Hi Friends!
Happy Tuesday and Happy Halloween! So yesterday did not turn out as planned and I did not get another page made as I had intended. Why? Well because Miss Lily went AWOL for over FOUR HOURS and I could not find her anywhere, so spent FOUR HOURS looking for her. I was 95% sure she was inside the house but I did open the back door for about 5 mins at 8am so since I couldn’t find her anywhere in the house, I started to wonder if she had been in the room when I opened the door and if she could have got outside. I was pretty sure she wasn’t but then I started to doubt myself and began to feel like I was losing my marbles. I searched EVERYWHERE in the house, I called her, I shook the Dreamies packet, rattled her favourite toy – all to no avail. So I had to then assume that she had got out and I started checking the garden, my neighbour’s garden, sheds, garages, the street at the front, the street at the back. Back to searching the house, nothing, back to searching the garden, nothing. And so it went on for over four hours and I was getting so panicked about it that it brought on an asthma attack. When I finally came back inside ready to call the vet as they do posts for missing cats, THERE SHE WAS sitting in the kitchen meowing at me for Dreamies like it was just a regular Monday morning! I was so relieved to find her inside the house, but I still have no idea where she was for all that time or why she didn’t respond!
T Stands For . . .
Starbucks now have almond milk chilled coffee. I was so excited to see this that I forgot to check about the caf/decaf situation and of course it’s not decaf so I put it in the fridge last week and forgot about it. However, my mouth was so dry yesterday from all the calling for Lily in the garden, that I came inside and drank this, forgetting about the not decaf issue, and between that and all the asthma inhalers, I felt quite ill and jumpy all day. (The Stroopwafels came from Sainsbury.)
Currently Reading . . .
Jane Eyre with the book group – a book I have read many times. One of the highlights of this month was of course Matthew Perry’s autobiography that I read mid-month (book 110). I was so sad and shocked to hear that he passed away at the weekend. It’s so easy to jump to conclusions and assume things but after reading about his life and his health problems it wouldn’t surprise me if his heart gave up.
Book 117
Genre: 19C Classic
TOTAL for 2023
116 books so far
October Books so far – 16
102. Emma Torzs – Ink Blood Sister Scribe 
103. Robert Thorogood – The Marlow Murder Club 
104. JD Kirk – In Service of Death – DCI Logan #17
105. Benedict Jacka – An Inheritance of Magic
106. Robert Thorogood – Death Comes To Marlow – Marlow Murder Club #2
107. JD Kirk – A Dead Man Walking – DCI Logan #18
108. Adrian McKinty -The Detective Up Late – Sean Duffy #7
109. JD Kirk -The One That Got Away – Heather Filson #1
110. Matthew Perry – Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing
111. Nick Louth – The Body in the Shadows – DCI Gillard #11
112. Nick Louth – The Body in Nightingale Park – DCI Gillard #12
113. Travis Baldree – Legends and Lattes – Legends and Lattes #1
114. Alix E Harrow – Starling House
115. Robert Dinsdale – Once a Monster
116. Mark Lawrence – The Book That Wouldn’t Burn
(re-reads if any are in bold)
Today’s Art . . .
Today’s art is by other people – here are the Halloween/Autumn cards I received this year:
The two on the left are postcard size, the two in the middle are smaller, and then the one on the right is HUGE! They are all from offline friends except the one in the middle is from Jo (Let’s Art Journal) thanks Jo! The very big card on the right is a first attempt (!!!) by my very talented friend and I don’t know if you can tell in the photo but the girl on the card has a tiny knitted ghost jumper on tiny knitting needles – she actually knitted the tiny piece of knitting!
Second art for today is my final page for October and for Neet’s theme this month on Art Journal Journey – In Gear. Thanks Neet, I’ve had a lot of fun with your theme this month! This page was supposed to be made yesterday but see above why it wasn’t so I made it very early this morning. I found a whole pad of Stamperia paper that I totally forgot I even had and it has a page of all these mechanical animals including this cat that all have gears in their heads. It got me thinking about Halloween costumes and maybe that’s what a cat would like to be for Halloween.
I also saved this empty cat food box because the kitty was too pretty to bin, and I thought the cut out beside her looked a bit like a moon so I painted over the cat food text and then cut out the front of the box. My page background in my newly assembled October journal is a Daniel Smith Quinacridone Gold watercolour paint that I had an accident with yesterday when I was refilling some wells in my palette and too much paint came out, so I used it on this page.
Here she is this morning hanging out in her usual spot checking out the process like nothing happened yesterday and she didn’t get me so panicked that I drank caffeinated coffee by mistake!
