My Month in Numbers 2011: March

Hello again.

How are we all feeling now we're over a quarter of the way through 2011? Dizzy? Bored already? Still finding surprise Christmas decorations you forgot to take down?

Me? Well enjoying the fact that, as I've been blogging my 'months in numbers' for one and a quarter years now, I can really easily look back to discover what I was doing this time last year.

And, as fine and dandy and gift-filled as this month has been, it can't really compete with March 2010 when my favourite living writer gave me some hair conditioner. But then ... what could ever compete with that? Really?

Never the less, there've still been a few noteworthy moments this month ... namely ...

2 months 'belated'= how long after my January birthday I received birthday cards and 4 birthday presents:

Due to various reasons [and in some case the simple fact of geography] they'd not been able to give me them sooner. But this beautiful birdie plus a wonderful necklace and some fab crafting items were definitely worth the wait!

2 + a bit months 'belated' = how long after Christmas I exchanged gifts with a good friend and work colleague who I could never quite catch up with on campus.

We finally arranged an illicit present swap [mine held ^ this scarf] near the outdoor smoking area one morning before lectures! Festive, wouldn't you say?

2011 Census= the first National Census I've filled in:

Other than on our mortgage it's really the first 'official' record that we're are our own family unit of 2, in our own house. In 100 years time won't all those local history buffs be enthralled at those fascinating details it recorded ... like my exact job title .... and how I get to work ... and how neither of us have a current passport ... exciting times!

Actually I'm still a little sad that I never got to provide answers to some of life's more pressing questions e.g:

1. Is it ever acceptable to mix red and pink in the same outfit?
2. Is TKMaxx a supernatural source of wonder? or;
3. Is cake for breakfast OK as part of a balanced diet?
4. Are you ever likely to wear the new pyjama bottoms/lounge pants you bought last week for £6:00, as 'real' trousers, outdoors, in public, this summer?

[To which my answers would have been: 1. Yes of course. 2. Yes, have you not seen their journal collections ... and the dresses? 3. Yes ... what else are you meant to eat? And 4. Errr ... yes, you have met me haven't you?].

And the one thing I'm glad they didn't ask?:

1. How many units of Internet do you consume each week?

Because I would simply have had to have risked jail and a fine ... and lied about my online consumption levels!  

Which leads me on to  ...

6 cheeses = I planned to tell you about the time this month that my friends and I had a 6-cheese lunch in a wine emporium ... but frankly it deserves a whole post [and scrapbook layout] all to itself ... so watch this space.

1 year out =  the mistake I made when giving my age to my local paper who asked me to take part in their reader's books column. [I've blurred out my personal details - not because of vanity - but more like security ... I give enough away as it is!]:

But you'll just have to take my word for it that I somehow gave the editor the wrong age. I was a year out ... the wrong way!

I said I was a year older than I am!  It just dawned on me one night after I'd emailed her the  text - but before it was printed. It was like an epiphany that I'd written entirely the wrong thing [How? How?]. It was also too late to get it changed ...

Knowing it would make the perfect addition [no pun intended] to this 'month in numbers post' was the only redeeming feature of my stupidity! Ho hum ...

Can you see on there that is asks what I'm currently reading? Well ...

 Page 21 = You were warned in last month's round-up that I was in possession of a new and vast novel [2666 by Roberto Bolano] the progress of which I was bound to use for number fodder here each month. I may only be up to page 21 but perhaps you'll forgive me when I tell you that, up to now, the only thing that has happened in the entire plot is that 4 scholars have attended several conferences on German literature ... that's it.

Bet you can't wait to read it yourself now. 

30p = how much I paid for this:

It was one of the 5 books for £1:60 that I found in my favourite rummage-y secondhand bookshop [it's in Helmsley if you're interested]:

Getting books that cheaply means I feel OK cutting into them and tearing them up to use in my work. Next week [when I've finished it] I'll show you something I've already made using pages from the astronomy handbook.  

4 Alice in Wonderland costumes = the rare treat which HannahBanana discovered and brought to our Alice-themed crafting weekend. Here's a playing card putting Tweedle-dum's tie straight [or is it Tweedle-Dee? And how does one tell?]:

Amazing costumes aren't they?!

Yet sadly I have no photos of the fourth outfit ... which was the one I got to wear - a pink and white striped confection of pure dress joy, one which I was reluctant to take off as I was getting quite used to the swishyness it added to my walk [even if I did have to turn sideways to get past the sofa!].

