Truly there are no words to describe all that 2019 has dealt… I’m done! I’m ready for a new year… It began with a dear friend’s death in January, progressed to me getting shingles, then tennis elbow, then inflamed arthritis in my one good hand, than on October 5th I fell and broke by pubis rami (a bone in the pelvis), then this past weekend my laptop died…I am typing this on a friend’s iPad. Hence no photos or links – I have no idea how to do such things on this device.
I’ve had to create a new email – if you’d like to know what it is, please contact me via the form above. Facebook has locked me out as I cannot remember my password and honestly I cannot be bothered to create a new FB account…
And to top it all off, today I left the house for the first time in over a month to visit a dear friend in the local hospice… truly I am done! If you’ve read all this, I thank you. I hope to be more positive in any future posts, but this is today, and it’s hard to be positive on a cold, dark-at-4.30pm November day. Sorry.
On my desk today, lots of pretty cards as I’m busy trying to catch up on penpal letters and a plethera of thank yous. At this time of year, we’re spoiled by neighbours sharing their veggie garden produce (runner beans, squash, courgettes, marrows), and beautiful flowers (mainly dahlias – who knew there were so many varieties??) Also, it’s been a busy week visiting friends for tea, coffee, or lunch, and I do like to send a thank you card afterwards 🙂
It has a definite end of summer, beginning of new school year feel (I really do love September so!) and I can feel my energy rising as the temperatures cool 🙂 Here are close ups of each page:
I’ve also been making cards (September is full of birthdays!), but did I think to photograph my creations? They’re now all sealed up ready for posting… And on Monday, I started a 14-day writing challenge over on my other blog, where I’ve been writing directly on the blog and just hitting Publish after my 15-minute free-write. Here’s 
…. and pens and markers – to see what works best with my stamps and what colours I still need to purchase.
It’s been a fun, useful exercise 🙂 Sharing with other deskers over 
We had a wonderful time perusing all their yummy stock and chatting to Alfie 🙂 He told me all about this – which I’d never seen before…
As you may know, before the stroke I used to stamp A LOT – art journalling, making cards, swapping ATCs – then, when I thought I’d never stamp again, I gave away 100s of clear and rubber stamps and dozens of stamping blocks! I kept a handful of wood-mounted stamps, which I sort of manage to use left-handed (the image is invaribly squiffy, though).
It is just SO wonderful to be stamping again! Now, I just wish I had more stamps to play with… And I need more ink pads – over a decade in storage, many are bone dry 😦
At such times, I do what soothes me – scribbling my thoughts, cutting and pasting beautiful images…
On the desk from left to right: 
Notice the ‘new’ desk blotter (a canny ebay purchase 🙂 It’s a vintage one and has suede underneath, so no slippage!). I spent the Summer Solstice doing a Mid-Year Review, which I really enjoyed. I wrote more than I thought possible – this lightweight pen with the pen-grip is really helping!
Also I’m 90 days into my 100-day challenge (not that I officially joined any of the online groups – this was purely a personal thing to keep my hand working despite the tennis elbow). Answering the daily prompts from 
Sharing over at 