Jeudi Journal - Shut up

The quote today is "Shut up and Colour" - another gem of Dyan's in her Dylusion range.  As I wanted to relate my journal page to Erika's "Hot" challenge at Art Journal Journey I decided to do a beach scene and try to make it look "Hot".  I had a great time with my Distress Inks playing about with the different colours to make the sky.  I used an ordinary pencil to create the horizon line as I thought black was a bit too severe and I also used it to make marks on the sand where people had walked.

You will notice that my palm trees are not green but are in actual fact a charcoal grey colour.  I didn't want them to be green so I chose to use my Pitt Pen which has a lovely nib for colouring without too much colour, and it does not bleed through the paper either.  (My Promarkers do so I can only use them on cut out figures)

Here we have big sister who is very fashion conscious at all times and is wearing, of all things, her Louboutin shoes down on the beach (note the red soles).  She is so inappropriately dressed it is almost comical and what on earth is a dog doing in her hat?  Anyhow she has had to look after her younger sister who is having a 'bit of a moment' and is sulking as she has to wear her dress on the beach but big sister is having none of it and has told her in no uncertain terms to "Shut up and Colour".  Imagine being a child on a beach and having to wear your best clothes just because big sister wants to look, what she thinks is, good!  No wonder she has thrown her book on the floor with her crayons.  You would too wouldn't you?

Now to see what else is in Art Journal Journey, if you want to join in you just follow this link and make a journal page that suggests When It's Hot.  This month Erika is asking you to journal about the summer heat or things you do when it's hot.  She suggests you may even journal what you do to stay cool when its hot - ie think about July and summer (unless you are in the UK lol).  See you with my page next week.

WOYWW 579

Well, update on last week's post is that the treatment room rang me on Sunday to go through some questions with me and check that I would not arrive before five minutes prior to my appointment and I would wear a mask.  I was also asked all the questions related to Covid to make sure I did not think I had it.  Why?  Because they have had people attending with Covid and people without masks.  I told you last week about the non mask wearers.  Mind you, IMO, the security woman down there should be in the foyer, checking these things.  Oh, and you have to be alone, which I was, Chas waiting in the car.  More on my health at the end :( 

Why have they opened bars and things when they know people will not obey the rules?  It seems so silly to me, guess it is to safeguard the economy but it is a worry.  Some towns are seeing spikes (ours was one of four mentioned on the national news) already, presumably from the beach visits, raves, parties and marches that have been happening.  It is probably going to get worse and worse now.  Worrying!

Anyway, not done as much crafting this past week as before.  However, I did make a tag today - just need to put some fingers on the clock and it is ready to photograph and put on Vicky Stampers.  So as it is time to show our desks for WOYWW I had better show you mine.  Here  is the tag on my desk with my pencils

So this is all that is on my desk.  Cropped, it as it is just a dirty mat that you would be looking at.  However, I realised I had not been showing you my iCads for the past few weeks so yesterday I set them out on my desk and here they are:

As you can see, some days I got a bit busy and just used a diecut that I had around the place.  You will also probably notice that there has been quite a bit of influence by Tracy Evans and her "Lives" on the internet.  A lot of them are stamped with Tracy's flowers and then coloured in using my pencils whilst sat with a hot water bottle on my back.  Bliss!

Health Update:

Well the news is that my pacemaker is cream crackered and I have to go in THIS MONTH to have a new one fitted.  I have always said this would not bother me but to be honest it does.  Not from the operation but from the fact that numbers are really on the up and up in our town.  We've gone from having 1's, 2's and a few zero's to figures like 5, 9 and the latest one - 12.  It scares me silly.  Here am I going to the clinic for my leg twice a week and an operation pending in the hospital.

Went to the chiropractor on Friday but did not get treated.  She had double booked and as I had no proof that I had an appointment I was the one who had to leave.  I did get ten minutes attention as fortunately the other lady had got lost with the traffic system in Preston (lots of roads closed to make cycling and walking safer in the town centre).   Came home and tried to book something but the earliest I could get was the 4th August - no good to me if my operation is this month.  Now got a cancellation appointment for the 15th so fingers crossed nothing goes wrong before then, I so need some treatment.

Jeudi Journal - Believe

This morning we are looking at a lovely quote "I Believe in Unicorns".  Thankfully I happened to have a Unicorn by Dylusions that I could use and then just create something to illustrate it.  As Erika had chosen "summer heat" as the theme for the challenge on Art Journal Journey I painted my page in a hot pink and then began choosing characters to use.  

Mum has taken the kids out for a walk around the park and the little girl is being picked on by her older brother.  You know how siblings are, arguing all the time, especially older brothers who like to pick on their younger sisters - and to make matters worse it is hot hot hot and so sunny.  And all the little girl had said was that there was a unicorn hiding behind a bush.  Big brother said there were no such things and the little girl in a very teary voice said "I believe in unicorns".  Poor mum is frazzled, her hair is not quite as bouffant as she would like, her umbrella is a bit too small to shade her completely from the sun and her sunglasses are a bit too dark, she cant see what the kids are up to.  But she can see a lilac unicorn peeping from the bushes! 

So there you have it, my journal page for today and my entry for Erika's challenge on Art Journal Journey.

WOYWW 578

Another week has flown by, to be exact another month has gone, and we are into flaming July (with the central heating on here) and we are back with Ms Julia and the WOYWW Gang.  Want to know more about it?  Click here and all will be revealed.

What a day I had yesterday.  The world and his wife decided to ring me and for a time I had phone calls queuing up - and one from my little Sis in Oz.  I sent a message to her to say I would ring in 40 minutes but she said it would be midnight there and she would be asleep.  I will have to ring her when I get back from my Pacemaker check tomorrow, well actually we will probably have a Facetime.  The others, except one, I did ring back but the missing one will now be on Friday.  Life has suddenly got so busy and the scare of hospital visits has been taken out of my hands, as most of you know from Facebook.

Well, this is my desk as it stands at the moment.  I got some new stamps yesterday - Stampers Grove had an offer on a bundle similar to Hochanda, following Tracy Evans' weekend Wow, so I could not resist.  But it has to stop now, I have spent so much money recently I cannot really justify buying any more.  Well, maybe some paint colours I want!!!  (Shhh!)

During lockdown I was not spending on podiatry, chiropractic or haircuts so I convinced myself I could spend the money saved on crafting - and I did!  With a vengeance!  Now I have to start paying for these services I will have no excuse so will have to stop.

You can see I bought one of the big A4 stamps with the feather, the camera and a suitcase on, then there was the Beetle stamp which I honestly thought I would never buy but I fell in love with the way Tracy used it so it had to be bought.  I also said I would not buy the bee stamp as it was too much like the Pink Ink set I had, plus I have four others and two dies of bees but then I liked Tracy's bee so that fell into the shopping basket too.

I could not wait to use the bee stamp and so you see the result of my efforts on my desk with the book I made the other week standing just behind it.  I still have not finished the book off as I wanted it to be all Tracy's stamps in it so was waiting for the beetle and the bee.  It can now be completed - hurrah!  I have some circles on my desk with paint on them - they are things that went wrong and so are just waiting to be chopped up and used somewhere in the future.  The craft mat bits underneath are for covering journal pages up when I am painting on them - ie to protect past and future pages from paint spots.  This is the card in close-up:

Behind my new stamps is a box with bits of card that might also come in useful like the circles you see, and next to it is my spritzer and some glues I use.  That's a new inkpad (Wendy Vecchi Forget Me Not) next to the book then it is paint water, brushes, scissors etc.  The roll, from a Kitchen Roll ,houses some lovely mop up sheets that I intended to use but haven't - might end up throwing them out as they have been there for months.

That is it for this week - see you next week with a bit of luck.

Health update:

Most of you will have seen my leg is bandaged from knee to toes via Facebook.  Spent Saturday morning in A&E having taken a chunk out of my leg.  It's a skin tear but quite a deep one and it got down to a vein which was bubbling out.  I now have the beautiful bandage off but still bandaged from knee to toe and having to sit with it up as much as I can.  This time it is a tubi-grip type thing and not half as nice as the proper bandage was.  Now I cannot get my clog on so am walking about on a bedsock and today, Wednesday, it will have a poly bag around it later so I can go to cardiology for the pacemaker check.  Not scared any more of going - I had my christening on Saturday.  What will be will be.

You probably want to know how I did it so: 

because of my bad back and the new mattress being a bit softish we put a board underneath the mattress on my side.  (Well it slowly slides out.)  It was sticking out - one corner of it, and I walked past and the corner dug in and ripped my skin/flesh off.  Well, not really off as it was still attached and the nurse managed to unfold most of it and drag it over the open wound, now it should heal better.

When I went to the clinic on Monday for them to look at it I was surprised at the number of people not wearing a mask.  Two girls got out of the lift not wearing them and I thought "they have most likely been talking to one another, so spittle may have come from their mouths and be in that lift".   In my book it is NOT ON.  There is a pharmacy attached to the clinic and people in there did not seem to have masks on either.  Why do people not think of others?

Apart from the leg as I said I am at Cardiology for a pacemaker check this morning, I know the battery is running low so will have to see, fingers crossed I get another three months out of it, or six?

Thursday is back to leg dressing clinic and Friday it is the chiropractor - cannot wait for that one.  I have so missed her,  Just about coping.  Think that is it - so long folks!

Jeudi Journal - Birds

This week I chose a kind of outdoor scene for my journal page.  Mainly because I painted the page blue and then put some fluffy clouds on it (you can barely see them) because I knew it was going to be something to do with birds.  Because I like to enter my pages in Art Journal Journey I put some simple stitching around the edges like I had done last week, it makes for a nice border anyway.  There is also some stitching around the edge of the table cloth so that it complies with Halle's challenge of "A Stitch in Time".

