A Documented Life- week 2 and running late already!

Well, it was never going to go well. They're on week 3, I'm only just finished with week 2.   Week 2- A 'selfie'- There is no way, this side of Hell freezing over,(Yes I know it did last week, but it still didn't help) that I could take a 'selfie' that I would be prepared to even keep, let alone publish! So after long, careful scrutinisation of every picture of me I could find, I went with the one in the bottom corner, and interpreted the 'selfie' part as being about me- what I like,(strange) how I think (even stranger) and my sense of humour (Weird). Also some quotes that resonate with me. You may or may not be able to read all of them in the picture, so they are:

From Eminem: I don't care if you're black, white, straight, bisexual, gay, lesbian, short, tall, fat, skinny, rich or poor. If you are nice to me, I'll be nice to you. Simple as that. and ' You've got enemies? Good. It means you actually stood up for something in your life.'

 From Marilyn Manson: Enjoy your faults.That's what separates you from the rest of the world. And that's what makes you special.

From Dr Martin Luther King: Our Lives begin to end the day we remain silent about the things that matter.

 My humour,the quote at the bottom: Depending on the amount of sugar, caffeine,alcohol and tobacco in my system, I'm either a social butterfly or a ticking time bomb!
 I'm starting to think I will never be old enough to know better.
Someone just called me normal- I've never been so insulted in my life.
I love music, and the page shows many of the bands I love- AC/DC,Iron Maiden,Aerosmith, Metallica, Disturbed.There were loads more that I didn't have room for- AV7X, Five finger death punch, Kiss, Guns & Roses,Rammstein, Slipknot..... the list goes on.
And actually, I probably wouldn't stop wearing black, even if they did invent a darker colour. I've worn black since my teens ( yes I can remember that far back), and my first question when I find anything I like is,' I like it, but do you have it in black?' Not kidding, a torch is a necessity when you open my wardrobe door. I do occasionally wear other colours, but my colour of choice will always be black.

WOYWW #240

Good Morning everyone- heres hoping its not too wet/blustery where you are, and that none of you are affected by all the awful flooding. So back into it we go, Wednesdays popping up faster all the time, it seems. Our esteemed leader, Julia, is over at The Stamping Ground, awaiting your link, to display to the world your creativity and tidiness (or lack thereof!).

And here you have it, I'm having a go at week 2 of A Documented Life, and sticking at it for 2 weeks counts as a long term project for me,lol.
Inks, diary, sponges, pictures, and an inked sheet in the background. Towel on my chair, for drying rubber stamps after cleaning.

Now heres the inked sheet in the foreground, with some stencilled bits on it. And gessoed, to tone the colours down a bit. I Added the stencilling whilst the inked background was still a bit wet, and the colours were quite strong. I thought I'd ink a background sheet, as I didn't want the colour to keep seeping through onto other pages, as the diary paper is pretty thin.

This was it before the stencils/gesso, and next to it, my storage solution for stencils & masks. A document folder thingy from Poundland. Keeps 'em flat, and I get to see what I have. It has a sheet of white paper in each pocket, so you can put two masks in each pocket, one either side of the paper.
 So thats my Wednesday Show & Tell, now its your turn.

A Documented Life-1/1

So New Year, New projects! I have to thank BJ for mentioning this one, and also how she is doing it, which I have shamelessly borrowed.Despite never having completed more than about 1 weeks worth of entries in one, I still buy a diary every year, with the intention that this year will be different. You do not want to know how many unused diaries I have, stored to use in some project or other. BJ mentioned the project A Documented Life,  and that she was going to use a diary for it,which sort of made me curious.
 Now I have to admit that I am not following the way they are doing it entirely, as they have added a pocket to each week, to add memorabilia etc to. I'm not adding one to every week, I'll just incorporate one if I need it- I do not need encouraging to collect any more bits! We already have a boxful of 'mementoes'- parking ticket stubs, entry tickets, you name it, from places we have visited. I'm just glad photos are digital these days.
 The idea is they give a weekly challenge for you to incorporate into your planner, and the first was Photograph, sketch, paint or incorporate your front door.


So, off to trawl through photos on my PC for a photo of our front door. I was just about to give up and go take another picture when I found this one- taken on what was clearly a nice sunny day, and with the door slightly open- perfect.








Printed it off, and here it is on my desk, along with the said diary, and a stencil I cut out with my Silhouette, of brickwork. I had a rough idea in my head where I was going with this subject, which was a bit of a shocker, to be fair.

Distress Inks and the stencil gave me a cool background on one page.










 Added my photo, torn down rather than cut. This will make you smile- I'm sitting here at my PC writing this post, just added that picture, peered closely at it, and thought 'where the heck have those numbers come from?' Then remembered, its a diary. Not entirely sure I should be allowed sharp pointy things, lol.

Completely gratuitous shot of a mid-craft coffee and Stollen break. You don't want to know how many stollen we need to get through. Thats what happens when you forgot you already bought some.

