More handmade decorations

Many years ago I used to play with clay. I was a reasonably successful potter but I would amuse myself - and everyone else - by modelling with clay.
In a moment of madness I decided to make a Nativity scene. Every "famous" artist has painted the Nativity and since I was hoping that one day I too would be famous (!!!) I too created my version. I think I went a bit overboard with the sheep though! I enjoyed pushing the clay through a garlic press to make the shaggy wool so the shepherds ended up with a very large flock! I did enjoy creating the camel for one of the wise men. In fact it is the best piece in the collection! The little figures were all covered with white glaze and fired to 1200 degrees.
For many years the Nativity scene has been stowed away in a suitcase but this year has been unwrapped and is on display in my lounge.
We have the reason for our celebrations on display alongside the pagan Christmas Tree with all its lights and decorations.
I have a crazy mixed up home!
Thats the way I like it!
AJ

Decorating for Christmas

My house guests were out for the day so I hastily stole a few moments to finish decorating my reindeer. I have a bit of a collection of Christmas confetti - the stuff you sprinkle over tables to make them look pretty - as well as pieces of felt and a few beads so with a glue gun and a bit of peace and quiet I applied the glue and glittery bits. (I managed to singe the tips of my fingers twice before I learned not to do it again!) After lunch I decorated the Christmas tree and set out the reindeer on a set of cupboards in the dining room.
A few weeks ago I had sent away for some fibre optic lights (Ebay) and after searching for AA batteries I set them amongst the reindeer for a rather fun look. I know this is a bit "over the top" but I am not going to string streamers around the house nor make a big fuss with other decorations so in the dining room "This is it"!
The little Santa with the sack is made of pottery and was made by me twenty years ago now! Boy it doesn't feel as if it was that long ago!
The sleigh I found in a store on sale one year after Christmas when all left over decorations are sold for half price. I like a bargain!
The funny stuffed reindeer were once used as gifts beside each plate one Christmas - some of the adults didn't take them home so I have four to play with! Some of them you can squeeze and they sing!
I have taken a photo of the decorations in the lounge and will share those with you another time.
AJ

Christmas is coming

While everyone else is out shopping or doing sensible things what does AJ do with her time? Paint reindeer of course!
For my family the decorating for the festive time is done two weeks before Christmas so the week leading up to that time of decorating HAS to be the preparation of those decorations! I had bought some papier mache small reindeer and they are a most uninteresting brown cardboard colour so I had to set too and change them. I used Ceiling white paint because it is water washable and I am not the cleanest of painters! I also wanted something that would dry reasonably quickly. I don't want the reindeer to be tacky at Christmas!!!! (sorry! wierd sense of humour!) Besides which, I need to stick all sorts of ribbons and sparkles on them so they look smart and special. So they need to be dry by tomorrow.
I did surprise my daughter in law when she rang me in the middle of the painting job and she wanted to talk to someone sensible - and proceeded to ask me what I was doing. Gulp! At least I made her laugh! I guess there are not too many people who admit to painting reindeer on a hot summer's day!

AJ

Pink in the garden

It isn't deliberate and it is not my favourite colour but somehow my garden has more pink flowers than any other colour! I think that there should be a garden competition for December - that is when my sub tropical garden is at its best. The amazingly intensely coloured flowers of the Poinciana are setting the tree tops ablaze at the moment. There seem to be two varieties, orange and red. My one is orange and I haven't seen it quite as showy as it is this year. Maybe the long dry leading up to the flowering time has made a difference. Very often trees produce more flowers when they are under stress.
A flowering gum I bought a few years ago and planted in the main, centre garden in front of the house has grown to about two metres tall and it is in full flower at the moment - pink!
Almost adjacent to it is a young crepe myrtle planted as a cutting - it too is flowering - pink again! Surrounding these two trees are many varieties of the bromiliad family and one very tall and lethal variety is in flower at the moment too. The flower head reaches up over a metre above the thorn edged leaves and guess what . . . they are pink too!
Oh yes, one more flowering plant shared the same garden. Several pink flowering geraniums are dotted around the garden! I think I need to shop for some white flowering plants!
AJ

The Silly Season

This time of year has been called the "silly Season" for all sorts of reasons - usually because of the quantity of alcohol that is consumed. Yesterday I found examples of three people who took the name very seriously and I am unable to show you a photo of any of them because I was driving the car at the time.
The first was a man who must have been building his own home because stretched from the back seat and out through the passenger window were at least ten dark stained planks of wood of various lengths.
The next was also a driver with something reaching through the front window, this time a roll of carpet. The only thing is that as the car moved forward the pressure of the air pushed the extension almost to right angles beside the passenger window. The extension would have been over a metre long.
But everything comes in threes and the third driver stupidity came as I neared home and turned left on a feeder lane to be confronted with a car in the other lane with a passenger leaning body length out of his window guiding two (TWO) inter - linked shopping trolleys beside the car..
He let go the trolleys with one hand to frantically gesture for us to go past faster and by doing so lost direction with the trolleys and they swung into the car (his not ours), in the rear view mirror I could see them pulling into the side to see the damage!
So now I think I have seen everything! Pity the camera was in my bag on the back seat! I would have loved to have shared those with you - especially the last!
AJ

Amazing skies

The sky can be really beautiful and here in South East Queensland there is so much sunshine that very often there are no clouds in the sky at all. Blue skies are great when you want to take a single blossom on a tree with a vivid blue background but when taking scenery the monotone of the sky seems a little uninteresting. Being in it is wonderful, don't get me wrong! But in a photograph a few clouds counter the entertaining foreground. Knowing this I have created dozens of cloud "brushes" so that I can add all kinds of clouds of many different shapes and opacity - however when I saw the sky in the photograph that I have included here, the sky was definitely the focus of interest. I could NEVER have created a sky like this in Photoshop!
This was one of those occasions when I had the camera when the opportunity presented itself. How many times have you wished you had a camera at a particular moment? So a lucky shot! Lucky too that I went outside and actually saw it!
AJ

King parrot once again

We had a pleasant surprise the other day, a king parrot flew onto the rail of the veranda and showed no fear of our proximity at all. Having a collection of seeds for the lorikeets and finches who regularly visit, I decided to tempt our brave visitor with some sunflower seeds.
To begin with I held my had on the rail about a metre away so see if he would come any closer. He didn't. I then edged my hand along the rail until I was actually touching the bird. He didn't attempt to fly away or even lean away from my approaching hand. Once my handful of sunflower seeds was under his beak he started to eat from my hand.
It is more than possible that this bird has been caged for some reason or other and has become very accustomed to being near humans. it is not normal for a king parrot to be this trusting.
Only a few hundred metres from our home is a property where injured birds are rescued and then released once they are whole again. Maybe this bird has been looked after over there. I haven't asked!
After a good feed of seeds our new found friend flew off - we were hoping he would visit again but so far we have neither heard nor seen him. Maybe he is visiting someone else with a seed supply!
AJ