T Stands For We Are Six

Hello Friends and Happy Tuesday!

So what are we going to talk about this week?  Well let’s see, today we are celebrating a birthday in the EOTC house.  The kittens are SIX today, hard to believe really because it seems like yesterday that they were tiny, and yes I still refer to them as “the kittens” because people don’t really remember their names so it saves time when talking about them, as everyone knows who I mean when I say “the kittens”. One more year and they will be “seniors” lol.  Kitten photos are below plus presents!

I am still slogging away on my ICADs and Junk Journal July, two daily challenges is a lot to fit in and then a lot to post on Instagram on the right days.  Yesterday I sat outside and did some al fresco arting since we had an amazing 28C which is rare in these parts.  And speaking of arting outside, we are looking for photos of outdoor crafting and studio spaces for next month’s Artful Pages magazine, which is my baby so basically when I say we” I mean “me”.  So if you have any that you would like to share in the August issue of the magazine read this blog post for more information and contact details or just ask me in the comments below!

As I’m writing this on Tuesday morning rather than it being scheduled, I have just read Elizabeth’s post about the 9th birthday.  I kinda just had a similar thing only I was on my own and no one turned up lol.  We have an online book group and it was our SEVENTEENTH birthday last Saturday and I was the only person who turned up to the “party”.  It’s a forum setup so in past we used to all be online to chat together, at the same time, play silly games and have a laugh so it would have been really nice to do that again this year but it was not to be.  Some people are on holiday and have no internet access, some others were working shifts, plus the usual time zone differences etc and maybe sometimes it just isn’t as important as it is to me.  We are all really good friends, and it’s no big deal, but it would have nice to share and reminisce together on the day. Next week when everyone is back they will be sad to have missed it, but then it will be business as usual and not a special day.

In other disappointing news, a bit disappointed that the Laly Mille retreat last week was just a repeat of the one she ran in 2020.  I hoped for new content but there was none.  Sad also that the Fodder School “early bird special” was only $10 less than the regular price.  I would have considered it had it been greatly discounted, even despite my spending freeze. Also why run it for 10 days when there are only 9 lessons?  And none from the hosts themselves, weird.  Anyway, let’s get into the arty stuff… this will be a long post, and I don’t have the energy to format it to make it shorter, as my garden and the hot weather are calling me… so buckle up, here we go!

today’s art . . .

Today’s art, is all about ICADs and #JunkJournalJunl so to start, here is today’s ICAD.  If you missed the first seven days you can see that post here and Days 8-14 here and Days 15-21 here and Days 22-28 here and Days 29-35 here and Days 36-42 are here.

Day 49 wallpaper

The prompt for today is wallpaper so I made some patterned wallpaper using a little handmade stamp but I don’t really like it that much, then the background went weirdly patchy, but I’m going to say of course that was deliberate and it’s old wallpaper on damp walls haha.

icad CATch-up  . . .

Days 43-48 are not in a slider because (garden, heat, time, eyesight re allergies)

Day 43 SCRABBLE

Day 44  WHIMSICAL

Day 45 TRAVEL

Day 46  ORANGE

day 47 SPIN OR SPINNER

A few years ago (2019) I entered a contest to create a new die for My Favourite Things. I created the Cheese Wheel of Misfortune which I thought was a great idea but apparently nobody else did as I didn’t win lol. I thought it would make a really cool die for cat lovers, and there could be all sorts of prizes hidden in the cheese wheel and all sort sof cats spinning the wheel.   If I had the money I would get it made myself and give it to all my cat loving friends.  If you want to see the original design which was for an interactive card, you can read that post here.   So when I saw the prompt for day 47 I knew I had to make an ICAD version, a little tricky getting it to fit on the index card but still doable. It really does turn thanks to the brad in the centre and the idea is that the cat spins the wheel and whatever appears in the window next to the arrow is what he wins for dinner (in this case a canary yum yum)  Or sometimes he gets nothing but a fish skeleton which you can just see opposite the canary.

day 48 chevron

This one I got to enjoy doing outside yesterday after I did all the gardening (hedge cutting not fun) so it was nice to sit down under an umbrella and make my little chevron pattern in the fresh air.

today’s art . . . #junkjournaljuly

Here’s a catch up since last week.  Each page is a daily prompt.  I find it really hard to not make a two-page spread so I decided to stop trying which you will see further on.    Day 8 – wallpaper (I used some old wallpaper) and day 9 – clashing patterns.  One way to make patterns work is to stick to one colour scheme ie black and white, so my patterns are all black and white but then I decided to add some Pukka tea packaging as a foldout and add even more clashing patterns!

Day 10 – time out – magazine cut out, old tag, some paper scraps, and day 11 fussy cut, this is a piece of kraft wrapping paper I cut around and then added some white details on the edges.

Day 12 was dyed so I used some natural fibres I had previously dyed using plant dyes as listed on the tags and some index cards dyed with coffee and avocado.  Day 13 was mirrored – so I used this old die cut mirror I made and some other bits and pieces, gel prints etc.
Day 14 was nature, and day 15 was texture so they definitely go together as two-page spread.  I even used some of my hedge from the garden, some handmade paper with plants embedded in it, and a gift box from a garden gift set (see below).

