My Month in Numbers 2012: September

Hi, hi.

I can't hold up the pretence much longer that it's not really Autumn ... mainly because it is. So here's the first officially Autumnal Month in Numbers of 2012.

Be warned: I usually aim to be upbeat here, entirely bright and chipper and willing to find the bright side but this month got it into its head to try me ... so let's start with the numbers which have tested my patience this month ...

2 = the number of leakages discovered.

One involving a blue ProMarker and a once-cream bag:

 

And another involving a bottle of shower gel and some [absorbent!] toilet paper: 

Now, if you've been reading my numbers for a while you might remember a statistic involving the aforementioned loo roll back in January this year when James randomly came home with, what I predicted would be, a year's supply of the stuff. 

Well, you'll be delighted [I'm sure] to learn that we were indeed on track to achieve this feat ... until the shower-gel scenario seriously threatened it.

But ... when I thought about it ... there was no real need to throw them away, after all shower gel has certain properties which well ... could come in useful. I'll spare you the details but I'll just say ... after a flush ... there are lots of soapy bubbles left behind ...

11 = the number of dresses which came crashing down with a heart-stopping clatter when the hook they were on fell out of the wall! If you remember last month's post you'll remember my lovely new bedroom wall hook from which I could finally, safely, hang up my dresses. Or so I thought ....

05:30am = the time of day 11 dresses came crashing down with a heart-stopping clatter when the hook they were on fell out of the wall!

2 = the number of much longer screws James used to fix the hook into the wall the second time around!

2 = the number of times James's van broke down on our drive.
1 = the number of manhole covers - on our neighbour's side of the drive -  broken by the recovery truck which came to cart the van away.

And in amongst all this ... as proof of my state of mind:

6 = the number of chocolate biscuits I distractedly crammed into the recycling bag:

[That's them cosying up to another number from this month '415 = the hair dye I used which also goes by the appropriate name of Delicate Iced Chocolate'].

It wasn't until I wondered why I was carrying an empty plastic wrapper around the kitchen that it dawned on me ... that I'd held on to the packet ... and thrown the contents away.

And, as we know, throwing chocolate away is one of the first signs of madness ... and here are a few more ...

... this is also the same month in which I:

• found a tea loaf crumb on my face when I was half-way round Tesco [half way people!! I'd been walking round with evidence of my breakfast on my face for half my entire shopping trip!!] and ...
• realised that for another shopping trip I'd been walking around with just the one earring in. Not because I'd lost the other. No. I found it when I got home ... still in the jewellery box where it had been all day since I put the other one in and must have got distra....

17 = the number of new/old books bought in a single trip. Note to self: next time, take a trolley!

8 = the number of old books a friend rescued from impending doom at work and brought to my welcoming arms/scissors:

Thanks again Jo!  They've already been put to good use in my Learn Something New Everyday journal. And that costume book has almost been pawed to death. I love it!!

30 = the number of collagey, messy, cards created to play along with Learn Something New Everyday. [Well at the time of writing I've only made 29 ... but by tonight I'll have all 30 completed.]

20 = the number of envelopes I filled with a tag plus vintage paper, punched patterned paper, gems, words and feathers and delivered to a local gallery owner as an exhibition-opening gift:

The idea was that he could give the packs away to visitors to promote his arty workshops and then the visitors could make a tag similar to the examples I left there. On the back people could declare what their 'art' was as he's hoping to show people that it isn't one fixed thing. I hope he managed to convince people to take a pack home with them and that there's 20 people out there having a go at some messy tag making this weekend.

And finally ...

8 out of 10 = the number of Afternoon Tea treats I managed to eat during a fabulously genteel feast with friends yesterday:

And the 2 I couldn't manage at the time came home with me - boxed up - where James ate one and a half and the other half is saved for me later today!

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OK .... enough about me ... as always you're all welcome to join in with your own September stats at any point during the next month.

Here's the usual blurb again:

• If you write a post and want to leave a link for myself and others to visit and/or pin to the Month in Numbers Pinterest board please bear in mind it has a shared experience aspect to it.
• When you swing by my blog to drop off a link to your Month in Numbers post - please leave a comment for me while you're there. Not because I'm needy ... but because it feels fair. Reciprocal.
• Please link to my blog in your post. As much as I'd like to think that everyone who reads your blog already knows what 'My Month in Numbers' means... the truth is, they don't. So unless you explain where the idea comes from and how your readers can join you in doing the same next month, they are none the wiser.
• Please take time at some point in the month to visit and comment on a few of the other posts too.

