I stamped some pre-printed paper

I cut up lots of sheets of plain paper

I printed out one of my favourite images onto material and mounted it on colour co-ordinating backing paper

I assembled all the sheets of paper, the back and front covers added the friend embellisment and popped it in to post to a very kind friend.

True Friend

I have done some crafting but can't really post it on here yet.

Well here is a sneak peek just to prove I have done something

But I have been very busy on my other blog if you want to take a look HERE

Revealed - The triplets names

Thank you for your suggestions for names for my new Modern Game birds.............

May I present to you Zola on the left and Lola on the right.

I love the rationale behind your choices.

Zola - after Zola Budd - the South African Olympic runner.

and

Lola - "She was a show girl"  as these were show girls.

Meet 'Twiggy'  - a great suggestion.

"Legs like thin twigs like the model"

L-R

Twiggy, Zola (more sandy feathers over her head, neck, and back) and Lola who is slightly lighter

My modern flower arrangement

I went on a workshop Friday afternoon, and made a modern flower arrangement

As you can see it is large semi circle which I made using three Oasis foam blocks glued together, then cut up to shape.

The other ladies were lucky as they had seen the arrangment before, but I had no idea of what it would like like. 

Since I took the above photo I have finished filling in all the gaps with roses and foliage

I had to collect 100+ leaves all the same.  Everyone except me brought ivy leaves to cover the sides.

Silly me picked bay leaves from my tree, and took a great deal of time trying to get them a uniform shape and size.  Instead of just placing the leaves on at random - as you can with ivy, those being all different shapes and much bigger too - I decided that the bay leaves would look nicer following the line of the semi cirle, and made a 'fan' shape.  Patrick says that it reminds him of Roman 'things'. (They were made out of laurel though, but I didn't tell him)  I had both sides to do and each one is pinned into shape, and I used more thatn 100 leaves - and I was the slowest!  Why do I make things hard for myself?  It just comes naturally he he.

The next bit usually makes people gasp when you do it.

To fill the middle of the 'sandwich' I used roses - just the tops -

so the long stems were snipped right off!

It is infilled with tips of yellow conifer and pittosporum

With carnations, dried pink berries

and creamy pearl beads.

The flowers and rosebuds are all opening up in the warmth of the room making a really striking display.  And oh those bay leaves - they do smell wonderful.

It was quite a challenge doing a 'modern' arrangement, and I was surprised that I had the patience to pin every single leaf symmetrically - not like me at all!

A taste of the Orient

Just a little pendant

And this is the reverse

Vintage Oriental

I love the colouring of vintage photos and frames

they seem to suit all colour schemes

Sara from Time for Crafting is a very good photographer - so when I wanted to make her a surprise - I thought of a rather stunning photo she had taken of two of her children on holiday.

You might think it sounds a bit 'naff' walking around with a bag for life with a photo.............

But I think it is a work of art in itself!

I like doing these image transfers, as when you see

them close up, closer than this close up

the images look like paintings on canvas.

Fixing a mess - the artistic way.

I have a confession to make - I did an image transfer that went wrong - big time - it flaked off in lots of places.  It was on one of the hessian bags I have been using lately.  I spent half an hour picking off the flakes that would peel off - and sanding down/off those that wouldn't before applying another transfer on top - and the same thing happened but not quite so bad.

So I decided to rescue it - and paint over it with acrylic paints.

It was rather liberating painting with big gloops of acrylic!

I had nothing to lose as it was messed up any way

so I went all 'Monet' -ish!

Where there were renmants of writing showing through

where I had painted - I just wrote over with a Promarker

It's all gobbledegook!

There was a big chunk of the lady missing so this

was rather a challenge - but it looks fine from a

distance which is how you are supposed to view paintings

The bag is lined with sealed plastic - so its a great surface to paint

on - it doesn't soak through to the other side!

That's another fine mess I got myself out of Ollie!

Just quick chicken post - for me - then I'll be getting back to crafting again.

My first egg of this year - don't know who laid it - but it was lovely and warm

The new triplets are settling in nicely - it is still 'them and us'

but it was the first day after all!

Scrabble has taken to perching - you can tell it's her and  not

the new wheaten, as Scrabble has more black on the tip of her tail

Just up and out for the day

They are such a joy and so sweet and intelligent

This is the new bantam babe - notice that she has less

 black feathers on the top of her tail?

The partridge girls

Aren't they so cute - you can see how tiny they are;

the dish they are all eating out of is a little budgie cage container!

And this is old lady Gozzie a rare Rosecomb

looking  a bit put out at all the fuss I am making!

