Happy Chocolate Day!

It’s Sunday 4th April 2021, Easter Sunday and the sun has been shining all day here in our part of the UK. I woke up in a blind panic overnight, “Oh no what will I blog about today? Why have I signed myself up for this challenge? I never have anything to say!”. I did fall back to sleep eventually but I hadn’t resolved the question and I still woke at the normal time worrying about what I would write! So I decided instead of writing, I would just have the day with the family and see what comes out of my head later to write about. So, it’s now 5 pm and here I am and I still have nothing to say (I think the word count probably begs to differ)!

Easter Eggs

So 8 things about my day:

  1. We had Hot Cross buns for breakfast, and very yummy they were too. We were also surrounded by our chocolate Easter eggs, teasing and taunting us. Amazingly the kids have not asked to eat any of it so far, this can’t last for too much longer I’m sure.
  2. The sun has been shining all day today so I decided to make the most of it and do some gardening. We want to turn the front lawn (that’s stretching the term as it’s just moss!) into a mini wildflower meadow. So my job today was to de-weed and rake over and de-moss as much as possible, two and a half hours later and I think it’s looking okay.
  3. Hubby made lunch and I was definitely ready for it! Yummy tuna and salad sandwiches, followed by homemade Cinnamon Rolls – that hubby spent the morning making. They were SOOO good, lucky there is some left for later!
  4. Back out into the garden with the back garden in my sights this time, for more de-weeding and de-mossing. The only way not to have moss here is apparently to remove all the grass and put down something else entirely. But I like grass, so we plan to work with what we’ve got, and have wildflowers in the back garden too, but we have a lot of garden design and planning to continue with before we do that. So for now, its a continual tidy-up of the borders. On checking the greenhouse, I note that some seeds have germinated.. yay! The dwarf beans are keen, just hoping the runners, tomatoes and other seeds (I forget what I’ve planted!) will germinate and I can keep them going to feed us later in the year, oh and I check on my chitting potatoes too, they not quite ready for planting just yet.
  5. Hubby came out to help, he used a garden fork to aerate the front lawn, and I shook on a full box of wildflower seeds we bought from the Marie Curie online shop. We watered in the seeds and by complete accident I managed to soak hubby with the hose! Honestly it was an accident but I laughed so much it felt so good to laugh so much, despite being at his expense. Fortunately he took it well, and got me back! I love this man so much, we laugh and joke so much!
  6. Time to do my daily art piece! This is the journal challenge I have set myself. What to do? I’ve decided that for this test it will be my Archer & Olive Journal and Faber Castell Pitt Pens. But what to draw? Looking to the internet for inspiration and I settle on Easter Eggs.
  7. I’m super lucky – Hubby has decided to cook the dinner so I get to write this whilst smelling the delights from the kitchen… Spaghetti Bolognaise, yum yum!
  8. In all of this I’ve not mentioned what the children have been up to… Well they are Pre-teen and Teen – so although they have been outside all day, they have been plugged into their devices for most of it. Now the device batteries have run out I have told them “No electronics” and they have both disappeared to their rooms… They are waiting to be called for dinner… which has just happened so Bye for now….

Today is day 4 of Effy’s blog along, I do enjoy reading other posts. I hope I’m not going to start stressing whether people read my page or not, I’m sure that’s not the blog along intention!

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Postcards for my Friends and the Impostor

It’s day 3 for Effy’s blog along and I’m really enjoying this, it’s making me get out of my comfort zone and really think about what I am doing and what I want from my blog!

Today it’s about Happy Mail. Last night I wanted to do some watercolour work – it’s my first art love and one that I seem pretty remiss in playing with lately, so I decided to spend Friday night with a glass of wine, my watercolours and my favourite tutor Karen Campbell.

