T Stands For the long walk

 Hi everyone, what week, both my DIL and son now have COVID, not surprising really, they are both getting better now though. 

I'm here for T Stands For Tuesday, hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth at the Altered Book Lover blog so we are going back to the Sunday of our sweet treat (events overtook me last week and I had no time to blog or comment)

 

We called to a crêperie on the way back to the hotel and ordered a vegetable galette each along with cider and a jug of water. It looks large but it was so light and crispy and full of lots of veg.

After our time in Parc Monceau and the walks past some lovely buildings we came to the Elysee Palace

I wanted to know if we were in the right place to reach Place Vendôme and as there were so many policemen around I asked one, who decided to test his English on me, so we had a dual language chat, with me practicing my French and he his English.

Hubby had walked on ahead and was waiting for around 15 minutes(he says)and took a couple of photos. As we can't see the policeman's face I can show this

I don't know at what point in the conversation this was but we covered a range of topics from parks of Paris, through football, places to visit in England, food and the city he came from which was one we had visited a few years ago. 

He sent me on my way with directions and a big smile!

His older colleague stood back grinning as we both struggled to find words.

The route took us along past some very expensive shops.

This couple were making their way to the Ritz

We started the walk back to the hotel...past more famous landmarks

This is the Arc du Triomphe du Carousel

The Louvre area - of course

Thinking of Lisca here

A Scottish pub!

We still had a way to walk after this so no more photos we were getting hungry! 

Sorry this a bit rushed, it's been another busy day.

Hopefully next week I will take it bit more leisurely, looking at a little visited area of Paris, but so beautiful! 

Thanks for looking, Chris

The Ruins

 Hi everyone! I've finally got my tree up, I say my tree because it's only a small affair and I decorate it - although hubby does help me untangle the lights!

Made a quick page for Art Journal Journey where Valerie is hosting with the theme 'When One Door Closes, Another Opens'

I knew that I would be using this Crafty Individuals door as soon as I knew what the theme was. It's an old favourite, I stamped it onto stained paper and added some grey colouring pencil in parts . The rest of the page is scraps from a little bag, some stamping using another CI stamp, some words found on a couple of pages in an old book and some spattered Vintage Photo ink.

It reminds me of some of ruined castles and abbeys we enjoy visiting.

Thanks for looking, Chris

 

Doors to be opened

Hi everyone, it's already proved to be a busy week so I haven't had any trouble filling in my new pages in my calendar journal for December.

I did remember to take a photo when I made it (and last month filled in)

I spritzed the page with Dina Wakley gloss sprays to create a dark wintery sky(happily today is sunny)and stamped some Stampendous houses using different coloured inks and added some Wintery trees in between them.

Of course I used the houses with the little doors because I wanted it to be an entry At Art Journal Journey for Valeries's 'When One Door Closes, Another Opens' theme.

I sat one evening and coloured the houses with sparkly pens

Here is last month's all filled in.

So, why so busy? 

Having finally got all the family to check their diaries and agree to having lunch together on my Birthday(coming up this weekend) I booked somewhere that we had visited together a few years ago - we took picnics, but then discovered that there was excellent restaurant attached.

We have never returned and I had plans of treating them all as this will probably be the only complete family occasion we can have.

The next day we found that our DIL has caught the Covid bug and won't be out of isolation until the day after and of course my son will have had close contact with her(fingers crossed he will be OK) She hasn't been too bad, thanks to her having had all her jabs.

This meant rearranging the booking, so further checking of diaries that took a time to come back. When I rang to cancel and rearrange I found that the restaurant is closed on the day we can all make...ho-hum!!!

Meanwhile we had arranged to meet my Brother and SIL at a shopping centre half way(ish) between us. It used to be an annual event until last year as well as visits in the Summer.

We set out yesterday in the rain, the day after Storm Barra, the start and end of our journey is via Motorway and as we got on we went straight into a queue - there were floods over half of the carriageway so only one lane open - it slowed us down a bit.

The next part of the journey is on a road over the Pennines - a high area of mainly moors and twisty roads and of course very wet and eventually snowy, meaning careful driving.

We enjoyed meeting up but it's not the best place to chat. We noticed that although most folk are wearing masks (as instructed) probably 1 in 10 weren't. We cut our visit short as none of us were comfortable with this.

The journey home was all on the motorway but again with lots of rain and flooded carriageways. 

As you might expect last night we just sat and watched a film - actually a very good one, starring Timothy Spall called 'The Last Bus'. It was  heartwarming, uplifting and sad in parts, for me it was a two hankie film!

Something good though, while writing this post my grandson rang to suggest meeting up for lunch next week - I'm looking forward to that!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Snowflakes at TIOT

Hi everyone, as I write this snow is expected on Tuesday and I can confirm that, as our new theme at Try It On Tuesday is 'Snowflakes'. The Design Team have been busy in the snow - please take a look here

I made a card.

I used a Dina Wakley Gloss Spray over the card - trying to leave some white at the bottom for snow.

The tree is from a Tracy Easson set and the dog, rabbit and snowflakes are from a magazine freebie set from a few years ago. I added white, pink and blue pen marks

The sentiment circle is quite old and had some Distress crayon and water added to change it's colour.

I hope you will join us, The challenge as usual runs for two weeks and will be our last this year.

Thanks for looking, Chris 

  

Beautifully Situated Door ........and a garden

Hi everyone, I hadn't intended having so long between posts but having spent a lot of time prepping and then having a day with my craft group (plus an escape for a walk) I'm way behind with quite a lot of things. 

I have made a page for Valerie's 'When One Door Closes, Another Opens' theme at Art Journal Journey.

As you may have spotted, it is in one of my smallest journals - I put an ink pad at the side so you can see how small it is.

The page had already been started - with some Paper Artsy Infusion splashed deli paper so I added some text stamping, and part of a Paper Artsy stamp by Sara Naumann.

The door is by Seven Gypsies I think and I found a perfect snippet from an old book to add to the page.

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We decided to go out in the sunshine to Fletcher Moss Park on Thursday and as it was nearly lunchtime we had a pulled pork and apple roll from the outdoor cafe while sitting on a sunny bench.

There was a frost in the morning and lots of puddles were iced over.

The real treat came afterwards though - as we walked through the garden we came to an area by the pond that had lots of fallen leaves on it. At first I saw a Jay pecking amongst the leaves, then two, then altogether five were taking turns at coming down to the ground, they only seem to eat alone or in twos though.

It was great to see the blue on the wings as the squirrel startled the Jays

The park and the Parsonage Gardens looked beautiful

We walked to The Parsonage through the wood -it was a bit muddy and some trees had been blown down - including this one that we had to step over. 

Mistletoe growing on one of the branches  - we saw several more bunches but all very high up

My friend who told me she had been there in the morning watched a Kingfisher here.

You can still see some of the frost the grass here

Thanks for looking, Chris

Happy Door

It's time for a new theme at Art Journal Journey. This time Valerie takes on the role of host with her 'When One Door Closes Another Opens' theme. 

It's one I am going to enjoy. 

Thanks to everyone who contributed to my theme last month.

 I had a mop up page from spritzing a stencil and the Aall and Create door stamp by Bipasha seemed to be what it needed.

I added some random dots and text and after stamping the door added some brick like texture stamping. The quote was taken from the Internet and put into Printshop to alter the type.

The page was outlined with three colours of fineliners.

Thanks for looking, Chris