Quick catch up

Zaks ear seems to be responding to the garlic oil and herb -iotics. Phew. Going to back it up with some licorice tea tonight.

Yesterday I potted some Tansy in three different stages of growth. The smallest took to the shift the easiest. Standing up nice and tall this morning. The others looked a little put out so I gave them all some extra water and loving attention. I am planning on bringing the smallest one indoors to our front learning room to see how it fairs being inside and also with more human contact.

One will go near the back door and I think the other one can go out the front to keep this one company.  We have been suffering a bit of a heat wave so everyone is getting a bit wilty on and off. Even the humans!!!

She has been out there for a week now and is supporting lovely new growth. I am going to move my plant stand outside to put them on and maybe get some more potted herbs going.

The flowers and leaves I brought inside are drying up beautifully. The flowers are all stored separately in a jar ready to use and the leaves will soon be chopped ready for my infusions. 

Did my first sketch today with lead pencil of a tansy leaf. Realised I was being a bit too fussy, so made myself stop and just rough sketch it. I also attempted to use Photo shop and realised I have no idea so gave it up as it way too hot to sit at the computer today.

I refrained from any Tansy "study" yesterday and today as I was busy reading about licorice instead. I am trying very hard not to over do it as I know I will lose interest if I get to in depth for too long. Study has never been my good point. My mind is too airy fairy to sit still for long. With that said, I need to outside! Have a wonderful week!

Hugs and smoochies xoxoxox

Licorice, garlic, mullein, golden seal....too many choices!!!!

Well my earache cure did not work! More than likely because the child stopped drinking his tea after the first batch and only told me later that he had in fact tipped it out. Great! So as one can imagine last night was a doozy of a night. Not only with him but with his brother as well, who must have eaten something ick as he was throwing up!

So, I ended up doing a bit of hands on healing until he went to sleep. For some reason I kept getting the word Licorice in my head. So this morning I did a bit of research and lo and behold it is recommended for ear aches. Mind you, so are a lot of other things, but for some reason I think Licorice is what will work with him.

I had also been thinking on garlic a lot but was a bit worried about it burning his ear (we usually use it raw). So anyway I went off to the local health food store and picked up some licorice root and was about to buy some echinacea to try and boost his immunity a bit when I asked the fellow who worked there about ear drops. He of course had no idea but luckily for me there was a naturopath on hand who did. Not only did she find me some ear drops (Garlic and Mullein with a little yarrow thrown in) all made up and ready to go but she also suggested a natural antibiotic tablet instead of the echinacea which contained golden seal (another one I had been wondering about).  Looks like a lot more study time for me!

So hopefully, this will get him back on track! Amazingly the garlic drops helped immediately! His ear had been feeling very full and blocked and it cleared it a little. The look on his face was priceless! (seriously I had to catch him first, he did not want them in his ear!) I left him happily munching on a bag of soft licorice, a yummy back up plan!

Do you see what I see? (Insert shocked face here!)

So there I was outside playing with my phone playing with the dogs because clearly I am attentive at all times where my pets are concerned! When I just happened to notice an Intruder..........An intruder that is NOT supposed to come near Tansy!!!!

Of course I had to get a little closer and see what was going on.....I was all like " hello fly....don't you know you are NOT supposed to be messing with my Tansy?" And since he did not respond, I thought I would give him a little poke......

He seemed to be enjoying himself so much that he did not even mind, so I poked him a little closer......and even moved the flowers a little thinking he might fly away!

But NO, this fly had decided to "stick" around literally. Of course the whole time my mind was ticking over with the why is this so question, when I began to wonder if perhaps the flowers had actually poisoned him? Perhaps he was high on tansy pollen? Who knows? It does not seem to hurt bees! It does however kill fleas and lice, so maybe has a strange affect on flies too? How cool does this picture look? The buttons look all shiny (LOL myself and technology just mosy along, no idea how it came out this way......)

It really should have looked more like this one....the flowers look fuzzy on top.......

