What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 830

Hello Everyone,

This is so late. I try to write this post on Tuesday evenings but yesterday was such a beautiful day, and we have had so few beautiful days recently, that I stayed out in the garden way too long. All that fresh air was so good for me that I slept like a log, woke late, and I've been chasing my tail ever since. 

Not the best photo of what's on my desk now that it's daylight and the sunshine is poring in on what is going to be my next project. As of later today I will be joining in Shimelle's new class. I may have mentioned before that I have challenged myself to use up all the lovely but neglected paper collections/kits that have accumulated somehow - I wonder how! - in my craftroom. Shimelle's very timely class, a follow on from last year's This Year's Story, aims to help me do just that. Use it up!!

Threatening to topple over on the right hand side of the desk is a pile of pages removed from my very first album. Not just removed but rescued. The album was amongst the boxes stored in the shed since we moved into this flat/apartment. Turns out the shed is very damp and so are the contents of the boxes that still remain.  I intend to replace the shed with a new one soon but in the meantime I need to empty the remaining boxes, many of which are full of crafting stuff. Such a shame.

Not still in the shed is this lovely box of enamel dots. I spent an hour or so sorting through them on Sunday. It was a cold rainy day so I had no reason not to. I'm still trying to get the craftroom organised to perfection but it's proving an uphill task. This is a much smaller room than the one I had in Ayr and it also has to double up as the very occasional guest room. Apart from anything else, I'm struggling to get rid of stuff. I've already gifted a gazillion stamps to a beginner crafter and I've still got more to house somewhere. Just not that awful damp shed. Not the worst problem to have given what's happening in the rest of the world today!

Pages made recently:

06/2025 - They Met at the Dancing

I was inspired by the Making Memories, 'Tie the Knot' patterned paper to record how my late parents met in 1945. The layout is based on a Scrap-a-Sketch No. 128, Jul/Aug 2024 and the papers are from Ella Bonella's 'Cherished' kit. Everything else, including the fussy-cut flowers, is from old stash.

07/2025 - Hello Massachusetts

This was the work in progress on last week's desk. Another trip down memory lane for me as I record the trip Alan and I took together in 1996 motoring from Rockport to Plymouth on the Massachusetts coast. Alan, a Mancunian to the core, was delighted to discover Manchester-by-the-Sea. It made him chuckle because, of course, Manchester, England, is nowhere near the sea. 

The sketch the layout is base on is from a 2013 issue of Scrap 365 magazine - sadly now no longer published. Papers from the same Ella Bonella kit as above and also as before stickers and embellishments from old stash. 

This is the view from the craftroom window. Have you ever seen such narrow steps? They need to be broadened for safety's sake. Another job for the future. 

That's about it for this week. Like this post, comments will be late. I have a garden which still needs a lot of work so that's where I will be this afternoon. 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.

I'll leave you with just a few photos taken in the garden yesterday.

Spanish Bluebells

Pansies

Clematis 'Elizabeth'

Aquilegia

Take care everyone,

Elizabeth

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

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - Week 826

Hello Everyone,

Happy Wednesday. Happy WOYWW too.

This is not really what's on my desk this morning but it's a photo taken back in February, the last time I did make a page.  Since then there's been a lot of dreaming and scheming but no actual scrapbooking done. 

This then is only the second page completed so far this year. It's an old photo taken from last year's  Three Towns Explored calendar. The term 'three towns' is used in reference to the towns of Ardrossan, Saltcoats and Stevenston in North Ayrshire which together form a contiguous settlement along the shore of the Clyde Estuary. Since moving here to Ardrossan I have become fascinated with the history of the towns and surrounding area. 

The materials used to make the page are from the Scrappyroo Scrapbook Supplies October kit, purchased while I was doing all that dreaming and scheming mentioned earlier. This is not a paid promotion, but it is a lovely kit and I could be tempted to buy more in future. Just as soon as I get busy scrapping again.

Talking of dreaming and scheming as I am today, and as I hinted in last week's post, I've been longing to make a garden. It's been on my mind since we moved in just over two years ago but, of course, other more pressing needs prevented me actually doing anything about it. For the record here's a photo of just how neglected the garden was.

Shameful! Hardly a redeeming feature to be seen. Even the shed is on it's last legs and there is no boundary between the strip that is my backyard and that of my neighbour in the flat (apartment) above mine. 

At the end of last year, I finally decided to do something about it and drew up a plan of sorts. 

This plan. It's basic and will probably change in time but it gave me a starting point. 

The first thing I did was order the summerhouse.

It's arrival was delayed by winter and a certain, now notorious, Storm Eowyn! One thing that has become very apparent is that Ardrossan could be a contender for the stormiest town on the west coast of Scotland so there will be no greenhouse. The summerhouse will have to do double duty as a potting shed, somewhere to grow seeds and a retreat in which to sit and idle the hours away.

Next came a fence to create a boundary.

This area of the garden is now enclosed. The area to the front is where the washing lines are and wher the two poles on the boundary are shared. I'm not sure why this is so. Perhaps it was intended to encourage neighbourliness, or more likely to save money. The apartment blocks were built by the council in the post-war period in answer to the increased need for affordable housing. Today apartment blocks like mine are a mix of privately owned flats like mine and council owned like my neighbour above, 

Since these photos were taken a gate has been fitted and trellising added to the picket fencing ready for the planting of the climbing plants I visualise scrambling up and over and around all that brown wood.  

Digging and clearing, not by me I hasten to add but by a neighbour's son, has unearthed paving hidden by the overgrown grass and evidence we believe that the land was once used as allotments. Possibly as part of the war effort to dig for victory. It's a nice thought. 

Needless to say, I'm now busy acquiring plants - quite a few. The plan is to keep it mainly grassed but to introduce wild flowers where possible like those in this photo - snowdrops, bluebells, wild daffodils, and wood anemone. There's also wild garlic which, as it spreads too readily, will be planted up in a pot.  There's more. The climbers - clematis, honeysuckle, wild sweet pea, and my favourite rambling rose, Albertine is on order.  As are a couple of small trees,  rowan and an amelanchier (also known as serviceberry or juneberry) to encourage birds to visit. Which brings me to my last photo for today.

Silver has found herself the perfect lookout post. She's clearly intent on monitoring the local cat and bird population.  Seriously, she loves being out in the garden with me. My own little gardening companion. 

And finally, the funny is back.

So that it from me this week. Thanks to everyone who read last week's post and also for the lovely comments left. Sorry if I didn't leave you a comment. Must try harder. I'm just out of practice as could be seen from the mess I made of leaving a link on Sarah's blog - Sarah's Craft Shed - where you can find even more clever crafters revealing what's on their desks this week. 

Goodbye for now and thanks for reading this far. I wish you all a very good week.

Take care everyone,

Elizabeth