Jeudi Journal - Denim?

I don't know about you but I tend to live in jeans.  The stretchy kind of denim and usually straight leg although I must admit I love my flares.  M&S is my 'go to' shop and they used to have a lovely light grey but of late I have had problems getting them, especially in the long length which I need as I am quite tall.  Anyway, I digress but the quote for this week is "It's all fun and games until your jeans don't fit" and I can so relate to that since Christmas.  So my story revolves around that quote although I must assure you I am not one of the characters.

"Wanda had been out shopping and called in on her friend, Ella, who was lounging on the floor in her bedroom.  The two girls had been friends for quite some time, having been to school together since they were in nursery.  Very rarely a cross word was said by one to the other, it was a lovely friendship.

Wanda was a little out of breath probably because she had kept her mask on as she had been shopping  (it was now mandatory again because of the pandemic to wear a mask) and she had forgotten she was still wearing it.  She flung her coat over the bed and the two of them began talking about Christmas which had just gone by.  They reminisced about all the good times they had had, the parties they had been to and the lovely presents they had received.  Then Wanda got a bit downhearted and her friend asked what was the matter.

"Well, you know how I love my chocolate, and the mince pies and fruit cake", said Wanda.

"Yes we both do" replied Ella, "but why has that got you so sad?"

"Look at me" cried Wanda, "I am wearing a blouse and sweater belonging to my mum and this is a skirt that my sister no longer wears.  It's all the fault of Christmas!  It's all fun and games until your jeans don't fit."

Ella laughed.  "It's not Christmas that's at fault, it's us.  We eat too much of the stuff that puts the inches on.  Remember that saying about a moment on the lips a lifetime on the hips?

"Yes" replied Wanda.  "That is so true but look at you, you are still as slim as you were before all of the festivities started.  How do you do it?

"Ah" replied Ella, you must remember I have a much larger family than you have.  As an only one you had complete access to all the chocolate and goodies that your family had.  With three brothers it was always the case that the chocolate and other things got eaten much faster than I could even get to them.  Don't worry about a bit of weight, we can soon get rid of that.  Let's start now by going for a walk and discussing the next step into the Wanda Weight Week we are going to have."

"And with that Wanda cheered up a little, pulled her mask back up over her mouth, grabbed her coat and the two friends went off into the local park talking about all the ways they were going to get fit over the next couple of months and how Wanda was going to lose some weight along the way."

Because the lovely Erika has chosen Faces as her theme for this month at Art Journal Journey and my page has two faces on it I am entering this into the challenge for January.  I am sure you could easily do a page in your journal with a face on it - why not pop over and see the rules and join in.  It's ever such a friendly bunch and you will be made most welcome.  Hope to see you there.

WOYWW 658

 I have been really busy this week catching up on the Aall & Crete Challenge which is to do images as a polaroid photo.  This is day 12 and there are 31 prompts to be done by, not the end of the month thank goodness, but by the end of March. So if you have some Janet Klein stamps you might want to take a look and do it yourself.

In order to be able to access my stamps easily I took them from the drawer they sit in and put them in a Felix box.  Much easier to flick through now but there are still the larger stamps in the drawer but the majority are in the box and I do have an idea which are the larger sets.  So, today my desk reflects what I have been doing.

Starting left - my Arteza pens (just started using them, had them a couple of years), jewellery holder behind waiting to be repaired, A4 box with Janet Klein images in cut out and ready - list on top of the prompts and the rules.  Promarkers (in Felix boxes, made this years ago), my Polaroid for day 2 Wings, scissors, white pen, snowman pencil from Valetta in America, flesh Promarkers box with cut out cards ready and goodness knows what is in the layers underneath.

The reason for "Wings" being on the desk is that I forgot the white touch in the eyes - all my other Polaroids are in the window sill.  Sorry I am not showing them today as I did say I would show you the Handmade Christmas cards received.  Maybe next week.

