What's On Your Workdesk - Week 476

Hello Deskers, Followers and All,

Wednesday again! It's been said before, and will no doubt be said many more times, but where did the last seven days go?! In fact, I almost forgot what day it is ... not entirely surprising at my great age ... so here for you, and our Head Desker, Julia, at the Stamping Ground, is what's on my desk today.

There's been a bit of stamping going on and a lot of scrapping. On an impulse, and perhaps a bit rash of me, I've signed up for the summer challenge on Mind The Scrap's Facebook group. I think I forget just how busy life is!!! The warm up began last evening so that's the first layout sitting on top of a stack of paper and the really useful box that's full of supplies beneath ... this last now seems to be a permanent fixture these days. On the left is new stamps I've been testing. They are part of a mini haul from Monday's trip to The Range.

As you can see, there are more than a few unicorns. My great niece, Arihanna, loves unicorns and mermaids and I suspect flamingos too. The snowman and butterfly punch were a happy find in a charity shop. Seems that someone had handed in boxes of crafty stash and I had a fine old time riffling through it. Sadly, much of it wasn't my taste but I did like the quirky snowman and you can never have two many butterfly punches.

Only one book to share this week. I'm still listening to Grisham's 'The Litigators' - actually it's re-listening to it while I craft away - but my bedtime listening is Secrets of A Family Album by Isla Dewar.

I can't say I'm really enjoying this novel. It's not her best. The main characters, Lily and her mother Mattie, are not very likable and I find myself not caring what happens to them. Also, there's far too much emphasis on what the characters are wearing, what cosmetics they use, etc. Not to mention several paragraphs wasted listing ALL the gifts each character, that gathered at Lily's parents home for Christmas, received! Paragraphs that I'd skip if I was actually reading the book.

That's me done for this week. I'm off to check a few desks before lunch.

Take care everyone and have a great week ahead.

WOYWW 416 - Celebrating 8 Marvelous Years!

Yes, we're celebrating! It's the 416th week of Julia's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. That's 8 years she's been turning up every Wednesday (with the exception a few when LLJ magnificently stood in for her) on the Stamping Ground to reveal her desk and encourage us to show ours too. It's an wonderful achievement and one I appreciate so very much. Where else could we crafters 'meet'up on a regular basis and share what's on, or not on, our desks and chat about crafting. It's a date I, personally, don't like to miss - I get withdrawal symptoms if I do.

There's plenty of stuff on my desk today but not much actual crafting going on. I'm still in the throes of the clean up operation. How can one person collect so much stash??? So today sees me sorting out embellishments (in the wee black basket) into colour-coded boxes. The boxes were originally intended to hold photographs but now that the photos are in albums - up to the year 2000 so far, still a way to go yet! - the boxes could have been surplus to requirements had I not thought to re-purpose them. As well as the usual bits and bobs that have a permanent place on my desk there is, for one week only, a pile of ink pads, a jar of black embossing powder and a pile of stamps waiting to be pressed into service. They're mostly scrapbook themed sets,

This set includes a stamp for the year 2014 - that will come in handy if I every get around to scrapping photos taken in that year!

You can just about see the lovely view from the window. It's looking particularly nice with the lilac tree (in a neighbouring garden) in bloom. Purple lilacs. However, I thought you might like to see what I can see if I look up.

A trio of tiny glass panels that were a gift from a friend a few years ago when she returned from a city break in Prague. The colours have faded over time but I rather like them like that.

I was going to tell you how lovely it was to sit here and listen to a bird chirping, quite loudly, just outside the window but it was much more exciting than that. It was a baby sparrow and it was chirping away on the hall landing windowsill behind me! I've no idea how it got in - there's a window open a crack in the bathroom so that hardly seems likely. Maybe it flew in when himself left the back door wide open earlier - it's a habit he has. Whatever, it had moved in and we had a job trying to encourage this tiny little fledgling to leave through the hall window ... it was having none of it. It flew into the craftroom and I hastily went around closing room doors - I'm sure it didn't need a guided tour. Eventually, himself managed to capture and release the wee thing back into the garden and it didn't seem any the worse for the experience. We, on the other hand, were quite shaken and in need of a recuperating cuppa. And as excuses for being late to the party go, I think this one is my best so far. :)

All I have to do now is link up at Julia's to join in with the ATC swap. I've made quite a few already, and I'm quite happy to make a few more so if you would like to swap me let me know, and email your postal address too.

Before I go though, I just want to say my thoughts are with the people who have suffered in any way from the dreadful terrorist attack in Manchester. The city means so much to us, it's my second home, I lived there for years and, indeed, my dear husband is a Mancunian. My heart goes out to Manchester.

 

WOYWW 242 - graveling not crafting

Afternoon Everyone,

Wednesday, the day for revealing our desks to Julia, for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW) over at the Stamping Ground, not to mention a hundred or so other interested crafters ... usually. But not today! This morning the weather cleared long enough for the EM and I to do a bit of light gardening ... not!

The driveway, though graveled, had turned into a mud bath over the winter, especially at the entrance, so the EM ordered a ton of gravel, delivered yesterday.

Man at work! The EM preparing to shovel gravel into the wheelbarrow.

Woman at work! A rare sighting of the lesser spotted Silvercrafter in yellow ... my unfavourite colour. However, this yachting jacket, ancient and unloved though it is, is the perfect protection for rainy day gardening.