That's not my name - Give me a name!

I have been on a mission, to get some more pure bred rare breed bantams - and today I got some!  I was only going to get two but...............

Here is one of their fathers - I didn't buy him - he's a Champion and not for sale.

When I saw the fabulous champion birds - a song popped into my head!

Holding back, every day the same

Don't wanna be a loner

And here is the other father.

Listen to me, oh no

I never say anything at all

But with nothing to consider they forget my name

Here are my prize winning show girls - well two of them

They call me 'hell'

They call me 'Stacey'

They call me 'her'

They call me 'Jane'

That's not my name

That's not my name

That's not my name

The third darling show girl is the bird at the back - another Partridge Modern Game Bird.

Are you calling me darling?

Are you calling me bird?

Are you calling me darling?

Are you calling me bird?

That's not my name

Here they are at home this afternoon

They call me 'quiet'

But I'm a riot

Mary-Jo-Lisa

Always the same

That's not my name

That's not my name

I am a Wheaton - the colour of wheat - which is what I'm eatin'

That's not my name

You've found a worm - you must Wormy, cos you're eatin a worm
That's not my name

I'd miss the catch if they threw me the ball

I'm the last kid standing up against the wall

Keep up, falling, these heels they keep me boring

Getting glammed up and sitting on the fence now

So alone all the time at night

Lock myself away

Listen to me, I'm not

Although I'm dressed up, out and all with

Everything considered they forget my name

(ame, ame, ame)

These were all the photos that I could get of them this afternoon, the latter two taken through the window of my greenhouse/potting shed/lean to - where I had left them to just play.  They were so excited!  No way were they going to stand still and pose for me - they just flew away.  They scratched around and managed to find worms in my potted strawberry and geranium plants.  They knocked a newpaper off my pumpkins and had fun hiding underneath it and tearing it.  They acted more like puppies or kittens than posh showbirds!

So here they are - Modern Game birds - which aren't really as modern as their name suggests.  Originally they were bred and used as fighting birds - hence their tall stance, and long legs and necks, like the jungle Malay.

 Once fighting was banned the breed amost died out apparently, as they don't lay many eggs, and there is about as much meat on them as you would get in a chicken nugget - so were no use as utility birds. 

But wealthy people loved the little birds around their gardens  - they don't do any damage like chickens do.  No digging up plants, digging big holes, they are dainty and quiet too.  In 1850 they started to be bred for showing - and I am pleased that they did!

Mine might look identical when you first look at them - but when  you look closely their markings are different.  The wheaten coloured hen, does at first glance look just like Scrabble - but she is a slightly lighter colour underneath,  and has more black markings on her wings, and across her back she has darker speckles.

The two Partridge game birds, are quite different too.  Their markings are differnt - they have silver, grey and black feathers across their backs in different formations - and their heads and necks are different shades of yellow.  I have put a purple ring on one of them - to make it more obvious.

I have just been out to the lean to, to find the new bantams in the dark - without any lights - what a task that was - boy did they hide them selves well, behind pots, on a shelf hidden behind a box, and the last one was behind a sack of compost hidden inside a pot on its side!

They are now tucked up with my other banties in Peckingham Palace and they will all live together in their and the run for a week, so that the new girls aclimatise - they all get to know each other - and more importantly, the new ones get to know where they live and where they need to go back to roost.  As they are high fliers, one of their wings have been clipped, otherwise they might well fly up into the trees to roost - and I didn't want them to come down in someone else's garden as there are fields just a garden away from us.  By the time the flight feathers grow back - they will be so content that they won't even bother to escape!

So - if  you have read this far and are not yawning with boredon - how about choosing names for my new additions!  I will pick names from any you leave - will choose next Sunday.

Haven't seen this in a long time!

We have rain - oh look - some spikey green stuff that I haven't seen for such a long time!

Grass !  The blue tits are busy flying in and out of their green pottery bird house hanging on the pergola

No sign of the bantam babes in Peckingham Palace

They are off out before the heavy rain comes

No sign that they have been perching on the strawberry pots!

Couldn't find them under the hedges.

What's that up there?

Will zoom in and see!

Morning Gozzie and Scrabble - found any insects?

Oops its starting to rain heavily now - are you going back inside?

Scrabble: " Come on Gozzie, quick, Daisy's under here and its cozy and dry."

The rain is tipping it down now - so I left them too it - I am staying inside in the warm, got some cooking to get done today and cakes to bake tomorrow before I am off out on a mission - more of that Monday.  I am so excited!