A Fluffy Pink and Violet Sunrise!

I took this shot early one morning. I love the combination of the pink and violet colours! Since taking this photo the neighbours have cut some of their tree's down, so I will get a better view of the sunrise. 

I don't have any artwork to share at the moment, but Lavinia have just released a new range of stamps! Of course I ordered them, lol! 

I spent two days in hospital this week after becoming unwell. My Potassium levels were way too low, so I spent two days back in hospital while they gave me some medication to bring my levels back up to a normal range. I got home just in time to order the new LS stamps! I think the range is called The Twilight Tea stamps. I've been watching their videos as LS is having their annual Summer Fairy Festival. They have it each year, and of course everyone dresses up for it. It's great to see all their live demoe's, and see what everyone is wearing. There's lot's of gorgeous sunflowers on their costumes. While they're having a stinking hot Summer, I'm down here in the Southern Hemisphere experiencing a very mil/warm Winter! Yes, we've had some icy cold days, but the weather has been really warm/humid. I am not complaining! 

It's a beautiful sunny day today, even the wild birds sound like they are celebrating this unusually warm weather.  We have had rain, some very heavy rain, but it's definitely a much warmer Winter than usual. Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and let you all know I am still here! I've been tired and haven't had much energy to create anything arty farty! But while I wait for my new stamps to arrive, I've been watching lot's of videos using the new stamps. One thing I like about LS stamps is, you can mix older tamps with new stamps and they all mix and match. Tracey is super talented and she always comes up with such amazing artwork for her stamps. The details on the stamps is incredible. Such fine delicate lines, and they all stamp beautifully.

Well that about wraps it up for today, I will be back! 

Thanks for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

 

I Made These For Lunch!

 

I don't (usually) post stuff about recipes or cooking, but I just made these for lunch and thought I'd share some photo's!  I cooked them in my Air Fryer, and it was so quick and easy. (And tasty!) Here's the "recipe"...1egg, milk, chopped Bok Choy (or any greens you like), small tin of drained tuna, (Romeo got the tuna juice!) sweet chilly sauce to taste, salt, and grated cheese. (Whatever flavour you like) I mixed the ingredients, then filled 3 small tin foil containers. I popped them into the Air Fryer for around 8 minutes at 180C. If they aren't quite ready, just pop them back for another couple of minutes. They are HOT when cooked, so be careful removing them from the Air Fryer. I let them sit for a few minutes before taking it out of the tinfoil.

I added a couple of slices of cold tomato to them before I ate them. Yumm!

This last photo shows a close up of what they look like when cut open. I used what ingredients I had in the fridge, and you can use all kind of different foods. My appetite is still not the best at the moment, but it will get better over the next few days. I didn't have an exact 'recipe', so I can't give exact amounts I used. But it's not rocket science and is a very adaptable 'recipe. I'm sure I will make these again some time!

Ok so who's coming to wash and dry the dishes...?!  Oops, that would be me, lol!

Thanks for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

New Card!

 

I followed a video from Jo Rice (LS) and created this card. I started off using some yellow Distress Oxide ink for the sun , then Spiced marmalade and Wild Honey, both DO inks. The green bit at the bottom of the card, well to be honest, I can't remember which green I used, lol! Ditto for the blue around the edge of the orange/yellow bit. Sorry! I stamped the tree (LS) and the wee bird last. The "Quiet Time" sticker is also from LS. There are also some gold mica splatters. I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in hospital this week, and my brain is a bit scrambled.  Feel free to ask any questions about the card and I will do my best to answer! Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self and shine bright each and every day!

Julie (Nicola)

Happy Birthday to my niece, Julie (Nicola). Born in Hamilton New Zealand June 19 1969) Wishing you a fabulous day!

Love from your Aunty Shona. xxx

OMG! I Made A Card...or Two!

