WOYWW 126

I’m ashamed to report that the only thing I’ve done in my ARTHaven all week is to use it as a dumping ground!

If you look closely you can see that on my actual work table, absolutely nothing has changed since last week!! On the brown table, however, there’s a lot more stuff – I’ve been dumping things on there that need sorting out – stuff that arrived in the post, paperwork to do, etc.

There is one interesting thing there, however – on the left of the pile is a bag of poultry grit that I bought yesterday when we went to our local country store. Why? – you may ask? I bought it to use for gorgeous texture in my mixed media projects! I’ve seen this done online and it’s really cool. This stuff is little bits of broken oyster shell which chickens actually eat (hard to believe, isn’t it! Isn’t God’s creation wonderful?) to help them form shells on their eggs. It’s really lovely with lots of interesting textures – some of the pieces are smooth, and others have lovely ridges on them. Hopefully I’ll soon have something to show you where they have been used.

This week I have been really busy with things that don’t show in my ARTHaven. A friend asked me to redraw some cut files she’d bought by mistake (she actually wanted pdfs and bought gsds instead) – I’ve made good progress these week and am now up to letter O in the alphabet. Once they are done, she will have the complete alphabet of word book pages. It’s fairly time-consuming, but I’m so enjoying it, and the best part is the pleasure it gives me to help out a friend.

I’ve also been busy archiving magazine articles – I’m trying to cut down on the huge amount of stuff we’ve got in this house, and I’m tackling the boxes of old magazines and printed articles I’ve got, and typing them or scanning them into the computer so they take up no room at all, and where I can easily find them once they are filed in sub-folders under category. Some of these magazines have only one thing of interest in them, so they are taking up a lot of space for no great purpose!

In addition to this, a friend has asked me to do some informal teaching sessions at her local Bible study group. I haven’t done any teaching since I’ve been ill (2006) and it wasn’t an easy decision to come to, as I’ve learnt by experience that it’s easy with this condition to agree to things too readily, and then end up letting people down because I’m not well enough – it’s difficult to make commitments to anything when the M.E. is boss… However, they are very understanding and said that if I am not well enough on any given day, they can just do something else, and there’s no pressure! I used to teach a regular group (at one time two sessions a week) and I know how much work is involved in preparation, quite apart from the session itself.

I’ve prepared some material and am giving my first session tomorrow morning, all being well – and if, of course (big if!) I can get myself up in time! With my sleep patterns being what they are at the moment (rubbish) that’s a very big if indeed. My hubby says he’ll come and boot me out of bed!!!

So – not too much to report creative-wise this week. I look forward to seeing what all of you have been up to in this wonderful opportunity to pacify the nosiest urges of artists and crafters which our wonderful Julia is so gracious as to satisfy – click on the WOYWW icon in my sidebar for more info if you’re not aware of what’s going on, and have nosy cravings too. (Thanks, Julia!) Thank you, everyone, who left such lovely comments on my blog last week. All very much appreciated!!