Tag Archives: Doodles

Circles of Wisdom

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Crcles of WisdomHello friends!

I hope your week is going well, I am doing fine and I have been feeling a bit better about work this week.  I am having problems with my computer at home though, it just seems to be getting slower and slower so everything I do takes double or treble the time I think it should.  I am grateful that it is still working though as I don’t know what I’d do without it.

The image above is made up of 4 pages from my 6×6 journal.  Last year on 21 Secrets I did a workshop with Dion Dior called Circles of Wisdom and I learnt to draw mandalas.  It was a good opportunity for me to practice my doodles and there is definitely something meditative about creating mandalas.  The pages in my journal already had gesso and paint on them and were not ideal backgrounds for the images.  So after I drew these 4 I decided to make a whole book dedicated to Circles of Wisdom.  I recycled a child’s board book which is 5.5″ x 5.5″ and I filled it up with 16 different mandalas, it’s a lovely little book and I will probably share it with you at some point in the future.

***** One of the gorgeous women I met at the Call of the Wild Soul Art Retreat last year, Jeanette House, has set up a new ning site called One Little House  for art and craft e-learning.   I think you should probably check it out, we are bound to have fun and Jeanette is both lovely and talented 🙂 *****

OK that’s all for tonight, I’ve got to print out a batch of cemetery maps for my friend.

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

Be of Good Cheer!

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Be of Good CheerHello friends!

It’s Sunday morning and I am trying to catch up with a load of stuff that is really overwhelming me.  What makes it worse is that my workroom is a total mess.  I REALLY need to tidy up in here, I think it is becoming a bit of a Health & Safety issue, trip hazards on the floor and surfaces covered in precarious stacks of things!  Why can’t I be ‘super tidy’ like my husband?

Anyway, even though I am surrounded by chaos and my ‘To Do’ list just grows and grows, I am still of Good Cheer today.  Yesterday T and I completed a big project (well it was big for us).  We relocated the washing machine from the kitchen to the cupboard under the stairs.   We have done a load of washing and (so far) there are no leaks!!!!  That’s stage 1 of the kitchen refurb complete…  At the moment there is a horrible big hole under the worksurface where the machine was.  We were going to put the freezer in there but it won’t fit!  Well it would fit if we forced it past the water pipes that feed the boiler but we are too worried that that will cause a leak.  Just getting the washing machine out of the space was scarey enough.  One thing we have to make sure of when we finally do the kitchen is that that space is made bigger.

I am working on a number of creative projects at the moment – several differend journals and a 16″ x 20″ canvas.

The page is above is the first page from my second Teesha inspired journal.  I LOVE this style of journaling and my collection of lovely pens is growing almost by the day.  I need to find a good way to store pens, does anyone have any ideas about that?  I like to store them flat so I need some sort of boxed racking (cheap).   I think probably I could get something at Ikea but we don’t have a store locally that I can visit.  Oh well I’m sure something will turn up.

Have a good week everyone, I’ve just been summoned to go and help measure the kitchen so we can start planning the next stage of the kitchen!

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

A Bit Strange & One of a Kind

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A Bit Strange & One of a KindHello friends!

I hope you are well, I’ve just realised I forgot to post mid-week and I’m not sure what happened there?  I must have just been busy which seems to be my natural state these days!

This post is dedicated to the memory of “Razzle” (Nick Dingley), drummer with the band Hanoi Rocks, he was killed in a car crash in America in 1984 just a few days after his 24th Birthday.  You made a big impact on our lives man, and we won’t forget you, you will stay forever young!

Here is the front cover of my Teesha Moore inspired journal which is now complete.  I have actually finished another journal  since I completed this one and I have also restarted working on my the very first journal which I started in February 2011 also inspired by Teesha.  I got so far with it and then other things took over and it’s been neglected for months now.

Things seem to be better in December than they were in November.  BUT I’ve made no preparations for Christmas yet and haven’t even started shopping, so I am beginning to feel pressured about all of that.

Yesterday I spent the day at St Thomas Heritage Centre for Ryde Arts Festival’s ‘Green Festive Wreath’ making day.  I volunteered to serve the teas and coffees all day.   It didn’t get warm in the building all day, but it was lovely when a group of children from a Dover Park school arrived and sang Carols for us.

I also had all my completed art journals on display.  I wanted to see if there would be any interest if I run a one day Art Journaling workshop for the Arts Festival in the summer.  A few people showed some interest which was good and best of all I met Sami!  We have been friends in blogland for a while and here is her blog which is called Luna.  Sami lives in the same town as me but we have never met before.  It was lovely to meet her and her son.   I got a good warm vibe from both of them.  Yes Sami, let’s meet up for coffee and a chat soon!

