Recycled Mini-Album–Scottish Pages

Over the past couple of days I’ve been working on the next section of the album, concentrating on Scottish ancestry, and happy memories of holidays in the Highlands.

The first picture shows the materials used for the Scottish pages. On the left are two stamps – Designs by Ryn: Leaves (CM-F5) and a swirl stamp (CI-182) from Crafty Individuals. This latter is one of my favourite swirl stamps because it is nice and big, and you can use parts of it to good effect. Versamark and Perfect Pearls (Cappuccino and Green Patina), and Black Soot distress ink. Also regular matt gel medium and my normal white marker pen and my thickest black drawing pen. You can also see two cards extracted from my Zentangle album, of patterns to use on one of the pages – Miander and Bilt. These are two of my favourite Tangle patterns – the former, not just because it’s really pretty, but because it can be used to create a lovely border as well as a fill. Finally, the Tim Holtz Dot Fade stencil.

First of all I made the tag to fit in the tag holder I created from the centrefold of the signature by gluing the top and bottom together. I made the tag from some cream card scraps I’ve got, and made a tartan-effect background using distress stains in Salty Ocean, Dried Marigold and Evergreen Bough, swiping over the middle with Picket Fence distress stain to lighten it. The background and journaling are continued on the reverse. I created the puller by cutting two small squares of the cream card and drawing a thistle on each one with a waterproof black marker pen, and painting the details using distress inks as watercolours.

I cut a notch in the tag holder page to match the square tag puller, and this is what it looks like in situ. I painted the cut edges of the notch with black acrylic paint.

To create the background for the left-hand page, I downloaded and printed out an image of the ancient hunting tartan of the Fraser clan, which was then cut down to size. The ancient and hunting tartans of each clan are much more subtly coloured than the more familiar dress tartans, and personally I prefer them.

I also downloaded, printed out and cut to size a map of Scotland, and distressed the edges using Black Soot distress ink. I cut a small fragment of cream card and wrote the name of the village, and distressed the edges with the Black Soot distress ink, adding an arrow on the map and a red circle to mark the location.

The tartan and map page complete, with the tag inserted.

The images were stuck down using regular matt gel medium.

I added a tartan-effect border, and copied the letters of the text from a Google image of Scottish lettering – I love this Celtic lettering. I drew it with the white pen and then outlined it with black. I mimicked this font at the bottom of the page, this time in white only, giving the details of the tartan, and drew a thistle for good measure.

A detail of the title.

On the map page, I stuck down the village name so that its edge butted the edge of the page, and added a border of little thistles, drawn with the white pen.

Turning the page, I stuck down some photos using regular matt gel medium, and added some stamping using Versamark and Perfect Pearls. Finally, some text in white. You can see the tag puller on the right.

A detail of the bottom right of the page, showing the Perfect Pearls stamping and the borders.

The tag partially pulled out.

Turning the page again, we find the Scottish holidays page. When I cut the tartan image down to size, I saved the offcuts and cut them into strips to embellish this page. Again, you can see the tag puller in situ on the left. Before sticking down the tartan strips and photos, again using regular matt gel medium, I stencilled over both pages using Versamark through the Dot Fade stencil, and on the left, leaving some blank page in the centre. I brushed over this with both colours of Perfect Pearl and heat set it.

Detail of the left-hand page with the text and tag puller.

The right-hand page. I embellished this with two Zentangles, Miander at the top and right, and Bilt down the left-hand side.

Detail of the Miander border. As you can see, I continued the tartan effect border of the page beneath, onto this page a little, to add a softer edge and to follow the line of the Miander border.

Detail of the Bilt border. What a lot of legs in the photo!

I hope you have enjoyed this particular trip down Shoshi’s memory lane. By the way, Shoshi is on the right in this final photo.

I am feeling better about completing this album before the end of the year, if I can do more than one page in a sitting!! Also, these pages have no thick embellishments added to them and are no less decorative for that – I do need to be careful and restrain my natural instincts to add huge amounts of texture or the book won’t shut! I’m such a texture junkie that this self-discipline is going to be hard to maintain!

WOYWW 276

For details of how to join in the world’s most famous nosey fest, please click on the WOYWW logo in my sidebar, which will take you to our hostess Julia’s blog, where all will be explained.

I’ve actually managed to do a bit this week in my ARTHaven, but not a lot, because I’ve had quite a bit to deal with lately (see my previous post) and as a result I am quite exhausted. Mum is away at my sister’s for ten days to give my hubby and me a break, and we are trying to take some trips and enjoy a holiday at home in her absence.

Here’s my desk this week.

For several weeks now, I have been intrigued by Angela’s masterboards, and at last have managed to start making one! I shall be blogging about it soon. It is not finished yet. I have just ironed off the clear embossing that I used as a resist.

Underneath you can see a couple of pieces of paper. These were the sheets I used to iron off the embossing. They are both interesting enough to do some inking on and maybe do something with.

You can see some archival and distress inks that were used to make it, and also the roll of baking parchment I used when ironing off the embossing powder onto another sheet of paper. Dare I mention the dreaded pot of dirty water yet again? It’s now become such a permanent fixture on my desk that I am actually feeling quite reluctant to empty it!! You can see that I have put away quite a lot of my gel mediums, to make room for the A3 sheet for the masterboard, but that doesn’t mean the rest of my ARTHaven is tidy, because it isn’t.

While I’ve been resting on the recliner this week, I’ve been going through my blog and replacing some of the photos on the earliest posts that had got corrupted, and also started creating some new Pinterest boards of my own work. I will eventually put links to these on my blog, but all the images will link back to my blog. I thought it might increase exposure of my blog, and it’s also quite a quick way of searching for things rather than trawling through the blog archive or labels. It’s turning out to be a really fun exercise as I’m getting the chance to look back at a lot of older work and comparing with what I’m doing now, and it’s made me want to revisit some old ideas with the benefit of more recent experience. I just need a whole lot more energy!!!

I’ve been a naughty girl today and ordered some fun stash! I can’t wait for it to come. It’s ages since I’ve bought anything, and as I am not going to any craft shows at the moment, thought I’d treat myself online. I am in serious need of some retail therapy to cheer me up after everything that’s been happening. I’ve ordered a few stamps and stencils and one or two other bits and pieces, and most exciting of all, the new We R Memory Keepers envelope punch board. Having Pinteressed it (new verb!) I have discovered there are endless things you can make with this, and with Christmas coming I thought I’d make up a few little gift boxes etc.

Blog posts will be upcoming about most of this stuff, so Watch This Space.

Have a great creative week, everybody.

Health Update–September 2014

Following my last health update, I have been taking the Omeprazole for some time now, and it definitely seems to be helping with the reflux, although I am still aware of something at the back of my throat. I am not coughing as much, and haven’t been disturbed at night by acid in my throat, but the GP said I should definitely see the ENT surgeon just to make sure everything was OK.

I had my hospital appointment today, and after a brief consultation he shone a light in my mouth, and palpated my neck. I thought that was going to be it, but no… he then sprayed some local anaesthetic up my nostril and proceeded to poke a light up my nose!! It was very small, on the end of a flexible tube, but despite the local anaesthetic, it felt like a lamp-post! It was pretty unpleasant. My nasal passages are apparently very narrow (which would explain why my nose is so often blocked). He said he needed to examine my vocal cords and the back of my throat in general, and said that there was still evidence of reflux there.

He prescribed Gaviscon Advance for six weeks, and said to continue with the Omeprazole, and then see my GP. The Gaviscon puts a blanket layer over the top of the stomach contents, and along with the acid-reducing Omeprazole, this should sort the problem. He also recommended propping the head of the bed up on bricks to elevate my upper body so my hubby is going to sort that – although what it will look like I don’t know – it’s a four-poster and might look like a ship on the high seas!

I saw the gastroenterologist a few weeks ago about my ulcerative colitis, and he continues to be pleased with my condition, which is responding well to the Pentasa medication. I had thought that my next colonoscopy wouldn’t be until August 2015 (two years after my first one) but he wants me to have it in February, which will be something nice to look forward to after Christmas (not…)!

Following a recent blood test, I have been told I am still mildly anaemic, so continuing with the iron for another few weeks. I am probably bleeding from the bowel although I’m not aware of it, but it could be enough to lower my haemoglobin sufficiently to need medication.

I bought a circulation booster from Ebay and it really helped with the swollen ankles. Now the weather has cooled off, the problem really isn’t so bad, and I have stopped using the machine for now, but it’s there if I need it.

