WOYWW 801

Sore arms- covid and flu jabs last Friday so sleepy from a couple of nights disturbed sleep when I turned over.  Luckily I did not post anything last week that I had made so I can get away with showing you what I have been up to without much effort.  It was nice to find out how many people had been with WOYWW for a good number of years and are still here or just popping in now and then to say hello.  I was surprised to find I had only missed 59 weeks of WOYWW, I thought it would be closer to the 100 mark.

I had been on another workshop with Jo and we made a Christmas Cracker, a card, decorated a brown paper bag and made a tag for a canvas wine bottle.  

Sorry the photo is a bit dark

I think the cracker will make a great gift bag so I need to buy something for my dh, probably a small bottle of whisky and wrap it in a pair of boring socks or undies - just need to check which he he is most in need of.  Or can any of you think of something better please?

My Christmas cards are mounting up nicely and I found another two cards I had recently made on another workshop with Jo that will be great with a little bow and a "Merry Christmas"greeting.  With the way that I am going I won't have a rush on this year although I am on the lookout for a 'special' card for himself.  I like to make one with a bit of movement, a kinetic card for dh.

Called to see my friend Jayne on our way to the caravan and she made me two more tumblers.  One for me to leave up there and one for Chas.  They really are super and keep your drinks hot for hours (or cold, even keeping the ice cubes intact if you include them).  I've found this mermaid one perfect for my overnight drinwhich I sit on the floor where it is easy to reach in the dark, take a sip through the metal straw (yes, it is a cold drink) and pop back on the floor until the next time.

I now wish I had made a Halloween one just because I love those witches but I really love the mermaid scenes so I went with that - whose to say I won't splash out on another but this time Halloween.

Here is my Mermaid one - it's only a quick twirl so takes seconds

Next week I will show you the one I made and Jayne put onto a tumbler for me to give to dh for a present.  Poor Chas, it had to be a Lavinia design but he chose what he wanted from my stamps and he is quite happy with a nice hot drink when out walking.

Have a good week and hopefully see you week 802 at Sarah's for another WOYWW.

Jeudi Journal - Autumn Woodland

 Looks as if Wendy is still having problems with her internet connection so here is another page from my Lavinia Journal for Alison's theme at Art Journal Journey - Autumn Colours and Inspiration.

The background uses Elements Sahara ink with Violet Chalk around the edges darkened in the corners and used very lightly with Mini Hill Masks towards the base.  I used a moon mask and darkened around the edges with emphasis on the bottom edge.

Tree Den and Tree Stem were then stamped using Versamark Claire Nocturne with a second generation Tree Stem stamped to give depth to the page.  Tree of Hope is the stamp with the branches that cross the moon.  Silhouette Foliage and Orchard Grass were stamped in the foreground again using Nocturne, some in second generation.

Berry Wreath was stamped across the top edge and the berries were coloured with a yellow Gel Pen as were the vines on the two Tree Dens.  It is a shame you cannot see the glitter from a scan.

Finally using a yellow Pastel Pencil I then put the effect of light from the moon down the sides of the Tree Den stamps.

Sorry there is not a story attached to this week's page but I will be back next week with one.

WOYWW 800

Wow, Oh WOW this is the 800th time WOYWW has been on the internet.  Sadly not for me as I did not join in at the very beginning. I have always tried to never miss a weeks posting.  Not sure if I have managed it but I've tried.  Didn't know how to find my first post but messing about I discovered I could go back to my early blogging days and there on the 29th JULY 2010 I did my first WOYWW.  

Week 60 my desk shot was this

This was my desk - according to what I blogged I had some lace pieces drying on my spray box but the rest of my desk was taken up with claywork which I rarely do these days.  The lace pieces were for an album I was making for my friend who had the most adorable little girl ever.  Gosh, I loved that little girl.  Here is the album

I used to love making things like this.  The lace pieces were all put in the rings of the spine and there were lots of pearls and silk flowers on the cover.

I found this blog hop was the best thing ever for making friendships.  Immediately I joined I felt surrounded by friends.  I had internet friends all over and some of them in other parts of the world I got to meet when I went to CHA in America.  

I grew to  love the Crops when members would meet up.  I think my first was Llandudno with Margaret hosting and it was marvellous to put faces to names.  To get to meet people who had become a big part of my life and certainly joy to Wednesday mornings.  So THANK YOU Julia for starting this blog hop, and THANK YOU Sarah for continuing with it. (and thank you to LLJ for all the times you stepped in to keep us together).

