Learning.....

...... I have just finished my my Scholar's Ledger course with Nik the Booksmith. It is a paid course but something I have been wanting to to do for a while and it didn't disappoint.  It was a lengthy process but I think that is because I was trying to make sure I didn't make (too many)mistakes. This is Nik's You Tube Channel and This  is her Teachable channel     

I have kept the inside very simple, lots of room for journaling, if that is your thing or they could be decorated in other ways.

The middle signature is a foldout with an extra space for writing and a couple to tuck spots.

This is an adaption(mistake) from Wendy's video.

So this now joins the ever growing pile of journals, I have no idea what to do with them butI don't suppose that is going to stop me making another.

Right.........

........where was I?  I have just spent a lovely long weekend with my sister-in-law.

We took a trip to the ICHF supposed Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycraft show at Excel.  Never again. The "free" Christmas show consisted of a woman demonstrating a £400 exercise board and some very dubious foods. The rest was mediocre to say the least.

Monday we went up to town to "see the lights", on the whole the Christmas windows lacked imagination. These were probably the best at Ralph Lauren in New Bond Street.

Am I wrong or were the Christmas shop windows designed to delight children(eg ME) as well as sell.
We had a little adventure when we were invited into Southeby's to look at Winston Churchill's last painting and four Lowries which are about to go on sale.  I explained to the charming doorman that I didn't have Southerby's kind of money but he explained that these exhibitions are open to all  Who knew?

My next journal is nearing completion, pictures soon and I have started my "Book of Trees" workshop with Roxanne Evans Stout here

So far I have only had time to prepare my pages.

 but I am looking forward to filling them.  I love trees (the only thing I can draw) and this time of year makes them even more appealing with the colours and the falling leaves.
 

Just saying.......

...........I don't want to get into a list of superlatives but if you ever get even half a chance to take a workshop with Seth Apter.....grab it.

Yesterday was such a treat. The workshop was called A Book of Moments and it was organised by The Birds in the Barn, near Colchester Essex. .It was one of the most well organised workshops I have ever attended. The attention to detail was faultless. Every table was covered and had a waste bag attached, on the table were baby wipes, kitchen towel, a box of things that might come in handy and at each place a gift or cards and a goody bag.

Another table was full of items that might be useful; during the day, collage papers, brads, string, everything you can think of.

So generous, there was even a box of old books. There was a pop up shop of very tempting supplies, tea and coffee available all day and lunch was delish as was the lemon drizzle cake which appeared in the afternoon.
There were a lot of us too,  so it must have taken a lot of hard work to organise. 

Seth taught how to deconstruct a book so that you can use the covers and then how to build a new, different kind of spine to hold the pages. My book was already in pieces

A Rochester junk shop find from a while ago.
When the spine was in we started on the pages and Seth told us he thinks there are two kinds of people who collage, the Auditioner and the Committer and urged us to try identify which one we are and try the opposite.He is a Committer,  I am definitely an Auditioner, freeing up is hard. 
Seth in demo mode.

The time went so fast but this is what I had at the end of the day.
 The cover, not quite finished

The pages are not attached yet as I will complete all and arrange at the end. The background on this one ancient gelli plate papers

The background on the right is an Citrasolve experiment 

 This background is town paper collage

The photograph  is the one of me the family call Keep Death of the Road.

And finally, my present to me my own tiny piece of original Seth Apter. It is called September. Scan doesn't do it justice.

  

A superlative day.

Coming...........

.........my favourite time of year. Strictly contestants being announced, NFL pre-season started, nights are drawing in but the days still long enough and the Vuelta has started.  Add to this an interesting online challenge what more could a girl want.
 So far Strictly s the usual collection of "celebrities" I have never heard of but I am sure I will get to love or loathe them.
The Vuelta is going to take me up nicely to the NFL season proper. I treat these cycle races like a holiday. Sit back and enjoy the scenery. The racing is pretty good too.  The Artic Tour of Norway was particularly breath taking and made us wish we were still able to take a real trip to Tromso .
The challenge I am following is ITAC 17 by AALL & Create .  To create in whatever medium you wish an "artwork" to represent a continent.   The first one was Europe and this is my contribution.

  
 Surprise, surprise, a book.
This one is a concertina with five pages and was a nightmare to photograph.

