AN ODE TO DYAN ON ART JOURNALING TWO!

OK this is me trying to pick myself up and dust myself off 

and maybe even turn the page - not convinced how long it will last but lets celebrate it whilst it's here!

Yesterday was a day that I found impossible to craft given with what I was dealing with - but I could actually write so this is my ode to Dyan for the weekend we just had

At half past six we set out on our heels 

To find Dy’s new home where we would all squeal 

With happiness blessings and friends of old 

The weekend in front ready to unfold 

The studio was filled with tissues galore 

 And packets of chocolate who would want more 

We dumped all our bags on said chairs and seats 

And off to the shop we all took a peak 

From papers and blank clocks and stamps by Sir Tim 

We could all spend a fortune it would be a sin 

Eventually our group was raring to go 

Introductions were squandered along everyone’s row 

First it was Sandra and it was like pulling teeth 

Not sure what to say had to think on her feet 

Then Anne-Marie who praised doodling class
Dyan was confused until she amassed 

That the wonderful teacher Anne Marie referred to 

Was in fact her good self which she eventually knew 

Then Ronni a new friend who promised to take 

At least the Yorkshire accent back with her in haste 

Then Carole confirmed her art journaling fears 

That rules and regulations had her in tears
Jude with her addiction to the shop Paperchase 

But we had to admire the new journals base 

For Melanie she admitted it was fear of yellow 

But splurged with a bit of black it wasn’t the foe 

Virginia (that’s me) was left til very last 

Apparently with one minute I’d have to be fast 

Then Valencia did show off her journaling books 

From old diary entries she proved she was hooked 

To Vanessa whose weekend was planned to be fun
With plenty of time spent with yours truly’s Mum 

Then onto dear Steph who soon did confess 

That since art journaling one she hadn’t been blessed 

With time on her hands or even with paint 

But with gentle encouragement plans she did make 

Then lovely Anne who we all met in Feb 

Did say large books messed with her head 

But the weekend was promised with plenty in store 

To get over our phobias, hiccups and more 

Then Happy Birthday we did all sing to our Bee 

She shared her art work and we all got to see 

Then Emma declared this time no more tears 

And Dyan she did promise that we all need not fear 

For the difficult questions and soul searching rhymes 

Were sectioned in part one and therefore last time 

Janet declared stamping was her journaling look 

But she did find issues with trying to put it in books 

Michelle did agree that the image led base 

Did not always leave her happy in face 

But with gentle encouragement Dyan did declare 

That whatever we liked that would be fair 

For art journaling is a creative way 

To jot down some art and words for the day
But however it turns out is quite simply ours 

to enjoy the said process and use up the hours. 

Then Liz a new friend said a year had now passed 

Since she’d started on one of Dy’s journaling blasts. 

And soon we were back to our art journaling goddess 

And we all knew that our weekend was bound to be blessed 

We started to play with paper and needles 

And out came pizza and wine to feed us 

It was Jay who abandoned her date for the night 

because of Dyan’s back it wasn’t quite right! 

Jude did declare to Mel it were “squint” 

And we all did look puzzled and asked for a hint 

With puzzled expressions and frowns all around 

Wonky’s what she meant that we had found 

Soon it was ten and time to toddle off 

Full of pizza and wine that we all had all troughed 

A wonderful weekend to look forward too 

 Down at Dyan’s on art journaling two 

Saturday morning soon did appear 

The sky was quite bright and the studio near 

We arrived all in good time but were slow off the blocks 

It was well past nine on the wind up clock 

This morning we were greeted with an added friend 
Christine hadn't been around for she was on the mend
First thing was alphas from strange shapes and dots

We all agreed shortly that we had learnt lots

Then onto those borders made with our fine hands 

Then onto Dy’s downloads we all became fans 

Brunch did arrive and soon it all went 

Then onto scotch tablet we did hardly dent 

Soon we did progress to the magazine base
We all loved our pages actually they were quite ace 

