WOYWW 682

Tuesday evening and I am getting my post done early for WOYWW.   These Wednesdays come around far too quickly these days and as I look out of my window I can see the rain steadily coming down on another dismal day.  Yes, we had the weather last week up north, but honestly, one week in the month is not enough for me.  I think I need to move to somewhere a bit sunnier.

Still suffering from the work I did the other week and despite going away for four days of complete rest (lazing about to be honest) my back kicks off at the slightest bit of movement.  Anyway, on a brighter note, my lovely friend, Jayme, is coming over on Thursday to sort out the stuff we have in the garage for taking to the Club.  I sorted it as I went along but it still needs a lot more work doing to it and she loves organising - what a super friend!

Yesterday, Monday, was the last trip down to sort through what was left.  So what was left after that I just told her son to "bin" as there weren't the kind of things people would want to take left.  It's made me realise that I need to do some 'pruning' of my stash before too long.  When did I last use my Brilliance inkpads, or my Twinkling H2O's?  So I haven't done too much in the way of crafting.  Although I did make four "Thinking of You"cards for members of my friend's family and I have asked club members to make some tags in memory of a long standing member who loved her Vicky Stampers.  (still mine to think about)

I don't like "Sympathy" cards and feel that 'Thinking of You' is better, especially for younger people.  Hope they all got them.

On a brighter note I have moved a small table into my craft room, it can easily be moved in and out as necessary and so that is what I will show you today

This is crafting I took away with me.  Did four backgrounds for something I have to do in August and the oval things on the right are my attempts at shading with coloured pencils.  The dirty looking duster on the left is one for cleaning stamps with.  Hopefully I can get on with something tomorrow and then Thursday I can sit and watch my friend tidy up whilst I knock up a curry.  She knows what's happening and is quite happy to do it.   As I said, a great young friend!  Love her to bits!

With that I will leave you.  I should be back to normal next week and my only whinge will be that it is July already, how did time go so quickly?  See you ...

Jeudi Journal - Let's Talk

Polly was a keen underwater swimmer.  Her mother said she had been born with the lungs of a fish as she would slide under the water in the bath as a young baby and could lie there for a considerable time before arching her back to get up.  Maybe her birthday under the star sign of Pisces had something to do with it. She really had been a handful when growing up.  Anyhow, Polly was a keen swimmer and spent most of her time in the water exploring everywhere and anywhere she could.  She was also prone to being a little arrogant at times but her friends all knew her and put up with her ways which showed through now and again.  Most of the time however she was nice and always loyal to her friends.

This particular day Polly had gone diving and swimming around with her friend Prue,   They were on holiday in Egypt and trying out some new waters hoping to spot some different species of fish.    At one time a friendly one eyed octopus had swum by with a tiny brightly coloured crab  on his tail.  there had been some funny looking creatures on the ocean's bed but so far no exotic fish.

Suddenly Polly noticed a fish swimming right at her with his mouth wide open as if he was going to swallow her up.  

"You don't scare me", said Polly, "I've seen bigger fish than you around or do you want to talk?  Tell you what - Let's talk soon because I miss the sound of my own voice."

Prue was well out of sight but later that day Polly was telling her about the pink fish and how he tried to scare her.  She said told Prue how she had told him she would chat with him later. Prue wondered just what had been said and wondered if Polly had told him how she loved the sound of her own voice.  Prue was an expert on knowing that, afterall she was the one who had to put up with Polly and her arrogant ways at times.  

This was done on a pre stencilled page in my journal - being the reverse stencilling of the page I showed you last week (ie last week's was a second generation - this was a first).  I had to do the page in a bit of a hurry on Tuesday because I had just learned that my friend has passed away in the early hours of the morning and I knew there was no time after that day to do anything.  It occupied me and helped with the grieving too.  

I quickly thought up the bare bones of a story, found the last swimming figure I had and put a masked head on her.  Then I went through my  stash of Dylusion figures and found the underwater ones.  A quick session with a couple of Promarkers and I was ready - just a story to make up.  Sorry it is not very imaginative but I am now linking it up with Art Journal Journey and Mia's theme of Fish.  Hope to see some of you there.

WOYWW 681

 It's another Wednesday already and that means a meeting of the friends at Julia's place - WOYWW the desk sharing blog which has been running for 13 years now.  Not a bad achievement eh?  Actually the number in the title of my blog post is what you should really take notice of - 681 weeks of chatting to one another over the waves and the annual crop (which was stopped because of Covid but will take place again this year - Hurrah).  I can't take credit for being a member all that time but I am sure I joined somewhere in the first year.

