A Wee Pre Warning and a Final Flutter

What is Coming up Over the Next Few Weeks

Hello Everyone 

I hope I find you well and looking forward to a new week and a new month. 

For many of us, June is a particularly busy crafting month, with the start of both the Summer of Color and the Index Card a Day challenges. Also known as SOC and ICAD respectively. 

Wee Man and I are both doing ICAD together and I am also doing SOC. 

Both of these start on June 1st, but don't let that stop you clicking on the links above, or on my sidebar, taking a look around and joining in at any point you like. 

They aren't races or competitions; they are both for fun, stretching your imagination and are all about 'the doing'

Now, as well as the above, I am continuing with T on Tuesday with Elizabeth from Altered Book Lover and the rest of the 'T gang', Tag Tuesday and my fellow Taggers, and also with my weekly sharing of some Anti Journal pages with Carolyn and Karen.

Now the 'Wee Pre Warning' mentioned above, is just to let you know that my intent is to blog about everything as much as possible, some of the posts will be quite long, particularly on a Tuesday, and I'm hoping that you don't get fed up seeing this blog in your email or feed, perhaps, every day (now there's a challenge for myself huh?, Haha). 

Oh, and I'm also here to ask if you will keep your fingers crossed that I don't drive myself demented? Will you? 

Thanks ;-) Lol

Now, the final look, for this year, at our Painted Lady butterflies;

well actually it's just one; the last one of four that made it out into the big wide world to go make more duplicates of themselves, I hope. 

The first three got swept briskly away on the wind, but this final one went on my hand and then I put it onto my wee Lilac bush.

Hope you enjoyed that. Did you see it 'dive in' for a drink? How marvellous and wondrous nature is.

Well, thank you for visiting;

stay well,

and be happy.

See you again soon (very, hehe)

{{Hugs}} Mo :o)) x

Anti Journal Pages and Another Little Flutter

Hi there Everyone!

I hope this finds you all well. I am delighted to say that my migraines have stayed away for a few days now so I'm hoping that cluster has gone and may it be a long time before the next! 

Now this week I am sharing a fun double spread in my Anti Journal using the prompt 

'A Crowd of Faces'

I used a napkin, some faces from a sticker booklet, I cut faces from magazines, I used a magazine freebie to stamp some faces onto tissue paper, (that enabled me to reverse them too), and I stamped some faces from Rubber Dance stamp set Celestial Images also onto tissue paper.  I added some water colour to the stamped faces and I added watercolour to the remaining white spaces on the page.  

I enjoyed creating this and am indeed, still very much enjoying using this book. I've heard a whisper that there is a new one coming out after Summer, so I am excited to think that may be true, as I will definitely want to get it. 

I am looking forward to finding out what Carolyn, if her internet is behaving, and Karen have done in their Wreck It journals lately. If you want to see too, just click on their names and you will be transported to their wonderful blogs. 

In the meantime, for those of you following the Butterfly Project, here is the latest photograph, taken just yesterday of our four Painted Lady butterflies.  A 100% increase on the first batch. YiPpEe!

I will of course try to get some photographs when these beauties are released 'into the wild'. And then that will be the end of the project for this year, but Wee Man and I are definitely going to help with more next year.

We are going to be busy in June doing the Index Card A Day challenge, hosted by Tammy Garcia, which you can read all about over here,

And I will also be taking part in Kristin's Summer of Colour challenge which you can read all about over here. 

As well as keeping up with my regular things like T on Tuesday and Tag Tuesday and Wreck it On Wednesday with my Anti Journal, I am going to be juuust a little too occupied for more caterpillar rearing this Summer. 

Righto - I thank you for visiting, I hope you enjoyed it enough to leave a few words.

Wishing you good health and happiness

{{Hugs}} Mo :o)) xx

T Stands for.......

.........Treats and another Tag

Hello Everyone! 

It is Tuesday; and that means it's time for Tea with Elizabeth and friends over at Altered Book Lover. Well actually, as I write this, it's still Sunday, and FYI the caterpillars are still at the chrysalides stage. If that changes by Tuesday I will update this at the bottom ok? Ok. We are so excited there is potentially five Painted Ladies this time! :-D 

Now then; on to business. 

On Thursday and Friday of last week, Wee Man was off school for In-service days. We like it when there's no school, it means we can come and go as we please :-D

So on Thursday I decided to take him to the Premier Inn/Brewers Fayre in the next town for a lunch time treat; mainly because they have a soft play area indoors and a decent play area outside too, (in a secure area), and as it was a fine bright day, the doors to the outside area were open. Yay!
We travelled by bus of course; Wee Man's most favourite mode of transport.

The menus

were both quite good

Wee Man had Macaroni cheese, garlic bread and orange juice

and I had a toasted cheese and ham ciabatta with sides and my drink was Apple, Raspberry and Rose Water. No ice thank you. Delicious.

I knew my eternally sweet tooth wanted dessert so I took half the ciabatta home with me. (Good idea huh?) :-D

The desserts were, of course, delicious

Wee Man had strawberry ice-cream with chocolate sauce and a mini flake and I had a warm brownie and vanilla ice-cream with toffee sauce. 

We both had more juice too. 

We were there for a couple of hours altogether and then we got another bus back into town and then a further bus to take us home again.

(image courtesy of Google)

The theme at Tag Tuesday this week is, 'Down on the Farm'

My tag is a bit of a mixed media piece

The background is watercolour for the sky and grass base. I used white acrylic for a couple of clouds. I then made an eraser stamp for grass to add a bit more texture, but I also cut some grass tufts from napkins that I glued along the bottom. I had the tissue paper rabbit from some happy mail which I coloured lightly with grey and the tissue paper butterfly, I coloured orange. The barn, fence and the animals are self adhesive foam stick-ons that Wee Man had. It was a fun make.

Now as promised earlier, I can update you with butterfly news.

We have three perfectly beautiful Painted Ladies!

Again, they managed to emerge without an audience, even though there are four people in this house looking at them regularly. I am a little disappointed not to have seen at least one actually emerge. But hey, it's all about the flutterbys, so, here is a picture for you to enjoy

I hope you can see the three of them.

Many thanks for looking.

Stay well. Be happy. {{Hugs}} Mo :o) x

PS - for those who also follow me on Facebook, you may have noticed I haven't been around. Well FB decided after x-number of years, that I should only be using my 'real name' for my profile, so they blocked my account. No warning. Nada. Nothing. So I can't even log in, in order to comply with these, never heard of before by me, rules. 

I have joined Instagram here, if you would like to visit on occasion. Other than that, I think I may just stay around here. 

xoxo

Anti Journal and Painted Ladies

Happy Wednesday One and All

I hope this finds you well and enjoying your week so far. I watched Wee Man and the rest of his school doing the first part of their annual sports events yesterday. It was wonderful. Every child took part in about twenty different activities for a specified time at each one, clocking up points for their House, aiming to win the House Cup. The way the children cheer each other on and seeing the older children helping the younger ones, and those less able, to complete the activities, is always so heart warming. 

I am so glad the rain stayed off.

The blue house won the cup, much to Wee Man's dismay, him being in the red house, but I think I successfully convinced him that his enjoyment of the day was far more important. *fingers crossed*

I am sharing two more pages of my Anti Journal with you this week and hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I enjoyed creating them. 

This one is basically, 'Colour by Number'

And this one is, Voices in a Public Place ~ in other words - eavesdropping, lol. 

I am looking forward to seeing what Carolyn and Karen have done in their Wreck It journals this week.

Here is an update on our second batch of Painted Lady Caterpillars

As you can see, this time we have all five set in the chrysalides stage. 

Fingers crossed they will all successfully emerge as butterflys in about a weeks time.

I've already started to do my sun dancing, (not to be seen in public) lol, so that the weather may be warmer for them at release time. 

Well thank you for looking and for your lovely comments. 

