Jeudi Journal - Time

 Well, linking to Art Journal Journey proved very difficult with the quote set by Wendy for this week.  The quote was "There's not enough hours in the day for all the stuff I'm not going to do" and the closest song I could come up with was by Chicago - "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?".   A tenuous link but the best I could come up with for Alison's challenge which I really wanted to link with.

I did try several songs about laziness, idly lying about but when you examined the lyrics they were not at all suitable being drug related or even worse.  So I settled on the song by Chicago, at least I could write a story.

"Patsy was a crafter.  She was always busy making things, buying new products - you name it, her whole life was about crafting.  She had a lovely dedicated large craftroom, filled with shelving and a huge table in the centre of the room.  Dotted around the perimeter were also a couple of smaller tables where she could work on the different disciplines, such as her die cutting station, her 'dirty' area which was where the large old Butler's sink was for the messy projects she loved to do, and the clean area which housed her sewing machine and bales of fabric which she could not resist buying.

She had a TV mounted on the wall just beyond the doorway and that was linked to her computer so that she could watch You Tube demonstrations whilst she got on with her current project, whatever that may be.  In short Patty was missing nothing in her life.  Her husband was a quiet mannered soul who was quite happy to let her get on with all the things she enjoyed and he was quite happy to help with the housework as and when necessary.  If truth be known he did most of the cooking these days and was becoming quite the accomplished chef.

It was a lovely sunny morning when the two of them were sat having breakfast together on the patio.  Breakfast had always been Patty's thing and she had made two perfectly poached eggs that day which, along with some crisp toast, had been a lovely start to the day.

"What are you doing today my dear?" asked Henry.

"Oh I don't know" replied Patsy.

"Surely in that wealth of You Tube videos you have saved you must be able to find something" he answered.

"There's not enough hours in the day for all the stuff I'm not going to do" she replied, with a smile on her face..

Henry sighed, sometimes he wondered what on earth went on in Patsy's world.  But he didn't say anything, he loved her so much he just wanted her world to be perfect."

WOYWW 673

It's Wednesday and that means it's WOYWW and time to join Julia and her merry band showing their desks.

First of all I want to show you the local church when we visit the area close to The Lakes we enjoy so much.  I was particularly pleased so see that not only had they a cross displayed on the gates for Easter but one beside it which I presume was in support of The Ukraine.

It was another lovely weekend with the weather being very favourable and on Monday I posted about our day in Sizergh which had the most beautiful gardens - I so enjoyed wandering them and seeing the designs of Susan Rowley, the Head Gardener there.  You can read and see all about it here.

Now I have stopped waffling here is my desk.  As you can see not much activity but there are my new stamps featuring Miss Dee, the latest character from Janet Klein. Not too sure whether I will get as hooked on them as I have done with her little characters.  Miss Dee is fun and outrageous but I can't see as many opportunities for using her as I have had with the other little characters.  Maybe one or two insulting cards??  Let's just say I have not ordered the next set as yet.

On the left are my JK images neatly filed away in number order - these are the small A7 stamps - the others are in a drawer.  You will notice they are in Felix boxes from when we fed the cats next door.  Then the fours stamps just bought and the images cut out ready for colouring.

Sorry about the glare 

These are the actual stamps showing you the words

Here she is Miss D with a bit of colour

There are some little bts still to cut out, mainly arms on hips have a space and I notice I missed some heels on a pair of beach shoes.  Not quite sure what I will do with her/them as yet but watch this space - inspiration is, hopefully, around the corner.  Now to link up early.

Sizergh - I fell in love with it

What a brilliant weekend I had.  We went to Sizergh Medieval Manor on Sunday.  What a lovely place to visit.  We didn't manage to do the house as my back was bad and I could not face the stairs but we watched a short film featuring Henry Hornyold-Strickland, 8th Count della Catena, which was very interesting and informative.  Well worth watching.

Afterwards we started looking at the gardens and I was surprised just how beautiful they are.  Quite impressive and, to my mind, one of the nicest gardens I have seen.  The Head Gardener is female, Susan Rowley, and what a fabulous job she has made of the planning of the gardens.  I could have spent all day just wandering about and looking at the names of all the plants in the various gardens.

We started off in the Stumpery - and I just loved it.  The planting was done around various stumps of trees and gave a lovely backcloth to the many plants and their foliage.  I thought this was going to be my favourite part of the gardens and had to have a photo of me besides one of the sections.

I just love how they have used these tree stumps and built the beds around them - I have a fascination with wooden pieces whether raw or finished in some way.

