rubykittyruby

  It won't be long until the blackberries are ripe & ready for picking.  Which means that every time I go for a walk along a country lane or down to the allotment, I'll go armed with either an empty sandwich box or a plastic bag.  Before long the freezer will be full to overflowing with berries, and I'll have enough soft fruit to add to my breakfast porridge to last the winter.  But in the meantime ...  During this third heatwave of the summer I'm largely staying indoors.  Which seems a shame when the sun's shining brightly, but it's so hot I feel like I'm going to melt.  I've started reading this historical novel, set during the reign of Henry IV, and it's very enjoyable so far.  The heroine's self assured and strong willed, and determined to safeguard her family's precarious wealth and social position.  She's not especially likeable, but sometimes characters are more interesting if the reader's doesn't wholly like or admire ...

  I had a few requests after posting this photo on Facebook, people asking if I could explain how I made these paper flowers. Your wish is my command, and here's the info.  It's all very simple and you don't need any advanced drawing skills.  So grab a stack of gell prints, a pair of scissors and off we go!  The type of print that seems to work best is one where there's a fair amount of detail, rather than a block of solid plain colour.  Prints where you've maybe channelled your inner Elizabeth St. Hilaire and 'layered layered layered' as she's always urging us to do.  POPPIES If we start with simple poppy seed heads and stalks, they're cut freehand from paper that's mainly shades of orange and brown.  I glued those on to a sheet of white copier paper, then cut them out, leaving a narrow border around each.  Backing the gell print with the white paper adds that contrasting border, but also strengthens the piece, especially the thin stalks. ...

I haven't posted for a while, and can't give you any good reason for that.  Day to day life gets in the way sometimes. Odd jobs and irritating tasks need doing, and sometimes have to take precedent over taking pictures and wittering away on Blogger.   Well, we managed to miss the worst of Storm Babet in this part of Yorkshire.  The rain fell continuously for an entire day, and I discovered there was a tiny gap at the top of the sliding glass doors leading to the conservatory, and through that tiny gap rain dripped down for hours!  I can't complain though, can I?  I mean, all I needed to do was deal with several sheets of soggy newspaper and a few damp cloths.  Nothing compared to the poor people whose houses have flooded.  I can't imagine how awful that'd be.   Today's foggy.  It's nearly lunchtime and it's not fully lifted.  I've been indoors this morning, happily splashing acrylic paint around and producing yet more prints us...

I'm typing this blog post while full to bursting with pasta and a couple of Twix bars.  Very indulgent, and not exactly low on calories.  Still, I think I earned my little feast.  I spent this morning, after an initial burst of cleaning & tidying, on upcycling a couple of board books, having fun using up the mountain of Gelli prints I've amassed.  After that I headed to the allotment, cutting back tangled blackberry bushes and pulling up weeds, trying to get the plot under control so it can eventually be put to bed for winter.  I picked the very last of the blackberries, and they're sitting in a tub, ready to be tipped into tomorrow morning's porridge.  There's a single mammoth sized butternut squash that's still far from ready, so I'm hoping that'll see enough sun in the next few weeks in order to ripe up nicely.   After that I headed home, via a quick nip into the local charity shop, naturally.  I picked up this Fatface top for just £4....