Trees and fog

I don't know what it is but I am loving the trees round us at the moment, from the beautiful autumn sunrise shining through the yellow leaves by the river (see here) to the way the street light shone through the fog and trees last night.

It was foggy all day and as darkness fell the fog became more intense. The street lamps glowed like UFOs (according to Sophie) as you couldn't see the posts, only the lights glowing in the sky. Looking at the tree in our neighbour's garden, it was almost hypnotic swaying my head from side-to-side watching the play of beams from the street light shining behind from the tree in bright streamers of light (like a child's drawing of the sun rays). The photos don't capture the full beauty of it but I hope they give you an idea.

© 2011 Nicola Noble

Christmas cards

I recently made my first Christmas card for this year (for a friend who lives in Malaysia so it had to go in the post early!) and it reminded me how much I like making Christmas cards but also how much work it is to make enough for everyone!

The first Christmas I was a stay-at-home Mummy I set to and made cards for all 60+ people on our list and I also made a large number for my husband to send to work contacts. The next year I made for the the good friends on the list and the year after that I made for the very good friends on the list ... 

I still have aspirations to make all my cards but the reality of two children under six has put that idea on hold again for this year at least. So for those of you who get a hand-made card this year - consider yourself the very, very good friends!

The cute puffy reindeers came from Paperchase last year and I painted them with silver glitter to add the obligatory sparkle. The snowflake stamps were a (self-bought) Christmas gift last year from Muji. I stamped them in dark blue (which came with the stamps) and silver for a bit more sparkle.

Previous years' designs have all been created using my Sizzix die-cutter and include snowflakes and various designs of Christmas tree.

So if you are making your own Christmas cards this year, have fun and I will try to do better next year :o)

 © 2011 Nicola Noble

Autumn

I love the colour of the trees in Autumn and we are really lucky to have a field maple behind our house that changes to the most brilliant yellow every year.

A couple of Saturdays ago, I noticed the sun shining through the early morning mist from the river and lighting up the tree so I grabbed the camera and took some photos. I think they came out quite well for a complete amateur ...

© 2011 Nicola Noble