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I reckon every so often, you need to MOVE.  (Not just your body – although please, please PLEASE let the Oroxine work and me stop being such a slug!)

No, I mean, a MOVE.  Where things get sorted out and clutter gets thrown, and you get to actually organise and start fresh.

So – I’m packing (virtual) boxes, loading them into my (virtual) car and caravan (so cute!) and moving.  Stay tuned!

Related posts:

1. Adventure Time!
2. Have you heard?

(Thankfully, not Umble pie – because, you know, the origin of that? The umbles were the guts of the beast. I don’t care if that is venison, beef, whatever – it’s still OFFAL PIE. And I do not eat offal, it’s awful… (And to further parenthesize that statement, the joke probably only works with a certain sort of accent) (and can you tell I just re-watched The Pirates of Penzance on the weekend?!) (how many parentheses does that make?))

Not that long ago (see post HERE and here…, because I forgot I’d already done a rant about the same topic) I was VERY dismissive of scrap-booking and scrap-bookers. I believe the question “where’s the creativity?” may even have been asked, in ALL CAPS yet.

ANYWAY.

Humble, humble, apologetic pie. Because I have been doing some surfing online and maaaaaaaaan! What I saw! Yes, there are a lot of people out there doing ho – hum – follow -*to the millimetre* – what -  Simon – says (for “Simon” insert magazine/tutorial/teacher/whatever) – they’re not the ones I’m talking about. No, the really inspiring ones are people like Ali Edwards, Jen Fei-Fan Balzer, Dina Wakley…

And the TOYS! I want a Cricut Expression (with the design software, please and thank you), oh, sooooo much. (And not just for its possible use in ummmmm… pirate stencilling, *wink*).

And spray inks! and oh, the pretty pretty papers… and grungey papers… and rub ons (not as dirty as they sound, you feeeeelthy minded person, you!).

And then there’s the digital side.. which has opened my access to whollllllllllllllle ‘nother world, even if I am still at the stage where I like to play with the images on the computer screen but then print and hand colour and cut and paste (nothing wrong with hybrid stuff -  – I mean, have you SEEN Marsha’s work? She makes beautiful wonderful art… and so does CD Muckosky - and so do many others, I’m sure).

And it’s not all expensive stuff – check out this tutorial (which I haven’t watched because our internet is throttled, arrrgh!)

Apart from the fact that ‘they’ tend to work on 12×12 pages, and generally use a few more photos than I do (although THAT will be changing, I’m taking LK’s Point and Shoot Journalling class in just over a week!) – where is the difference between what ‘they’ are doing and what I’m calling art journals?

Not a whole lot. I tend to use more handwritten text but even that’s not a distinguishing factor. So do ‘they’. So – (as I take another slice of humble pie) – I was WRONG.

WRONG WRONG WRONG.

Sorry.

SO what IS the difference, can anyone enlighten me? Between – hmmm, let’s call it ‘liberated scrap-booking’ (and hope no one else has already called something that!) and art journals – WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

“]

[click for big - be warned, LARGE so you can read if you want

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(Be gentle, she’s not done yet, and I don’t normally paint  – ummmm – recognisable things! )

What do you think? I’m not quite sure where she’s going next, why there’s a bird on her head, or what she’s doing but we’ll work it out.

And now my confession: I LOVE ALL THINGS HALLOWEEN-Y!!

There, I’ve said it.

It’s not a holiday we celebrate down under (sadly!) so the very few bits and bobs of Halloween stuff we get in the shops tend to be of the very low end, cheap-nylon-witch-hat-with-attached-purple-wig variety.  (No disrespect intended to any cheap nylon witches.)

And alllll the arty blog girls are making AWESOME Halloween stuff – I mean, check out these bunnies who’ve decided that Bunnies aren’t just for Easter! And of course the SPOOKTACULAR stuff over at Cart Before the Horse (who BTW are having an awesome giveaway, go there now! Oh wait, DON’T, cos I want to win it! No, hang on, DO, because their stuff is WONDERFUL!).

