crazy days of summer photo meme–flowers

I’ve been enjoying following photo challenges and have decided to follow along with Alicia’s weekly photo prompt in Crazy Days of Summer

First prompt was flowers and I took advantage of the one day of summer sun we have had so far to take photos in my garden – beats weeding!  I had fun using the macro setting and concentrating on the vibrant colours of the blooms.  Here are my five favourites

Next weeks meme is ‘refreshing’ – why not join in?

let me tell you a story

We have a family tradition of birthday flowers – each of the women in the family has a special flower which we are given by our Dad on our birthday.  My Gramp started it with my Mum – her birthday is in April so her flower is daffodils which are usually in abundance at that time of year.



My sister’s birthday is in July and here flower is sweatpea which my Dad also grows in abundance.  This photo was taken about 30 years ago



My birthday is in May and my flower is Lilly of the Valley. 



There were plenty growing in the garden of the house where my parents lived when I was born.  But since then we have not been able to grow them in abundance.  So imagine my delight and surprise when I noticed that there was a big patch of lily of the valley coming up in the garden of my new house – planted by the previous owner.

 

I take it as a sign that I chose the right house to buy.

Sian has been encouraging us to tell a story on the first Sunday of each month – pop over there to check out her story and the links to other stories.

And a last reminder on one of Sian's other great schemes - Pass the Book - if you want to be in the pool for Romancing the Ordinary leave a comment on my post from last Monday - I will draw on Monday 6th (UK time)

love rainbows

When I was a child one of the things I liked to do with colouring pencils was create a rainbow or sunset behind a printed silhouette.  So when I saw the Inspiration Avenue challenge for this week was ‘over the rainbow’ I had to play.

If only rainbows were this big !!

The technical stuff for those who want to know

I created the rainbows using the gradient tool in Photoshop elements and then used the eraser tool to remove part of the rainbow to fit the photo.  In the second one the gradient is applied in the diamond shape and I used the dissolve blending mode to give the speckled effect.

Embracing the sense of taste

In romancing the Ordinary, Sarah Ban Breathnach encourages us to notice and embrace all of our senses.
Last week I was thinking about this as I was cooking dinner and about easy ways to incorporate the ideas into daily life. I got to thinking about the added pleasure from a meal when I add the right sauce or dressing. There are several that I know I like but often don’t go and find them in my recipe books once I have started cooking.

So I was thinking if I noted down a few and had them to hand in the kitchen then I would use them and thus have some plausible pleasures to hand.

So I turned to my scrapping supplies and decided that a business card page protector that I could attach to my fridge would work well – the plastic is practical and the 10 slots are the right size. I could have created a template in PSE or Word and typed up the cards. But I decided to handwrite on card as I thought of the recipes I wanted. When I left my last job I kept several boxes of business cards because I find the plain backs very useful for crafting projects. The cards were great for this project as they are already the right size for the pockets. I decorated each with finds from my small bits of card collection and a strip of washi tape on each for continuity.


Here is one of the recipes which originated from Nigella’s Express by Nigella Lawson.  Caper sauce – she pours over green veg but I like it over root veg too – melt 75g butter then stir in 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of capers – then pour over the veg. (It is also yum without the capers)

Interesting where inspiration can lead. If you want the chance to be inspired by Sarah Ban Breathnach’s Romancing the Ordinary this month, as part of Sian’s Pass the Book project then please go to Monday’s post and leave a comment. I will make the draw on the morning of Monday 6 June (UK time).