Tag Archives: flowers

Funny reminders

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Sometimes I forget, but I live in quite an awesome city. Amsterdam. And whenever I forget, the city itself hands me a kind reminder, telling me “Hey you, look! It’s pretty lovely around here”. 

Like today. I’d done my errands and picked up a massive parcel which made it impossible to cycle. So I walked the last 10 minutes, looking like a pack-donkey. Almost home, I passed the local florist. Of course, from the corner of my eye I spotted flowers that were perfect for my collages, so I made a stop to have a look. They were perfect, so I wanted a bunch. Two things you can do: 

a. Walk home, dump stuff, return later.

b. Buy the flowers immediately, embracing your inner pack-donkey. 

I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t go with option b. The florist came to help me and the moment of payment arrived. Card at hand. He… only accepted cash. Solutions are there for those who need them, the ATM was two doors down. 

I started to clumsily fiddle with my bike and the several bags hanging from it. But “no, no, no, leave your bike and bags! Come on, in you go with that bike!” the florist said. Yes. He was bloody serious. I found myself riding my bike into the flower shop. Bags and parcels included. The florist would make sure it wouldn’t get stolen. 

He kept his word, I paid for my flowers, carefully rode the bike outside again, walked home and thought to myself “only in Amsterdam…what a wonderful city”. 

Flowers look so good on my bike.

A Heart A Day – Major catch-up, part one

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Here’s a major catch-up, part one; hearts 24 – 32. And I realise I’ll still be behind, as today should be day #36 of my challenge. Do I have a good excuses for this delay? Well, yes. I got food poisoning… When I was finally back on track I did pick up continuing making hearts, but simply didn’t get round to posting them. Life is what happened :-) But once I’ve caught up, I’ll be determined to pick up where I was, as creating a heart a day is the best challenge! The focus I now have on self-compassion and compassion towards others is what I was looking for. It triggers my brain every day!

So here we go, 9 hearts as catch-up part one. Descriptions underneath each photo.

 

24

#24 – my ode to food poisoning, as sea fruits were the cause of it all. Took me a couple of days before I could look at shells and create this heart ;-)

28

#28 – you have to look closely to find the banana-candy heart. Inspired by the colours of the picture underneath which I took while baby-sitting.

29

#29 – KISS MORE! Inspired by a good week for kissing ;-)

30

#30 – my flower heart as an apology to you. Sorry I kept you waiting for more hearts…

With love,

Tess

PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…

[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]

Pressed flowers and possibilities galore

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I love the accidental pressed flower. Not as a serious hobby thing. More for fun.
It starts to itch when Autumn is closing in on us. The need to keep little remains of Summer and its sunlight, warmth and colours.
To find a forgotten pressed flower on a gloomy Winter’s day in a book is the best you know. You’ll be transported back to last Summer, meanwhile knowing that Winter is followed by Spring again, and so on. If you want to be reminded of sunshine on a more daily base you can stick them on the wall, put them in a jar (don’t stick your nose in that jar later…it doesn’t smell of Summer) or just put them in a vase.

I also found another way of use. Before my new phone had even arrived I was searching Etsy for the best of the best cases. The offer is amazing, the prices – after shipping costs – beyond my wallet. Thus, I decided on a so called cheap-skate case, see-through because my phone is pretty and gold, while I was saving up for a proper case. Almost at the same time I remembered my stock of last year’s pressed flowers.

One and one still makes two!

 

The result is simple but makes me happy every time I see it. If I do get bored with this flower, I can always pick another flower to replace it with. Maybe I’ll pick a Victorian scrap. Or a feather instead. Possibilities galore!