Here’s the box I used for day 14.  I’ve been holding on to this box for some time – the BBE date was 2020 lol.  I painted over the ingredients list and then used my pitt pens to fill in some of the missing vegetables – the tomatoes and the beetroot.

Day 16 was one-sided so I drew a one-sided face (profile) and then day 17 was go-to palette so I used some of my favourite colours to add the background to the pages.

Which brings me to today’s pages, day 18 was cutout and day 19 was tucked away. For cutout I used this old diecut card that I made years ago and never used.  It has a pretty leaf and bird design that cuts the centre out of cards.  In the middle I used one of my Xmas cards from last Xmas and to hold it closed I used this little cat bookmark, also from years ago and never used.  Sensing a theme here lol.  For the tucked away page I used more amazon packaging to make some pockets, painted with acrylic on the edges, giving me three full length pockets to tuck things away inside.  More of these little cat bookmarks and random stuff tucked inside.

kitty update – we are six. . .

These little darlings are six years old today!   Meet Miss Blue Lily and Mr Gansey, both named after characters in the book series I was reading at the time.  They haven’t been the healthiest kittens during the time we’ve had them, it could be they had compromised immune systems or that their mum had cat flu at the time, but it has been a very expensive few years since they arrived on the scene.  Normally I don’t do pet insurance but kinda wishing I had with these two!  Anyway, things have been pretty stable since about March so fingers crossed, touch wood and anything else that might help, that things stay that way, because the problems they have, apart from being costly are also the messy kind!

If you are an amazon shopper, you might have noticed it was Prime Day last week which is actually now a two-day event, since they can’t seem to fit in all the special deals in just one day!  I survived Prime Day without spending any money on anything that was not essential.  In fact the only two things I did buy were both for the kittens (and Miss P) including 120 packets of Felix cat food (12kg) at half price, and since all the prices have gone up lately, this was a steal.

Also on offer were the cardboard scratchers I like to buy for them so they don’t rip up the carpets.  These were a third off and since they had a birthday coming up I got two so there’s no need to fight over them. These things are great, they really love them but they make so much mess with tiny bits of shredded cardboard going everywhere.  I am always thinking I should make my own out of all the amazon boxes that I get for free instead of actually buying fancy shaped cardboard (ridiculous when you say it like that right?).  Some of the bigger ones cost £30-£40 and it’s JUST cardboard.  The issue would be finding the best glue and the best way to cut them up in to good shapes without using a laser or whatever they use to make them.

Yesterday and today Miss Lily has been spread out in the studio completely covering any free space on the table because the room faces East and the sun has been pouring in since early morning.

Mr G is all about the fresh grass!

And it’s not her birthday, but Miss P insisted on wishing the kittens happy birthday.  Here she is enjoying the weather yesterday.

garden update – and extreme heat warning. . .

An extreme heat warning was issued here which is something that hardly even happens in this area.

Yesterday was 28C which to me (and Aussie standards is not that hot) but it is super hot for Scotland and actually feels a lot hotter than it is.  Here’s what it said on the barometer in the sunroom.

It actually got up to 35C in that room yesterday which is just really uncomfortable to be in.  28C btw is about 82.4F.  In the garden at the moment – peas.

Blueberries are ripening earlier than usual…

Rhubarb still doing well and very productive as usual…

More potatoes… the usual Ayrshire’s on the right but the little red ones are actually a main crop and will get much bigger than that, I just wanted to try them out for taste.

And the strawberries continue to be good value…
Oh and we have some flowers too!  The butterfly bush has started flowering but no butterflies yet!

This is just about the only red thing in the garden but I just love it, so I split it last year and put it in several places all over the garden.  It grows so well with no maintenance.

And the rosa rugosa is in full flower despite me hacking it last year.  It has recovered and thriving.  This must be the most thorny rose I have ever seen.  I have to wear welding gloves to handle it as there are so many thorns with no gaps between them.  It’s really in the wrong place and needs to be moved but I broke my fork and I need to have it repaired – I actually broke the fork trying to dig this thing up haha.

And finally as usual, the garden is full of frogs, not only in the pond but in various places around the garden, under leaves, damp grass and here in this container full of rainwater.

t stands for  . . .

Decaf coffee again, Miss Lily is not impressed by the coffee smell and can’t understand why mama drinks this horrid stuff instead of tasty water.  I am actually trying to have one glass of water for every cup of the horrid stuff that I drink especially at the moment when it’s so warm outside.

So hey, did you make it all the way to the end?  What was your favourite part?  🙂  Did you get lost somewhere in the middle?  It’s a long one today and it must have taken me a couple of hours to put it all together as it’s now afternoon, hope it was worth it!  I will have to share my napkins next week as this post is plenty long already.  So glad they finally turned up, I thought for sure mine would be the last but apparently there are still some en route.  Never trust the post office when they say it will take 6 days and it ends up taking 12 days – bah!

As always, thanks for reading, and have a great week!  [edit: our weather has changed 3.30pm, I can hear thunder and it’s just started to rain, so I may have to be offline if we get lightning. So much for our “heatwave” that’s not really a heatwave, it got “so” hot that we have thunder and rain lol.  Meanwhile have to run out and bring in the washing!]

Ingredients
as mentioned above

Challenges

Altered Book Lover – T Stands for

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