Pam she did make the most wonderful lunch 

We were all very quiet as we set too and munched 

The afternoon flew in the blink of an eye 

And those three-d balls at first made us sigh 

But a little time was spent on the page 

Dyan she did teach us all stage by stage 

And soon we were happy – and all did so gaze 

At our pages completed with all Dyan’s praise
We did all disappear when five o’clock chimed 

Off to the pub quite aptly timed

Jude did offer a lift in her generous van 

But Paul raised and eyebrow and said no to her plan 

Don’t you remember on the journey here 

That you simply had to have all that garden furniture gear 

So the van is quite full he said with a grin 

But if we are quick we can get the beers in 

So we met up at pub and chatted for hours 

It was lovely outside near the beautiful flowers 

Eventually Jude and Paul left for their date
And we did settle down and enjoyed life til quite late 

Sunday morning did arrive in the blink of an eye 

We couldn’t believe soon we’d all say good bye 

But Dyan had saved up a treat for all of us 

We were giddy with excitement and all made a fuss
Of the beautiful book she had planned for our day 

We soon were all busy as we did all play 

Then spritz, colour wash, inks and those magic pearls 

We loved all the colours – well we were all girls 

Lunch soon was served in the stifling heat 

Many did go outside to take up a seat 

Then back to our pages we all did return 

It was fun for us all as we love to learn 

With stencils mopped off on random pages in book 

Dyan did declare we all could learn a new look 

Soon onto distress inks and water galore 

Stood splatting that bleach look we all did want more 

The afternoon meandered at a very nice pace
Then off to the till we all did take our place 

Dyan did have fun chatting as she rung up the till 

That was until she passed Valencia’s bill 

No idea how it happened the card was declined 

Mind you £14,000 plus was quite a grind 

Dy didn’t know what she had done 

But we all did agree that it was quite fun 

The correct amount eventually clocked up 

Then gather our bags and clean up our cups 

We started to drift off one by one
Some quietly going out into the sun 

The rest of us noisy as we went on our way
Thank you Dyan for a fantastic few days

I'll put an old art journal page that I've not put on before because i can't imagine doing a posting without a picture LOL

 Hope everyone is having a good day!

WHAT'S ROCKING MY WORLD FRIDAY

OK so I know I'm very very late posting this but my excuse is I've been at work all day again today - although I don't know why because I got absolutely nothing done - but that's whinging and I'm not doing that I'm being grateful

So without further ado my grateful list this week 

I'm alive I still insist on acknowledging this one because - well it's pretty amazing

Getting back to good old mini book making - I've been away from it for a while and it feels sooooooooooooooooooooo good to be back doing a lovely mix of crafting!

Starting on that box of alterables - having a focus is something to be truly grateful for, there is nothing better than sorting things out (by the way I'm fighting with the KP nut tins but I'll win - they just don't know it yet!)

My husband and my son because they've put up with a week of me being a royal pain in the bum and moody and mardy to boot this week - don't know why I'm going to put it down to life in general!

 Loving the fact I come from a unique and individual family and that I continue to feel so truly blessed on this one.

The fact I live in a democratic country even if the voters of the country have stuck two fingers up to the whole thing and said we don't trust any of you LMAO!   No winners and further political turmoil added to which they'll soon all go back to their glass houses and stop listening to us once again - but hey there were many ladies who gave an awful to give us ladies the chance to vote and for that I am truly grateful

Listening to someone whose ready to retire because all he wants to actually do is sit under a tree - sometimes reminds you of the little things in life we can do but choose not to!

Slimming World - week one and four and a half pounds off (let's see if this can continue) but I'm being grateful because I really really really need to keep my head around this and shift some weight!  (I've a separate blog on this one  so won't bore you with the detail). 

Having a blog to talk to some amazing people - I always feel truly blessed when I get comments 

I'll leave you with the journal page that was on my desk the other week when I did WOYWW - it's finally finished and it's my precarious page and unfortunately in certain parts of my life I'm still feeling precarious but I'm hanging on in there

close ups

Well that's me for now, I've got a double scrapbook page to be getting on with tonight and progress on the KP nut tins.  