Jeudi Journal - Still Solo

Wendy is still having problems with the computer connection at her new home so once again I am grateful to Aimslee for her 'Anything Goes' theme at Art Journal Journey and once again I am using a page from my Lavinia Journal.

I do hope she gets sorted by next week or we could be "up creek without paddle" in that I don't have that many journal pages in my Lavinia Journal and what I have may not fit in with the theme.  As it is October next week when we meet up again I am using one of my pages that is very autumnal.

It is already feeling like autumn and time to get the woolies out and put the summer clothes away.  Yesterday I watched leaves falling on our back lawn and thought of days of 'leaf picking' were drawing ever closer.  The house down the road from ours has lots of beech trees and unfortunately we get all of their leaves blowing into our garden.  So it's not just our own but theirs as well that we end up raking.

Well, it looks as if someone is having a visitor as Tilly is knocking on the blue door.

"It was around 4 pm, the sky was just starting to darken and the enchanted wood was quite busy for a Thursday.  Tilly had decided to call on her good friend Tango who lived in the second Pumpkin House by the old tree where the Wallace family lived.  Mrs Wallace was just scurrying along to the shops as fast as her little hog feet would take her and Kernal the fox was keeping his eye on something high up in the trees.

Suddenly a little voice could be heard "Hello"said someone a little nervously.  "I don't mean to be nosey or anything like that but I think Tango went out earlier.  She usually leaves the lamp lit for when she gets back if she goes out in the early evening light."

Tilly turned and she saw a little hare standing there, ears pointing down.

"I think she said she was going out to buy a birthday present for someone."

"Oh, thank you very much" said Tilly, "I don't think I've had the pleasure."

"I'm Pippin" the little hare replied, "I live underground, just behind that tree.  Tango is a good friend of mine and I heard her going out when I was clearing out my garden ready for Autumn.  We exchanged pleasantries so that is how I know where she was going."

"Well, I was just coming around to tell her, well, to remind her, that it was Moo's birthday tomorrow and to remind her to go and get a present for the party we have been invited to."

"Ooh, how exciting" said Pippin.  "I love a good party."

"Right, then why don't you come along.  I am sure Moo wouldn't mind me bringing someone."

"That would be lovely but I am sorry I can't come along with you.  You see my twin sister lives with me and we always, but always, do everything together."

Just then Tilly noticed another little hare standing just beyond the pathway.

"I am sure Moo could fit another two in at her party" said Tilly, "She loves to be surrounded by lots of woodland friends and always says 'the more the merrier' so please, the two of you come along."

"What about me?" came a loud voice from the left.  It was Kernal the friendly fox.  He acted as a kind of policeman in the woods, making sure all the tiny animals were safe and sound.

"Oh dear" thought Tilly, "this is getting to be a big party, I do hope Moo can cope with us all."

And I hope that next month here at AJJ the theme is one that my post that is sitting here waiting to be published can be adapted to.  I had my post ready at the beginning of the month and it was so easy with 'Anything Goes' but I don't remember anything about it so guess I had better go and check, or maybe leave it until the 1st October.

WOYWW 799

 Yippee Doodle Doo!  One week and we are at 800in the biggest blog hop I know about that is now being cared for by Sarah, so let's visit her and see if she has something planned for us all.

Well, I've been doing another big page for my friend Jayne to turn into another of those tumblers for me, well, not for me but for my better half.  It had to be Lavinia stamps so he chose ... owls.  This one I did on my first run but I wanted to do another for me and so I decided to go with the Ocean - so far two goes and still not happy.  I might end up with a Halloween one if this next trial does not go well.

So what have I got to show you? Oh, I made a Halloween bookmark - two sides - the main side is purple and the red side is just because it didn't look right left white.

and the other side - both use the new witches from Lavinia which Leesa calls "good witches" - I call them "sexy witches" as they are so pretty compared to the one which came out last year.

My friend Jayne, you know, the one who turned my artwork into a tumbler, she did a swap and made an extra one of each so she could give one to me - her theme was "Fairy Tales".  See if you can guess them.

I can only think this has scanned a bit 'hazy'  because the shoe was decoupaged as were the buttons and the bobbin of thread.  Both these pieces are beautifully made, Jayne is good as what she turns her hand to.

So that's it from me this week.  Next week maybe another tumbler or maybe some Christmas stuff as I have a workshop coming up and it's based around Christmas.  See you then.

Oops - forgot my desk photo.  Helen will suss out what is happening.

