I'm taking a break now...

I might have mentioned this elsewhere in the blog somewhere but I'm suffering from a chronic disease called ME/CFS. In my case I'm getting a lot worse at this time of the year (I guess the extreme lack of sunshine and daylight we get in Sweden at this time of the year has something to do with it) and I have A LOT less energy than I have in spring and summer. Because of this I feel that it's time to take a blog break for medical reasons until I'm feeling better again. At the moment the blog and the journal just feel like a stressful chore and not at all the creative and therapeutic experience it was when I begun and well, both I and the journal deserve better than this so I'm postponing the wrecking until I feel better again.

My other blogs will still remain active though (well, as active as a balcony blog will be in winter LOL), in case you miss me too much. LOL

Weekly Update 28-31

Maybe I should call this a Monthly Update instead? Last month's been one of those months that's just been running away from me. I haven't had much time or inspiration for neither wrecking nor blogging but I'm slowly getting back in to my regular routines again (I hope/think) so I will hopefully do better than "Monthly updates" at least. (I said HOPEFULLY!)



The cover week 28



I had to use tape to get the sticker to stick



The cover today (week 31)

Weekly Update: 26+27 weeks

This has been some crazy weeks!!! Last week I'd actually both taken the photos for the weekly update in time as well as prepare for a wrecking post that WASN'T part of a weekly update. But that week I ran in to a bunch of computer problems that postponed everything. And on the Sunday I all of a sudden got a new kitten! (Yes, pretty much that surprising) After that she's taken most of my time since (especially in the beginning since I had to introduce her to my older cats.)

So before we move on the wrecking, here is my little sweetie Smulan. As all kittens she's a fellow wrecker. LOL



Smulan! (14 weeks)


The onwards to the wrecking. The front cover is getting a bit full of fruit stickers now (there's a text sticker in the bottom left corner that you can hardly see) so I've started gluing them to the back now. And it's still just bananas that come with stickers right now. *sigh*



Week 26




The wrecking I did last week was actually a hard one. I can't do easy ones all the time can I? LOL It wasn't hard as in a lot of work but it was one of the challenges where I've had to force through once of my barriers. You just don't play with food or waste food!!! That's for spoiled and rich people. And it also felt REALLY yucky to smear food in the journal.





I've been given this one a lot of thoughts since I got the journal because i couldn't come up with a way to interpret it that felt okay to me but still was true to the challenge. Documenting the dinner with a photo felt like cheating and using something like fruit juice or jam (that felt like less yucky to stain the blog with) wasn't actually dinner. So what to do????

Then I boiled some of my home grown runner beans (that you're probably very familiar with if you follow my balcony blog) and saw that the water turned green and came up with a solution that felt both comfortable enough but also didn't feel like cheating. The beans WERE a major part of my dinner, but nothing got wasted, the journal didn't become yucky and it still made and interesting change to the paper. Yay!



Staining in hot water


Dinner


The result!


This week I haven't done any wrecking though, I've left that part to Smulan (so far she's only wrecked candle and one of her toys. LOL)



Week 27

Weekly Updates: 24 + 25 weeks

Guess what? I've done some wrecking again!!! Not much but STILL!



Writing backwards (and mirrored)


Mirrored image to make it easier to read,
but still a bit weird. LOL


I'm NOT doing the translation backwards! LOL


Time to get some wrecking done again

Ooops i was only going to write backwards, this probably turned out mirrored as well



24 weeks


25 weeks


At the moment I'm adding a banana sticker/week to the cover. LOL Bananas are the only fruit that comes with stickers at the moment. And none of the fresh berries my mom has picked have any stickers either. LOL

The front cover is getting a bit full now (there's a sticker with text below the cat that doesn't show up very well on photos)

Weekly Updates: 22 + 23 weeks

I guess I've gotten in to the habit of updating every other week right now. There's a lot of things going on IRL that eats away on my time and energy.



22 weeks


23 weeks


The really great news is that I've actually done some wrecking today! Yay! I felt that I need to get back to wrecking again so I decide to do a simple exercise.





First I picked up the journal with my arms from the table and then I picked it up from the floor with my feet and flung it on the couch next to me. (The little drawings are mine)



Pale, swollen feet. Yuck! But they're clean and odor free at least. LOL


A little hint to other wreckers that also suffers from pain and aches in feet and legs due to medical problems. Don't do this! It's really painful!