I took a couple more pictures and then had to give it up as my furry friends were getting a bit impatient!

This fly attraction was cutting into serious throwing the ball time! And Miko seemed to think it was now time to give the cat nip a trim!

Please do excuse the fuzzy shots, I took them all except the one of Bella on my phone.

Hugs and smoochies allxoxoxox

OpShop (thrift store) score.......

Yesterday afternoon I stopped at an opshop really quickly to see if I could pick up an old pot for dying in. While they did not have any pots I did find a couple of old books.......

and would you believe it? Both of them gave Tansy a mention. Not having time to sit and be fussy, I bought them both for $4.50.  Now while the information was not anything I did not already know, I did so love the pictures.......

 

One of the books has all drawn pictures and the other has photo's or pressed plants as pictures........

And while my other herbal books are STILL not here, I guess I shall have some fun getting to know these two! Old recipes, old medicines, beautiful pictures! My only gripe, someoneripped pieces of pages out of one them!

Ear aches......what to do? (Advice appreciated)

So today my youngest has an earache! Of course in usual child fashion, he did not tell his mama until it got really bad. Why? Because last time he had an ear infection, he was not allowed to go in the ocean for a month.

This month he wants to get up close and personal with the ocean, therefore, he refrained from mentioning it till it really hurt!!! Silly boy! So here I sat concerned and wondering, will we have to make that trip to the doctor? (an extreme rarity in our house!)

Last year he had a really bad infection which ended up being treated with 2 lots of antibiotics and ear drops. The doctor seemed to think that the sand at the beach had aggravated the already stressed drum and banned him from the beach and swimming pools for a long time.

One thing I do not like to mess around with is ears. I have had children with burst ear drums and it is not pleasant. I do however not like the thought of having to give them anti-biotics if I can get out of it. 

I know I have not gone into my explanation of how things work for me healing wise but in short, I can basically feel in my own ear what he is feeling, to a certain extent. I feel like there is fluid build up and pressure pushing outwards. Giving me the urge to reach my fingers into the ear and pull something out! Water in his ear? Bulging ear drum?

Anyways, last night I sat and thought "what shall I give him?"

I could feel the fluid build up in  my ear and immediately thought of a soothing oil. However, I thought I would consult the books and Yarrow was one I had not tried before. It said if you put some mashed yarrow in the ear drum it will help. I called him and handed him a small mashed portion which he immediately placed in his ear with some cotton wool to keep it firm and warm.  He noted after a while that it did not really make any difference and later discarded it in favour of some ear drops. (We have also tried garlic cloves previously but if the ear is already quite sore it tends to burn so I opted not to use that this time).

I also in my own fashion thought to make some soothing tea. 2 teaspoons chamomile, 1 teaspoon of  yarrow, 1 teaspoon elder flowers, a few fresh torn leaves of lemon balm and 3 teaspoons of honey wondering the whole time if he would actually drink it!

He actually quite liked it. He drank one small glass hot and then took the rest of the pot up to his room in a sippy cup! LOL! I was hoping this mixture would make him sweat out any germs during the night and soothe away any pain. He did sleep but woke in the morning and said it still hurts, but he is keen to try drinking the tea mix as he felt better when he drank it. 

So I will see how it goes today and whether or not it helps. He has been taking paracetemol as well for pain.

Anyway, any advice from those of you with more herbal experience would be much appreciated. I am going mostly on instinct rather than knowledge. :-)

Herbal Ally - Challenge #3 - Research

 This week our herbal ally challenge was to research our ally as much as possible. For me this meant basically reading over and over what I had already dug up. Tansy is not proving an easy herb to study as far as printed information goes. In fact I found myself looking to much older herbals to even find her mentioned at all. I have been lucky in the sense that my favourite herbal does happen to include a bit of positive information and I am eagerly awaiting the delivery of Maud Grieves " A Modern Herbal" Vol's 1 and 2 and The Scots Herbal (Tess Darwin) to compare and hopefully find out more.

Tansy or "Tanecetum vulgare" has also been known as "Buttons" or parsley fern and is a member of the Aster family. Originating from temperate Europe and Asia, she is a perennial plant. Living long, indeed as her name, which  is believed to have evolved from the Latin word Athanasia meaning Immortality, suggests.

Her actions include...Astringent, Anthelmintic, Carminative, Digestive, Tonic, Vermifuge, and Emmenagogue. Primarily being used in times of old as a vermifuge (to expel worms from the body).

While de-worming was the most commonly known reason for using Tansy as medicine, it is less known that despite her also being used as an Emmenagogue (to stimulate menstruation etc) she was also drunk as a tea to stop hot flushes of menopause.

Other medicinal uses include: (as teas, tinctures, poultices, powdered and simply with fresh leaves)

• Urinary inflammation
• gout
• an infusion as a wash
• for freckles
• acne
• bruises
• sprains
• knotted or varicose veins
• coughs
• colds
• rheumatism
• skin problems
• sciatica
• ringworms
• lice
• scabies

Taking a fresh leaf of tansy and placing it in the shoe has been credited with stopping leg cramps, fevers, and infections of the plague.

 While these days Tansy is not recommended for "eating" purposes, in days of old it was actually used quite a bit. Mainly for preserving meat in the days before refrigerators but also to flavour vegetables, meat, sausages, stuffings, puddings, cakes, biscuits, mayonnaise and alcohol. I have managed to round up a few recipes of old so will have a go at cooking them and let you know how it goes.

In the garden, Tansy is one of natures best helpers. Repelling flies, fleas, lice, ants and moths from ones vegetables and fruit, she also makes a wonderful addition to the compost as she breaks down vegetation due to her rich potassium levels.

Her leaves and flowers are used for infusions, cooking, teas, powders (eg. flea powder) and poultices. The flowers can also be used to make a yellow dye for wool which I intend to try out soon. 

Harvesting and growth in my own back yard can happen year round. She grows well in all temperatures and conditions and seems to thrive no matter what stresses she endures. A very hardy plant indeed. I hear she will lay dormant in extreme cold weather and reappear in spring. Its never that cold where I live so I cannot personally vouch for this.

I will go into more details on various uses in seperate posts as I learn more. For now I am gathering as much personal knowledge as I can and concentrating on learning from my ally myself not just relying on printed info. I am really looking forward to reading about everyone elses Allys' as well.


Hugs and smoochies all xoxoxox

Aligning the senses.....

As I become more and more up close and personal with my beloved Tansy, I find myself addressing all of the five senses as a natural course of being. I only became aware that I was doing this as I sat down to write this catch up post. 

I noted that my first action was to take a deep breathe and I found myself searching out her smell. Not too hard to find as I have her surrounding me at all times lately. I have been spraying the strong infusion I made around doors, drying flowers separately from leaves, planting her in pots. Standing amongst plants taller than myself, inhaling her scent at every turn.

I have even been carrying her around with me where-ever I might go.....

I have been touching and feeling the texture of her leaves, the softness of an open flower, the smoothness of a newly budded flower.  Taking deep breathes through this slowly drying pouch of flowers and one small leaf....keeping her near me at all times.......

 I have been listening very carefully to try and catch her song, noting that while I have been calling to "her" that I keep sensing a very strong male spirit? Is she in fact a he? Or maybe non gender specific at all?

And while others around here have on occasion have begun to complain about her presence and her smell, which is apparently a little over powering! I find myself becoming one with this beautiful plant, loving her smell, the shape of her leaves, the happy feeling I get when I hold her. Longing to taste her again, knowing somehow that it is not the right time.

I feel a little like I am floating in water, gently bobbing up and down as she invades me through each of my senses which I feel will only still once all have aligned and settled into complete knowing, a merging of our spirits.

Sacred Plant Medicine - divine messages..

