Today the quote is "Coffee has given me unrealistic expectations of productivity" and Art Journal Journey's theme is by the lovely Jo and is all about Nature so in order to marry the two together for my Jeudi Journal post I looked up where coffee comes from and found this interesting fact - I quote:
"The question of "where did coffee originate" is one of legends and folklore. The most common story is that of the ancient coffee forests on the Ethiopian plateau, where a goat herder named Kaldi first ate berries from a peculiar looking tree. The berries gave him a jittery, wide-awake feeling, that he had never experienced before. From there, the power of coffee spread like wildfire. Today coffee beans are one of the worlds most important agricultural commodities with millions of coffee plants cultivated in over seventy plus countries around the globe."
I had no idea that "coffee comes from a woody plant that can grow up to 10 metres tall, the beans developing inside a 'cherry' that grows from these plants and the coffee bean we know is actually a seed inside this cherry", and so my page today is all about coffee which is at the centre of my story.
"Penny had always been a hard worker. As what task she had to perform it was always done with 110%. Take for example when she was at school, all her friends did their study as and when they wanted, they still had lots of time to go out and enjoy hanging about with one another and going dancing and to the cinema. But not Penny. Penny was not to be seen when study was needed in order to pass those vital exams. She was only seen through her bedroom window studying hard, cramming as much as she could and coming away with lots of A's, some A*'s and a smattering of B's. Her parents were so proud of her.
It came as no surprise to anyone when she was the one who secured an apprenticeship at the local Accountants, she flew through the interview with flying colours, and, of course, those amazing exam results. She was a Trainee Accounting Technician at an early age and wanted to carry on with her studies to become an Assistant Accountant.
The thing was, Penny lived on coffee. She rarely had a cup of coffee out of her hands. It was coffee that had allowed her to stay up into the small hours of the night carrying on with her studying. And so the day of her final examinations came ... and went ... and she didn't make the grade. She failed her exams.
Penny was devastated and could see no reason at all why she had not passed as she had done in the early years. And so she had to find someone to blame. It wasn't her fault. It must have been the coffee!
"Coffee has given me unrealistic expectations of productivity" she said out loud to herself. "I really believed if I could only stay awake in the wee small hours and study I would make it." She took a long hard look at herself in the mirror. There was only one thing she could do. So armed with her shopping bag she set off for the local supermarket to buy herself several packets of tea. "If coffee was my downfall I will try tea" she said to herself, and off she went to try a different drink and see if that worked any better at helping her and her expectations."
I really did find it difficult to marry the two challenges together and to begin with I did a little research on coffee and so I printed out some pictures of the bush that coffee comes from. These were used to decorate my page to fit in with Jo's 'Nature' theme at AJJ. Rather than cut the sprigs out I used them in a border down the side of the page like the tea cards we used to do in challenges when I first began stamping. I hope Jo feels my page qualifies for her challenge ande I look forward to thinking about next week's page which I might find has an easier quote.
I have been meaning to show Valerie my latest t-shirt as I am sure she will love it but I kept forgetting all during October. Now it fits in here perfectly with my page. So just for Valerie I give you my winter t-shirt:
It really is pale blue, looks grey?
