Tag Archives: Teesha Moore

You have the Power

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You have the Power

 

Hello friends

I hope you are all keeping well, dry and warm.  We had a sunny day today, it’s been fantastic and I went out for walk.  By comparison on Friday we had heavy rain (nothing new there) and storms.  The ground is so saturated now, after weeks of mostly rain, there is nowhere for the water to go so on Friday we did have some fairly serious flooding on the Island.  The local newspaper put up a map of the Island on their website and by evening the map was completely covered in ‘road closed’ or ‘road flooded but passable with care’ signs.  When I drove home from work it was quite exciting as I had to drive through several streams that were crossing the road!

On Saturday I had to drive over to the other side of the Island, I was going to postpone my visit but when I got up the rain had stopped and when I checked the map most of the signs had been removed.  I had to take rather a long route to get to my destination but it was much better driving than the day before.

And today we’ve had glorious sunshine all day 🙂  It’s been so good for my soul to see the sun again.  I went for my walk on the same beach I visited at the beginning of the month. This time the tide was out far enough for me to be able to walk on the beach and I noticed there was a lot of storm damage, a couple of trees had fallen over and look at this small getty.  The photo on the left was taken on 2 Feb and the one of the right was taken today. The tide was out today so you get to see the horrible seaweed instead of the lovely sea. Although it was rickety looking a couple of weeks ago it did have some planking whereas today there are only the posts and a few cross bars left in place 😦

Binstead getty

 

The page above is in my Artstronauts Journal and it’s a reply to the page I posted in the middle of the week.  I am much happier with this page, the head and hat are a Zetiology stamp and I like the contrast of the black and white against the colourful page.

Right, I need to do some chores and get ready for work again tomorrow.  Have a great week and I’ll 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.

Where’s my Sparkle?

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Find your Sparkle

Hello friends

I hope things are good with you.  Here it’s rain, rain, rain and it’s getting to be a drag.  I shouldn’t complain as we’ve had no flooding here but some people have had their homes flooded since before Christmas! It seems every day more and more people are struggling with this atrocious weather.  I hope things calm down and dry out soon.  We need some sunshine and warmth.

The page above is a page from my Teesha inspired board book.  I’m really not sure what to make of this one.  Overall it just doesn’t ‘do it’ for me, but there are some things about it I really love: the colours and especially the piece of collage that looks like it’s been wired (or stitched) to the page, I like the girl’s face which is one of the stamps I bought from Teesha a while ago and I liked taking the image of the girl and completely changing her with collage and pens, but as a piece of art it’s just not ‘floating my boat’.  Ah well never mind, I’m sure the next page is going to be better 🙂

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely rest of the week.

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.

Standing in the Centre of my own Circle

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Standing at the centre of my own circle

Hello friends

I hope you are well and had (or are having) a great weekend.

We have been quite productive here.  Yesterday T decided to repaint the kitchen ceiling again, so while he was doing that I took out one of the cupboards, dismantled it, packed all the bits in my car and took it to the local tip.  When I took the kick board off from the bottom of the units I was surprised to see just how much rubbish the workmen had left when they installed the kitchen in 1996.  So I cleaned all that up too.

In the evening I prepared a sheet of paper to make a Teesha Moore inspired 16 page journal, which I have cut and stitched this afternoon and started with the collage.

This morning I slept very late and was woken by the sound of banging coming from the kitchen.  When I eventually got up T has removed some more tiles from the wall.  Unfortunately when the kitchen was done just before I bought the house the tiles were put straight on top of the plaster board and in removing the tiles some of the board has been damaged beyond repair so we have had to replace it, so we worked on that together today.  Now we are wondering if we could put a skim of plaster over the walls ourselves or if we need to employ someone to do it for us.

Anyway, this is how far we got today:

Kitchen refurb part 1It looks a bit messy doesn’t it?!  The cupboard had to be taken out because those pipes running along the wall have to be moved somehow so that the new fridge and freezer can go under the small window.

We have to get a plumber in to do that for us as we wouldn’t know where to start and as brand new cupboards are going along that wall we definitely do not want any leaks.

