Eight of Santa's Little Helpers stayed behind ...

We had visitors in our garden - eight of them ...

enjoying the view ...

and there is a little baby as well!

Big Daddy.

Hey, Dad. Now, about my xmas present ...

Get off! I want to swing! No, you get off!!

Look Ma, look! I'm Spiderman !

No, no, wait! I am a xmas decoration!

Damn. Dad won't give a hint ... I wonder what I'm getting for xmas?

Wow!! Look everybody, look!! I got a missile for xmas! Oh.

No wait, it is a stupid old garden lamp ...

Christmas

Dear friends, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I wish you a joyful and peaceful holiday ... xxx Anairam

What Santa brought ...

... the final set of second pages.


I am starting on it today and hope to have it finished on the 5th of January ...

So dear friends, expect fewer posts between now and then, although I will be popping in every third day or so ... Have a great holiday and celebrations (if you do) in the meantime!
xxx Anairam

Karin Miller

If you are South African, you might be familiar with Karin Miller's giftwrap and cards, and her stunning work for magazines such as De Kat and VISI. I love her work - the combination of photography, graphic art and digital manipulation appeals to me ...
Some examples:

Newer work:



And if you love ABC's, like I do, check out her amazing alphabet here!

The Art Journal Continues ...

It looks like saying something visually, without the use of words, is not an option for me ...

I like word play ...

It was the first really nice summer's day and I wanted to incorporate a bird, sky, sun and sea.

I finished Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood a few days ago. She is one of my favourite authors, and the quote, said of one of the characters, resonated with me for a variety of reasons ...

Yay - I finally found a free typewriter font that I like! I've also used it in one of my new, still-to-be-finished pages ...

From U to Z - The End of a Project

Up. The simplest page of the lot. It is my tribute to LIM.

There is a story to the burnt page. On doing the X page (see below), a huge blob of red paint fell on Virginia's letter to John Lehman. I didn't think she would like it one bit, so I tried to remove the offending stain by dousing it with spirits, and then to (artistically, of course) burn the remaining pink away. It got out of hand unfortunately.

Words starting with W displayed in an envelope Window.

X is for Xmas, as we all know by now.

Y is for Yin-Yang and Yoga.

The stripes are from a plastic gift bag, and I added a little zebra charm with a bead (also with a zebra on it, but you won 't be able to see it).

The end page.

And finally, a little envelope with 26 letters, A - Z, so that one can start all over again!

X is for Xmas (Part 3)

For my tree I made these decorations:
A Heap of Hearts (and Doily Discs)

A Flock of Birds (with glittered wings, of course!)

and
An Army of Angels ... (the wings are detachable)

With the addition of fairy lights and silver bells (from the carboot sale) I think my tree will be just perfect!

Although, kendalee's beautiful post about her colourful xmas butterflies here and here make me look at my monochrome decorations with a sense of sadness and let's be honest, dissatisfaction. Black and white? What was I thinking??? Next year I'm going for colour!

Q, R, S, T

Queen - Magazine pictures, pens, ribbon, plastic bag with 4 miniature queen cards.

Red Roses - Pens, old giftwrap, paint, magazine picture, tiny fabric rose.

Sewing Small-Sized Stitches - thread, pattern paper, magazine cutouts, size ribbon.

Tea - coffee filter paper, magazine pictures, felt letter, sticker.

X is for Xmas (Part 2)

Remember my two spring wreaths from here? When they dried out, I kept them because I thought they would make nice bases for Xmas wreaths.

The lavender one I decorated with some delicate green glass balls and a string of silver bells I got at the carboot sale. I also added some purple raffia. Nearer to Christmas I'll add some fesh lavender sprigs


The rosemary one was wrapped with old silver tinsel (from the carboot sale), to which I added some silver bows and my red plastic robin from here.
I think I will add fresh rosemary on Christmas eve - the rosemary dries out very quickly.
Just to show that I have not completely stuck to my LIM white, silver and black colour scheme ...

I took out a few of my collection of vintage tins, and added a few snow globes ...

Svetlana's Stuffy Bear

Today Svetlana sent me some pictures of the beautiful bear that she made over the weekend, and I cannot wait to show it to you! I LOVE this bear!!

To say nothing of the little satchel & its contents ...

Here he is reading with Svetlana.

I am including part of Svetlana's email to explain:

"His name is the Patriot Bear of the Great Revolution and also The Glasnost. This name is not short so I call him Boris. I make him the bag to carry bread and vodka to work. [ ...]

Also for little joke I send you pictuire where I read with Boris. This is the book with the Five Thoughts of the Great Lenin."

Don't you just love it? I think she must open an Etsy shop!