WOYWW #633: Junk Journal July Part 3 and Extreme Heat!

So yesterday was my first day back at work since October 2020. I was ordered encouraged to go back to the office so things can go back to "normal" - it's just a shame the day didn't come with normal temperatures. For me going to work means a 6-mile round trip on foot and let me tell you I wasn't having much fun. (I can drive, though I prefer not to but it wasn't even an option as one car is out of action and the other one was in my husband's use who had to drive all the way to Bristol, leaving much earlier.) It was not too bad on the way there, but coming back between 3:30 - 4:30 during the hottest part of the day, carrying shopping and my laptop, I honestly thought I wasn't going to make it. At one point I resorted to pouring a bottle of water over myself - I'm not kidding - it may have saved my life. When I got home, my son thought I got burned in the sun I was so red (not the case as thankfully I had remembered to put sun block on in the morning) but my body was overheated and my head pounding. After standing in a cool shower for 15 minutes, I started feeling normal again. So was it worth it? NO, IT WAS NOT! I could have done the exact same work from home in lot more comfortable conditions - and done a better job too being less exhausted. At the same time, they want to bring down CO2 but still insist on people getting back to the office causing congestion in rush hour traffic. It doesn't make sense! I really think the furture will be home working for office staff, but we just haven't got there yet. Thanks for reading my rant - now onto happier things! I won't have to go back until Friday and by then hopefully the temperatures will have dropped to more humane levels. 

I'm still working on my Junk Journal for the #junkjournaljuly challenge. I didn't realise that there seems to be an ongoing debate about what a junk journal is, and I must say I was a bit confused myself when I first took on this challenge. According to old-school purists, a junk journal is made out of junk and that does not include any shop-bought supplies, even if you were going to throw them away. For me that is way too restrictive which kind of defeats the purpose. On the other side of the spectrum is the new trend of making junk journals with beautiful vintage kits and embellishments. Some people object to this, saying that's not a junk journal. But really, what does it matter? I think, it can be anything you want it to be and it doesn't matter what you call it! And if you look back on my pages, my style has evolved since I started this journal and that wasn't intentional. You can't label or categorise a creative process - just do what comes naturally and use whatever you like. In other words, don't restrict yourself with definitions.

With that out of the way, here's my desk shot for WOYWW #633. As you can see my tidy desk didn't last long - this is my newest spread in my junk journal - I haven't even posted it to Instagram yet, so you get a sneak peek here. I had to start combining the prompts now for some of the spreads as my journal is getting too bulky already and there are still 10 prompts to go. It was too hot to do any more eco-dyeing but I have plenty to keep me going! 

These were the prompts for the past week (#14-21): monochrome, layered/borders, paint/quote, happy mail, collage cluster/relax - some of them are only very loosely connected to the prompts, but then again, it doesn't matter! And yes, I know, there are way too many moths, butterflies and dragonflies - and there will be some more to come - I can't get away from them! 

The garden's looking good - we're watering every day. My husband drafted in our son, who gets paid for doing it - call it a summer job! At least it gets him out of the house and away from his computer games for an hour. My begonias have finally started to flower - I never thought they would! I bought them as tiny "plugs" and most of them died on me but the ones that survived are beautiful.

Oreo's been a bit jaded by the heat as well and doing a lot of this:

...and this (sorry, I had to keep moving the camera to make him open his eyes): 

Hope you're holding up ok in this heat in the UK and you're back to "normal" whatever your normal is. Some people's normal is another person's nightmare LOL - eg nightclubs - even in my 20's I hated them!

Happy #633!