Thursday 28 June 2007

Hello again

Back now from working away again, and after the obligatory day or two of sheer collapse and this time unfortunately, trying to unkink my back, here I am catching up on Emily Falconbridge's art journal challenge. Week 24 "Remember when...", something random you'd never journalled or created about before. So this was from my first trip abroad, to Helsinki, in 1989. And week 25 is a photo that means something. This was hard cos it's kind of a small size for a photo, but this is one of the little buddha on the road home / road north, on a high point on the road, looking out over the loch and the mountains. Lots of people must stop and leave little stone piles and thoughts, but I never see them, I always have him to myself. I don't always stop, but it's nice to know he's there. Peaceful and calming.

Friday 15 June 2007

More minibooks!

I've getting addicted to these I fear ... and have made two recently (both with bought books). The first one now houses all those lovely cross stitch and hand made Easter cards my family have made over the years, and I just couldn't throw them out, especially the cross stitch ones.
Well I liked doing this one so much I had to do another one today! It seems a great way of using lots of photos, especially if they tell a story. So I decided to tell the tale of the felt bowls from April when I was down looking after my sisters' kids.
Hhhmm, wonder what to do next??

Thursday 14 June 2007

Right Now!

Week 23 of Emily Falconbridge's Art Journal Card challenge and the prompt is 'right now'. Well, right now, I feel like thing have really got to change. I am fat and tired and sore today, and after walking round London yesterday and flying back home I am realizing that I cannot live like this and have the kind of life I want. I am not healthy and I have to lose weight, get fitter and become healthier. In other words, having decluttered the flat I now need to move on to me, and change things round to get the body I need to live my life. I know it won't happen overnight (I didn't get like this overnight!) and I will need to be very disciplined and sort out a few emotional lifestyle issues which result in me eating too much and the wrong things. And I will need to start liking exercise. But I enjoyed my trip yesterday, it was sunny and hot and great to see places you'd only seen on the telly before. But I also hate the fact that my skin is chafed and sore, my feet are blistered and I was so tired I went to bed and slept this afternoon. Hhmmm, food for thought (rather than for my mouth!) The pink flower lists what I am "fat,tired, sore" and the purple flower where I am headed "healthy, organised, happy". I'll keep you informed!

Tuesday 12 June 2007

I love to fly

I do. I know I've done it lots and lots of times now, but there is something exciting about it all. I don't even mind having to hang around airports for ages. Am I weird? Or just a big kid.... I took this piccie out the window on the way home from Italy last week, and can't believe it actually came out usable. But I can't take too long to post this, yep, I've got a plane to catch! Am off to London so will see you in a couple of days.

Sunday 10 June 2007

Team Challenges

Over at UKS my team the Bitty Blossoms, run a fortnightly challenge, in which we all take turns to set a challenge, usually involving a favourite something and a technique or media. The top one was favourite flower and to use ribbons. I'm also working to a personal challenge to use exisiting photos rather than take any new ones for these challenges, so I sometimes struggle! The rose photo was taken in Anhliac in the south of France a few years ago, and I've always liked it. To be honest, I'm not sure what my favourite flower would really be - I love the yellow broom (gorse or whin) that blooms along the roads in springtime and seems to call you away, and any kind of wild flower flowering in the fields, but roses are always gorgeous, especially wild ones.This was my challenge to the team. To scrap your favourite building, and to use a pattern as well. This is an old photo of the Mariners' Home in Greenock. I used to walk past it every day, and thought it looked so gothically romantic, I'd have loved to see inside!

Wednesday 6 June 2007

I want to learn ... week 22

There's lots of things I want to learn. I love learning. I'm just back from five days in Italy, and now I want to learn Italian, to learn to drive on the other side of the road, to learn to dress stylishly. When I came back from Germany I wanted to learn German. I want to learn to speak fluently in Gaelic and not have to keep resorting to English for certain things. I want to learn how to emboss things properly and how to paint. I want to learn yoga and how to stay healthy and calm in body and mind. I decided I had to chose just one thing for this card. So it's a deep seated want: I love the music, the passion, the elegance, the drama. It must be amazing to be able to dance tango...

Friday 1 June 2007

Sometimes simplicity's best

Here's a few more of the layouts I did on holiday, and yes you can guess from the title what kind of 'style' these ones are. Barely more than sticking a photo on paper, but sometimes I feel that's all a photo wants, and if you match it with the right paper, hey presto, it works! Maybe this burst of simplicity was what started off the mamoth declutter, hhm, funny how the mind works. Speaking of which, I love this living in a clean tidy house with everything in its place. Well almost everything, I still have to file some bits of paper and pick up all the CDs off the floor in front of the CD rack, put the CDs back in their little jewel cases, then put them back on the rack. And hopefully, they'll stay there this time...but it's late now and I'm off to Italy tomorrow for 5 days with a school trip, so that'll be one job waiting for me when I get back! See you all soon.