I have to give credit to the lovely Jo Rice (Head Designer for Lavinia Stamps) for kick starting my mojo, and creating this card (above and below). I watched a short video she had done. She made a tag, but I made mine into a card. Yes, that's artificial moss under the flowers. (Temu) The flowers are from Lavinia, as are the corner stamp. The butterflies are little Lavinia stickers. And if you look closely at the photos below, you can see a wee sticker that say's "Reindeer Moss", also from Lavinia Stamps. I created the Turquoise and Lemon back ground on water colour card using Brusho's. Cutting out the flowers wasn't fun😡. I could have used my scan 'n cut machine, but thought I'd use scissors thinking it wouldn't be too difficult. NEXT time I will use my scan' cut machine!

  

I have to give a huge thank you to Andrea (please visit her blog, Snippets by Andrea) for this card below. I saw on her blog the other day, that she had made some beautiful cards using a card pack/kit. I was so impressed by the cards she had created that I jumped online and checked my local craft store to see what kind of packs/kits they had. I found  this 'Simple Stories" Classic Pooh kit which I purchased. This is the first card from a kit that I have ever made. The instructions were clear and easy to follow. It's not perfect, but I had loads of fun and am happy with it. So thank you Andrea for giving my mojo a kick start!! I can now understand why people like these kits. The choice is amazing!

I have finally found a fabulous photo editing program and it came with my new laptop! I 'accidentally' found it while checking out what the different icons were .So now I am able to edit my photo's so much easier than I was. The pink background was made using the new program. It's called Microsoft Design. It has so many editing options to choose from. Romeos trip to the vet went well, he is taking some probiotic which he loves. It's a powder that I sprinkle on his food each morning. His food has gravy (which he loves) so I mix it in with that. His sneezing has gone as well. He had a half of an antihistamine each day for two days, and that has stopped him sneezing. So we are  happy little vegemite's again! I just wish the temperatures were a bit higher. We had three awesome sunny days, but today has more clouds. I think it is supposed to rain later, and again tomorrow. Don't forget to check out Andrea's blog - Snippets by Andrea.

Thank you for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

 

I Cleaned My Brushes!

I decided to clean my stencil brushes. Here's how I did it! I used and old plastic bowl and an old sieve thing that I don't use any more. (Photo above) The sieve fits inside the owl, which was a bonus. I added some warm water and added a drop or two of dishwashing liquid. I put the brushes in the water one at a time, and gently 'scrubbed' them on the sieve. The sieve I used has small fine steel netting and is very gentle on my brushes. Once I had finished I cleaned the brushes under some warm water to get rid of any dishwashing liquid on them. Below is 2 of the brushes before I cleaned them. I have the brushes in three sizes, these are the 2 biggest ones.

Below are the 2 brushes after I cleaned them. There's some staining on the black one, but there's no actual 'colour' left on the brush. I haven't cleaned my brushes for four years, so I think it was time to give them a  clean. They are now drying on the window ledge in the

sun. YES! We have sun today! After days of heavy rain we finally have a sunny day!

 

The next couple of photo's are of the rocks I have made and painted, so far. I really need lot's of dry sunny days, but being Winter I know that's not likely to happen any time soon. The Turtle below measures about 2 1/2 inches in length, and around 1 1/2 inches in width. I also have a much larger mold of him, which I didn't realize come with the smaller Turtle. I like this smaller size and once I get time I will spray on some sealant and put him in amongst my pot plants. 

The Bee Kind rock is one I found in my garden. It was smooth and easy to paint. The M&M was made using plaster of Paris, which I found easy to mix and use. Unfortunately it broke when I took it out of the mold - so it became a broken M&M! It was nice and smooth to paint. (I'm using acrylic paint and Posca pens to draw with.  The pink rock was one I hand created without a mold, just to see how easy it was. The mix was too wet and sloppy and dry in an uneven way. No big deal, I'm still learning! You can see it isn't smooth compared to the ones done in a mold. The red heart one was created using cement, so it is heavier than the POP ones. Of course, there's also the ones I've made which aren't painted. There's the Pig, five heart ones, some flat some more rounded, a crouching kitten which  has a hollow part you can grow a small plant in, as well as a Hedgehog you can put a plant in. I also did a gnome one. I also have a few more molds yet to be used.

