What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 837

Hello Everyone,

Good Afternoon! So late. No excuses beyond the fact that life has been busy and this morning it all seemed to catch up with me. Sometimes, I forget how old I am and do more than is good for me then pay for it and need to rest for a day or two to recover. So what have I been up to that's taken so much out of me, you might ask? Well, gardening yesterday, after days of seemingly endless rain, sorting through and reorganising of my entire wardrobe all Friday and the weekend too. and the all day conference on the Wednesday. 

The conference was held in an interesting venue, the cinema in Saltcoats. I attended as someone who has been one of the many unpaid carers this organisation tries to support and also as someone who is, as a volunteer, about to undergo training as a carer mentor. I found the speakers informative and interesting and I met a lot of lovely people too.

No scrapbooking has been done at all. No time. Instead, my sewing machine is making a rare appearance on my workdesk today. I don't think I've used it for about three years! Not that I'm planning to make anything pretty, like a quilt. No. It's just that, after the wardrobe sort out, I have a little pile of alterations now waiting to be done. Mainly waists to be taken in and trouser legs to be shortened. The instruction book is at the ready just in case I've forgotten how to use the machine, and I've found the box that's full of sewing accessories and the one that has the dressmaking scissors in it. I think it's nothing short of a miracle that I was able to put my hands on everything that will be needed after all this time. 

All this reorganising has meant that I've finally had to decide, what to do with Alan's treasured collection of coats and jackets, some never worn. Soon they will be on their way to a charity shop where I hope they will help raise funds and where they will be bought, used and loved by shoppers there. 

Out in the garden the rain has worked it's magic and the rose bought in memory of my husband, Alan's Rose, is in bloom for the first time. 

Simply beautiful. It's a floribunda rose named by the breeder after his son, Alan. Unfortunately, I've not been able to find out more than that so the breeder remains unknown for now. 

Another rose that has just started to flower is The Douglas Rose, gifted to me by our Jan and Julia in memory of my late brother, Douglas. 

He's blossoming among the ox-eye daisies that have gone a little mad and are looking fantastic. That heatwave earlier in the year followed by all the rainy days we've had has just spurred them on. 

The garden was looking a bit wild and out of control until yesterday when I took advantage of a few hours of sunshine to get out and do some tidying up with the secateurs. 

There's more screaming out to be done but this recent injury is slowing me down. I don't know what I did, but it still hurts! 

Silver is doing her best to console me.

And finally, a couple of funnies I saved thinking you might enjoy them.

This one rings so true! 

To see more creative workdesks pop over to Sarah's blog, Sarah's Craft Shed. If you don't already do so, feel free to join in the fun and show us what's on your workdesk this Wednesday. You'll be made most welcome.

Have a great WOYWW day and a fabulous week everyone,

Take care everyone,

Elizabeth

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 836

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all well and you've had a good week. What's on my workdesk this week is a series of part done project life style pages. Apologies for the glare from the plastic pockets. They are for a very special project I've been working on for fifteen or so months now. It's an album in memory of Alan for his eldest nephew who also appears in a few of these photos. They are all original - I've kept copies of course - that I think should be kept in his family. 

12/2025 - The Oban Games

This is the last of the scrap pages completed recently. The photo is another taken on our holiday in Scotland in 1995. We stopped off in Oban for an overnight stay on our way north and just happened to arrive in time to attend the town's Highland Games. Alan was really impressed with the pipe band, particularly the outfit the drum major was wearing so insisted we pose together for this photo. The rowan sapling I'm clutching was free from the Scottish Woodland Trust, distributed as part of a drive to encourage the planting of more trees. 

Once again I've matted the photo onto a bunch of leftover scraps before adhering it all on to a tartan patterned paper, 'Nantucket', from a Carta Bella collection from 2018. The base of the clusters are made up of punched circles, again from scraps. Alphas, stickers, fussy-cut flowers and enamel dots from stash. 

Seen on my walk to the shops yesterday was this demolition in progress. Bear with me, I have good reason to show you this. 

It's a 1970s block of flats/apartments that I'm told were in a bad state and no longer fit for habitation. 

This is the far end of the block. I looked up and had to laugh at what I spotted in the second window on the right.

Someone has a sense of humour. That dummy head must have had more than a few passers-by giving it a second look!

And almost finally here's a couple of snaps of a sleeping Silver.

Love that smile!

And she has the cutest paws. 