Gina Lighting up the NightAfterwards I watched my beautiful friend Gina, founder of www.starmystique.com, do her fire dancing in the town square, she was great!

Gina has a huge amount of talent,  is a great performer with a winning smile and flashing eyes, and as I am sure you can see she is a very sexy lady,  but more than that she just exudes positive energy, she’s lovely!

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

Big love

AJ 🙂

Who We Were Born To Be

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Who We Were Meant to Be

Hello friends!

Happy Wednesday, I hope your week is going well.  I am still struggling with health issues and a fluctuating mood.  How I hate being miserable, I keep telling myself, it’s my choice and I can actually just decide to be happy, but it doesn’t always work.  The situation at work doesn’t help and I suspect if I took my blood pressure it would be sky high at the moment.  I had to do some calming deep breathing this morning before I left for the office, I was so wound up just by the thought of it.  I think things got better during the day and I managed to get quite a bit done and then the database I was working on decided to drastically slow down, I mean REALLY slow down, I was waiting for up to two minutes for each change I made just to register in the system.  I stand no chance of meeting my deadlines at this rate and staring at a computer screen just waiting for something to happen is such a waste of time!  Anyway enough of this whining!  Where is my ‘positive’ head?

Here is the back cover of my Teesha Moore inspired journal, I hope you like it.

Have a great week

Big love

AJ 🙂

Just Keep Breathing

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Just Keep BreathingHello friends!

How are you?  I am fine although I had a bit of a melt down at work yesterday.  I was doing OK until this lovely woman phoned me up and asked me how I was getting on in my new job.  I had to tell her I wasn’t very happy because it was so tedious and then it was like the flood gates opened.  Unfortunately I can be very emotional and my voice was breaking up, I started crying and I guess she knew that even down the phone line.   Anyway she was very encouraging and supportive and I think my discontent has now been passed up the chain a bit.  I don’t know if anything good will happen as a result of this though.  I am still trying my hardest to do a good job even though I find it totally boring and I am trying to stay positive about it.  It’s a challenge!  Anyway I felt a bit better today.  Sometimes it’s just good to talk and unload some of the crap.

So here is another bright and happy page from my ‘weird and freaky’ Teesha Moore inspired journal.  The quote is by Oprah Winfrey and is something I really need to keep telling myself.

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

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

So Do It!

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So do it!Hello friends

I hope your week is going well, I am doing pretty good 🙂

Here is another page from my Teesha Moore inspired journal, I am totally hooked on this at the moment…

I don’t have time to write a blog post at the moment, it’s late and I need to get to bed, but I hope you like my page.  I showed my journal to one of my friends and he said “It’s a bit ‘freaky’ and a bit weird”.  Oh well that’s me I guess 😉

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

Pigs can fly!

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Pigs can fly!CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Hello friends

I am in desperate need of some bright colours at the moment so here is another page from my Teesha Moore inspired journal.  The image of the pig and the ‘Who says pigs can’t fly’ slogan were cut out of a ‘pigalogue’ I received at work.  There is a company is called Pig, they sell spill kits and absorbant materials,  they list all their products in a pigalogue instead of a catalogue – I love that.  The little pig has been sitting on my desk for weeks just waiting for the right time to appear in a piece of art.  And this was the page I made especially for him!

I am really fond of pigs in fact for years I tried to persaude my husband to let me have a pet pig, but he argued that a pig would a) grow far too big and b) would dig up his garden.  Both of which I’m sure are true.  So I have two cats instead, my Bengal Boys, Bill and Jack, and I’m totally besotted by them.  I suppose you couldn’t really have a pig sleeping on the bed with you could you?  Or could you!?  Well maybe if he took a bath first…

Pig in a Fisheye

So anyway my week has been a tad on the grey and boring side so far, but I’ve been trying to look at all the positives and one BIG positive for me is how much I love this style of journaling.  When my day got so dull I just wanted to bang my head against the desk, I got out my journal, looked through it and thought ‘Now that’s not dull, that’s really bright and juicy, and I did it ‘!  It’s such a shame I can’t actuallty do any art while I’m at work, but looking at  my journal lifts my spirits anyway.

I shouldn’t really involve myself in other people’s politics but I have to admit that when I heard the news this morning that Obama had been re-elected that brought a smile to my face too.  I feared that the alternative would have been such bad news for the US and the world.

Well I hope you are all having a great week, I am going to give myself a good talking to and ensure I enjoy the rest of mine.

