Grow Your Blog Party 2015 - Welcome!

Hello Gorgeous!

Thank you for visiting my paint-filled, splooshy corner of the blogosphere and WELCOME one and all! It's the epic and legendary 'GROW YOUR BLOG PARTY 2015' !! Hurrah!!

My name is Rachael but I'm known as 'Shroo'. I live in the middle of varied and wonderful landscapes here in the UK, equidistant from the wild beauty of seas, rivers and lakes, farmland and wild protected areas of stunning rural splendour, and the quirky urban towns and villages that nestle linked by this natural beauty.

I live with my black cat, Harvey, or to give him his full title - Count Harvelstein Fluffpants III. He likes to be addressed as 'The Colonel' and has many adventures. He puts up with me and reminds me on a daily basis how fortunate I am that he allows me to cuddle him, wrap him in warm blankies, buy him funky toys and feed him his nippits (biscuits).

I love to be surrounded by interesting and beautiful things, bright colours, books and artwork as it keeps me inspired. I've been an artist since I was a baby, holding my first pen, but life led me away from my joy of all things arty for many years, replacing it with the more mundane and practical aspects of adult life. Recently, however, I've been moved to rediscover my artistic heart and fill my life anew with all things colour - paints and pencils, inks and papers - and what a joy it has brought me ....and it's rescued me in so many ways

I started my blog a couple of years ago and discovered the wonderful people that are part of this online community. They're an inspiration to me every day. I took a break last year after my mum passed away but returned at Christmas to begin again. I invite you to join me in my arty journey through life as I test out my skills and learn new ones and share them with this amazing arty family.

A little bit about my art.... I'm a mixed media artist and illustrator. I work intuitively which means that I rarely plan a project, rather I just sit down surrounded by supplies and just throw things onto paper or canvas (or whatever!) until it looks right to me. I am a journaler, and this year I'll be sharing my own journaling progress as well as encouraging my readers to join in with their own life recording process. I'll provide exercises and examples and encouragement in bucket-loads. Here are some of my journal pages. You can see more in my other blog pages or click the pics to see other blog pages and galleries.

I love to make my own books and journals - you can see a few of them HERE. I'm currently working on some new ones so that I can re-open my little Etsy shop next month - here's a preview of some of the latest offerings:

I like to make jewellery - basically as an excuse to hoard pretty beads (a lifelong obsession!). This year I'd like to advance my skills and learn some new metalwork techniques, but for now here's a little glimpse at what's on the work desk:

I love to doodle - it calms my mind and helps me to relax. I tend to theme my doodles in each book or journal...they'll never win awards but they make me happy! Here are a couple of my recent journal pages:

I also like to illustrate the variety and beauty of the wildlife that shares this planet with us. You can see an example of my pen & ink work HERE, or click on the picture below:

I love books and poetry and love to incorporate elements of them into my work, whether it be quotes,

 character illustration,

Aslan - The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S.Lewis

 or pages of the books themselves added to my paper collages...

So that's a bit about me. Coming up here in the next month will be some book making & bookbinding tutorials, suitable for anyone to try. You can find my last bookbinding post HERE, and for now here's a sneak preview of one such upcoming post-ette:

There'll also be some thoughts about and ideas for making altered art on a budget. Here's that sneak preview thing again! -

I'll be talking about how I use art and colour to help me cope with the ups and downs of life. I want to talk about public and private art, our insecurities and how to - hopefully - overcome them. Here are a couple of bijou hint-ettes at what will be on show...

I'll talk about supplies - my must-haves, my recommendations and top tens! (who doesn't love a list?)

 - and you can witness the perpetual horror that is my workdesk!

I'll also be blogging about crafting on a budget and about making your own unique elements:

Yep - there's quite a lot lined up to take us through the rest of January and right through February. You'll have to put up with my ramblings, but you can always do what The Colonel does and bury your head in a blanky and snore 'til I shut up!! (That's HIS recommendation anyway!)

It's so awesome to see you - I'd LOVE it of you'd add your epic self to my list of blog followers, and/or to my circles so that you'll be the first to be updated on new posts. Please leave a comment - I'll do my best to reply to everyone and I'll be visiting your blog asap!

I'd like to thank Vicki at '2 BAGS FULL' for all her inspiration and hard work. Enjoy the rest of the party! Love and hugs from Shroo :) xxx

Beginning Again

....and Merry Boxing Day too!

I hope you're all well and that the season finds you with the ones you love, happy and content. I've been away for a while - as you can plainly see from the dates on the posts - and spent a looong time debating whether to close my blog down for good, but I figure I at least owe you lovely people some thanks for your support at a really crappy time in my life, and for your patience and let you know that it meant - and means - the world to me.