Finally, that's all from me this week. I will be late commenting today. It might even be tomorrow before I'm able to because I'm off to an all-day conference that is being held by the Carers Gateway here in North Ayrshire  It's a service that provides support and resources for unpaid carers in Ayrshire. When Alan was ill, the Gateway very kindly provided me with advice and support when I most needed it. 

To see more creative workdesks pop over to Sarah's blog, Sarah's Craft Shed. If you don't already do so, feel free to join in the fun and show us what's on your workdesk this Wednesday. You'll be made most welcome.

Have a great WOYWW day and a fabulous week everyone,

Take care everyone,

Elizabeth

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 835

Hello Everyone,

I hope you have all had a good week finding lots of time for crafting. There's not been a lot of crafting going on here. Too busy elsewhere, unfortunately. Because of that, all that's different about my desk from last week is a pile of pages waiting to be filed. They are waiting because I can't decide which album to put them in. The photos on the right are old ones found when I was sorting out a box of framed photos brought from the old house. We had a lot more wall space there but it's much more limited here so I've had to decide which to keep and which to sacrifice. Not that I plan to bin the photos, just the frames. I hope to scrap the photos eventually. 

11/2025 - Misty Loch

The two photos of Loch Linnhe were taken on the first morning of the holiday we had in the Scottish Highlands in 1995. The B&B we stayed in was almost on the shore of the loch. Only a road separated the house from the loch shore. That morning we were both enchanted by the sight of the loch partly shrouded in mist. Magical!

The inspiration for the layout was simply the leftovers that had accumulated after making a few earlier pages. After choosing the base sheet, from Jen Hadfield's Peaceful Heart collection, 'New Day' 2021, I juggled the scraps until I was happy with the way they looked. Once I had the photos in place all I had to do was build the embellishment clusters from bits and pieces found in my stash.

Materials - printouts from Scrap-A-Sketch, 49 and Market's Vintage Artistry Mango Ephemera Stack, flowers fussy-cut from various patterned sheets and wooden buttons from Cocoa Vanilla's Storyteller collection. Title made up from Simple Stories Snap Studio's alphas. 

Due to the change in the weather, from heatwave to deluge, not a lot of real gardening has been done. However, I'm pleased to show you the work my daughter and SIL did, while the weather was good, to the patch of garden to the front of the flat. Above is the before shot. That grass was hiding a very uneven base. It was difficult to maintain and equally difficult to walk on for someone like me with dickie hips. 

And here's what they have accomplished so far. They've removed the grass, levelled the ground, cut the hedge, removed the dead ivy that was adhered up the wall, and laid the weed suppressing material. They have done a brilliant job, don't you think? The only thing I've had to do was weed and tidy up the plant pots. The next phase is to choose and order the gravel which will cover the entire garden. The idea being to make it as low maintenance as possible with only the pots to take care of, leaving most of my time for the new back garden. 

Speaking of which I have been enjoying watching and photographing the antics of the starlings that visit the birdfeeder there. Alan bought it when we moved in here but, sadly, never got the chance to see it erected and enjoy his birdwatching. 

And finally, no funnies this week but a photo of Silver out in the garden with me.

She's my constant companion whether inside the house or out in the garden. In fact, she would be happy if I spent much of the day out there with her. 

That's all from me for this week. Apologies yet again to those of your posts that I didn't manage to leave comments on. Life just got in the way. There's a story there but I'm not ready to tell it just yet.

To see more creative workdesks pop over to Sarah's blog, Sarah's Craft Shed. If you don't already do so, feel free to join in the fun and show us what's on your workdesk this Wednesday. You'll be made most welcome.

Have a great WOYWW day and a fabulous week everyone,

Take care everyone,

Elizabeth  

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 834

Hello Everyone,

Happy WOYWW to you all.

There's nothing on my desk right now. Instead, this is what was on my desk yesterday afternoon. The latest page in progress using an Ella Bonella kit. There's also, under the pencil, a checklist which I created using MS Word. If I didn't keep that list, I'd forget the details I do know, never mind those I don't! At the back on the left is a box containing packs of embellishments. They are there to remind me to use them. They are all lovely so the deserve to be used, not forgotten. There's also the obligatory cuppa. 

This is the sticker sheet used with the letters for the title and the stickers that formed the base of the embellishment clusters on the page. It's and oldie but a goodie from Crate Paper's Farmhouse collection. Here's the finished page.

13/2025 - We Made a Garden

I think it's very timely that I'm scrapping photos of the garden we made together, given that I'm now making another garden. The photo on the left was taken in November 2013, just after we moved in. It's a bit crumpled and creased because Alan kept it in his pocket to remind him of the 'before' while he admired the 'after', something he did often! The one on the right, the 'after, was taken about seven years later. 

