Jeudi Journal - No Dramatic Gestures

This week must be Wendy's choice as I don't have the words for this one and the ones I chose were the ones I had words for.

"You made no dramatic gestures, gave no solemn lectures, you simply made the tea and fetched the biscuit tin" - phew!  That was my original thought!! "Phew, what the heck can I do for this one?"  Then this morning (yes, it was a VERY last minute journal page) I set to.

Last night I had been out for a meal which went on a bit longer than normal so all I had time to do was paint the page blue.  This morning I got to thinking about it and:

• decorated the background with a stencil and Scattered Straw Distress Ink to represent the wallpaper (plus put some numbers down the side for AJJ)
• found two figures, not the ones I had originally thought about, but then the one I had wanted was one I only used last week, and hastily coloured the bits in that had not already been done
• researched some plaster flying ducks (thought it would create a bit of humour to have those ducks flying on the wall - visions of Coronation Street and Hilda Ogden)
• Found a picture of some biscuits (don't you just love those ginger biscuits with the dark chocolate on?), a teapot and a table.

It was finished and I did enjoy creating this one.  Hope Wendy did too.

I have been very lax because of one thing after another and not been entering into Art Journal Journey but as it is words or numbers I am entering this one.  Blame Christmas prep and health issues.

WOYWW 549

Well, I thought I had taken a picture of all my Christmas cards made this year but the one I made for my crafting friends is the one I forgot to take a picture of.  Silly me.  This year, for the first time, I got my 'foreign' cards off well before the final date and quickly followed with a lot of my inland cards.

Then things slowed down such a lot and I was making cards right up until last night and I still have a couple to make - one for Ireland which is going to get in just on the final posting date!

This was my desk yesterday with what I had thought of as my final three cards (some hope)

This is one of my Nativity Cards

and the cards sent to family

Here we are again, two weeks to Christmas and sharing our Christmas goodies with all our WOYWW friends.  Pop along here to see what others are up to.

Such a silly old thing for forgetting to take a photo of my Robin cards which were made using the Crazy Birds from Tim Holtz.  These are the ones I thought I had probably sent to one or two people last year and I made 18 this year thinking it would be quick and easy to do.  No....... t'wasn't!

The white card with the poinsettias was for family and people like my doctor, podiatrist and hairdresser.  Yesterday when I went to podiatry I also took one for the guy who used to be my podiatrist (it's his premises that my current one works from since he retired) and she informed me that he loves my cards and brings them out each year and puts them up with all the new cards he gets.  I took that as a lovely compliment - just hope he is not disappointed this year as it wasn't as labour intensive as the others have been in the past.  Mind you it took me a long time to do all seven of them.

I got some new stamps and they are only tiny and too late to use on cards so as we had no tags and the weather was awful I decided to make them this year - here they are - last night's efforts (more to do today)

My alternative desk - the one for when my pain is bad - a tray with one of those polystyrene ball bags underneath and some crafting fabric on top.  It works well when the pain has reduced and I can sit upright with my hot water bottle and just colour in.

Health Update:

A mixed bag - two wonderful days with no pain until evening time but the rest of the time a bit 'come and go', some worse than others.  Sunday was horrendous and I was in tears.  Chas could not believe it as he hasn't seen me so bad in ages (his words) which has rather upset me (read on).  

Chas was to go to hospital on Monday to have a cyst removed from his lower lid.  It was to be a day job and we expected him to be in and out quite quickly - but not as quick as it was.  His blood pressure was sky high and they could not do the minor operation.  (200 over 108)  It was something to do with the local anaesthetic which has adrenaline in which would have increased his BP even more so it was dangerous to continue.

Now I am worried about him and thinking that maybe seeing me in the state I was in on Sunday had caused stress to make his BP so high.  Especially as he had it taken again last night at the hospital and it has gone down to 144 over 89.  Now he has to have a blood test and see his own GP.  Fingers crossed for a stress free Christmas (Chas is so laid back, he never gets stressed but I know seeing me in so much pain upsets him an awful lot).

Jeudi Journal - Squirrels?

Well, today the quote chosen by Wendy is "I do not have ducks in a row.  I have squirrels and they're at a rave."  Oh Wendy, you excelled yourself choosing this one!  What on earth do I do for this?  I was in a real quandary.  Must admit I was tempted to put some little yellow ducks in a row but then life got in the way and I found myself at the very last minute doing this page - thanks to a bit of help from cyber space.

(Apologies for the picture being a bit skewwy)

So, as you can see, the ducks stayed at home but the squirrels came out for a rave.  I had the page painted ready and had done a stencilled border around it so it was easy to put the squirrels across the top and one of my ready coloured figures lounging at the bottom.  Don't look too closely at my squirrels, some of them look a bit more like foxes.

I chose that head for my figure as I felt she really looked to be saying that she did not have ducks in a row but had squirrels who had gone to a rave.  Hope you agree.

(The stamped words actually said "ducks ON a row" so I used my pen and a bit of white paint - think I got it right)

WOYWW 548

Another week closer to Christmas and some cards finished - well quite a few actually.  

So it is also another week gone by since the last WOYWW posting - here goes with the next one.  If you don't know what I am on about you must be new to this blogging lark so you had better call over here and read all about it - and please join in.  I can't wait to see what my friends have been buying and making so I am off there right away.