Since my recent heart attack, I haven’t really been feeling myself – not exactly depressed, but feeling under the weather and a bit down, and rather unsettled. This is very unlike me because I’m usually very upbeat and bubbly. My creative mojo seems to have departed a bit recently, too. I had put it down to the constant low-level stress I suffer from with Mum in the house, but the other day I thought to myself that whenever I’ve had a day feeling like this, after a good night’s sleep the feeling generally disappears, but recently this has not happened. I mentioned it to my hubby at this point, and he said he wished I’d said something before, because he knows that it is very common indeed for people to get depression after a heart attack. I had no idea, but since then have spoken to several people who have experienced it. My hubby told me to Google it, and 18,900,000 search results appeared!!! He said, “Well, get reading then…” and I said if I read all that lot I’d be severely depressed by the end, not to mention still being at it well into the New Year!! It made me feel a lot better knowing that this was quite normal, and although I felt very down a couple of days ago, I’m feeling very much better again today.

I think I have to accept that it’s going to take time, and that my whole system suffered more of a shock than I was aware of. The most important thing is not to worry, and to know that it will pass. I don’t feel it’s bad enough to approach the doctor with.

My M.E. is ongoing, of course, and fluctuates from day to day, but there’s nothing new to report there, except to say that the dry mouth problem was probably a recurrence of this very common M.E. symptom, which has now gone into abeyance again. I have been continuing with the Sterimar routine before bed, and making sure my nose is as clear as possible before I go to sleep, and this is helping.

Ending on a cheerful note, I have been doing the 5:2, or “Fast” diet since our return from holiday towards the end of June, and am happy to report that this is the most brilliant diet I’ve ever been on. Because you reduce your calorie intake on only two days a week, and eat normally for the rest of the week, it is sustainable. Having to watch one’s diet every day, and deprive oneself of all the things one enjoys, soon becomes very tedious, and this is why so many people give up, especially when the weight loss tends to plateau, sometimes for several weeks.

I have had a three or four week plateau when I lost no weight, but I’ve stuck with it, and over the past couple of weeks, the weight loss has started again, resulting in a further half-stone coming off! I have now lost a total of 1 1/2 stone since June, and I am highly delighted. It doesn’t seem to be showing much – at least, not where I want it to (my stomach and bum) but one or two people have asked me if I’ve lost weight as it’s showing round my face, apparently!

So, generally speaking, I am pleased with how things are going. I am hoping that will be the last of the hospital visits for the rest of this year, at least for myself!

Mum, on the other hand, seems to be constantly going to the hospital or GP surgery these days. She had a TIA (transient ischaemic attack, or mini-stroke) a little while ago and has been undergoing tests since then, resulting in a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation (AF) and she is now on Warfarin, necessitating a weekly blood test until they stabilise the dose. Her blood pressure continues to be very high, and she is therefore at increased risk of another TIA or more serious stroke. She has bashed her leg again… and a few weeks ago, Phoebe, one of our kitties, scratched her arm, both of which needed an A&E visit and dressings which required changing – each time she has such an injury to her paper-thin skin, she digs her heels in and refuses point-blank to go to the hospital and we have to go through the whole process every time, of my hubby getting really stroppy with her and bullying her into submission! She never learns… she has no idea how serious such things can be at her age (93), and how they could easily get infected and lead to ulceration and worse. Oh well, my sister can deal with it for 10 days – we are currently enjoying a lovely break! After everything that’s happened recently, I think we deserve it – my hubby especially, as he is the one who has to drive her, and pick up all the prescriptions, etc.

Salisbury and Cotswolds Holiday Day 8–Cirencester and Home–First Post

On our final day, after leaving our lovely farm bed and breakfast, we visited Cirencester before beginning the journey home. We ended up spending most of the day there as it was just great.

My hubby took me to the amazing museum which celebrates the rich Roman history of the town. The museum is of a very high standard indeed, with the exhibits beautifully displayed. Just as we arrived, a school party from Oxford also arrived, and we spent some time going around with them, and I was very impressed with the standard of teaching, and the responses of the children. It was clearly a very good school and the children behaved very well throughout.

Adjoining the shop on the way out was a small gallery where they hold temporary exhibitions of local art, and the current one was based on William Shakespeare. I have done a separate post about this – more delicious art! We’ve been so blessed with it on this holiday!

