Jeudi Journal - Phone Call

"Well, surprise surprise, Christabel and Damon are still together and time has gone on and now Christabel is away at University.  It's a long distance relationship and it seems to be working.  Most of it has to be done on the telephone talking to one another almost every night but meeting up at each half term back on their home ground.

Now the shoe was often on the other foot and it was Damon who was the one being nice to Christabel.  Sometimes she could have a sharp tongue, but was that his fault for the way he had behaved towards her when they were younger?  She was always one step ahead of him and ready to jump at him should he say the slightest thing to upset her.

It was a lovely summer day and Christabel had gone out into the park near to the university.  She liked to get away from her friends when she was talking to Damon, either that or curled up on her bed all snuggly and warm so she could be nice and private talking to her boyfriend.

Christabel's friends were organising a party and she wanted Damon to come along.  Poor Damon had to work and had very little time off, using his holidays to visit her whenever he could.  It meant him having to take a Friday off work and he could not see his boss allowing that as they were so busy.

"I'm sorry sweetheart, I can't just take a day off whenever I like it" he told her."

"But I want you to be at the party with me", she replied.

"But I've already told you I cannot make it this weekend, it is too short notice and besides, we have so much work on at the moment I doubt I would be allowed time off."

Well, that did it and Christabel let forth with a load of angry words, threatening to go to the party and see if she could meet someone 'who cared'.  Poor Damon was besides himself and begged her not to, ending with saying he would try to get the time off, he would rather lose his job than lose her.

"I love you more than anything" Damon said, "I just do not want to lose you," his voice faltering.  

It was then Christabel realised what a little brat she was being and she apologised, saying "I will try to be nice to you, but often my mouth gets in the way.  Please do not risk losing your job for the sake of a party, I will go, but I will not stay long and no way will I find another boyfriend, I love you too much."

And with that the twosome talked some more and all was rosy once again in the world of Christabel and Damon."

Just a Distress Ink background with a Dylusion floral stencil over the whole page and then a Posca pen black border around the edge.  Thanks to Chris at Art Journal Journey for such a great theme this month, I wish I could have entered a lot more but I had so much to do this month.  It worked in nicely with the quotes and figures I had to work with (along with Wendy) so again 'thank you Chris'.

WOYWW 690

 Another week, another WOYWW, another meet up with blogging friends and another week of nosing around the desks.  What a glorious band of happy bloggers we are that meet up every Wednesday to see what we have all been up to.

It's been a busy old week for me as I collected the tags done by the members of Victoria Stampers ready for me to put into a tag book for the family of my friend Mo who, as you all know, passed two months ago.  I did intend binding them at the flat end but some did them portrait so I had to hastily rethink.  Easier for me as I simply put them together with a ring through the hole at the top.  I made a little gift bag for each member of the family they were going to and put the tag books in and then delivered them.

I will show you all the tags, or at least give you the link to view them next week, can't upload now as I am away and the internet is almost non existent.

So, nothing much to report here - a slightly different desk as I have taken over the table and I am going to have to clear my crafting up in a short while so that we can eat.  

This is the dining room table and I have been making pages for the desk calendar started with Jo Rice last Saturday week.  Fab tutor, I can see we will be trying to get her back again.  I chose, as most people did, to do Lavinia fairies.  You can see my pages bottom right and above are my Oxides, my brushes and stencils; to the left is a bit of my cover peeking out, my pencil case with a few bits and pieces in and then my pages to date.  They want some sparkle on yet, need some sparkle pens.  Above them you can see my black inkpad and my trusty towel for wiping me and anything dirty on,  It does get washed.  As I bought two calendars I have twenty four pages to make and then split them between the two so that colourful/non colourful is distributed about a bit.  Perhaps next week you will see more of them.

I would love to be able to make cards like you see those clever crafters make on the Lavinia pages. Patience is not a strong point with me but I will keep trying once these are done.  Maybe I will carry on working in this miniature style for a while afterwards trying different techniques.

