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.

 

Jeudi Journal - Scream

 "Lottie was your typical English teenager.  She lived at home, just her and her mum, and was studying for her final GCSE's at school.  Mum had been on at her to get a Saturday job as money was a bit scarce with just the two of them and the prospect of university fees looming ahead in two years time.

She had taken herself down to the local market after school one evening and asked at several stalls whether there was any chance of a Saturday job or not.  Sadly most of the stalls already had youngsters working for them on a Saturday ..... but there was the fish market.  

Sadly Lottie dragged her feet into the covered market stalls, it was cold in there, and a little smelly.  Still, she loved her mum so much and realised that she needed to help out at home with a bit of spare cash if she was to achieve her goal of becoming a doctor.

"Erm, are there any Saturday jobs?" she asked, smiling, of one of the men as he finished serving someone.

"You're just in luck" replied the Sam the owner of the stall, "my last lad has just left as he got a full time job.  It's yours if you want it. You look a bright kind of girl."

Sam explained the hours on a Saturday, what was expected of her and arranged for her to go into work the very next Saturday at 6 am.  He said he would show her how to gut the fish and do everything that was expected of her, but explained that she was only on trial for a month.

Lottie went home, not really knowing how she felt but determined to give it a go.  And give it a go she did ..... for the next twelve months.

Yes, there were teething problems, it was cold, and messy and she smelled terrible when she got home on a Saturday evening, too tired to go out with her friends and only fit for a long soak in the bath and to curl up with mum watching TV.  But she kept on telling herself it was money in the bank for her future, and it was kind of training for being a doctor, after all she was gutting fish!  And all the blood didn't bother her anymore.

She remembered how she had taken the head off fish when customers had asked for them to be left on, and left them on when customers had asked specifically for them to be removed.  The dreams she had had of living in a fish tank, or of having her hair turn green and a fish living in her hair had bothered her at times but she had weathered the storms telling herself it was only 'another day of outward smiles and inward screams' for her.  All would be well worth it when she could realise her dreams and become a member of the medical profession."

To begin with I drew inside the Lotza Squares stencil from A&C with an Inktense pencil, just as I had seen Abs do on TV.  Think I got a bit carried away though and drew far too many.  Then I went around each one with a waterbrush and spread the paint (watercolour pencils) across most of the page.  I chose a couple of figures to use and mulled over a story.  Then I remembered the theme was to change the next day!

Getting up yesterday I was eager to see what the new theme was and I found it was 'fish'.  How strange, I had found a stamp I had forgotten about a few days earlier and it was a figure with a fish on her head and an owl by her knee.  I coloured it in, thinking it would do for Art Journal Journey and the bird theme if I chopped the fish off and put a bird there instead.  So yesterday I had a figure all ready apart from a new head being required.  The figure was ready but the page was squares and circles would have been better.  Then I thought 'tanks' - I can have them as fish tanks, so I drew little fish in most of them.  And so, I now have my page ready a day early.  Wonder what Wendy chose for the quote for next week?

WOYWW 678

 Nice number!  Consecutives!

Well, It is WOYWW again.  Someone said last week how Wednesday seemed the only day in the week as it came around so quickly, I so agree.  This last week has seen me watching videos over and over to make sure I got my wording correct in my worksheets for the class next week.  I've done the cards, done a couple of samples of each (6 in total) plus an extra one (so 7 really) in case someone finishes early.  There always seems to be one!  Plus I have got some almost ready so that my demonstrations won't take as long.

So as a result my desk is nice and tidy, only my journal out waiting for me to find out what the theme is for the new month over at AJJ and then I can get my page done for tomorrow.  I've a couple of figures prepped just in case I can use them and make it a bit quicker getting the page done.

You can see some bits of card shaped like "W's" in cream, well, they are for the hinges on some birthday cards I made a while ago - remember the circle ones?  Forgot all about hinges until I had to send one the other day for a birthday (today) so thought I would do enough for the other cards - just need to pop them in the envelopes now so they can be stuck in when I do the person's name.  The sheet of white paper contains some instructions for making a card I watched Kay (Hougie board) doing the other day.  Oh - and the black thing is my hand splint - this arthritis is a pain!

So that is it.  Been invited to a (moveable) Jubilee Street Party, which is in a cul de sac.  I say movelable because it all depends on the weather, if it rains Friday it will be held on Saturday, same if it rains Saturday as well it will be held on Sunday.  After that I haven't a clue what is happening.   That's as far as the invite got.  Are you doing anything?

I must admit I have enjoyed seeing the post box toppers on Facebook and have been saving them to my own account so I can look back on them,  I've only seen one in real life and when I went back to take a photo it had disappeared.  I hope nobody had stolen it.

Anywhere, here is my boring desk - see you next week: