Moving forward slowly…

Posted on October 22, 2014 by ajsartjournal

Hello friends!

I hope you are all doing well, here everything is fine, progress is slow but things are moving forward and in the meantime I’ve finished the Little Book of Cosmic Maps 🙂

For me doodling is a really good way to pass the time..

As you can see I’ve had a bit of time on my hands recently…

I had the PET scan last week, it was OK just a bit of a hassle, it took 2 hours to get to the hospital then I had to wait an hour before I was called in, they gave me the injection of radioactive glucose and I was left on my own for another hour before I was called in for the scan. It took about 35 minutes and then we were free to go.

I was told that I would be slightly radioactive for about 6 hours and was to avoid contact with pregnant women or children. However I was still allowed to travel home on public transport (another couple of hours). I didn’t stroke my two cats until the next day, but it didn’t seem to bother them.

Yesterday we went for another appointment with the consultant haematologist and she told me that the results of two of the three tests on my bone marrow are back and neither of them found the cancer in my bones. The final test is more vigorous and the results of that are not back yet. But so far it’s looking good.

The PET scan didn’t find any more tumours in my body (phew!) but although the tumour in my mouth has shrunk the scan found residual lesions in my jaw (I’m not sure but I think that means scaring). So although the tumour is almost gone I still have the disease in my blood but it’s in it’s early stages and there’s a good chance that with treatment I can fully recover. So the plan (worked out by this mysterious team of invisible experts) is for me to have 6 rounds of chemo and then radiotherapy on my jaw. It feels like I’ve been telling people for over a month now that I’ll be starting chemo ‘next week’ and that hasn’t happened but it now looks like it will start during the week commencing 3 November. In the meantime I have to sign the consent form and have an ECG just to make sure my heart is OK. Tomorrow I have an appointment with the nurse who is going to tell me all about what’s going to happen and on Saturday I have to visit my local doctor’s surgery to have a flu jab because they want that done before the chemo starts.

Having chemo-therapy is not something I am going into lightly and in truth I’m not looking forward to it but …. ‘needs must’ as they say, I’m just not sure what to expect.

I’ve been feeling so well for the past two weeks and enjoying not being at work but tomorrow I am going to go back to work because I reckon if I take too much time off I won’t want to go back at all! Anyway it’s pointless, and unfair on work colleagues, to have sick leave when I am not if feeling sick. Fortunately I have good employers, I’ve worked for them for a very long time and, up until now, I have a pretty good attendance record. I think they will be flexible around my hospital appointments and will be OK with me having time off if the chemo (or the cancer) makes me unwell over the next few months.

So all in all I am doing well at the moment, and I am staying positive and upbeat. I hope all is good with you where ever you are in the world.

Big love

AJ 🙂

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2014 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Healing takes Courage

Posted on September 21, 2014 by ajsartjournal

Hello friends I hope you are all well and happy.

A few days ago my life got turned completely upside down when a very kind man with a concerned look on his face gently put a hand on my shoulder, looked into my eyes and said “I’m sorry but you have cancer”. He said lots of other things too, he explained a lot and I understood every word he said but somehow I couldn’t take any of it in. I just wasn’t expecting him to say that, after I heard the word cancer my mind just went into freefall and I couldn’t even think what questions to ask.

Physically I feel fine apart from a problem in my mouth. I thought I had an abscess under one of my teeth so I went to the dentist and was put on antibiotics. They didn’t work and the swelling got bigger. All in all I took four lots of antibiotics and it just got bigger although strangely it just felt uncomfortable and not painful. The antibiotics made me feel awful too. Finally I was referred to the hospital and my first appointment was for last Wednesday, but I panicked a bit and by going to A&E and asking them to check it I managed to get the appointment brought forward by a week. The doctor I saw was very reassuring he said “it looks quite alarming but I don’t think it’s cancer”. He did take a biopsy, just to make sure, and told me to come back on Wednesday of this week when he hoped he would have the results.