Well, must go in case the internet goes off again.  It's Tuesday afternoon and I need to ask someone to link this for me.  See you next week when all systems will be working.  Toodle Pip!

Jeudi Journal - Hard to Get

"I don't play hard to get, I play never going to happen" is the quote for this week chosen by Wendy  and I am linking this to Art Journal Journey where Chris has chosen the theme of 'when we were young' for us to work to.  

Sticking with Christabel and Damon I am continuing with yet another story of the two of them.  Again entirely fictional as by the time I got to seven years old (irl) we had moved away and lost touch with the family.  So the fictional story:

"Damon finally realised just how hurtful his sarcastic remarks could be, especially to his best friend Christabel.  So he decided to reign it in a bit and started being much nicer to her.  Sadly by this time Christabel had grown up quite a bit and had a bit more of a hard shell around herself.  Damon could no longer get away with some of the things he said and did, she was always one step ahead of him.  

It was coming up to her 16th birthday and she was having a few friends around for tea.  Damon wanted to impress her and so he asked her if she would go and watch him play football on the local playing fields.  It was a proper game with referee and linesmen, not just a bunch of lads larking about.  

Secretly he was beginning to have feelings for Christabel which were not there when they were younger.  In fact his mother, Mrs Day had said to Christabel's mother, Mrs Smythe, that they "made a lovely young couple".  She had obviously seen the look in her son's eyes when Christabel walked by.

Damon had told her that if she went to watch him play football then he would give her her birthday present early, he would take it to the match and give it to her at half time.  He really did want to make a good impression so imagine his disappointment when she did not turn up! Poor Damon was so upset and he realised he had to do something special to win her round.

He decided that the best thing to do was hurry home, shower quickly and dash next door to give her her present before anyone else came ... and maybe ... just maybe ... ask her out on a proper date for the next evening.

He did just that and grabbed his latest gift to her, a pretty blue bird sitting in a lovely little cage.  He knew how she loved the birds and especially listening to them singing.  Well, it all went wrong!  She flatly refused his offer of 'a date' and was not thrilled with the bird in the cage despite him having saved up for it for simply ages.

"That's cruel" she told him, "putting a bird in a cage when they are used to flying all over the sky and being free."

"But I thought you would like it," he said, "and it was sitting in the pet shop not flying around in the sky.  Can't you think of it as my rescuing it?  Gosh Christabel, you do play hard to get."

"I don't play hard to get, I play never going to happen" she replied. And with that she turned her back on him and went to the door to let some of her other friends in.  I somehow don't think these two are going to make it as a couple, do you?

WOYWW 689

Gosh, nearly didn't make it this morning.  I have my days muddled up, so much to do and so little time to do it and I just had to get my hair cut.  Suddenly realised last night that it was Tuesday and no WOYWW done so it was a hasty photo and here I am.

I think the hot weather of the past couple of weeks has got to me, we are not used to it up north and I was wilting - like a dandelion in the heat, all droopy and no energy and things to do but nowhere was cool enough to work.

We had a fabulous workshop, despite the heat, and I melted but managed to get on with things, on Saturday.  Jo Rice came and we learned lots of different techniques but I can't show you what we did because to be honest I don't know where I put it.  Will find it for next week though.  I had seen one or two photos of what we were going to be doing and one of them struck me as being perfect for a tag book I was making.  So I found it on You Tube and watched what she did and proceeded to make three tags for the covers of my three tag books.

It was a blend of Oxides and then some Lavinia stamps across the base and yes, we did just that on Saturday, slightly different colours, but very similar to what I am about to show you.

Why three the same?  They are for family members of my bestie who passed in June and the club members have been making three tags each so that we can give the family a tag book each to show how much we thought of their mum.  This is going to be the cover and the other side has a verse, a different one for each sibling, and then a list of the names of the club members who have contributed.

