Tag Archives: Gratitude

Feeling loved and grateful :-)

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All is Good

Hello friends

I hope you are all keeping well, happy and enjoying life.

Ever since I got my cancer diagnosis on 17 September my husband, family and close friends have rallied around and given me masses of support and love.  Then when I decided to share the news here, on my Facebook page and in a couple of FB groups I belong to the messages of love, support and positive energy have been almost overwhelming.  I am so grateful to everyone who has taken the time to send me messages and I truly have been feeling the love.  THANK YOU ❤

Of course I am still in limbo as I don’t know what the results of all the tests will be and I am preparing myself for whatever the news is next week, but in the meantime I am feeling just great.  The horrible and disgusting mass in my mouth has (without any treatment) now shrunk and I have very little swelling under my teeth, I feel much more comfortable and I can now eat properly as long as the food is soft and does not require much chewing.  For the past two weeks I’ve been living on my superfood smoothies and soup, but today I get to eat a proper meal, yay!

Today has been a lovely day, sunny and warm and after a late start I spent an hour making up today’s batch of ‘slush’ which contains lots of fresh, organic vegetables and fruit, then I took a stroll down the town and looked in a few shops.  I even bought myself some comfy clothes that will be ideal for just hanging out at home.  I’m guessing there will be quite a lot of just hanging about at home if/when I start the chemo-therapy so why not have comfy clothes to do that in?  Then I popped in to see Mum and Dad, just to check they are doing OK.  I think Mum was the person hit hardest by my health news, but we are all trying to be positive and optimistic now.

Now I’m back home I’m waiting for T to serve up dinner.  It smells very appetizing. Mmmmmm 🙂

I am creating a new journal of warrior women – these are the troops I am rallying around me ready for the battle ahead.  Some will be fierce like the one I shared here and others will be more supportive and gentle, buy they are all going to help me get through this in the months ahead.  The image above is the second spread from this journal and is to remind me that whatever happens and no matter how hard things get everything is always as it should be.

Thank you again to everyone who has contacted me with lovely messages, it has really helped me get over the initial terror and shock of the cancer diagnosis and to ready myself for what lies ahead.

See you soon

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.

Best laid plans…

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Gratitude

 

Hello friends

Sorry I am out of synch with my posting again and this is also a day later than my usual midweek post, I’ll try and get back to normal soon.

OK I have to confess the plan to tidy up the art room (again) was a massive fail (again).  

When I woke up on Monday (bank holiday) it was a beautiful sunny day so decided to do something outside instead.  I find it fairly easy to find something better than tidying up my art room.

I am not really a gardener, in fact I’m not a gardener at all, but I do things like cutting the grass (occasionally), hard landscaping, building things and occassionally helping T out.

First thing on Monday morning I drove T to the local garden centre to purchase some tomato food and while we were there I noticed a lot of cyclamen plants in flower.  I said “I thought cyclamen were winter flowering plants”.   T replied, “Well ours are, or at least they were, I think you removed them all when you tidied up the woodland area of the garden recently”   Ooops!  I thought that was just dead stuff I was clearing up, he commented that it had only taken him 17 years to cultivate that patch.  I felt really bad, but he was philosophical about it and said “Well they might grow back, despite your best efforts to remove everything”!

He had previously mentioned to me that two branches of a  big Bay tree in the cemetery that were overhanging our garden, had begun to interfere with the television reception.  I hardly ever watch television so I was not aware of this.  T can’t go up ladders a) because of his dodgy leg and b) because of his vertigo so I got the ladders out, climbed up and sawed through the two branches, which (fortunately) fell onto the hedge between our garden and the cemetery.  T helped me drag them from the top of the hedge into the cemetery and then we cut them up and put the pieces into bags.

I put the bags into my ‘new’ car and drove to the local tip to dispose of the rubbish.

All of the above took up most of the day and I had just sat down, outside, on the decking to work on my art journal when T got a phone call.  I can’t go into details but he had to get to an urgent meeting in the next town in 15 minutes.  The trip normally takes 20 minutes but somehow I managed to get him there on time and then I had to hang around for a couple of hours until the meeting finished.   I didn’t really mind as I knew T was doing good work but it meant that there was no tidying of the art room and no art journaling either.

The page above is page 3 of my 5th Teesha Moore inspired journal and on this piece I was practising a different type of lettering.

That’s all for now folks, I’ve got to get on, my two deadlines are approaching fast and both at the same time and although things are going well I need to ‘keep at it’

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

COPYRIGHT

© 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.

Be Grateful to People Who Make us Happy…

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Be Grateful to People Who Make us HappyHello friends!

I hope everything is good with you.  We are in the middle of a Bank Holiday weekend in the UK and it’s unseasonally cold.  At least it has stopped raining for the time being, but a little warmth and sunshine would be appreciated… maybe tomorrow?  I mean we are well into May now!

This spread is from my A4 journal.  You are probably getting the idea by now that one of the things I love to use in my art is torn paper – books, adverts, old maps, receipts, scrap book paper, etc. I just love paper!  I also love script and especially script I can’t understand.  I can only speak English so all other languages look fascinating to me.

I also like the idea of my soul blossoming, so thank you Marcel Proust for the lovely quote.  Fortunately there are quite a lot of people in my life who make me happy.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

Revo-lution 2012 – Gratitude

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GratitudeHello friends!

I hope everyone is feeling good.

I’m really pleased to say I am feeling much better this weekend and also that I’ve been given a new project at work which should be more interesting than the work I’ve been doing for the past year (although I will probably have to still do that as well).  I’m optimistic about it anyway, it seems like a good change for me.

Here is another spread from my Revo-lution 2012 board book.  Check out Gretchen Miller’s blog, Creativity in Motion, for more information about the thinking behind the Revolution book.

Sometimes things in my life are not exactly as I want them to be and if I allow myself I can get to feeling hard done by.  I’ve realised it does no good to just feel sorry for myself so my intention this year is to appreciate and feel gratitude for all the good things in my life.   When I think about it seriously it is obvious to me the good things far out-number the percieved bad, or problem, things in my life.

Thanks to everyone for your kind comments on my blog, I do try to answer everyone and visit your blogs too. Recently I’ve been having problems leaving comments on Blogger blogs.  I’m not sure if that’s a Blogger problem, a WordPress problem or (and this is much more likely) an AJ problem!  I’ll try and get it sorted.

My life can be a bit hectic –  I work full time and I am committed to the success of our local history group and need to keep the RSHG website up- to-date.  Now if I could just have … ooh I don’t know … maybe an extra 4 or 5 hours to each day … I might stand a chance of getting everything done.  I know I’m not alone and most creative people have the same dilemas juggling with the day to day stuff.  I am still managing to do some art every day, even if it’s only a teeny weeny bit, it’s good for my soul 🙂

Hope you are all being wondrously industrious with your creativity.

Big love

AJ