As soon as someone sends me a photo of me in it ... you'll be the first to see and hopefully it'll be followed swiftly by the layout I must make with it!

Finally I'll move on to the last scrap-worthy moment March brought me...

45 years = how long my Dad's had this greenhouse:

And now ... after all those years of faithfully assisting him [and me] to nurture every kind of seedling and innumerable tomatoes ...  he's decided to let it rest and had ordered himself a new one.

And like so much in this post this old friend also deserves a scrapbook page and nostalgic blog post all to itself ... so it looks like April's already shaping up to be a month's worth of scrapbooking ahead.

Still ... there're worse things to have to tackle ...!

If you want to share your month's numbers with me and my readers then simply leave me a link in a comment or an email and I'll edit this post and add you in. Don't forget there's a blog button in my sidebar you can grab if you're joining in.

Happy new month to you all. I hope it brings you many, many noteworthy / scrapworthy / shareworthy / smileworthy moments.

Take care,

Julie x

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Posts of those who joined in this month:

• HannahBanana's numbers included a bunch of odd folk [she + I included] wearing homemade aprons and a skirt that she's hand-printing - go look - you'll wish she was going into production with them. I do!
• FavouriteWorkofArt blogged some important firsts, and lots of numbers related to her beautiful children!
• Claireliz scrapbooks her numbers and this month's recorded an enviable cake intake!

Card: The World's Greatest Performing Monkeys

Greetings.

Welcome to Week 2 of my break! In order to keep myself out of all kinds of mischief, I've been crafting ... and here's a card I made featuring performing monkeys ... obviously:

The poster of Signorita Galetti and her Troupe of the World's Greatest PerformingMonkeys was simply printed from the Vintage Theatre and Circus Image CD from 3DJean.

It's it's my day to post for the Scattered Scarlet Design Team blog today. You can see another card over on their blog today too.

Both cards were put together [like so many projects recently] using 'bits' from the great bag of bits I hoard ... I'm much more of a skip-rat than a refined shopper these days. All of which basically means that I'm far more inspired by left-overs, other people's scraps and found items than I am brand new, fully co-ordinating single-brand kits. And that's all well and good ... except ...

Except the only problem with using bits and leftovers is ... that no matter how hard I try ... they never run out. I can never use them up. They don't go anywhere.

Because the fact of the matter is ... once you've cut into a 'bit' [foolishly thinking you're on your way to putting it to full-use] ...if you don't use every last square centimetre of it on your current project ... rather than get rid of it you've actuallly just made in into two bits!!!!

You've doubled the original bit-count.

Cloned it.

And you're left with another bit to find a use for!

'Bits' are like the Japanese Knotweed of the craft realm. If you don't get rid of it all in one go ... it multiplies. Or else they're like The Terminator.

Unstoppable. Can't knock 'em down ... but even if you do ... you can't keep them down!

All you can do is make another card with them ...

... and then maybe another:

So ... I would ask you about your experiences of 'bits' ... but frankly I'm afraid you might get the wrong idea!
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Anywhooo ... if you do get chance to visit my post on the 3DJean blog, my post is here.

And for those of you who fancy joining me in a Month in Numbers post:

• I'm on track to post mine this Thursday [March 31st];
• I'll happily include a link to your post in mine - or edit mine afterwards to fit you in;
• Send me your links via a comment or an email.

Also ...

• I've made a button/badge thingy to adorn your sidebar ... if you so wish!
• So, if you're viewing this in a reader - make sure to hop out for a minute so you can grab the code.

And that's me for today. Off to scavenge for lunch ... I'm torn between an avocado salad and ... chips

Julie

Overheard: I'm on the 'Drink Me' diet ... like Alice.

Hi, hi, hi.

Here, during my 'Spring Break' break, I really have no business thinking about work ... and yet this particular overheard is the ltest to the collection ... and is still making me smile ... so I thought I'd share it with you now regardless.

In my previous overheard post I bemoaned the fact that as I now have to sit near the front of lecture rooms, usually right near the lecturer, I hardly ever overhear any funny snippets of campus chatter. And it was all true ... until a fortnight ago.
Prior to a packed-out lecture, seated right in front of the podium, I was well within earshot of four lecturers ...

The scene: four lecturers [all male] were huddled around a lectern busily connecting up a laptop to the overhead projector. Judging by the conversation, two of the men had not seen each other in a while ...