While I was not able to find much in the way of "Tansy" reading this week at the library, I did pick up this book called Sacred Plant Medicine (The wisdom in native American Herbalism) by Stephen Harrod Buhner. It has been accompanying me on beach trips this week and is quite an interesting read. (It has surely been a week of multi-tasking!) Books I need to read often have a way of falling into my hands, and this book was no exception. I did not seek it out or think to read it, it just somehow ended up in my huge pile of books that made it home with me.

I am about half way through the book and was surprised when the author started talking about herbal allies and more so the relationships between people and herbal or plant spirits. He talks of the plants calling or singing to a person when you need that particular plant medicine.

This particularly rings a chord with me as I had  absolutely NO background in herbs or knowledge of their uses before a few short years back when I began feeling the urge to administer them to people who were sick and somehow knowing which ones I needed. At the time I was very open to "listening" to these urges and not quite knowing how to explain it away, put it down to instinct. (OR I would find myself running for my herbal bible and trying to validate my claims scientifically because I really could not just say "Oh I just know now could I?" )

Probably all a bit strange and out there to the average person, but true none the less. I have found myself almost blurting out very small parts of my experiences several times only to shy away for fear of scaring everyone off with my strangeness.  I won't go into it now as it will take a long writing to explain, I will promise to write an explanation later as yesterday I had  a message through my Earth Magic cards......(a small section of  my reading)....

"You are in a place now where you can take risks with your feelings, and even more important, take risks with the truth of who you are- the truth you know in your heart and soul. You no longer need to be subjected to your conditional fears of letting others know who you really are.

Yes others may judge, evaluate, criticize, and perhaps even put you down. These are very real possibilities. Yet by trusting that you have the strength to deal with these reactions- rather than responding adaptively and always playing it safe - you can more confidently allow yourself to be vulnerable. Always holding back from expressing your truth can create an illusion of safety, but armed with your trust and your faith, you can choose to be vulnerable and share your authentic self with the world."

So there you go my lovelies! I shall be "outing" myself with pure trust in the fact that if you are still reading this, you may even be interested in getting to know the "real' me, the one that holds back for fear of being comitted or something! Are you ready?

Hugs and smoochies xoxox (yes hugs are a very big part of who I am!)

Whispers in the night.......(a song)

Shhhhh....

Silent Whispers in the night...

Can you hear her, sweet delight? 

Do you feel the gentle breeze....

As she shakes her ferny leaves?  

Tender feelings wrap around...

Hear her song, a gentle sound.

See her flowers light the way....

In the moonlight, time for play! 

When the sun begins to rise..

Then she opens up her eyes...

Reaching out towards his rays...

Joyous dancing, happy days!

If you catch her when shes free,

And you love her tenderly....

No dilemma shall be faced...

For you will love her gentle taste! 

Shhhhh

Herby Ally - Challenge 2 - Infusions

Our challenge this week was to make several infusions with our herbal ally to drink each day and record our findings and feelings as the week went by. This was of course IF we had chosen a SAFE herb!

And it seems according to all and sundry out there, MY beloved Tansy is NOT considered a SAFE herb! Indeed, as I found out this week, she is so rudely not even mentioned in many a herbal book!!! Most of what I have been reading online and in some of my own books basically suggest that we do not ingest Tansy as woman have been known to die from ingesting her. A scant few as it was, but still enough to decide that one should no longer use her as she is not safe!

Me being me of course thought "but why????" Tansy has been used safely for centuries in many cultures. The fact that she contains thujone rendering her "unsafe" for consumption had me researching a little further. All I could come up with really was that I am now wondering if the pharmaceutical companies have something to do with this "unsafe" finding? I mean who is going to BUY de-worming medicine if one can simply pick it from the garden?

From what I can gather, thujone is considered by some to have the ability to make you "high" or hallucinate. However, after reading a scientific study, as far as I am concerned, this theory is up in the air! There is no actual proof that this is true. It is merely an assumption. Also unless you have some chemical lab set up and are going to extract huge amounts of thujone from your plant and mix it with other substances, I can't see what the problem is.

Next, the women that died as a result of ingesting Tansy were trying to relieve themselves of unwanted pregnancies.  They probably were taking extremely strong doses. Like any medication, taken in copious amounts, ones body is going to shut down. One also could have an allergy to any plant and die as a result of ingesting a small amount. How many people die from peanut allergies? I don't see them banning peanuts!

So with all this in mind, swirling around in my head, and other people warning me to be careful etc etc etc......I decided in my usual fashion to consult the little voices in my head (Yes, I am weird, did you not know that already?), and of course the plant itself. Yes, I talk to plants too...don't you? I always thank my plants when taking from them! Its only polite you know?

1st fresh infusion - 5 mins only

We decided amongst ourselves, that I would make a very quick infusion using fresh leaves. I chose four smallish sized leaves which would have made about a teaspoon if chopped. I did not chop them as I thought to make a weaker infusion. I went with the instructions in my companion book Isabella Shipards, "How to use herbs in my daily Life" to infuse for 5 minutes only and drink.  (She also has an account of someone she met who drank Tansy tea on a regular basis with no ill effects!)

Quite weak, pleasant tasting, no sweeteners required

I have recorded my findings in my journal. I won't share all my feelings here as it is quite long winded. I will share however, that I was pleasantly surprised that it tasted quite nice. It was like a burst of cooling freshness in your mouth followed by a quick drying sensation. With this in mind, one would think I would keep going for the week, but unfortunately I had forgotten an important factor. My menstrual cycle. I could not remember if or when I was due and did not want the Tansy interfering without knowing first.

I did have some spotting the next morning and was feeling a little unwell (unrelated). I have been experiencing heavy bleeding the past few cycles so did not want to help it along more. Therefore, I decided to skip the "tea drinking" experiment and save it for another time when my body was more co-operative.

I decided instead to infuse some of the dried herb in a stronger dose and see what happened. I made batches of 2 hours, 4 hours and even 24 hours. The colours changed from yellows, to dark browns. The smell of course became stronger, but not unpleasant to me.

first few minutes

12 hours

When I breathe in the vapours is does not make me think of poison at all. Reminding me of the reason I took an interest in herbs in the first place. I was following my instinct. And so I will continue to do so.

Now having said that, Fleas have a bit of an aversion to the smell! I will be spraying this around the dogs bedding and anywhere they try to move in!

I am strongly of the belief that Tansy is a SAFE herb if used correctly. Of course I will proceed with caution but I will be trusting in my instinct and taking my cues from there.

If you would like to take part in the Herbal Ally challenges or read about some other herbal allys....please click here!

Can I have some more days in the week?

And more hours in the day please?

Even though I have been getting up early and some nights staying up rather late, I keep running out of time! 

This week has been rather hectic to say the least and several things have come up that made my time scarce. When I have been home I have been on the go constantly....

I did manage to make one shopping trip to an op shop and the art supply store which was just up the road from the wool shop so of course I popped in there too! 

I scored some new jars at the op shop for $4.....which have come in very handy the past few days....

 

 

I picked up some decent water colour paints.......

 

 

Love the way it all stacks together for storage.....

 

 

Now I just need to learn to use them! 

 

Next week, hopefully next week! 

 

I visited two different libraries and was rather disappointed with their herbal selections.  One would think Tansy did not even exist! Most books either did not mention it at all OR had scarce information! Thank god for The Book Depository, I have a couple on order so am looking forward to getting them. I also borrowed some books on how to use water colours and how to paint botanical's. Hopefully this helps! Otherwise I will have to stick to drawing!

I have been reading a lot, making notes and I have been making some infusions, I have however not been ingesting the tea this week due to health concerns much to my annoyance! I intend to repeat the infusions in a few weeks when hopefully I can focus more.  Will post more about this in my Infusions post.

Have a wonderful day! Hugs and smoochies xoxoxo

Taking things a little slower.....