I also made a card for another friend who is very ill in hospital

but this is on its way to Liverpool

Right, am going to leave it there this week as I have nothing else on my desk except a pack of babywipes and you don't need to see them.  See you next week, maybe a bit more interesting.

Take care, hope it's a bit cooler where you are.

Jeudi Journal - Upset (Not me)

 "I'm sorry if I upset upset you, I'll try not to be right next time" is the quote Wendy chose.  I had to paint a page black as I inadvertently put some Sharpie pen on my previous page and it bled through.  No way could I cover it all up so I painted the page black.  Could I find my stencils of the figures from Dylusions - no!  Then I found this one of children - perfect as Chris had chosen children as her theme at Art Journal Journey.  I had forgotten I had this one.

"Christabel and Damon were growing up.  No longer did they go to the "little school" they had progressed to the more grown up type school that nine year olds attend.  They had long forgotten the incident with the car and Damon had got away with it as the car had been left there for the men to break up anyway.  (see last week)

Damon was always the bossy one and he often upset Christabel with things he would do and say.  His big sister, Barbarella, was very grown up and she was developing a very sarcastic way of speaking to other people, especially her younger brother.  Consequently Damon had picked up some of the things she said that were rather 'cutting' and he didn't mind using them, it made him feel much more grown up.

One day Christabel got a lovely big balloon, from an uncle, that was filled with helium so that it floated in the air and she eagerly went to show it to her best friend.  Rather rudely Damon scoffed at her delight with this balloon and came out with some comment about them being 'common' and maybe she hadn't had one before because her parents could not afford one.  Poor Christabel was almost reduced to tears.

A few weeks later a similar thing happened with a kite her father had made her from two bamboo sticks and some newspaper.  The two of them had had great fun building it.  This time Christabel was very brave and did not flinch when he made some sarcastic remark about her family being poorer than his.  Undaunted Damon turned to her and said "I'm sorry if I upset you, I'll try not to be right next time".  This time Christabel was ready for him.  She let go of his hand, turned on her heel and gave him a kick in the shins.  

"Your turn to be upset now" she said, as she walked off with her kite.  It was hers and he did not have one so who was richer really?"

Entirely fictional this week, no incident to illustrate the saying chosen by Wendy.  The whole page looked a little bare so I decided to put a border around the whole thing and used a white Posca pen.  It kept me quiet for a while but I don't have patience like some for 'tangling' neatly.  I am loving this theme of Chris's.

WOYWW 688

 WOW, it's been warm again, and it promises to be even warmer over the next few days.  Hope everyone is ok with this heat and not suffering any effects.  

This is the dining room table with a bit of my cloth on to protect it.  I have just started to make a card but didn't get very far as I had Sean Connery on as James Bond at the same time and am afraid he took up too much of my attention.  He still is THE James Bond as far as I am concerned - how I used to wish I was Miss Moneypenny back in the day.

Top left is my file with the instructions for several cards I have downloaded from the internet, to the right is my Cream Tea Box which I use to carry bits and pieces with me.  Front left is a piece of card on top of a craft mat and opposite is a container with some ink pads in and a box of removable sellotape.  Nothing exciting - oh and my blending tools in front of the inks and a baby wipe.

I did say I would upload some more of my Thrinchies so here we have 

23 Alphabet

24 daisy

25 Quirky

26 Clocks

27 Numbers

I tried to use some of the older stamps,  be a bit more obscure and use stamps that maybe others would not choose but I am not sure I chose that wisely.  Anyway, at least I did attempt the challenge.

Well, that's it for this week.  Maybe more to show you next time as I will have had a workshop with Jo Rice whom I admire very much.  We have her coming to our club on Saturday and I am so looking forward to the day.  We are decorating a calendar so the pieces we do will be quite tiny - now what shall I have for my theme?  Wait until next week to see.

Not long to go to the Crop now, the annual meet up of WOYWW'ers takes place once more.  Got the date firmly booked in the diary.  Have you?