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

Grow & Blossom

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Something weird is happening to my computer this is the third time of posting this, the first two times it just disappeared!  Let’s hope it’s third time lucky!

Hello friends

I hope you are all well.  Well this weekend went by in the blink of an eye and it’s back to work tomorrow!

Still I managed to get some art done and even some housework too (that’s almost unheard of)!  I am really loving the Visionary Journaling that Teesha Moore taught at the Call of the Wild Soul Art Retreat and I am now working on the back of the pages I started in her class.  This is my favourite page so far.  My husband likes it too which is high praise from someone who hardly ever comments on my art.

Actually that is not strictly true, I recently finished three A4 size canvases painting in the way that Flora Bowley taught us (also at COTWS) and he is insisting that they are hung in our dining room.  I guess I must be getting better at this art game 🙂

Anyway apologies for the short post but I have a mountain of ironing to do before tomorrow and I also have a presentation to prepare for a talk I am giving next Friday about some of the historical people from my town.

I hope all is good with you, everything is Tickety Boo here.

Big love

AJ 🙂

(Fingers crossed the post stays in place this time)

Jump for Joy!

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Jump for Joy

Hello friends

Sorry I missed posting on Sunday because I was sick – same thing as happened to me when I was on the Art Retreat, blinding headache and sickness only this time much worse and I spent two whole days in bed!  But I am much better now and went back to work today, so it’s time to catch up 🙂

This is the second page that I started in Teesha Moore’s workshop and I finished it yesterday.  I really do like this way of journaling, it’s so different to my usual style – it’s bold, sassy and ‘in your face’.  I like doodling all over my pages, but I think I need to try some different styles, I seem to be stuck on the same few motifs at the moment 😉

I am going to link this page to Challenge 2 of Fall Fearless & Fly over at Artists in Blogland.

This time the prompts are:

Headline prompt:  Taking a Chance, Color prompt: What color do you like least? Use it! Quote prompt: Don’t refuse to go on the occasional Wild Goose chase – that’s what wild geese are for. Anonymous

Click on the link Fall Fearless & Fly for more information and the rules.

My page is all about taking chances and doing something different, I’ve used combinations of colours I wouldn’t normally use and I picked my quote because it seemed to fit with the image on the page and also it made me laugh because I misread it at first as “To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily, not to dare is to lose ones elf”   Well you wouldn’t want to lose your Elf now would you?  You’d be lost without it!

Take care everyone and I’ll see you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

A quick spread!

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Live is Good Be BraveHello friends

I hope you are having a great weekend.  Yesterday we had bright sunshine and a cool breeze and today we have torrential rain and a howling wind!  I need to go out later but I have just remembered that my raincoat is in my car so I’m going to get wet running from the house to the car.  That’ll teach me!

For this spread I decided to use a colour I wouldn’t normally use and I think green is probably my least favourite colour to use in my art.  I went through my box of scrap papers and selected pieces with green on them and then just collaged them onto the pages of the journal.  The green, Tim Holtz compass was already there so I just decided to frame it.  There is no paint at all on this spread, after sticking down the paper I doodled and even did a bit of journaling (which I hardly ever do).  This is an unusual spread for me and really reflects that I am not entirely feeling myself at the moment.

Despite my best endeavours I have to admit I have been getting stressed about the work situation.  The company has decided to make changes which is fair enough, but little, if any thought, has been given as to how to implement the change.  I still don’t know who I am reporting to, what my hours are or, more importantly, who to hand over all the work I have been doing to.  Of course my colleagues who I work with locally all expect me to carry on doing the old job until it’s sorted out, but I don’t see how I can do that.  I have already started doing the new, and totally exciting, new job of data inputting.  It’s not difficult to do but I have to input the information as and when I receive it and that seems to be pretty constant.  The tension has aggravated the ongoing problem I have with my neck and I’ve had a headache for the past 4 days.

My husband has been very sympathetic and telling me that it’s not my problem and rather than getting myself stressed about it I should just hand the problem back to the people who made the decision to do away with my job in the first place.  It sounds good in principle but I’m not sure how easy that will be in practice!  Still I only have to get through Monday and Tuesday at work then I am on leave again for a few days.  On Thursday I am off to the Call of the Wild Soul Art Retreat and don’t return to work until October 2.  Hopefully it will all be sorted out by then.

I am so looking forward to the Art Retreat and I think it will do me good to be in a completely different environment, centred around art, for a few days.

I will try and post one more post on Wednesday before I go.

See you all soon

Big love

AJ 🙂