Tag Archives: art journal

I’m an Artstonaut!

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Mandala 3Hello friends

I hope all is good with you, I am feeling much better than when I last posted.  I knew that if I just waited patiently my good mood would return 🙂

I’ve had a long weekend although it still seems to have flown by really fast.  I took the day off work on Friday as I had a funeral to attend in the morning and a meeting for the local history group in the afternoon.   The funeral was for a member of the group who passed away on 10 November.  Ralph was 91 and was a really delightful man.  The last time I saw him was in October when he gave a talk at one of our meetings.  He was cheerful and funny and seemed to be in good health, so it was a shock to hear that he had died.  The funeral was a touching tribute to a man who was clearly loved by many.

On Saturday T and I went to get a quote for the cabinets and fittings we will need for our kitchen.  Fortunately we can just about afford to buy the stuff and if we buy it between Christmas and New Year we should get it at a reduced price.  We have had to change our plans several times but we are near to finalising it now and I it’s going to look good once it’s done.  I still think it would be better to wait until warmer weather to start installing it but T is anxious to get it done, which is understandable seeing as how he has waited almost 20 years.  So I can see that we will be doing it in the depths of Winter!  He is already planning what things need to be done first.  We have to get a plumber in to move some pipework and we somehow have to box in some other pipework but we are not sure how we are going to do that at the moment.

Today I had some time to work in my altered book art journal and I am excited about the page I am creating.  I recently joined Teesha Moore‘s Artstonauts Club and it has inspired me to create a page unlike anything I have done before.  It’s a work in progress so I can’t share it with you just yet.

If you have been reading my blog for any time you will know that Teesha has inspired me more than any other artist, in fact it’s because of her that I first started to art journal so I am super excited to be a member of her Artstonauts Club.

Oops, I just realised that while I was playing in my art journal today I really should have been making Christmas presents!  I must try to stay more focused! 

Above is another page from my Mandala book, nicer colours than the first two in this book I think.

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

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.

 

 

Hmmmm!

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Spinning

 

Hello friends

I hope you are well and happy, I must admit I am struggling at the moment and feeling a bit glum today, for no reason that I can think of.  So rather than blather on about things that in reality are of no consequence I am going to do something I hardly ever do and that is to switch off the computer spend the evening watching television.

Anyway, here is a colourful mandala to hopefully brighten your day.

Have a good week and I’ll be back at the at the weekend.

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.

Circles

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Circles

 

Hello friends

Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts regarding my Dad after his recent fall and visit to the Emergency Department of the local hospital.  He is doing really well, still looks a bit ‘battered’ and his cracked rib is giving him some pain, but he’s fine.  He is remarkable for a 92 year old.  When I first saw him in hospital I feared the worse, but the thing I have noticed about Dad is that he has a great attitude, things don’t get him down, he has a quiet determination and it all helps him to get over any health problems.

What has really helped this weekend is that his granddaughter, Sophie, who lives in France came to stay for a couple of days.  This was arranged before he had his fall.  Dad always loves seeing any of his grandchildren and it was lovely to see him and Sophie sitting on the sofa this afternoon just holding hands.  This visit was the best medicine he could have had.

Unfortunately the stress of all of this is taking its toll on Mum and I getting concerned about her now.

Recently I have been doing a lot of doodling and for the next few weeks I will be sharing some Mandalas I have created in a stripped down children’s board book. The first is shown above, it’s kind of like a sunburst 🙂

Have a great week

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.

 

We are Visitors here

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We are Visitors

Hello friends

I’m a day late this week because, well because…

My week started off as usual, pretty boring really.  At work people were moaning about it ‘only being Monday’ and we ‘have the whole week ahead of us’, but I knew it would soon pass, I didn’t want to be miserable for the whole week so I was trying to make the most of my week.

Then my week suddenly got ‘interesting’

On Tuesday lunchtime I went out for my usual walk.  When I got back to the office I had 4 missed calls from T so I called him back.  He was very worried as my Mum had phoned left a message on the answerphone saying “Oh you’re not there, never mind, I had a message for you”.  He said she sounded worried and he had been trying to phone her back but could get no reply from her house phone or mobile.  What should he do?

I told him not to worry as there was nothing he could do and if it was important she would phone back.

