Jeudi Journal - Boxes of Mints

 No, I am not giving away any boxes of mints, the title of this blog post refers to the quote for this week and I am linking it also to Art Journal Journey  where Valerie has the theme "Spring Goddess".

"It was a lovely Spring day and the two friends had met up for a drink at a little coffee shop just by the Park off the High Street.

"What on earth are you wearing those sunglasses for?" asked Belinda of Samantha.

"They are new", said Sam, "I treated myself to some rose coloured glasses in the hope that the world would look a lot better place."

"What on earth is the matter?" said Belinda, sounding quite concerned that something drastic had happened in the life of her friend Sam.  "Surely things cannot be that bad."

"Well, you know what they say, life is so much better if looked at through rose coloured spectacles, and so I thought maybe I too would look better if I wore them.  The only trouble is, when I put them on and saw my reflection in a shop window I did not look any better and I am so upset, so very upset."

"What on earth are you talking about?" asked Belida, "there is nothing wrong with the way you look, you look just the same as you did last week."

"That's the trouble" replied Sam, "I just ate four boxes of thin mints. ... not feeling thin though"

"You did what?" asked Belinda, "You ate four boxes of thin mints and expect to lose weight?  You silly old sausage, they will either make you put more weight on, or if they were covered in chocolate will give you spots.  If you are serious about losing weight why not join the local Slimming Club, look if you want I will come along with you."

"Really?" asked Sam, "You would do that for me?"

"Yes" said Belinda, "You are my best friend and that's what best friends do for one another."

And with that the two girls walked off arm in arm and continued with their shopping.  (Sam left her biscuit and milky coffee on the table.)

WOYWW 669

Another week  and thanks to Jo, (Wipso) and her fingers I have a cute badge on my bag and she has raised a lovely sum of money in aid of the displaced persons from the Ukraine.  Chuffed with my purchase and it gives aid as well.

Wasn't the weather lovely last week in most places.  No so on the coast in Lancashire, seems we missed a lot of the sunshine but we came home to it and it has been lovely ever since.  Still. had a lovely rest which did us good.

Nothing much to show you on my desk as I have been busy sorting my Janet Klein images out.  I decided I did not like the way I keep them (in little baggies with names sellotaped on top) and so I now have them in baggies with the names on the inside stuck on cards.  It's much tidier and I have the numbers of the stamps on as well.  Just hope it's easier to find what I want.

The cream cards are the baggies I have sorted - the other ones are the ones needing sorting (and needing cards in them).

I did, however make a card last week and I made another one at weekend - both for birthdays of friends and both with Janet Klein images.  I need two more for April.  Next week maybe?

above outside and below inside

and the other one with new images

So that's it from me for now.  See you all next week on WOYWW.

Jeudi Journal - Memory

I used my Distress Inks on this background and my Distress Oxides for stamping the Aall & Create images all over the background.  

"It was a lovely Spring day and Gemma was feeling a little bit down.  She had forgotten her appointment at the nail salon, had forgotten to send her sister a birthday card and just realised that it was Mothering Sunday the next day and had not got anything for her beloved mama.

"What on earth am I going to do?" she asked Brutus, her big grey dog.  "I have the worst memory in the whole wide world and I just do not know what to do about it."

Obviously she got no answer from Brutus, who just sat there outside his kennel and gave her a lop-sided smile.  Well, we all know dog's do not smile really but at times that is just how Brutus looked.  He was Gemma's best friend.  Not that she did not have a wide circle of friends, she did, but Brutus was her best friend because as what she said to him he never answered her back or argued with her.

"Dogs are just the best" she had said, only the other day, to her friend Patsy.  "As how I feel I can always guarantee Brutus will come and cheer me up.  If I am not well or feeling down in the dumps he just comes and puts his head on my lap and looks at me with those big brown eyes of his and I know the world will be right for me.  Who needs a boyfriend when they have a dog."

"Oh Brutus",  she said, "I swear if my memory was any worse I could plan my own surprise party."

Brutus, sensing things were not well with Gemma came trotting over to where she sat in the garden and laid his head on her knee.  They say a man's best friend is his dog - it works for women and girls too."

