Jeudi Journal - Rain!

Stupidly I drew my curtains last week with a red Promarker - err, they bled through the other side.  So I had to resolve the issue with a coat of paint and decided to use a light turquoise as my background.  

As I wanted to join in with Valerie's theme at Art Journal Journey  I had a free reign on what to do.  (thank you so much Valerie, I had forgotten today, Wednesday, is the 1st March - DOH I still thought I had to dress my main character in as much red as possible.  Three coats of ink on her legs before I achieved a decent red.  (Think some of my pens are getting low on ink and need replacing). 

"Sammi called to see her friend Jonty with a view to them going out.  There were some fluffy clouds in the sky but otherwise it looked fine and there was a new Town Trail she had read about which was only a short 30 minute bus ride away.  It was an ideal day to do it, or so she thought.  Sammi loved history and architecture so she was all fired up for a lovely afternoon with her best buddy.

Imagine her dismay when she went in the lounge to see Jonty reclining on the floor doing her exercises.  It was obvious Jonty was settled for the day.

"I saw this Town Trail and thought we could do it today" said Sammi, "it would be good exercise and we could get some fresh air which would be a change, we have stayed in too long over the last few months."

Jonty looked disinterested and said "Forecast for today: unproductive with a chance of rain"

"Oh come on" replied Sammi, "I don't want to stay in all afternoon again.  Besides which it would be good exercise for your regime.  It won't take us more than half an hour to pack some lunch, get changed and be on the way to the bus."

"Don't feel like it" said Jonty.  "I want to stay in and do some painting, or I could get on with my knitting.  I'm knitting a tiny little jacket for my sister's new baby for when it comes."

"You can do that tonight, and the walk will do you good, plus you don't know what or who we will see on the way.  I'll treat you to a drink and a piece of cake if you want" pleaded Sammi.  "Besides which, those clouds are lovely and fluffy and there is no chance of rain."

Just then in walked Jonty's mum.  "Come on girls" she said, "I want you out of the way this afternoon, I have to give the house a good clean before Aunt Jemima comes - unless you want to stay and give me a hand?"

That worked perfectly in Sammi's favour, Jonty was up like a shot.

"See you in 20 minutes" she shouted to Sammi, "I am holding you to the drink and cake mind you."

You really should pop along to see the new theme at Art Journal Journey, Valerie (click on her name to see her blog) does the most amazing faces and I can imagine we are in for a treat this month with her artwork and that of others.  'Anything Goes' is a great theme to work with and there are endless things you can do.  No excuse not to join in now.  See you there.

ps my clouds are bits of kitchen roll torn to represent fluffy clouds.

WOYWW 717

 Morning, it's another Wednesday and time for WOYWW once more.  And I have just remembered I need to get my finger out and start making some ATC's for our annual swap.  Happy St David's Day to you all, especially our Welsh friends.

Nothing special has happened this week.  Not been anywhere or done anything of note, been busy trying to make those little pictures for my calendar- just the cover and two more months and then it's finished.  Funnily enough, Tuesday morning the two months outstanding were the two that have gone, but I've almost done February now so that means I have still got January to think about.  Just need some little hearts on and that month is complete.

Here is my desk this morning

The calendar shows the unfinished February page and all the messing on my desk is to do with my decorating it - stamps, inks, post it notes, stencil etc.  One month I got stuck with was April, I thought of showers, spring flowers and in the end I thought of Spring Cleaning.  Here the fairies have hung their washing out to dry and look who has come to see it all blowing in the breeze.

Now to plan January and the cover

I think I have seen a picture that I fancy for the cover but I am going down to Ruthin to the shop at weekend with some friends so it might change, depending on what I buy.  I need to put my own twist on it anyway and then when it is all finished I might do a video of the whole thing.  Pity I didn't do one of my other calendar before I let it go to a new home.

Might have to postpone that thought and get on with the ATC's though.  Need to check how many I normally do and when they are due to go out.

Not been to see my friend today, kept ringing but there was no reply so I don't know what is happening there, hopefully I will soon.  Rightio, that is it for this week, fairly short for me so Toodle Pip!  Hope all is well with you.

