Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Chicken Post

I am in the world of chickens at the moment! My card and the inspiration photo (which is from Pinterest) are below.


I used the Real Flower stamps from Hero Arts and the Memories sentiment is from the 'Remember' cling stamp your story set. The little bird was a stamp from Franziska which I love using.

I love Fall colors.

So as I have mentioned, I have three chickens in my garden. Every day I have at least three eggs, which is just wonderful as I love soft runny eggs, especially if they are free range.


This is Dilly and I'm sure she gives me extra large eggs.


This was what I found this morning - one of the eggs is two times as big as the others! It weighed in at 80grams! Dilly didn't disappoint me! The first thing my son said was, Aw, poor chicken....
Oh yes, the other two are Dally and Dotty. Their highlight of the week is a bowl of plain yoghurt (no sugar) and they have a party!

I hope to be back next week!
God bless,
Jacqueline

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Our Beautiful World - Fall

I always look forward to the Sunday prompt now over on the Blog called 'Our Beautiful World, which can be found here. I love the fact that I can view photos from all around the World surrounding one theme. Fall has not really let itself be seen yet here in the South of France, it's still early days. We are having a beautiful Indian Summer at the moment with high temperatures. It's during October that the Vineyards and trees start their magical color change and start loosing their leaves.



But I can still show you some Fall photos from my part of World.



As you can see the vineyards are a golden brown color. Light showers start to fall again after the summer period and sometimes I can see two to three rainbows against the Black Mountains. This is a shot from my craft room.


The vineyards once more a golden-yellow/green color. The lightfall on the slightly cooler mornings give a pinky glow over the mountains - love this sight!


The golden colored vineyards are lit up by the moon early in the evening. Another typical picture of early Fall are the photos one can take of the moon.

So I hope you enjoyed my side of the World where Fall is just a beautiful season!!

Now I still wanted to share a card. And that fits this theme too of my post.It has a definition of Fall in French which is :  Automne n.m. : L'automne est l'une des quatre saisons des zones tempérées. Elle se place entre l'été et l'hiver. Du latin augeo signifiant augmenter, l'automne est donc la saison enrichie. A l'automne de ma vie : se dit de l'âge qui précède la vieillesse.


I wish you all a beautiful Sunday!
Jacqueline

Friday, September 20, 2013

An Autumn share and.. onions..

Hi everyone - You must be wondering why I mentioned onions in my heading today?? Further down you can read my little story.

First of all I'm sharing a card I made for this season. I am still finding it hard to make a card that I like, it used to be so easy, but I'm struggling lately.




I used a leaf-cling from Hero Arts and added some gold glitter. I used distress markers.


Well, I have to tell you what happened with the onions.
I was a bit discouraged this week with quite a lot of  things. I'm sure you have the same now and again. So I went to sit at the Lord's feet and started... well... emptying my heart, complaining a bit, but just being open. Before I finished I heard myself saying, and I need onions for the meal tonight and I don't have any - and I'm not going to the shops to get them either!!! I was just frustrated!
Anyway, life goes on and around six o'clock I see my son coming up the drive, he gets out of his car with a bag of onions in his hand. Oh, I said, how did you know I needed onions?? Very surprised he looked at me and said, I didn't know you needed onions, but I was in the shop and saw that if you bought two bags, you got one free, so I thought of you!!!!
I was so, so amazed at the Grace of God - can you imagine. He hears us before we even utter a word! He knows our thoughts, but mercifully, he also knows our hearts, that life can be demanding and He chooses just to bless us, to encourage and really say : I knew you needed this today! Don't you just love His Heart! I know I do.
I had to think of this Psalm in the Bible:

You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
Ps.139:1-4

Have a lovely weekend!
Jacqueline



Tuesday, September 17, 2013

A collage card and a share

I have not been very successful with card-making these last weeks. I often have to revisit old cards to try and get some inspiration. Even with all the lovely inspiration on Pinterest, it seems hard to get ideas if they just don't come. But, I did manage a collage card on Sunday.


Thanks to Sue, of Suzz's Stamping Spot, for the beautiful birthday package she sent me. The background panel paper was part of a lovely package of patterned papers, amongst other things! Photo below:


Then I wanted to share a couple of birthday gifts I received (I was very spoiled this year).

