Happy Sunday my lovelies.  I hope you've been out enjoying the sunshine today.  It felt almost spring-like here in the Black Country.  It was bright and breezy and perfect weather for drying lots of towels on the line outside.  

I have great news to impart!

The craft-pod is DONE!!

 Its finished and complete and lovely and shiny and dry and insulated and  bright and airy and has a lovely laminated floor and shelving and.... is lovely! (!)  I'm so pleased!  At last I can move my stuff in.  Lovely man finished putting the electrical supply in today which was the last job to be done. This was important so that I can have heat and light in there, particularly as I'm most likely to us it during the evenings. I know it sounds like this project has been going on forever - but the bad weather coupled with him only really being able to work on it on Sundays because of work/sleep commitments has extended completion by a few weeks.  Its all good though.  I just have to be ruthless now and throw everything away that I'm really not going to use, instead of pretending that it will come in handy for a future project.  I'm guessing that some hideous papers which haven't been used in five years are highly unlikely to be used in the next five years either!  Photographs of my little play den will follow in a future post once all my stash is in situ.

I managed to get some crafting done today - just a little play in my art journal but it does my equilibrium good to do it.  Sundays and I don't get on very well really.  I'm ok up until midday but then I'm constantly watching the clock and willing it go more slowly.  I'm really finding out now how much art journalling is like a form of therapy.

I've never been able to draw.  Ever!  In fact, I used to despair of myself in school art classes when everyone else was creating masterpieces and my still life of a bowl of fruit looked like a tarantula who had taken mind altering drugs had done a tango across my cartridge paper. Particularly as I used to sit next to a girl whose artwork, even at a very early age, was truly mindblowing.  There was no way I could have ever competed.  Its only now that I realise that I didn't really need to.

Anyway.  I have recently challenged myself to do more drawing.  We bought ourselves (man and I) a  children's book which gives the basic principles of drawing and I followed the tutorial for drawing faces.  I sketched the basics of this face a few weeks ago but was a bit reticent about sharing it on my blog.  Today I took a paintbrush to it and thoroughly enjoyed mixing and shading and splashing acrylics and water over it.

These pages are dedicated to releasing my artistic inhibitions.  My journal my rules.  Therein - there are no rules!  

Ooh I say.  

I'm feeling strangely empowered!  

Thanks Journal!