From there we went to the herbaceous border and on to the kitchen garden.  I could kick myself for not taking a photograph of the ingenious way they have built the fencing from cherry blossom.  It looks so pretty - maybe we will go again shortly!

Despite loving the Stumpery I fell in love with the Rock Garden.  I cannot describe it and can only say it is well worth a visit.  Despite the meandering pathways and little bridges I just had to wander around and soak up the beauty of this place.   I just loved this view and as I walked towards it a guy with a telephoto lens came towards me and said "Fantastic".  He too, just loved the view before us.

this is by the water in the rock garden

So striking from a distance

The Mirror Lake

Back of the Manor

They ask you not to roll (roly poly) down the banking (above) as it is home to solitary bees and other insects so they don't want you squashing them.

From there we went to look at this topiary and we were treated to a lovely song by a solitary bird sitting on top of one of the pyramids.

I had to shoot into the sun for fear of disturbing it

And then it was time to return to the gift shop where I bought a delightful bud vase before we wended our way home.  A lovely day out - we will definitely be back.

Jeudi Journal - Error

In linking the quote for this week with Art Journal Journey my mind went to that British film "Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War" when I saw the quote I had to use for the journal page today.  It's about Thelma (Pauline Collins) who is sent to a run down nursing home by her son and daughter in law.  

 It's a good fun film, in which amongst other things they refuse to eat the endless tasteless cabbage meals they were given and go out for some fun on the bowling green.  

"Agnes was feeling particularly down.  She had just been to watch a wedding at the local church with her grandson Benji.  Benji had been asking lots of questions about when his Gran got married and wanted to know all about her and Grandpa's lives when they were younger.

Lots of images of friends now gone passed before her eyes and did nothing to lighten the mood she was in.  She had lost touch with so many of her old pals as each had taken different directions in their lives.  Her husband, George, was almost 80 and no longer were they the Agnes and George of old.  Oh what fun they had had when growing up.  What scrapes they had been in.  She dare not tell Benji of some of the things they had done.  Harmless things, like playing 'knock a door, run' and raiding neighbour's bonfire piles before the big day when they were to be lit.  Were they really errors of her life or just part of growing up?

She shook herself and put on a smile telling Benji about the time George took her out to tea and they ate all the cakes on the cake stand not realising that each one had to be paid for.  Poor George had not had enough money on him and she had had to empty her purse and help him pay for the cakes.  The dress she had been saving for for the Queen's Coronation just blew away in the wind that day as her savings dwindled and the pair of them felt quite sick afterwards.  But she did not tell Benji that last bit.

Agnes  remembered her school days when she had been sent off to a boarding school and how she disliked the place. She remembered the real scrapes she and her friends got into and the time she led a revolt over them having to wear straw boaters in the summer when they walked past the boy's school and how the boy's would jeer at them.  Worse still it had almost ended up with her being expelled the time she climbed the flagpole and tied a pair of the house mistresses undies to the pole.   

Agnes had had some upsetting news that morning and she had thought that going by the church and seeing a neighbour's daughter's wedding would take her mind off things and she would shake out of the doldrums - but no, it made her feel even sadder.  She said to herself "the older I get the more I see the error of my ways, but the less I care".  She knew that wasn't strictly true, yes, she had regrets about some things that had gone on in her life but they were not for sharing, and certainly not with her lovely grandson Benji.  "If we didn't have regrets, didn't have those moments in our past to see what errors we had made we wouldn't grow up to be good Grandparents to our little ones.  So I don't care." she muttered to herself.  And with that she called out to Benji to set off to see what Grandpa was up to."

WOYWW 672

It's almost Wednesday again and time for me to show you my WOYWW desk.  I am leaving it as it is on Tuesday night (early) because I am 'screaming'.  I have been trying to make a folder, following the directions to the letter, or should I say to the inch,  and I cannot get it right.  Maybe it's old age and my addled brain won't do it anymore - not had problems with making the kinetic cards of late but certainly cannot do a thing with these folios.

My desk shows you the pickle I am in:

My not so interesting desk shows a lilac 12 x 12 inch paper plus a blue one - both scored and cut according to the instructions but after that I have not a clue - one page of the folio does not match the other two.  The blue was my first one and when it went wrong I tried it with the pink paper.  The notebook on top shows the sizes I had to score at and the pencil is one my friend Valletta gave me when I stayed with her in Arizona.  He is so cute and the pencil is lovely to write with - I don't want it ever to get small and run out.

Next is my green Cutterpillar, a brilliant cutter with a piece of 12 x 12 inch paper on top to try a different folio, which again did not work out the first time I did it - again one side was too short.  I am obviously missing something there.  Then extreme right there are three boxes, each one packed to the gills with 12 x 12 inch papers.  Yes, I have lots of papers.

