And autumn came

Today is officially the first day of autumn 2019. Last night was the autumnal equinox where the hours of day and night are equal. From now on we will be losing daylight as the months move on. 

I do love autumn, the colours are always so stunning and it is the one time in the year when I use my red/orange/brown colour palette.

The conkers are really starting to fall now.

 and this weekend coming will be our annual Conker Treasure hunt with our darling Daisy and Jack who are coming to stay. (Weather permitting).

I made a tag using my autumnal palette again with my new Lavinia goodies.

with a close up

 I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

Lavinia world 2/3 anything goes

Papercraft challenges 3/3 no designer paper

Happy little stampers anything goes

C.R.A.F.T 2/3 autumn weather

Cut it up 2/3 into the woods

Through the craft room door 3/3 anything goes

Crafty catz 2/3 anything goes/thank you

Uniko 3/3 anything goes/autumn

The weather forecast was spot on and we did get some rain yesterday but it came in fits and starts so it was not the washout I was expecting. I must admit my garden really does need a good dose. 

Enjoy the autumn, it is such a golden time of the year and the colours around us from Mother Nature are truly inspiring. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a lovely week ahead.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

The Man in the Moon

My Mum loves the Man in the Moon and I must admit so do I. There is nothing more special than seeing a full moon in a clear starlit sky with  his face grinning down. For my Mum's  recent birthday at the end of November I thought I would commission another little ACEO from the very talented Vita . If you remember she painted a beautiful mermaid picture for when my daughter's boyfriend went to sea. (News on that front is that after after 3 long months he  finally came home last Friday).

I thought you would like to see the wonderful moon ACEO that Vita painted for me....

I used the little painting to feature in the birthday card I made for my Mum.
I framed it with a card die cut frame using  little jewels at the edge and then mounted it on a deep blue/purple card. I also used some other die cut frosty card borders and finished it off with a Happy Birthday banner and some silver peel offs to read MUM.










This was the finished card and I was pleased with how it turned
out. My Mum loved it and when she has finished with the card
she is going to take out the little painting and frame it.

Also keeping with the Moon theme for my Mum's birthday I managed to commission  a wonderful Man in the Moon lampwork glass bead by a very talented English lampworker called Emma. She had never made a man in the moon before but felt it would be a great challenge and she managed to create the most wonderful bead.

I decided that he would look best on a vintage style brass chain and this is the finished piece that I gave my Mum for her birthday present.

As always I had my trusty camera assistant at hand-

Billy does like to get in on the action!

I was so inspired by this wonderful bead that I commissioned Emma to make me a "Blue Moon" and here is mine.

                                                           Stunning! I love wearing him.

Whilst I am on the subject of the moon I wanted to tell you about a recent  phenomenon which occurred this year, during the Autumn Equinox. It was the appearance of a Harvest Moon. This is a little know event which rarely occurs.  There is a very interesting article about it here

On that night, 22nd September we were lucky enough to have a fairly clear sky here in Surrey. Most of the UK that night was covered in cloud so the Harvest Moon was only visible in some area. I managed to take the following photos out of my bedroom window.

The sky had the most wonderful glow to it and clearly visible to the left and below the moon was none other than Jupiter shining brightly.

It really was a sight to see and I am glad I did not miss out in this once in every 20 years or so phenomenon.

How lucky we are to have a sky to look up into and watch the stars twinkling and on occasions the Man in the Moon smiling down on us .... or is it just me who sees him ?? ;0)

(Remember to have a peep at my ** days til....... posts we really are well into the countdown to Christmas now!)

Bye for now,

Jane x