WOYWW Week 847 - Not a Lot to Show

Hello WOYWWers, Followers, Everyone

It's true. There isn't a lot for me to show on my desk this week, or, for that matter, any other week recently. I'm finding it tough getting back to the fun things when there's still so much other stuff needing my attention. both here in the flat and outside in the shed. Those boxes seem to be bottomless! 

Anyway, enough of my moaning. What's on my desk is the beginnings of a new layout. The photos are of my mother and her older sister, taken sometime in the 1930s. The papers and alphas are leftovers from a kit I used earlier this year to make another page.  When will the layout get done is anyone's guess but it's there waiting for me and my mojo to return.

Silver enjoying a blissful moment of sunshine. We've had a lot of rain in the last few day. I believe the slab she's sunning herself on covers a well of sorts but for her it's just the perfect sunspot. She brought me a present the other morning. A live vole! I know she was only showing me how bringing home food should really be done - there's no need for those trips to the butcher's after all - but I'd rather she didn't. I was able to catch the poor wee thing, take it out to the garden, and set it free. Hopefully, it survived the trauma. 

Finally, the funnies - these make me think of how Silver must have felt when I rejected her wee pressie this week.

A really bad-tempered cat cake! 

That's enough from me today. 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

WOYWW Week 845 - A Busy Week

Hello WOYWWers, Followers, Everyone

I hope this finds you all well and that you've found the time to be more creative than I have these last few weeks. That's not to say I haven't been busy. I really have. There's just no scrap pages to show for all the busy-ness! Instead, I've forced myself to tackle the black hole that is the shed at the top of the garden. There's boxes in that shed, the contents of which haven't seen the light of day since October 2022. Contents like the file of stencils and box of shimmer mists that can be seen on my desk this morning. I can't tell you how delighted I was to find them again!

I've been tackling the emptying of one box at a time with the aim to clear the shed completely by the end of August. It's been quite the eye-opener too. The shed is leaky, not to mention crawling with spiders, and far from the ideal place to store anything, let alone my lovely crafty stash! The plan is to replace it with a new, clean and dry, shed once everything has been sorted and cleared. 

Rain, rain, go away. 

Come again another day.

Storm Floris and the generally bad weather that followed has meant there's been very little gardening done. Everything got a thorough drenching and was looking bedraggled following the high winds. 

But, now the sun is out again and the garden is getting over the damage, flowers like these sweet peas and cornflowers have perked up again. 

Here's a photo taken from Saltcoats this week.

I'm not sure what the RNLI were doing up our way but it's always concerning to see the lifeboat out. There's been no news report, so I think this time all was well. 

What with storms, fires and the frequent appearance of the rescue services, there's rarely a dull moment here in The Three Towns.

But on a quiet summer's day there's nothing lovelier than the South Beach, Ardrossan.

Silver hated the stormy weather.

She's over it now and off out chasing butterflies. 

And finally, 

This mirrors exactly how we both felt during the horrible weather.

Silver has perfected the above!

That's enough from me today, I'm sure. 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

WOYWW Week 843 : A Quiet Week

Hello WOYWWers, Followers, Everyone,

On the desk this morning is the February introduction page for this year's album. As usual, I've chosen a few photos that serve as a reminder of just some of what happened that month.  Scattered about are some bits and bobs I might add to the pockets, There's a pack of photos waiting to be dated and filed away until I'm ready to make pages with them. The book that can be seen just off to the right is one I've just finished reading. More about it later.

I've been able to not just work in the garden now but spend time relaxing in the summerhouse. I use the spotty bag to transport the memoir I've been struggling to finish since January, notebooks I jot stuff in, pencils, one of my favourite mugs and the flask containing a latte until I'm ready to drink it. 

Silver takes up residence in the spotty bag whenever it's empty. She's not fussy. Anywhere will do, even when it's been left on the ironing board. Oh, and those towels - I spotted them in Asda and just could not resist that gorgeous peach colour!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, The Good Father by Liam McIlvanney. I love a good mystery. A couple living a normal, happy, almost idyllic life in a house on a beach in a friendly little Scottish village, Fairlie, with their much loved seven year old son and a dog. Sounds perfect until one day the son, while playing on the beach, disappears! From there the story takes us through the aftermath with some unexpected twists and turns that I certainly didn't expect. What made it all the more interesting to me is that Fairlie is just up the coast from where I am now. The villages & towns, landscape and places mentioned are familiar to me. Even the village my daughter lives in gets a mention. Although the author now lives in New Zealand, he was born and grew up in Ayrshire so he knows the area well. If, like me, you enjoy a gripping good read then I'd recommend this book.