Nothing much to show but I have been busy dismantling my friend's craft room and packing everything up to take to our local craft club.  Sadly yesterday morning the news came through that she had passed peacefully at around 4 am that morning.  That meant that my plans to go down again were put on hold, it's a time for family now, not friends.  I just had one more day to do to clear it all and our garage (a big double one) is full of boxes of crafting goodies for  friends.

I am worn out, my body has taken a bashing that it normally doesn't have with all the to-ing and fro-ing I have been doing, I am not used to climbing stairs and boy did she have steep stairs, and so I need to give my body some rest but she was a good and very loyal friend so it was the least I could do for her and her family.  She will leave a big hole in my life and be missed by so many.  She really was a lovely lady.  Perhaps one of the best friend I will ever have.

Anyway, my desk has two ATC's on it, one from Mary Anne which arrived the other week and one from Christine which arrived this morning (there was a mix up over my address) and a lone piece of paper that I had been practicing my crayoning on.  It's for a blog post at some time in the future.  Sorry it's not exciting but it was that or a pile of boxes in the garage.  Who knows, I might have something to show you another week.

Something I fished out to show someone was this bag I once brought back from CHA and put some old artwork in.  I had given one to my friend and her daughter asked if I would like it - so it is going to find a new home and go to another friend (the empty one).  Mine is  hung behind my craft room door at all times and used when I go to shows mainly.  Gosh I used to get some great bags from that trade show.  Most of which have been used as shopping bags over the years.

Jeudi Journal - Don't be ridiculous

OK, so the quote used today comes from Cher, in Mermaids - "Don't be ridiculous, real women are never too old" and is the one chosen by Wendy for us to illustrate in our journals this week.  Despite it having a fishy story to fit in with Mia's theme at Art Journal Journey it is nothing at all to do with the story of the film.  Instead it centres around two friends, Doris and Elsie, both ladies resident at the Resthaven Nursing Home.

Doris fancied herself as a bit of a sleuth and often would lead Elsie into little scrapes that sometimes involved the law.  One time she accused the lady in charge of the home, Mrs Roosevelt, of "popping off the residents".  Totally got it wrong when it turned out Mrs Roosevelt was actually indulging one or two of the residents by giving them a tot of rum or whisky in their hot milk.  The police were not amused when they were called out by Elsie who had totally believed her friend!

It was a lovely Springtime and promised to be similar for the Summer with warm balmy nights which meant they could all have their windows thrown open; and fresh air was always welcome at Resthaven.  Nothing had been happening and so Doris was getting a little bored.  Chess, draughts, snakes and ladders were all well and good but even the Saturday night sing-a-long had become a bit of a bind and Doris wanted something exciting in her life.

"Tell you what" she said to Elsie one afternoon, "I think it's about time I got my beach body out and took myself off somewhere to swim with the dolphins."

"You can't do that" retorted Elsie, "Mrs Roosevelt would never allow it.  Imagine if you got swallowed by one of them, I've seen them on television and they are awfully big fish."

"You are thinking of sharks" said Doris.  "Sharks and some whales are dangerous but dolphins are lovely, friendly creatures and lots of people swim with them.  What is furthermore I want to do something exciting.  If only to show that Ernie Dodds what a real woman can do."

Ernie was a cantankerous resident octogenarian who grumbled and groused his way through every day.  Doris really did not like the man but Elsie was much more tolerable and was very kind to him, even when he was nasty and waved his stick at her friend Doris.

"Well, I am going to do it.  I will go to my room right away and find my swim costume, I know I have a bikini somewhere but not sure if it fits me these days.  Then I will be on the telephone and arrange it all. "

"You can't", said Elsie, "they won't let you, besides which you are much too old to do things like that.  Mrs Roosevelt would have a fit, and imagine what Ernie would have to say.  The whole sitting room would laugh at you."

"Don't be ridiculous."  said Doris, "real women are never too old" and with that she took off for the lift to the first floor determined to find her swimwear, even if it was a bikini!"

Well, for some reason I got the words a little wrong on the journal page but hey ho, it doesn't really matter.  I just hope you enjoyed my story and journal page explaining it this week.

