On My New Year's Workdesk !

With the Christmas festivities all done & dusted, the mountain of ironing attacked (& very nearly subdued !) and the decorations safely stowed back in the roof, there was finally some time to myself on my last day off of the New Year break to let a bit of creativity back into my life !

I have nearly finished my Christmas Journal - just a couple last entries to print out & stick in - I like to finish mine on New Year's Day as by that time I am ready to move on to new creative adventures !

And Friday I had a major blitz of tidying all the "stuff" that had been dumped on my desk whilst I was too busy to even take a seat there !

I have started a new Journal which I have called "Create 2012" - I'm hoping that this will be a place for creative experiments - somewhere to plan projects, make notes & collect ideas that I can dip back into when I'm having a "blank page /blank mind" day !! I don't intend it will replace my current rather battered (& by now rather treasured !) Art Journal but that they will work together, interplaying between the two.

I have also created a "Book of Days" - I have seen these on other girls blogs - each month has its own decorated page with little squares for each days to add a note or a doodle.

I have January all laid out with the background page mostly done & the squares glued in - theses are recycled from pages I made by smudging leftover inks on them at last Summer's Artsycrafty weekend ! See - you never know when something will come in handy !!

Rich had a selection box of mustard's for Christmas - they came in an intriguingly triangular shaped box - which was just calling out to me to be altered !! So today it got a couple of layers of gesso & I am waiting for it to tell me what it wants to be !!

I have also been playing about adding layers to my Lynne Perrella inspired Woman icon style canvas - still sticking with the duck egg blue & eggshell but now trying to add texture & depth.

So, I am hoping for a year of creative endeavours ahead - maybe a few hours a week happily covered in paint & ink will help keep the gloom of the world's economies unravelling & the consequent austerity measures - and the endless Welsh rain - at bay & out of mind !!

Here's to a Happy Creative New Year !

Merry Christmas 2011

We have had a lovely Christmas snug & warm from the damp, wet days outside !

The family all arrived safely from North Wales & Berkshire loaded with gifts & drinks !

We had a very nice meal at Sosban on North Dock in Llanelli - amazing the restoration they have accomplished there !

On Christmas Morning, we gathered for a happy hour of present opening, then ate a full Christmas Dinner with all the trimmings, drank plenty of Cava, chatted & played games & watched Christmas TV.

We followed this with a couple of days of peaceful fuddling about & resting up and enjoying each other's company.

Christmas Miracle 1918

Today I had a story published on the "Scrapgirls" website.

They were asking for true Christmas stories & I just had a compulsion to write the story that my Great Uncle Arthur had told me many years ago about his coming home from the First World War.

I just had an intuitive feeling that they would like the story and if I sent it I might be chosen !

So I wrote my tale & created the required accompanying digital scrapbook layout using their products as was laid out in the rules of the competition.

And today out of the blue when I opened their daily newsletter - there was my story !

http://www.scrapgirls.com/NL/SG_News_111214_Wed_Two.html

I was chuffed that they liked it & chose to publish it - and pleased to think of girls all over the world reading Uncle Arthur's story !

Journal your Christmas 2011

And we're off ... today is the first day of my 4th Journal Your Christmas ! I have my covers underway & love the feeling that girls all over the world are taking part in this scrapping month ! I also like the idea of looking back on each year in years to come & remembering the good (and even the bad) times I have had each December !

Christmas Makes !

So Christmas activity on the workdesk this week !

I have the place cards for the Christmas Dining Table finished (as you can see it's a red & gold theme this year !) so that's one job done & dusted.

The Angel (one of Tilda's patterns) I am making for my mother in law is well underway - just the hair to stitch on & features and a few finishing touches !

I am making a quick gift box for my Mum so that to finish ... happily all the rest of the pressies for my side of the family are safely wrapped & ready to pass over to my sister when we meet for our annual girlie weekend in Bath on Saturday ! Looking forward to having time together as we live 6 hours apart & seeing the Christmas market which is supposed to be very atmospheric.

Although I am eternally grateful we don't have the snow we had this time last year - with it being so mild I'm feeling it hard to get Christmassy ! And Journal Your Christmas starts tomorrow !

Lest We Forget

It struck me that we are a unique generation living through this sequence of special dates at the start of the century where the day the month & the year all have the same number.

11-11-11 was especially poignant being Remembrance Day. So I created this Journal Page to honour this date & the fallen - in special memory of Great Grandfather Thomas Blackman, killed at Ypres in 1915.

WOYWW - Huddled in my workroom away from the winter rain !

So here we are with the clocks changed for the Winter - dark going to work in the morning & dark coming home at night ! The only fun place is amongst the clutter on my work-desk !

Here we have the Industrial Chic configurations box project which I didn't quite get finished at my Artsycrafty Weekend - what a big step outside my comfort zone with the paint effects & style - but brilliant to have the chance to try something new! After a bit more gluing & decoration to finish it off & I think it looks really cool !

I also have my new Paperartsy Hot Picks stamps which I am looking forward to playing with !

I'm also having a play around with my own version of what I saw the girls had done on one of the Lynne Perrella workshops - taking a photocopy of a face & overlaying with paint & other decorations - early days but fun to experiment with a new style ! Hope everyone has a happy crafty week !