Am I a lone Aussie in love with Halloween?

Related posts:

1. Arrgh! But some exciting progress…
2. 11 & 12 of 365, a journal page, and what I’m reading
3. Just SHUT UP, Caity, SHUT UP!

Loved

Stairs

I didn’t forget to take my 365 self portrait yesterday – I just didn’t have my computer. It had been getting a wee bit unstable, as these things do, so it was time to save all the data and do a “nuke & pave” – wipe the whole box clean and install a whole new Operating System.  I must say, I LOVE LINUX MINT!!  Super easy to manage, (I did the install by myself! Try doing THAT with a w1nd0ws OS!) and the price is awesome (FREE!).  My computer is now back up to date and running faster – I just have to make time to trawl through all the backed up files and see what REALLY needs keeping.

And I’m very gradually learning how to do more things in GIMP – all the layers and brush tools and so on like ph0t0sh0p, but again – FREE!!  We love that price!

Today I had a lovely shopping morning with BFF Sue – I only bought a couple of very necessary T-shirts, booooooorrrring! Oh, and a small pressie that I have to mail off tomorrow for a friend in Oregon. (Tee hee! I will show what it is once she has hers – it was so cute I had to buy one for myself, too!)

Off to the gastroenterologist this arvo.  *shudder* Hope she can at least point me in the direction of some answers – I’m really tired of stomach/abdominal pain.  Ugh.

Open the door and come in

[clicky biggy, obviously]

And finally for this post – a book recommendation.  I’m a hyuuuuuuuuuge fan of Elizabeth Peter’s Amelia Peabody mysteries, but she’s getting on (both Elizabeth and Amelia!) and I dread there being no more new books. So I was delighted to read a new (to me) archaeological/mystery heroine – not the same as Amelia, no one ever could be, but quirky, completely in her time period ( I have been known to throw books at the wall for the sin of anachronism) and with delightful detail.  Barbara Cleverly is possibly my favourite new find this year!  I stayed up finishing the first book (Tomb Of Zeus) last night and started the second over breakfast this morning.  I’m hoping this will be the start of a looooong series of Laetitia Talbot books!

(Barbara Cleverly also writes the Detective Joe Sandilands series, but I haven’t read any of those yet.)

Right, that’s about it from me, gotta go find where I’ve put the papers I need to take with me to the specialist…

Related posts:

1. CatCat (aka Miss Kit Tern) journal page
2. More Visual Journal Stuff
3. I think I’m going to stop reading the news….

The stamp dates from 1936 and celebrates the Centenary of (the State of) South Australia, where my grandfather was born (and coincidentally, where my brother now lives in the very small suburb of Granpa’s birthplace!

So I love the handwritten notation “This is news to me.”

I have no idea who wrote it but it makes me laugh.

My parents are currently cleaning out their house of many accumulated things and part of me want to go down there and RESCUE it all and bring it back here!  HOW HOARDISH AND SILLY IS THAT?

(but look, you never know what cool stuff you might find….)

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An action shot today!  Yep, despite the low level migraine that’s been bothering me since early last night, I actually got some journalling done today.  (Of course, if you wanna see JOURNALLING, you must go check out Teesha Moore’s most recent posts – I am in AWE, always, of her work.)

One of the things I do when I get into a period of slump and self doubt about my art (dare I even call it that?!) is re-read two fabulous books by Peter H. Reynolds: (Who now has a blog!)

Both are wonderful stories about overcoming your fear of creating – Vashti’s teacher gets her to just make a mark in art class… and her creativity leaps from there. And Ramon’s drawings are not to his satisfaction, but his sister treasures them and says it doesn’t matter what it was supposed to look like – it looks (x) ISH!

*sigh* Love that.

I’m off to make DOTS. (Speaking of which, you might also like to see Jude at Spirit Cloth’s exploration of dots – really beautiful textiles.)

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Yeah, it’s not going to win me any photographic awards, but I kinda like the dark foreground.  Me and Miss Kit Tern this arvo.

