Lace Cover and Lyrebird Song

Welcome Friends,

In these Winter months I've been enjoying sorting through my collection of vintage baby clothes, reminiscing and washing any with marks that have appeared over time. 

I put one dress on the display stand for a while and spray-painted a cake stand pale pink for a little vignette of velvet roses, a tiny bear and vintage baby shoes with a fairy (my sweet daughter 13 years ago - she's not impressed with being a fairy!). She wore the baby shoes with the many vintage dresses I showed her off in. The roses are from my garden. I only have a few blooming, but it's the middle of Winter here on the south east coast of Australia. We had a trace of a frost this morning, but now it's glorious sunshine.

Previously I showed you my plans for the cover of an old lace sample book I have been working on. 

It's now finished, but it turned out a little differently from my first plan - but looking back, I like them both! I should have made two!! Here's the finished cover.

The back cover...

Gorgeous old cotton reels...

A close-up of some of the lace...

Here's one of the lace sampler pages inside...

This mauve velvet millinery flower just matched this post...

Here are some of my chrysanthemums from a few weeks ago - they are finishing now, looking bedraggled. But here they are in all their Mother's Day glory!

And a superb David Austin mauve rose...

Now for a natural interlude... Our local lyrebirds are calling away madly trying to attract a mate. There are mounds just near our house - this forest is at our back fence.

A perfect habitat for lyrebirds, a myriad of other birds, possums, gliders, wallabies and snakes. We've only seen red-bellied black snakes in our garden, not the browns, thankfully, but they are around here too.

The lyrebird's sounds echo through our little glen as I hang out the washing. One day I decided to stalk him with my phone camera in hand... 

I had to leave the track to follow his sound - not an easy walk! Sneaking as quietly as I could as I came closer, closer, so slowly - they are so timid and can run fast through the undergrowth. I was rewarded! My camera was not so good, and it was so hard to hold it still in the low light understory of the trees.

Here he is with his tail over his body like an umbrella... calling his heart out for a mate! I was about two metres away from him, trying not to crack a stick under my feet.

So awesome! His song was so loud! I tried to move to get closer only while he was singing, so he couldn't hear me.

His song was amazing, mimicking crows, magpies, cockatoos, whipbirds and other local birds, as well as what sounds like a nail gun to me. I managed to video him for about an hour, and edited it down to this:

I'm joining Wen at Appleapricot for Simply Neutral Tuesday #46 . There you'll find a meeting of like minds and hearts who love using neutrals in their artworks. 

See you soon, and I wish you a creative boost as you enjoy all this neutral beauty.

Love,