 Forgot to photograph this page before I finished- I printed out a selection of pictures of the inside of the house, as well as Beloved Hubby, Ambrose & myself. The house pictures were layered up down the page, just torn and overlapping. Then I added Hubbys pic, along with Ambrose and me, torn and stuck over the others.

The writing I did  with a DI marker, and the heart is a triple embossed chipboard piece.
 It was the phrase 'Home is where the Heart is' that gave me the idea for how to do this challenge, and for once, it came out pretty much exactly as I saw it.
 The other bonus with this, is that I keep saying I will do an Art Journal- so I may well be killing a couple of birds with one stone here.
 I'm not actually expecting to do every week- I'm already a week behind, they posted a new one today-I will just do the ones that appeal. I mean, this weeks is 'use a selfie'- thats never going to happen. It takes at  least a dozen attempts to get a picture of me I find acceptable- another good thing about digital pictures. Oh well, off to browse for a reasonably presentable photo of me- that should occupy most of the week.

Lilybo Quilt- at last!

At last! My LilyBo quilt has finally been finished. It seems I started it ages ago, and just completely lost track of last year.The quilt was about three parts done, it was the bag that was daunting me. Not having made one before, I could see disaster looming.
 Anyhow, the sewing machine was out, as I had to adjust the length on the Louvre blind Hubby was putting up in his window last night, so I decided now or never.

 Speaking of Beloved Hubby, he is holding the quilt up from behind the door!
                                                                    

                                                                                    The front of the bag has a panel of bears on it.










The back of the bag has a pocket made from a spare bear patch.

Struggled with the handles a bit- not done those before either.
 Main problem I think, is that I don't use my sewing machine enough, so I'm not really very familiar with it, and every time something didn't go right, I had to keep getting the manual out. Also need to remember to change needles a bit more often. I can see wonky lines, which irritates me, but me and straight lines don't get along too well! Anyhow, I'll be packing this up and getting it off to JoZarty over the weekend, along with a little bear for the pocket.

WOYWW #239- The New Year Edition

       Wishing a Happy, Healthy, Peaceful & Prosperous
                      New Year to you & your families.

Well, as Julia did a Christmas Day WOYWW, I’m assuming there will be a New Years Day one too. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and that none of you are suffering with all the flooding.
 First pic of today is not exactly on my desk, I had to show you one of  Beloved Hubbys Christmas presents for me this year. Pretty much every year he manages to come up with something awesome, and this year is no exception.

I had to balance them on top of the radiator- they will go on the wall in our bedroom above this radiator. He had two of our favourite Wedding photos turned into canvas prints! He turned them to Black & White first.
So, what has everyone been up to over the Christmas Holiday? I know we are lucky, we don’t go back to work until Thursday night, many of you will have been working over the holiday, or are already back at work. Despite the break, not a lot of crafting done. Quite a bit of tidying and cleaning though. The only thing I have done is make myself some stencils with my Silhouette and some Transparency sheets.
       My Silhouette machine- its one of the original Silhouette digital cutters, at least 10 years old now, but still working just fine.

   And the latest batch of stencils I’ve cut.
The cleaning  was a bit of a necessity by now, Hubby has been renovating what was my old craft room, to use for himself for doing computer repairs in. Being a bit of a tech geek, he gets lots brought to him, and the living room usually looks like PC Worlds spares department!  Anyhow, that involved much the same as when we did my room- new ceiling/plastered/painted/papered/laminate floor/new woodwork & varnishing.Along with a bunch of Ikea units, its now almost finished.The house is pre-1900’s, and the plaster/woodwork is in the main, the original, so well overdue for an overhaul. As you can see in the pics, around the top of the wall is a white band- this was common, as a picture hanging rail would generally go all around the walls just below this, and then wallpaper went below the rail, and the area above the rail & the ceiling both painted white.Though in those days, it would have been whitewash, not emulsion.

One change he has made, the door now opens the opposite way. You can see in the picture, the underneath of the stairs going up to the next level which leaves an area that’s not very user friendly. So he swapped the door to open against that now, and moved the light switch.

This is after the woodchip had been stripped off, and the old laminate removed.

Work in progress- plastered and painted, new doors being varnished.

 Hubby in mid-construction mode.

Now he’s moving his stuff in, and said that he probably has more storage than he really needs. I said I could lend him some stuff to store, lol, he said No, thank you. Actually, thats not exactly what he said, but you get the idea.

   Hubbys room almost finished, just the blind to hang, and his stuff to put away. The built in cupboard has had shelves put in,as in these old houses, storage is at a premium, and also holds the filing cabinet and server.
 And a lot of ‘stuff’ that doesn’t have another home.
 So thats me for another week, and indeed another year.
 Its amazing that this will be my third year of blogging- I know loads of you have been at it for way longer, but I really never realised how much a part of my life it would become, along with all my wonderful WOYWW friends. So, at midnight, I will have raised a glass to each and every one of you ( that’s one glass between you all, tempting though the idea might be ), here’s to the next year xx.