This is my entry this week for Valerie's theme of Spring over at Art Journal Journey.  I hope that this background looks as if it is a Spring day for Gemma and her dog.

WOYWW 668

Well, Spring has arrived, at least today (Tuesday as I write this) is nice and sunny as promised and everywhere you go there is an abundance of daffodils heralding Spring for us all.  I do like it when you drive along a country lane and the sides of the road are bright with the yellow daffodils that someone has planted.  Sometimes I would like to get out of the car and dig some up and spread them about a little more.  Can't of course, as someone would think I was digging them up for myself but I often have that thought in my head.

I need to write my blog early as I am away from home and the internet situation is not good here and I have no idea when I will be able to link to WOYWW where we all met up on a Wednesday morning.  I can but try until I get the link.  So my desk is not the usual, in fact I have not unpacked what I brought with me as yet.  Saying that I did spend Monday night cutting some digi images out that I had bought recently

My bag has not been unpacked, some Promarkers, Inktense pencils, paper trimmer, paper for journaling/sketching and a file for the caravan.  You can also see the box of Janet Klein figures all cut up and bagged plus the lid with the new ones I cut yesterday and the rubbish waiting to be binned.

Yesterday we went shopping in the afternoon and had a walk along the promenade.  I spotted something large in the sater and I think it was a duck.  I have never seen a duck on the sea before.  My phone was not good enough to get a decent photo but this is what I managed to get.  Looks like a lone duck to me.

One thing I did not show you last week is the cornish Cream Tea we had for my birthday.  It was absolutely delicious and I can recommend.  Maybe it seems a lot of money for a couple of scones each but it was nice and the scones were delicious, I love the box too.  Colouring the outside is on the cards.

Nothing crafty to show you, I did make a card for the son of a friend but forgot to scan it, also made a card for a friend but she might come here and see it and as her birthday is tomorrow it's best left for next week.

So it's toodle pip from me, see you over at WOYWW.

Jeudi Journal - Laundry?

 I saw a Journal page that someone had done that really inspired me.  Only trouble was I had to use a brayer, I don't get on with brayers! The page I saw began with yellow - fair do's, it was ok when I did it but then ...  The page I liked used Ochre rather than the blue as first intended.  Me?  I chose blue thinking of the Ukraine Flag and the two colours together making green which would work well with Valerie's theme "Spring" over at Art Journal Journey.

For my stencil I chose circles again.  It really is my favourite stencil and so I popped it on top and took some of the blue paint off with a baby wipe.  Next task was to choose my figures.  I thought I would use the smallest ones but to be honest they looked lost in this journal so I went up a step and used the middle sized ones.  They still look small to me.  Along with some flowers from Aall & Create I had my page catered for.  Now to the story with the quote "Don't you just love the 12 seconds when the laundry is done."

"Adele, Belle and Carmell had been friends since they were at school.  They had all grown up in the same area, played in the same parks, gone to the same schools, got married within two years of one another, had their children pretty close to one another and remained friends with rarely a cross word passing their lips.  They always say "two's company, three's a crowd" but these three friends were determined that would never be the case with them.

At school they were known as 'the Alphabet Kids' on account of their initials A, B and C.  The fact that their names actually rhymed remained a secret as to whether their parents, who were also close friends, had done that on purpose.

As usual on a Monday afternoon the three of them met up in the local Park to see how the weekend had gone for one another.  Adele and her family had been to her parents house over the weekend as her father was celebrating a big birthday.  Belle had taken her twins to watch their father playing football and then all had gone to Mcdonalds for a burger celebration as his team had won, whilst Carmell and her family had spent the weekend at their caravan on the coast.

They all had lots to talk about and they walked and talked, and sat and talked, and carried on talking whilst they all enjoyed an ice cream at the local vendors.  They had a good life, a nice happy family, children who were doing well at school and husband's who adored them.  Then the talk got to the more mundane things in life that were waiting for them when they got home.  Housework!

"Don't you just love the twelve seconds when the laundry is done" said Belle.

"Ooh, yes, but then I have to remember the ironing is just around the corner and I do not like ironing" replied Adele, "in fact I think I prefer the laundry to the ironing"

"Yes, " said Carmell, "you are right, it is about twelve seconds that I give a sigh of relief when it is all on the line outside before I remember the ironing will be waiting as soon as everything is dry."

