A new feathered friend and some flowers!

Meet my new feathered friend! Ok, not quite feathered...it's scrap coffee dyed paper and thread but still quite adorable if I may say so myself! I made this Fantail yesterday while watching TV with the kids and I'm now in the process of adding it to a collage. I usually avoid illustrating birds because drawing is not my strong point and I am never happy with what I produce. This one makes the grade though! I am quite pleased:)
I opened up the flower press today to see how the flowers I put in before the op were looking (thanks Shari for the reminder!) and I was quite surprised by the results of the dried Kowhai Flowers...or should that be Fallen, dried Kowahi? I didn't dare pick flowers from a protected plant! Honest!

Daisies, forget-me-nots and Kowhai stamens....they went in greenish and came out brown! The yellow kowhai's were a very strong, fresh yellow when pressed and they too went brown. I am not really happy with them (the petal) but I do like the stamens! Unfortunately due my family commitments I have missed most of the flowering season and I havn't had the opportunity to collect enough fresh flowers to make more dye. I will be making this a priority for next year as I really feel this is an unfinished project!

Today as I logged into blogger I noticed that today would be my 300th post....happy 300th! Some of you have been here for nearly all of them too! You know who you are.....sending you all warm fuzzies! Thanks to everyone who's sharing this journey with me, I am blessed!

What inspires...

Pat at The Weaver of Grass recently hosted a meme... inspiration Wednesday...on her blog. I missed the boat completely! It's now Friday NZ time but I've decided to ignore that and post anyway. Pat, my apologies. I will have to pay better attention if there is a next time!

So..what inspires me...hmmm. Well, I feel like I am pretty in tune with what inspires me. Birds, nests, trees and leaves! Flower buds, seed pods, bare branches, feathers, bark, moss...sometimes I wonder if I wasn't really meant to be a bird and not a human! Bear with me now while I tell you about yesterday. Just after lunch I decided to take my camera to Yatton park to see what was new. I have to confess I have been a bit of a winter snob. Autumn is ofcourse the best season (in my not-so-humble opinion) and winter has been a cold and wet necessity to get to Spring (the second best season...ofcourse!) Summer...well it's long and hot which makes for great beach photos and time with friends and family. Yes, we do consider Summer to be hot in NZ! lol. All things are relative! So back to my walk. I was in need of a wander under some trees my heart tuned into the birds and the sights and sounds of winter turning into spring. The first tree to capture my attention was an "I-don't-know-what-it-is-tree." I could see it was breaking out into flower and I thought it would be an early magnolia. This is what I found when I got closer...

This wonderful furry little bud turning into this lovely, daisy like flower! The bud was soft and fuzzy yet quite solid, no doubt to protect the delicate flower inside from the batterings of winter. The tree was still at the more bud than flower stage but I can imagine how glorious it will be when in full bloom!

Another "I-don't-know-what-it-is-tree" was also bursting with these delightful pink flowers. I took a lot of photos of this tree and I found myself wondering how on earth I never knew it existed before! It was the Tui and Wax-eyes that alerted my attention to it and now I am not entirely sure how I missed it before!

So there it is...I could have put it in a nutshell and simply said that it is nature that inspires me...but then I wouldn't have had the perfect excuse to share these lovely blossomy delights with you! I hope they inspire you too:)

PS: Tomorrow is the big DIS-CO reveal day...I hope you will come back to play "Lucky Dip" with me! All shall be revealed tomorrow!

A good day...

It's been a great Monday! The kids all got back to school without a hitch and after a bit of housework I was left to do what I wanted...well first off I wrote myself a TO DO list which was a bit adventurous for one day but I did tick a couple of things off and so that's progress! Below are my treasures from a quick trip to the op shop just before I picked the kids up...

The container is a bit kitch (I think that's the term for a bit trashy!) but I adore it because it has birds on it...and not just any bird but NZ native birds. For $1 I am very happy! It actually has a blue plastic lid but I didn't put it on for the photo. Opps! The enamel bowl has nothing to do with the bird bucket, I just liked it and when we go on a real camp it will be well used! The fabric will be used to make cushion covers as soon as I have time! Winter will probably result in lots of sewing now that I have finally acquired a sewing machine! Last but not least is a gardening diary book which was in bad condition but at 50c I am sure I can make use of the imagery and the intact signatures. So those are the 'scores' I made and that in itself would be enough to make me happy...but my good day didn't stop there...I got my flower press out of the cupboard to retrieve some leaves I pressed about 3 weeks ago (remember my hat full of leaves?) and they're looking lovely!Almost to lovely to use...

The green leaves are marigold leaves, I was just playing to see what they came out like:) I have a paper making set/sieve/tray so I am thinking that some home-made paper might also be on the cards...look at the wonderful embossed print I discovered when I lifted the leaves! What a great surprise! I am not sure what I will be able to do with the paper (it's soft tissue/serviette paper) but I have kept it of course!

Last but not least...anyone for a bit of Bacon? These are my recipe cards for this months recipe fat-book tip in swap. I gave fun painting the paper for my bacon strips!

It's no longer Monday, I ended up saving this in draft. It's Tuesday now and I have been out collecting leaves before the council mows them or the forcasted storm destroys them...they're all so pretty and there are so many red leaves at the moment! As always...watch this space! Hoping to tour the globe later tonight...I've missed my blogging friends!

Pressed flowers

My Dad made the flower press for me using recycled shelving from his old pantry when he built his new kitchen. I like it for sentimental and environmental reasons but I also like it because it still shows the old shelf liner and the cottage flowers that once covered it! Obviously there were 2 layers of different prints on top of the paint.

I've never pressed marigolds before but they're tantalising me from the garden and they've won my respect after helping me to grow cabbage's successfully for the first time. I grew a full crop organically this year so hurray for the natural pest-repellent properties of marigolds! The pressed flowers will no doubt end up in collages and I am keen to make a dye up from the petals too.

I also hear if you drink enough pure marigold tea it has hallucinogenic properties although I won't be trying that out:)