The Internet should come with a breathalyser

Following on from that oh-so-cringesome  theme of my last post, I have a wee confession to make today – I didn’t remember that I’d actually written it until I came on here this morning!  That’s sounds really bad, doesn’t it? Hear me out: I’ve been insanely busy at work this past while; long gone are the days were the weekends were for anything other than sleeping for 15 hours at a time, with beer being replaced by copious amounts of tea and books. It’s not exactly rock’n’roll, but that’s how I like it. (I’m an auld woman now, you know.)

It’s not that I was ever the biggest drinker in the world, but these days I can really see where that old cliché about getting drunk at the smell of alcohol comes from. I’m totally and utterly useless! So you can imagine what I was like last Saturday when I went on my friend’s hen night, of all things. I knew I was out of practice, as they say, so I was pacing myself and trying my best to take it easy. In fact, if you had asked me at the end of the night I would’ve told you I was totally sober , it wasn’t until the next morning that I realised I’d been away with the fairies! And then to come on here today with the intention of making my first post in months, only for the cold realisation to hit me that I’d been on that night… Well, let’s just say it was unsettling. I completely remember writing it now (I wasn’t that bad), but still. I suppose it could’ve been worse, I could’ve done one of those soppy ‘I love you guys’ posts like I’ve been guilty of in the past. 

Anyway, I’m not quite sure why I’m even drawing attention to it since I’m a tad embarrassed by the whole thing and should really just let it pass and hope no one noticed. I think it’s a compulsion of mine to point out things that I really should try to cover up. I also wanted to explain why I’d wasted both yours and my own time with yet another one of those whiney ‘I’m sorry I’ve not posted anything in ages’ tirades, put it behind me, and resume with regular ‘normal’ blogging. I’ve a post lined up for this afternoon and everything! 

By the way, the image I’ve used with this post (and the last couple) is a page from my digital art journal, which I’ve not been updating as much as I’d like but which I’ve not totally abandoned. I’d just thought I’d point that out because it’s the type of thing I used to blog about before I got in the habit of making these pointless posts. This is the last of them, promise. Expect a return to the randomness of old, whether it’s some silliness that’s been on my mind or some loveliness I’ve encountered online.  

Bless me bloggers for I have sinned…

Art journal? I don't have an art journal!

…It has been two months since my last post. The biggest sin of all is that in that particular post I promised I’d be back soon! Obviously I was in an optimistic mood that evening. Said post was sincerely intended to be a preliminary, re-introductory set-up to my return to the blogosphere, just as this is now. Lessons have indeed been learned that post, however. 

Tonight I do not mean to make any more unfulfilled promises of regular postage – I’ve learned to accept the fact my free (i.e. blogging) time has been sucked into a vacuum of local intrigue and mundane mystery –  but I can tell you the compulsion to return to this weird and wonderful world of whimsy and marvel has been growing. 

The intention behind the last failed post was to rekindle the addiction which in the past had me dependent on my dashboard, and hooked on the hokum. (You’re all some craic!) Like an alcoholic sipping the nectar of the gods for the first time in a decade, I expected the lingering taste to consume me once again, filling me with the unquenchable desire to log in and cop out, just as in the glory days of old. 

Yet it came and waned, too easily ignored my liking. I have many friends in this little corner of cyberspace (you all know who you are), and just like my friends in whatever the non-cyberspace alternative is (some people call it real life, but personally I find that a tad philosophically contentious), I have neglected you all for the sake of everyday survival-esque pseudo-necessity.  

Sorry about that.

But you don’t want to read yet another guilt-ridden apology – I’ve already said sorry for not having called by to say hello so many times I’d imagine it’d be insulting to ask for forgiveness yet  again.  Instead I’d just like to say ‘hello’. ‘hope you are well’, and ‘promise I’ll be back tomorrow’. (Whoops, didn’t mean to do that!)

Back Soon

Don't know if anyone's still around to notice, but the blog's been on a bit of a hiatus for a while. Too many things, people, too many things. Anyway, just thought I'd check in and let you all know I haven't fallen of the edge of a cliff somewhere (yet!), and I haven't completely given up hope of getting back to blogging something this century.

I do still have a few online hideaways, and have been a little less neglectful with my Tumblr and Flickr pages if you're bored and fancy a nosy/catch up.