Here's one of my Christmas Cards - already sent and received so it's ok to show it now

It was for a Mingle on one of my card groups.  And many thanks to Margaret in Wales for her lovely Christmas card - it was our first one!

And here is my desk shot - it's a different part of my desk as the one I normally show has some gifts on that I don't want to show on my blog as yet - someone might see what I got him for Christmas.

Just a tin full of my current stamps (ones I intend to use in readiness for next year - yes, you heard right), a Moleskin journal (new), a half finished card (the other six are complete but I was one holly short so this one is bare), my old towel for dirty hands and my Laurel Burch images left over from goodness knows when.

Well, that is it from me, a bit shorter than normal and no health update as it is more or less the same although the last two days have seen a lot of back pain.  Ugh!  See you next week I hope.

Jeudi Journal - In My Experience

Today's words from Dyan via Dylusions are "In My Experience I Am Right" and I actually had a page that was almost perfect for it.  Well, almost right for it.

A while ago I had made this Dylusion bird, originally from bits from magazines and with the words 'judgement upon ur fellows' on him, and I felt that this worked in quite nicely with this particular page I was about to make.  He has an angry look about his face don't you think?

The background was made  with a brayer using Dylusion paints with a numerical stencil on in places which I went over with white pen.  There were some cherry bits of paint on and I almost added more but then decided to do a bit of stamping using chocolate ink.  Once the background was finished I had to decide on the figure so what else could I use but one standing with her hands on her hips?

The fact that the figures are pushed over to the left hand side is to emphasise that there is a little bit of intimidation going on - hope that shows.

If I was making the point that I was correct about something, anything, especially to a big bird like that with ginormous feet and a mean look in his eye I think I would have my hands on my hips just like her.

So here it is - my page for today:

WOWW 547

Another week has gone by and we are getting ever closer to Christmas as we share our desks on WOYWW with Julia and the gang.  Want to join us - click here and show us your desk and look at ours?  Mine is below.

This is my desk, the hive of activity in our house.

You can see the production line in process for one of my cards.  Had I realised it was going to take this long to make I would not have done it.  For seven cards I have cut out 14 large, 14 medium and 21 small poinsettias.  I have only stamped the pattern on the large ones at the moment.  Then there are 7 sprigs of holly, 7 scenes which were first stamped, then had Liquid Applique put on then Stickles, which has now run out.  I still have to cut out the card and fold it, Emboss 14 panels and mount the panels and the scenes on metallic card.  Why did I choose to do this?

There are also two nativity scene cards that I made as a trial and now I am making another two for sending abroad.  I want to make some other cards similar to these but as I have almost finished the Christmas cards that I am making I think I might (just might) make some ready for next year.  I bought some stamps from Cardio to make them with after getting the free ones on the magazine that they talked about at our club.  Here they all are:

The top one and the last three are all from the magazine and you can see I used the nativity one on the cards.  Now I want to make some with the other stamps as well.

Guess I had better get on and stop wittering on here.  I need to leave time to visit some desks and see what others are up to so I'll say cheerio for this week and see you next week if I don't see you at your desk.

Health Update:

Not had a good week with the back but at least it is better than it used to be with the periods of getting rid of the pain being quicker than they used to be - and I have gone two weeks since I saw the chiropractor - roll on Friday when I see her again!  Most times it does not take as much massaging as it used to and I am following the advice of a friend who has read that you should take your medication before you get to the stage where you really need it.  

Finished with the Pain Management Classes so now got my Wednesdays free - and I got a certificate to say I had attended.  The last session was taken up a great deal with filling in a questionnaire.  This was not anonymous and I feel that people do not give honest opinions when their name is on the front.  I did try to be honest in some areas but must admit I was a good bit lenient in some.  I know for a fact that others just filled in with what they thought the staff wanted to hear.  It's human nature I guess.

Not heard from the hospital re the Meckle's test, just hope it does not come at Christmas for the operation but I really don't think it will.

Jeudi Journal - Every Now and Then

Gosh - what a long quote this week - "Every now and then life needs to be turned upside down to get back to the right way up".  Long, and for me, difficult!  What on earth do I do to portray this one?  I think this must have been Wendy's choice because I do not have the quote and so I have had to type it out on a piece of paper.  Hope she is having a better time than I am with it.

In a complete muddle I first of all painted the page a light green - then, days later, I used a stencil that I rarely use (one of Finnabair's that I have had for ages) but I do like it now so it will probably come out again and again.  I feel as if I am coming down with that flu that is going the rounds so was not in the mood for spending a lot of time on the journal, hence the stencil only being in the centre of the page.  I am burning hot and aching all over.

I decided to use one of the lounging figures that I have used often so that she looks as if she is doing bicycle exercises and balance the word "LIFE" on her feet upside down.  That was all I could think of to go with this saying.  But this time I chose one of the large figures.  After I had stuck her down I wished I had put her first and the sitting figure after her but hey ho, couldn't do a thing about it. Did you notice the word "Life" is upside down balanced on her feet.

So there is is - my interpretation of the quote which I found so difficult - wonder how Wendy has interpreted it?