Handmade Christmas Cards (you've seen Cindee's previously so it's not here)

I am so lucky to have so many talented crafty friends.  I hope you enjoyed them as much as we did when we had them on display.  The commercial cards this year were so beautiful too and have now gone to a friend who makes them into cards for a care home, where her brother was, to sell.

Well, that's it for this week, now to get ahead with the Polaroid making, or maybe I should get my Journal page done for tomorrow.  Yes, that's next on the agenda.  For now it's over to Julia and WOYWW - CU!

Take care, keep the masks on when needed.

Jeudi Journal - Cat hair

Back to normal now and it's Journal time with Wendy and with Art Journal Journey where the lovely Erika has chosen "Let's Face It' as her theme for the month.  Faces it is then, which is easy for Wendy and I to include a face/faces on our Journal pages with Dylusion stamps.  The quote for this week is "No outfit is complete without cat hairs" and is something anyone with pets can equate to.  

"Diane has a lovely big cat called Snowball which she adores.  The feeling is pretty mutual and Snowball loves nothing better than to sit on Diane's knee.  The only problem is that Snowball, as her name suggests, is white and she does tend to shed her hair a lot.

One day Diane's two friends, Shirley and Netta had called around to collect Diane for a party they had been invited to attend.  As always Diane was sat with Snowball on her knee, the latter enjoying being stroked so much that she had partially stood up, tail in the hair to show how much she was enjoying the petting.  Diane was wearing her best slate grey jacket and her blue trousers whilst sitting on the floor with her cat.

"Oh dear," said Shirley, "you are going to be covered in white cat hairs if you are not careful."

"Wish you wouldn't let the cat sit on your knee like that" said Netta.  "You know it is not a good look to be covered in cat hairs, and ugh!  Imagine if they got in your mouth."

"Oh don't be so dramatic" said Diane, "No outfit is complete without cat hairs."  With that she gave Snowball a great big cuddle and sat her on the carpet whilst she got up and purposely did not wipe her jacket or her trousers but proceeded to go out to the party.  "Coming you two, or not?" she asked."

So may I take this opportunity to Wish You All a Happy New Year.  May it be a Peaceful, Healthy and Blessed one for You All.  Now I must pop over to Art Journal Journey and see what else there is to look at.  See you there.

WOYWW 657

Back to normal after all the festivities but tomorrow is 'taking all the decorations down day' which I do not particularly enjoy.  It's also cardiology day for me as I am having my consultation over the phone with the lovely Dr Little.  And it's  WOYWW day too which means I have to bare my desk.  Busy Wednesday!

As you can see to the left a couple of stockings have been dropped off on my desk.  These two were hanging in our bedroom, at the foot of the bed (on the cupboard facing).  I took them down yesterday so that they would not get forgotten.  Nothing much has been changed from last week apart from the bits of card on the green mat and the ink pads.  The only crafting I have done this year and as you can see, it's not much.

I did hope to show you the lovely handmade cards I received this year but I haven't taken them down as yet so hopefully next week I will have a lot of lovely treats for you to feast your eyes on.  So I will leave it there this week, will try to get on with commenting when I have spoken with the Doc and undressed the tree.  See you next week.

Art Journal Journey - Bethlehem

It's the last day of 2021 and also the last day of Valerie's theme at Art Journal Journey "When one door closes another one opens".  I have only managed to do my weekly Thursday Journal page linked to the theme apart from two in a small journal - one shown yesterday and this one today.

This one uses the image bought for me by my bff after she had seen a Christmas card I had received and fallen in love with from another friend in America.  I am thinking that this is an imaginary scene of Bethlehem.   Several houses have windows showing lights coming from them and there are some doors (coloured green) so I am hoping Valerie and the moderators at AJJ will accept this as another entry.

Again it is in my small 4" x 6" journal.  I first of all coloured the page in Broken China Distress Ink and then stamped the image on a piece of cardstock, coloured it in with my Zig pens and tore it down one side.  I wanted some bright gold paper and was convinced I had some somewhere but could not find it.  However I found some text where I had embossed the edges in gold.  I just used the edges tearing close to the text so that it did not show.  For the other side I used some paper that I had printed on my Gelli Plate long long ago and tore that also.