Finally, a few of the funnies I've collected 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.

Have a great WOYWW day and a fabulous week everyone,

Take care everyone,

Elizabeth

WOYWW Week 840: Printing Multi Photos for Scrapbook Pages

Hello Everyone,

Happy What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday to you all. 

The answer to that question is that there's not a lot on my desk today. For good reason. I have had another fall. This time I tripped on Silver's new cat box.

It replaced a smaller cardboard box kept in the hall that she'd chewed to bits. I hadn't got used to it being larger and tumbled over it on my way to the kitchen to make my first cuppa of the day. I'm now sporting some very colourful bruises, still a  bit shaken, and hurting in places I'd rather not. Happily, no damage to my ribs this time.  

Back to the photos. A few days ago I was inspired by a fellow scrapper on Facebook to try printing multi photos using my Canon Selphy Printer CP910.

It's an old one, bought in 2011, but still going strong. It's not just compact, it's wireless and I am able with the Canon SPL app to print direct from my mobile phone. Usually, I print the 6"x4" size but occasionally I've printed two 3"x4" images on one print. 

The inspiration was to be more daring and create collages of more images like the one above; making it a way to deal with the huge number of photos taken on my mobile phone - many more than I would have taken before the digital age! It's also money-saving. The price of packs of toner cartridges and paper have risen considerably in the last year or so. 

These eight photos were all taken while having a stroll down at Ardrossan's seafront so I could use them on one 12"x12" layout. However, there's a very different story attached to each strip which leads me to decide to create two pages rather than one. The top strip is of a visit to the newly opened Wellbeing Cafe at the end of the beach road. The lower strip shows the emergency helicopter looking for the best place to land as near to the beach as possible, aiming to bring medical aid to a canoeist in trouble. 

Silver has already made it to this post so let's skip straight to a this week's funnies.

Life with Silver in cartoon form!

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 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 661

Hello Everyone

I don't suppose I'm the only one to notice today's date.  All the twos. I can't remember the last time time the date was made up of all the same numbers - I'm guessing 1.1.11 but I'm probably way out and some statistician out there knows the answer. What they won't know is how likely I am to be interrupted on a  Wednesday morning to see to something more vital than typing up WOYWW post. It's often. This morning it was a form for DVLA. The one they should have sent three months ago! The one that will enable DVLA to decide whether Alan is allowed to drive again. It did come with a letter apology but really!!! Rant over.

Breathe. 

Where was I? Oh yes, at my desk.

I know, not very exciting. Just me deciding on the papers and photos to scrap next. Yesterday, I spent much of the day putting together papers, stickers, etc., for this months Scrap Backward's kit. It's bigger than January's but I hope to make a lot of pages this month. Well, that's the plan! Here's a peek at the papers I've chosen.

Lovely, aren't they? Very springlike - summery even. I'm going to enjoy working with them.

The kitten bit:

Sunlight streaming through the window. Such a rare sight it enchanted Silver. She pinches Alan's chair at every opportunity - it's so comfy she loves it.

The book bit:

Not too surprisingly I'm drawn to any book that has 'bookshop', or 'book' even, in the title so when I spotted this one I had to download it. And it's a heartwarming enough story, if somewhat predictable. The main character, Natalie, inherits her mother's struggling bookshop and at the same time finds herself helping her aged grandfather. Of course, it's not as simple as selling up, finding a nice home for her grandfather and getting back to her high-flying career. What follows are enough twists and turns in the plot to entertain me to the end, even though that ending was just a wee bit corny. Sometimes corny is good. If you're a romantic you'll love it. And, bonus, I did learn more about San Francisco's history, about the 1906 earthquake, the subsequent fires and the loss of life and destruction that followed.

The funny bit:

That's all from me today. Note from last Wednesday - the cauliflower cheese soup was voted a great success and one to make again. No soup today but I did make potato soup yesterday - my mother's recipe - and that always goes down well. 

I hope you've had a wonderful WOYWW and that you will have a fabulous week ahead.

Take care and stay safe.