A closer look at the left side of the spread – this is the kitty Halloween costume. I added a bit of colour too it with some Pitt pens, made her eyes more green, and coloured in the gears.
And the right side of the spread – this is the kitty dreaming of what she would like to be for Halloween. I liked the idea of the full moon and the quarter moon underneath so it’s a kitty with two moons. I stamped some bats over the white moon.
Let me know what you think in the comments. As always, thanks for reading and Happy journalling!
Ingredients
watercolour paper, watercolour paint, fresco chalk paint, posca paint pens, cat food box, scrapbook papers, gold gel pen, tim holtz stickers, distress ink, stazon ink, bat stamp, tim holtz rubons, pitt pens, glue,
Challenges
T Stands For – almond chilled coffee
Your art journal pages are lovely! I really like the patterned paper that you used for the focal images.
I love Jane Erye! It has been ages since I have read it but this is an encouragement to dig it out again.
Happy Tea Day,
Kate
Sorry I’ve been hiding most of the month, but at least you found Miss Lily. When cats want to hide, they know where to do it. Glad she is safe and sorry you got the jitters from caffeine.
LOVE the cat with the gears. I am in love with that one. I also love how you recycled the cat on the box and gave it 2 moons. I love how you outlined the cat with Quinacridone Gold. It still reminds me of rust. Thanks for sharing this with Neet’s theme at AJJ, too.
Nice ATCs and lovely art from friends. So glad you shared your art and coffee with us for T this Tuesday, dear Elle.
Quill finds a new hidey-hole from time to time. I do the same thing. Panic searching. My house is the size of a dollhouse so for him to find a new spot just blows my mind. I’m glad she finally came out of hiding. In the Boston, Massachusetts area where I’m from the night before Halloween was called Cabbage Night. In some areas of the country it is called Mischief Night. Things like windows being soaped, eggs tossed at houses, toilet paper festooned on trees and shrubs, clotheslines cut. Of course, these things haven’t been done in over 50 years. Perhaps, Miss Lily was just having a bit of mischief. Glad she’s home safe and sound. I hope you got over your fright and asthmas attack. The cards are wonderful. My favorite is of course, the black cat on the pumpkin, but I’m also amazed at the tiny knitting. Happy T Day and Happy Halloween ????
Hide and Seek Cat has found the perfect spot. Smart kitty 😉 I love all your Halloween images. Happy T Tuesday!
So sorry that Miss Lily made you panic, I wonder where she was? Your art is beautiful, as always. Love the last, beautiful piece for Neet’s challenge, thanks so much. And you have been reading some good books. Stay well, take care, hugs, Valerie
Well … first of all I felt your pain whilst reading that beginning to this journal page. Been there with my cat Tabitha when I had her, such a worry. The little tinker, I wonder where she hid, I do hope she doesn’t use that place again.
Some great ATC’s there and that one with the knitting is just unbelievable. That is definitely worthy of a front page in any journal.
Now to your own journal pages. Fabulous, I do like how you have given them both the appearance of a border – very Teesha Moore to my first thinking, but on checking I see it is the backing paper which you have used. Still it did get me thinking it was TM! Plus it is very effective in its own right.
An enviable steampunky cat on the first page and a lovely cat from your box on the second page. I love the idea you got of the moon and how effective it turned out to be.. Fabulous bats!
Thank you so much for so many wonderful pages showing my theme at AJJ. Elle. I really appreciate all the effort you put into them. Thanks again and tickles to Miss Lily now she is forgiven for the wrong coffee incident. Enough said about ‘coffeegate’.
Hugs, Neet xx
We haven’t had any cats for awhile, but we had a cat Emmie, and shortly after we got her (and we were keeping her inside) we couldn’t find her. We looked all over the house over and over, but no Emmie.Every now and again we would have a phantom meow. We’d look more, and no kitty. Finally after a couple of days she came out of hiding and had somehow gotten into the basement and was hiding behind some boxes on the top of a shelf unit. It was a relief to find her, but boy, when cats don’t want to be found, they can certainly hide.
Thanks for the final page for AJJ too. I love these cat steampunk pages, and the foolish mortals stamp is great.:) I’ve started drinking coffee protein shakes for lunch, and I didn’t even think they had caffeine at first. I had the jitteries too. Not fun. Enjoy Jane Eyre and happy T day and Happy Halloween. (Nice cards by the way.)
Your collages with gears look neat. Our neighborhood does a lot for Halloween, but I generally don’t get cards in the mail (I got one e-card). Yours look lovely.
best, mae at maefood.blogspot.com