So I had a relatively stress-free week, I thought I would need surgery to have the lump removed and I knew I would lose several teeth when that was done, but afterwards I’d be getting back to normal and eventually wearing dentures. I’d get used to that…

So this Wednesday when T and I went back to the hospital we were fairly upbeat and positive and I was hoping to find out when the surgery could be done. Then this Exocet missile came out of no-where and everything changed. I have large b cell lymphoma and that has caused the tumour in my mouth. I had blood tests last Thursday and I am having a CT Scan next Friday because it’s likely I have the cancer in other parts of my body too and they need to know the full extent before deciding on the course of treatment. On the following Monday I am seeing someone in the haematology department who will tell me the score. And so my journey begins…

We are both trying to be positive and to prepare ourselves for whatever happens next, but our emotions are all over the place at the moment.

So, if you could send some love and hugs and positive energy my way I’d be ever so grateful.

Big love AJ 🙂

PS the image above is from a new journal I have started.

Standing in the Centre of my own Circle

Posted on January 26, 2014 by ajsartjournal

Hello friends

I hope you are well and had (or are having) a great weekend.

We have been quite productive here. Yesterday T decided to repaint the kitchen ceiling again, so while he was doing that I took out one of the cupboards, dismantled it, packed all the bits in my car and took it to the local tip. When I took the kick board off from the bottom of the units I was surprised to see just how much rubbish the workmen had left when they installed the kitchen in 1996. So I cleaned all that up too.

In the evening I prepared a sheet of paper to make a Teesha Moore inspired 16 page journal, which I have cut and stitched this afternoon and started with the collage.

This morning I slept very late and was woken by the sound of banging coming from the kitchen. When I eventually got up T has removed some more tiles from the wall. Unfortunately when the kitchen was done just before I bought the house the tiles were put straight on top of the plaster board and in removing the tiles some of the board has been damaged beyond repair so we have had to replace it, so we worked on that together today. Now we are wondering if we could put a skim of plaster over the walls ourselves or if we need to employ someone to do it for us.

Anyway, this is how far we got today:

It looks a bit messy doesn’t it?! The cupboard had to be taken out because those pipes running along the wall have to be moved somehow so that the new fridge and freezer can go under the small window.

We have to get a plumber in to do that for us as we wouldn’t know where to start and as brand new cupboards are going along that wall we definitely do not want any leaks.

The page above is another from my Mandala book, I have a poster on my wall at work that has all these motivational words on them and I thought it would be good to incorporate them into a mandala (of sorts).

Have a great week and I’ll see you soon.

Big love

Red hot

Posted on December 8, 2013 by ajsartjournal

Hello friends

I thought I would add some bright colours to my blog this week, because today I am feeling bright and cheerful, I hope you are too. Above is page 4 from my Mandala book.

The weekend has flown by again and it seems a little unfair I have to go back to work again tomorrow already! Yesterday I spent the whole day at the tea counter at St Thomas Church where we had a Ryde Arts Festival event. Visitors were invited to make Christmas wreaths for free. In the middle of the floor was a big pile of holly, ivy, yew and other bits of greenery and there were wire hoops, fir cones, cinnamon sticks and other bits and pieces for people to make and decorate wreaths to hang on their doors over the festive season. Tanya was there to give advice and help to those who needed it. Lots of people took part and there some really lovely creations.

While I was at the tea counter my friend looked after the table for children’s activities where they made paper robins or paper chains. The table was always full of children deep in concentration as they coloured and added stickers to their paper robins. Keeping the little ones occupied meant that their parents could concentrate on making the green wreaths.

It was a really good day.

Today T and I went back to the DIY store to do some checking on things and make the final decisions about what to buy for the kitchen. I have to go back on Tuesday to meet the planner and get the final quote, then I’ll have to arrange to have the money available just after Christmas. All being well we are planning to do the work in February, but I guess that really depends on when they can deliver it and the amount of space it takes up in our small house before we start the work. I can see we are going to be living in chaos for a while, but that’s probably going to bother T much more than it does me though. My art room is always in chaos, so I’m used to it.

I went to see mum and dad this afternoon and they are both fine, they even went out for a short walk today so that’s good.

I am doing fairly well with making the Christmas presents and have completed 10, I still have 6 more to complete so I need to keep at it or I am going to run out of time. It’s not long until Christmas now it is!

Have a great start to your week and hopefully I’ll be back here mid week with another post.

Big love

AJ 🙂

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2013 unless otherwise stated. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Life Works Like Nature

Posted on September 29, 2013 by ajsartjournal

Hello friends

I hope you had a great weekend, mine has been quite productive and I’m happy with that. Still got a ‘To Do’ list as long as my arm, but that’s always going to be the case and I am happy that I have achieved some things in my two days off work.