If you happen by and leave a message - let me thank you in advance - it will be awesome to read I'm sure! 

PS - 9 year old statement to his Dad tonight 

"Dad do you know you've got a double chin"

"No I haven't"

"Yeah you have, one here and one here" 

Made me giggle as long he doesn't decide to come counting mine!

WOYWW - Not sure?

OK, so this is it, not a lot at this moment in time, the KP nut boxes that i've yet to alter, last night's hair clip - a calculator (I'm sure those things follow me round), my corner rounder the glass jar full of paper and felt flowers, the finished vanity case on the left - see yesterday's post for further details) a gift that needs to be sent off in the top left hand corner - my box of wires and beads.

I've been doing more 'scrapbooking' related items recently which has been lovely - not sure if I'm currently journalled out LOL! - Nah that's not possible but it's proving loads of fun to go back to 'mini book' making, I loved the jigsaw book on Friday, the vanity case was harder, I'm hoping the other one won't be so problematic but we'll see!  And really need to start on those KP nut boxes - just need to decide what I'm doing with them!

I'll leave you with a journal page I'm off for a quick look on other people's desks - if you want to join in head over to Julia's Stamping Ground 

ART JOURNAL, A MISERABLE AFTERNOON AND LIFE - OOH THAT'S GOING TO INSPIRE YOU TO WANT TO LOOK NOOOOOTTTTT!!!!!

Well what a peculiar Wednesday I had, I don't think I've ever quite had one like it if I'm honest after the stresses of the morning (ie tests at Docs and being used as a pin cushion by nurse) I thought my day would be merely busy - it wasn't busy it was much worse and I had to leave work early because I just felt so utterly fed up - anyway before you ask I'm fine now - just not enough hours in the day and sometimes just that little straw breaks the camels back - so my little straw broke - basically a rubbish rubbish day - but hey it's THURSDAY so brand new day hurray - a new day where I have a clean slate in front of me I can interact with my day in a positive way (I can can't I) and this is what I'm going to do!  

So I'll share a little art journaling with you - I re-read my 'permission' journal from cover to cover last night (not that it's finished yet but it's getting there) and had to laugh at how many times I've used the word precarious!  I mean it - it appears over and over, in title in words, in the journaling as key words etc - mmmm maybe it's telling me something about my life in general at the moment LOL!  So here is one of the pages that I've used that particular word on  

Close ups of course

and right hand page

 I am loving the grungy messy nature of these pages at the moment - feels a little bit like my mushy brain!

On a positive note I had an amazing response to my WOYWW - everyone was lovely I've managed to visit quite a few of the blogs in return and intend on tracking down a few more - it's lovely to see what everyone is up to!  I thought I'd answer a few of the questions that were asked (not that I expect the questioners to probably see the answers LOL) - the photos were all taken in my house and yes that really is my kitchen installed by my fantastic husband with lots and lots of help from family along the way (my sister helping rip things out, my brother holding parts of a wall up that we were taking down and my Mum plastering - I kid you not!!!!! infact - I have proof

 and no that isn't a staged shot - need further proof

My old kitchen was awful with a piece of work top about 2 and a half foot wide to prepare, serve up etc on - after one Christmas when we'd cooked for 9 people I threw my toys out of my cot and said it would be the next job we would do on the house, so we took walls down (literally - in fact at one point my brother was holding a large section of a wall up) - moved living room from it's space into another room and converted old living room into dining room, my demand for the room was that it had to have lots and lots of worktops and as you saw yesterday I managed that (I also demanded lots and lots and lots of drawers and I got those as well - 12 in total my old kitchen had one!) 

The art work that you spied on my workstation is my current art journal work and thank you for the lovely comments on that.  