Also, if any of you are local to the North West of Ireland, or just want a wee glimpse into the often weird and wacky world of Donegal news, call on over to www.donegalnow.com.

It's the parent page for the news paper I write for and I'm a regular contributor myself :) We're not long on the go, so if any of my lovely local followers - or any of you equally-lovley international ones who know any Irish expats - could spread the word that would be fantastic!

You know, I didn't intend to come here to give the website a shamless plug, just thought I may as well when I was here ;(

Oh, and if you're wondering what relevance the above image has to any of this, the answer is very little. It's just the latest in my very-much flagging digital art journal project - yet another one of my hobbies which has sadly been abandoned in recent times. Hopefully that'll soon change, though; many of the extra-cirricular activities I've been at since Christmas are coming to an end in the next few weeks and I'll be back in business then. Well, hope everyone's doing wonderfully and have a lovley weekend!

And just like bloody buses…

…you don’t get a post for months then two come along at once. You see how committed I am to my promises in the previous post? I had parties to go to tonight, people to kiss and hug and spill beer on, but nope - I just told them they could keep their champagne and sing-songs, I had a blog to resurrect! (It has nothing to do with the fact I’m shattered and my old back complaint’s playing up, honest it hasn’t.)

Anyway, this is another of my resolutions for the new year. This time last year I committed myself to keeping an art journal. Well, I did, but the results weren’t always great. I’m not the most tidy person either, so any time I made a page I usually made a mess too. (Glitter glue and paper everywhere - my room usually ended up looking like it was hit by a playschool class on the sauce.) So, since I spend most of my time at a computer, and since I’m a little bit more adept on Photoshop than with hands-on arts-and-crafts, I set myself a more manageable target this year - digital art journaling. This is my first go, I’ll post another one each week.

Happy new year folks!

Inspirational Findings

‘Sunday Stroll’ by Vintage Findings

These days when I come across art or photography that really tickles my fancy I often just click on the ‘share on tumblr’ button in my browser. Mainly because it’s so handy - it uploads the image straight from its source and includes all the proper titles, links and credits. Used properly, it’s a really easy way of blogging someone else’s work with all due acknowledgment. (Unfortunately it isn’t always used properly by everyone, but that’s a story for another day.)

I often feel quite lazy and anonymous, though, silently blogging into the Tumblrsphere. So this evening, due to the guilt I’m feeling about neglecting this blog in favour of that oh-so-convenient  honey trap, I thought I’d give the work of this lovely lady a proper post - using words and everything :) 

Working under the name Vintage Findings, I stumbled upon the Californian gal on Flickr a yesterday while on one of my inspiration-seeking quests.  Her photostream is wonderful and extensive, with hours worth of wandering potential through her beautiful photography and stunning digital collage.  It was, however, her art journal set which first grabbed my attention.

 

As I perused her pretty pages, my first thought was to my own poor abandoned journal lying in a pile on the floor behind me somewhere. I had an urge to turn off my computer, forget the plans I had for trying stuff out on Gimp that night,  and get the glue and scissors out. Then something rather exciting came to my attention - her pages were digital! I honestly didn’t realise at first, they’re so well done. Later when I found her webpage I discovered she prints them in such a way they look like pages from a book.
 

On her website you’ll also find a link to her blog, which isn’t just inspirational - it’s educational too. Here she often explains her methods and sometimes even brings you on a step-by-step tour of how she created her work.  A wonderful resource for someone like myself still learning about layers and textures and such things. There’s tons of tutorial sites out there on the web, but a lot of those are written by fellow amatuers yet only learning themselves. At the Vintage Findings blog you get an insight into the creative of process for some really quite excellent art!

All in all, I think yesterday was quite a good day at the Flickr office. I’ve often thought about trying out digital collage but the furthest I’d ever got was making my blog header and buttons and stuff. Now I’ve found Vintage Findings I’m thinking of giving it another go! If I ever manage to create anything even a fraction as fabulous as these I’ll be a happy bunny.  

New Month, New Journal

It’s been a while, I know, but I have actually been keeping up with my new journaling habit. I’ve even gone and got myself a lovely little handbag-sized book I can carry around with me. I’m still using my original July spiral pad but I keep starting and not finishing pages in it. I’ll get back to that one someday soon, but for now here’s a couple of wee pics of my new one and it’s first page. I can’t wait to fill the whole thing!

