We had a busy month completing our guest room and spending time with family; and believe it or not it was my art that kept me sane.

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Guest Room Completed

Completing the guest room was quite a marathon:  it took us from the end of April, laying the foundations, to the 21^st of June when we made the last finishing touches of paint, floors and curtains.  Most of the building was done by Derek on the weekends and in the evenings. I was project manager as I am good at that: ensuring that materials got to the work site on time. I also helped with strapping the joints between the wall boards and plastering over them; and then the first layers of paint. I discovered I was better at plastering than painting so the final coat was done by Derek. Ellie, our daughter helped with cutting in on the edges. In the last few days it felt like a race with time – to get everything done, although it was family and we knew that they could help us too.  Some of you who know me might be wondering about my lungs: I was absolutely fine.

It was a fun project for me as I had the job of interior decorating. The room is built with prefab materials and semi overlooks the garden and blends with the garden so I decided to use different colour greens, navy blue and orchid pink that blended together to mirror the outdoor environment. I also enjoyed using different textures to create interest, such as silk, linen and chenille fabric. Chenille is a textured fabric which is described as having a fuzzy, raised pile like a caterpillar: it gets its name from the French word, chenille, which means caterpillar. It tickled my sense of humor to think that I wanted to bring nature indoors and the curtains were reminiscent of caterpillars. The sheen from then chenille compliments the sheen of the silk.  I bought a cupboard, fold-up single bed, huge mirror and coffee tables from a charity-furniture shop 3 minutes away from us. I am a big fan of reusing, passing on and sharing what one doesn’t need so as to keep reusable items out of the landfill; and I am very happy to buy from second-hand shops as well to support this way of life.   

By the time our family arrived we had done everything that was important on the list. We had to be realistic about not finishing the adjoining area that links the guest room to our house; and some exterior rubble that we just couldn’t take to the dump before they came. Fortunately our family understands that life is a process and it is only portrayed as perfect in magazines and on social media.

We enjoyed our time showing them around locally, walking in our hills and the Dawyck Botanical Gardens; sharing meals, singing family songs, discussing memories and future plans; visiting our daughter; and all of us going to the beer garden in Melrose called Ship Inn. And of course the time we shared together was a time of making new memories too.    

Just after we had taken our family to the train station and said our goodbyes we got an impromptu invite from our other daughter (S) to spend the weekend with them.

Move to the District of Lincolnshire

At the same time as we were rushing on the last weekend to get everything ready for our family, our youngest daughter and her husband (S+B) moved from London to their new house in Lincolnshire. Ellie’s husband went down to help them move while Ellie stayed to help us. So once our family left we were free to drive down to spend time with them and help out. It was the beginning of the heatwave and it was an uncomfortably hot drive down but we enjoyed the weekend immensely.  We helped them take stuff to the dump, bought herbs for the garden and got groceries for the home as they don’t have a car. We also cut bunches of lavender for future projects.  The memory of the smell of freshly cut lavender drying mingled with oranges in the back of our car is a lovely way to remember the drive home afterwards. By the time we left it was cooling down a little and of course when we got to Scotland it was a lot more comfortable.

End of the day drawings

1. You might have heard about ‘End of the day journaling’ where you write about your day: it could be about good or bad things that have happened or it could be about your feelings or things that inspired you. It really doesn’t matter so long as it is helpful to you. One of the ideas is to ‘dump’ the day’s activities or your busy mind onto the page in the hope that you might sleep better.
2. If you are an artist, I am sure you have heard that if you want to become a better artist or at least draw better then you need to do a sketch a day.

In our busy lives it is easy to feel like sketching or journaling doesn’t really matter or count; I know, I have felt like that. ‘I just didn’t have the time.’ Ironically in this very busy month I decided to try doing the ‘End of the day drawings’ inspired by Sandi Hester. She likes to sketch when watching TV or Netflix or just for relaxation at the end of the day.  I put a twist on it for myself: my challenge to myself was to draw something from the day that encapsulated how I felt or a lovely memory I didn’t want to forget. It has become a good way to relax and enjoy a little sketching. It shouldn’t be seen as a perfect image or product. We shouldn’t be thinking we want to share this with social media. And it is not a performance – it is time out for you. It is purely for your Self; or for your Soul. You can play around with colours, textures, doodles or make little sketches of what you see.

I found it to be a nice practice. I even began to look forward to sketching the ideas I had collected over the day. It became a treat for me to do something I enjoyed. I think one of the reasons it worked for me was that there was no pressure to be perfect or successful. And it wasn’t going to take up the whole day as I could decide how long to draw for. So this is how ‘the End of the Day Sketches’ kept me sane through all my activities of the month. Here is a few examples to give you an idea of what I did in my sketch book.

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This next month proves to be a quieter month and I hope to get on with more blogging and my art projects. I know some of you will be interested to know that at the beginning of August I am due to go for hernia keyhole surgery. It will be a relief to get that out of the way at last.   

Sending best wishes to you all,

~Morag Noffke~