Jeudi Journal - Still Flying Solo

 Had a message from Wendy, she is still without internet and so unable to join in with us at Art Journal Journey at the moment so I am still flying solo and using my Lavinia Journal to upload to Aimslee's blog challenge.  I hope she is soon back with us as I don't have much to show you and am ever so lucky that Aimslee chose 'Anything Goes' for her theme.

Just hope the next theme is fairly easy to do on my own if that is the case but for now I am uploading a Steampunk page from my journal.  These are mostly done on a piece of cardstock and stuck into my journal so that I am sure the inks and paints will work as I want them to on the medium.  Sometimes I have tried to do something on the actual page to link it in but this is usually a bit of stencilling or stamping.

This one shows up how pure white the cardstock was and how different my journal pages are.  If I had not cropped the photo you would have seen the torn edge on the right of the actual page.  These little mice are perhaps the most used of my Lavinia stamps.  They come in handy for all kinds of things - and cover up little smudges you might make on a card or page in your journal.

Just so you don't miss out on a story - it's only going to be a quick one I just cannot write them the same as I can with the Dylusion figures - here goes:

"It was getting late that evening when everyone in the house had gone to bed.  Everyone except the little 'meeces' who lived behind the skirting board in Mr Brown's study.  Suddenly there was a noise, a kind of whirring as if some machinery had started to work.  Was it the huge clock that Mr Brown treasured so much that resided behind his desk?  Or was it the lift that he used to move up the five floors to the bedroom, which he used when he had been working late, at the top of the house?  No, the clock was still working and the lift was at the top of the house as he had used it that evening.

Suddenly, in the far left corner of the study a cog rolled across the floor, then another and another.

"What on earth are you playing at Moo?" came a little squeaky voice.  "You really are naughty at times."

"Having a good old play with these 'ere cogs" was the answer "about time you let your hair down Minni" said Moo as he rolled yet another cog out from behind the skirting board.  

Minni and Moo were the two youngest of the mice living in the big old house and were often quite mischievous, especially Moo.  

Moo climbed up on the desk and onto a pile of books that Mr Brown had been reading earlier that evening.  

"Look at me Minni" he called, as he balanced on a cog on top of the books with Mr Brown's racing goggles held high in his tiny paws.  "I'm dancing and my partner has the largest eyes you ever did see."

Minni was not amused and she shouted to him to get down.  "Remember we must not let anyone know we have been here.  You know what Mamma Mouse told you, if we get seen or it is suspected that we exist the family will probably get a big big cat!!!  And that will be curtains for us all."

At that Moo climbed down, being careful to put the goggles exactly where he had found them and to dust off the books where his four little paws had been.  Just then he saw a fancy hat.  It wasn't the one Mr Brown wore every day but one which he tended to only wear on special occasions.  Quickly Moo scrambled up the laces that decorated the front and stood there balancing a sign on two wheels.  Ooh, this was fun.

"Where are you?" shouted Minni, "come here, Mamma will be ever so angry if we stay out too long."  She began looking for her naughty twin brother but he was nowhere to be found,  What had he done now ... and where on earth was he?  Then she saw the hat.  "No, he wouldn't" she thought to herself.  She picked the hat up carefully by the brim and looked underneath but all she saw was a spider who immediately spun a line to escape from her.  "Are you in there" she shouted, frightening herself by the echo that came from within.

All of a sudden there was a huge 'bump' and Moo sat on the floor by the side of the hat rubbing his head.  She had tipped the hat so much that Moo had slid off the top and fallen right on his head on the hard desk.

"Serves you right" said Minni, "now come home or we will both be in trouble."  And with that the two little 'meeces' scurried through the tiny hole that they could just about squeeze through.

"Wonder what Mamma is cooking" said Minni.  Moo couldn't care less, his head hurt so much."

798 WOYWW

 Another beautiful week in the north of England, so making the most of it by being out and about.  Guess who forgot about her blog in the excitement of the "old currant bun"?  Here we are closer and closer to that big number with a double zero.  What an auspicious number for a blog hop.  Wonder what Sarah has planned?

Well, I have been busy again doing a bit of crafting - this was for a swap and probably not yet received but as the person does not come on here it is ok to show you.  The topic was "Countryside" 

and the other was a bookmark

But you came here hoping to see my tumbler.  Well, Jayne could not get it to work whilst I was there so I have not yet got it but she did fix it when I left and here is a little video of it that she sent to me

I hope this works

You came here really to see my desk so here it is

I think it is fairly explanatory so I will leave it there and see you next week with a bit of luck.  Take care.