A few journal pages

The time's flown since my last post I'm afraid ..... been dealing with quite a bit of "real life" stuff the past few weeks so haven't been able to do as much crafting as I'd planned.  Well, took Mia back for her checkup - all was fine - but it took her a good hour or so when we got back home again before she'd forgive me for yet another visit to the vets!

I've been running badly behind with the Art Journal 2012 that I planned on being involved with but have finally started to catch up and just completed all four pages for January (that had a sea/beach theme).  They're not very inspired (or inspiring) but at least I've done something and I can look back on them and see what I'd've done differently if I'd had more time, imagination, etc.  I posted a pic previously of the first page I did, these are the other three :-

For Week 2 we had to illustrate the quote about "memories lasting longer than our footprints".  I decided to use a copy of a photograph I took on holiday in Anglesey some years back - it was taken on a wonderful day by the sea where we gathered all sorts of beach treasures.  The paper I used to print out the picture was quite creamy so has given a softer (faded memory) feel to the scene and the shells and glass added to the bottom are some of the "treasures" I collected on that day.

For the third week's page we had to design a beach hut and say where we would like to put it.  I had this daft idea really to make a pink beach hut with wings, my version of a magic carpet, that I could travel around the world in and land anywhere I chose, maybe even travelling back in time to the days of the Victorian bathing beauties too!  Just a bit of fun!

Week 4 - we could create whatever we liked with a sea theme and add a four-line poem to it.  Living by the seaside, I've often stood on the promenade (not naked though *LOL*) and gazed out past the piers towards the sea's horizon, imagining the countries far beyond across the waters and taking in the sights and sounds with all my senses.

For the month of February we are supposed to work on our journals about 30 mins each day - I confess I haven't done this but I have at least made a start.  Firstly, we are creating seven different backgrounds which I think we will then be working on for the rest of the month.  This is just the first of the seven - a BLUE background - nice and simple, just used all my blueish TH Distress Inks sponged onto the page, spritzed with water then heat set.

So .... apart from selling bits and pieces on EBay and going to watch my football team ..... that's what I've been up to since my last posting.  Oh, and trying to keep warm too - we've had some ferociously bitter weather here, but thankfully though the ice has been quite treacherous, we've so far missed out on the snow, one of the advantages to living by the coast being that it often bypasses us on its way across the Atlantic and waits till it reaches higher land. 

Hope you're all keeping warm and safe and I'll try to not leave it so long till my next post.

I'm the Ogre !

Poor little Mia!  Last week I took her along to the vet's for her annual "flu" vaccine and when the vet gave her a health checkup she spotted some problems with her teeth - gingivitis and at least one tooth which needed to come out - even though Mia is so young, it's a problem that can afflict some cats (especially Siamese and orientals) due to an allergy to plaque.  Mia wasn't exhibiting any signs of pain or problems eating and there was nothing wrong at her last check up, so we had no idea.

So yesterday I had to take her along and leave her at the vets all day (she was whisked off to the other surgery in nearby Kirkham where they have all the latest surgical equipment).  Of course we were worried all day, having an anaesthetic and everything, and I couldn't collect her till 4.30 pm.  She was fine, she'd been very nervous of course, but had had to have 3 teeth removed at the back - the rest were fine with a scale and polish. 

Unfortunately I've now become the Big Bad Ogre ..... one look at me and Mia just fled the room and stayed out of my way.  I think she's just about beginning to forgive me a bit today.  Only problem is I have to take her back to the vet's on Friday for a check up so I'll definitely be back in her bad books ...... oops !

The start of a New Year

Well, I have to say that I wasn't too impressed to start the new year off with a raging toothache ..... a visit to the dentist on Tuesday resulted in a week's antibiotics to clear up an infection under the tooth (a wisdom tooth, which really is past its best I'm afraid) and if it flares up again (which it will eventually) it's bye bye, tooth!  Good job I don't have a phobia about the dentist as others I know have!  Tomorrow I'm off to see the consultant at Preston Royal for the latest check up on my dodgy hand, though I don't expect there to be any particular new solutions offered to the problem.  But that's enough about that.

We had a quiet but pleasant Christmas and New Year, hard to believe it's already time to take down all the decos tomorrow.  Mia has had a high old time climbing under and up into the Christmas tree, knocking baubles off and running of with tinsel bits.  She also decided to be my little helper on New Year's Day when I sat down to update my new diary and calendar for the year - as you can see ........

As I mentioned in my last post, this year I want to get back to being a bit more creative again and have decided to join in with the latest Art Journal 2012 project in Ali's Vintage ATCs UK Yahoo Group - each month there's to be a theme with a page relating to that theme to be created each week.  January's theme is "Life's A Beach" and the first page has to include these words and what they mean to me.  I tried to keep up with the prompts for the 2011 journal but didn't get too far I'm afraid so I'm going to see how I get on this year.  I managed to put aside a couple of hours yesterday afternoon to sit down and play/create and this is the page I came up with.  The book is a "Pink Pig" one, 8" x 8" with nice sturdy white pages, so provides a good base to work on.  It's a simple page - used TH distress inks for the sky, sea and sand, with white acrylic paint for the waves, a few stamped images and simple writing using Sharpies (thought I'd ease myself in gently)!