And my storage cupboards are huge and inside they are tidy I promise - I'll show you close ups next week if I'm good!  In the past I've had a craft room but I ended up spending all my time in it and never seeing family so when we sorted the kitchen we decided the TV room would be TV and craft so that when the boys (my hubby and son) were on the games system or watching a DVD I could be in the same room crafting and it was working really well until I got them hooked on art journaling - so yes the other question that was asked was do we really art journal as a family and the answer is yes we do, myself, my husband and our 9 year old son have great fun on a Saturday night after tea of spreading newspaper on the dining table, grabbing pens and paints and inks and cut out images and basically art journalling whilst watching a Top Gear dvd or occasionally a film and it is sheer and utter bliss I love the time we have together it is so precious, my son's art journals are adorable and my hubbies are similar but also very different to mine! I suppose our only issue is that we all tend to work on our A3 journals at the same time and so when they are open on the table we struggle for room LMAO! 

So there you have it unfortunately no funny tales of Nutty Nannan today - actually my Mum was my rock yesterday when I needed a shoulder and my husband was my rock last night listening as he always does - I love all of them they are amazing!  

News on the missing in action Melanie - she made it to the gym this week - first time in months and did 50 minutes cardio - she's looking forward to AFTH - (we were doing sums about costs last night - she was so funny), she's started her new job in Wakefield she doesn't know how the hell she is going to sort out the clutch problem on her car but she's travelling up and down the M1 at the moment and secretly she's enjoying her new job because she's busy and her day goes quick!  And her new relationship well if I told you you wouldn't believe me!!!!!  

Anyway if you're having a good morning and happen to pop by say hello!

TWO DAYS RUNNING - MUST BE ANOTHER DAY OFF

So here I am again - a second blog posting in 2 days - yes you've guessed it I've had the day off with my hubby Craig whilst little man was at school.  It's been a lovely day just the two of us - we started off with a walk around a walled garden at our local garden centre, it was really cold in the shade but the sun was gorgeous and look at this blue sky - how divine is that!

 Setting the trees off it felt almost as if spring may be coming closer - particularly with all the birds that were around!

 

We then enjoyed a wander around some little craft shops including a 'new age' one full of gorgeous crystal jewellery - I tried on a couple of pieces I'm still after a ring with a specific stone but it hasn't found me yet!  Then we had a coffee at the newly built coffee shop and just chatted and talked - strangely enough the walk sparked off art journal ideas - Craig's current page is different to others he's done as he's developing his own style!  

Then we went for a wander around the shops (without said 9 year old sitting looking bored asking if we were nearly done yet) and then had a spot of lunch.  Afterwards we headed to the Meadowhall for a wander around the Lanes and book shops and just a generally mooch, I bought a book at a pound shop to rip up - I was stood comparing the height of them!  Craig said that only I could decide on a book because of it's height but I said I was fed up with joining pages together so if I got one tall enough I wouldn't have to!  Finally we headed for another coffee and wow was it seriously strong - in fact we're both still reeling from it - I swear it has made us both funny in the head tonight LMAO!   I've had a seriously blissful day for which I am truly grateful!  It makes you glad to be alive!  

Here is another 'anatomy' page that I did last night ready for the 'word' journaling bit - these are seriously addictive! 

  I also realised that I didn't share these two pages with you - from my 'permission' journal! I really enjoyed playing with the white pen on this one

and the opposite page with my tattooed lady! 

And finally I did my 'what's rocking my world' page - I had the image which I adored and just didn't know what to do with it!  Then the other day Dyan asked what was rocking our world and I left a comment indicating what was ticking the boxes in my life at the moment - a lightbulb moment dawned on Friday evening in that I could put my reply with the image and document a little snippet of my life at the moment - so here's the finished page and I love it!

Back to work tomorrow (although hubby is off for another day) and it'll be a long one (usually 12 hours) as we've got the volunteering group tomorrow night so it'll be late when I get in and I'm usually mentally drained at the end of it - although I'm sure I'll manage a bit of blog hopping along the way!

Tonight however, time with my little lad who walked through the door tonight and burst into tears apparently he's fallen out with his best buddy at school over a joint writing project they were doing together so he's feeling a bit vulnerable add to that the fact that he'd just had a bumped nose when we got to school it would appear not to have been his best day - I can feel a journal page coming on!