Lecturer 1: You've lost weight haven't you?

Lecturer 2: Yep. Three stone.

Lecturer 1: Wow. Is it that much?

Lecturer 2: Yeah ... but I have to lose another stone and a half yet.

Lecturer 1 [clearly bemused by the whole dieting concept]: Why do you 'have to' ... is there a particularly small hole you're wanting to fit through?

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Not only was it a great punchline to a conversation you don't very often hear men having ... it also made for a great 'Alice down the rabbit-hole' style of surreal image in my head.

And again ... I did my best nonchalant-I'm-in-no-way-smiling-at-the-conversation-I'm-not-meant-to-be-listening-into face while making a mental note to write it down the minute I got out of sight!
As soon as I catch any fresh real-life conversational gold ... you know you'll be the first to hear about it.

See you soon.

Julie :-)

[p.s: the photo is the tape measure belt I made myself a couple of years ago. If you click on the image it'll take you to a 'how-to' on it.]

Sometimes *they* catch *you*.

Greetings.

As a part-time freelancer and maker of things ... I spend a good proportion of my time seeking out opportunities, trying to gain momentum ...

... hoping to promote myself, my words and my wares to you, to customers, to editors ... in short, to any and all other living creatures!

I plan out expressions of interest; proposals; submissions to magazines. I draft out ideas for future workshops; I keep my eyes peeled for guest blogging slots; I'm alert to the calls for work, submissions etc from people/magazines and journalists on Twitter.

I scribble down ideas for new product ranges I'd make for my etsy shop if only I had the time ...

Add to all of this the pressure I put on myself to achieve 'something' ...

... and it's little wonder that all this chasing tires me out from time to time.

But I ought not to forget that there are times while I'm running in one direction and chasing something ahead of me ... someone unexpected catches up, runs alongside me and asks me to do something for them.

And I can stop running. And catch my breath. Like when I was commissioned to personalise a special journal:

The request came from out of the blue. From someone who I've never met, but for who I'd made a journal for a while ago. When it was the only thing I could offer them during a difficult time.

This new journal is to record the good times.

And I couldn't have been happier to make it [even though I cried when they asked!].

Remembering this has helped me get over myself and a [relatively fleeting] pity-party I had with myself yesterday regarding all the chasing I do ... when sometimes I'd just like to be hunted down.

Because, as this journal proves, sometimes I am hunted down. Sometimes I get asked to do a job such as a journal which will never appear in a book or magazine, but which is ultimately so very important to the person who commissioned it.

And therefore to me.

How about you remind me of that next time I drift off into self-doubt? I think I'll go and write it down and pin it to my brain so that I can remember to rest awhile, safe in the knowledge that someone, somewhere is recording the details of a real, colourful, spirited life ... in a book I made:

Thanks for stopping by to take a breather with me today.

Jx

That certain something ...

Hi, hi, hi.

How's things? I'm off work at the moment on an oddly placed 'Spring Break' from Uni.

It's neither a half-term nor an Easter holiday and as if that wasn't confusing enough I've been feeling ridiculous each time I've had to say the term 'Spring Break'. It just makes me think of all those stories you hear from America where students get drunk and girls enter into wet T-shirt competitions and inadvisable relationships ...

I, on the other hand, have merely and innocently been working on a Papercraft Inspirations magazine commission. Which is just as well really, because I can at least blog photos my exploits without losing my job.

Well sort of. I can't actually blog the projects I've just finished until after it's published. However I've had to take a sneaky close-up of one of the items so I could show you this:

It's just a place called 'Kirk Ness' on an old map of the Shetland Isles which I spotted when I'd decided to incorporate a map on to the thing I can't show you, however ...

I've been enjoying thinking of it more as a term which could be used to describe something which feels like either my work or just me ... for e.g:

• "That collage made from old tat has a certain kirkness to it";
• "Ooh there's a special kirkness to that old bird ornament."
• "Her scream of terror at that passing dog had a defininte ring of kirkness to it".

And so on ... you get the picture! Don't you? Or maybe I'm just a little lighthead after being so efficient and productive these past two days. I mean ... I've only knocked over a pot of painty-water and a bottle of stamp cleaner once so really ... the success could easily have gone to my head ...

For the record: I splurged the stamp-cleaner on my jeans, the ones I tend not to wash very often as I like how soft they get ... and on which, rather than leave a stain the spilled cleaner fluid left a clean patch!!