I am a member of a widow peer support group, WAY, and as part of this I am a member of the “postcard swap 2021” group. Where we have buddied up again for this year and will regularly send each other happy mail. Being widowed, you are often left alone because people don’t know what to say to you, especially as time goes on and their lives carry on, but as a widow you feel “stuck”. Stuck in that time of loss and grief, of being alone, that your life has ended along with that of the person who has actually left this earth. So as part of the peer support group we look out for each other, we build friendships, we talk to each other and we support in the lows as well as the highs of our day to day continuum. Me, I have “moved forward” (note I did not say moved on – we do not move on, we do not forget our loss, our love, our life, but we move forward carrying them with us into a new life) I have a new life and have remarried, and have stepchildren. But for someone new on the journey, just breathing or getting out of bed can seem a monumental challenge, so getting some mail from someone that “gets it” is, without doubt, a massive thing.

So, I painted postcards to send to my group with the express desire to put a smile on their face, that they know there is someone out there that gets it, understands and has their back.

postcards
Postcards for my Friends

I really enjoyed doing these. I slowed right down and laughed along with Karen on her videos (she really is the best tutor and makes me giggle so much!). I felt a confidence in following the tutorial and doing the drawing. I know it’s silly but a year ago I wouldn’t have been confident at putting pencil on the paper before watercolour was added. I would have made heavy pencil marks and not been able to erase them, I wouldn’t have liked the finished result, especially the “free” black outlining, and I definitely wouldn’t have been confident at hand lettering the quotes. I would have gone and found my stamps and agonised for ages about where and how to place the letter, I would have fretted that my pieces did not exactly match Karen’s and I definitely would not have gone and found my own quote for one of the images!

Oh gosh, does this mean I am becoming an artist? An artist that is able to be creative…? No I’m sure I’m not, but one day maybe I will be.


I am not a naturally confident person, I have low self esteem, so putting myself out there into the world of creativity is a big thing for me – creating art, writing a blog, posting on Instagram – this is not my natural place to be. My instinct is to say that I am not good enough, the things that I do will be seen as worthless, unworthy, silly, pathetic, rubbish. I wasn’t going to say any of this, but asking my husband to proof read this post has had us talking about me, my feelings, how I view myself and conversely how he views me. I was widowed at 42, I lost all sense of any self worth I had built up by that age (not much but my late husband was good for me and my confidence, I felt safe and secure in who I was when I was with him). When he died suddenly in 2013, I didn’t just lose him and our life together, I lost ME. Fast forward to 2021, I have just turned 50, I am in a new marriage with an amazing man and I have two amazing stepchildren. My life today is happy and full of love and joy. As a family we enjoy our every day – even the pandemic hasn’t taken this from us. I am 50, married with children, menopausal and I am finding a new side to me – I love to be at my art table producing art. But I am not confident. I follow so many tutorials – I have to follow them because I don’t feel I can create for myself, because I have no confidence. I don’t believe I am good enough to do things for myself. So when I do create something that has come via a tutorial but has been tweaked a little to be mine, I do feel immense pleasure, I feel proud, but I don’t yet feel confident.

Oh, as I’m typing I have just realised what this is, I’ve read about this – I didn’t really think it was a thing, it wouldn’t apply to me even if it was a thing – but it is a thing and it does exist – this is Impostor Syndrome isn’t it? “I am not good enough” says my inner voice all the time, no matter how many times my husband and my children tell me that I have produced something amazing, no matter if my posts on my blog get views, no matter if Instagram posts get likes.


Dreaming and having aspirations is allowed ….. isn’t it?.


April 2021 Rowanberry box – MARS

MARS – The latest Rowanberry box has just landed, and the theme inspiration has came from the recent landing on Mars by the rover “Perseverance”.

The box contents :

April Kit - Full
April Kit – Full

A box for journalling or letter writing. The themed items include craft papers, stickers, a metallic pigment pad, white pen, note card and envelopes and a circle stencil.

I set up my cover page for April and I also made a little journal from the craft papers.

April Mars Page
April Mars Page

I have to say I was a bit disappointed with this box. I know, I know, I want to journal and it arrives and I’m disappointed. But actually, I think what I’m most disappointed in is this is just paper, an ink pad, a white pen and a very tacky little foam stamp that looks like it will fall apart pretty easily. If I was new to stationery, journalling and art then I wouldn’t have a clue what to do with these things. Actually I’m fairly certain that’s where I’ve been with kits before, but at least then they were more stationery (pen) related, and everyone knows what to do with a pen.