I'm still proud of myself for succeeding but the clever solution to this exercise would of course be to ask someone to pick it up with THEIR hands. That wouldn't have involved MY hands at all but it would have been less painful. (It would also have saved me from showing this embarrassing photo of my pale and swollen feet. LOL)

Yay! A fellow wrecker!

I've really missed having a fellow wrecker to share this experience with, it's much more fun that way. But my old fellow wreckers have taken a lot longer breaks than I have (so I really SHOULDN'T feel guilty for only updating once a week, I AM still updating after all) so I've been a lone for a while now.

But recently a friend of mine has gotten brainwashed and she's both ordered a journal of her own and started a new blogg for it.


Felicity's Wreck This Journal

Weekly Updates: 20 + 21 weeks

This time I'll have to do a combined update because I'm WAAAAYYYY behind as always. *blush* The balcony blog is taking up most of my blogging time at the moment (and I have less blogging time as it is during the summer)



20 weeks



21 weeks



This is what I do instead of journal wrecking these days!
(at least ONE of the things I do)


Crossword puzzles is a summer thing for me, just like jigsaw puzzles belong between Christmas and New Years. I guess the difference is that it's a lot easier to carry around the crossword puzzle and solve it outdoors as well. That's just a liiiitle bit tricky with jigsaw puzzles. LOL

Weekly Update - 19 weeks +

*tiptoes in* *hopes no one notices that this weeks update is late*

Oh, are you here already? Late??? How? Me??? No! Never!!! Okay, maybe a little bit then... but it's not my fault it's the... eh... internet connect... eh maybe not... the weather... eh... well... someone else's... okay... maybe it IS my fault... SORRY!!!

Anyway, I have some sad news for you! It's the end of an era!!! The fruit sticker page is full! :o( I know you will all miss it badly!



Look! All full!


But the things is that I can't just stop collecting fruit stickers now so I decidde to use the idea I came up with last week; from now on the fruit stickers will be glued on the cover instead.



Look! Not full yet!


Plenty of space left and now the cover will actually change every week as well. Yay! This blog will all of a sudden be sooooo much more interesting. LOL

Time for some old stuff!

Phew! It's a good thing that I have some "Old Stuff" to show you when I'm too lazy to take photos of the weekly update (I photographed all the olds stuff a log time ago). It's also good to use it as a "filler" when I'm to lazy (or busy) to do actual wrecking to show you. The summer just isn't the best wrecking time for me. I'm too busy at the moment. But don't worry, I haven't given up on the journal yet, you can just se it as a bit of vacation.

Anyway, this is the last old stuff I have to show you so I'd better get my act together later. LOL

These are some cats I panted with oil pastel crayons back in -93. Oil pastels aren't my kind of medium. I like things that are more precise like watercolor or pencils.

Weekly Update - 18 weeks

Time for another ones of these. And yes, now my internet connection SHOULD be properly fixed!





As you can see the internet connection isn't the only thing that's been fixed, I've also fixed up the poor turquoise flower a bit.





LOTS of new green apple stickers! This page is soon full, I wonder what I will do then? I don't want to stop collecting fruit stickers until I've finished the journal (and at the speed I'm wrecking at the moment this will take quite some time). Maybe I should glue them to the cover instead? That should save up on photos I have to show in my weekly update. LOL





The stamp page is far from full though. I'm eating loads of fruits but I don't get as many mails with stamps (not even if I include the ugly not-really-stamp-looking ones)

BTW,I'm saving the post cards in the journal as well. They're a part of the history.

No English stamp!

Nooooo! Look what the evil British post office has done! This isn't a stamp! Stamps are not supposed to look like THIS! *sob* LOL Of course I will still put it in the journal though. It might not LOOK like a stamp but it sure worked like one. And it will also fill up a lot of space. LOL

I'm as thrilled about the content as I was with the Danish stamps but it's way too off topic this time too.and this time you can't even take comfort in looking at pretty stamps. You poor things! I wonder if I will lose and readers because if this ugly non-stamp? *worried* LOL

Weekly Update - 17 weeks +

At least it isn't MY fault this time that the weekly update is late, VERY late. In fact it's time for a new one again tomorrow. Ooops! LOL But since my camera and my internet connection are in no way related the photos were actually taken in time (besides the Danish stamp one that was taken this Monday but I'm sneaking it in here anyway LOL).