About an hour and half later he phoned me again “I knew there was something wrong” he said.  He had just found out that Dad had fallen over in the street and been taken to hospital.  I left work early and went to the hospital.  Dad looked a mess, his face was swollen, he had tapes over his left eye which was red and swollen closed.

No-one knows what happened except he fell over and into the road (fortunately he was not hit by a car), bashed his head on the road and knocked himself out.  He was unconscious for about 3 minutes.  Someone called an ambulance which arrived very quickly.

They had been out shopping together and Mum had called into a clothes shop, Dad didn’t want to go in there so he walked on alone.  About 10 minutes later Mum was making her way home on her mobility scooter and saw an ambulance at the side of the road.  As she passed by she looked over to see her husband being carried on a stretcher and almost passed out herself.  A kindly policeman looked after her scooter so she could accompany Dad in the ambulance.

By the time I got to the hospital (about 3 hours after them) my brother and his wife were already there. Mum looked as white as a sheet and Dad looked like he’d been badly beaten up.  They did lots of tests on Dad and eventually said he could go home.  My brother thought he should be kept in overnight and was quite persistent about that, but I thought Dad would actually prefer to go home.

Anyway it all looks pretty bad but ‘tough old boy’ that he is he’s OK.  He has a black eye, bump on his head and a cracked rib, he’s going to be sore for a few days but will eventually be OK.  He’s not allowed out for at least a week and then he’s not to go out on his own.  How anyone is going to stop him from doing that I can’t imagine because he loves his independence and doesn’t want anyone fussing around him.

We went to visit yesterday after I got home from work and he is looking much better, but his cracked rib is aching and his eye is very black and bruised.   By the time we got home I had a terrible headache and went to bed early.

Maybe in future I’ll settle for the boring stuff without complaining.

The page above is the last page of my 5th Teesha Moore inspired journal.  The quote is an aboriginal proverb which I really like.

Note to self ‘I must start doing some more collage journals soon’ but I need to get the Christmas presents sorted out first!

I hope you all have a good week and if you are in this part of the world I hope you keep warm because it’s getting distinctly ‘chilly’ now.  I’ll be sleeping in pyjamas AND bed socks for the next several months.

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.

Nothing Domestic About Her!

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Nothing Domestic About Her

 

Hello friends!

I hope all is good with you, I am fine and well.

I am a bit tired today as I was busy at the local library all day yesterday with an exhibition on local history and talking to people about how they can use archive material for research and also how they can create their own archives using scrapbooks, journals, memory and story boxes.  It was a great day, but I was on my feet all the time and they hurt by the the time we had to pack up and transport almost everything back to where it came from.  We left one big display board up and that will stay at the library until Christmas.  Anyway it was another success for the local history group Ryde Social Heritage Group.  I am so proud to work with such a fun and enthusiastic group of people.

I have started thinking about Christmas and some things that I might make for people who are close to me.   I just hope I have time to complete them all before the deadline. Christmas always has a way of sneaking up on me before I am ready for it.

I got some copies of Amy Johnson’s book Being Human on Friday and my artwork looks good in black and white.  Amy also sent me a Kindle version so I can see what it looks like in full colour (much better).  Either way I am pleased just to be part of this book and I have set up a page so you can see all the images in one place.  It was a great project to work on and I am so grateful to have had this opportunity.  The publication date has also solved a lot of my Christmas present problems for this year, so I need to order some more soon 🙂

The page above is page 7 from my 5th Teesha Moore inspired art journal.  I am not sure where the quote comes from or who to attribute it to, but I think it’s an excellent description of women.

Have a great week

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.

 

 

 

Being Human

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Being Human

 

Hello friends

Good News!  Dr Amy Johnson‘s new book Being Human is now available in paperback from Amazon.com and Amazon UK and above is the image I created for the cover.

I had a message from Amy the other day she was upset because all along we had both thought that the images (8 pages) I created to illustrate the inside of the book would be printed in colour.  Then at the last minute the printer, having produced a full colour proof for Amy to look at, informed her that if she wanted the 8 images in colour she would have to pay to have the whole book (of 272 pages) printed in colour.  This would have trebled the price!

Amy had a sleepless night worrying about this and then made the right decision and told the printer to print the cover in colour and the inside in black and white.  She thought I would be disappointed and I guess I was a little at first, but the truth is the images are just a tiny part of a really great book, and are not really that important. I feel truly honoured to be part of it and of course the book has to be affordable or people won’t buy it.  It’s the words Amy wrote that count not my funny pictures.

