Phew! That was one HOT month!

I don't know about you but July seems to begin the countdown to Christmas for me...
The first half of the year is over and the next six months are upon us.
Here are my June and July art calendar pages... July is still in progress (I feel free to write that - see comment below!) I used Dyan's Altered Original spray inks and paints for the background which I will continue to work on throughout the month.





June came and went in a blink!





Well I thought I'd better bring this to your attention...



You are either very polite bloggers not to make reference or you didn't notice the spelling mistake about my 'pigrimage'!!! I was looking at my page after I'd posted on my blog and laughed out loud! (in my defense all I can say is that I was so involved in my desire to write neatly and make the word fit in the space I had that I made a mistake!!)
I did get a 'phone call from my mate Gill who seems to be the only other person who spotted it, she asked "What on earth is a pigrimage"!!
Anyway this is how I've had to amend it....



June has been a scorching month hasn't it? I'm not a sun worshipper at all but I have loved the sunshine - I feel as though we've had 'proper' seasons (so far!) this last year - a snowy Winter, a fresh Spring and now a hot Summer.

It's been a strange old month for me, busy on a few fronts, finalising work for College, (thanks for your words of encouragement last post) lots of hospital visits with both Mum and Dad who have had some poor health recently and are feeling weary of all the too-ing and fro-ing...



There is no stopping the onslaught of age and how it affects our loved ones and this year has been tough as we lost my Auntie to Alzheimer's just two months ago. I cannot, absolutely cannot bear the thought of losing my beloved parents. So whether it be in hospital waiting rooms or wherever, I treasure every moment I get to spend with them. Just writing that has been cathartic as I have been resentful because all my time seems to have been eaten up in hospital waiting rooms for the first half of this year - with Auntie Glad, Mum and Dad and myself. I'm looking forward to the next six months and better health for us all!

I'm also looking forward to more of this kind of therapy...

Art Journaling is one of my favourite things to do and yesterday I went for a 'messing around day at Art from the Heart and I got a whole day to play....



It was just wonderful to mess around with no pressure to complete anything...



Being in the company of other like minded people and listening to ordinary, everyday chitter chatter was just what I needed. I was telling Dyan how I flit about in my journals and so it takes me ages before I get a finished piece of work to post and she encouraged me to post 'works in progress' so here they are...



This one is waiting for spray inks...



This one for some words and more doodling...



And these, well I just don't know yet, but I love them even in this bare state. I certainly had fun with Dyan's new Altered Original spray inks...







My own set...



Dyan is really pleased with her inks...they have gone down a storm, if you love this kind of art I encourage you to get some here



Now I love the world of blogging and just to prove how friendly bloggy folk are check out this next photo...last Saturday Andy and I went to an all dayer (a Northern Soul all day dance extravaganza) in Bridlington and I was approached by this lovely lady who recognised me from my blog photograph... what a network of friends you make when you jump in (DO IT Janeyb!) This is chrisg



And as its been such a hot month, here is a photograph of Andy purchasing my favourite tipple at one of our favourite places...a coffee light frappucino - double blended of course! Try it and see what you think...



Byeeeeeee!

Arting around feels good!

Here are a few art journal pages I've been working on during the night when I can't sleep...its really helped me to wind down from the pressures of the day. Once I've done that, I go to bed and listen to my ipod - usually Andrea Bocelli - last years birthday gift from a friend - yes Gill I DO listen to it and I like it very muchly thank you, in fact I'm listening to it now as I write this!

Andy loved this one - he's my honest critic and I value his opinion of my work.
*note to my daughters - I luurve you...hope this makes you laugh!!



I was feeling pretty poopy this day, I think the murky background colour shows it!



This was done after the one above but I thought I'd brighten it up a little more... don't want to feel morose when I look back at these pages! I used pastels to make the border.



And this image was from a Sunday supplement. I liked....well, more like I was drawn to the pink hair! I did this last night and haven't journal ed yet as the thoughts are still chunkling around inside my head.



I can see these pages have a theme in that Ive 'framed' them all, i.e. given them all a border which I quite like.

Proven Therapy!

I know what to do when I need a little therapy - art journal!
It's great to do when your day is 'bitty'. I used to think I needed at least a few hours to go into my craft room and 'create' something...but that really isn't true for me anymore. (thanks to a certain Dyan Reaveley who educated me recently on the anatomy of a journal page!)
My days have been quite taken up with visiting my Aunty and sorting out a care package for when she comes home (very draining trying to get people (Dr's!) to understand the situation!)
So in between the running around (AND the other stuff I have to do every day) I nip into my craft room and art journal - one time I might spend a few minutes adding paint to a page, next time I go in it will be adding the background splodges or stamping or whatever...you know how it is!
I'm also loving being part of Kate's 365 art calendar challenge, you journal a snapshot of your day EVERY day of the year (which will be interesting to look back on in years to come.) So next time I go into my room it will be logging that days event! Then I go back to the art journal and start to 'build' the page... if I've only got a few minutes it will be something as simple as cutting out an image.

Anyway, this week I started a larger art journal - well large for me - if you want to see large, go to Virginia's blog and see LARGE!

This looks kinda scary on its own doesn't it? Its that grinning over sized mouth! I sometimes feel like this - my interpretation here was smiling through gritted teeth...

And this is the whole thing.....

I just keep bobbing into my room when I have any spare time. I know that's harder to do if you have young children or use another room as your crafting space because you can't leave things out... I'm fortunate to be able to close the door on my mess!

But the phenomenon that is art journaling is blessing my socks off at the moment and keeping me grounded during stressful times.