This week has found me a little bit obsessive over my herbal ally challenges. I realised yesterday that I am going to have to tone it down a bit and pay attention to other things in my life as well. In fact I am going to have to get a little more organised! This is never an easy task for me as, you see as soon as I free up some time or space, I find something else to fill it with.

Last week I was able to focus a lot of time and energy as everyone else was preoccupied. This week my youngest started vying for attention and wanting to go out. Yesterday, I literally had to remove the herbal book from my bag and tell myself NO you are going outside to play not study! We did stay out for most of the day and then when I got home I crammed in quite a bit.

I fed the kids lunch, pulled down the bunches of drying tansy and saved a good basket full which I aim to start using for some infusions for flea spray later today.  Then I thought I better get cracking on my journal. You see I have been keeping two other notebooks all week as I did not want to mess up the journal. I was being very fussy about decorations etc, when it dawned on me...this is MY journal...I should be writing in it. So I filled a few pages, yes all last night. I did manage to feed my family but they ate a little late! (For those just meeting me, I cook vegetarian and meat meals due to a divided family on food). Although we had bbq last night, I prepared vege kebabs, meat, potato salad, tossed salad and corn on the cob. All fresh so time consuming to prepare. Cooking can take from 1/2 to 4 hours of my time a day).

My tea supply for a few days, hanging out with some fennel which my daughter has been munching on!

So far this week.....I have read lots of "facts" about Tansy. Read a fair bit about thujone and looked up various other words relating to the scientific side. Of course everyone paints Tansy as being a dangerous herb. I don't agree. In fact I drank a cup of tea already with no terrible side affects. Me being me, the scientific side is going to be a hard one for me to study. I prefer to go with my instict and own experiences. I have however, downloaded some scientific reports to have a read of (heres hoping I can concentrate long enough to learn something).

So besides making tea, I have been gathering tansy and keeping her around me as much as possible. I plan to pot some and bring it inside to see if it growns indoors as well. I did my first drawing, from memory rather than trying to copy the plant with water colour pencils...........

This has since become my title page in my journal. I almost attacked it with water and brush but did not like the effect on the stem so left it as is. I was later chastised by my oldest daugther who informs me this is how water colour pencils are supposed to look. But I spent a bit of time with detail here people I don't want to blur it out! LOL (My book, my book!)

Things to do this week:  (I won't show you my real list, you might faint, so just my Tansy time list)

• Visit the library and round up a few books
• Buy some jars and bottles (I don't have any spare)
• Round up a dye pot
• Buy some water colour paints (I love drawing with the pencils but can't seem to make them paint nice).
• Practice my painting skills
• Infuse/Infuse and Infuse some more!
• Bake some Tansy cookies
• Pot some tansy for indoors

I think I am going to have to give myself a limit on things to do each week as I also need to keep up with the housework (we have a large household), the vegie and herb gardens, the children, the homeschooling, the business accounts, getting Gem ready and outfitted to start University (college?), the pets, friends, homeschool group each week, excursions, my knitting/crochet/cross stitch pursuits, cooking, LAUNDRY, my man (he also needs attention occasionally or he gets grumpy) and keeping  my sink shiny!

Are we tired yet? I thought so! Yep! The thought of it all is leaving me feeling a tad overwhelmed. So I shall try very hard to take ONE thing at a time! Wish me luck! For now, I am going to drop everything, take a trip to the library and maybe do some crochet! (So says she, who fully knows if she finds any good books where her nose will be all afternoon!)

Hugs and smoochies xoxox

Drying Dilemma's

Well, I have come across a wee problem with my drying process! I always dry my tansy outside like this on the small clothes line. I did not however take into account our nutty weather. It was drying nicely and almost ready when all the flooding up north and then down south hit. 

In the middle here we are suffering from extreme weather changes but most of the time it is extremely hot and muggy and unfortunately the air is switching from moist to dry rapidly. We have even had a little night rain! :-(

LOOK What has happened to some of the Tansy....BOO HOO! It is going mouldy! I have to admit to being just a tad disappointed. I have a little over that I dried last year but for some reason I had grounded it. So probably won't use that just yet.