And here's the abandoned craftdesk. I'm mid sorting out the stamp collection which had got into a right muddled mess over the last few months. This album is for those stamps that are categorised, admitted very roughly, as flora and fauna. An album of Christmas stamps was sorted out yesterday. That still leaves an awful lot of stamps to be sorted and put away but that will be after the driveway graveling is done :)

I hope you are all well and enjoying a wonderful WOYWW. We've been rained off for now so I'm going to take advantage of this unexpected time out and do a bit of blog hopping while I have the chance.

Take care, stay dry, and happy crafting,

Car Boot Haul - not just a pile of old junk

Afternoon All,

I hope this finds you all well and finding time, and the mojo, for crafting. We are still enjoying our belated summer weather here in the south west of Scotland - it's not too hot, just pleasantly warm. My sympathy, however, goes out to those of you living in the US who are, I believe, suffering incredibly hot weather - let's hope it cools down for you soon.

Here's an update on the trip to the car boot sale at Ayr racecourse yesterday. There is usually a sale, together with some market stalls, every Sunday unless race meetings are going on - and yesterday, because of the great weather, it was huge ... hundreds of cars ... so it took a good couple of hours to wander round. And, here's my haul. At the front, a box of extra large jigsaw pieces (£1) - saw them altered to make a mini album recently - a three frame wallhanger (50p) which is just crying out for a bit of a makeover.

This little wooden jewellery box cost only £1 too - it's sweet as it is but I may give it a re-vamp sometime in the future.

This little metal bird brooch, another £1, will look great on a project.

Last, but not least, five wood-mounted stamps costing an unbelievable 50p each - £3.50 in total. A couple still had the original price tag on them, and either of them would have cost more than I paid for all five!!

So all-in-all a profitable day and I'm looking forward to playing with the stamps just as soon as I've finished sorting through my snippets. I blame Jules at Always With A Heart, of Snippet Sunday fame, for this displacement activity. You have just got to check out her blog here  because she reveals her mahoosive snippet collection - a sight that makes me feel so much better about my wee pile of bits.

Breaking news ... my granddaughter, Jenny, said 'yes' to Kyle's proposal yesterday!!!  No date as yet, but I'll need to start saving for a hat - I haven't got a thing to wear :)  Oh, and that's another card to make too! Off to break the news to the EM - he'll be delighted for them too - Kyle's a nice lad.

Happy Crafting

WOYWW - Week 80 + the V & W cards in the Alphabet Series

Good Morning everyone,

Another What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday is here and once again I don't know where the week has gone. I did try to get round as many of you as possible this last week but, unfortunately, I didn't make it to all - this Christmas thing has just taken over my life completely! So apologies to those I missed and I will try to visit you all this week.

Not much to show morning - last night completed a card and tidied everything away ready for the next project. However, there is a couple of goodies from Sir Stampalot there- yeah, the postman got through : ) - the Christmas edition of the Magnolia magazine to browse through and draw inspiration from - a bit late for this season but, as I intend to get ahead of the game for next year and produce one Christmas card a week in 2011, it won't be wasted. And a Penny Black Stamp, Winter Bow - it's beautiful and I can't wait to do something with it!

I'm almost at the end of the Alphabet series now - just two more to do. I was almost stumped for what to do for V until I received the Hinny Bop CD, Santa's Christmas Treasures. I originally got this for the inserts - I'd admired them when I saw them on some cards of Ginny's - you can see an example here on her blog, AsIDoRodos. The contents are vintagy and from that the theme for the card emerged - V for Vintage Christmas:

Materials Used: papers & image from Santa's Christmas Treasures CD; gold and lilac cardstock for matting; paper lace borders by Siesta; purple Prima flowers; white rosebuds from Wild Orchid Crafts; lilac/silver ribbon; silver stickles; glittery brads; glitter; inside greeting copied from an old Christmas card!

And here's the insert I used:

The W card was much easier as I'd had the stamp and the idea for quite sometime - Walking in a Winter Wonderland. And, with my friend, Ruthie, in mind I knew I wanted to use her favourite colour combination - brown and turquoise - if at all possible.

Materials used: Salt coloured double Swiss dot cardstock for base and turquoise/brown satin ribbon from Funky Farm Scrapbook Barn; design paper from Paper Cellar; Ladybug Crafts Ink Nikki stamp coloured with Promarkers; Docrafts Winter Wonderland stamp; G Studio turquoise ink pad; iridescent glitter; inside stamp from Sentiments 4 You.

Love this stamp of Nikki, more running with her dog than walking but definitely enjoying the snow. Ruthie has a rather boisterous spaniel, Charlie, so this stamp is so apt. Charlie could not walk anywhere - he's got to run and jump!  

The ribbon was a find - perfect for this card . Hayley at Funky Farm Scrapbook Barn shares my enthusiasm for ribbon. She's also a talented designer and you can see some of her work on her blogspot here.  Apart from this I didn't use much in the way of embellishments - quite restrained for me. The Winter Wonderland stamp is not clear in the above photograph so here's a close up.

Of course I did decorated the inside as usual - loved that design paper from Paper Cellar. 

And after looking at all the above you want to know more of what WOYWW is all about, and go on the biggest blog hop ever to snoop on even more interesting crafty spaces and inspirational blogs, then please pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and maybe even join in What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday. I'm sure you will be welcome.

I have another card to post, hopefully later today, if the light improves and I get some decent photographs - roll on the lighter days! In the meantime, I'm off for a cup of tea.

Bye for now,
Elizabeth