Washing away the dust from the soul!

Well the cleaning is done and the house is sparkling like a new pin!!! Lovely. My normal throwaway comment about cleaning is. "House work??? I just sweep the room with a glance!!" Always gets a laugh but in actual fact I love nothing better than to give the house a good "bottoming" .
There has to be a method though.
1 - Wait till everyone has left the house and lock the door so they cant get back in.
2 - Whack my Northern Soul up really loud so it can be heard on all floors. A good rhythm makes you clean faster, I find.
3 - kettle always on - its thirsty work.
4 - Start at the top and work down.
5 - keep door locked so they cant get back in and muck it up!!!!!

So I now have some time to spend art journalling WAYY!!! and as promised here's a few pages from one of my old ones. Lots of you are frightened about art journalling and don't know where to start so I just wanted to show that they can be really simple. I always start with a painty background. Some days when inspiration isn't calling that's all I do - make backgrounds!!! So then they are always ready to go.

This first page came about as I was listening to the radio. Leo Sayer was singing "Thunder in my heart" and I was doodling down the lyrics. I had sat to the side of me a black and white portrait of myself which I hated. It was too much seeing my face that big!! So I started writing all over it and filling in with wavy lines. I used oil pastels in muted colours along the lines and blended them with my fingers. Decorated a tag in the same manner, added glossy accents and attached it to the piece. Now I love it as the focus is taken off my face and onto the words of the song.




This piece came about when I was struggling to make a big decision. At the time I didn't know which way to go. The background is painted and then stamped all over. The buttons were stitched onto the ric rac and then stapled onto the piece. The jigsaw is an actual kiddies jigsaw piece , decorated to match, which I then wrote on. The words were torn from a magazine and edged in paint to blend. Finally I doodled the writing around.

This last page was made on a day when I was quite annoyed. Can you tell by the colour scheme??? lol I felt that everyone was putting on me and taking me for granted. I was getting myself quite worked up when I realised that, in fact, it was all my own doing. I was allowing it to happen by being too afraid to say no. It was a wake up call to remind me to stop getting aggy and look after me!! I felt a lot better when I had finished it. People are always frightened to write down their true feelings but if you look closely you will see there is hardly any writing on here at all. And what there is , is stamped. That's sometimes all you need because YOU will never forget the meaning of that page.

I hope that this has maybe inspired you to stop watching the soaps, or doing the ironing. Treat yourself, grab your paints and watch the inspiration flow!!!! Dont forget - nobody need see your art except you!!! So what are you waiting for???