Tag Archives: mixed media

Feeling lighter and more motivated now – hope it lasts!

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This is the 4th spread of my Junk Journal, I have turned this image into a 2 part slideshow so that you can see both sides of the smaller ‘apple flap’ in the centre (that’s how we spell it in the UK) of the page and also read what is written on both pages.

I’ve been having a bit of a rest since we got home from our visit up north. I still need to sort out the base for the new greenhouse and then construct the greenhouse, but the weather has been a bit colder again since we got home, and I don’t want to spend too much time outside when it’s cold. T keeps asking me when the greenhouse might be up and usable, but to be honest I’ve no idea. I suspect it will take a while to sort out the base as I’ve got to make sure it’s level. I think the weather will warm up soon and when it does I will get back to it, so the job should be finished by the time I go to the south west of France at the end of August.

In the meantime I have been sorting out and booking my travel arrangements and accommodation to get to the art retreat. I am going up to London and staying one night in a hotel on Friday 28. Next morning I will get the EuroStar to Paris Gare du Nord, arriving at about 1pm. Then travel across the city to Paris Montparnasse to get my next train at 4pm from there to Angouleme in SW France. My brother (Mike) who lives in Paris is going to come and meet me from the Eurostar and make sure I get to Paris Montparnasse in time for my train to Angouleme. I will stay Saturday night in Angouleme and have a wander around that town for most of the on Sunday. A taxi has been booked to collect me from that accommodation to get me to the location of the Art Retreat in time for check in at 5pm.

Then 4 days of enjoying the Art Retreat in a lovely location with a fabulous artist, David Shillinglaw and the other participants. We get 4 days of tuition, core materials, 5 nights accommodation, breakfast, lunch and evening meals. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.

I was intending to take T with me, but it all got a bit complicated and it was causing both of us stress, so I’ve decided to go alone. It will be an adventure for me, especially as I don’t speak any French, but I am really looking forward to it. Once I get to the Art Retreat I will be amongst English speakers – David (the artist) is English, Jen and Nick who own and run the venue where the Retreat is are also English and if the other participants are not English they will at least speak English.

On Friday 4th September the retreat finishes in the morning and I will get another taxi collect me at about 10am to take me back to Angouleme station in time for the 11:30 am train back to Paris. Once I get to Paris Montparnasse station my bother will come and pick me up again and take me back to his home in Paris where I will spend a couple of days with him and his lovely wife. Murial is French and they have lived in Paris for many years, but I’ve never visited them before, so it will be lovely to spend time with them. Finally on Tuesday 8 September I will get the Eurostar back to London and from there make my way back to the Isle of Wight and home to see my three boys (T and the 2 cats).

Well the weather has now warmed up (hooray!) but now it’s far too hot to be working outside with no shade. So I am trying to put up a temporary awning to protect me from the blazing sun while I work.

It’s the next day now. I have rigged up a tarpaulin to provide me with some shade while I work.

Several days later and I can report that I am making progress with my project but it’s slow. We are still a long way off getting the new greenhouse put up, but at least we have a small temporary greenhouse where T is growing the usual greenhouse crops. So the pressure is off me to complete the project immediately. The weather was very hot for a few days but it’s now cooling down again, I expect at some point there will be rain and that will definitely slow down the job even more, but all I can do is work at my own speed and as I’ve just had my 71st birthday that means I’m very slow. Hopefully it will be OK once I’ve finished it.

That’s all my news for now.
Take good care of yourselves and I hope to see you again soon.
Big love from me
AJ

We had a little holiday!

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This is the third spread in my now finished Junk Journal, made from scraps of paper and ephemera all stitched and stuck together to form a book. The black paper in the bottom left hand corner forms a pocket that has two hand made tags that I’ve doodled on and two more quotes on the backs. I’ll share images of those further down the page. If you click on the images you can see them bigger.

We had a little holiday from 1-5 May for a trip up north to visit with T’s family to celebrate his nephew, Paddy’s, Surprise 50th Birthday party. It must have been a surprise for Paddy as his actual birthday was in January so he would hardly have been expecting a party in May. The lovely event was organised by Paddy’s wife Nicola and there were lots of people there and we had a great time.

We left home on Friday morning, got the car ferry to Southampton and then I drove us up to Coaley in Gloucester to Mike (T’s younger brother) and Emma’s house. The drive took about 5 hours, twice as long as it should have done because my SatNav was avoiding the Motorways. I did realise fairly soon after we set off that this was happening but I didn’t want to stop and change it. Besides the English countryside is much more beautiful than boring motorways and horrible service stations.