Jeudi Journal - Drama

"Eric smirked, Billy's big sister had just asked him "Is your drama going to have an intermission soon?"  He loved it when it was his friend who was getting into trouble and not him.  Besides which, standing by the huge picture window with its elegant crimson curtains it certainly looked as if they were on a stage.  How appropriate she referred to it as a drama.

They had been playing indoors because Billy had a bit of a cold and his mum did not want him going outside at the moment.  They had been playing a game where they both were trains.  Eric wanted to be 'The Flying Scotsman' but Billy said it was better he play that engine as he was wearing check trousers and they looked similar to a tartan.

Well, things got a bit out of hand and before long the two lads were scrapping.  Fists and legs were flying in all directions and the noise emitting from them both as they grunted and shouted was dreadful.  It was lucky nothing had got broken.  A vase had done a kind of wobble on the coffee table by the door as the skirmish developed but it had righted itself before any water got spilled.  Thank goodness they had not fought against the big window which went from floor to ceiling in the lounge.

Molly, Billy's big sister, was fuming.  Hands on hips and an ever so cross look on her face she stood there and glared at her brother who looked as if he had a broom stuck down his trousers, he stood so perfectly straight up.

"Just wait until Mum gets home" Molly said, "I think it's time you went home Eric."

And with that Eric escaped before she could turn her anger on him.  It hadn't really been Billy's fault, he had started it and Billy was not really to blame."

I decided to make the background a little like a stage and drew in some red curtains in order to link in with Erika's theme at Art Journal Journey, 'Seeing Red',  and I dressed one of the characters as red as I could and added a kind of Burnt Orange to another figure as it is not a million miles away from red.  I hope there is enough for Erika's theme in my page.  Then I wondered what to do for the scenery so the story changed a little and it became a huge picture window in a house.  Thank goodness it was easy to change tactics.

WOYWW 716

WOW and WOW again, I listened to BJ's piece on the harp last week and am so impressed I have been back several times to listen again.  I loved it!  If you haven't been then you must, it is beautiful.  What talent!  Well, we have so many talented people in WOYWW that I should not be surprised but I had no idea we had one who played the harp.  I hope she treats us to more of her beautiful pieces.

Today my desk is showing you a gift I received from a friend of mine.  Yes, it's kind of set up just for the photos and I have been working on my table so I can assure you, it is still there.  So what am I talking about?  Look here:

It's a book

It is fabulous!  Each page has lots of little pictures that sit inside pockets.  Some are tiny books, some are laminated tickets, some are tiny tags - it is absolutely full of goodies.  It must have taken her ages to make it for me.  Thank you so much Jayne!  I am sure she has done a video of it so I will come back and put the link at the end of this post when she publishes it.

It's not just WOYWW today - it is also "Thinking Day" for the Girl Guide Association so I am wearing my 'Thankyou' badge.  Happy Day to anyone in the Guide Movement.

I've not been up to doing much myself.  Despite the cream and the neck pillow it still is a problem, nowhere near as bad as it was originally but still there.  Incidentally, one or two people talked of getting a box pillow themselves, well I would recommend you getting a pillowcase for them rather than using an ordinary one.  It does need to be gusseted to fit the pillow or it defeats the object and squeezes it into an ordinary pillow shape.  (I got mine from Dunelm)

Last year I made a desk calendar with Jo Rice at the club and then I gave it away intending to make another one for myself.  Well, I could not remember where I had put the calendar to decorate and so it got left - until the other week.  Here are a few pages I have made on my table

Here they are in detail - know which months they are?

The fox one is not yet finished as I had to go out to see my friend who is suffering with dementia, such a dreadful disease, I am just thankful she still knows me as she remembers so few these days.  I dread the day she doesn't.  We had a lovely afternoon, it was one of her better days.  She even joined in my chatter about the old days.

So that is it for another week, off to see what others have done in and on their desk areas.  Why not pop over to WOYWW and have a lookie!

Jeudi Journal - Absolutely

"I have absolutely no desire to fit in" is the Snarkie for today's journal page over at Art Journal Journey where the theme is "Seeing Red" as set by the lovely Erika, whose blog is BioArtGal where you can see lots of inspiration that she posts.

