Back to School

The children all returned to school this week after the long-g-g-g-g-g summer break. Lovely to have them home but lovely to see them go back.
Hopefully I can be more productive over the next couple of weeks before I start my Masters at Uni.
No textile work this week but a couple of other projects. Firstly, the altered book I’m working on with Daughter no 2 for Daughter no 1’s 18th birthday. Her birthday is on Thursday so it is a priority. I bought a board book at an Op Shop and we sanded and peeled off the plastic on the front cover. The best thing about this book is that it has niches inside where the jigsaws used to be so I’ll be able to utilize that to put in some interesting items. We have gessoed all the pages and painted the background on the front and back covers.
Also have been painting some outdoor furniture for our courtyard. The courtyard was formed about 5 years ago when we extended the house to fit in child number four. I have been waiting for the major works of removing concrete and laying paving to finish it off. I’m sure many of you know this feeling. ‘Patience is a virtue’.
Our house brickwork is a mixture of orange/sandy yellow and red. The colour scheme for the area is deep red and green for accessories so I have painted a table and chair red. The mahogany wood stain wasn’t quite dark enough so I got out my acrylic art paints and mixed up a wash. I have also spray painted an old wrought iron screen red which OH will screw to the wall to espallier a camellia. The garden colours are red/yellow/white/orange/purple/mauve and of course green. The paving will be sandstone crazy paving.

This is the cover of a booklet I picked up at the Op Shop for 20c (great source of all sorts of interesting stuff). It is in mint condition and is a very interesting read. If anyone has any idea I’d be interested in knowing how old it would be, there is no publication date but it is pre decimal currency.
I’m enjoying following along with all the TIF pieces, they are so varied and interesting. Just realized the other day that some cushions I made a couple of weeks ago are the exact colours of the January challenge. (for some reason this sentence has become the link to Sharon b’s site on the TIF challenge) Those colours are ones we have throughout our house, unlike the new February colours.
I’m still finding my way around the idiosyncrasies of this system. Any hints would be most welcome.
Cheers Jo-Anne