The Pictures by the Stairs

I didn't go to work today - this cold has been hanging around for a while and I just want it gone.  Today, then, I had breakfast and coffee... then I slept for the rest of the day.  One thing I've been itching to do since Saturday, though, is to rearrange the things hanging on the walls.  This was the most energy I could expend today, apart from boiling the kettle and moving from the bed to the sofa. 

Two things prompted this current stage of change: I noticed when my niece's drawing made it to the top of the keyboard, that the frame of the photo already sitting there was sitting lower and lower; and I was given a beautiful (and appropriate!) card for my birthday.

For maybe a couple of years, I've had these 4 frames with wrapping paper near the top of the lower stairs. 

Having now added more personal items, I plan to replace the paper bits with other photos I've taken myself. 

I need to replace some printer ink though before I can print anything.  And from this angle it looks a little uneven...

How nice is this card?!  Thanks Jeannie!

Today's photo:

Pattern.  While having coffee this morning, the sun was lovely, creating sharp lines with the clothes line and the fence.

The Card Materials

A couple of years ago, I started making my own cards.  An 11-yr-old had given me a Christmas card that she'd made herself and I thought, I can do that.  Of course I then had a slightly card-obsessed phase...  Then I started looking at items that could be worked into cards.  All that lovely paper is lovely, but expensive and environmentally suspect.  So I have a collection of things that could be used in cards.  It's a bit like having an attic of shoe boxes filled with things like buttons, string, and nails.  (The shoe boxes in my attic have things like Christmas decorations).  On Friday was a friend's birthday, and I actually used one of these leftover bits for her card.

This friend is a home economics teacher but can also (and does, depending on the year) teach Japanese.  Her home has lovely Japanese items around and, when looking for inspiration, I thought this bit of cardboard with its Japanese-style print would be just right.  It's actually from the box of a mug I was given for Christmas (the mug is just as pretty as the box).

It was easy enough to cut a square out of a box, but it was just that little bit too big for the card.  I kept trimming and trimming, then eventually realised that I could take the top sheet off the corrugated part and it would sit so much better.  I was hoping for a bit more dark blue in the background of the card, or even some gold, but it looks like I'm all out.  I think the light pink works nicely though.