To be honest, I don't know why I am making all these - I hate colouring in! Ok so these rocks are all painted, but it means I still have to 'colour' in some way! Which bring me to my next topic. I have lost my mojo for making cards. It disappeared some time back. I am selling some of my Lavinia Stamps, so if anyone is interested, please leave me a message in the comments (or email me) and I will get back to you and discuss details. I still check the LS FB pages but nothing there is inspiring me. To be honest, it's stress. Romeo has some sneezing and I think he caught it from Wookie. Romeo is a total indoor cat, where as Wookie is an outdoor cat. She was sneezing recently when she was inside and whatever it was I think she passed it on to Romeo. So I will make an appointment for him to see the Vet. On top of that, I have been unwell for about 10-12 days. I've got a sore throat that isn't going away, digestive issues, not feeling hungry so not eating properly and feeling tired - oh the joy of having an immune system that doesn't work properly! On top of that it's Winter which I hate. I'm always cold (I have Reynauds which means my blood doesn't circulate properly). Right now my fingers are so cold they hurt. Wear gloves? I hear you say! Sounds like a good idea, but they don't work because there is no blood circulation in my fingers. It would be like putting gloves on a block of ice. The gloves wouldn't warm to block of ice because it has no blood circulation. I know it's hard to understand, and you don't have to! I'm just having a bit of a vent! I will stop here and get his posted!

Thanks for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!

 

 

A Cold Foggy Wet and Dark Day!

 So I haven't made any more molds because of the horrible wet weather we're having at the moment. Not only is it wet, it was very foggy this morning until around mid day. Then the rain came and forgot to leave! It's been so dark I've had the lights on all day. Have I mentioned how much I hate Winter?? (For anyone interested, I suffer from mild depression, mostly in Winter. Its called SADS, Seasonal affective Disorder and is due to not enough natural sunlight.   Check out my post called, "The Cloud" 18 August 2015. I wrote it one day after having a bad day. I hope you enjoy it!) Anyway, here are some random photo's I found on my SD card. 

Below is a rainbow from a couple of days back. It hung in the sky for about half an hour before it slowly faded and the sun came out.

Below is a photo of the Heron that visited me recently. I forgot to post it with the original post I did. What you can't see, is "Wookie" to the left, running to try to catch him! The Heron looked so graceful as he took off, his body seemed too big to get off the ground, but he made it with plenty of time to get away from Wookie!  Watching the Heron fly off  and into the air kind of reminded me of how planes take off.  You think they are way too big and heavy to get off the ground, but they do. And, to me, they also look graceful as they speed down the runway and then magically and gracefully lift off into the air. The Heron was not in any hurry when he took off, it's just that he was quite  a distance from Wookie and knew he was safe once he was airborne! 

Below is a photo I took one day of a wild Dove. He wasn't too bothered about me with my camera, and just sat there as if he knew I wanted to take his photo! 

The photo below is a scrap book page I did a few years ago. I am NOT a scrapbooker and struggle with creating pages. The photo's are some I took of my father. Sadly he passed away very suddenly in 1982. I was 23 at the time. My dad loved fishing, and these are a couple of photo's I took of him with the fish he caught, before we cooked them over the barbeque for dinner! The 2 bottom photos were taken at Mangawhai where we had a batch my father built. It was right by the ocean, and I spent most of my childhood and into my 20's growing up there. My family and I spent the holidays and weekends there.  The top photo is of my dad, and my dog Tami, and my brothers stock car in the background.

I took this next photo (below) of what I sometimes see in my bathroom window at night. It isn't house lights, and it isn't street lights. Any  houses/street lights cannot be seen because of thick bush and tree's in the way. The 'dotty' things are on the glass. I've seen this image all my life, it's not something new. From my observations it seems to have something to do with the full moon, which is tomorrow for me. I think the image looks like some kind of religious image.  Anyway, I find it interesting and bit mysterious!

P.S...I have some new molds...!

Thanks for dropping by! Have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine bright each and every day!