I tried various images, Tim Holtz Paper Dolls, Stars, Flowers etc but nothing seemed to work alongside the image in the bottom right hand corner so I decided to leave it until something caught my eye at another date.  I would like to find the word "Believe" in the same lovely text that my friend used on her card - that is probably what I am searching for in my mind.

So here I am, wishing you all a Happy, Peaceful and Healthy New Year and entering this into Art Journal Journey on the last day of the year.

Jeudi Journal - Scales

'Dick and Dom had had a really good Christmas.  Lots of parties, lots of food and so many chocolates brought back by Mr Claus from various parts of the world he had travelled to on his Christmas journey.  They particularly liked the Belgian and the Swiss chocolates but in truth they enjoyed them all.

The Soiree with Mrs Claus had been wonderful.  In her husband's absence she had dressed up in her best and gathered them all around the tree singing Christmas Songs and then she had gone into a big sack that Mr Claus had left as she handed out presents to all the elves thanking them for their hard work throughout the year.

You probably don't know but the elves are divided into little groups of five and each group is responsible for one of the reindeer.  So one member has to go and clean the stable out where their particular reindeer sleeps and then they hang a stocking up.  At the Soiree they are given a gift for a reindeer as well as their own, and each group gets a new animal every year.  Dick and Dom's group had been responsible for Dancer this past year so imagine their delight when they found they were to be responsible for Rudolph this coming year.  That was a real honour bestowed upon the group who had worked hardest over the year producing the most toys.

It was now past Christmas and the two little elves were off to sing Carols before they had to return to work.  Most of the elves had spent after Christmas in their own little homes and hadn't seen one another for a few days.

"I wonder if the others have put as much weight on as we two have?" queried Dick.

"Of course they will have", replied Dom, "You know what we Elf folk are like for all the lovely Christmas Fayre we get.   We work so hard we don't know when to stop eating in the holidays.  I think you have a tea belly - at least you look like that - a tummy like a giant teapot."

"Hey!" said Dick,  "Are you getting to me about my teasmaid.  Look at yourself in the mirror, and don't forget to set your scales back 10 lbs."

And with that the two elves set off laughing into the snowy night for yet another night enjoying themselves.  Afterall it would soon be New Year's Eve and then time to get back to work in the toyshop.'

I hope to see you over at Art Journal Journey ready for another year of delightful themes for us to portray in our journals.  Thanks Valerie for this one which has made me write stories about Dick and Dom (sorry Wendy, I know they have been long), wish I could have done more pages but Christmas got in the way a bit.

So all that is left to do is wish everyone a Happy, Peaceful and Hopefully Healthier Year Ahead. 

Art Journal Journey - A Door

Over at Art Journal Journey it is coming to the end of Valerie's theme of 'When One Door Closes Another One Opens" and today I am entering a page in my new (old really as I have had it a long time but never used it) Journal.  It is a small one, around 4" x 6", and each page is of hand made paper, or it looks like it is.  It is divided into five signatures, two slim ones back and front and three thick ones in the middle.  It has a leather cover and a neat little closure.  It also has a canvas bag that it sits in but I left the bag at home (I am at the caravan in The Lakes) and just brought the Journal away with me.

I also brought a couple of images with me to the caravan and this one was of a doorway, especially for Valerie's theme

This doorway (the stamp says it is a doorway) is an image from Aall & Create which I stamped with Acorn ink.  I then used my Zig Color Pens in shades of brown and greys to colour it with a tiny bit of blue to represent sky.  I had no idea what else to do for the background but found a piece of card with Citron Distress Ink on it and some leaves stamped and coloured in with Forest Green ink plus a bit of white pen.  This conveniently was the size of the page and so here we are - my latest entry for Valerie's theme at AJJ.

Hopefully my Dylusion page will post tomorrow and I will be posting another one in my tiny journal on New Year's Eve.  So see you over at AJJ soon.