I then had to think up a story in order to decide which Dylusion figures to put on my page and decided that the quote "When in doubt put a bird on it" could apply to a birthday cake where they hadn't known what to put on it so they put a bird (decoration of course) on it.

So my page is telling the story of the mother of twin girls hosting an outdoor birthday party for them and not knowing what to put on the cake, for a change, has decided to put a bird on it.    The twins are standing there in their new party dresses and they have all, had you noticed, got matching footwear, including mum.  Then, of course, you get the cheeky little boy who has his eye on the cake, peering over the edge of the table.  Just hope he doesn't stick his finger in it before it is cut.

As we have just heard this past weekend The Forces Sweetheart, Dame Vera Lynne, has passed at the marvellous age of 103 so what could be more appropriate than to use a bluebird in honour of her.  RIP Dame Vera Lynne,

WOYWW 577

Another week has flown by and it is time again for my weekly show of my desk via WOYWW with Julia, our founder.  Find out what I am on about if you don't already know by clicking here.

This week found me joining in with an online mixed media workshop with Tracy Evans where we were making a little book.  I was thrilled to bits with the way the pages turned out when we used the stencil.  Was it because of the choice of stencil or the technique?  Not sure, but I do know that I really liked the finish of each page before we began adding embellishments.  I still have a couple of pages to decorate but that is only because I wanted to put something gardening related on them but not a different flower.  Still thinking on that one so maybe next week you will get to see it.

These online workshops are ideal for me as I have not been able to attend one at a store in ages on account of my back but doing them at home it does not matter if my back gives in because I just stop and then carry on at my own convenience.

This was my desk on Sunday afternoon following the workshop and it remained like that whilst I did a couple more pages on Monday/Tuesday so due to my back beginning to rebel it is like that now and is likely to stay like that until Thursday or Friday.  It might have a bit more stuff on now than on Sunday.  

The only thing I have done in my craftroom since is sort out a couple of drawers.  I have so much stuff for Tracy's classes now that I have had to give her an extra drawer.  So one is labelled "Tracy's Stamps" and the other "Tracy's Stuff" - I have become a real fan of hers and her Facebook group are lovely.  Everyone is so friendly, someone even sent me some calico because I did not know what it looked like and was unsure if I had some - and wanted nothing in return, didn't even put her return address on the envelope so I could send a 'thank you' card.

Also when you post your efforts you get lots of people giving you a "like" and quite a lot of people will comment as well.  So unlike my monthly group, which is closed at the moment but which I am trying to encourage to do something online to keep us in touch.  Very little traffic on there.  One thing I noticed was that ten people had viewed a card someone had made and put on the group, but it had only three likes so does that mean that seven of the ten who viewed did not like it?

Health Update:

My back has been playing up a lot more but I can help the pain to lessen by sitting down.  Standing does not seem to be good for me at the moment.  My shoulder is no better despite constant icing when I can.  Not long before I can have treatment thank goodness.

I have been having a lot more episodes of breathlessness and am wondering if it is time for the battery to be replaced in my pacemaker.  Next Wednesday I will be missing for a short while as I am due at the hospital to have it checked.  Prayers please for it to have enough life in it to keep me going for another three months at least.  I am not ready for going into hospital for an operation yet with the Covid figures in the north west as they are.

Jeudi Journal - Two?

The old saying "Two heads are better than one" is the quote for today's journal.  Simple?  Well, that is what I thought until late last night when I realised I had not done it - again ...  A quick coat of yellow ochre paint on my journal page, with a touch of white brushed on randomly at the top and off to bed, back aching a bit.  Better not to push it.

Up this morning and a new day!  Looking at all my figures already cut out I decided on the girl with the big head and two smaller figures.  Putting the single figure at one side and the two together at the other I began with my lettering.  This time I was in a hurry so didn't even look at the printed quote - just tried to do lettering similar to that of the past two weeks.  Just need to do a few more and maybe practice when I am watching tv or something.  I found a graph paper tiny book - ideal for doing just that in.  

So that was my "two heads are better than one" quote - but something was missing.  There was a gap between the two figures on the left and the one on the right and it needed something.  I should have arranged my lettering better, done it bigger.  So what can I do?  A dog!  A dog will fit in that space and it will make the page more cohesive.  Then looking through my dogs I thought "why did I not think of this earlier - a dog with two heads, instead of a tail he could have another head."  And so my page now has a dog with two heads as well.

So we could weave a story around the three girls out walking and the dog but instead of me doing it I will leave it to you my friends.

Oh, and I put some stitching around the page and the cross stitch stamp  in orange randomly stamped here and there to let me include my journal page in Art Journal Journey where you could do something similar if you followed the link.  Go on, you know you want to.