While I was pondering on whether to burn it or throw it in the compost, I decided to pick off some of the flowers which looked fine and store them.

With this weeks challenge being infusions with dried herbs I was concerned, obviously I won't be drinking this lot! However, waste not want not. I am going to get rid of the nasty bits and try and save the rest. I will infuse it and make flea repellent! YES I will! And for tonight I shall make my infusion with fresh tansy instead.

Lucky for me! There is plenty more outside! 

Mother Nature! Please calm down so our days may go more in tune with the seasons!

Herbal Ally - Journal cover

Well I finally got my journal cover (almost) finished! In typical fashion around here and probably because I opted to choose the time consuming cross stitch path, I was interupted by numerous other things and did not think I would even finish it.

I had far too many ideas but ended up keeping it quite simple. I used an old skirt that I picked up in an op shop for the background colour and scraps of material from a skirt my daughter made me for xmas. (Ashlee kindly helped me with the sewing as I was running out of time and had too much else on yesterday). She was a bit bothered by the fact that the fabric scraps were a bit small. I insisted on having a lining which ended up being a little small to fit, causing no end of frustration I'm sure. As a result the strip on the outside ended up on a bit of an angle. But as I wanted a bit of a frayed, rustic type look anyway I decided to leave it that way.

Here is the "almost" finished result..........

The cross stitch section took me a few days to complete....I frayed the edges of the Aida to give it a more whimsy look just like Tansy! I love the little worm on the T and the butterflies too.........

Now this is the part that is not yet finished.........

I used some more of the recycled brown paper that I used to make the prints last week and screwed it  up to give it a crinkly effect. The flowers and leaf were pressed on paper between my heavy herbal books while I was still undecided what to do. They dried up quite nicely. I am planning on having this little card laminated and I will attach it with a ribbon so it can be removed and used as a book mark.

For the most part I have really enjoyed making the cover. I would have liked to have given it more time though. I think some time management is in order but that is really hard to achieve at our chaotic house!

Now I am off to do some gardening and begin on the next challenge. Making some herbal infusions!

Have a great Sunday all. Hugs and smoochies xoxox

Getting started with the journal project

On Tuesday, I thought I'd better get started with covering my journal and was thinking about ways to do it. I thought long and hard about how I would like my book to look, keeping in mind I would be keeping it for a long time.

My first thought was to cover the journal with tansy leaf prints! Never having done this before I pulled out the paint anyway and started having a play.

The first print came out a bit dark and I did not really like it on the white paper.

Then I decided to screw up some brown paper and try printing on that! I have to admit it was not really up my alley but I still gave it a go. My test run again was not really what I hoped to go for. I left them to dry and kept on thinking...should I have another go and make it a bit more tansy plant as a whole looking? Hmmmm! Although the idea of trying that is appealing and I will do it later. It was not really what I thought would suit my journal.

Then, I kid you not...I spent the next hour or so surfing the web looking for the perfect font, that I could print, cut out and decorate and stick on the book. Let me say I became a little frustrated! This was becoming NOT fun! I waded through the scrap booking bits and bobs. I even tried drawing my own but my heart really was not in it!

It was about this time in my usual fashion that the light bulb went off in my head! What do I love to do? What would really make it mine? Of course, how silly of me!  So, I pulled out some different supplies.....

Grabbed the necessary equpment.......

And got to work........so um if I don't turn up for a day or so! Well you know what I am up to! 

:-) THIS IS FUN, THIS IS VERY FUN!!!!

Today I have also managed to squeeze in some photography moments with my Tansy and my fur babies who were most helpful! I am really looking forward to getting this book started. I have so many ideas! Indeed in my spare moments I have been reading reading reading!

Now I must away to my stitching before I get too tired. Hugs and smoochies everyone! xoxox