Chalet day one

Day one finished.
Thanks for looking.
xoxo Sioux

IW 13 - State of flux!

Inspiration Wednesday number thirteen started with not much enthusiasm!

Did I really want to stick bits of wrapping paper willy nilly on the pages again!

I'm not a fan of patterned wrapping paper.....so I have none to speak of.

Then I realised I had some gorgeous design paper from our honeymoon in Florence...

...some art nouveau paper from the Haworth art gallery in Accrington purchased some time ago...

...and so I made a start. :)

One great thing I discovered that using one of the T!m fragment dies makes a pretty fabulous substitute for American dry wall tape.....happy...happy. ;)

I ended up really liking my pages and my pages turned out very personal.

Two ways of looking at things.....the positive things I need to focus on reflected by the T!m sentiment combined with the reality of feeling "In a state of flux"...

...and being "torn asunder" due to developments in my job.

Back of double inclusion (I've reached the middle of the journal) using a handy number 3 that includes my surname taken from the car sticker to board the French ferry last month :)

These work related developments may, in the end, not be as bad as I fear...

...but unfortunately, I fear I am right in believing they will be!!

Thanks for looking.

xoxo Sioux

A sunny feast

This week we have focaccia with black olives, red onion and rosemary :)

For lunch it was paired with a light summer vegetable soup...and my honey ;)

For tea it was perfect with broad bean pesto, feta and sun dried tomato in olive oil, quiche, piquant peppers...and my honey ;)

Perfect end to a sunny, hot and lazy day...with my honey :)

RECIPE - Broad bean pesto

Cook 200-300gm of broad beans in salted water for about 4-5 mins, quickly immerse them in cold water to stop the cooking process and remove the skins when cold enough to handle. Place the podded beans in a mixing bowl.

Gently fry 4 anchovies (the sort preserved in oil) with 2 cloves of garlic that have been roughly chopped....remove from pan when lightly golden and add to the bowl of beans.

Even if you do not like anchovies believe when I say they only add a certain saltiness to the pesto.

Into the bowl:

Add the juice and finely grated rind of half a lemon.

Add 30gm grated parmesan....or even more to taste ;)

Add 4 tablespoons of good extra virgin olive oil.

Use a hand held blender to wizz the ingredients to a paste.

Makes a great dip or pasta sauce. It can be diluted with more extra virgin olive oil to taste.

Thanks for looking.

xoxo Sioux

Things are about to change!

Change is in the air!

After a very, very long wait the wooden chalet is sitting on the drive.

It's going here next week.

It's a joyful thing to look forward to compared to developments at work...

...as I keep saying things are in a state of flux at the minute.

The chalet was intended to be an outdoor dining room but perhaps...

...just perhaps...

...it will become an art retreat...

...I might even kick myself you know where and develop the potential to host workshops!

I'll keep you informed of progress ;)

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

Same but different.

This weekend sundried tomato and basil focaccia.... scrummy. ; )
Thanks for looking.
xoxo Sioux

Focaccia

Look what my very lovely honey made last weekend...

...rosemary and rock salt focaccia bread.

Scrummy it was too.

We despair of the standard of bread we can buy in our town...

...it's one of the only downsides mind!!!

So my honeybee took matters into his own hands ;)

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

IW12 Verday or not Verday!

The twelfth Inspiration Wednesday. Yikes that's halfway through already!!!

Did not have (nor indeed have any desire to buy) the special Verday paints from 10 Seconds Studio....so set about trying to make a rusted/verdigris copper finish on my own :)

I started by using some sand texture gel coloured with teal acrylic to smudge on the page for some texture.

Then a bit of a wash all over with some orange and black acrylic.

Texture paste through a brick stencil and stipple coloured with burnt umber then claret and stone fresco paints...

....an old white plastic house number

(I saved it over 5 years ago when I replaced it with a much nicer stainless steel one)

given a make over too.

Wording added above reads "Home is where the heart is"

Front of inclusion... it says "Age is but a number written on the wall of life"

Two different thoughts as this page encompasses my "not to look forward to" big birthday later this year and my love of where I live....and no.....EXCUSE ME!!! I'm not 69!

On second thoughts that could allude to something entirely different.......ROFLIA

...back of inclusion.