And if this is all new to you check out the full Month in Numbers details here, which includes a tutorial to get you started.
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Thanks for swinging in today, here's to a happy 10th month for us all.

Julie :-)

Art Journaling: recipe card journal. Week 3 of LSNED

Hello, hello.

Thank you for your kind words on my Learn Something New Everyday recipe card journal so far. And to those who've said it's inspiring them to do something similar ... that's so good to hear! Do let me know if/when you do!

Right, as we're fast running out of September ... I'll better share the latest batch of finished cards + lessons ...

Week 3

September 15th:

Do you watch BBC4's Inspector Montalbano? Absolutely one of my highlights of the week.

September 16th:

One of the biggest, most rewarding benefits of working from home on Mondays. And one which I am constantly grateful for.

September 17th:

I'm a little addicted to my Hanjie puzzle book right now and also the Radio Times puzzle page ... and repeats of The Crystal Maze .. and Only Connect ... and I could go on ...

September 18th:

September 19th:

September 20th:

September 21st:

I'm happy about this last lesson as I do worry about the warnings people give about when your hobby becomes your job ... and how you lose the passion for the hobby. And I'd hate that to happen.

Granted there are some days where, after a day of magazine work I just can't face any more papercrafting [hence the role of puzzles in my relaxation activities!]. But, fortunately, there are other days where, as soon as I package up a parcel to post out to a magazine ... I gladly pick up where I left off in my own crafting. So it's good to have documented that in this project.

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To catch up with my card-a-day LSNED journal in full visit:

• Week 1;
• Week 2;
• and the folder where I'm storing the journal here.

And there's 3 kits available here - which containing many of the supplies I used in this project [recipe cards, washi tape, vintage images and more].

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See you tomorrow with my Month in Numbers ... maybe I should begin with ... 21 = the number of LSNED recipe cards I've blogged so far ...

Julie :-)

Art Journaling: Summer's Lease

Hi.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate;
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date ...

Good old Will. He knew what he was talking about didn't he?

I don't mean about love and beauty ... I mean about British summer. Summer 2012 in particular.

This year summer's lease well and truly had all too short a date. What do you reckon we squeezed out of it? 6 weeks? ish. Maybe. And after the terrible rain of the last week we've certainly been plunged rudely into Autumn.

But I'm old enough to expect nothing different ... and so pages like this get made, in the garden, in the sunshine, on an August afternoon. Pages to document the season. To prove that there were at least few noteworthy, sunshiny, happy-making days:

Obviously, when I made the page I wasn't aware that 'Summer 2012' would end as it began. Damply. Bookended by incessant rainfall, yet ...

...experience told me that something like it might happen .. so after making a grand, celebratory, declaration in the titling:

... I included some small print which, as it turned out, was more realistic and, alas, accurate!

Hopefully it wasn't a self-fulfilling prophecy and the weather was all my fault!

Thanks for poking your head round my door today. May all your wellies be watertight.

Julie :-)

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If the change in seasons has sent you scurrying to your craft supplies for cosy nights spent crafting, there are 2 weather themed Plundered Pages packs - A Turn in the Weather 1 & 2, to help you scrap your seasonal photos:

Plus:

•  there's a new version of an old favourite theme with the latest 'Dogs'  themed pack;
• and a couple of fantasy packs: 'Myth, Merlin & Medieval England' and 'Wolves, Bears & Howling at the Moon'.

There's lots more to come too including ... foreign language mini packs, number + diagram minis, several Anatomy + Medicine packs and Birds and Horses thrown in for good measure!

Art Journaling: storing my recipe-card journal

Hi again.

In yesterday's post I shared another week's worth of my Learn Something New Everyday pages and, as they're simply a pile of 4x6 recipe cards on to which I've journaled and collaged ... I was always going to need some way of keeping them all together.

If you're working on anything similar - or you're considering one of the recipe card journal kits I've put together - then the possible options for keeping the cards together include:

• punching 1/2 holes through the stack and storing them on bookring/s;
• using a Bind-it-All;
• dropping them into a decorated box;
• slotting them into a regular photo album;
• using divided scrapbook page-protectors [there are lots of those available at the moment due to the popularity of daily/weekly life-documenting projects] ... or ... as I finally decided upon ...

... nestling them down inside a kraft 'Creative Folder' folder by Collections Elements:

The folder began life like this:

 ... and they're available here from 3DJean.