Do take care, and be happy! {{Hugs}} Mo :o) x

T on Tuesday stands for............

...........Tea with Elizabeth and a Tangled Tag

It's hard to believe that it's Tuesday again 'already' but time does have a way of moving along regardless. I want to thank all the lovely visitors and those who left such awesome comments for Wee Man last week when he shared is Cafe Francais with us all. 

They really do make him smile; and it is a beautiful smile.

This is an index card I did in 2013. A photo of WeeMan that I played about with :)

This week I am sharing a pie that Son2 and I made the other day; a banana pie with sweet shortcrust pastry. It has crunchy peanut butter layered in it too. 

We ate it hot with salted caramel ice cream and it was delicious. 

 I washed it down with a glass of water, but then had a delicious cup of red berry tea.

If you fancy seeing what the other T ladies have been upto, then go to Elizabeth's blog and follow the links. 

Maybe I'll see you there :-D

Tuesday for me also means a new theme over on the Tag Tuesday blog. I know I don't usually share it here, but I am always afraid of boring you with long posts. We are all busy people after all :)

But as I had completed my tag in plenty of time, instead of last minute, I thought I would pop it in here as well. 

The theme this week, is Symmetry.

Taking the easy way out, I did some doodling, pattern drawing, tangling, whatever you want to call it. I just did it whilst watching a little TV, and I added the colour with my gel pens.

Thank you so much for looking.

Until next time, stay well and be happy

{{Hugs}} :o)) Mo x

Caterpillar Update ~ Day Eight

Hi everyone 

I thought I would do a wee post showing you the latest photo of our second batch of Painted Lady caterpillars.

An amazing difference from Day One wouldn't you agree ;)

I also wanted to share with you, this link that I came across. 

It shows some incredible caterpillars that can be found in China's Yunnan Province. 

It is an immense region of mountains and rainforests and is known for being one of the most biologically diverse regions on Earth. 

Caterpillars from China's Rain Forest

I hope you enjoyed looking as much as Wee Man and I did.

Wishing you all a happy weekend.

Bye For Now
{{Hugs}} from Wee Man
Take Care {{Hugs}} Mo :o)) xx

PS - the header card was a gift to Wee Man from Maureen Riley -  a friend we made doing ICAD last year :D

Index Card A Day - aka - ICAD

It's that time of year again - well June 1st it will be - when we all get our index cards out; be they 3x5inches or 6x4 inches in size, out they come.

Go to Daisy Yellow to find the FAQs, very important info, and such like.

Here is a reminder of what Wee Man created last year - all 50 of them.

He is looking forward to trying to do 61 this year; from June 1st to July 31st.

Here is my title card for this year

done using Sakura Gel pens.

I hope you will join in the fun. You'll be glad you did.

Take care, be happy

{{Hugs}} Mo :o)) x

PS - here are the newest caterpillars on Day 6

Aren't they doing well?! 

xx

Anti Journal Pages and a Little Flutter

Hello there :D 

You are there aren't you?

I missed last weeks post - in fact I missed most of last week full stop! I was plagued by migraines, having two a day on some days. Very bizarre, and very annoying. They take over everything. Every action, every thought.

But, this week is clear! Huzzah!! 

Now, onto business.

I have several of my Anti Journal pages I could share with you and have had a time of it trying to decide which to share today, *scratches chin thoughtfully*

In the end I decided to go with the two pages that are my most recent favourites.

The prompt for the first page was,
Bleed colours; place under a dripping tap
But seeing as there was a sudden heavy downpour yesterday whilst I was flicking through my journal I quickly cut out this page, splodged some acrylic paints on it and shoved it out onto the back door step

And this was the result;

tho' not the punched out shapes, you realise, lol :-D
The paint hadn't moved around as much as I'd hoped considering the rain was quite heavy, but it's ok.

I set the page to dry over night and then used a black marker to go back over the outline of the tap and the wording.
You may, (or may not), be wondering why I have some holes in the page.
Well, check out the second page I'm sharing, which just happens to be the reverse of this page.

