Not much happening

We went to a concert on Wednesday night which was simply wonderful - Chamber Philharmonia from Cologne in Germany.

Lots of Vivaldi, Bach, Tchaikowsky and Mozart, all in a local church on a very hot night with no air conditioning.  The poor Germans must have nearly died of heat, but it didn't stop them from playing beautifully and entertaining the large audience!

That set me up well for Thursday:

which is why there is not much activity around here.  I can feel my fingers again now, there must have been a huge amount of local anaesthetic pumped into them, but it is all good - no pain and plenty of movement.  Can't take the bandage off till tomorrow night so I am very limited as to what I can do - that is probably the aim of the doctor anyway!  I tried a  bit of typing yesterday with somewhat interesting results - multiple letters instead of one as I couldn't feel how hard I was pressing.
Beautiful rain here today at long last, our tank is full again and the garden has been well watered.  We have been missing out when all our southern friends and family are complaining of having very little summer and far too much rain - can never please everyone can you!
Now I am off to read a book for a while and also catch up on a few blogs.

A little bit of playing

 I always forget to start typing before I upload any photos!  The one above shows a notebook cover I have made from the tissue which was painted and gilded and wiped with white spirit.  The slip had similar treatment.  I need to practise some more and not be so liberal with the gilding next time - but I like this anyway.

 This one has been turned into a cover for a visual artist's diary.  I scrumpled some silk then attached the cords and beads to the base fabric which like the one above has been rather too liberally gilded!

 It hasn't been quite all play - I needed to restock the souvenirs as they have all sold and I have been very slack about making more.  I should have Three of the reddish ones, but some how in a tidyup late yesterday I have lost one!  I know I had it just before 5 pm, the gremlins must have been since then.  I only had the final stitching round the outside to do - grrrr - I hate tidying up anyway, but I couldn't find most other stuff.  At least I know it hasn't gone out of the room, yesterday morning was rubbish bin day and I hadn't finished it till after that.

Here are a few more magnets to add to the collection as well.  they are small enough for travellers to slip into handbags or whatever to take home.
Now I need to make the next fabric page, and easy one this time - shades of pink.  That gives me plenty of scope, even if pink is not my favourite colour.  I am having two trigger fingers on my left hand repaired next Thursday morning and I may be restricted with sewing for a few days afterwards.  The results will be all good though, and should get rid of the pain and clickiness in my fingers.  Hopefully it shouldn't stop me blogging for more than a few days either.

44 Years today

Well, this was us 44 years ago - not sure why Bill is looking so stary eyed though!  This was the best photo I could find that wasn't in a frame.  The cake has a story.  We were married in Brisbane, but I lived in Goondiwindi, about 400 km away and I carried the iced cake on a blanket on the back seat of the car all that way.  I was terrified of having to pull up in a hurry and having it land on the floor, so I was very relieved when I finally reached my destination safely - there were a couple of close calls though.

We have a few - well, quite a few - more wrinkles and extra pounds these days, but still here and still enjoying life together.  Crabs and oysters for dinner tonight again I think. Have a good day

Great prize from Penny

Yesterday the postman brought some lovely mail - a prize in Penny's giveaway.

 I have always admired the sweet little birds Penny makes, and the doyley and brooch are an added bonus.

She also sent me this delicate pen and wash card done by Penny as well.
I am very definitely hiding in the air conditioning for as long as I can today.  The temperature outside is 38 degrees with 53 % humidity (admittedly that is low for here), while inside it is 29 degrees with 35 % humidity - much more comfortable.
Now I am off to do some more playing from Lynda's book, I hope I shall have something more to show you in a day or so. 

Frustration over - I think

I have had a few computer problems over the last few days.  I wanted to look at photos on Flickr, but it said I needed to upgrade my IE - so Bill did.  Flickr was fine, but I couldn't get in to post on blogger any more, neither could I see the cards in a wonderful online site which I use regularly...........Grrrr.  However -- late yesterday Bill installed an updated version of Wordperfect, which we use in preference to Word, and it came with Firefox (and a fantastic new mouse).  I am still trying to navigate my way around, but I CAN ACCESS everything I want to!!
I have a few more bits to show

 This is the beautifully worked January page I received from Birgit in Germany

 and this is the page I sent to Lorenza in Italy.  Her them is Van Gogh, the painting I chose is French Novels, one I had never heard of till I was googling his paintings.

This is the final birthday card - from Maria in Portugal.  She doesn't think she does very good work, but I beg to differ 

 I have done a bit of playing with the online classes for Lynda Monk's latest book.  This is made from rusted papers and fabric.  I swore when I tried the technique several years ago that I was never going there again, but I seem to like it better this time. I have a problem however as we live in the tropics and everything we buy, including nails, washers etc, is galvanised to stop it rusting!  That is fine till I want some rusty bits to add to my package - I shall need to go scrounging somewhere else!  I found a couple of rusty nails and used some steel wool for this,
I painted some pelmet vilene, then foile it before adhering the rusted abaca tissue to the top.
The slip is scrumpled - Dale's latest POM for me featured that technique, which I rather like.

Now I had better go and see if the papers have arrived in town yet - the road between here and Townsville, where they are printed, has been cut by floodwaters.  Once again, we have been very lucky here, we have had sufficient, but not too much rain.  The poor souls in south west Queensland and North West New South Wales are facing record floods - again.