Breaking back into blogging feels weird at the moment and six months is a heck of a long time to sum up concisely but I'll make a start at least. As it's still the festive season, I'll keep it light as much as possible! I have kept 'arting'.., for myself, and I think it's saved my sanity! I have a new journal - I've actually filled three since leaving blogging - this one being an altered book that I kept when we cleared my uncle's home a couple of years back. I've had to leave a lot behind for practical reasons so it's been an exercise in starting over, and having to let go of so SO much stuff has encouraged me to incorporate more personal items - photos, ephemera, keepsakes etc - into my journals so that they're easy to pack and keep as I continue through life. Space-saving has become an issue! I'll share my progress with you over the next few posts. I hope that some of my rambles and ideas and such might be useful to people and I figure that it's one thing to give advice, but another to share the personal practical applications of it. Can't really do one without the other, eh?

As I'm not overly sure where to begin I'll start with my current journal. I moved back to written journaling for quite a while during my house clearance and house move which was just after mum died. It was such an upheaval that I think I just needed to vent and journaling became a daily catharsis for me. I did find myself still filling it with doodles and pictures when words would not suffice and gradually, the art has taken over again. I still find myself needing to write so at present I have a couple of books on the go but the one I'll share a bit of now is mainly art. I know it's not everyone's idea of journaling but as I've said on many previous occasions it's all about what works for me.

These are my recent journals - I apologise for the dodgy pics, my camera's a bit.....temperamental!

Yep....that's my (*ahem*) TIDY (ahahaha) workdesk. Yep.  This is the altered book journal -

It's the usual thing - I removed some pages and glued others together. I opted to just leave some as single pages as well, some torn or cut, just for variety. I've only faffed about with the first half of the book - I learned that lesson a long time ago. Altering it as I go along ensures that it still closes because I can remove more pages whenever I need to - it doesn't bulk out or tear. I opted to keep this book because it has a lot of surveyors diagrams in it which look cool when they show through background layers: just adding a bit more interest where I want them to.  I kept a box of cut-outs and ephemera which I sifted through so that I could add some tabs and images to pages to alter as I go along. It's worked very well and gives me useful prompts when my mind goes a bit blank.

....Tidy, tidy workspace..... shyeah! aha!

To help me focus and have purpose, I wrote myself a note inside the front cover:

"This altered book originally belonged to my uncle who was a chartered surveyor. It is now a journal to help me re-build my confidence in making art, trying new techniques and developing skills. Although I may choose to share some pages, this is for my own enjoyment and will hopefully reflect my personality, thoughts, dreams and humour. I have no concern that some pages will suffer a natural decay and damage from regular book use...this is as beautiful to me as the art itself."

.....Basically I just needed to re-introduce myself to mixed media work after having been left so long with just one basic set of coloured pencils and a pen! The value of art journaling, aside from the soul-calming element, is that it does indeed provide a safe place for building confidence in using different mediums and techniques. It took a couple of pages of slightly halting messing about before I found my way again but I'm a lot happier now. It's also helped me to settle a little....I miss my studio dreadfully, and having no place to call home for a while was pretty scary, but working on this book helped me to nest a little and feel at home where I am now which was an unexpected bonus!

I'll leave this here for today but I promise to be back with more in the next day or so. I'd like, once again,  to thank the lovely people who left comments on my earlier post, "To Heal My Heart" and who took the time to email me. You've no idea how much your words helped me and reassured me that there is great kindness in this world.  Thanks for visiting again - big hugs to everyone, from Shroo:)

To Heal My Heart

Today has been a tough day.

Today, my mum died. She has fought valiantly against cancer, staying strong and positive but infection wore her down and she was  released from her battle this afternoon just as the sun broke through the rain clouds that have dominated the week's weather. A group of butterflies took flight from the ground outside her window, and she was free.  

She was an artist, a dancer, a pure kind spirit and constant inspiration to all who knew her, including myself. I know she'll live in my heart every day, just as I lived in hers and I will feel her willpower and love with me always. 

I wanted to share this with you as I've been away from here, caring for her and loving her for some time now. She loved to read this blog while she was able and I wrote most posts with her in mind. I wanted her to know how much I value everything she taught me, and the gifts that I inherited from her. She was my guide through the darkness and my companion in the light and although I feel incomplete without her by my side, I take strength from knowing that all that she was is still with me now and always, in her words and deeds and in her beautiful art. 

She has danced into a glorious colourful meadow of summer flowers, accompanied by the sound of lark song and the love I sent with her. 

Love you mum. Dance and be happy. xxxxxx

Mojo & Muse versus Twitchy Brain

Hi all!

Did you think I'd emigrated to Jupiter? Heh heh...not quite, not quite...  This will be quite a personal post, so settle in with your favourite beverage, and also some cake (because cake is awesome) and we'll ride this roller coaster together!  Here's a contents guide:

Part: The First - A Big Thank You!
Part: The Second - Twitchy Brain: A Potted History 
Part: The Middle - Exit Strategy
Part: Hurrah! - Feeding The Muse
Part: Finale -Mojo Returns

Part : The First
First of all, I would like to send out 'thank yous' and some seriously big love out into the universe, to Vicki at 2 Bags Full, and to the beautiful, BEAUTIFUL people who participated in her incredible 'Grow Your Blog' party, especially to the fabulous bloggers who added themselves to my followers or to my circles. You all get a MASSIVE hug from me for pretty much saving me from jacking the whole thing in, You are all EPIC, just so you know. And that's a fact. No arguing. Your blogs are awesome...you're all lovely - and my cat (Colonel Fluffpants) and I love you squillions.

As a special and very personal thank you hug to my blog readers - ALL of you! - I'm running a promotion in my Etsy shop.

SAVE 20%

on any purchase from now till 15th February by entering the code: VALENTINE2014 when you check out with Paypal!  Click the sale link  above to take you right there.

Part: The Second
So... where the hell have I been for the last two weeks? Ok.... Here's the thing. I have a REALLY awkward and annoying brain. It doesn't behave well at all.... it chatters away and twists my reality - sometimes in a cool and energetic, creative way, and sometimes quite the opposite. I'm not alone... there a squillion (I'm just estimating there....*ahem*) people in the world who have awkward brains, acting up to some intrusive degree, for whatever reason, and it can really - REALLY - interfere with stuff.

I've always had a few head-glitches... I can clearly remember being 7 years old and realising that the way I perceived the world was QUITE different to those around me. I was 13 when I decided to understand why. I made a conscious choice to 'handle' the differences; to find a way to work with them, rather than fight them all the time. I've had varying measures of success and generally the constant 'background noise' is manageable. In fact, life would be pretty weird without it now!

There are several side-effects to having 'twitchy brain', one of which is that ya finds ya weird-ass self spending a LOT of time in your own weird company. That being a given, it's best to find a hobby - and a creative hobby is THE best thing for keeping the chittering head-monsters quiet and subdued. I chose to read, write and draw - and the greatest of these is... DRAW! In fact, I'm a firm advocate of art (and craft) as a theraputic tool, because not only have I seen the excellent and positive effects when working with people - from children with special educational needs, to adults suffering from mental trauma - but it's saved me over and over and over again.

***Aside: It's worth noting that the effect of my sharing my hobby via this blog has been

that I have met some, frankly, EPIC human beings 

- talented, intelligent and funny people who have made me richer for knowing them. 

Who'd have thunk?***

Art has been a vital part of my life since I first sat upright and held a pencil - mum says at about 9 months old....I say the day after I last enjoyed a lovely bottle of powerful red wine! I've always felt the need to illustrate pretty much everything. When I was a kid, I'd sit at my grandparents' dinner table copying paragraphs of prose, or various poems, and illustrating each one lovingly. I'd draw my way through every car journey I ever had - which drove my poor mother mad, until she realised that I never missed ANY of the beautiful scenery we passed ... although she did have to factor in an hour or more of departure delay as I'd be up in my room packing every art supply I had into a bag 'just in case'. Never leave home without....well....pretty much EVERYthing! I drew in my diaries, I drew in my school books (not popular with teachers!), I drew on aything I could get my hands on. All the time. And it was a wonderful release and a safe, absorbing introspection all at the same time.  It was at once freedom and joy, security and peace.

 

Skipping ahead, the past few years have brought their trials. Everyone has them - I'm not special by any means. The unfortunate by-product is a resulting great big heavy dollop of P.T.S.D (post traumatic stress disorder). Yeah - it took me by surprise as well! Now - this is an art blog, not a forum for me to unburden, but mental illness (twitchy brain) is such a social taboo that I want to wear my 'courage hat' and wave a little flag of solidarity here in my teeny corner of t'interweb for those who suffer from ANY form of mental wibblyness - we're just like you, just occasionally we'll wear  a jacket made of cheese-squares for no apparent reason. Like Lady Gaga on a mundane day! 

I know my brain is twitchy. It's ok - it's a part of who I am. Now and again I get a 'dip' where I have to go off-line for a while.... not just interweb-wise, but pretty much from everything.  That's where I've been for a week-and-a-half: off-line. A combination of insomnia and a simple, boring cold left me in a bit of a spin. When that happens, the smallest things seem like a massive pressure - even art, probably because I've set my heart and mind on making a career out of it. I've had to take a break as this is what happens if I try and 'art' when in this state:

Yuh-huh. THAT'S why I keep nothing but current journals at my house. Everything else is hoarded by my mum who 'rescues' things on a regular basis!