So many words sprang to mind, Renaissance, History, War, Architecture but I finally settled on Antiquity. Something modern was part of the brief so on the back pages I addedmy own personal sadness at Brexit.

This is my favourite page as my drawing skills are pretty below average, I made this little
collection of European icons by copying individual photographs of each building.

The continent this week is Asia.  I know what I want to do...we shall see.

I can't go without a small rant about the truly dire "craft" programme Craft it Yourself on Channel 4. Such a poor format. Given up after one and a half episodes.

Tidy? Moi?.......

.... no matter how many times I tidy my desk(not often) it always ends up looking like this, I work in a space that is approximately A4.

 

 

However last weekend the rest of the house was tidy because my lovely sister-in-law came to stay. She came down from the north of England leaving sunshine behind and didn't see it again until she was on her way home.  So much for the sunny south. However it didn't rain and we were able to get out and about.  One of our trips was to the Antique and Vintage market in Faversham. Lots of temptations..

Brenda bought   me the smallest thimble I have ever seen, under half an inch in diameter.  We tried to imagine the tiny mite who had used it to stitch. We found a lovely charity shop ( just like the ones before Mary Portas) and I collected this lovely bundle. 

Particularly pleased with the stamp album which still has stamps. The book with Chinese writing and the Classical Review in the picture came from another place.

Had a real senior moment when Brenda came down, when to meet the train at Euston at 11.29am and had to wait until 2.15pm. I had mixed up the times of her leaving and arrival trains.  Made good use of it though and had a lovely wander through a bit of London I hadn't visited before. Found this beautiful terrace

it had this park in front of the terrace, an energetic lunchtime game of tennis going on.

Not far away from here I found an amazing second hand book shop, that's where the other treasures were found. I was just wandering so hope I can find it again. Wandered into this

with this at the end of it.

I love London.

On Monday night we had a real treat.  42nd Street at the the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane.  Lovely to see a show with such a large cast.  My goodness those dancers work hard, exhausted just watching.  Brilliant.

One of the reasons my desk is particularly I have been working on two books, one of them a special secret.
Pleased with this one though.

Lovely wrapping paper from John Lewis.
Some pages, don't know how to make those "flip though"videos so just a lot of photoas.

Last one is Turkish Map fold I have just mastered. Yes it's a junk journal, the funny thing about it is, I keep making journals but the nearest I get to journaling is this blog and we know how regular that is.
Addicted I have already started next  "journal".

Something completely different.......

 For my 1 Year of Stitches this week I have started a picture of trees, for myself this time.  I made one each for my son and daughter for Christmas, they were pleased and I thought "I want one". I am using some wonderful material  from The Cloth House. At £38 a metre it is the most expensive material I have even bought but it is perfect for this job. It is slow progress as it will be seen from both side I need the back to look neater than I normally do,.

If you are wondering about my little world, I have decided to have if framed professionally so I need to ask there advice before putting in the final stitches.

A good week n the whole. It started with a visit to Hidden Figures . I really enjoyed this film and think it derserves far more accolades than La La Land. Learned a lot, laughed and cried, what more can you want from a film.

I finished my Cronwall book, moderately pleased with it. It was difficult to photograph because of the size and shape. It is made from the black cards which come with DH's Royal Mail stamps. they are approx 9x5inches. I covered them with old Gelli print papers and then a mixture of paints and  collaged photographs from our holiday back in 2012.

I like the way it will stand up as well though I couldn't get a good angle to photograph.

The other highlight of the week was a meeting with 'the Girls'.  Always a joy we tried our hands at needle felting.  Our animals may not win prizes but we had the best fun.
Blue bunny.

 Bad angle on this, he has a wonderful beak.

  Mine was supposed to be a sheep but ended up as a sheep dog..... possibly.

I came across this, forgot to keep link.


Crafting is a major growth activity internationally – it generates a retail economy of over £3.5bn in the UK alone. Almost 70% of British women have crafted in the last year – that’s over 18 million people. Craft Intelligence is our influential, biennial study of the crafting habits of UK females, conducted by Kantar. And the number of young crafters is growing rapidly – in the UK, crafting among 16-34 year olds is up 9% in the last year. And 23% of UK women have tried a new craft in the last year.
Bluewater   and others please take note.