 

Details of items used:

The layout was inspired by the Premium sketch #98 from Scrap-a-Sketch. Materials used are as follows: the background is made up from a Cosmo Cricket paper from the Hansel & Gretel collection dated 2007 and Circa 1934 'Chaplin' paper dated 2010. The photos are mounted on Bazzil Cardstock with the delightful title, 'Granny Smith' and then backed with 'Victorian Rose' from the Kaiser Kraft Devonshire collection, an unknown green paper, and 'Cross Stitch' from Crate Paper Farmhouse collection.  The clusters were constructed using stickers, wooden buttons, and fussy-cut flowers from a variety of sources, e.g. the sticker sheet photographed, Maggie Holmes 'Market Square', and Simple Stories 'Garden Party' from the Bunnies & Blooms collection.

I think I may have mentioned in my post from Monday that we've been enjoying rainy weather. Torrential rain, in fact. It started on Friday afternoon and just kept coming steadily until Monday, since when we have had a few dry and sunny spells, interspersed with yet more rain. Nice!

It forced me to get myself some wellies. The cross-stitch was a gift from a friend who is sadly no longer with us. It's waiting to be hung up but that's easier said than done. The walls here are solid so it's not simply a case of knocking in a nail. It requires an electric power tool. A piece of equipment I'm less than confident, or competent even, using, In the meantime, Mary's gift will continue to grace the porch at floor level. 
  

You may have noticed that my in-house quality controller, Silver, is missing from the desk photo. I took advantage of one of her frequent snooze periods to get it done. 

Here she is in deep sleep mode! 

And finally, the funnies for this week.

That's it from me for this week. I hope you had a great Spring Bank Holiday despite the change in the weather.  To see more creative workdesks pop over to Sarah's blog, Sarah's Craft Shed. If you don't already do so, feel free to join in the fun and show us what's on your workdesk this Wednesday. You'll be made most welcome.

Have a great WOYWW day and a fabulous week everyone,

Take care everyone,

Elizabeth  

Scrapbook Page - Recording Memories of the Scottish Highlands

Hello Everyone, 

10/2025 - On Honeymoon

Now that the heatwave has ended and my garden is soaking up the much needed rain, I suddenly have more time on my hand to do some scrapping and I'm using it to catch-up with recording all the lovely memories I have stored away in my photo collection. It's an extensive collection and the chances are I will never really catch-up. Just as I am unlikely to use up all my old stash. Especially when I'm so sorely tempted to buy some of the new collections released each year. 

However, that's the two main aims for this year and this page is one that combines both a happy memory and old stash. Tick! 

The photo is of my beloved Alan taken when we were up in the Scottish Highlands on honeymoon in August 1996. We got married in July but had to delay the honeymoon until we could both have time off work. I'd just returned in June from a year of study in America - a great experience but an expensive one. To recoup some of what I had to spend, I did some temping in a GP's surgery for a few weeks before the trip. It wasn't the first time we had been to Scotland together, We'd gone up the summer before stopping to introduce him to family in Ayrshire on the way. Alan had completely fallen for both my family and Scotland and couldn't wait to return.  I think you can tell from that lovely smile that he was delighted to be back in the Highlands. 

The layout was inspired by not much more than the materials that I had available in a kit I had put together prior to packing up and moving house in 2022. Though I should mention that Shimelle's classes, Half and Half and New Pages from Old Stash, have clearly influenced the outcome. I just built up layers of scraps to mat the photo and then created a half and half page for the background. It's a tried and tested formula that works well when using up scraps. 

I wish I could give more precise information on what's been used but I all I remember is that most of the papers are from an old Project Life collection. The light green scrap is from 49 and Market's Kaleidoscope Solids Pack 3 from 2014 - that is old. The alphas are from Elle's Studio Jane collection of 2021 - not so old. A few of the stickers are from Dear Lizzy and the wooden button is from Cocoa Vanilla Studio's Storyteller - one of my all-time favourite collections. 

I thinks that's enough from me now. There's so much more scrapping waiting to be done.

Hope those of you in the UK are enjoying the Spring Bank Holiday despite the inclement weather! And those not in the rainy UK, have a happy Monday no matter where you are. 

Take care

Elizabeth 

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 833

Hello Everyone,

Happy WOYWW to you all.

