365 Journal and stuff

It's that time again - time to show our journals.  Pop over to Kate's to see more, or if you're new to this, find out more :-D  I only noticed when cropping May's that I'd missed the bottom portion of the page :-/

A friend asked me to make another Wood Nymph and a doll's chair for her granddaughter.  The second picture shows the doll better I think.

 

My grandson was allowed to look after these 2 cuties for a couple of weeks - they've gone back to the farm (mostly hens) where he helps out now.   They're Indian Runner Ducks.




He's only 11 but when he went with his dad to buy some chicks some months ago he said he'd like to work there so his mum got him to ring up himself to ask :-)  This is him at the farm; looking like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth - don't be fooled haha.  And then him winning bronze at a National Karate Championship in February.

Snow, snow, thick thick snow

We've had a lot of snow here - it may not seem a lot compared with other countries or even other parts of the UK but it's a lot for us.  It started last Thursday night, continued all day Friday and part of Saturday.  We ended up with about 6".  It did stop for a few days but we had a bit yesterday and it's snowing now.  I hope it doesn't carry on as I go line dancing Wednesday evenings but if it snows too heavily I won't be going in case I can't get out of the car park :-/

The picture on the left was taken Friday evening, the one on the right taken Saturday morning (don't take notice of the snow on the chair as it has a cushion on so looks more).

I made this vase from a liquid detergent bottle :-D  I roughed the surface up then glued on crumpled tissue paper and a bit of scrim using Mod Podge gloss (I just found the gloss first, but matte would work as well).  This was then coloured with paint and rubbed over with Metallic Rub-Ons.  The little squares are done using gel medium through a stencil, I added a little bit of metallic paint to some of the squares.  I added more Mod Podge over the whole surface to seal it.  The vase measures 7.5"x5".

I'm trying to clear some items waiting for repair/completion.  This cardi had a large ladder next to the seam on the sleeve, there was no way to just sew it up as the ladder was quite wide but I didn't want to throw the cardi out.  I bought some lace to cover it but had to over-stitch the ladder by putting a piece of thin wool (from another cardigan I bought from a charity shop to felt) underneath and stitching over, then added the lace.  I've added some lace to the other sleeve to tie it in. Sorry the pic's a bit blurred.

I also completed a skirt I started a few years ago for one of my granddaughters but it got stuck in a box and forgotten about - out of sight out of mind describes me very well haha.  It only needed the top turning over and some elastic putting in.  Of course it won't fit my either of my youngest granddaughters now so I've passed it on to another family member.

A pair of collared doves that have been visiting my garden for a couple of years at least.  This was taken through the kitchen window.  I do have a couple of hanging bird feeders but rigged this up so I can watch the birds from the kitchen.  It's a plant pot with an ice-cream tub, with holes in the bottom, wedged in.

Yoohoo is there anybody there? 365 Journal

Long time no blog.  I was late starting November pages as I got mixed up with the actual pages in my journal - I had to paste a blank sheet on the inside cover and found it too much effort (lazy slob!)  At least that's what I thought at the time.  In actual fact I'd started to prepare Nov pages long before and it was for Dec that I needed to add a sheet to inside back cover, so I didn't have to start on a new journal; doh!  Also I was having problems with my camera; first it died then came back to life but has died again; I think it's finally kaput.  My old phone wasn't much good for pics, well they weren't too bad but couldn't take many; I now have a new phone.
I'm not happy with the colours for Nov but as it took me till about halfway through the month to do the daily squares and start writing I decided to just leave it.

Grandkids dog and one of their hens :-D

SuperLambananas

Went to see DS and granddaughters yesterday :-)  Grandson Lewis came with me, but Robyn doesn't like the long drive, thinks she's going to miss something at home (even though there was nothing exciting going on) and as DD was working yesterday morning she would've wanted to be in when her mum got home; even though she then plagued the life out of her mum as is her wont!  The weather was miserable, chucked it down while we were on the motorway and there was fog, mainly when we were passing the moors.  We went to Liverpool where luckily we only had  a little bit of light rain.  We visited the New Museum of Liverpool not a nice looking structure IMO.  And though there are lots of new 'modern' buildings in that area I feel they could've been built to fit in more with the beautiful old buildings around them.  I snapped some of the SuperLambanana sculptures that are dotted around.  You may have seen some previously on Jo's blog and if memory serves also on Donna's (I stand to be corrected though).  Apparantly the original one was created by Japanese artist Taro Chiezo to warn of the dangers of genetically modified food.

