ArtyFartyAnnie

Hi Everyone, Flagging a little bit today - my third day of Live Below the Line . I've been at home, which I thought would be easier, but in fact I found it quite hard to settle to anything. This morning I went off to the post office with a parcel and as I walked in to the shop, the smell of chocolate and sweeties hit me - I'd never noticed that before ... I consoled myself by spending twice my week's food budget on two magazines, which kind of goes against the whole idea. It did make me think though. I'm choosing to do this and it's only for five days - what must it feel like when you have no choice and no hope for the future? I'm not going to bore you with another picture of what I had for dinner tonight - it was the same as Monday's dinner and Tuesday's lunch (click on the Live Below the Line tab at the top of the page for previous posts). Instead,  I thought I would show you a picture of my remaining rations ... This is what I have left f...

Hi everyone, Goodness me, is it really #256 already?! Just in case you have no idea what I'm talking about, this is the day when we share our workdesks with the world - check it out over at Julia's Stamping Ground , where you can join in the fun, have a snout around, link up and show us what's on your workdesk today! So here's mine as it was first thing this morning, covered with half-used kits, collections and miscellaneous goodies all jumbled up together, a total mess ... I had kept all these things together because they all came from SJ Crafts during the three months I've been on the DT, but it was all in such a muddle that when I came to pull out some bits to make a sample for the May challenge, I didn't know where to start! So, I went through it all, sorted everything back into collections, put all the stickers and offcuts and loose bits into bags - in fact, I popped all the chipboard bits and diecuts out of their sheets and bagged them too (y...

Hi Everyone, Ok so I know this is starting to look like a blog about lentils, but it's only for five days - thank goodness!!! Day Two of Live Below the Line  - I arrived home this evening feeling somewhat grumpy from lack of coffee and calories and this was waiting for me in the post ... This little girl is called Margaret. She is only ten years old and spends her free time scavenging on this dump to find plastic which her Mother can sell to buy food. Action Aid are helping people like this to find a way out of the cycle of poverty. So when I saw this article, of course I gave myself a slap upside the head for moaning about lack of coffee and thanked my lucky stars that to get my £1 a day I just had to find my handbag and open my purse, not scavenge for it on a stinking rubbish dump. There's no point in feeling guilty about living in a more privileged part of the world - but this experience is teaching me to appreciate what I usually take for granted and I'm so...

Hi everyone, Well, I made it through my first day of Living Below the Line - which means eating and drinking only as much as I can buy for £1 a day - if you're wondering why on earth I would do such a crazy thing, please click on t he link to find out what it's all about. Today the hardest thing for me was missing my Costa coffee which I usually buy on the way in to the office every morning - I had to do a detour so I wouldn't smell it! My budget didn't allow for any kind of drinks, but we are allowed unlimited tap water (which is of course a luxury which many of the 1.2 billion people currently living below the line do not enjoy). Here's what I had for lunch ... Nutritious and delicious! Home-made savoury rice with grated carrot, chopped onion and an egg, sprinkled with garden herbs Sprouted lentil sprinkles Crunchy carrot crudites Strawberry yoghurt Banana Veggie stock cube to make a hot drink Here's what I made for dinner ... Also de...

Hi everyone, Well, tomorrow's the Big Day - Live Below the Line begins! For the next five days, I will be eating and drinking only as much as I can buy for £1 a day. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, please click on the Live Below the Line tab above, where you can find out why I'm doing this, see how I spent my £5 budget and follow my progress. Tonight I'm feeling a bit apprehensive, but also excited to see how it goes. This afternoon I spent some time cooking ahead for the week and packing up a lunch for tomorrow. My rations for the week included lentils, because they're a cheap and filling source of protein. I got two kinds for variety and plan to use them in different ways through the week. A few days ago, I took a handful of the whole green ones, washed and soaked them and put them in a jar to see if they would sprout - and they have wooHOO!  This might not look too exciting at first glance, but these sprouted lentils will give me a bit of...

Hi everyone, Case File #120 over at CSI this week is full of fun - pretty colours which remind me of sorbets, icecream and blue skies and all kinds of quirky ideas to get your mojo going. Here it is ... In order to crack the case, you need to use all these clues to create a scrapbook page - All five colours in the Scheme At least two items from Evidence At least one from Testimony Here's how I solved this case ... This page is all about the essentials I needed with me at all times on my wedding day in 2011 - including two of my best friends, Sally and Trina, who you can see in this photo. But did I follow all the clues???

Hi everyone, I'm quite chuffed that I've managed all three challenges over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog this month, but I still had some of my April kit "Daydream Believer" to use up - including those blinkin Prima sticker sheets. These stickers are totally gorgeous but for some reason no matter how many times I get them out to use on a page, they just keep going back on the shelf again). So I liberated them all from the sheet, stuck them to some of the cardstock leftovers from my kit and cut around them. This way, I would be able to move them about on the page and pop them up on foam dots for extra depth. Taking the advice of Louise over at the SJ Crafts blog  to try using the stickers as a starting point, I thought it would be fun to build my design around a line of stickers randomly layered together and running down the length of the page. To create the background, I mixed paints in the same colours as the stickers and allowed them to dribble d...