This kit, again is making me question my desire to keep subscribing. As noted before I know the theme of next month and I want to see what comes in the box. After that, well who knows? I do know I am starting to feel I could better spend my money elsewhere. In addition to this as Danielle’s business grows and as she now employs staff, I am finding her less accessible to answering emails. She used to be very accessible, always responding, but I now do not receive responses to any of my email questions or enquiries. But I have had a wonderful time buying from Danielle, her shop IS amazing, and I will continue to make use of the shop even if I don’t subscribe to these boxes.

Day 3 Blog Along with Effy

Day 3 of the blog along, I have found and followed so many fun blogs. Diverse, inspiring, interesting. I shall try to list my favourites as the month goes along.

Happy April

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

March 2021 Rowanberry box – Goddess

The latest Rowanberry box has just landed, and O.M.G. what a gorgeous box it is. The Theme is GODDESS and I’m not going to lie, its a lovely box with tactile items to get the creative journalling juices flowing.

The box contents :

March Goddess Kit Full
March Goddess Kit Full

A lovely little box for journalling with themed items in Gold, black and grey just waiting for me to put pencil to paper.

I am probably the worst (or maybe best) type of subscriber as I buy the boxes and to be honest, rarely do much with the items. Good for the company, bad for my pocket and storage issues! Having been a subscriber for over a year, I enjoy getting the boxes and I love supporting small businesses.

So for March I setup my cover calendar page, and I think pretty much that’s all I’ve done with the items. But then again I had a pretty busy month setting up this blog and getting to grips with doing my daily Instagram challenge for #artisticspringtime, as well as making a start on our garden – we’ve only been here 3 years, so it’s about time!

March Page Goddess
March Page Goddess

Overall its another lovely box and a regular journaler will have a field day. Me? Well the items have mostly fallen into my stash pots and will get used at some point in the future. After a year I am starting to reconsider whether I want to continue receiving the boxes. Danielle’s business is growing and although the themed boxes are lovely I am not sure they fit my personal style anymore. At this time I’m going to give it a couple more months, especially as I’ve already got Aprils and I know the theme for May as its no longer secret and teasers are planted all over her social media, which I do find a shame as I liked the mystery of what was to be found once the box was opened. We are also asked not to show reveals on Social media until everyone has had their box.

Day 2 of “Blog Along with Effy”

Day 2 in my challenge to blog every day in April. Day 2 is my review of my March subscription box. I’m really enjoying reading so many new blogs in the blog-along. It’s giving me so many great ideas for how to progress my own style.

Happy Journalling

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.

Blog every day in April

I’ve joined an art blog challenge hosted by Effy Wild, which is a great idea, its to encourage a group of people that Art and Blog to get to know and support each other – how cool is that!!

The great thing about this is that I had already decided to challenge myself to do a journal page every day in April.

The plan:

30 days, 10 mediums, 3 books equals one page a day which cleverly equals April done. So watch this space, I shall be uploading my page daily, and at the end of the month I will finish with a full comparison review of the 3 books, how they perform, which is my favourite and why.

The journals are all A5, Dot Grid, White Paper, Hardbacked

Medium that I can use this month will probably include some or all of the following… (yes it shocked me how easy a list I created, without trying, from my stash!

  1. Posca / acrylograph
  2. Acrylic paint
  3. Coloured Pencil
  4. Watercolour – Pan, tube or liquid, crayon, markers (Ecoline, Windsor & Newton)
  5. Fountain Pen Ink
  6. Sharpie
  7. Felt tip
  8. Alcohol markers
  9. Pastel pencil / crayon
  10. Wax crayon
  11. Pitt pen
  12. Biro
  13. Brush pens

So here it is, my first page, in the Archer and Olive journal, using Posca Pens. I have had this book for months, I bought it from Danielle at Under the Rowan Trees, and I have been unable to write in it, because its just TOO pretty, but this months challenge I am determined to get over that, so I decided that day one would be in the A&O as its the most expensive. If I can do this, I can do anything!

April 1st  A&O Posca
April 1st A&O Posca

Disclaimer: 

All opinions expressed here are my own.
I paid for any products discussed.
I received no payment and I am not affiliated in any way with any brand mentioned herein.