Sadly however, her health has deteriorated to such an extent, that things have reached crisis point for both her, Grant and their family, and they all face a hard and uncertain future.

They don’t want handouts, or charity, what they need is our support and encouragement. Please read Grants latest post, and learn how we can help support them most effectively.

Thank you…
Lorrie

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It’s not just trying to do the prompts, play with Orla, answer emails, work on new art, get to the post office etc.  I then have to photograph the journal entries, get them onto Flickr, blog about it etc. It’s not doable. First day I was working on my Day I entry at 11.30 p.m. Day II, I was working on it whilst Orla was playing and she kept asking me to play with her.  Today…just not doable and tomorrow we are out for the day. So…

I really looked forward to doing it, but I need to  look after my little girl and keep up with my commission work and paint. I will do the next one when term starts in September.

Aaahhh well.

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Journal Prompt 2:  I am a huge fan of writing out my goals, short term and long term.  I thought it would be appropriate to have some journaling goals for ourselves too!!  What are your goals for your journaling?

Now, I was not able to make today’s entry as original or interesting as I would have liked, it was pretty much created sporadically and snatching spare moments whilst looking after Orla and Ella (her best friend), as it’s the school holidays. I feel that a lot of us Mum’s who are doing this may struggle a bit over the next 30 days, but I will do my best. I elected to post this here, and not on my art blog asI  felt it was less about my art, and more about me. I will probably post them here every day, and summarise on my art blog at the end of the week.

My five bullet points for my entry are as follows:

• Be spontaneous
• Less obsessive
• Do something different
• Challenge myself
• Be authentic and true to myself
• Most of all make it fun and enjoyable

The crux of the above is this; I am tightly wound both personally and in my work  and always have been. I have a tendency to OCD which I have to continually fight against (which means I can be overly perfectionist about my work and have been known to destroy as many as five or six (or many more)  working versions of a piece of art. I  liked the idea of a group project, and felt this would challenge me  to do something different, and given that the subject matter would be dictated by another person, would take me out of my comfort zone. Above all, that I remain true to myself, am authentic and resist the urge to compare and fret over it But last and not least…to enjoy the experience and not make it too onerous and something that becomes stressful or a chore.

Journal Prompt II

Oh, and if you are wondering about the melon. I asked Orla to choose from one of her many stickers books a sticker she felt would most suit the content of the page, and she chose this one.

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So, what can I say?! I am arty, a Mum, laughing most of the time (I hope), definitely striving and most importantly loving Luke and Orla.

The little illustrations are symbolic (though not hidden). Pencil, paintbrush, a pot of paintbrushes, a winged heart, the stormy sea and I am the little boat, my crown because I am the Queen of my own little soap opera, and the sun. The adjectives are in my own long hand, which I don’t use often anymore.

'Welcome to my arty, mumsy, striving, laughing and loving life'

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Anns Hallway

I want to tell you a story about a friend of mine.  A friend who worked and saved hard for her dream home, and had that dream shattered.

Many of you may have seen that show “Cowboy Builders” on five, whenever I have seen it I have sat aghast at the sheer devastation these unscrupulous people leave in their wake. It’s not only the buildings they destroy but very clearly the lives of the people/families who they prey upon.

Sadly, a friend and designer-maker Ann of handmade eco homewares Snowdrops and Daisies and The Tea Cosy Shop and her family have fallen prey to just such an unscrupulous builder. The house, which was meant to benefit from a beautiful new extension, now lies in a total shambles: no electrics in the kitchen, wonky floors, windows that open inwards instead of outwards, in some areas no protective material on the outer skin of the extension, exposed gas pipes and electrical wires in outside walls, garden used as a building materials dumping ground….I could go on. You can read the whole nightmarish ordeal here on Ann’s blog.

What WE can do to help Ann and her family:

1. Spread the word!! Obviously Ann cannot name the builders in question for legal reasons but by telling Ann’s story and raising the profile of this all too common issue we can help! So, get blogging, twittering and facebooking about this.
2. Subscribe to Ann’s blog, just click the “subscribe” button;
3. If you live nearby (South Lanarkshire, Scotland) donate your time to help them out. If you have specialist skills (electrician, plumber, carpenter, plasterer etc) even better! Ann says there is room to camp if anyone is willing;
4. Donate something: If you are an artist, designer-maker, crafter Ann and her family would welcome donations of your work to make their house feel like a home again. They won’t have any funds left for little luxuries like these as their funds will be wiped out with trying to fix the botch job they have been left with;
5. Buy something from Ann’s shops: Snowdrops and Daisies and The Tea Cosy Shop.