T has also been very productive, his garden has produced a fantastic crop this year and he has been busy making jam, dehydrating things, freezing stuff, making chutneys and preserving other produce in Kilner jars. We will have a good stock of goodies to call on over the next few weeks and months. I am so fortunate that my husband is a great gardener and a great cook, particularly as I am total rubbish at both 😉

Above is another illustration I did for Dr Amy Johnson‘s new book Being Human (which will be available before Christmas this year), and has been reproduced here with Amy’s permission. I really like this page all the collage elements are from my own photographs, the flowers were growing in T’s garden this summer. I love the quote and the message it gives.

This section of the book is about Big Mind, Little Mind. Big Mind is like the universal mind and it’s where we get our intuition, creativity, dreams and passion from. Little Mind is our thoughts, the ones that rationalise everything, point out all the risks and reasons why we shouldn’t do things and, very often, talks us out of doing what we really want to do. The truth is though that if we paid more attention to Big Mind and less to Little Mind everything would work out just as it’s meant to. It sounds good to me 🙂

I’ll leave you to ponder on that thought and I’ll see you soon.

Big Love

AJ 🙂

A wonderful realisation…

Posted on August 7, 2013 by ajsartjournal

Hello friends!

Mid-week already and life is good 🙂

Before I say anything else I would just like to express my deep gratitude to Tess from Brisbane, in the beautiful Sunshine State of Queensland, Australia who has nominated me for the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award. That is just so lovely and I have no idea what I did to deserve it. I’m not even sure I should really accept it as I doubt that I can abide by the obligations that come with the award 1)to show the logo of the Award, here it is:

and 2) to nominate 14 other bloggers for the same award. That’s going to be the problem for me. It’s not that I don’t know of 14 deserving blogs, but right now I am totally overwhelmed with ‘stuff’ to do and I fear I am going to fail at this part of the obligation.

So what is all this stuff I have to do? I am still working on my secret project which is fantastic fun and really challenging I am having to produce art in a different way and find my way around some problems, and, the project has a deadline, so I really need to keep at it and deliver the goods by the due date. I am bursting to tell you all about it but that will have to wait until later in the year, so for now let me just tell you this project is awesome and exciting for me 🙂

In about a month’s time the local history group is putting on a big 2-day exhibition for National Heritage Open Days in an old disused church in the town and I am tasked with preparing the part of the exhibition which is about photographers from the towns past, so that also has a strict deadline which I just cannot afford to miss. As well as doing research, it also involves a lot of typing, printing and laminating, then designing how it is all going to go together on the display boards. I will also have to design the poster for the event and various other bits and pieces related to it.

On top of that as well as keeping up with this blog I need to make sure the Ryde Social Heritage Group website is kept up to date, there’s no point having a website if it’s not kept fresh and interesting.

I’ve got to sort out my car which has recently decided to start ‘playing up’ and may result in my having to trade it in for a newer used car.

Then there are are various meetings and functions to attend which I have to do in my role as Chairman of the local history group.

It’s all good, but it’s also all very time consuming and I have a full time job as well. If only I didn’t have to work all the time life would be so much easier 🙂 I am going to feel very guilty if I don’t manage to nominate other blogs, but realistically I just don’t know where I am going to find the time…..

Please don’t think I am saying ‘Oh poor me’ because I am not, I really think my life is good right now, busy is good for me, but I am just being realistic. As someone who never had children I have always been in awe of women who do ‘all that stuff’ AND bring up a family as well. Ladies, I take my hat off to you, you are the ones who really deserve the awards.

Me, I’m just trying to fill the tiny space that is mine 🙂

Today’s art piece is a page from my fourth Teesha Moore inspired journal with a great quote from Leo Buscaglia. (only I spelt his name wrong on the journal page! Oops!)

Thank you again Tess, it was lovely of you to think of me.

I hope you all have a good week

Big love

AJ 🙂

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Hay Fever and the Arts Festival

Posted on June 30, 2013 by ajsartjournal

This is The Book made by the participants at my Visual Journaling workshop in April. Well done all involved, it’s fabulous 🙂

Hello friends!

