Updated Art Journal

 this is one of a series of books I've made with Khadi paper pulp as the sheets.  (the others are on my etsy shop).  This is what I've done so far....

 that little piece of plastic that the pen is sitting on ...... soap wrapper from a mini soap at the Lille hotel I stayed in last March, bound into the book!!!

The little sheet has Bellagio tissue paper gift wrap from a trip to Las Vegas in 2007

 The other side of the small sheet has rubber stamps....

 You can sew fabric into pulp paper as well, holds up really well.

 Paris playing card and washi tape..... one of my lino prints on green paper and some gold wrapping from a box of patisserie wonders from Meert in Lille, France.
The French "spread"!!

 Then some Klimt-ish gilt work for the Royal Academy ticket pages with a quote in between....

With another little quote and some gold paper from Meert pattiserie in Lille France on the rest of the Royal Academy ticket!!

 The Lowry exhibition ticket from the Tate in London.....

That's the Royal Pavillion, Brighton, ticket.....

Followed by The Royal Announcement!!
(which I did first....!)

 I was sent a decorated tag from Mary G in America.... so this page reflects the design on the tag with blue paint and gold highlights dabbed on with a damp sponge.  Skeleton leaves were added, and also part of a glassine sheet from a box of Laduree patisserie macarons!!

 That's the tag taken out of the glassine "pocket".

 and the next page had the blue/purple paint with gold highlights also plus tissue paper and some quotes.

 I like being weird.  I've been practising for years......

More paint, gold stippling, tissue paper and washi tape...

 Out of focus full blue spread.

The mini green sheet has feather, washi tape, French postage stamp and a Japanese franking machine postmark.  The white page underneath has the sparkly plastic hole punch bits and found buttons.

 A favourite quote

This is the latest page of my sketch book!

Movie Review - Behind the Candelabra

Movie review number 26

PLOT
This is the story of a young kid called Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) who, some time in 1977, goes to Las Vegas with his cowboy mate (Scott Bakula from Quantum Leap) and is taken to a Liberace concert (played VERY well by Michael Douglas).  Liberace is playing his boogie woogie tune on the piano and Scott and the whole audience, as usual, is blown away with the skill and showmanship!  Scott is taken backstage and introduced to Liberace, who takes an immediate liking to the youngster.  Liberace invites both of them to his house the next day, and they go visit.  The house is as sumptuous, if not more so, than Liberace's stage show!!!
Before you know it, Scott has decided to move out of his foster home and dog training job, and move in with Liberace..... not just his house but his bed as well.  (At this time, homosexuality was still not tolerated in show biz and, had it been public knowledge that Liberace was gay, would have meant the end of his career.  Which is amazing now, because of his outrageous camp-ness!)
The story moves on to show Scott and Liberace's relationship develop, involving Scott in Liberace's stage show, Liberace's desire to adopt Scott, and Liberace's suggestion for plastic surgery on Scott so he would look like Liberace.  The plastic surgeon, played hysterically well by Rob Lowe, ultimately starts Scott's addiction to drugs - initially prescription, and then illegal - which then leads (along with Liberace's voracious sexual appetite) to the demise of their relationship in 1981.  The movie includes Scott's infamous and unsuccessful "alimony" lawsuit against Liberace.
The movie ends with Liberace's last meeting with Scott, before ultimately dying from an AIDS related illness.
Oh, and Debbie Reynolds plays Liberace's Mum terrifically well, too!

RECOMMENDED

Oh yes, this is brilliant!!  Although there are two "intimate bedroom" scenes and some rather gory plastic surgery scenes, this is well worth getting the DVD!!

SCORE

10 out of 10

SCOOBY SNACKS

Ben and Jerry's "Everything in it" icecream with as many sprinkles, toppings and additional extras as you can possibly think of!

Foxy Mail!!!

 Today we got a postcard!!!  It was from Little Fox!!

 Oh wow, that's pretty....

I love pretty flowers!!

Beanie and the Matisse Expedition!!

Today we got up really early, and walked up to the bus stop!

Then we got off in town and had a short walk past this grafitti....

and then up this road here.

We found a new man hole cover!!

And another cable box!!!

And ANOTHER man hole cover!!

And here we are at the train station!!!

We got on the ten past nine train to London and got a window seat!  I made sure we tied a weathergram to the seat in front!!!

It was super busy on the train so we didn't take any pictures until we got to the bus stop!

Then we got the 507 buss and tied another weathergram on it!!

Here we are going over the river.

That's the houses of conmen over there, they run the government.

And then we got off at Waterloo Station a few minutes later!!!

We then had a short walk past a yellow cow!

And found some pretty mosaics!!

We had to go this way...

Past Bob's Pub!!

We found some scarey faces too....

And here we are at the Tate Modern!!!

There's St Paul's Cathedral over there!!

Then we went into the Tate Modern to go see this expedition!!!

Andrea needed a pee first so we went to the loo and lost another weathergram!

We had some time to spare before our timed entry at 12 noon so we went and spent some money in the gift shop and then went in here.  It was super mad busy with loads of people in it but we really enjoyed it!!  Matisse even designed a stained glass window in a town in the south of France!!

After that, we were super hungry so we went downstairs to the cafe for lunch.  We had a bottle of Curiosity Cola....

And a Sausage Sandwich with Big Fries!!!  This was YUMTASTIC!!!

After that, we had a little walk along the Thames

There's some weird buildings along there you know.....

There's Blackfriars Bridge....

And Blackfriars Station, and we got a train back to Brighton from here!!!

We got another window seat too, and lost another weathergram!

I like clouds....

We saw a wooden horse on the way back too!!!

And there was a bus waiting for us when we got to Brighton!!!

This is the expedition booklet.....

 That's the pack of postcards we got....

 That's the playing cards....

And there's the super interesting book we got!!