 

I got the book for 30p in a thrift shop. I really must decorate the cover next:

It’s Enid Blyton’s ‘The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat’. I never liked Blyton, so I don’t mind messing it up!

And here’s my first page, as messy as usual. Hopefully I’ll start improving soon:

p.s I just want to say thank you for all your much-too-kind comments on my previous pages. I’m always really paranoid posting them ’cause I think they look like something from playschool.  But it was blogging that got me started on this so I sort of feel an obligation to share. Anyway, thanks again!

More Journal Pages

 I’m actually really busy today and shouldn’t be on here right now but as soon as I realised this was the last day in July I had to make sure I got this post up. I couldn’t let the month pass by having posted just one journal page! So here’s another couple. I finished them a while back but never got round to sharing and I’ve a few more to finish off, but they’ll have to wait till another day. (Journaling in August may not be as alliterative but I'm sure it'll be just as fun!) Again these are quite child-like and not really very good at all, but I’m sure you’ll excuse me as I’m only a beginner. The photos make them look even messier and I’m sure if I’d time I could get better shots, but I don’t so these will do. Anyway, here’s the first:

The quote in this one says: “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” Said Yeats, who himself claimed to have met and conversed with a fairy on a West coast beach one stormy eve. I can’t remember the exact details of the tale but I know said fairy was supposedly a beautiful, life-sized woman and not a little fluttery Tinkerbell-type. How he knew she was actually a fairy I also fail to remember. I’m really going to have to look that story up again… Anyway, you know what Yeats was like. He was all into that carry on in his old age.

I think I over did it again in that last one so I tried to keep it simple here. I actually quite like this one, but it doesn’t look that good on camera. After I painted the leaves green I gave them a coat of silver paint so they shine, plus they're not stuck down to the actual page, but you can't really see that here. Oh well.

My first journal page…

…didn’t really turn out as well as I'd hoped. In fact, it looked so much better a day or two ago but I just had to keep on adding to it and now it’s a bit of a mess. I think himself summed it up best when he said mockingly: “It’s good for you age”. Oh well. It’s only my first go  at this kind of thing and I definitely learned a lot of lessons for the next one. Plus, it was really fun making it. I actually can’t wait to get going on another. Well anyway, here are some shots of it. 

 Sorry, they’re not great images (the shiny things were too bloody shiny for the camera). The writing on the right is an excerpt from Through The Looking Glass. Here’s the full piece because I thinks it’s just the most wonderful Wonderland quote:

At this moment, the Unicorn sauntered by them with his hands in his pockets . . . when his eye happened to fall upon Alice; he turned around instantly, and stood for some time looking at her with an air of the deepest disgust.


"What—is—this?" he said at last.
"This is a child," Haigha replied eagerly, coming in front of Alice to introduce her . . . "We only found it today. It's as large as life and twice as natural!"
"I always thought they were fabulous monsters!" said the Unicorn. "Is it alive?"


"It can talk," said Haigha solemnly.
The Unicorn looked dreamily at Alice, and said "Talk child."


Alice could not help her lips curling up into a smile as she began: "Do you know, I always thought Unicorns were fabulous monsters too? I never saw one alive before!"


"Well, now that we have seen each other," said the Unicorn, "if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you. Is that a bargain?"


"If you like," said Alice.

Journaling in July

Picture by Shannon Blue

"Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with books on algebra etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the creative bug is just a wee voice telling you, 'I’d like my crayons back… please.'"  -Hugh McLeod

I heard that quote from a friend of mine a few weeks ago. As someone who downed her crayons many years ago, and as someone going through somewhat of a pre-midlife crisis, I can completely see the verity of it. Since I turned 28 I’ve found myself getting all nostalgic and longing for childhood (a few of my recent posts should be testament to that).  At the same time I’ve had an urge to take up some sort of creative or crafty hobby, although until I heard that quote I hadn’t really connected the two. 

Anyway, why am I babbling on about this? Well, I’ve finally found a way to get my crayons back and it’s all thanks to D over at The Whimsical Cottage! Ms Suplicki is taking us along on an art journaling adventure this July and it’s just the kinda thing I was after. I’m not the most arty and I can’t draw to save my life but with the helpful tips and inspirations D’s has been and will be posting on her blog, the whole thing seems quite achievable. I think I’ve finally found my hobby! Anyone can join in too so hop on over there and share the fun!