 

 

The page above is another from my Mandala book, I have a poster on my wall at work that has all these motivational words on them and I thought it would be good to incorporate them into a mandala (of sorts).

Have a great week and I’ll 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.

Glory

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Filled with Glory

 

Hello friends

It’s good to see you again 🙂  The weekend is nearly over, I just have a stack of ironing to do this evening and then I’m ready for the week ahead.

I don’t feel I’ve been very productive this weekend, but perhaps that’s because I’ve done bits of several things instead of concentrating on one job?

T and I painted the kitchen ceiling, twice!  When we bought the house the ceilings in every room had been Artexed (a different pattern in every room).  We hate the stuff, so a few years ago we had the living room ceiling plastered over to make it smooth and a few weeks ago we had the kitchen ceiling done too.  Unfortunately shortly after that we discovered we had some broken tiles above the kitchen and when it rained (which it has been doing a lot recently) it came through.  We got someone to come and fix it before too much damage was done.  It’s going to take another coat of paint (at least) before it’s finished but we have to take it fairly slow as it’s hard work for us.  It made my arm ache painting above my head and standing looking up made me really dizzy a couple of times.

We are starting now to do the preparation for the new kitchen which is due to be delivered in about a month’s time.  We have both taken two weeks off in March to build and install it. When I told someone at work we were going to install it ourselves he made some strange comment and looked at me as though I was insane.  I got the impression he thought I couldn’t do it because I’m a woman!  Hmmm, I’ll show him!  Besides T and I are going to do it together.  We will have to pay a plumber and an electrician to do some some technical bits, but building and installing the cupboards and worktops will be down to us. I’m sure it will be fine. (she said).

This weekend I have also been doing lots of doodling, working on my junk journal and I completed the page above which was inspired by Teesha Moore’s Artstronauts Club.  The two ‘lollypop’ people were inspired by some sculptures by Joan Miro, who is one of my all time favourite artists.

We had a bit of sunshine today which was lovely to see and I’m optimistic that I am going to have a good week this week.  I hope you do too.

See you soon

Big love

AJ xxx

 

 

© 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.

 

 

Let your mind start a journey…

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Let your mind start a journey...

Click on image to enlarge

Hello friends!

Well after just under two weeks holiday from work, it’s back to the daily grind tomorrow for me. 😦  I wish I could say I feeling joyous about it, but to be honest there is a slight dread in the pit of my stomach right now.  However I’m sure it will all be fine once I get there and once I get used to getting up early again!

I’ve managed to achieve quite a lot in two weeks.  I had 22 things on my ‘To Do’ list, there are 6 left now but I’ve made a start on 4 of them so progress has been good.  More importantly I’ve had time to create some art and that has been so good for my soul. 🙂

The spread above is in one of my board book journals and was inspired by Teesha Moore’s Artstonauts Club.  I’ve also been working on some mixed media pieces, started making some prayer flags, made a new junk journal and had an attempt at tidying up my art room.  This last task was only partially successful and now I’ve run out of time so it won’t get completed.  Still it’s better than it was 🙂

Here is the main wall I sorted out (T says it still looks cluttered!)  I found some interesting stuff that I had forgotten I had!

Art room organisationIf you click on the image you can see it bigger. The things hanging from the ceiling are papier mache fish, there are a group of 6 of them swimming about above my workspace 🙂

The weather here has been pretty bad since before Christmas –  lots of rain and wind.  In some parts there has been a lot of flooding and damage.  Luckily we haven’t suffered in that way and I feel for the people who have, it must be awful to have your home flooded.

I hope your New Year has got off to a good start and I wish you a creative and joyful rest of the year.

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.