Read more details of how to help here.

Ann's Cup Cosy

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I want to tell you about a new project I am participating in that starts on Monday 26th. It’s called ‘Journaling for a Cause‘ and is being run by the lovely Janel of ‘Runs with Scissors‘  as a  ‘journal class, with new prompts, new challenges, giveaways, chats, and a fun community of online friends to share it with’.

Some of you may be familiar with Janel and her last fabulous project, ‘The 30 Day Journal Challenge. Janel posted journal ‘prompts’ every day for 30 days, and people posted their journal/sketchbook pages in the Flickr group. It was hugely popular and created a veritable cornucopia of creativity.

I can’t wait to get started. I just need to decide which pretty sketchbook, or even…buy a new/another one especially for the project.  Go read all about it, there are still some ‘class’ spots left on her Etsy Shop to be purchased. The money that Janel makes from running the class (and it’s only $10 to buy a spot) is going towards her and her husband adopting a child of their own.

I will be writing up my progress on my Art Blog. If you are interested, then follow me there.

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I have not been since the birth of my little girl, though last year I did go to Goodwood Revival. This year we decided to take advantage of a newspaper offer and got tickets to the ‘Moving Motor Show, a new event being run as a  prelude to the main event, and for which having made arrangements with the dealers, one could drive some of the new cars.  An ideal arrangement if one was lucky enough (and had the money), though as the stewards warned me when some of the cars driven by punters approached ‘ they aint a clue what they are doing, so  stay well clear, they don’t know which pedals to press half of them’. I duly took note.

For me the best part is cruising the paddock and the ‘lawn’ and gazing up close at  all these amazing cars (the highlight one year was getting close to a Lamborghini Countach) .  I would have said that up until this year (and I have not been for a while) FOS had  less of the innate snobbery and elitism that clings to Goodwood Revival. But this year, it would seem that there is slightly more onus on keeping the Hoi polloi away from the rich and shameless.

However, it was a fab day, even though many of the cars had not arrived yet. The jazz and swing being played live was excellent, it wasn’t too hot, it wasn’ too crowded and I got to see some fabulous cars.

Addendum:
After first writing this post, it transpired that one of the people who had been allowed to drive one of the new cars, crashed through the central stand, injuring people and crashed out the other side. Apparently he had succumbed to heat and exhaust fumes, and passed out at the wheel. We walked through there, and past the stand. It could have been us that was hit. It now begs the question whether to allow inexperienced drivers to drive such powerful cars, to which they are unused, amongst the general public is a sensible and safe thing to do. Whomsoever conceived of this idea, made a serious error of judgement. Read more.

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Despite being an avid reader my entire life, in the last five years or so I have not read quite as much as I would like. Mostly because having had a child, as those with children know, ones free time becomes severly limited, and given my that my main preoccupation is my art, one has to make choices. However, of late I have been trying (when not drawing and painting) to spend less time online and more time reading. I decided recently to revisit my ‘old friends’, and work my way through my Heyer collection. I also decided that I wanted to reread the first Heyer novel I ever read, which was ‘These Old Shades’ (a sequel of sorts to ‘The Black Moth’), and which though not set in the Regency period (and in fact during the 18th century during the reign of Louis XV) remains my favourite.

As this (and it’s sequel ‘Devil’s Cub) had been lost a few years ago, I ordered the two from Amazon and waited their arrival with excitment. When they arrived I very naughtily (and this was always my problem) sat down and read them both through in two sittings. ‘These Old Shades’ on the Monday, and ‘Devil’s Cub’ on the Tuesday.

I have to say, that despite the passage of years, neither book had lost its charm for me.  I was still able to engage with the characters utterly, was totally submerged in both stories, and carried away with by excitement of the narrative.  Heyer’s characterisation is excellent, her writing style witty and engaging (somewhat in the style of Austen and Gaskill though with the dryness of her own time and personality), and her knowledge and understanding of the period in which she writes  is without par. Leonie and Justin’s story had me reading at breakneck speed with excitement, despite having read the story so many times. I delighted in her debut into the fashionable world when she became a girl again, was excited by her abduction and rescue, and the commitment of all the supporting characters,  and thrilled at the ultimate comeuppance of St.Vire and Justin’s declared love for Leonie (Justin Duke of Avon remains my  favourite Heyer character of all time).

I subsequently read ‘Devils Cub’ with the same glee and excitement and enjoyed the story as much as it’s predecessor. A week later I ordered Arabella, (firmly set within the Regency period) and read that through in one sitting also.

