Journal Junkies

Well Sunday was our first "Journal Junkies" get together. We decided to hire a hall instead of trying to squash into our respective houses. As there's 8 of us and with all our "stuff", we thought a hall would serve our purpose a lot better, which it did. It was very spacious with plenty of tables and chairs, a kitchen, really good light and lots of room to spread out. Everyone arrived pretty much on time with the exception of Suzzanne, but we know she's always late.........I think we'll have to call her "Got lost again Suzzanne" . Only one didn't turn up, but she's busy swanning around Canada and taking lovelly little day trips to Niagra Falls..... aren't you Joanie. Thank you Carmen for organising the hall and the beautiful strawberries and icecream you brought, they were delicious. Everyone worked on their respective projects, some doing pages for various journals they are working on. Kerin working on a wedding album she is making for a friend and all of us being very productive. I hope I haven't mixed up any ones work, if so let me know.

This is what I did. A bit of sewing and glueing.

This is Carmen's

This is Anna's

This is Joan's

This is Suzzanne's

Romeo, Romeo

Yesterday we had a visit from the sweetest little puppy. Romeo is his name and he's a Pugalier. A Pug crossed with a Cavalier. So sweet it almost made me want to go out and get one. But then my sanity prevailed and I started thinking about vet bills, heart worm, flea stuff, walkies and picking up doggy do and dug up gardens and I quickly changed my mind. He can just come and visit me every so often.

Carmen and Brighita..............eat your hearts out!

Book Making Experiment

I was in Art Shed in the other day and picked up this really great book called Painted Paper by Alisa Golden. All kinds of beauftiful things in it with lots of fairly easy to follow instructions, so I decided to have a go at making a book. It's about 10.5 cm by 15 cm and I have painted all the pages using Panpastels and FW acrylic artist inks and Daler Rowney Pearlescent liquid acrylics. Love those paints. On the cover is a small picture behind a microscope slide bound with copper tape. It was supposed to go on an ATC but I never got around to attaching it so decided it would look good on the cover. I also bound a chipboard frame with Silk ribbons that I bought from Vivian and glued that to the cover as well. I tried some of the techniques from the book on the inner pages hoping they would look as good as Alisa's, but alas, it's a bit like cooking really, it never looks like the recipe in the cook book.

I didn't have any linen thread to bind the book with so just used some embroidary thread. The photos don't really show the colours to the best advantage but for all you Journal Junkies I'll bring it with me next week so you can have a look.

I seriously need some photography lessons !.

Op Shop Treasures

I was out cruisin' the Op shops a couple of weeks ago and came across these photo stands. Two about 15 cm high and one about 25cm. I looked at them for a while and thought naaah! bit too glitzy, bit too ornate, bit too GOLD, so I wandered off down the other aisles to see what other treasures there were for me to buy. But I kept going back to these stands. Then I had an "arty" brain explosion and the possibilities for transforming these glitzy stands started up. They only cost a few dollars so I thought what the heck, if my ideas don't turn out then not huge waste.

So here is the stand after it's transformation. I painted it with black gesso and then highlited all the raised parts with silver Rubb & Buff, looks so much better now I think than it did before.

I had a workshop last Saturday with the very talented Kelsey and we painted a small canvas and then made 9 "inchies" which were then attached to the canvas. The inchies were decorated with paint, various images and bits and bobs and my re-vamped photo stand is the perfect size to display my inchie canvas on. What do you think?

90th Birthday

HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY MUM.

It was mums' 90th birthday a couple of weeks ago. I'm a bit late posting this, but better late than never. Although when you're 90 things shouldn't be left for too long should they. It was the first time in about 30 years that we have all been together, seeing as how everyone is scattered all over the country. It was great to all catch up and spend some time together. The birthday lunch was delicious "homemade" pumkin soup and little quiches and party pies and sausage rolls and delicious birthday cake.

Here we all are in our matronly glory! the H-W girls, all six of us plus mum. Seven women in a 3 bedroom house with one bathroom co-existing. Not the most harmonious at times. Especially Saturday nights when we were all trying to get ready to go out (1 bathroom, remember). But we've all turned out OK and poor mum has survived all that cooking, washing, cleaning and sewing she did for us. Thanks mum.

Here's the lowdown on us, oldest to youngest: (tongue firmly in cheek)

B. She bellowed and was bossy and we were all a little afraid of her. But now she's a GRANDMA to a sweet little boy, she's just a big mushy pushover and we can all boss her now.