Oh the shame ... yet ...

Yet that whole scenario does have a certain air of 'kirkness' to it ... wouldn't you say?

Jx

[So tell me ... what has an air of your name to it?]

Art Journal Challenge: Weeks 10 & 11

Hello, hello.

I'm feeling virtuous.

This is due to the following:

1. For the first time in years I resisted the temptation to go to the Great Northern Papercrafts Extravaganza which was held this weekend in Harrogate. This was decided after the '3 craft shops in 3 days' trip I went on with friends a few weeks back in which I wasn't so virtuous. My debit card got a lot of action that weekend.
2. I cleaned out the greenhouse today [not a euphemism]. I swept up and discarded slugs and mouldy tomatoes from last autumn and everything!
3. I seem to have caught up with all of the prompts for the UKStampers weekly Art Journaling Challenge.

Here's proof of the latter at least. My response to the prompt for Week 10 which based around the idea of 'One Week', recording the things you did during that week with evidence!

My week involved returning home from the aforementioned crafting weekend, going to work; buying scarves and notebooks; going to see Count Arthur Strong's stage show and spending a day at the crop ... just in case the 3 days of crafting I'd just returned form hadn't quite fulfilled my creative urges!

The 'evidence' includes a bus ticket home nicely spattered with paint and ink:

... and till receipts:

It was a 4-notebook week. Excessive even for me ...

I had a hand in selecting the theme for Week 11 [as I mentioned here the other day] to list 5 things that make you scared and use a scary colour on the background.

Now then ... before we go on ... would you care to guess any of my 5 things? I bet you can get at least one of them right:

Considering that, to select the theme for this week, I'd randomly flipped through an old dictionary until Effie [who sets the challenge] said 'stop' when I then read aloud what was on that page ... how funny is it that the definition we came across ... the definition of 'scare' involved dogs?!!

After that, there really was no way that I wouldn't be incorporating that exact definition on my actual page:

Yeah - no prizes for guessing that they'd make it on to my list-of-fear!

[The little character is a Gorjuss Girl who I saved from the envelope of a birthday card sent to me by the lovely Andrea .]

Finally here's the rest of that list of things which leave me shuddering :

In fact, just last night I screamed - startled - at the TV when an advert for some show involved a big ship tipping over in deep water -combining 2 of the horrors on my list in one vile moment!

So, those 5 are the main contenders right now ... but really ... I could have gone on ... I mean, I haven't yet covered large aeroplanes; head injuries; stigmata; loud noises; looking down a stairwell; not being able to check emails; never writing a book; the incorrect use of apostrophes ... and on it goes ....

And after all that I feel obliged to finish like Crimewatch always did ... so please ... don't have nightmares.

[Dear Subconscious - I hope you're listening to that too. OK? OK.]

Jx

A few more 'Freaky Friends'

Don't be alarmed, but I'm saying 'Hello' today through a grin.

I'm smiling because:

• It's Friday;
• The sun's shining for the first time all week;
• I'm about to put a special, specially commissioned, journal in the post;
• I'll be listening to my new Jonsi CD in the car on the way to work today [which should compliment that sunshine perfectly] and ...
• It's sunny out there!!! Or did I mention that already?

The golden rays have even sneaked into the photos I've taken of the latest odd characters to grace the pages of my tag journal:

And, even thought the weather is indeed finally warming up ... this poor lady has taken this particular fashion advice a little too far:

And as for this chap ... well he got tired of climbing up and down those mountains so he sprouted his own wings:

He was cut from a leaflet for a Denver national park that Effie was throwing away at a crop. And as a longtime fan of the humble goat [I guess it's a Capricorn thing ... and the fact I like clambering!] I took pity on him and brought him home with me.

[If you missed the overview of how I decorated the tag backgrounds you can catch up on that here. And the other pages in this journal can be found in here.]

As for the 'create soft fuzz and encourage flyaways' phrase ... I think that came from a magazine feature on hair but can just as readily be used as a life philosophy I think!

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Oh and ... while we're on the topic of soft fuzziness and friends [freaky or otherwise ...] I just want to grab this chance to say thank you for the steady stream of comments that you leave here for me .

That you take a moment to pause and type something to let me know I'm not whistling into the wind means a lot. So thanks. Really.