The entrance lobby of the museum was screened off with a glass wall through which we could see the first of many displays of mosaics and wall paintings. Cirencester was an important Roman settlement and many very fine mosaics and other artefacts have been unearthed.

Looking through the lobby to the Roman Garden beyond.

Throughout the museum we found this beautiful logo, sand-blasted onto various glass panels, reflecting the museum’s emphasis on mosaics.

In the first photo you may have noticed a large hare in front of the mosaics on the wall. Cirencester is currently holding a “hare festival” and various shops and other venues have these large figures, each decorated in a different way. The museum one was embellished, appropriately, with mosaics. A lovely piece of work.

You can read more about the Hare Festival here. Lots more images here.

There were quite a few life-sized displays of figures illustrating life in Roman Britain (and other periods too – our time was limited so we just concentrated on the Romans). The school children were particularly fascinated by the mounted Roman cavalryman – or more particularly by his horse!

I am always fascinated that the Romans did not use stirrups, which were invented much later, and the horses are understood to have been unshod. Despite this, they were still a force to be reckoned with.

Walking in on this display, I almost apologised for disturbing a man sitting on his bed!

The Roman soldiers certainly had pretty basic accommodation – this looks more like a scene from a concentration camp!

A closer view of the Roman Garden. You can see the beautiful wall paintings beyond, and the mosaic logo on the glass partition.

The reconstruction of a Roman hypocaust found in Cirencester. I am fascinated by this form of underfloor heating – not just the simple but effective technology, but perhaps it has something to do with the word itself? It has a wonderful sound that rolls off the tongue (I love words…).

This display of Romans relaxing at home was very interesting. We listened to the teacher explaining that the installation of a mosaic in one’s home was a huge labour which would have taken many months, or longer, depending on the quality. This was a major investment, and proved that the owner was a person of wealth and status. They would have taken great delight in showing off their mosaics to their friends and neighbours. When they moved house, they would have to leave it behind as there was no way of lifting it and transplanting it to the new house, so I am sure that having quality mosaics would increase the sale value of the house. (I wonder if the wall paintings I left behind in our old house will have the same effect? Lol!)

Viewed from the balcony above, the famous Hunting Dogs mosaic could be seen in all its splendour. This is a very fine mosaic indeed, with small tesserae, and a great deal of detail. The muted colours come from the local stone, carefully selected and cut.

A reproduction pillar with an original Roman capitol in the Corinthian style. Each of the four faces depicts a Roman god – in this case the god of wine, Bacchus, surrounded as usual by grapes and vines. What particularly intrigued me was his wand, or thyrsus – in this case, the shape of it was exactly the same as the labrys or double-headed axe of the Minoan civilisation – my father brought me back a beautiful heavy silver pendant in this shape. It was a sacrificial axe, and it gave its name to the famous Labyrinth of Knossos, where Theseus slew the Minatoar in Greek mythology. With further research I may be able to establish the connection with Bacchus but no time at present!

From the Christian period of Roman occupation, this Sator square was found in Cirencester. It is an acrostic which spells “Pater Noster” – “Our Father.” It was probably a coded message passed between Christians, much as the simple image of the fish was used. There is plenty of information about this online.

Finally from the museum, a fine example of a wall painting in the form of panels – a popular design in Roman villas.

I took plenty more photos but could not possibly include them all here – this is a good representative sample.

Some pictures of Cirencester streets:

It’s a beautiful town, with very classy and intriguing shops. We came across this book shop with lots of flying hippos and bunting in the window!

Then… more chocolate heaven! I managed to restrain myself from going into this particular shop, and contented myself with photographing it from the windows! The first photo reflects the Hare Festival and features a large hare made of chocolate.

What about these chocolate cakes?

Yummy, or what? More pictures of the inside of the shop. First, a stunning chandelier consisting of carefully arranged hanging crystals, illuminated by small spotlights from above.

After this we found a very nice place to eat – a bit expensive but certainly worth it! This is the window seat with a set of lovely brown cushions in different fabrics. My hubby’s hat tones very well, don’t you think?

After lunch we visited the outdoor market, and then an indoor antiques market – I had wanted to do this first thing, and was proved right because by the time we got there they were starting to pack up. In the antiques market I bought a length of cream coloured lace for art work but there wasn’t much else in the way of vintage linens or textiles. In the outdoor market I came across a stall selling beautiful bright coloured Indian clothes and the lady running it looked so beautiful that I asked for a photo, and she obliged!