To begin with I did a second generation reverse stencil background in shades of blue and green Distress Ink.  Then I used Miss Dee from Janet Klein (Aall & Create) in the thought bubble and surrounded her with two dolphins.  The furniture at the base of the page is all from Janet Klein's stamps.  Main figures, of course, are Dylusions.

WOYWW 680

Morning WOYWW friends.  

At last I have something to show you  other than an empty desk, as last week.  Here are two cards I sent out to Switzerland to two friends - but one of the birthdays was not until the 2nd June so I held them both back (in truth I forgot about showing them to you last week - memory is slipping now, it's my age!).  It's good that they are close together as I always remember their birthdays.

As you can see both were Janet Klein type cards with an Abs stencil background.  I tried to keep them as simple as possible so as not to incur too much postage.  On taking them for mailing I discovered Europe is nowhere near as expensive to post to as America.  I could have paut more embellishments on.  Ah well!

Apart from that I have been doing some GD work ready for August, seems early but there is a lot to do but that is the only crafting up to now.  I have a new stamp coming tomorrow for one of my pages and that will make three done.  Seven or so to go.

My friend is not good.  I was down last Friday and quite shocked at the change in her but four days later she just slept all the time I was there.  Still, I was able to help out practically which is what I was made for - I prefer to do something to help rather than just sit as a visitor.  I've always been like that - prefer to be in the background washing up.   I will go down again tomorrow, I need to help as much as I can, whilst I can.

Well, the weather is a bit better at the moment (talking up north) so we have managed to get a bit of sorting in the front garden.  Neither of us are gardeners so we need to make it as easy to handle as possible.  I think today will be the perfect day for a picnic in the back garden, fingers crossed.  Just hope you are all enjoying the weather and maybe have plans for the great outdoors yourself.  in the meantime I am off to the chiropractor and then its a hop around the desks at WOYWW.  See you there!

Oops!  my desk

My laptop

Plus some shaving foam backgrounds that went wrong, an old book someone made me and my JK stamps.

Jeudi Journal - Disagree?

It's Thursday again and time for another journal page for Art Journal Journey where the lovely Mia has chosen "Fish" as the topic for the challenge this month.  Why not pop along to Art Journal Journey here and see some of the lovely entries that followed the great inspirational piece by Mia.  You would be most welcome - but read the rules please to make sure your journal page is the correct size and not too small.

Elizabeth, I hope the storms have abated for you and the weather is not affecting you too much now.  Thinking of you.

What a pickle I got in with the page for this week.  All was planned, I was to take my journal away with me for the weekend and just do the background and stick in a couple of fish I had stamped and a tag I had been given back in 2015.  I just love the little octopus (octopi or octopuses?) on the tag.   The tag was made by a very good friend of mine who is now terminally ill and I thought it was a lovely way I could keep it safe in my journal by using it as part of a layout.  That way I would always know where it was when I wanted to look at something she had made and remember her.

Well, I forgot the glue!  Did take the stamp for the bubbles but then only had a black Memento pad and my head was elsewhere as I intended to stamp it second generation but just did it directly on the page.  I wasn't even sure which way up it should be so am hoping that you think, like I did, that the shadows fall below.  I decided to do my writing between curved lines to represent the waves of the ocean and the background was done in two shades of Distress Ink which I left looking rather blotchy to echo the movement of the water.

Just a tiny story today because I want to include some photos from the weekend:

"Mabel and Ethel, two sister fish, were swimming around when they came across a school of octopus.  Ethel flipped over so she was facing Mabel and said "look at all those octopuses, they are so young and oh so pretty."

"Don't you mean octopi" replied Mabel, always ready to contradict her sister.  

"No, I mean octopuses", replied Ethel, flipping back and turning her back to her sister.  "Octopuses is the preferred plural as it gives the word an English ending to match its adoption as an English word.

"Ah, but ... " said Mabel, "in the early days it was known as octopi because in Latin the words ending in 'us' get pluralised by replacing with "i", surely you know that."

And so the two of them went on and on arguing as to what the plural of octopus was.

Mabel suggested they agree to disagree which is something she always did when the two sisters argued,  or even fell out for a couple of fishy days.

"Oh, for goodness sake" shouted Ethel, who was tired of her sister's nit picking, "rather than agreeing to disagree, why don't you just be quiet," and off she swam heading for the school of octopuses (or octopi?)"  She had had enough of her bossy sister for one day.

What do you say?