You can see all the pages in full colour on this blog, if you search for Being Human, and the Kindle edition out later this month will also have the images in colour.

The more I have thought about this the more I am looking forward to getting my copy of the paperback and seeing how my artwork looks in monotone, who knows this could be the start of a new venture for me.  Perhaps the beginning of my ‘black & white’ period 🙂 – (By the way I don’t really think that’s likely).

Anyway, I am going to recommend you buy this book and not because some of my artwork is in it but because it’s a really good book.  Amy Johnson is lovely and wise and her style of writing is easy to read.  It’s like having a casual conversation with a friend but the messages being delivered, almost without you realising it, are powerful and life-changing.

BUT if you are a member of my family then DON’T buy it because I’ll be giving you a copy for Christmas 🙂

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

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.

 

 

 

Things that Count

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Things that Count

 

Hello friends

I hope you are well, I am pleased to say I am feeling much better this week.  This weekend has just zipped by and I can’t believe that I have to go back to work again tomorrow already!  Still never mind…

T has started to remove the tiles from the wall in the kitchen, so this means we have now definitely started with the kitchen refurbishment, but don’t hold you breath as I anticipate it is going to take months to complete.  We are going to have to purchase new cupboards, sink, cooker (and probably fridge and freezer), worktops and tiles.  That pretty much is going to break our bank so we are going to have to do as much of the work as we can ourselves.  It’s going to be difficult and will take us much longer than it would to have someone come and do it for us professionally, but needs must.  Although T has made a start, we are planning to purchase the stuff in the January sales and then I hope we don’t actually start the work until the weather warms up a bit as I anticipate we could be without cooker and sink for a some time as we try and figure out how to do it.  I have two weeks worth of leave from work that I have to take before the end of May.  So April/May time would be good for me however T is probably not going to be that patient and, to be fair, he has waited 20 years to get the kitchen sorted out.

As the fuel bills are going up by a ridiculous amount, I decided that we needed to put up thick curtains on all the windows that didn’t have any, in an attempt to keep the heat in the house and this weekend I have dyed, sewn and put up two lots so that has given me a sense of achievement.

A couple of really good things happened today:  first we bought a really nice dining table, it’s kind of ‘shabby chic’, it’s old and has thick turned and painted legs, a solid pine top and a little drawer.  It’s in keeping with our house which is old (built in 1860) and has a rustic feel.  Buying a table probably doesn’t sound like a big deal, but we have never really had much money and previously any furniture we had was either bought cheap or handed on from someone else.  But this year we have purchased a lovely wooden dresser for the kitchen and now a table.  I am beginning to feel like a grown up at last, and for someone in their late 50’s that’s not bad.

The second, and best, thing was that when I went to visit Mum and Dad this afternoon my Dad presented me with a file containing 77 hand written pages about his life.  My Dad is over 90 and he is always telling me stories about his life.  Some time ago I asked him to try and write it all down for me.  I never thought he would actually do it, but today he gave it to me. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet and to be honest his handwriting is a bit difficult to read, but eventually I will type it all up and it will be distributed to my two brothers and their children.  Hopefully after that it will be passed on to their children too.  I am so lucky to have parents who may be a little frail physically these days but are both still mentally alert. I am pretty sure that my Mum has also written her story, but that’s not come my way yet.

The page above is a quick mixed-media page that I completed today in my altered book journal, it has layers of paint, papers, stencilling, some Zetiology stamps and a quote by one of my all time favourite people Albert Einstein.

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

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.

Wild Woman

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Wild Woman

Hello friends!

I hope all is good in your part of the world.

I apologise I went AWOL again for a while mainly because I’ve been feeling a little unwell again.  Nothing too serious, just a bit out of sorts.

So the big storm came and went and thankfully we had no damage here, although other places did not fare so well.  I think I slept through the worst of it anyway.  Despite having hurt my back last time I blogged I decided to do the housework anyway and managed to vacuum most of the house that day.  Movement seems to do it good but it’s taken longer than I expected to recover and I am still getting slight twinges even now.