I'll try and post a picture of each page that I complete for this Journal - wish me luck that I stick at it!

Merry Christmas and a Happier New Year 2012

It's been a tough old year one way or another but now Christmas is almost upon us and we plan on making it a good one - it was dad's favourite time of the year so we should definitely be celebrating it, he wouldn't want us not to.

I received a beautiful Christmas gift recently from a good friend, Joanne - it's a lovely wall hanging consisting of three small frames decorated in some of my favourite colour combinations (and very wintry-looking).  I had thought of putting photos of Mia in it but then realised that the Crafty Individuals images (from their book series) would fit just right so I changed my mind and added three Christmas "angels" instead.  Here it is, now hanging on the living room wall alongside the fireplace, so I can view it every day.  Thanks, Joanne - I love it!

Last year Mia went completely silly when we tried to decorate the living room - she was quite happy for us to decorate the front room and hall with sparkly tinsel, Christmas tree, fairy lights and baubles, but when I tried to hang up tinsel in the living room she got very scared and refused to even come downstairs the next morning so it all had to be taken down.  Wondered how she'd react this year - well, she was again absolutely fine with the decos everywhere else, then we put up a very plain green garland (no sparkle at all) on the wall over the sofa, draped a couple more garlands around plus a wreath above the fireplace.  She gave it all the once over, went daft again about the garland over the sofa (which had to be removed), but decided that this year we could keep the rest of the garlands and the wreath up!  What a comic she is!

Looks like we won't be getting a white Christmas this year, in fact it's turned quite mild here this last day or two which doesn't seem quite right somehow, but at least it means we can get around quite easily without being snowed in!

I hope everyone has a happy and peaceful Christmas and here's hoping for good things to come in 2012.  For myself, I hope to get back into being more creative again as my artwork has rather been on the backburner for the past 12 months or so.

Mia and I wish Everyone a Very Merry Christmas

and Happy New Year 2012 !

R.I.P. Dad

Thomas Alexander (Alex) Mason

24/12/1922 - 11/11/2011

Dad died peacefully in his sleep on 11th November (Remembrance Day) - he would have been 89 years old on Christmas Eve.  His funeral was held today with a beautiful, moving service in a lovely church in the centre of the village where my parents lived for 25 years - we had a small gathering of close family and friends, but sadly our mum could not be there as she has dementia and has lived in a residential care home for the past few months.  At least my sister Lindsay and I can be comforted by the knowledge that she doesn't understand that dad has gone so has been spared that sadness - they had been married for 65 years, 

Together celebrating their 60th Wedding Anniversary

Goodbye, Dad ..... you are missed and will always be close in our hearts

Cat in a box !

We've been going through one of those spells I think everyone gets - when stuff breaks down and has to be replaced - has to come all at once, doesn't it, not in ones?  We had to replace the garage doors as they'd gone rotten and were too far gone (picture me, one wild and windy day, trying to hold the doors shut to stop them falling outwards onto the car and at the same time calling to Graham for help - who of course couldn't hear me, being round the corner and inside the house - enough was enough - so now we have a nice new up-and-over door that won't disintegrate in the wind and damage the car).  The toilet flush packed up and had to be replaced.  Graham's mobility scooter broke down, we thought initially it was the batteries, but turns out to be something else - to do with the computerised starting system or some such, don't ask me the technicalities - so that's had to go away to be repaired and won't be back until Monday.

Then the kettle began to leak so I checked out the Internet for a new one - we have a "whistling" kettle which we really liked so I needed to find the same one again .... the updated model turned out to be way cheaper on Amazon ..... so when it arrived, of course it was well packed inside another larger box padded with brown paper.  You've guessed it - naturally, Mia had to investigate, hop in, make herself at home and that was it - we are now currently living with a large cardboard box in our living room (along with an assortment of paper balls, feathers, wool, catnip mouse and tape measure - mine till Mia commandeered it - we find ourselves having to explain it all to any visitors)!

 Nothing "crafty" to show you today I'm afraid.  Haven't done more than a few ATCs recently and I can't show those yet as they're for a future swap I'm in.  Went to the Royal Preston Hospital last week for more tests on my arm (EMG) - this time both my arms and legs were checked out, with electrical currents, and I had eight needles also put into my dodgy arm, the unofficial result was that nerves/muscles were okay everywhere else and that my left arm/hand doesn't appear worse.  The consultant will get the full results in a few weeks.  In the meanwhile, I'm not so sure about this "not getting worse" bit as some days it feels as though it's deteriorated and right now it's not so good to the extent that I'm having to type using only one finger on my left hand or I'm making lots of typing errors due to the hand weakness.  Very frustrating and a complete mystery as to what's caused it !!!!  But enough's enough, best stop typing now before I completely wear my hand out!  Just didn't want you all to think I'd totally vanished into the "ether" ! 

Journal Tags

Just a quick line to say that all the lovely journal tags have now been swapped out and popped into the local postbox - they should be winging their way to all those who participated in the morning.  Thanks to all that joined in, I hope you like your tags but silly me forgot to take photos of them all before they were sealed up in their envelopes!  Memory like a sieve these days I'm afraid!