The three friends started to laugh.  Life was good, but, as how good it got, ironing always got in the way.  thank goodness for that twelve seconds of relief!"

WOYWW 667

 I think this week has gone quicker than the last one, and the one before and the one before that.  It is now week 667 for WOYWW fans and that's a lot of weeks in real talk.  Apparently it's 12 years, 9 months, two weeks - or so the converter I consulted said.

I had a birthday but it came and went in a bit of a rush with a business meeting where I had to sign lots of papers and be taken through the Health and Safety bits of signing myself away for a room for our Stamping Club to meet in.  What a different venue it is to the last one.  In my note to the group I said it was "quite adequate" so as not to spoil the surprise.  It is a lovely room and a lovely kitchen is there for our use.

Saturday saw the meeting take place and we almost had a full house with two new members attending but five not able to, two of whom are isolating due to hospital visits pending.

Here is my desk today - the journal is about to be begun, I saw a video of a journal page I liked and tried to recreate it - nothing like the one I saw!  Never been good with a brayer!

All very tidy with just my journal ready to continue for tomorrow.  Just a bit of brayering in yellow and a the small brayer.  Everything has to be cleared away when I start with paint.

Now, as always here are some of my birthday cards

Alexis

Ann & John

Cath

Cath 

Chris

Darnell

Dilys

Enid

Gill

Jacqui

Janet

Jayne's Never Ending  Card

Linda

Lorraine

Lynne

Renate

and finally Sue

There was one from my friend Margaret, who is 84 years young, but I cannot scan it and it won't photograph well either so sorry.

The Never Ending card from Jayne goes on and on, opening up in different ways,  I will have to do a video another time to show you.  It really is a beautiful card, but then so is every one of them.  I also had three bouquets and a lovely Cornish Cream Tea all the way from Cornwall, can recommend - the scones were beautiful.

Well, that is it for this week.  Need an early night as I have to be up and out in the morning - and my hair always needs a bit of a fiddling with to look decent.

Jeudi Journal - Wrinkles

Another page for my journal challenge with Wendy and also another entry for the Art Journal Journey challenge which this month is having a Springlike theme chosen by the lovely Valerie of Bastelmania fame.  Today the quote is "Does going bra-less help pull the wrinkles out of your face?"

My page started off, in my head, as being a lovely lime green colour.  As it turned out it was a kind of mid to dark green so that meant adding some more yellow - no better.  Then it was white paint, Gesso and more and more white paint until I got to that kind of pale green colour - not lime!!  I still had quite a bit of the darker green so I lightened it a little and tried to use it up on another page which in the end had so much paint on it, it felt like linoleum.  Still some left so I put it through a stencil on three corners of my page.  then I chose my figures and began my story:

"Billy and Tish had been friends for years.  Way back to High School and then on to Uni and beyond.  They had married within months of one another, their first babies were almost the same age and their friendship was unbreakable.

They knew almost everything there was to know about one another and now they were both reaching retirement age they were planning what they would do with their time once work was behind them.  

It was a Saturday afternoon and the two of them had met up for a coffee and a chat.  It was not long since the pandemic had changed the lives of so many and now, at long last, they were told the various bans were to be lifted but they should still exercise control.  Tish had turned up still wearing a mask and when asked why she said it was not for medical reasons but it actually made her feel and look better.

"it covers the wrinkles around my mouth", she continued, "that and not wearing spectacles are the only things that make me look younger."

"Not wearing your glasses?" asked Billy, "how do you make that one out?"

"Well", replied Tish, "when I take my glasses off I can't see the wrinkles that are there when I wear them."  "It's pure magic."

Billie started laughing, "they are not wrinkles, they are your laughter lines and they come with age, nothing you can do about them, they are part of you."

"I was wondering", said Tish, "does going bra-less help pull the wrinkles out of your face?"

"What on earth are you like" asked Billie, "if that was the answer there'd be no Botox and a lot of people would be looking much younger than they are."

And the two of them laughed as they finished their coffees, got up and set off for a bit of good old retail therapy.