Autumnal Journal Page

My turn to choose the colours and theme this week and I went along with red and orange plus one other colour of choice and the theme Autumn.  My favourite season.  I chose to use 'Yellow' and hoped it would tone down the red and brighten up the orange.

Guess what though?  I forgot to do the journal page.  Shame on me.  Remembered at around 1.20 pm and so it was fly to the paints and get cracking.

I was hoping to do some lettering like I had done at the weekend but in such a hurry I just went along freehand and had to go over it to thicken the letters up as my pen was not good enough.  Ah well, Sandra, I did try.

Here is my tribute to Autumn and something I used to enjoy doing, especially in the woods at Betwsy- Coed

I tried to make the lighter bit look like it was falling in a kind of sweep, nearly got there.  Perhaps I need to do these once a fortnight as I am always so far behind.  Have a good excuse this week though, I was getting ready for my weekend away.  Photos to follow next week. (wink wink)

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Once again we are here to celebrate another Wednesday with Ms Julia and her faithful band of followers showing our desks whether in a state of utter chaos or tidiness - and maybe sharing a project or two.  Do feel free to join us here.

My desk this week has yet another UFO on it, this time from a workshop I attended on Saturday at AftH with Sandra as the tutor.  Sandra does lovely handwriting in her Journals and she was going to show us how to do something similar.  It was good - she took me out of my comfort zone and made me write BIG.

Here is a peek at the work we did:

And the reason it has not been worked on this week, apart from the fact that I have been spending time with my other half is that I am going away at weekend to the Mixology Retreat with Andy Skinner (my fave Mr Rust/Skull/Steampunk/You Name It Man) and I have been adding some more touches to my hat.  Sorry I am not showing you anything but one side - there is a story - I wanted to add some bullets but have not been successful in finding any, replica ones of course, and so I decided to make some from polymer clay.  Not showing you!  If you will pardon the terminology they look like golden 'willies'.  Even had Shaz on the lookout for me - thanks Shaz and Doug, still no joy.

So I have added a bit of glass.

Two bulbs and a glass bottle

I will take some photos of it next week to share with you but don't want it to be on the internet until after Saturday.  It does have rather a long feather on the other side but I stick that in at the last minute as I fear it might get bent.

Well, that is it, I will go and nurse my poor fingers that suffered with the awl putting the brads in the leather band.  Might even be on the sewing machine later ... but what will I make?

See you soon.

Halloween Journal Page

Well, Wendy and I have started a small square journal each.  Wendy chose a couple of colours and to do a topical theme, Halloween, for our first page.  

Here is mine - she wants us to use Dylusion figures but I am beginning to think I might have to deviate some times as I find them restricting if the old brain will not adapt to the topic.  Maybe I need Dyan to bring out lots more figures for me to chop up and move about

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Wednesday again, these come around quicker than the local bus.

Still got a cold, it comes and goes (first one in years), so not much to report on the crafting front  Did get my Dylusion paints out and squirted them all with a bit of water as they are thickening up.  Needed to use them for my journalling with Wendy.  We are working in square journals now and doing something different but trying to continue using the Dylusion figures in the main.  I needed to colour the pages in with some paints and love the bright colours of Dyans.

Here is my desk to the left early evening yesterday, Tuesday.

The booklet with the green page on the right is my Butterfly Book and that is the lat page in my booklet on our holiday in Nerja.  To the left of it you can see some tags and a stamp plus some wooden butterfly buttons that my friend Wendy bought me for Christmas - not sure which one as we haven't seen much of one another recently.

This is my desk to the right of the other picture and shows my Dyary hiding my journal page which I have started but nowhere near finished.  It is open at last week's page when I went down to Liz's celebration of her life service.  The figure on this page represents her by wearing orange which was Liz's favourite colour and is sporting a flamboyant hat in memory of the wonderful ones she wore after both of her chemo treatments.  Not that she would have ever worn boots like that with a full skirted dress, or even a dress like that either.  She was a snappy dresser.