A week ago today I felt very lethargic and instead of updating my blog I sat and watched television for a couple of hours, that on it’s own should have informed me that all was not well, because I never watch television!  I got through the week and I wasn’t unhappy, just feeling kind of dull.  Then on Saturday I had another massive migraine and spent the whole day in bed trying not to be sick because that just made my head thump even more. On Sunday the pain had gone and I was able to do a couple of hours work with some friends on the next exhibition for the local history group and afterwards I visited my Mum and Dad for a short time.

I think I have finally worked out what is causing the migraines and I just need to figure out how to fix that problem and I’ll be back on track again 🙂  I hate losing whole days like that because I always have far more to do than I can easily cope with and laying in bed for a day means that the ‘stuff to do’ just keeps stacking up.  Fortunately I have managed not to get stressed out about this.  I feel like I’m not being very creative at the moment, but the reality is I am always doodling or painting or cutting and sticking something and really there is no law that says I have to create everyday – it’s just that I feel more complete if I do.

The page above is page 6 of my 5th Teesha Moore inspired journal which I completed a few months ago.  The quote is from Women Who Run With Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes and I dedicate the page to all the wild women I’ve had the pleasure to meet in my life.

Have a great week and I hope to be back again soon.

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.

True Love

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True Love

 

Hello Friends

Hope your weekend is going well.  We are expecting a BIG storm here tonight, but at the moment the sun is shining and, although it’s blustery, it’s hard to imagine what it will be like tonight. I went out in the garden this morning to move some things I thought might get blown away if there are really strong winds.

One of the things I moved was a ridiculous wicker pig-shaped plant holder, and as I bent down to pick it up I felt a clicking in my back followed by PAIN! So now my back is very sore and I’m using that as an excuse not to do any housework today!

The page above is from my 5th Teesha Moore inspired journal and, as you can see, it’s about True Love. I was fortunate to meet my true love and soul mate when I was 15 years old and we’ve been together ever since (and that’s a really long time)!

Yesterday I took my parents to a party to celebrate someone’s 60th Wedding Anniversary. My Dad was (stand-in) Best Man at that wedding. The real Best Man got delayed with his travel arrangements so Dad was persuaded to step in at the last minute.  The hostess gave a lovely speech yesterday and thanked Dad for being best man, but he’s so deaf he didn’t hear a word of it!

My parents have been married for 63 years and, despite the fact that they bicker frequently, they still adore each other.

Me and T are never going to have a 60th, 50th or even 30th Wedding Anniversary because we had already been together for 37 years before we decided to get married in 2007. Even then I was only persuaded because we were on a tropical island paradise on the other side of the world.  We had a great wedding, there were only 6 of us there including the minister. We were on top of Mount Dillon overlooking Castara Bay in beautiful, sunny Tobago, the sun was going down and there was a rainbow in the sky. We didn’t have to make any ridiculous vows or promises either just affirm our love for each other.  It was touching, emotional and magical.

Have a great week everyone and I’ll see you soon. I have decided that if the wind is as strong as they say it’s going to be tonight, I am going to sleep downstairs.  One of the disadvantages of living on top of a hill is that there’s not much to protect us from the wind and it will be safer on the ground floor.

Be safe

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.

She Made Up A Story…

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She made up a storyHello friends!

It’s mid week and I am feeling better.  We had a fantastic storm here last night, lots of lightning and thunder followed by heavy rain and today by lunchtime, when I went out for my walk, the sun was shining 🙂

Above is the last page I made to illustrate Dr Amy Johnson‘s book Being Human, which should be available by the end of November, and hopefully we will be able to get it on Amazon UK – I’ll let you know as soon as I know.  This page has Amy’s daughter Willow, her son Miller, their pet dog and my own photographs making up the rest of the collage elements.  The section of the book it illustrates is about how we tell ourselves stories and then after a while if we are not careful we start believing them.

I told myself that I was going to get in to trouble at work because I was too sick to phone up on Friday to say I was too sick to go to work.  I was quite anxious on Monday morning when I phoned my manager (who works in a different location to me) to tell him, but he was cool.  He asked if I was OK and said I was not to worry about it.

Today I volunteered to attend some training on how to give presentations to schools and groups about the industry I work for.  Apart from anything else it will mean that sometimes I get to do something other than sitting at a computer all day inputting data 🙂  I already give presentations for my local history group so talking in front of people is not a problem for me and who knows I may pick up some new tips and ideas.

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

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.