What's On Your Desk Wednesday - WOYWW Week 380

Another week gone, another Wednesday reached and time to show what's on your desk for our Desk Leader Extraordinary, Julia of  Stamping Ground fame, who's a bit surprised WOYWW has reached Week 380. How time flies!

How indeed! And my desk looks as though not much has changed from last week. The bits and bobs are still scattered about. The scissors that were out last week are still there but I have taken the opportunity to sharpen them using that neat little black gadget you can see to the left of the mess. It's a Fiskars scissor sharpener, simple to use - well, it has to be for me -and it works a treat. 

That's my collection of coloured card scraps in the straw basket on the left and there's a box of more bits and another of ribbon scraps to the right. The stamp sets on top of the ribbon box are there because it is so long ago since I made the bits and bobs I had to remind myself what was used. 

At the back, in front of the tray of tools, are four bottles of Nuvo Crystal Drops and a tube of dew drops. I've had the Crystal Drops for some time so I thought it was time I gave them a whirl. If you are interested in how I got on with them let me know and I'll do a post on them. 

I haven't been a total slacker this week. I've managed to make four cards out of the bits and bobs - not an impressive amount of work but better than nothing!

Right, I've waffled more than I intended so I'll stop now - it's time for lunch.

In the meantime, take care and have a great day.

Happy WOYWW

In A Vase On Monday - September Splendour

We've had high winds here for the last couple of days and it has been wreaking havoc in the garden, especially among the tallest plants. It got so bad today that I thought it best to conduct a rescue operation and just pick anything that seemed to be in danger. The result is this lovely autumnal bunch of flowers, berries and foliage from the garden.

It includes the flowers of honeysuckle (lonicera periclymenum Serotina), verbena bonariensis 'Lollipop', echinacea 'Tomato Soup', roses - 'Faithful' (deep red) and an unknown variety (peach coloured).

The rowan trees and hypericum 'Magical Red Flame' provided the berries. Our two rowan trees have a heavy crop of berries this year. According to folklore if the rowan bears a heavy load of fruit then it is going to be a mild winter with little snow. 

The eucalyptus gunnii, top heavy with lovely new growth, was leaning away from the prevailing wind and looking very likely to topple over altogether so I pruned the top, then used the trimmings in the 'arrangement'. Other foliage is from ageratina 'Chocolate' and cuttings from the ivy that trails over the gravel at the front of the house.

And the apples? They are our entire harvest, six in total, this year!

To see what others have found to put in their vases today check out Cathy's blog Rambling in the Garden and if you feel you would like to join in I'm sure you would be very welcome.

Friday Smiles - Week 186

Hello Everyone,

It's quite a while since I joined in with Annie's Friday Smile meme. I've been enjoying a bit of a break but I'm back and I have a few little things that make me smile to share.

First, there is this beautiful honeysuckle. It's blooming at a time when most of the summer flowers has gone over.

And then there's this. It's an Echinacea called 'Tomato Soup' - my favourite childhood comfort food - blooming in front of the purple loosestrife called 'Robin' - the nation's favourite bird. Plants that have this sort of special association makes gardening even more of a pleasure. Isn't that colour combination stunning and purely accidental too :)

Finally, I've given my blog a makeover and I like it. I created the banner on Serif Craft Artist 2 and went for a clean and simple design. What do you think?

Want to see more reasons to smile? Why not pop over to A Stitch In Time where you can find more links to Friday Smiles.

Have a wonderful weekend.