I hope all is good in your part of the world, here things are fine. The Arts Festival started on Friday evening with a lovely classical concert at St Thomas Heritage Centre. The Heritage Centre is actually a big, old disused church and it has been opened up for the week for the Arts Festival. An art exhibition has been curated there portraying various artists’ interpretations of aspects of the town’s history it’s called Chalk Talks.

Yesterday morning we had the grand opening of Reading Spaces in our local library, the exhibition includes a page turning machine; scrolls which reach from the ground floor to the first floor and are turned by rotating a wheel on the side; a beautiful book made by the reading group and the visually impaired group – this book has embossed pages instead of words, so it’s tactile and tells the story of Little Red Riding Hood, there is also an amazing installation made from old books, lightbulbs, corks and windmills, a reading nest for small children made of wicker, there is so much there you really need to go and see it youself, failing that visit the Ryde Arts Festival website. Upstairs at the library the gallery is full of art contributed by local artists which is amazing!

There was a big Art Parade through the town yesterday afternoon, many local schools and groups participated and the theme was art and artists. There were some great costumes and the weather stayed warm and sunny (for a change) 🙂

The Never Ending Story exhibition also opened at the Depozitory yesterday and it features the art of Lucia Para, who has created beautiful canvases which all seem to tell their own story. Visitors are invited to write the stories they see in the images and post them into little bird boxes provided.

This exhibition also includes the work produced at my three workshops.

Hopefully above you can see the movie of the book produced at my Introduction to Visual Journaling workshop held in April. YouTube has been causing me lots of problems today, making the images look fuzzy. It’s been VERY annoying. If the images look fuzzy to you, as they might if you view full screen, you need to click on the little gear icon at the bottom of the screen and change the resolution, then go back to the beginning and restart the movie. I found it worked best for me set at 480p but you may have to play around with it.

The exhibition also includes the Matchbox Mementos made the Foyer, the Family History Shrines made by Ryde Social Heritage Group members and some of my journals.

Yesterday evening there was a Chalk Talks Salon at the Heritage Centre with music, poetry and performance where the artists opened and explained the exhibition, it was a great evening.

Today I’ve had a day off, which was fortunate as I woke up with a very sore throat, at first I thought I was coming down with a cold, but the constant sneezing and eye-streaming has made me realise it’s Hay Fever. Today has probably been the loveliest day of the year so far, the sort of day when you shouldn’t be stuck indoors, but that’s where I’ve been most of the day battling with YouTube! This is the first time I’ve had Hay Fever this year and I’m hoping it will pass soon.

Have a good week everyone and I’ll see you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

Flower Power

Posted on June 1, 2013 by ajsartjournal

Hello friends!

I am totally out of synch again! I missed Sunday’s and Wednesday’s posts and I am posting this today instead of tomorrow because I have a new computer. I got it for my birthday from my lovely husband and once I get it set up things should get a bit easier. This ‘steam’ driven computer I am still using at the moment is really on its last legs and stops and crashes all the time. However before I can set up the new one I need to transfer some files from this one to my external hard drive, and then I’ll have to set up the new computer so I can access the internet and my emails – oh you know all that techy stuff that I’m not much good at. If I disappear for a while again you’ll know why!

Since my last post I really have been ultra busy. My local history group had two Open Days in the Cemetery – believe me it’s more fun that it sounds – and as well as the actual two days we had to set up displays, learn scripts, I had to research and write a guided walk and then when it was all over we had to take it all down and pack it up. If you are interested you can read about it here: http://www.rshg.org.uk/newsarticle.asp?newsid=349

The weather was glorious, lots of people came and we had a lot of fun!

The day after our Open Days was a Bank Holiday, this was fortunate because somehow I managed to sleep for 12 hours! I never do that and normally I am an early riser. My husband finally came to check if I was OK at 11am and woke me up. I felt a bit groggy when I first got up but the weather was so nice I spent the rest of the day in the garden tidying up.

On Thursday, after work, I did my first (1 of 4) workshop with the young people at the Foyer. Gosh that was a challenge! I’m not sure they were inspired by me or by the idea of making matchbox momentos, that’s what I was asked to do with them. Some of them did some fantastic work, but it was so hard to keep the attention and interest of others. I am going to have to try harder for the next three weeks, I hope some of them come back next week, I was really looking forward to sharing a creative experience with new people.

The image above is another page from by Circles of wisdom book, it’s a kind of flowery theme, perfect for an old hippy like me 🙂

Right, now to start sorting out transferring from one computer to another, hopefully I will see you soon from my new super-dooper, ultra fast machine.

