesterday!

We are lucky to have Neet guide us through this month where she is hosting the 'Type' theme.

I have a couple of Typewriter stamps (probably more if I could find them)

I used one by Aall and Create (Bipasha's design) for my page

My background with made with splodges and splashes using Distress Oxides - Cracked Pistachio, Speckled Egg, Ground Espresso and Vintage Photo. 

I used Print Shop to alter a photo of hubby (taken on one of our Garden visits) He is definitely my type!  

I'm not sure but I think the old typewriter lettering is a Kaisercraft set.

Please visit the Art Journal Journey blog where you will find some rules and regs about sizes and about what is accepted - we are mainly an Art Journaling blog. 

You will also find lots of help and inspiration from Neet as well as some inspiration from the Admin Team.

Thanks for looking, Chris

  

Just waiting....

 Hi everyone, I really am hoping that I can find some more time for crafting - I seem to have managed a journal page, but even that was a bit of a struggle!

Here it is...

I have quite a few pages that are partially completed, all I needed here were some words. I had some in mind to use but with trying to reorganise my craft room, very much WIP, I just don't know where they are. These words were accessible and are part of a Paper Artsy set by Lin Brown. They are stamped onto a piece of card as yes, you guessed it, I messed up the stamping on the page.The bird is a Crafty Individuals stamp by Maria Kitano and is stamped in white onto a gelli print background.

The bees are busy making honey so I hope the bird isn't thinking of seeing if bees are tasty!

This page is almost certainly my last for Alison's 'Summer Countryside' theme at Art Journal Journey. I really would like to have made more for this wonderful theme.

It's been great to see what everyone has been making for the theme.

We went to a very disappointing garden with my son and grandchildren yesterday, not only that it was really cold and occasionally wet!

What you see here is a maze - that we weren't allowed to walk on.
I'll show you more on Tuesday.

Thanks for looking, Chris

 

T Stands For.....Time, Treats, Taking a walk!

Hi everyone, what a whizz of a week! It was very hot here last week, even to the point of heat wave warnings in parts of the UK. We didn't feel like doing much but just had to, although we did flop on occasions! The time does seem to have gone very quickly though!

One thing that did give me a boost was the arrival of a fabulous package from our lovely hosts - Bleubeard and Elizabeth. It also had some great stamps on too but hubby removed them before disposing of the envelope - they are somewhere safe! 

Thank you so much Elizabeth - it was a lovely surprise!

Last week we took a cool walk in Fletcher Moss Woods before going food shopping!

We decided to take a path we had never been on before, although it did lead to somewhere familiar. It was another opportunity to do some Forest Bathing (see my post here)

The speckled path turned out to be caused by this

...blown from the trees

There are instructions on how to Pond Dip - something I used to do with school children when I was teaching (always with an eye out for the dreaded frogs!! Sorry, frog lovers)

After listening to the birds, walking in dappled sunlight and looking at smelling the plants we came to the river.

The familiar path back

Feeling refreshed we went and did our shopping...

...and treated ourselves to coffee at Waitrose. Of course, it's time to join Bleubeard and Elizabeth for T stands for Tuesday!

Thanks for looking, Chris