Various stippled layers later of burnt sienna, juniper paint dabber, more burnt umber and a touch of copper inka gold peeping through just about got me to an effect that I really like. ;)

I think I really like this for the simple reason I had to use my brain and some of the things I've already learnt to experiment and it seems to have worked....well I like it and that's what counts!!!

ROFL :)

Thanks for looking.

xoxo Sioux

Holiday in rural Normandy

We have just spent 10 days away in France, some of it in Brittany but most of it in Normandy.

Looking back at the photo's it seems it had a lot to do with food and drink!

We (Me, SB, and our friend JB) sailed to Roscoff overnight and enjoyed a meal in the great restaurant aboard the Pont Aven ;)
We were meeting up with the rest of the 8 sharing the gite the day after landing.

A little detour just after landing to Carantac where we had an early morning coffee in a quirky tabac/cafe. Yikes it was a bit on the strong side!

Next stop Morlaix for some breakfast but we ended up just having another coffee and a little shop in a wine place....;)

Onwards then to Dinan......our overnight stop.

We needed an early lunch at this point....so we did!
Galvanised buckets for the mussel shells we were about to devour.

I love, love, love Dinan (I've only ever been to Paris for a few days (was not that impressed for some odd reason....I know....shocking!! lol) and so this was my first taste of real France.

 A wander around the town later and we ate in an atmospheric place in the evening.

Victor Hugo supposedly stayed in our hotel and there are quotes above the beds.
We had a nice breakfast in the hotel and went to the market to buy some cheeses for our week long stay....we had a little list of stuff we had to buy so we went to a supermarket just outside Dinan and had a field day looking at all the great fresh produce....our supermarkets need to learn a thing or two I think (it was the Intermarche chain if you are ever that way) :)

It was another 3 hours to get to our very rural part of Normandy.....a little place called La Foret Auvray.....you would never have heard of it if you had never been!!! Our gite was 2 kilometres from there......very peaceful but not so handy for a jaunt to a bar etc :)

Thanks for looking, I'll share a little more later

xoxo Sioux

12 Tags of 2015 June

Wow! Four months in a row at 12 tags...can I possibly revisit the couple I missed and catch up one of these days? :)

Here is my entry for 12 Tags of 2015 June

I have in mind to use this as a means to hold a gift card as T!m showed...hence the grabbing of a Costa Coffee motif from the net :)

The plaid effect was made with a Wendy Vecchi background stamp.

Coffee cup cut from suitably coloured Kraft Core and as I did not have the corrugate surface I used my ribbler on some Kraft card before cutting...

...can't remember the last time I used my ribbler....think it was back in 2006 when I made some roofs for little bird houses as table decorations at Christmas!

Thanks for looking.

xoxo Sioux

A little craft stash from SSS ;)

My little win at T!ms 12 tags allowed me to get these goodies from Simon Says Stamp.

I have not been buying the new distress colours as they come out as I knew I wanted to get them in the mini pad format ;)

A couple of masks....

although I like cutting my own I can't possibly manage to cut something as intricate as the writing type ones.

A set of gorgeous Gelato colours that reminded me of our recent holiday to Brittany and Normandy (pictures coming soon).

Thanks for looking.

xoxo Sioux

IW11 - finished!

The eleventh  Inspiration Wednesday.

Next stage blending with white acrylic....think I should have picked darker colours to start with but that could be just me liking a more grungy style! lol

I added "Painting is a new Adventure" and "Open the window and jump!!!" because the effect reminded me of stained glass windows. ;)

Back of inclusion

It was still looking a bit stark so I just had to add some stippled DI walnut stain around the edges of the pages ;)

Not sure if it looks "finished" to me....hey ho....if I really knew what I was doing I'm sure I could make something fabulous with this technique! ROFL

Thanks for looking.

xoxo Sioux

IW first stage!

The eleventh Inspiration Wednesday. first stage.

Have to say I am not totally sure what it is we are supposed to be achieving with this one....lol

Think one of the fast forward sections could have been a little less speeded up!

I've watched it about 6 times and still a bit in the dark ;)

I am going to have to go with my own thoughts on how it is going to resemble what Donna did with the colours!!

ROFL

Thanks for looking.

xoxo Sioux