If you'd like to see some 'in progress' photos and details on how I built up the decoration on the folder then all that can be found in my 3DJean Design Team blog post today - which is here.

Here's the finished folder:

BTW: the cardboard ring-bound stencil book [above], which I've used throughout my recipe card album, comes from the children's art supply department of my local Wilkinson shop and cost me the princely sum of ... 90p!!

I used the number sheet and the text sheet right across this project and, as yet, despite all the spray ink and paint it's seen, it's holding up really well. No buckling or sogginess yet ... so well worth that 90p!! It was only a fortnight ago so chances are they're still in stock ... so if you're passing by... go find one!

Anyway ... here's a closer look at the pockets holding the finished cards:

I used a contents page from a fashion catalogue, some Carta Bella stickers and a found phrase from a children's dictionary. And the hole-punched paper is the same as that in the kits.

And here's a closer look at the cover where I've layered more Plundered Pages with Collections Elements tickets:

The 'Learn Something New' is spelled out in Kaisercraft 'Tiny Alpha Stickers'. And when they say 'tiny' ... they're not kidding!

That said, they've been really useful, especially on cards where I've been able to write out full sentiments rather than just squeezing on a 'Hi' or a 'Yay' when using larger letters!

And speaking of small lettering ... I really wanted the finished folder to have a bookish feel so I strengthened the 'spine' of the folder with strips of washi tape then ran the whole thing through the sewing machine ... and finally came across a perfect found phrase from a Plundered Page:

And here's a final look at the finished folder showing the book-like structure: 

 With the ribbons fastened tightly, the cards don't move and are held completely safely inside.

It wasn't until I had the idea to use a 'Creative Folder' that the whole 'recipe-card journal' idea began to make sense ... and then I could just get on with the actual focus of Shimelle's class ... recording a lesson-a-day for a month. Speaking of which ...

... I haven't collaged a card since Thursday ... so I'd best go catch up! If you have any questions about the project, the folder, or the recipe-card kits ... then just yell. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Julie :-)

Art Journaling: recipe card journal. Week 2 of LSNED

Me again.

I'm not quite sure how we're into the final week of September already, but we are, and that means that:

• next Sunday I'll be blogging My Month in Numbers so, if you're planning to join in, you've still got time to draft a post and list some September statistics;
• I'm about to begin working on Easter projects for a craft magazine. Easter. There are people out there worrying that it's too early to start mentioning Christmas cards ... and I've gone through the frosty festivities and am now out the other side... where it should be getting warmer and sunnier soon... in fact, it'll be September again any minute now ...;
• so I'd better be quick and make sure I blog all of my Learn Something New Everyday pages [a class hosted each September by Shimelle Laine] ...

... so here are the lessons I learned in Week Two journaled on to my recipe card journal. [For Week One's pages, just hop back to this post]

September 8th:

I loved Parade's End. It was like a fine meal with every bite a complete treat. Such a shame it was only five episodes long as I could have devoured so much more!

September 9th:

September 10th:

This page was in reaction to Shimelle's prompt for the day to create a list by completing the sentence: '10 Things I've Learned From ...'.

On the back of the card I wrote down 10 things I've learned from my University job - which should have been easy. During the last 6 years there I've learned countless facts while attending hundreds of lectures on everything from animated walk-cycles to the law of tort ... so you think I'd be able to bring to mind at least 10 actual lessons ... but it was actually the moments I've had with students which leapt to mind first.

This is not necessarily because I'm a sentimental old fool ... but possibly related the fact that
, as long as I make accurate notes at the time ... I don't actually need to remember anything at all! That's not my job ... it's the student's!

September 11th:

September 12th:

 I loved the prompt for the 12th! To record something which might not make sense to others, like a sort of in-joke. It gave me the perfect excuse to jot down a few of the things I experienced that day on a walk with my Mam.

September 13th:

And finally for today ...

September 14th:

 Now, we all know I'm no stranger to the joys of overheard conversations ... but it never hurts to be reminded. This particular quality material came from listening into some old, rather posh, gents at a nearby table in a restaurant ... and it made me wish that [a] I had included a notebook in my clutch bag along with my lipstick ... and [b] that etiquette would have allowed me to write in it!

OK, so I've now blogged days 1-14 ... I'll best go and take more photos so I can share 15 ... and onwards.

I'll be back tomorrow to share how I'm actually storing my 30 recipe cards, so I'll see you then.

Julie :-)

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There are 3 kits in the shop based around the supplies I've used in my LSNED journal. You can click the photo to visit the shop for more information: