Scrapchat 2011 CJ

This year thanks to the urging of the wonderful Alison Callcott, we girls at Scrapchat are taking part in a CJ (circle journal) swap.
I think we have developed the perfect formula for a CJ by just sending on our entries to our fellow participants to put in their own album instead of sending the whole album from person to person.
History has seen way too many friendships lost along with CJ's that never make it back to their original owner. This way, if there is someone who doesn't complete their allotted and required entry, at least the owner of the CJ still has their album in their hands.
I know it's a negative (but realistic) way to think about it, but sh*t happens, and this way pages (and whole albums) lost in the system have much less of an impact on the original owner.

Here are my first 2 entries for this swap so far....

First off the rank is an entry for Sarah whose CJ subject was "A Day In The Life Of....". This was lots of fun to do, and I chose a typical Wednesday for my subject...



Here is a close-up of the first page...



...and the second page...



The theme for the second entry for Brooke was "Favourite Nursery Rhyme, Poem or Story" and I chose "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" for the main reason that my Mum was a wonderful storyteller, and an even more amazing poem reciter, and I hear her lilting voice as she recites this lovely poem by Edward Lear.....such a precious childhood memory.

Here is a picture of both pages I created plus the sign-in tag....



The first page which I created with lots of little bits of paper and I couldn't resist using an image of Moon from The Mighty Boosh....



...and the second page...



I'm really enjoying the challenges of these CJ entries which are taking me out of my comfort zone, because I know that that is where some amazing creativity can happen when you least expect it to. Stay tuned for more of my entries as I walk this journey. TFL xxx

I have finally found the culprit.....

....who has been making a bigger mess of my outdoor undercover area than I do!! So many spider webs, that just keep coming back no matter how often I remove them. But after seeing this magnificent creature up close, I couldn't bear to destroy this industrious spider....



After some research on the internet, I found that he is a Net-casting Spider or Deinopis subrufa.



This intriguing spider sets its trap at night. The rectangular white net is spread between first two pairs of legs....



The third pair of legs has threads to stabilise the "net".



The fourth pair of legs are used to hang onto its support. When a passing insect comes near the net it splats it over the victim, and tangles it in the trap.



These photos were taken in the morning and I think the spider may have been asleep, so the net in these photos isn't as taut as when it is actually hunting.
Pretty awesome though, none-the-less!