For my page I used a stencil by Aall & Create again and Festive Berries Distress Oxide ink.  The figures, as directed by the boundaries of Wendy's and my blog are from Dylusions characters where we are allowed to swap heads and legs around to create new and different figures.  Something Dyan Reaveley, the artist responsible for these characters, teaches in her many workshops around the world.  The figures have been coloured in using Promarkers.

"Esme and Harriet are two friends, have been for years, since both girls could walk in fact.  Their mothers were old friends from school too and so it was inevitable that the two youngsters would become friendly just like their mothers.  Harriet was blessed with lovely curly hair which she wore mainly in kind of ringlets as was the fashion of the day.  Well, you and I would probably think of them as ringlets but young girls in this day and age liked to mess them about a bit, running their fingers through them, and call them 'beach waves'.

Esme was not at all like Harriet, she had her hair cropped as short as she possibly could have, wore huge spectacles and liked to dress quite masculinely whenever possible.  You would never catch her in a dress, that was for certain.  In fact her sense of dress was, well, let's say, Bizarre!

It was half term at the high school they attended and both girls were going into town to meet up with their friends to discuss what they were all going to wear at the end of year Prom.  It was a rather chilly day and so Harriet was wearing her new coat and had a cute hat on her head.  Esme, on the other hand was wearing her usual coat, a pair of shorts and big boots.

"What on earth are you wearing" asked Harriet, "I'm not going into town with you looking like that."

"What's wrong?" replied Esme.

"What's right" replied Harriet, "you look a bit of an idiot wearing those shorts and great big boots.  I'm not getting on the bus with you looking like that.  Besides which I doubt the others will want to be seen walking around town with you looking like ......"

"Like what?  Come on, spit it out."

"Well like someone ... like an idiot" answered Harriet.  "It's about time, now that we are grown up and about to enter college, or even go to work that you began to dress normally.  It's about time you learned to fit into normal society.  It was ok when you were a little kid but now, come on."

"I have absolutely no desire to fit in" replied Esme, "I am not like a sheep, following the flock, I am an individual and an individual is how I will remain.  Thank you very much!"

"I suppose you will find something totally outlandish to wear at the Prom too" 

"And what if I do" retorted Esme, "at least I am my own woman and not like the rest of you."

"OK, OK, you be what you want to be but wait until you want a job, do you think anyone is going to employ you if you dress so stupidly?"

At that moment the bus pulled up at the stop and Harriet got on, storming along the bus to a seat at the front.  Esme, on the other hand decided to leave it.  If Harriet felt like that about her, then, did the others?  She decided to go for a walk on her own and to heck with them all.  Who wanted to go to a silly Prom anyway.  Certainly not her.

Jeudi Journal

WOYWW 715

 Valentine's Day yesterday, WOYWW Day today - such a busy week.  Hope you all had a nice (romantic) meal yesterday we had one courtesy of Morrison's Meal Deal and very nice it was.  I was impressed by the Prosecco which went down rather nicely with the Coq au Vin and Gooey Melted Chocolate Centre Sponge Pud!

Tonight it is a nice simple quiche and salad but we are here to talk about our desks rather than food, so here goes with my desk:

On Saturday it was club day and we had the lovely Jo Rice as our tutor and she certainly did not disappoint.  We were reintroduced to using Brusho's and our Lavinia images as you can see from my desk above.  The ones on the left are Jo's samples which she kindly loaned me so that I could show the ladies who were absent for one reason or another, what to do.

The ones on the messy paper are mine, one is still to be finished.  I've had a bad neck, it doesn't like being in a downward position for long and a day at a workshop comes at a price.  I will be getting my Brusho's out today and finishing the last one off,  Then I bought a magazine featuring some of Jo's work so I will be doing some more Lavinia samples later on.

Talking of my bad neck, the chiropractor recommended I got a box pillow which I did, and some Tiger Balm - but this other cream arrived which we had seen advertised in the TV times.  Well, no idea which it is, the pillow or the new cream but my neck is definitely much better.  Of course, it could be the chiropractor and all the work she did on it with the hot stones that has done so well.  Perhaps a culmination of all three.  Will see what my normal chiropractor has to say when next I see her.  Lindart - I really feel the box pillow has helped - that's just another name for the side sleeper pillow apparently.)

I will leave you there for now and see you next week when we once more celebrate WOYWW and snoop on others desks.  Toodle Pip!