We had a couple of stops along the way and arrived in Coaley just as Emma was getting home from work. Mike had been working from home that day so was already there. Emma made us a lovely vegetable curry for tea and after a catch up chat we went to bed as we had to leave early the next morning.

Emma drove us and the dog, Maggie, up to Cleethorpes in North Lincolnshire where she had booked accommodation for 6 of us in a large house. This drive, which was mainly on motorways, also took more than 5 hours with a couple of comfort stops. When we got to Cleethorpes we met up with T’s sister Jenny and her husband Paul and we just had time for a quick lunch before check in time at the house. The house was very nice we all had good rooms and there was plenty of space.

We had to leave as soon as we dropped our bags off at the house because we had to be at the party by 3:30pm as Paddy was due to come at 4pm. He had arranged to meet up with a friend from the army he hadn’t seen for a few years, I don’t think he was expecting to be welcomed by so many people.

T’s parents, Bill and Edna (both now deceased), had lived in West Yorkshire when they got married and they had 2 children – T born in 1952 and Pam born a few years later. Bill and Edna separated when the children were quite young and for a while Edna brought them up on her own. She eventually met another man called John and when T was 16 they (Edna, John, T and Pam) moved from Yorkshire in the north of England to the Isle of Wight in the South. Some time later Edna and John had two more children Jenny and Mike (so they are half siblings to T and Pam).

Pam and her daughter Emily arrived at the party at about the same time we did. Pam was overwhelmed with emotion when she saw T as she did not know we were going. T and Pam speak regularly on the phone but the party had never been mentioned. Pam knew about the party but she didn’t know if we had been invited or if we had if T would be well enough to attend anyway.

Paddy and Nicola arrived on time at about 4pm, by which time he was beginning to get suspicious that ‘something’ was going on, but he still wasn’t expecting it to be a huge reunion of old colleagues, friends, distant and close family – people of all ages! It was a fantastic party with lots of food and drink and we all had a great time. It was so good that we decided to have another and smaller, close family catch up the next day at Paddy and Nic’s house.

Jenny and Paul had to leave early on Sunday as Paul was due to start a 12 hour night shift at 6pm and they had a 2 hour drive to get home first.

But here is a picture of the rest of us except for Nicola (who didn’t want to be in the photos) and the younger members of the family who were probably fed up with us all invading their home by then.

L-R Paddy, me, Mike, Tony, Kate, Emma, Emily and Pam.

Tony, Jenny and Paul at the Party on Saturday

Tony and Pam

On Bank Holiday Monday May 4th Emma drove us back to Coaley another drive of over 5 hours with a few stops on the way. T and I stayed with them one more night and had to get up early the next day to drive to Southampton. I had booked the 12 noon ferry to the Isle of Wight. This time I did set the SatNav so it didn’t avoid motorways. We made good time and arrived in Southampton just after 11am and in plenty of time for the ferry and we got home at about 2pm.

I apologise for the long post about this but, to be honest, it’s so nice to be able to report that we actually got away, met up with family and had a great time. Rather than the usual updates on T’s poor health and associated problems.

Anyway here are the two tags from the pocket of my Junk Journal:

That’s all my news for now, hope you are keeping well.
See you soon
Big Love AJ xxxxx

PS I used to send my blog posts out by email to my subscribers but I’ve changed the settings now so it’s only posted on my blog. I don’t want to annoy anyone with unsolicited emails filling their inboxes. Hope that’s OK with you all?

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

The Long Wait is over!

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I’ve been away for a while again because, out of the blue, I received a phone call from Southampton Hospital on Friday 5 December advising me that T’s operation was scheduled for 17 December. T had just gone out to see his therapist when I received the call so I had to wait until he got home to tell him. I was really pleased that it wouldn’t be necessary for us to travel to a foreign country to get it done now, but he immediately went into shock and subsequently through the whole spectrum of emotions before we got to the hospital. By the time he went to the Theatre for his op on 17/12 he had come to terms with everything and was mentally in the right space.