Design by removing parts of this page

I used a large butterfly punch and then outlined them with oil pastels, smudging them a little with my fingers.

I hope you like my Anti Journal pages for this week and have time to visit Carolyn and Karen to see what they have been doing in their Wreck it journals.

________________________________

Now, for those of you who have been following my caterpillar adoptions *grin* I apologise for the late posting of the release photos - I hope my 'sick note' above will absolve me.
Here are the pictures I managed to take - it was quite difficult doing it one-handed; Wee Man's only concession to being so close was to hold the flap open for me, lol

They flew away so quickly I only got a glimpse and no footage. Wee Man was amazed. Not enough to want to touch them, but quite happy for them to go.

_________________________

Also,

you may be interested to know that I got some more a few days ago and they are doing very well and growing just as rapidly as the first 'brood' :-D

Now, I shall love you and leave you and thank you for your visit.

Do take care won't you, and be happy

{{Hugs}} Mo :o)) x

By Wee Man

T Stands for..... Le Cafe Francais 
Hi everyone, Wee Man here. I am joining granny, with Elizabeth, for Tea on Tuesday  this week. 
At school, me and my class have been learning some French words and last Wednesday we set up a French Cafe in our classroom and invited our families to come and visit.
We decorated the classroom.

I did a picture of a 'Sandwich au Fromage et Frites' - a cheese sandwich and chips. 

I was a Maitre D and had a twirly moustache painted on my face by a class helper.

Here is my badge.

When granny arrived I said, "Bonjour granny. Ca va?" 

That means, "Hello granny. How are you?" 

Then I showed her to table number 3 and a waiter, (Corin), came and took her order. 

There was lots of food to choose from. Me and granny shared a Crepe Lemon, (lemon pancake) and a Croissant. 

There was tea and coffee but we just had water to drink. Sorry I didn't get a photo of it Elizabeth.

Until next time. Thanks for popping by to say Hi

.

Hugs from Wee Man :-D

Because there were lots of children (obviously), we had to be careful about where the camera was pointing. Hence the lack of photos there of. 

Happy T Day everyone, Mo x

By Wee Man

Sunday Adventure and a Wee Poem

Hi everyone, Wee Man here; today, me and granny went to our local park to look around a vintage vehicle theme day.

Here is my favourite bus that I saw there

It is an old Bluebird bus that used to be running in Forres, where I live.

The man is giving it a wee polish.

This red one is kind of like a mini bus. I like the red wheels.

I liked this old Stobart lorry because it has only one wheel at the front.

Here are some more pictures of what we saw

After a look around, I went on this bungee jump thingy :-D

It was so much fun. 

 After that I went to look in the tent with model vehicles. The man was very kind and let me get these two Stobart lorries for the price of one. I was so excited to play with them back at home.

Two days ago I was playing with my beagle puppies when I thought of a poem. Granny thought it was so awesome, she wrote it down. I hope you like it too.

Until next time, thanks for popping by to say Hi

Hugs

Wee Man :-D

The Craft Barn & Caterpillars

Calendar Challenge

The prompts for our May page in The Craft Barn's Calender Challenge are Magenta and Flowers.

I mixed some purple and pink gelatos with water on a palette and then used a white ink pad to stamp flowers all over my page. I then used the same stamp, dabbed it in my magenta mix and re-stamped the flowers. 

I stencilled May with a silver pen and coloured it in.

I really like the quote but could not find an attribution; it is also written with my silver pen, and then I added a strip of washi tape in a pink/magenta-ish colour, lol.

Finally I flicked on a few specks of silver Wink of Stella. Shame the sparkle doesn't show in the photo.

In caterpillar news, our chrysalides are now in their net habitat.

Hopefully we will see the stirrings of new things in about a week. YaY! It's so exciting!

Stay tuned!

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all my followers for your love, support and encouraging words, you all mean so very much to me. Thank You!

With loving {{Hugs}}

Take care and be well

Mo :o)) xo