Tag Archives: Junk Journal

One huge job completed in the garden and another spread in my Junk Journal

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Here is the 2nd spread of my completed Junk Journal. If you click on the image you can view it larger. The content is just some scraps of paper, a list of things, names and symbols I wanted to remember and a some more quotes.

I am pleased to say that I feel my muse is coming back, I am beginning to feel like a really want to be creative again.

The first BIG garden job is finished! It took me much longer than I anticipated it would, but there is just a bit of tidying up to do now and maybe a couple of trips to the tip. I had to rebuild almost all of the middle raised bed because the wood was so rotten. Unfortunately I ran out of wood and money so one end is still the old (rotten) wood, but I’ve painted it with wood preserver and lined all the walls with pond liner to give it more protection. It’s not a professional job but I worked hard on it and it’s good enough for me. If that rotten end does fall apart I now have a pallet I can take apart and use that wood to repair it.

I have handed the repaired bed over to ‘the Head Gardener’ (aka T) to sort out the planting. The bed nearest the street wall has already been planted, it has onions, beans, carrots and courgettes (I think). The bed I’ve just repaired needs topping up with more soil and compost atm before anything can be planted and the 3rd bed has leeks and beetroot planted at the moment taking up about the third of the bed. There are potatoes growing in bags at the front of the 3rd bed and the green thing behind it is a temporary greenhouse we bought to use while our old greenhouse is replaced.

That (the replacement greenhouse) is my next (and hopefully my last) big garden job (ever)! The old greenhouse, which was falling apart, has been taken away to be disposed of. We’ve bought a new one to replace it, but I need to do some adjustments to the existing base before it can be erected and put in place. The temporary one is doing OK at the moment. I can’t start working on the base for a couple of weeks now as we are visiting some family next weekend. When I do start the work I anticipate it will take me weeks to get it finished as it is more hard physical labour.

The three raised beds with temp greenhouse at back
Small area of garden near the back door salad veg planted here
Potatoes and beans growing by the garden wall
I just love this giant tree that grows by the pond.

That’s all my news for now. I’ll be back again soon and in the meantime take good care of yourselves.

Big Love AJ xxxxx

Junk Journal Journey: Balancing Art and Life

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I am still struggling with my time management and don’t feel like I am achieving much at all at the moment (nothing art wise). I feel like I’m busy all the time, but, well you know how life is sometimes – it’s complicated.

I had been hoping to have figured out a way to photograph the whole of my Junk Journal by now and make a slide show. I even thought I’d be able to make a video of a flip through of the journal. But so far all I’ve managed to do is take one half decent photo of the first spread in the journal. There is a flap inside the front cover that obscures most of page 1 until it is opened up.

The quotes on the flap say: “The most important words we will ever utter are those we say to ourselves when we are by ourselves” Al Winter

The first signature of the journal was made from and old map. I cut out letters from magazines and spelled out the quote “All those who wander, are not lost”. I’ve always liked wandering and exploring.

I also pasted the pink paper with another quote onto that page. I used to have the quote on my desk at work to help boost my confidence.

Your life has purpose
Your story is important
Your dreams count
Your voice matters
You were born to make an impact.

To be honest though I don’t think I ever made much of an impact at work. I liked the people I worked with and I always did my best, but I was never very comfortable in the corporate environment. Still I stuck it out for nearly 30 years and it allowed me to purchase my home and have some decent holidays. I always got compliments about my work from my managers, but I wasn’t one to push myself forward or make a noise about my achievements. I was never that bothered about climbing the corporate ladder.

I have now realised that I don’t need to tell you what all the quotes in my journal say because if you click on any image on my blog you should be able to open it up larger and zoom in if you are interested in reading what it says. (Should you be interested).

Most of my time recently has been taken up in the garden so I am being busy but not with my art practice. About 10 years ago I made some raised beds to make the gardening a bit easier for T. This is what they looked like when finished.

A couple of years ago, when T was very unwell and unable to get into the garden at all for over a year, I noticed one of the beds was falling apart so I carried out some repairs. This year I noticed another of the beds (the one in the middle) was falling apart so I’m now in the process of repairing that one too. It was actually more damaged than I first realised so I am almost having to rebuild almost the whole thing. I had to order more wood so I’m having a few days break from the work while I’m waiting for it to be delivered. I think this will be the last time I will be able to do work like this. It’s very heavy, physical work and I’m getting older all the time. I’m still OK at the moment but things take longer and are more difficult for me now. I’m hoping that when I’ve finished this bed it will last a few more years. Realistically I can’t see T and I carrying on with the garden for much longer now. We’ll see.

I just realised that I must have made that video, but for the life of me I can’t remember how I did it. One day I’ll get time to figure it out again.

So that is my news for now, I will update you when this garden project is finished and then I have another one to work on before I can start to concentrate more on my art practice.

Take good care of yourselves
Big Love AJ xxxxx

I Finally Finished Something!

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The front of my Junk Journal box

This is the front cover of the box I made for my Junk Journal. The box label indicates it was finished in 2025. I set that date as a personal deadline, but I failed. I did finish the box before the end of the year. However, I still had some pages inside the journal to finish. They took longer than anticipated – don’t they always? The whole thing was finally finished in March 2026.

The year 2026 continues to pose challenges with more health issues for T. I won’t go into too much detail, but it has been tough for both of us. I had thought that with T’s heart surgery being such a success, everything would be OK now. I forgot about the mental health issues for a while.

T’s physical recovery has been slow, but his heart is much better now. All his check-ups are good, and the doctors are pleased with him. His broken rib has healed, but he still experiences back pain because of the wedge fractures in his spine. He has to take a lot of painkillers.

The MH issues are ongoing, we know there is no cure for this condition. Neither of us want him to go back on the medication that gave him symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. We just have to learn to cope with the crises better. We’ve been through them many times before and no doubt, will again.

A break between the physical recovery and the most recent bipolar episode would have been nice. Unfortunately, it came on very fast and lasted a long time. It was very stressful. Sometimes I felt like I was losing my mind too! – I was exhausted I think I had carers’ burnout!

Right now, everything seems a little calmer. Some semblance of normality has returned for the time being. So I’m going to grab the opportunity to explain about my Junk Journal.

The Back of the Journal box

I started the junk journal in 2014. It was inspired by Teesha Moore in a post she made on the Artstronauts Club. As the name suggests the journal and box were made from junk. Scraps of paper, ephemera and things that were lying about on my work table at the time. All stitched together to form a rough book. I gave the box and journal shiny covers by covering them in clear packing tape.

For years and years I’ve collected ‘positive quotes’ and ‘words of wisdom’. I use these quotes a lot in my artwork to try and encourage myself to be more positive. I’ve always had a negative slant and have spent a lot of my life trying to turn that around. Sometimes I’m more successful than others.

I decided to fill my junk journal with some of the quotes I love and find inspiring. I also like playing around with different fonts and styles of writing.

Inside the box the journal is wrapped in tissue paper – as if it is something ‘precious’ ha, ha, ha!
Front cover of the journal inside
The inside of the box when the Junk Journal is taken out

Next time I post here I will start to share the inside of the Journal. I’m not sure how successful that will be because it’s quite hard to photograph, but I’ll try.

In the meantime take good care of yourselves.

Big Love AJ xxxxxxx