His operation went really well, he spent one night in Intensive Care, then a couple nights in the High Dependency Unit before returning to a normal ward. He had to be put on a 12 hour drip because he was so dehydrated and they also sorted out a couple of other problems. Although the op went well the surgeon accidentally broke one of T’s ribs (he apologised when he did he ward rounds and saw T after the op). The new valve has settled in nicely and his heart is functioning better than it has for years. Unfortunately the pain from the broken rib is delaying his recovery a bit, but it gets slightly better every day. He was discharged from the hospital on 24 December and we got home at about 4:30pm. The trip home (which involved a half hour taxi ride from the hospital to the ferry terminal; a short wait then a half hour fast cat ferry ride to the Island – the sea was rough that day which caused T more pain and caused me to feel sea sick!; then a slightly longer taxi ride home) he was exhausted by the time we got home and in need of more pain relief then went straight to bed for a rest.

The lovely cats were pleased to see us and we were pleased to see them.

Christmas Day was very quiet, T slept and rested most of the time. I took the opportunity to go and visit my Mum and when I got home I cooked a ‘sort of Xmas Dinner’ in the evening.

Each day things are getting better and we are optimistic that he will be healthier and able to do more in the future. However he is still in heart failure, that will be treated and hopefully improved by medication, the pace maker, exercise and diet.

While T was in hospital I was able to stay near to him in Heartbeat House again. I am so grateful that place exists, it’s clean, warm, safe and full of other people away from their homes and caring for relatives who are heart patients. Some of the people I made friends with at HBH had to stay there over Christmas but I know they will have supported each other and it’s important that our loved ones are looked after and helped to recover.

So because of all of the above I haven’t had much time for creativity again in the past month. Today I am sharing a small project I did earlier in the year – a birthday card for my friend Claudine. It’s called an Explosion Book (or Squash Book). The two images above show both sides of the book/card ‘exploded’ but it all squashes down to a small square. I forgot to take a picture of it squashed!

Here is a quick YouTube tutorial on how to make one There are longer and more detailed tutorials available if you search for them.

For anyone who is reading this I hope you had a lovely Christmas. People who know me well know that I’m really not a big fan of Christmas but nevertheless I hope you all enjoyed it. I do however wish you all the best for Good Health and Happiness in the New Year.

Big Love from me
AJ xxxxx

See you next year!

A Bit of this and that!

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Hello, I hope you are keeping well and enjoying life.

Things have been a bit hectic for me since we got back from our successful trip to London.

T has been sleeping a lot because he is tired all the time now. He wrote to the hospital in Southampton (who have told him he will get his ‘urgent’ heart surgery ‘some time’ in the next year) to ask if they will be monitoring his heart in the meantime. He got a rather abrupt and unfriendly answer to say that no they will not be monitoring him but if he becomes unwell he should report to our local hospital for emergency treatment.

He is losing all confidence in the team at Southampton now. Luckily he is seeing the local Heart Failure Nurse early next week and he finally got an appointment to see his GP the next day.

When he was first told that his only option for surgery was Transapical TAVI, (a very specialised and complex type of keyhole surgery) he was told that he was not ‘optimal’ for the surgery at that time because his Aortic valve was functioning ‘OK’ (apparently 25% performance is deemed OK!?) but if it was left too long there might be too much damage to his heart and then he would be unable to have the surgery. So the fact that they don’t want to monitor him is naturally a bit worrying.

T has been researching other options. He first looked into being transferred to another UK hospital but they all have long waiting lists for NHS patients. Although going private could probably expedite the surgery to a few weeks, the cost in the UK is prohibitive. He’s now considering going abroad for private surgery, which, including return flights for two and accommodation, is about half the price of having the operation done in the UK (still a lot of money though). I have told him he needs to investigate what the insurance cost will be as I’m sure it will be very high with all of his other health problems which all have to be declared. I want to be sure that if he needs a medivac flight to get home one will be available.

Naturally I am very anxious about all of this (the delay, the lack of ‘customer service’ from the team at Southampton, the difficulty of getting care from the NHS – due to years of underfunding from successive governments, etc. etc.) and I am pleased he will be seeing the two local professional people who know him and appear to care about him.

When I’ve managed to find a bit of ‘me time’ I’ve been trying to finish a Junk Journal I started in 2014 as well as making a box to contain it. It’s completely made from junk and rubbish and I’ve filled it with quotes that are meaningful to me (the delightful content). I’ve just got one more page to finish and a few tags to decorate and then I can mark that one as ‘complete’ too. Hopefully I will get it done before the end of the year as I’ve already noted on the box that it was started in 2014 and completed in 2025 🙂 Here is a little glimpse of the inside and the box:

Yesterday we had our very last session of the Arts and Craft group run by CarersIW. It’s a bit sad it has come to an end because it was a lovely group of carers and we all supported each other through difficult times. Often the room was filled with laughter. Yesterday we decorated cardboard gingerbread men for a community Christmas tree.

Back Row L-R Cheryl, Debbie, Denise and Julie
Front Row L-R Lucy (who led the group until recently) Marcus who took over from Lucy, Sarah and me!

The group used to be a lot bigger but in recent months the numbers have dwindled and the decision was taken to bring it to an end. Very sad but I think it was the right decision. I have been invited to join another group on a different day. The Self Care Cafe is centred more on the individual and includes things like mindfulness, breathing, meditation, calming music and sometimes there is also a craft element. This week we made ‘natural weaves’. My effort is at the top of this post. The frame is made from driftwood tied together, the warp is made from paper string and the weft includes all sorts of bits and pieces collected from the beach and gardens and some extra bits tied on. It was a really lovely exercise to do and I was quite pleased with the result of mine. Everyone did something different and they were all lovely.

The weather in the UK got colder recently and I remembered some time ago (probably a couple of years) I purchased everything I needed (fabric and mechanisms) to make two Roman Blinds for T’s room. He has 2 large windows in his room one south facing and the other east facing. They already have curtains but the blinds will improve the insulation. I thought making the blinds would be a quick and easy task afterall it just involves sewing straight lines, but it’s turned into a bit of marathon.

Part of the problem is getting into his room, because he sleeps a lot I don’t like to disturb him but I also need daylight for measuring and fitting, there’s a bit of drilling and hammering involved, climbing up and down step ladders and quite a lot of groaning and swearing! Currently it gets dark at about 4pm so my window of opportunity to get the job done is limited! Sometimes he stays in bed until early afternoon! Today I should get the first blind competed and then I am hoping that the second one will be quicker as I now know what I need to do and hopefully won’t make as many mistakes. The blinds have blackout and thermal linings to keep the heat in during the winter and out during the summer. If I ever need more blinds I’ll pay someone else to make them. I’ve realised that now I am a ‘senior’ things that used to be quick and simple take much longer and seem more complicated!

My other exciting news that I will tell you about nearer the time or maybe after the event is that I have signed up for a 5 day Art Retreat in the south of France with my favourite artist next summer. It sold out almost immediately and I was lucky to get a place. I am so excited about this 🙂 ❤


That’s all for now, keep creative friends 🙂
Big love from me
AJ xxxxx ❤❤❤

We are Well and Truly back on the Roller Coaster Ride now!

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My life’s been a bit chaotic again recently – Sometimes good, sometimes really not so good, but at least never boring.

I am managing to get some creativity in and that is good for me. I’m unsure about the results of my creativity in terms of success, but I know that even if the result is rubbish the act of being creative is definitely good for me. The image above is another page from my Paint and Doodle journal. Maybe next time I will remember to show you a before and after image, we’ll see.

T’s mood swings seem to be back with a vengeance and changing quite fast. When he’s up and happy he is being very creative and doing lots of music and writing projects. It is lovely to hear music filling the house again, it’s been a long time. He gets very little sleep at these times and that can trigger mania which currently presents as him being angry and ranty and then that is usually followed by a depressive episode. When he’s down he just switches off, shuts down and spends days in bed. It’s not lazyness but more like paralysis. It’s been the pattern for much of our lives together for the past 55 years … Still can’t quite get used to it although I think/hope I understand it better now.

On top of that T’s physical condition is not getting any better so there’s very little he can do around the house or garden, even when he is motivated to do so. Still no news as to when he might get his heart surgery! But all that aside his cognitive function is so much better now he is not taking all those psyche meds and if I catch him at the right time (when he’s not completely down in the dumps or so ‘up’ he can’t stop talking and ranting) we can now have fairly reasonable conversations. His memory is still shockingly bad but doesn’t seem to be getting any worse atm, and, to be honest, my memory is also not as good as it used to be. I guess that’s what happens with aging 😦 We make a right pair of confused seniors!

I hope life is treating you well.
Big Love
AJ xxx

Hello, how are you?