Part Middle: The Exit Strategy!
It's vital - for us wot have twitchy-brain-face - to have a functional exit strategy; a path out of the gurgling gloom. It should be something we trust and remember as easily as how to make a cup of tea.  It'll be different for everyone, but MY path begins with cutting stuff up. No - not my neighbours.... paper! I add to my ffffffabulous stack of ephemera by slowly and methodically cutting images and shapes out of paper. For example:

 - a box filled with a variety of eminently collageable images. The amount I cut out is directly proportional to the extent of brain twitch. Here're the results of last week's sojourn into Foofsville:

... about 3000 individual collage elements. Five boxes almost completely stuffed. It's amazing what I can get out of just one sheet of scrapbook paper...and it saves a fortune as I no longer feel compelled to spend a fortune on those branded ephemera packs. (I wrote a post about it HERE). This is such a methodical process that it calms the brain-storm to a mill-pond. It doesn't matter if the storm's still going on underneath the surface, the main thing is to still the raging waves so I can see a path to firm land. As it very much were...

Once the path's cleared, I can start to create again. I have discovered that when my muse is feeling battered, and my arty mojo is having a crisis of self that journaling acts as a perfect bridge between an artless funk and the happy world of productive arty fartyness. I find that there's a big difference between 'art journaling' and 'journaling with art'. My art journaling tends to fill the page, expressing my state of mind almost entirely in imagery with little or no text. It's enjoyable, but often beyond me when I'm in that bad-brain state. 'Journaling with art' is a stepping stone...a confidence builder....a way for me to re-build my self-confidence and steady my thoughts.  It usually includes short paragraphs of rambly text surrounded with simple colour and collage. It doesn't take long, takes little thought and makes me happy! I've even found a technique to stop me ranting - I add a limited text space into the collage. It's an excellent focus. Here are a couple of recent pages (I've fuzzed up some of the text 'cos it's a bit personal, but you'll get the idea)

 

I start  by recording the mundane, then work up to expressing my thoughts and feelings. It works. Well, it works for me. Stepping stones - choosing papers, cutting elements, selecting images for collage, layering, recording events, then thoughts, then feelings... then......-

Part Hurrah!: Feeding The Muse
The last thing I do is to completely clear, clean and tidy my art station. No jumble, no mess. Just the favourite things I enjoy using. Once they're back, organised and ready,  I find myself more eager to use them, to play with colour and texture on a page just for the joy of it. All that pressure and stress is gone.

See, now I've gone a bit 'Sound Of Music' and I'm humming '...Brown paper packages tied up with strings; these are a few of my favourite things'....tra-la-laaaa! Hmmmmm..... my favourite things..... I find it so effective to open up the trays of colour and just drink in the loveliness of these products.

My favourite pens - Uni pin fine liners, Uni Ball gel pens, Marvy Le Plume brush pens, Faber Castell Pitt pens, my Rotring artists pen... Then my graphite pencils and favourite brushes... My coloured pencils - Derwent Inktense, Coloursoft, Graphitint, Charcoal, and watercolours... My favourite Winsor & Newton inks, Tattered Angels Glimmer Glazes, a few Cosmic Shimmer watercolours, washi tapes, glues and mediums. Not forgetting my yummy Caran D'Ache Neocolor II soluble wax pastels -

Part Finale: Mojo Returns!
I'm ready to 'art' again! And that's a pretty awesome place to be, frankly. Pressure's released and the twitchyness has quietened down to a comfortable chitter - won't get in the way.

That's it. I mean, I probably make it sound a lot more simple that it actually is, but like I say - this is an art blog, not a soul-bearing forum. I did consider making up a reason for being away, but I don't believe that anyone is served well by dishonesty, and I'm content with who I am - it's important to me that I encourage other people to look upon their glitches and weirdisms as being a PART of who they are. So, they make us 'different'.... Different from what? I believe we're all unique individuals and we should celebrate that fact. After all - there's a LOT of everyone else...well and truly enough... Why be commonplace? Be an exclusive!

Has this been rambly? I hope it's not been rambly. I hope that something in this post might be interesting and/or useful to someone, somewhere along the line.  It's important to admit when we find things difficult, but I choose to see them as a challenge, rather than a struggle - the difference is significant. I encourage anyone with an awkwardly twitchy brain to strategise, find your stepping stones back to a functioning life and celebrate each step - because it's a success!

I'll be off now to make a journal entry.  I want to mark my return to blogsville....plus I have, like, a gajillion cut-up pieces of ephemera to use up!

Thank you for visiting and a huge pat on the back for those of you who've made it through this post without chewing off your own legs! I love you all completely, for you are all legends in your own epic time! Go be awesome! See you soon, love and hugs from Shroo :) xxx

ps - thanks to Pinterest for the looney photos! x