Gift Giving to Friends Near by and Far away

Things have been fairly busy here lately - tied up with

gardening, bottling, preserving and lots of personal stuff in my life

but 

at the same time I've spent snipets of time closeted away

in my studio creating a number of gifts to send

to some friends for Birthdays and Thankyous

such as this one  

which went off to my dear friend Liz in the U.K.

In the parcel went a vintage heart along with

 this little keepsake clutch purse.

 I used some of this vintage brocade fabric

and created a flower from a vintage doily using

one of Julia's hand crocheted flowers 

for the centre.

Another Birthday gift to Rosemary

a special friend of many many years.

A collaged broche

embellished with this dear little Kookaburra!

A thankyou gift for Cindy below

 (cindy adkins whimsical musings)

Cindy is such a wonderful heartfelt friend

who created some angel wing earings for my dear friend, Andrea,

to wear during her cancer journey last year.

That truly was an act of love so appreciated by me!

Finally, another little "Thankyou" gift to Glenda

here

for the beautiful laces she gifted me with recently.

I feel very blessed to have friends such as

these in my life!!!

I'm linking these last two gifts to 

Grey Dey Thursdey with Michelle at

Petite Michelle Louise's party.

So pop over and have a look at some amazing

grey gifts, makeovers and inspiration board.

I'm hoping to be a more faithful blogger again by coming

over to visit you all very soon!

I too have recently had a birthday and would like to

share some gifts I have received too!

Hope your grey skies are turning blue!

Big hugs, Suzy xox

Christmas Bunting in Shades of Grey

With my Christmas Cards almost completed and
many now even in the post 
I've moved on to creating
a Christmas bunting to be included as part of a
Christmas vignette which I will post next visit.

I decided this time I would create one 
(actually my first)

in shades of grey, white and brown

mostly incorporating images of the Madonna and Child -
the central theme of what Christmas means to me.

Giving it a rustic look

using a very course burlap as the background

I incorporated a variety of grey dyed vintage doilies
and embellishments all strung together
using a length of sari ribbon.


♥♥♥♥♥

So when all of my blogging friends will be huddled
around their fires in the Northen Hemisphere
eating their Christmas pudding and looking out onto snow
we, living downunder, near the beautiful
beaches will be wearing our sun hats,
wading in the water
and
watching these magnificent large Pelicans

oh and there are a few Black Shags too!

(It looks as if they might be sharing a conversation!!!).

I feel very fortunate to be living on our farm
but only about 8 minutes to this beautiful coastal town
on the far south coast of Australia.

I'm linking this to Grey Dey Thursdey
over at Michelle's blog (Petite Michelle Louise)
and Fishtail Cottage with Tracie
where you will see some beautiful Christmas decorating.

Very shortly I will be picking a bucket full of these magnificent

Christmas Lillies from our garden for my Christmas

Vignette.

The fragrance is just to die for!!!

Wishing you much joy and peace during this Festive Season!

Warm hugs, 
Suzy 

Creating for Christmas

Creating from the heart

is the way I try to create!

It's certainly why I just love to 

purchase these adorable metal hearts

so

I always look around for these when I see

Christmas decorations starting to appear at our

wonderful local nursery and gift shop.

I do love the plumpness and smoothness of this particular shape 

as well as its shiny silver tone.

It really puts me in the right frame of mind

as I start to create some Christmas Cards for friends,

family and a few orders too.

I don't see myself as a religous type of person, however,

I am very drawn to images of the Madonna and Child

at Christmas time or any other time for that matter!

I love the images used here from these (Holy) cards

where they sit amongst a few gifted pieces like these 

 vintage watch faces, brown embroidered lace and 

rhinestone pieces which were recently given to me from

Lisa  (Tarnished and Tattered Blog) as part of a 

recent swap - more about that in a later post!

Besides using some favorite images, I included stamping

but I do love the no fuss - simplicity of these finished cards.

as well as Washi tape which I rarely use at other times.

On the cards below I used some tiny scraps of

some special vintage laces 

that will be going off to some special friends.

These last three I created as part of an order

for a local shop. I just love the combination

of the blue/grey and browns

in these ones.

 I'm linking my post to Grey Dey Thursdey

over at Petite Michelle Louise Blog where you will see

some stunning Winter greys of Christmas.

Thank you always for your lovely comments - they truly

are always appreciated!

xox Suzy

Rustic Greys for Grey Dey Thursdey

Whilst walking around our garden lately 

taking some images of our beautiful Spring garden

I realized just how many shades of grey I could see.  

In fact our whole house is constructed of corrigated grey 

iron cladding to begin with.

 

There are several gentle slopes with timber steps that

have changed to a lighter shade of grey with age.

Beautiful grey timbers used as fence posts and railings

with grey wire attached next to a grey wire gate

to fence in our precious goat beauties and, of course,

the large number of trees displaying their beautiful natural

colours.

Ornamental grasses have been planted in and out of

rocks and stones.

♥♥♥

Constant daily visitors like these Grey Shrike Thrushes

perch daily on the kitchen window sill,

especially when feeding their young, as is the

present case

to beg a treat or two!

I'm hoping to share images of our Spring garden soon

including our magnificent display of roses.

I'm linking this post to Michelle

(thanks for hosting this Grey Dey Thursday party Michelle)

although a tad late

at

www.petitemichellelouise.blogspot.com
as well as 
Mosaic Monday at
Little Red House

Thank you dear friends always for your kind visits

 and comments especially on my previous posts.

I so appreciate you all!!!

Have a great weekend and up coming week!

 Suzy♥