Right then, I hope the sunshine's reached your corner or the globe today. And if it has ... just be careful of how far you push up those sleeves now, won't you?

J x

Layout: So Very Young!

Hello, hello.

I've been catching up on a little Flickr gallery admin this week. Every now and again [when I remember and when I have the time] I upload my recent projects to my Flickr stream so that, as well as some of them appearing in blog posts here and there, they're all in one place.

Sometimes, when I'm feeling self-critical and lazy ... a quick skim through my ever-expanding gallery acts like a small slap round the face ...

So, while I was adding to my archive this week I realised how I never? /hardly ever? blog any of my magazine work. I think that the main reason for this is the long lead time on them. The time between having made the project, it being pubished, and the being able to blog about it can be something like 3 months.

Sometimes I forget to blog about something I made yesterday. Never mind 3 months ago! Which is why my magazine work usually just gets uploaded to Flickr without a dedicated post to each project.

However, while I was about to upload the following layout, I decided that I'd had such fun making it that I wanted to share it here too:

One of 5 items in the set [you can see it alongside the others here] it appeared in Issue 82 of Papercraft Inspirations Magazine [Dec/Jan 2010-11]. The commission was simply to make use of a specific stamp set ['All in the Family' from Stampin Up].

The set is made up of individual heads / bodies/ legs and arms m aking it fully interchangeable and easy to customise. And after creating several straightforward characters with it, I thought I'd try something a little more creative and took my inspiration from the ancient photobooth strip photo of me and James:

There's probably a 'proper' papercrafting term for how I did this ... but I don't know it ... so I'll try to explain ....

• It's as simple as making little 'masks' to cover over areas you don't want to stamp on.
• For eg. on the bottom 'photo' - I stamped the boy head first, stamped it again on scrap paper, cut the scrap out, placed it over the originla and then stamped the girl face. Even though she overlaps - the section of her face which would have obscured hiws is actually only stamped on to the scrap of paper which is then removed.
• I also made little scrap paper frames for each of the 'photos' so I could stamp over the edge of the border - then I removed the frames leaving the images contained inside.

Does any of that make sense? If not, and you'd really like to try this, just shout up and I'll take some step-by-step photos].

It's a technique I'd like to try again maybe with different stamps, although the beauty of these was how flexible all of those individual elements made it. Even the spectacles were a tiny individual stand-alone stamp, so you can add on to any face. Which I did ... did you spot how the stamped 'me' pinched the stamped 'James's glasses in the last 'photo'?

Fiddly ... but a very cute end result!

[Naturally I'm referring here to 'cute' as in 'cute-in-a-good-way'. Not the other kind. Not 'cute' cute. Don't ever let me wander oblivious into the dark-side of cute. Please. My crafting-soul will thank you for it.]

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Do let me know if you've done something similar with stamps or if you'd like me to give a [better] visual explanation or ... if you actually know the 'proper' term for that technique!

Thanks for dropping in on me today.

Julie

Overheard: Yeah, I heard that rumour.

Hi, hi, hi.

Not that I'm thinking of turning this into a scientific study or anything but ... I swear I used to overhear far more [and far funnier] snippents of student conversation when I used to sit at the back of lecture theatres! Currently I have to sit at the front and you just don't get the same level of disclosure down there so close to the lecturers!

So, like today's offering, my best overheard fodder these days comes from places other than lecture rooms. Like the computer labs a few weeks back ...

Two male students were working on computers next to one another. [I say 'working' ... but judging by their conversation I doubt there was much of that occurring].

• The scene: Student 1 was debating whether or not to send a Facebook friend request to someone and was looking through their 'mutual friends' list before he decided.

Student 1 to Student 2: Oh. He's friends with my pregnant friend. [Pause]

But then ... she's friends with everyone.

I'm not sure if he meant it how it sounded or if indeed he was well aware of his Groucho Marx / Noel Coward style witticism.

Not being able to interupt and ask someone to clarify precisely what they meant is one of the downsides of listening in to conversations ...

Have a great day, keep your eyes and ears open ... you just never know.

Julie :-)

Image taken from the Vintage Theatre & Circus CD from 3DJean.

Art Journal Challenge: Weeks 7-9

Hello you. How's things?

Yesterday I helped Effie choose a theme for this week's UKStampers art journal challenge. And, by randomly landing on a page from an old children's dictionary I was cutting up ... we struck upon the word 'scare' and so the topic for next week [Week 11] became '5 things which scare you'.