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KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

A page from my Secret Messages Journal

Hello friends

I’ve been away for half a year! I’m not really sure how that happened, but there has been lots going on.  Too much to go into really so here is a quick precis of the first half of this year from my point of view:

The main thing is that I am feeling good now and I am still in remission (got another check up in 2 days time but no cause to worry about that as far as I know);

T lost his job at the end of January due to having had too much sick leave and that was quite a stressful time, so as I was beginning to feel a lot better he was beginning to feel worse – we are muddling through OK;
In March I attended a 2 day course run by Penny Brohn UK which was all about living well with cancer, I loved the course and I gained a lot from it, in particular I learnt about Mindfulness Meditation and that has been a life changer for the better;
I am working full-time again now (although I have had a lot of leave in the past 6 months – due to the generosity of my employers) and things are gradually getting back to normal;
I started going to Hoopfit class in April run by my lovely friend Gina, I’m still not very good at it, but it is fun;
I became a voracious viewer of art (probably at the expense of creating much myself) but seeing beautiful things every day really lifts my spirits and I have discovered so many wonderful artists thanks to the internet :-);
I did some display/information sheets for a new exhibition Poo@theZoo it’s the brain child of a fantastic group of local artists called Eccleston George and it was a privilege to work with them on this project.  My contribution was to tell the story of what happens to human poo after the toilet is flushed;
In May I had a birthday, I was 61! we went out for a picnic at a lovely spot and then we went away (not very far) in the camper van for a weekend;
At the beginning of June we went away again to a very small world music festival Mondomix and that was good;
The following weekend we had another long weekend of camping in the van at a campsite that is within walking distance from home – the reason for staying so close to home is that we have to come back at least once a day to feed and check on the cats;
As a late birthday present T and I went to London on 22 June to see an exhibition by the artist Yayoi Kusama, it was fabulous;
On 23 June we had a referendum in the UK on whether or not we should stay in the European Union
On 24 June we got the shocking result that by a tiny majority of less than 4% (52% -48%) we voted to leave the EU and since then I’ve been in deep shock, both of our main political parties the Tories and Labour seem to be self destructing and the £ seems to have disappeared down the pan. There is so much uncertainty, these are worrying times.  I have spoken about this a lot on my facebook page so I don’t intend to say any more here.

So that’s one half of this year in my life, never a dull moment!

Earlier in the year it was bothering me that I wasn’t being as creative as I would have liked so I decided to finish off a journal I started years ago.  It’s called Secret Messages and is an altered sample book.  I gave up on it a long time ago because I wasn’t very happy with how the first pages turned out. When I went back to it I just experimented with whatever came into my head. I also wanted to use up some of my extensive hoard of ‘stuff’ collected over the years because it  ‘might come in useful someday’ Here is a short video of the book, it’s a bit of an oddity:

For my own records and just in case you might be interested in more detail.  The book was a sample book I purchased in a charity shop.  The samples were window or wall screens, I think.

Front Cover

Front Cover

The only thing I did to the front cover was rip off the label and add the letters to form the words Secret Messages. I intended the journal to have no words in it (I didn’t quite succeed).

Inside front cover

Inside Front Cover

Inside the front cover I just stuck the piece of paper with washi tape and added the small ornate envelope with a message inside.

PAGE 1

Front of Page 1

Front of Page 1

Page 1: This screen was made of 2 layers of fine silk with paper strips with symbols between. I cut some circles out of some paper in my stash and glued it over the screen to form 3 round windows the I added more scraps of paper coloured red with distress ink, added three gold strips, some ‘gems’ and a ribbon border.

Back of Page 1

Back of Page 1

On the back I cut three matching holes in more paper and stuck it on, added white pen work and a border of wire and pink fluffy balls.

PAGE 2

Front of Page 2

Front of Page 2

Page 2: Another screen of fine silk with paper strips between. I painted this one with gesso leaving the two leaf shaped windows. I added colour with acrylic paint, paint markers and glitter and added a stick-on flower jewel and three ribbon strips to the side

Back of Page 2

Back of Page 2

On the back I painted again with gesso leaving the two windows, added colour with acrylic paint and glued on bits of deconstructed jewellery for texture.

PAGE 3

Front of Page 3

Front of Page 3

Page 3: This screen was made of 2 layers of fine silk with bamboo slats between. I added a collage border and then glued on the leather bag clasp and the yellow heart was a prize in a Christmas cracker.

Back of Page 3

Back of Page 3

On the back of the page I added a collage border, stuck a paper doily, coloured with galatos in the middle and added a centre piece from a deconstructed ear-ring.