After this we really felt we should be making tracks for home, as we’d stayed a lot longer than we intended. I didn’t want to go straight home after leaving the bed and breakfast, but wanted to take advantage of our last day away, especially as several of the days were spoilt for me by feeling so poorly! We were home in time to feed two hungry kitties who were, of course, absolutely delighted to have us home again.

I have composed this post on Saturday 21st June but kept its date in sequence with the rest of the holiday posts – last night I was much too tired to attempt it, and today I am having a rest and attempting to catch up with myself a bit – we’ve got a family get-together tomorrow evening and I need to be on top form for that!

Salisbury and Cotswolds Holiday Day 7–Charlecote Park

Fortunately I was feeling slightly better today, even after another really bad night, and sleeping a lot in the car helped me keep going. We went to a National Trust property today, Charlecote Park, a magnificent Tudor manor house in Warwickshire. I took loads of photos but won’t include them all here!

The place houses a fine collection of carriages. Here are a couple of them.

Some of the names were very familiar from literature (Sherlock Holmes etc.!) – Barouches and Broughams. It was nice to see the difference between them, and for what purpose they were used. This was a very wealthy family who could afford different carriages for different occasions – rather like having a garage full of Porsches and Mercedes today!

I loved these black iron hay racks on the white wall.

In the stable block area, there was a number of very attractive signs with simple graphics. I particularly liked the Kitchen sign with the servants’ bell.

Beautiful iron gates.

A large mangle in the laundry. You could put a lot of embossing folders through this!

A view of the main house.

The gardens were beautiful, with a mixture of formal and landscaped.

The Great Hall ceiling.

In the centre of the Great Hall was a large and magnificent Italian marble topped table. The workmanship was truly extraordinary.

A bust of Queen Elizabeth I, who had associations with the house.

Some stunning ebony chairs in the library, inlaid with ivory.

Also in the library was this exquisitely inlaid cabinet.

At the other end of the library was this beautiful pair of globes, one a terrestrial globe and the other a celestial. Both were mounted on delicate Chippendale bases. The guide explained that they were made of papier mache, and the printed map was known as a “gore,” being a strangely shaped piece of paper with curved gussets cut out, so that the pieces would fit around the sphere. I had not come across this name before, but it tied in with my dressmaking knowledge – a “gored” skirt is made up of narrow tapering strips sewn together to form the three-dimensional shape.

A bust of William Shakespeare, who also had connections with the house.

Doing the rounds of the house, we met a group of men from a photographic club in the West Midlands and I got into conversation with one of them. He said he’d found a staircase upstairs, and someone had asked why on earth he’d want to photograph it as it was so uninteresting – but he said he could manipulate it and make it interesting, with monochrome and the addition of some grain. He was a man after my own heart, photographing unlikely things like rust and manky old rope, and we shared the experience of our families thinking we were completely mad! I made a point of looking out for this staircase, which presumably once led to the servants’ bedrooms, and photographed it, determined to see if I could follow his lead and make my own grungey version of it. Unfortunately I was unable to capture the single, unshaded light bulb at the head of the stairs which would have added atmosphere. Here is the original:

I wanted to share my “grungeyfied” version but for some obscure reason I am unable to export the picture as a jpg or png from Serif PhotoPlus without losing the noise that I added. If anyone has a solution to this problem, I’d love to hear it! (I’ll edit this post if I discover a way of doing this.)

A beautiful gilded ceiling.

A lovers’ couch made of Burmese teak. I have a screen made of this, deeply and elaborately carved, and it weighs an absolute ton!

The kitchen fireplace.

In the kitchen region there was a large, impressive cast iron boiler.

I decided to give this the grunge treatment too, but again, the gorgeous grainy “noise” was lost on export. Very mysterious… It looks nice and steampunk in the photo editor.

Just as we were leaving, I came across this elderly gentleman resting his feet in the sun, together with the resident cat, and he kindly allowed me to photograph him!

A great day out, greatly enhanced by my feeling well enough to enjoy it! I went deeply asleep in the car on the way back and don’t feel too bad now. We are returning home tomorrow, and I just wish I had felt well all through the holiday as I feel I wasted several precious days, and also spoilt my hubby’s enjoyment, too, although he denies this, bless him!