J. Slightly bohemian, swanning around town in her red wool cape and black boots.

A. She was the door slammer of the family, now she just slams down vodka shots.....hey who said that...that's not true....she's very conservative and is Our Lady of the Books.

D. that's me........we'll get back to me in a moment.

M. Always had two big lumps on here forehead from falling over all the time. But she has produced a beautiful gifted child, so there is something to be said for numerous blows to the head at a young age.

N. She was the plumpest, yummiest baby and I used to kiss her from the morning till the night which probably explains why she moved to the other side of the country and is slightly disturbed. (not really)

Then there's me. Well........I was the sweetest, most polite, helpful and obliging child and everyone loved me. OK?

(all nasty comments from the sisters will be vetted....you all know who you are)

Having a Whinge

I was watching Grumpy Old Women the other night on the ABC and it wasn't a terribly funny episode so that made me a little annoyed. After hours and hours of Olympics (any one who knows me knows I'm not a fan of sports, especially hours of uninterupted sport on TV) I was looking forward to some light relief, a belly laugh or three, something that I could relate to, something I could agree with and say, yes, yes, I know exactly what you mean. But alas, it was all pretty standard stuff........so I decided to make my own list of things that annoy me, that make me grumpy, that make want to run screaming down the street and yelling why, why, WHY.

So here's my list:



1. Checkout chics who don't know what an avacado is..........seriously.



2. Photoshop....why hasn't someone written a "how to" book that explains things, step by labourious step, for us Baby Boomers who haven't a clue about anything to do with computers, (at least we know what an avacado is!). Even my copy of Photoshop for Seniors is of no use whatsoever.



3. Petrol stations.....remember back in the good old days when you got service. They filled your tank, checked your oil, washed the windscreen, took your money and brought back the change all with you not having to exit your vehicle. Now we pay them for the priviledge of doing all those tasks and get charged extra when we use a credit card!



4. Crock pots......The new crock pots don't cook like the old ones did. The temperature is too high and everything dries out and it's tough. Evidently it's to do with food safety standards, someone could become ill from food that wasn't cooked properly. Well I'd like to know how many "crock pot" deaths have been recorded since their invention. None I suspect.



5. Husbands who think that sport is the only good thing on TV. I mean what's wrong with Home and Away, Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, Better Homes and Gardens and best of all Dancing with the Stars. I mean really, the man has no taste when it comes to TV viewing.



6. This is the one that makes me the grumpiest of all. Loud music in shops. Can't stand it, it drives me absolutely insane. Every shop you enter has loud music which is competing with the piped music from the shopping centre. I don't understand it. I would think that shop owners would want to provide a pleasurable experience for their customers, to keep them browsing longer in the hopes the customer will eventually spend some money. Not me....if the music is too loud I walk straight out. I have even asked in some shops for the music to be turned down! Then the young assistants look at me like I'm a Grumpy Old Women ......the cheek of it all.


..........when I'm grumpy ............. ..........I look like this.

.........and when I'm really grumpy..............

..........I morph into this!

A Mortifying Moment

I've only had my printer for about three months and a couple of weeks ago it went berserk with lots of clanging and screeching. It kept telling me that I had a paper jam. Well I turned that printer upside down and inside out looking for jammed paper and couldn't find any. so I rang the the printer company and was told to bring it in. On a very wet, windy, stormy day I drove to the other side of town dodging debris that had blown over the road and stupid windscreen wipers that only work properly if you are doing 100k's down the freeway and of course hoping all the way that when I got there I would find a park right out the front. But no..........so in between showers I tried to run down the road carrying that stupid bulky printer without dropping it and dodging the rain. Running, bulky and rain shouldn't be in the same sentence. So I finally get in there and tell the guy the problem and there is definitely no jammed paper in there because I have looked and I'm not very happy that after only 3 months the printer is broken. (There was no mistaking the cutting tone in my voice........see above ATC). Well two weeks went by and I finally got a call saying it was ready and there certainly was paper jammed in the printer. I went to pick it up and the service guy and very kindly folded up and taped to the top of it the piece of paper that had been caught. When I got home and connected it all again I was curious to see what was on the jammed piece of paper. Imagine my horror, embarresment and mortification when I saw what it was.............


Now I have to explain..........Chas brings home lots of scrap paper from work which I use when I'm doing a test print run. I never look to see what's on the other side, just bung it in the printer and away I go, but from now on I think I'll do a little checking before I hit the print button just in case. What must the printer service guy be thinking!