Also today – The Story Of The Printer.  Which Mr Beloved is writing up has written and he tells is much better than I do – I shall just say KNOW YOUR RIGHTS! And don’t buy a Kodak ESP-3 All in One multifunction printer. They suck.

For the purposes of where Mr Beloved originally sent the story, Caity is referred to as The Evil Vicar’s Wife (TEVW) and Mr Beloved is known as The Goat or as The Irreverent Mr Black.

Probably best not to ask why….

It came to pass, in those days, that TEVW did purchase a new printer for her photography and fiddly stuff, and behold, it was made by the Yellow Box Photo Stuff People. Here is its likeness.

(image: http://photography-mag.com)

It printeth not upon the square, and its rectangles were sort-of trapezoids with some curvature. Lo, its suckage was great. TEVW looketh upon the sites and forums, and crieth: “Bugger. Lots of people are having trouble with these. I shall send it back for a refund”.

She calleth upon the Children of Off-Us-Jerks. Verily, they sendeth her on telephone tag round their encampment, even unto the whole goddamn twelve tribes, until her call pitcheth forth at the tent of Tech Guy.

“Alas, O Tech Guy. My printer functioneth not as a printer, but melteth my images as if the demon Salvador Dali tormenteth it. This is a curse upon its kind, as written in the chronicles of the prophet Intarwub, and I wish to get my shekels back.”

The Tech Guy maketh the sound of the Hrumph, and reciteth he from a scroll by the phone, saying: “We refundeth not, nor giveth we credit. No, there are no exceptions to this rule, and we don’t care nyah nyah nyah. We sendeth thy piddly little piece of equipment to its makers beyond the sea and they fixeth it, for no fault attacheth to us and it is all out of our teflon-coated hands, so there.”

TEVW saith, “But surely the Fair Trading Act 1989, Section 40…”

But behold, he cutteth her off, saying that there are no exceptions to policy.

A certain Goat was close by, and heareth the woe of TEVW. He waxed, both wroth and the tips of his straggly moustache.

He strideth to the phone, and dialleth the tribe of Jerks, specifically Off-Us. His tone was as honey, and his pronunciation was as precise as an old-time ABC newsreader, for a very angry Goat must constantly remember to be polite.

“Good morrow, entry-level staffer. I am sorry, but I must speak with a manager, as our last call has been largely disappointing.” (words have been changed for archaic effect, but the tone is similar.)

And in due time, cometh the manager to the telephone.

The Goat, who was Black, recited the Litany Of Crappy Results, and brought the tidings that the tribe of ESP-3 was cursed by the peoples of Forum.

“We expected a printer”, he saith. “A distorter of images was not what we paid for.”

And lo, the Manager beginneth to read from the Scroll Of Store Policy.

Quoth the Goat: “Does the policy override Consumer Law, or is it the other way? Please remind me as I am a very forgetful Goat, and would not like to need to ask the Office Of Fair Trading which was more powerful.”

And behold, the Manager’s eyes were opened. Fucking wide.

And so it was that a refund was issued.

The moral of today’s sermon is to know your consumer rights. How the hell it is, that a store can have a “policy” which encourages staff to flout the law, and can continue to promote such a policy, is a mystery which is not to be unravelled this side of the grave.

(Note: Good service was given at the same store, and many of its staff are great help. It’s the policy that sucks donkey-spheres.)

So there you have it.  Good Triumphed over Evil and they All Lived Happily Ever After. What more could you want from a story?

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Ourphone line at homeisdown.  Grrrr bloody telstrainfastructure,this happensevery time wegetmorethan about3mm ofrain…. sono phone andNO INTERNETforgoodnessknows how long.

ARRGH!

Related posts:

1. Oh NOES!

[click if you want to read it]

The journal prompt was “Who in your life talks too much?”

My answer – me.  ARRRGH!

Do you think my journal pages are improving?

My tonsils are spotty and I am having a bad fibro flare up – I think I’ll be having another bed day today.

Related posts:

1. Sphygmomanometer – or, why Caity is happy today!
2. Fresh Start – Part the Second
3. Day 1: 365 photos