Well, it is time for you to go and visit Julia, our glorious founder, who will lead you on to looking at other blogs showing desks and things that have been made during the week.  Do enjoy yourselves and join in if you haven't already done so.  You make so many friends - and you even get to meet up with some of them.

ps I made some little bags of sweets up for the children but for the fourth year in a row now we did not get any trick or treaters.  I know it is hard but we are just going to have to sit and eat them all ourselves.  Shame!

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Having returned from our holiday in Spain I can now confirm that we are both full of colds. I blame the air con in the hotel. So crafting has been put on hold for the present moment.  No desk to show you as such but ...

I can show you what was on my dining room table on Sunday morning.

Now can you guess how many teabags there are?  I am addicted to this tea from the local Supermercado in Nerja.  It began a few years ago when all I drank was fruit tea and I went to Nerja and forgot to take some with me.  I was, and still am, fussy about which ones I drink and they must not taste of tea at all.  A local restaurant owner gave me a couple of tea bags from Lidl and I liked them but the nearest Lidl was not accessible without a car so we tried the local supermercado and I found the ones above.  Now each time we go I buy lots to last me the year, or even longer.  And they do not lose their taste!

Incidentally, I have no intention of counting the teabags but would say that on average there are about 34 in each packet (I open them and stash as many as I can into each packet and then rubber band it) and then there are the two poly bags that have lots in them. I have also filled my teabag jar up - it's a lot of teabags anyway and they are mine - all mine!

OK, so it is WOYWW and Julia will be expecting something - here goes, the desk today

You know the link is here, so now you can go and visit Julia and her happy band of deskers, along with me.  Stay safe and well.

Not really wishing to revisit my story of the two females who duped us with the carnations, but hoping that should any of you be approached in a similar way, a friend was presented, by a man, with a rose "for a beautiful lady" and her companion also.  Luckily my friend was tired, rushing for the bus and so she just threw it to the floor as soon as he asked for money.  This was in Rome, so seems to be something being practised in various parts of Europe.  Be warned!

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Woyww has come around real quickly and some of you have not had a comment from me for last week.  I apologise.  I am holidaying in Spain and have a funny relationship with the Internet in the hotel. One minute I am on, next not. Then it will, then it won't work. Oh dear! Has me in a tizzy. I do promise though, that I will comment on everyone's blog who has commented on mine when I get home, if not managing before.

Most of you will have read that we got robbed on Monday, via Facebook. Speaking to the rep yesterday morning (Tuesday) it would seem that it could have been two Romanians that are known to the Guardia Civil so hopefully they will get their due deserts some time. It is only money (125 euros), we were quite safe but with hindsight I would have dealt with the incident quite differently. Beware "pickpockets" do not always slit your pockets or your handbag strap!

Anyway you came on here to see my desk and not for my whinge. Tried doing this in Blogpress but couldn't get it to publish. Now trying with Blogger (fingers crossed) only trouble is the photo went at the top rather than here. Now I can't link Julia to my post but hopefully most of you know about WOYWW.

I'll leave it there although the original was much longer and chattier. Rain forecast for today so not sure what we will do. Have a lovely WOYWWeek xx

Not Jeudi Journal But Journalling with Seth

If you read my blog yesterday you will see that I went and did a couple of workshops with the delightful Seth Apter, from New York, at Art from the Heart over the weekend.

Day one saw us learning a simple bookbinding method and we began making a lovely book but as always mine is not finished.  I couldn't work on it on Saturday night when I got home as I had a friend staying with me, dinner to make and things to cut out for us both for the following day.

Sunday saw us learning techniques to do with photographs and choosing one that we had altered to be our focal point on a journal page.  I chose a doorway I love that was in Kyrenia a few years ago. It wasn't just a door but also windows and the crumbling plasterwork on the wall - a bit of a ruin really but so beautiful.

This is as far as I got with it - needs some stamping and pen work on it and I am cutting a strip across with some words on but not had time as yet.  Will get on with it in a week or so when things calm down here and I can devote some 'me' time to artwork.

Now I am itching to take some photos that I know will lend themselves to these techniques and do more of this kind of thing in my journal.  Thanks Seth - and the lovely bunch of women who attended the weekend, for a super two days of crafting.  Not forgetting Ben, of course for his organisation skills and lovely sweets, chocolate etc etc.  He did us proud!