Space, the final frontier

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Space, the final frontier

 

Hello friends

I hope you are all well and happy.  All is good here, my dad has made a miraculous recovery and is back to his old self again.  Most of the bruises have gone and his broken rib gets a bit easier every day.  I am so pleased 🙂 

I am so excited to be sharing with you my first journal spread inspired by Teesha Moore‘s Artstonauts Club.  I made the deep space background using a technique shown by artist James S Flagg, then I collaged images of planets, a spaceman and a rocket on top and altered them with various pens.  I wanted to do something like the Ship’s log I remember from years ago when I used to watch Star Trek.  I typed out the words in a digital looking font and then found an image of an IPad to paste them onto.  I think it worked out quite well.  Oh and I put Teesha’s husband Tracy in the space suit 🙂

I feel like I want to hibernate at the moment, I am going to bed earlier and earlier and I am not so keen to get up in the morning.  I usually manage to be up by about 6am but not with the enthusiasm I have in the light summer months.  Cold, dark days don’t really suit me…

I am progressing (slowly) with the Christmas presents, but I am a little bit disappointed with how they are turning out.  Still I’m committed to making them now so I have to proceed.  I’ll show them to you after Christmas when I have handed them out.  They may not look totally brilliant but there is a lot of work going in to them so I hope they are received OK.

This coming Saturday I will at St Thomas Church in Ryde all day serving teas to visitors at a Ryde Arts Festival event.  There will be Green Wreath making, children’s activities, carol singing and lots of fun.  I am going to wrap up well though because it will probably be very cold.

I am still planning the new kitchen, T seems to have lost interest now it’s come down to the fine detail, but I want to make sure everything is as good as we can possibly make it, I doubt we will every do it again.  I’ve even toyed with the idea of perhaps learning to cook once we have a nice kitchen, I’m in my late 50’s so it’s probably time I did, I’ll never be able to cook as well as T does but I ought to be able to provide meals at least occasionally.

Anyway have a great week and I’ll be back at the weekend with another mandala.

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.

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.

Deadlines!!!

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Stand out!

Hello friends

I hope you are all well and happy.

I am doing fine and I’ve had a mainly enjoyable weekend.  I am hard up against two deadlines now that have to be delivered in less than two weeks.  I am confident that I am going to meet both deadlines as long as I stay focused and calm.  I did have a bit of a wake-up call today though.  I woke up at 7am and was feeling distinctly unwell so I decided to stay in bed for a while.  At 8am I woke up again and still felt bad so I decided to get up, I generally feel better once I am up and about.  I got myself a cold drink and took some painkillers for a pounding headache and decided to do some art.  Art is always good therapy.  But within about 20 minutes I realised that I was going to be sick and just made it to the bathroom in time.  Being sick made my head thump even more so I went back to bed.  I was sick one more time and then managed to get back to sleep.  When I woke up I thought it was probably about 10am and was shocked to see it was already 1pm, but fortunately I was feeling considerably better.

I got up and tentatively did some art just to make sure I was really feeling OK, then I had a shower and got dressed.  I thought that probably the best thing I could do was go out for a walk and get some fresh air, so I combined visiting my parents with taking Mum out for a stroll (Dad decided to stay at home at watch football).  Mum and I went to the park had a short walk then stopped and had a cup of tea in one of the cafes, another short walk and stopped for ice-cream before I took her home again.  It was a really lovely afternoon.

When I got home I suddenly realised that I needed to update the RSHG website, something I do at the beginning of each month.  Doing those updates took me up to dinner time, and now, updating the blog is probably going to take me up to bedtime.  Despite sleeping the whole morning away I’m sure I will need to go to bed at my normal time tonight (between 10-11pm).

Losing the whole morning today made me realise just how easy it would be to miss the deadlines and how I just have to keep working away at them steadily making progress all the time.  Also how fortunate that I didn’t lose a whole day or more due to sickness.  So if I miss my usual mid-week post on Wednesday it’s because I am still plodding away and making good progress.

I am really conscious that people leave comments on my blog and I am very bad at getting back to them or at answering questions.  I really do appreciate everyone who is kind enough to leave comments here, so THANK YOU everyone.  A few people have also asked recently if they can buy copies of my artwork.  I must admit it has come as a huge and pleasant surprise to me that anyone would want to, but I am afraid at the moment you can’t buy my art.  I will be looking into it after my two projects are successfully completed and you will definitely be able to purchase some of my artwork towards the end of the year, although maybe not in the format you were expecting.

The page above is page 4 of my 5th Teesha Moore inspired journal.  I have no idea who to attribute the quote to.

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

Big love

AJ 🙂

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© 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.