The poor turquoise flower is getting more and more messed up for every week now. Poor, poor flower! And even the ugly pink flower in the corner has gotten a touch of something since it's started to look a bit loop sided.





The beloved fruit sticker page has been updated with some new apple stickers (and maybe a banana sticker as well, I don't remember any more) And I've got some new stickers that I need to put in before the week 18 update as well.







Last week I got a post card from my mom with a new stamp. Isn't Sweden a beautiful country? I like that the stamp page is inspiring people to actually send post cards again. People (including myself) never do that anymore (at least not as long as you don't go abroad on vacation) Post cards and real snail mail letters are a dying form of communication, stamps are really expensive and e-mails are a lot faster. I used to send loads of post cars and looong letters before, but instead I send loadse-mails these days. In many ways a prefer e-mails, faster and cheaper is really good in this case, but real post cards are a lot prettier.






An talking about stamps, I've gotten my Danish stamps!!! I've gotten my Danish stamps!!! *dances around* Not I'm not completely crazy (only about 50%) I'm not THAT ecstatic over the stamps, I'm that ecstatic over the content they brought to me. Unfortunately for you that content is too off topic to belong in this blog, but at least you get to see the stamps LOL



BTW, my internet connection is far from fixed so I might disappear again because of it.

Internet problems and a new wrecker

I've had problems with my internet for quite some time now. But of course it's just started to work in time BEFORE the technician will arrive.

I'm WAY behind with my weekly update because of this (as in almost a week late) but I'll try to post it today (as long as my internet connection will last)

I DO have SOME news though, my sister-in-law has started to wreck her own journal and has just opened a blog of her own Fay's Wreck Journal (in Swedish though so some of you might feel left out, but I promise to compensate you with fruit stickers and stamps LOL)

Sweet smelling flowers!

Doesn't this page look pretty? It smells just as wonderful as well!

My original idea for this page (one of the first I planned when I got the journal in March) was to cover it with rose petals since I LOVE the smell of roses. But I changed my mind and used dried Mock-Oranges instead (Schersmin for Swedish readers).

These flowers are picked on a very wonderful family picnic last week and I wanted to keep them as a memory. My apartment have smelled absolutely wonderful for several days and even as dried they still smell lovely, just weaker.

The background is a lovely addition caused buy this page.

Weekly Update - 16 weeks +

I'm a little bit late with the weekly update this time. It's summer! I've been busy doing summery things! You just have to live with it! LOL (As I'm sure you all though very well. I doubt many people's existences will be shaken to the core if this measly blog updates a bit late. LOL)







The poor turquoise flower is looking more and more mangled but I felt that we all needed a happy change to the cover as well so I've added a new fresh ant. After the other ants are a lot more mangled than the turquoise flower. Poor ants! LOL





And loooooook! More fruitstickers! Yay!!!!

Nothing new on the stamp page though. I'm still waiting for my Danish and English stamps.

Some quick cat sketches

Time for some "Old Stuff" again. I did these quick ink sketches of my darling Ragdoll Elvira back in -96. She's the mother of my crazy bunch and I still miss her a lot (I lost her in 2006)

Stamps and stickers!

I've started to feel sorry for you. It was a loooooong time since I showed you the fruit sticker page now, wasn't it? I'm sure you all miss it badly so here it is! LOL




One new banana sticker and a whole bunch of apple stickers!





This Monday I got a post card from Rome (It's Fontana di Trevi and a kittycat) and a new post card of course means a nice new ITALIAN stamp for my stamp page. *jumpsofjoy* LOL





Look! Now I've got TWO!!!

And I'm also expecting stamps from both Denmark and England that I'm looking VERY much forward too. Eh well, maybe it's not so much the actual stamps that I'm looking so much forward to but the contents of the packages the stamps in question will bring to me. LOL

A pile of leaves - part 2

Now I'm finally done with the leaf gluing that I talked about earlier. I just had to wait for the yellow and maroon speckled flower to dry first. I really wanted to add that one to in to the mix since one of the speckles looks like cute little heart.






See the heart?


Those of you that read my Balcony Blog
might recognize the freckled violet.


I also did this page today and no, it's not a happy page. I almost scribbled through the paper even. Moodwise I could have continued for quite a while but I didn't want to ruin the colored stripes on the next page.