Then, a few hours after helping to choose that theme ...last night I had a full-on, wake-up-in-a-sweat-crying-uncontrollably, frightened-for-your-life, daren't-close-your-eyes, can't-go-back-to-sleep nightmare!

Honestly!

James did everything he could to comfort me but I was a hard case to console. At one point [I think he was tired ... and quickly running out of ideas ...] he uttered the bizarre phrase 'let me comfort you with my big sleep'. ???

So while I ponder on what on earth that sentence meant ... allow me to share with you my responses to the less terrifying themes from Weeks 7 - 9:

Week 7 = Colours; use your favourite colour as a background; doodle a border round the page.

I really don't have a favourite colour. I love lots of them. Green, blue and pink especially. And dare I say it ... even white - a non-colour - is high up there vying for the top spot! [My favourite item of clothing ever, ever, ever has to be the plain white T-shirt].

So, I really didn't know what to do for this page.

Then I spotted the 'Are You Ready for Beige' caption in my art-journaling stash which I'd chopped out of an old Elle magazine and I decided to build a page around it. To combat the beige [which I do actually like btw] I sliced up a paint colour chart and glued the entire range into my journal!

On now to Week 8: Books; list your Top 5; use an old book page as a background:

I didn't use an old book page - but Idid find a wonderful old text stamp to do the job just as well!

My quote [below] is taken from the infinitely quotable author Andrew Miller [from the novel Ingenious Pain]:

The definition of 'book' [above] was taken form the children's dictionary I mentioned at the start of this post.

Week 9 = Fashion; fashion disasters + favourite pieces ... all of which I interpreted rather loosely:

The model is composited from snippets from various magazines and my ever-faithful Jack Wills catalogue - which is also where I found the phrase 'Casual - but I can rock them on a night out' phrase:

The dress-form shape actually came free with a recent issue of Papercraft Inspirations magazine - and I used as a stencil to ink through rather than a template to draw around:

The journaling is all true ... I was indeed a precocious fashion guru.

Apparently I refused to wear 'days of the week' underwear on the wrong days and would happily point out when things my Mam was trying to dress me in didn't match.

No one who knows me should be surprised by this ...

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So that's all for now, but I have got Weeks 10 [Journal your week] and 11 [What scares you?!] to complete and then share soon.

But after the whole choosing a 'scary' topic then having a nightmare coincidence I'm slightly wary of helping Effie choose another week's theme. Unless ...

... unless of course I suggest the theme of 'becoming rich, eradicating injustice and fulfilling your every wish while wearing a lifetime's supply of haute couture and breath-stopping footwear' as the theme for Week 12 ...

Let's just say that if I'm not around much in the next week or so ... you'll know that one came true too!

Failing that, then here's to a non-scary week ahead for us all. I'll see you very soon.

Julie :-)

Scrapbooking: A spot of mind-reading at the dinner table:

Hi, hi, hi.

I was away [3 days in a country cottage with 7 other crafters and a lorry load of food] ... but now I'm back. Look, I'm right here. Yoo hoo! I'm over here on the sofa wearing a tartan shirt very, very similar to one of the papers I used for the layout I'm sharing today.

Yes, apparently I'm now dressing to match my blog posts ... I really do make the effort you know! ;-)

Anyway, here's the fully co-ordinating layout in question:

The photos, of me and my big sis, were taken seconds apart at the Christmas lunch table last year:

Backing paper: Quietude from the Sweetness of Living range by Onirie.

When I'd downloaded them on to the computer and could flick between them it made me laugh to see how composed and smiley we were in the second shot:

... compared to how crazy we looked before we were fully prepared! Jo looked a little like a grazing hen while I appeared to have been caught communing with the deceased or in the midst of an act of clairvoyance:

Images from Vintage Theatre & Circus Image CD.

Which is where the jounaling came into it:

Purple Onion 'Labelers'stamp set.

This is pretty much my style of scrapping at the moment: silly/funny/a bit odd; based on something specific the photo makes me think of [as opposed to simply scrapping the occasion] and journaling hand-written directly on to the page.

I've shared another similar combination here on the 3DJean Design Team blog where the silly photo in question this time round involves me posing as a skeleton with my best folorn face.

In fact I'm about to try out that same face on James as I ask him to go and get the Sauvignon Blanc from the fridge ...

Wish me luck!

J x