Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

Tag Tuesday's  current theme is ' Steampunk' and I am away from home and have limited resources and of course, no stash. However, I am travelling with water colour paper,  a black pen, some coloured pencils and a 2B and a 4B lead pencil.  I also have scissors so I cut out an advertisement for a watch from the in flight magazine and with the purchase of a glue stick and some string  , I created this interpretation of 'Steampunk'. I actually enjoyed working with so little at hand - sometimes it challenges you to think more and do something differently. 

'Passengers'  Exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum  In one of history's great migrations, more than six million people have crossed the world to settle in Australia.  At the Australian National Maritime Museum, the Welcome Wall stands in honour of all those who have migrated to live in Australia with names of individuals and families permanently engraved in bronze. Looking out onto the harbour from the Australian National Maritime Museum  Located outdoors on the museum's northern boundary, the wall faces Darling Harbour and Pyrmont Bay where some of the many new settlers arrived. Accessible all year-round,  it's lovely to stroll along the bronzed panels and learn more about the migration experience as well as reading the names engraved. Welcome Wall Plaque  In 1950, my husband Jim was a three year old and he travelled on the SS  Chitral  with his mother and father, Rose and Don Simmons and his sisters Patricia and Christine from

 Here is another "Paris" tag for Tag Tuesday - a little sketch with  pen and watercolours.... nowhere in particular, but hopefully  it is reminds you of a Parisian cafe...  Remember to check out all the links to fantastic tags from the   Tag Tuesday site

Tag Tuesday is still one of my favourite online blog groups, although I have been slack and haven't posted for a few weeks. The theme this fortnight is  "Paris" chosen by Wendy , one of the  talented TT Design Team. My offering for this theme is very simple - torn paper ( my current passion) and a "Paris" image to offer context to the textures in the layers of papers I have recycled. I don't think this perpetuates the romantic image of Paris so much as it  tries to convey the history of the buildings of  Paris.  I have added more photos of my torn paper collages also completed while I did the Paris tag, as I simply cannot stop at one, once I start tearing up bits of paper.

Today we are celebrating Father's Day in Australia.. lots of families enjoying the day out or  BBQs at home,  lots of presents like " Best Dad" coffee mugs, chocolates, socks and undies ... so how did all this begin? The first Father’s Day was reported  in Washington , USA on June 19, 1910. A woman  Sonora Smart Dodd came up with the idea of honouring and celebrating her father while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon at church in 1909. She felt as though mothers were getting all the acclaim while fathers were equally deserving of a day of praise. Sonora’s dad was quite a man. William Smart, a veteran of the Civil War, was left a widower when his wife died while giving birth to their sixth child. He went on to raise the six children by himself on their small farm in Washington. To show her appreciation for all the hard work and love William gave to her and her siblings, Sonora thought there should be a day to pay homage to him and other dads like him. She initially

Today is the first day of Spring in Australia and somehow, psychologically, it has put me in a better mood. I've opened the windows to let the sunshine in the house and declared that we will no longer be sick ( having had a couple of weeks of colds and flu).  I've been out in the garden this morning, celebrating the new season.  Spring euphoria is not an illusion — it can be scientifically explained.  Three German researchers in different disciplines were asked to describe the relationship between good weather and  happy moods. ( from    World Crunch  )  The psychologist . Human beings are programmed to rest when it’s dark, and to be active and in high spirits when it’s light, says Peter Walschburger, professor emeritus of biopsychology at the Freie Universität Berlin. “We react massively to light,” so conscious experience and human behavior change radically on fine spring days.  Scents and bird song also influence us, Walschburger says.  The end