PAGE 4

Front of Page 4

Front of Page 4

Page 4: This screen was also made of fine silk and bamboo slats but I removed all of the bamboo, then I added texture paste and acrylic paint and stuck on some old coins, tokens and pieces of deconstructed jewelry.

Back of Page 4

Back of Page 4

I covered the back of the page with pieces of old maps then added a border of soft feathers  to the top and side (for some strange reason when I am out walking if I see a feather I have to pick it up so I have quite a collection!), stuck on some gold stars and two old ferry tickets.

PAGE 5

Front of Page 5

Front of Page 5

Page 5: Another screen of silk and bamboo. I removed all but three of the slats of bamboo. cut some paper from my stash to make a border and then added lace around the edges, I put an old photo of T and M into an old brooch and stuck that onto the page with ribbons and fibres hanging from it. I put a strip of ribbon down the hinge side, added a wire work heart and added the letters to form the words You & Me.

Back of Page 5

Back of Page 5

On the back of this page I stuck some patterned paper, then decided I didn’t like it so I Mod Podged some printed tissue paper over the top of that, still didn’t like it so I used up my stock of gold letters on the page, still didn’t like it, added the green border with acrylic paint and stuck on some gold beads.  TBH I still don’t like it.

PAGE 6

Front of Page 6

Front of Page 6

Page 6: This screen was made of silk and raffia. I removed nearly all of the raffia, just leaving the strip in the middle. I wanted to use the piece of lace so I cut some paper to the same shape and stuck it on the page and I also Mod Podged on the piece of orange fabric. I enhanced the colours of the orange fabric with paint pens and painted the paper blue before Mod Podging on the piece of lace. I like the way it hangs over the edge of the page forming a frill.

Back of page 6

Back of Page 6

On the back I added more of the orange fabric which I enhanced with paint pens and I added course texture paste to the top of the page and rubbed in some gold colour to the corner.  Finally I threaded ribbons through the raffia.

PAGE 7

Front of Page 7

Front of Page 7

Page 7: This screen was made of sheer silk with lines of tiny black glass beads. I Mod Podged some white fabric to the back of it and then sprayed it with coloured inks and water, then I stuck on lots of sequins and gave it black border with duct tape.

Back of Page 7

Back of Page 7

On the back it looked a bit messy so I added a double layer of fine red, glittery mesh, still looked a mess so I added the strips of red fabric which made it look better, but the pink tasselled fibre and the eyes on two tags really improved it as did the black border.

PAGE 8

Front of Page 8

Front of Page 8

Page 8: This screen was made of viscous raffia and all I did was thread the coloured ribbon through it. The wooden thing that looks like a bird head is a brooch given to me for my birthday by a friend.

Back of Page 8

Back of Page 8

On the back I painted the black border.  The bark, sticks and seed pods were collected on a walk on our first camping trip.  The piece of wood with the heart was given to me at the Call of the Wild Soul Art Retreat in 2012.

PAGE 9

Front of Page 9

Front of Page 9

Page 9: This screen is made of raffia and silk. The feathers from the top are from our third camping trip, the white ones are goose feathers. The feather at the bottom I picked up when I took my parents to the local Alpaca farm, it is a lovely looking feather but it comes from a very ugly bird. I can’t remember what it is called but it looks a bit like an ostrich only uglier! I added a ripped paper border to the bottom of the page and a piece of ear-ring to attach that single feather. I added a purple border around the page with distress ink. The feathers at the top were glued and sewn down and I sewed an ornate belt buckle over them and attached a bead and tassel embellishment. I really like this page.

Back of Page 9

Back of Page 9

On the back I stuck down the artificial leaves and added a border of orange, ripped hand-made paper, I added a couple of butterflies to the leaves and the flower is from a hat I bought for some occasion (and never wore).  I added the letters to form the words Be Mindful because it is so important to me to keep practicing mindfulness.

PAGE 10

Front of Page 10

Front of Page 10

Page 10: This screen is made of polyester and fossilized leaves. The leaves are so beautiful I didn’t want to do much to it so I added the border it’s just brown paper coloured with distress inks. The little tag which has an imprint of a fern on it is a clothing tag. Down the side is a piece of a ‘hippy’ headband and at the bottom a piece of corrugated cardboard, two more feathers and a paper rose.

Back of Page 10

Back of Page 10

On the back I just used the same brown paper border and those are little wooden disks with numbers on (they might be from a Bingo game).