One thing I will say, it’s an interesting (and slightly bitter sweet) experience to read these book so many years after the first. My understanding, perception and feelings towards the characters have changed considerably since the first time I read the books. Hardly surprising given I was eleven, then in my early teens, and am now in my forties.  At the time of first reading, I identified strongly with Leonie (and all the young heroines), and thought that Justin was terribly old as a lover for a young girl (given he was in his forties) and could not understand how she would fall in love with a man so much older, as being over 40 seemed positively ancient to me.  When I read these books, I was so very young and  had still the excitement and uncertainty of love and romance to look forward to. Now, with the passage of years and being …well, middle aged, I read with a slight pang the knowledge that those days are now far behind me (though that’s not to say I have no romance in my life at all… if my husband chances to read this!).

Interestingly, most of my favourite Heyer novels when I was young were her earlier works, and then as I grew older, my preferred books were those written in her later life. The reason being, that as she grew older, so did her heroines so become. Less were there the 18 year old wide eyed heroines, and her female characters became more mature and self possessed, and to be honest, a lot  more interesting).

(to be continued)…

Good Reviews:
‘These Old Shades’ by Jane Austen’s World

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Lorrie 1997, aged 35.

Those who knew me more than fifteen years ago, or even ten or so will remember I was a pretty girl. I wasn’t terribly vein I don’t think. In fact, until I was about 30, I really didn’t think I was anything special at all. But, I was slim, had long silky hair, pale with green eyes that held a somewhat steely glint at times, and…I was pretty. I took it for granted, and at times enjoyed it. It was not the most important thing to me certainly, and why I didn’t spend too much time on it.

I held my looks I think until I was about 40. Certainly when I look at my wedding photos I look good, and definitely not 40, lucky me. Sadly, with the birth of Orla, recovering from a traumatic and gruesome delivery, her colic, sleepless nights without end, her illnesses, and nary a full nights sleep in five years etc, have taken their toll.

I don’t know when it was exactly that I suddenly looked old and tired, and most definitely not young and pretty any more. I also can’t seem to remember when it was that I lost interest. I was photogenic when I was young, and loved having my picture taken. Now, I avoid the camera at all times, and stay behind the lens if I can rather than in front. These days, unless carefully composed, it’s almost impossible for me to get a good shot of myself without looking old, tired drawn, exhausted and a face that looks positively sagging. Being overweight doesn’t help I know. I look in the mirror now, with the knowledge that on this day, this is as good as it gets, and this premise will apply for every day here after.

This is not a whine tough, it really isn’t. For after all, what can I do? Starve myself and end up looking like an old chicken, fill my face with poison and look like a piece of sweaty playdo?  And indeed, what I got in exchange was infinitely more wonderful than looks. I got my little girl, who I could not live without. The most amazing, vibrant, exciting, loving, funny, clever and adorable little creature that brings utter  joy to my life.

No, one must accept it, and I do. Beauty is purely subjective anyway, and being a middle aged woman is now become quite trendy and cool, but, I do sometimes miss being young and pretty.

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Rachel Lucie Bracelet

So, recently (as I rarely buy my self anything)  I treated myself to a couple of pretties as I have had quite a bit of work lately, sold some art etc.  And as I feel the need to share and show off the talents of these clever people. Here they are.

I acquired this beautiful bracelet from the ever so talented Rachel Lucie (for whom I recently undertook some graphic design work). It’s absolutely fabulous, and is a charm bracelet constructed from an oxidized silver chain that is polished, with lovely stones that are kyanite (apple green), iolite (indigo), smoky quartz and silver freshwater pearls. It’s really beautiful, delicate and very pretty. It’s colours suit me perfectly and is currently my favourite piece of jewellery.

Do take a moment to go and look at Rachel’s web site and one of her many her shops, as her jewellery is so lovely and elegant, also..she has been featured in Vogue, indeed!

Rachel Lucie Bracelet

Gorjuss Art:
Secondly, on facebook recently,  I noticed Mr.G from Gorjuss flagging up one of Suzanne’s fabulous illustrations on some notebooks being sold on Amazon. There were not a lot left in stock, and as they were quite reasonably priced, I decided to nab me one quick. It was being sold with a free Santoro pen and included a pretty little bookmark. I was thrilled to bits. It’s utterly gorgeous and almost too nice to use. It’s pages are lined, free and grid and in different colours with little icons here and there. Love it…

Gorjuss Top of the World Notebook

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