This was an idea of my two sons, a place to put the newly laid eggs in. I can collect three per day and today they were all next to each other in the same nest - perfect!


Some beautiful flowers.

Thanks for your lovely visits!

Have a great week!
Jacqueline




Sunday, September 15, 2013

Our Beautiful World - YELLOW

Happy Sunday! I have had such a busy week, which took away any inspiration I might have had to make cards. I hope my inspiration comes back. I will still be posting cards, but its a busy time of the year at the moment!

We have acquired three chickens, which means three fresh eggs every day. OK it brings work with it, but I love being outdoors and I don't mind a bit of cleaning. I can recycle the droppings on the garden and even the ashes from our wood fire work as a disinfectant should the case arise. Wednesday I celebrated my birthday and this weekend Michaël (my son) and Roxane celebrated their engagement, so I was busy baking. I made some chocolate cupcakes with a Blackcurrant paste and almond wedges over the top.


I am entering these into Our Beautiful World, the theme being 'Yellow' this week. The link is here.


My Zucchini and Tomato tart.. I used to think that Zucchini's were only green, but they are the most beautiful color yellow as well!


A tree that grows in the Southern warmer countries (thus France)  is called MIMOSA. It has very delicate flowers which have the most heavenly scent!


 My beautiful Hybiscus.


And last but not least, a beautiful Sunflower field. The season has just finished here and now is the time for making Sunflower oil.
These were the 'yellows' from my country, the South of France.



Have a lovely day! We are having lovely yellow sunshine today too!!
Jacqueline





Sunday, September 8, 2013

Holiday share and two Mason Jar cards

Hello ladies! Hope you are well.
Got back from the North East coast of Spain (Costa Brava) Wednesday evening. DH and I had a wonderful time together, fantastic weather, good food (delicious fish dishes and salads) and I'd like to say a good rest, but the amount of climbing, walking and swimming I did, didn't rest my body at all. Not that I did excessive things, but just a change from the normal lets itself be felt. Anyway, they say, a change is as good as a rest and I Amen that. I had a fall against the rocks on Tuesday, being 20 metres above sea-level and only having the rocks as protection! My husband got the shock of his life as I nearly fell into a crevice - don't know what would have happed then. I'm scratched and blue but still healthy and crafting :) I thank the Lord for his protection!

Here we are at our favorite fish restaurant, it is directly on the beach and the view of the sea from where we sit is breathtaking, especially the light-fall in this season.



This is the view from our Hotel balcony. We went to the same Hotel, called St. Rock as we did for our Honeymoon. This was taken as the sun was setting.



Now onto a few cards I made with a free download of a Mason Jar image.


I found this image as a free download, as I don't have a stamp. The first card has a jar which was printed on vellum paper and embossed in gold (while the inks was still wet. I attached little punched out butterflies to the inside of the jar and decorated it. The second card is a print out on Card stock and afterwards I filled up my jar with little shells from the Antique Engravings stamp set from Hero Arts.

Thanks for your visit!
Jacqueline

Sunday, September 1, 2013

A Beautiful World - September

So happy I found this Blog called 'A Beautiful World'. Sharing around a special theme. This week's prompt is 'September', and the link is here.

 

For me, September rings in the beautiful hazy Indian Summer days, in France. The climate is ideal, not too hot, but lovely blue skies, sunny days and a breeze. It seems as if Nature changes all of a sudden and the long days become shorter. The sun is slowly moving to the South West and is a beautiful sight as we watch it go under every evening behind the Mountains, from our back garden. We have installed a special rocking chair for two and enjoy a cup of coffee together in the outdoors. Lots of swallows are flying  in and out of the vineyards, and make such a wonderful noise together. The season has also started for the grapes to be harvested, and soon the leaves will change color and offer us a magnificent landscape of yellow, red and orange leaves. It is also my birthday this month.

So to show pictures that relate to the above I will begin with the sunset in our back garden.



The grapes looks like this now and will be ready to harvest this month


Finally a picture that says it all about the colors of Nature I am going to enjoy at the end of September, October and even begin November - this beautiful bunch of roses that I got for my birthday (last year) that represent all the Indian Summer colors I can look forward too!




And, if we get to share about the theme October, I will show you how beautiful the vineyards look in that month!

Have a lovely week - I will be in Spain for three days, having a little break with DH. Looking forward to it.
Jacqueline