PAGE 11

Back of Page 11

Back of Page 11

Page 11: This screen was really strange it was made of very thin and fine stainless steel and it was like fabric but metallic silver.  I actually did the back of the page first, I used paint pens to draw on the metal background, I outlined everything in black and added a black border to the page.  Then I added a double layer of red glittery mesh and put the kitty tag between the 2 layers.  I fixed the mesh down with a gold ribbon border, sewed on the strange wooden figure that came from a necklace and added a row of bling to the bottom of the page.

Front of Page 11

Front of Page 11

On the front page to cover up the stitching  I stuck on some torn green tissue paper, I added some green paper lace over the top so that the metal could still be seen, added 3 paper roses and edged the page with red ink.

PAGE 12

Front of Page 12

Front of Page 12

Page 12: This screen was sheer but stiff silk, I didn’t want to do anything to alter the screen itself so I added the border of orange printed paper. On the day of the referendum result it was really hard to come to terms with it, even though I expected the vote to go that way, the reality of it shook me to the core, it’s hard to explain. I went for a long walk along a beach to clear my head. Whenever I go for walks I collect things that catch my eye and on beaches I am always attracted to colour so I collected all these bits of rope and cord and when I got home I stuck them onto the border of the page. The fish tag is from a Weird Fish T-shirt. This is the only page in my book that has a title, it’s called ‘Give them enough rope…’

Back of Page 12

Back of Page 12

One the back I wanted to give a feeling of being lost so I used a piece of a map and then gave that another border with map tape.  The heart tag is to remind me not to give up hope 🙂

INSIDE BACK COVER

Inside back cover

Inside back cover

I wanted to leave the information about the make up of the screen material but I ‘knocked it back’ with a thin covering of gesso, then I randomly added torn paper and the Number 3 card. I didn’t do anything to the back cover.

THE WHOLE JOURNAL

The whole journal

The whole journal

It’s a bit fatter than it was when I started and it’s been good to experiment and try things out even if a lot of them didn’t really work. The process is more important than the result so I’m happy anyway.

Sorry for the long, long, long post, I’ll try not to leave it 6 months before I post again 🙂

Big love

AJ

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2011-2016 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.

Its Nice to be Nice!

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It's Nice to be Nice

 

Hello friends!

I hope you are all keeping well and happy.

I am pleased to report that I have been feeling pretty good for the last week and have not had to collapse onto the couch and watch daytime tv for several days now.

Anyway first things first the page above is from one of my Teesha Moore inspired journals. I’ve been wanting to use the phrase ‘It’s Nice to be Nice’ in a piece of art for a while now.  I first saw this phrase on my first visit to Tobago in 1999.  On the very short drive from the airport to our hotel (it was short drive as the hotel was on the other side of the fence from the end of the runway!) I saw this:

It's Nice to be Nice Tobago

It was a lovely way to be welcomed to the beautiful Island and when we started to meet the local people they all very friendly, laid back, chatty – all things nice.  This is what I aspire to be although I don’t always succeed…

I have now started the de-clutter of the art room and so far I’ve chucked out a couple of big bin liners of rubbish and filled a big box with stuff to take to one of the local charity shops.  I have discovered that I now have 22 completed journals, 10 journals that are in progress and enough blank (not started) journals to last me several lifetimes!

I have made the declutter slightly difficult for myself as I am insisting that before I throw something out I have to try and use at least some of it in one of my ‘in progress’ journals.  I also found a big stack of plain, thick paper so I made some journals:

New JournalsI have been making up some packs of goodies, by that I mean stuff I have previously purchased and used as art supplies (mainly papers) but no longer have room for.

I am thinking of having a ‘Give Away’ to celebrate my final round of chemo-therapy at the end of the month.  I’ll include one of the smaller journals in each pack (there are three packs in total).  But more of this later…

 

I have to say at the moment the art room does not look any tidier and even when I’ve finished I think that most people would still say it’s too cluttered, but at least I will know it’s an improvement on the chaos I’ve been living with for the past few years.

I wanted to start documenting all my journals, I tend to share images from the journals but rarely show the whole thing.  So here is the very first journal/altered book I created when I had no idea what I was doing and very little art supplies.  It’s not very good, but it was just my first attempt and I was just playing, I don’t think I’ve ever shared any images from this book before:

Take good care of yourselves and I’ll see you soon

Big love from me

AJ 🙂

 

© Janette Gregson and ajsartjournal, 2011-2015 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.