WOYWW 165 - messing with watercolours and crochet update

Morning WOYWWers, Followers, and all,

Reasons to celebrate - it's the first of August, it's Lunch Lady Jan's birthday ... Happy Birthday to you, Jan :) ... and it's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday! Want to celebrate along - pop over to our Head Keeper of the Linky, Mrs D's at the Stamping Ground and join in the weekly massive bloghop around the workdesks of some of the most interesting, funny, creative, sometimes messy, and always talented, peeps in blogland!

Here's my desk as it was all day yesterday, Monday and much of Sunday. Yes, I've been MIA, but with good reason - more of later. First let's go through what I had on my desk before it was abandoned.

Most noticeably, there's this month's Craft Stamper - I've had a quick flick through and, before I go any further, I have just got to congratulate our Asia King, aka Joanna, Under A Creative Spell for doing so well in the Stamper of the Year competition - her fabulous creation got her short-listed in the first round  ... well done Joanna :)  Also Sarah of La-De-Dah is in the mag with her beautiful creations, and the free stamp is extra special because it was designed by Chrissie Stokes of Simply One of Kind ... I did say that WOYWWers are a talented bunch, did I not :)

But I digress, back to the desk ... Aquamarkers, paints, some new Sheena stamps, and  leaning nonchalantly on a box of pens, Bogdan, the schoolboy meerkat, my new crafting companion, sporting my treasured WOYWW badge, and generally, the usual detritus of my crafting life - water, mica powder embossing powder, a bingo pen - don't ask, I have no idea!

The last item is a pile of water-colour backgrounds ... I've been experimenting again :)

For this technique I scribbled with the Aquamarkers on to a stamping block, spritzed with water and then stamped the resulting water-colour soup onto card. I varied the colours and even painted some of the shimmer paints on to the block too - with varying degrees of success!

Here's a card I made with the piece you can see top row, centre.

And now we get to the reason I've been MIA. My lovely sister, Margaret, an MS sufferer, was suddenly taken desperately ill on Friday last week and had to be admitted to hospital. Since then there's been no improvement, if anything her condition deteriorated and she is now on oxygen to help her breath - the doctors know she has an infection, they just can't find the right treatment for it. They've performed umpteen tests and now she is to have an MRI scan in the hope that that will give an indication of the cause - in the meantime we all wait and worry.

 In three days, this is the only card I've found time to make.

On a happier note, I had a visit from Grandson, No.2, and we had a great time, catching up on family news, his news,  sorting through my seed box ... I know, come to Gran's and leave with packets of salad seeds to grow ... and, finally, in the kitchen cooking up a storm - well, he is a chef :))

Oh, and before I forget, a crochet update.

The completed throw for my great-granddaughter.  I found instructions for a decorative trim which finished it off very nicely.

I actually crocheted too many squares, got quite carried away, so with the leftovers I'm making a wee blanket to fit my great-niece's buggy.

Oh dear, I am going to be in trouble with Julia :( Keep it brief she asks, and what do I do, witter on for ages ... sorry Julia.

As usual, I did not visit as many of you as I would have liked, other preoccupations, and if you don't get a visit from me this week, it will be for much the same reasons.

Take care all of you, and have a good week wherever you are and whatever you're doing, and happy crafting.

Happy WOYWW,