Jeudi Journal - My Mum

The thing I remember most about being young, which is what Chris is asking for us to journal about in Art Journal Journey this month, is my mum and how hard she worked.  I was brought up in a working class family where both mum and dad went out to work to make ends meet and I was looked after by a spinster aunt.  How mum juggled all the things she did I will never know, I wanted for nothing, within reason, and was always a happy little girl.

The story below is actually based around an incident that really did happen to me.  OK I've embroidered it a little but you should get the gist of it, and names have been changed to protect the innocent.

"It was a typical Sunday afternoon.  Christabel had been to Sunday School and was now allowed to play out with her friends.  She had on a new skirt that mum had saved up for and she loved how it twirled as she danced around.  Damon, lived next door and he was her very best friend, people often took them for brother and sister, twins even, because they both had the same blonde hair and chubby cheeks.

They had got tired of the games they had been playing and then Damon said "Let's go over to father's allotment and play over there.  There is an old van that he has just left there and we can pretend we are going on a trip somewhere.  Where do you want to go?"

"Blackpool please." said Christabel, "We always go to Morecambe, or Scotland for our big holiday, and I have always wanted to go to Blackpool."

The pair set off and were joined by Madge, an older girl who lived close by them.  "Where are you two going?" she asked.

"Off to my dad's allotment want to come?" asked Damon, and the three of them went down the avenue, crossed the road and into the allotment which was across the road from the local school.

Damon and Christabel soon settled into the front seats of the van.  It was a run down old thing, made of wood but it was exciting to the youngsters.  Margaret soon got bored and decided that they should have a concert, the other two were not so sure as they were enjoying pretending to drive along the road to Blackpool.

Madge decided that there was not really enough room for her in the back to do any of her dancing, she had aspirations to become a dancer, and so she climbed up onto the roof and began twirling about and before long she was trying to do the can can like she had seen on TV.

All of a sudden there was an almighty crash and Madge came flying through the roof of the car.  Splinters of wood flew everywhere and Madge ended up in a heap behind the other two.  

"Your leg is bleeding" said Damon, "Quick, mop it up with that old coat that is hanging there."  What a mess!  A hole in the roof and blood on the coat, what were they going to do?

Suddenly Damon shouted "Run, run as quick as you can."  Two men were approaching and it was then that Damon told them it was not his father's car at all but it belonged to the two men coming down the road.  

The trio shot off, sprinting across the road, climbing over the railings of the local school in an attempt to escape.  It was then that disaster struck.  Christabel got her new skirt stuck on the top of the railings, she was hanging - unable to move.  So Damon took hold of her hand and yanked her down.  Oh No!  The pointed end of the railings went through the lovely new skirt.  It wasn't lovely any more.  How was she going to explain this to her mother?  

On returning home mum was her busy self trying to make a lovely Sunday tea for the family after spending most of the day cleaning.  Imagine her horror when she saw the state of the new skirt her darling daughter was wearing.  

"Well, that will have to be patched" she said.  There's nothing much else I can do with it, it's just another job for me and I am so busy today.  Your father's at the station picking aunty up and the cousins will be arriving soon too.  So much to do, so little people to do it for me."  And, with that, mum sat down and decided it was time to have a cup of tea before she tackled anything else.  That skirt needed repairing before anyone came.  She was exhausted!"

This was the only way I could think of linking my journal page to AJJ this week.  As I said, it is a true story, the skirt was a tartan one in real life, only the ending has been changed.  I think we kids hid out for a while before we dare surface and thankfully there was no-one but the family for tea that day.  But I did wear my lovely tartan skirt patched after that.

The page was one I had inked through a stencil previously.  It was so garish that I tried to take it down a little with some watered down Gesso and I just drew with a pen to give it a border.  I just wish I had more figures to use with my Dylusion pages, it's so difficult with some of the outlandish heads that have been introduced lately.  Apologies, the scan has missed the left hand border off.

Now what is the quote from Wendy for next week?  She loves to challenge me!