 Distant view of Liverpool's Catholic Cathedral; yes we have 2! I've included the other pic (not taken by me) as you can see so little in mine.

The Albert Dock

Statue of Billy Fury (1940-1983)

The River Mersey was quite choppy.

SuperLambananas outside the New Museum of Liverpool

View of Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral (It was much further away than it looks) completed in 1978 (the foundation stone was laid in 1904) is the largest in the UK and the fifth largest in the world

Embroderies in the museum depicting images of Liverpool (there are 2 others either side of this)

A lovely SuperLambanana in the museum, her name is Mandy

Laser cut corrugated card depicting important events - see the info.

Amber, the youngest, decided to squeeze into one of the lockers after DS had retrieved their coats and things.

366 Journal plus Ferry 'Cross The Mersey

366 Journal pages complete on time for Feb and March's ready to go.  Pop over to Kate's to see her wonderful pages and be inspired to join in.

During half term I went to see my son and granddaughters.  We got the train into Liverpool and then a ferry -The Royal Iris - across the River Mersey to Spaceport, Seacombe.  It was freezing on the way out, not quite so bad on the way back.  I intended to take a picture of the ferry but only had my mobile phone and it's not quick enough.  I did get a pic of the Royal Liver Building before we sailed and then took one from the other side of the river; the colours on that pic aren't very good but it was only with my phone.

More fun at Southport and Birthday Stuff

I went to see my son and his girls last week, my other 2 grandkids came with me.  The girls live in Formby, he lives in Southport.  There are a couple of pics of the kids in a park in Formby and DS with his new bike.  He got the bike through Merseyrail, who he works for through a scheme called 'Wheels to Work'.  He only pays £5 a week and less than half the price of the bike which means he could get a really good bike at an affordable price.  We then went into Southport and onto the carousel with the girls love, then the amusement arcade and through the hall of mirrors.  We also hired a little boat for a ride round the lake, all the kids had a turn of being skipper ;-)

Some time ago I showed concertina box files that some friends and I made.  When we did the journalling class with Kate a couple of weeks ago she had something similar but the outer cover was like a book cover.  Some of the 'Ladies Who Lunch' were there and wanted to have a go at making one.  So as I'd done the other one I sorted out how to make the one with the book cover.  When the LWL met up for our monthly playday we did this project.   I forgot I actually had my camera with me or I would've taken pics of what everybody did.  Basically we used a hardback book and took the innards out and made the concertina folder bit.  We didn't have time to decorate the book cover, but I'd already done mine as I thought it would take too long on the day and if I didn't finish it that day it may have ended up being another UFO!  The technique I've used for my book cover I found on Youtub and is one of CapricornArtist73's techniques.  We also made some 'bobbins' mine still have to be embellished.
Pat made me an absolutely beautiful book for my birthday, which was in July and Tracey made me a gorgeous little chipboard 'hangy'.

I bought a new 'toy' from Lidl which I simply love.  It's a Brother Lable Maker, £14.99  This one can do 3 different font sizes and has 4 frames plus an underline facility.  I resisted one of these for a long time as I could do any printing on the PC but it's so handy for card greetings when the PC's not on and DD always wants any cards, she asks me to make, personalised.   I've used it for the 'days' on my 365 pages for August.  Mine has 2 different fonts but for some reason the one Pat bought is slightly different and only has one font and one of the frames is different.
Spent a lovely day in Manchester on Saturday with Suzanne, who is one of my oldest friends.  I treated myself to a vanilla slice in Kendals and bought a lovely long-sleeved black top and a black sleeveless cardi - not a colour I usually go for.

365 Journal Pages

No excuses for not blogging!
Here are my completed pages for June for the 365 Journal and July's pages prepared - oops, I know I've put June again but wanted to get them posted so will amend that some time during the month.

Also some pics of me and 2 of my grandchildren on the carousel at Southport last weekend - I look like I'm missing some teeth on that one :-(  The carousel is very close to the start of the pier which is the 2nd longest in England and was opened in 1860.  They say the tide never comes in in Southport and the pic of the beach seems to support that.  It does come in but most times not very far up the beach.  Looking at this pic it doesn't look very summery, it was for the most part a lovely day but just a few spots of rain and some clouds, whilst back home in West Yorkshire it was a glorious day.  Some pics of us in the House of Mirrors and a couple taken from the tram that goes along the pier.