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and those in the UK enjoyed the long Bank Holiday weekend in honour of Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee.  Street parties were held in lots of places and Morecambe, where we were on the Sunday, attempted to have the longest street party by having tables all down the Promenade.

Apparently on each of the tables, which stretched to 2.5 km, sat a Union Jack Flag made by volunteers and organised by the Morecambe Council in an attempt to break the record for the biggest street party.  Money raised at the event was to be divided between Morecambe's Cancer Care Charity and the Ukrainian Refugees.

As Morecambe Bay is the geographical heart of the UK surely there isn't a more fitting place to commemorate HM the Queen with the biggest street party  It was such a shame, the sun shone Friday and Saturday, but it was dull and cool on Sunday when the street party was held, and then it was a lovely day again on the Monday.  Despite that it didn't deter people from having a wonderful time. (Photos courtesy of the Mail online and Lancs Live)

On the Friday we went to a friend's street party in a cul de sac.  Lots of games (egg and spoon, wrapping up in loo roll (Mummies), three legged and a couple of quizzes (we won the general knowledge one).  This is my friend's son in the egg and spoon race

and Jayne wrapping Jimmy up as a Mummy

We ended the long weekend with a visit to one of our favourite gardens, Sizergh, on the edge of the Lake District.  Plants had certainly grown since our last visit and everywhere looked so different.  I couldn't walk down the rock garden as easily as I had done before.  The head gardener certainly knows her stuff as everywhere looked so beautiful.

This is a dwarf horse chestnut.  The candles on it are a lovely apricot/salmon pink in colour and is one of the head gardener's favourite trees in the whole grounds.

I just love doors and archways

The green of the tree on the left stood out against the other shades, sadly the photo did not capture it in all its beauty.

I'll leave it there, some more photos were on yesterday's blog post if you wish to see.  Now it's time to see what kind of day it is going to be - not 'flaming June' as yet for us.

WOYWW 679

With the extended weekend for the Jubilee this week has gone like greased lightening and it's Woyww again.  Very little crafting has been done.  I spent towards the end of the week doing my worksheets ready for Saturday's class.  That was so boring and I still worry that I have put. in every single step along the way.  Ah well - all will be revealed on Saturday.

I did take my journal away with me this last weekend but I forgot the glue so couldn't stick my characters in.  I had taken some pages with me to practise my pencil colouring - I took the wrong pencils - I took Inktense (watercolours) instead of my Prismacolor.  So basically I did nothing much.  This was my desk last night when we got home and I just tipped everything out.

The journal is open at another page, because I had my colouring papers in at that page - they can be seen on the right underneath my general pencil case and my Inktense pencils.  The roll of paper is something I intended to cut up to make a kind of diary but never did.

We visited Sizergh again at the weekend as Chas wanted to see how the planting had progressed.  I preferred the early spring photos when the plants were not quite so prolific but it was still a worthwhile visit.  It really is well thought out and the planting changes every two years.  I especially loved the steps at the back of the house with all the lovely little daisies growing out of the various cracks in the stonework.

I can just imagine some bridal party standing on these steps.  Those flowers are so delicate and pretty (Erigeron karvinskianus or something like that).

These Lupins were gi-normous

and the Peonies, spectacular

Love how they plant flowers and the veggies together in the veggie garden

Look at this giant patch of yellow - full of bees

Last Friday saw us going to the street party (in a cul de sac).  We were collected by my friend's daughter and taken home by her husband to be.  There was lots of food in the afternoon - sandwiches, sausage rolls, pizza - a barbecue with different sausages and burgers on offer etc and the most delicious cupcakes, trifle and my fruit cake.  Later, early evening, we had jacket potatoes with my chilli, chicken curry and rice and a stew. 

Games were organised and Chas and my friend Jayne came in last in the three legged race but she and her other half were second in the 'mummifying' (wrapping in toilet roll).  The good news on the quiz was that we came in second on the Jubilee one and we won the general knowledge one.

In the early evening, when all the games were over, William, my friend's son, came out for the young ones dressed in his dinosaur costume.  It was hilarious.  One little girl went quite close to him and as soon as he moved her face was a picture and she turned tail and ran.  How I wish I had caught that on video.  It didn't happen once, it happened several times - until her twin sister showed her there was nothing to be frightened of and then she joined in with the others punching him and trying to catch his tail.

It was a really good day out thanks to Jayne and her family.