No wonder he looks so sleek!!

As I was relaxing after a spot of gardening this afternoon, I heard strange knocking noises and looked out to see this little chap having pinched some of the peanuts my husband puts into this feeder for the birds. The squirrels are very adept at emptying any of our peanut holders and often ruining them in the process, even the metal ones. My husband loves to try and outwit them but so far I think the squirrels are winning. This photo was taken through double glazing, hence the less than sharp image. Three more pages here and only two more to make.

I made the little tile (top left) with some kind of self hardening clay and when dry I rubbed it with gilding wax. The background is paper painted with acrylics and cling film pressed over the top while the paint is still wet. The text is a scrap of curtain fabric and the lower decoration is made with Paper Clay painted and rubbed with gilding wax.

This one appeared in an earlier post but was only partly made. I found a broken ear-ring and fixed it in the centre. The gold edging was not quite long enough but fits my theme perfectly as it has obviously suffered during all those years in a peat bog and begun to disintegrate at the right hand side. Worms and other creepy crawlies have also eaten away part of the text!!

The background is a piece of khaki green silk with gold metal squares, cut from an empty tomato puree tube, at each corner. I had three little metal charms and stitched them on top and a scrap of different text was tucked in behind the main motif which is formed by couching two rows of gold cord with two rows of green gimp cord between onto a piece of fabric paper. I have just this minute noticed a glaring mistake which will not be rectified at this late stage. I will leave you to find it for yourselves and I'll follow the Amish principle that only God is perfect, so my work will be quite acceptable! I stitched a gold button in the lower part of the motif to finish it off.

In the dry spells I shoot out into the garden and fill another barrowload with weeds and dead bits. Then when it is raining I do a few more pages of coursework and a bit more work on these pages. Sometimes I even get some housework done! I hope you are managing to find interesting things to do in this most uninteresting 'summer' weather.