What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 829

Hello Everyone

I hope this finds you all well and recovering from eating too many chocolate eggs! Unfortunately, due to a problem with technology I had to miss last week. It's all fixed now so this week normal service is resumed. 

That's not to say, I haven't been busy. The weather has been dire giving me the perfect excuse to stay cosy and dry indoors in the craft room. I've made a couple of layouts and there's a work in progress currently on the desk. The basket to the left is filled with small metal dies, The plan is to use some leftover card to make an embellishment or two for that layout. Just in front of the desk is a very old sketch - saved from the Scrap 365 magazine from Aug/Sep 2013. Sadly, in July 2014, the magazine ceased publication. 

Here's a layout I made earlier.

05/2025 - Out to Sea

The fabulous shots were taken by my Grandson's Mother-in-Law, Kathy. We are very lucky to have quite a lot of swans living in various locations along the estuary coast. Happily ignoring the danger warnings too! 

The materials used are the leftovers from the Ella Bonella kit mentioned in my WOYWW Week 827 post together with embellishments from the Set Sail collection from Heidi Swapp and stickers from Simple Stories Vintage Seas sticker sheet. 

This mixing of kits and collections is great fun. Because I've not been scrapping regularly for such a long time I have a lot of quite old stash. So to make it a more interesting I'm concentrating on using it all up. It's a challenge but I'm determined to make a really big dent in it all.

As mentioned above, the weather has been appalling here and there's not been a lot of gardening done. So nothing to show there this week. Instead, I thought I'd post this aerial view, found on the Saltcoats Photohub on Facebook, showing the area where I live in Ardrossan. 

(c) Graeme Smets

I think you can see from this shot why I love living in Ardrossan. If I turn one way when I go for a walk, there's a nature reserve - bottom left of photo - and turn the other way and I can visit either of two parks or carry on down to that beautiful sandy beach - a quick ten-minute walk away. 

On a very short walk today I spotted several of these beautiful butterflies. 

The Orange-tip butterfly. According to the Scottish Wildlife Trust it is more common in southern and central Scotland, particularly in areas like Dumfries & Galloway, Lanarkshire and the county I live in,  Ayrshire.

And finally, it wouldn't be a post from me without a photo of my furry friend.

Silver wishing the rain would stop!

That's me for this week. 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.

Take care everyone,

Elizabeth

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 827

Hello Everyone,

Happy Wednesday! Happy WOYWW too.

What's on my desk is a page in the planning stage but just look at the sunlight gleaming through the window blinds. A very welcome sight any day of the week! 

It's sad but sometimes I have to close the blinds and shut out the sunshine to work on a scrap layout. Here the last two I put together.

The photo is of my youngest great-grandchild, Freddie, taken just after he was born. He's now a loveable three-year old whirlwind! 

Materials from Echo Park's Welcome Baby Boy collection from 2021. If I remember correctly the collection was purchased from The Mad Scrapper, based here in Scotland.

In complete contrast, this is one for the Family History album. The photo is of my mother and stepfather visiting my great-grandmother, Nana, in hospital on their wedding day in 1969. Nana had fallen, breaking a hip, while running to catch a bus. She was in her early nineties at the time! It's not the best of photos but the only one I've got. So few photos have survived from those years.

Materials from Ella Bonella's Family Blues Kit. Ella Bonella can be found on Facebook. 

Most mornings I note what the temperature is for the day in my journal. Recently, it's been in the low teens - typically 11-15 degrees Celsius . This morning it's only 8 degrees, despite the sun shining. Not only that, but the reports says it feels like 6 degrees. That's cold! 

Fortunately, it usually warms up enough for me to spend a wee bit of time pottering in the garden. I'm still having to take it easy but have managed to cut back the brambles up at the back of the garden. They were on a mission to take over completely but I believe I have tamed the beast! 

As well as that, I've been rescuing the many pots of plants scattered front and back. All brought from the last garden but completely neglected. They don't just have plants in them, they have weeds. Lots of weeds. 

My plan for the coming week is to clean them up, split plants where needed and repot and, hopefully, give them new life. 

It wouldn't be a garden report without a shot of the undergardener!

And finally, 

T

This is so true!

That's it for this week. Apologies once again if I didn't leave a comment on your post. I'm still not a hundred percent fit so having to rest often. It's a pain but it's life. 

To see many more WOYWWer's desks, and admire their work, pop over to Sarah's Craft Shed. Indeed, why not join in the fun and let us see what's on your desk this Wednesday. They are a very welcoming bunch of crafters.  

Take care everyone.

Elizabeth

Friday Smiles

Hello Everyone,

I haven't joined in with Annie's Friday Smiles in forever! It's been a hard six months with not a lot to smile about since the last time, but finally things are looking better, and once again I can see I have much to be grateful for and plenty to make me smile. 

For example:

I think there is nothing better than being able to line dry the washing. I just love that fresh air scent on my bedding. It dried in no time at all today, which is just as well because it was so gusty I had to rush out and bring it in before it took off and ended up in the Clyde Estuary! 

If you have seen my last post, that's this week's WOYWW post, you will know that I am in the process of making over my very neglected back garden. It's too windy to work in the garden today but I did nip out to check all is well and was delighted to see the pansies are blooming beautifully.

 

Also the auricula, brought here from our previous garden when we moved in 2022, have not only survived but are beginning to flower again.

Admittedly, they do need to be split and re-potted, but that hasn't stopped them looking just lovely.

What else has made me smile? Oh, yes, this little visitor to the summerhouse.

Silver is fascinated by bees and had to be shooed away from this one that had got itself a bit confused. I was able to waft it back out to continue it's pollen gathering mission. 

Talking of Silver:

She's absolutely loving spending time outside with me. As long as I'm pottering around, she's there. It's her self-imposed task to guard against intruders, i.e. other cats! She's very territorial.

And finally, a few images that made me smile.

Substitute comments on blogs for texts and that's my problem in a nutshell!

 

I'll leave you with this last one. I hope it makes you laugh, like it did me. 

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

Take care, 

Elizabeth