So you see - as how many times I try I still have enough paper to try again.  But to be honest I have had enough of trying and so I decided to do my blog early and have an early night, watch a bit of tv first and then go to bed.  Defeated!

See you next week hopefully.

Jeudi Journal - I'm Not Doing It

That's how I felt when faced with tying the journal page,Wendy had set, to link with the challenge from Alison at Art Journal Journey.  "I'm just not doing it" - but then I remembered a song about 'sleepy heads' and so I looked it up and lo and behold there it was "Jaye P Morgan - Get Up! Get Up! (You sleepy head)" so that is my link today to AJJ.  

"A little birdy with a yellow bill

Hopped upon my window sill

He said Get up! Get Up!

You sleepy head"

Now I have you all confused so read on please:

"Do you ever have a late night and then next morning feel like saying you are not going to get out of bed?  Well, our young lady felt like that the other day when she had been on her computer until the wee small hours.  Next morning she just did not want to get out of bed, she felt tired in her eyes and her whole body was craving lying there in the luxury of the duvet and soft pillows that surrounded her.  Sounds familiar?

It was Friday morning and Jenna had been playing games on her computer, spending time chatting to friends and searching Facebook until her eyelids drooped and she realised she had to go to bed.  Oh how she regretted having such a late night, and it was a busy day, Friday, at the office.  She looked at Minnie, her cat and said "If it requires getting out of bed, I'm not doing it" knowing full well that she would.

She had to get up and get ready for work, she had to feed Minnie and let her outside for her morning  constitutional and make sure everything was ok for Minnie to be left until lunchtime when she would return and start all over again, feeding Minnie and herself and getting back to the office.  It was a good job it was only around the corner from where she lived.

"Just ten more minutes", she said to Minnie, and then I will be up and ready.  Something Minnie heard many a morning after one of Jenna's  late nights.  The ten minutes so often lapsed into twenty and would have gone on to thirty had Minnie not intervened.  And so, Minnie took things into her own hands (or paws) and gently tapped Jenna on the cheek to awaken her.  

"Go away" said Jenna gently waving her one free arm, I said "ten minutes."

Not to be put off, Minnie waved her tail in the air in a circular motion, walked about three feet down the bed and returned to tap Jenna again on her face.

"OK, OK" said Jenna, "I am getting up.  Despite what I said earlier I do know I have to" and with that Jenna got up and sat on the edge of the bed ready to take a quick shower and feel human again.  

Minnie sat there, so pleased, she was going to get fed and maybe even a cuddle before Jenna set off for work, Jenna couldn't resist a cuddle with Minnie each day."

Oxides for background, Lavinia stencil over the top, accessories/diecuts Janet Klein, head Dylusions.

WOYWW 671

Morning, it's another week, another Wednesday and therefore another WOYWW.  Had my booster on Monday and didn't sleep well that night so consequently yesterday I was falling asleep all over the place.  Still got a bit of a sore arm but slept like a top last night.  This time it was the Moderna one I had, seems as if they are mixing them up a lot now

Well, last week I showed you a card I made for my niece's little one, he loved his card, and this week I can show you the other one I made in the same style but this time for a crafting friend whose birthday it is today.  Here is Sue on the right with her bff, Lorraine, crafting along.

The other card was this one

I should have taken a photo from the side to show you how it is kind of dimensional.  The things at the front (paint, modelling paste, palette knife etc) are actually stuck on acetate and the others are stood behind on a piece of card, then there is the background - it's a bit complicated to explain.  And took a while to make!  It will be quicker next time,

Not like my cards in class on Saturday.  'One Card Wonders' - the class made some lovely cards themselves and I actually made some into Christmas cards from the paper I took to demonstrate with.  It's actually made me think of doing more and making them all into "C" cards this time.

The last one is waiting for a Christmas Sentiment to be placed on it - in the white space at the top right.  The blue paper is what was my Designer paper and I backed the shapes with silver and then added a die-cut.

Prior to the class I had been on Darnell's blog (lots of you will remember Darnell in the USA) and she had a link to someone in the Ukraine who has stayed behind to do lots of work helping fellow Ukrainians.  Her name is Yana and she is a crafter - you can read her blog here and about a friend, Denzil, here and what he is doing to help the Ukrainians.  So I decided to send my tutor fee via Paypal to Yana and her husband for medical supplies which she and her brave husband will give out where needed.

Can't get much more direct

I think I had better call it a day for this week.  See you next week with more news.  Hopefully.  Take care!