Big love

AJ 🙂

AJ the Mermaid Clown!

Posted on May 1, 2013 by ajsartjournal

Hello friends!

It’s been a while since I posted on my blog, my only excuse is that if I thought I was busy before the last couple of weeks have been mental!

The Mermaid Circus online workshop with Teesha Moore and Jane Davenport is quite sensational, but I’m struggling to keep up with it all. In the first two weeks we were tasked with making a shaped book and filling it with mermaids and sea creatures with a circus theme. This was a huge challenge to me because I have absolutely NO interest in Mermaids 🙂 However I have made my book and so far I have populated it with three performing mermaids and the Ring Master who is an octopus. There are still at least 6 mermaids or sea creatures to create and the cover to do (I will leave the cover till last).

I decided to include myself in the book. I have a photograph that I took of my face from underwater when I was snorkeling in Tobago and I was going to use that, but it didn’t work. So I ended up painting the face based on that photo. Of course it looks nothing like me so I decided to turn myself into a Mermaid Clown and also to give myslf long flowing red hair!

I’m a bit stuck with the shaped book now because the next challenge is to draw a face, copy it and collage it into the next piece. I’m not very good at drawing so I’ve been doing lots of practice. I think I’m improving, here is my first attempt and a later one.

I think it’s going to take a bit more practice before I’m really ready to use a face I’ve drawn in my book though. So far I have had about 12 attempts so I reckon if I do another 88 and I might be there 🙂

On top of the Mermaid Circus I also did my very first Art Journaling workshop last Saturday, and it went REALLY well I had a great day with an amazing group of people. I did loads and loads of preparation and that really paid off. We created journal pages in the style of Teesha Moore – collage and penwork – and everyone completed one page, a couple of people managed two!. All the pages will be temporarily bound into a book that will go on display during Ryde Arts Festival 27 June – 7 July. After the festival all the participants will get their art work back and I am also hoping to turn it into an e-book which I will post on my blog. I was so impressed with the work everyone did. We had a lot of fun. Here is a picture of the group hard at work on the collage elements:

I am hoping to do another workshop with a group of my friends very soon to create something a little different, and I’ve also been asked to give the same workshop as i did last Saturday to a group of young people who live in sheltered accommodation in the town, I’m going to talk to the manager about that next week.

So that’s pretty much all my news, the weather has been lovely this past week too which is an added bonus.

Now I just have to catch up with all the other stuff that I’ve been falling behind with while I’ve been concentrating on the above.

Have a good week everyone and I’ll see you soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂

Embrace your Uniqueness

Posted on April 7, 2013 by ajsartjournal

Hello friends!

It’s Sunday night and I am just about ready for bed, I’ve been fighting with my computer for a large part of the day and it is driving me slightly nuts. I wanted to post this image earlier but for some reason my computer couldn’t find my scanner. The scanner was switched on, plugged in to the computer and clearly working but the computer refused to acknowledge its existence. Several reboots of the system didn’t sort it out, so I gave up in disgust and switched everything off.

Now a few hours later I have come back switched everything back on and it’s working fine. I don’t understand ;-| ?

This page is another from my third Teesha Moore inspired journal.

Teesha’s and Jane Davenport’s online workshop starts tomorrow and I am really looking forward to it. I just hope my computer doesn’t decide to finally give up the ghost before the workshop is finished. Keep your fingers crossed for me 🙂

It’s been a busy weekend. Yesterday we had a sunny and fairly warm day for a change. This was fortunate as my friends and I spent the whole day from early morning until late afternoon at the Pier Head where there was a ‘Party on the Pier’ and we had our exhibition on the history of the pier on display. We had a great day and spoke to lots of lovely people.

Today it has been sunny but colder. I took Mum and Dad out for a drive and a walk this afternoon.

It’s late and I am tired so I’m off to bed now.

Big love

AJ 🙂

AJ's Art Journaling

This blog is to share my adventures in art journaling. It's a journey of discovery and you are more than welcome to join me.

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Moving forward slowly…

Healing takes Courage

Standing in the Centre of my own Circle

Red hot

Life Works Like Nature

A wonderful realisation…

Hay Fever and the Arts Festival

Flower Power

AJ the Mermaid Clown!

Embrace your Uniqueness