After having missed last week's celebrations, I almost decided not to post today but here I am hoping to write the fasted WOYWW post ever, We've had the most heatwave of heatwaves up here in Scotland. Totally unexpected and I, for one, am not acclimatised to anything like it. So much so, I've been suffering from heat exhaustion. My own fault! I went out in the midday sun and only fools do that. You'd think someone in their late seventies would know better!! I've recovered but. as you can imagine, very little has been accomplished in the meantime. The photo above was actually planned for last week's post. I hope you all enjoyed WOYWW's 16th Anniversary celebrations. I was so sad to have to miss it. 

This is the desk this morning. I have to admit that there's not been a lot going on, Not here in the craftroom and not out in the garden either. It was all going so well too! Anyway, yesterday was my kid brother's birthday. Looking for pics of him had me dashing down the proverbial rabbit hole. There's nothing quite like a sibling's birthday to make me nostalgic for the 'good old days' when we were young and the world was, well, different!

While I'm showing what's actually on my desk, I think I should reveal what there is to the right of it. Stuff, of course. Paper kits, stencils, Nuvo drops, a basket of small paper punches, the guillotine, more scrappy stash, sketches, rulers and an essential, the TV remote control. There's more underneath. Carefully horded embellishments and the basket of punches is perched on top of a box of old photographs. Family history that I'm trying to record for posterity or, if not that, for my very interested granddaughter, 

09/2025 - Movie News

This is the page that was in progress last week. The photos are from the news photos that appeared when Hollywood came to Glasgow to make the movie Batgirl in January 2022. It's the second of it's sort filmed in the city. The Victorian architecture makes the perfect backdrop to these movies. To quote my granddaughter, 'Glasgow is the new Gotham City'. 

Still aiming to use as much of my old stash as possible, most of the materials here are pre 2022 with the exception of the die-cuts in the embellishment clusters. They are from a more recent collection - Shimelle's 'Reasons to Smile'. An impulse buy last year. What can I say? It's so difficult to resist all the lovely new collections. I try. I try.

As Silver has aready had a starring role in this week's post, here's just one of the photos I unearthed from the box of memories yesterday to mark my brother Colin's 73rd birthday. 

Here he is with my middle sister, Margaret, It's lovely. They were lovely. They still are lovely. They are both wearing sweaters our mother made on her knitting machine. I remember them well. 

And finally, 

As if there is any doubt!

That's it for this week from me. Once again, I'm sorry I missed last week so belated congratulations to Julia, who dreamed up WOYWW for us all to enjoy for so many years, and to Sarah for taking up the baton and keeping the weekly desk fest going. Long may it continue. 

Have a great WOYWW day and a fabulous week everyone, 

Take care, 

Elizabeth 

What's On your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 831

Morning Everyone,

And it is a lovely morning here in North Ayrshire.

On my desk this morning Silver. She's thinking about going out by that open window but first a few quiet moments watching a magpie perched on the neighbours fence. To the left of her is my next project. 

I've put together photos and materials for a page I hope to make later today. Homework for Shimelle's class. It's all from old stash, of course. Even the photos are dated 2022! I have unfinished albums from the year of Covid, 2020, up to 2023 so I hope to remedy that this year. 

January 2025 - Side 1

At the same time I'm working on this year's album and this is the introductory page. I'm not a great fan of pocket pages but they are the best way of beginning each month. 

January 2025 - Side 2

The photos used capture some of what's happened during the month. There will be a few 12"x12" pages following this introduction. I spent a few hours over the weekend sorting through photos taken so far this year trying to decide which to scrap. Decisions! Decisions!

Most of yesterday was spent in the garden. My daughter and SIL were round so we stopped to sit and soak up the sun. It wasn't all play though. I did check on my seedlings in the mini greenhouse, which turned out not to be as mini as I hoped. Sorry, I forgot to take a pic to show just how big it is. I also planted out a climber, Clematis Grandiflora Alba. 

We had this fabulous one in our last garden. I'm hoping for a similarly stunning display with the one planted yesterday. Perhaps not this year, but in years to come. 

I did think to grab this shot of Silver squeezing into an empty basket during a latte break in the summerhouse. She never fails to amaze me!

 

And finally, a few funnies for this week.

That's me for this week. I hope you all had a lovely Bank Holiday weekend. Just in case you missed it, there's another one in a few weeks time. To see more creative workdesks pop over to Sarah's blog, Sarah's Craft Shed. If you don't already do so, feel free to join in the fun and show us what's on your workdesk this Wednesday. You'll be made most welcome.

Have a fabulous week.

Take care everyone,

Elizabeth