WOYWW 804

I had to double check the number, four weeks since I last posted. Good grief, my life is so chaotic. No Workdesk from me, it's actually looking its usual mess but there's no craft working going on. Instead, I offer you the dining table and the hall floor. 

Im clearing out my sweet, late Mother In Law's house and obviously trying really hard to re-home stuff before having to give in and dump it. It's a chore, to be honest. Yesterday I ended up refereeing a fight over an item I'd put up for sale on FB and I start today wondering if anyone of the three scheduled to collect what they wanted will actually turn up. If you've ever done similar, you'll know that it's not about making money, it's about getting rid of whatever! So that's me, in amongst the day to day I have this little voice in the back of my head talking about the things I want to make for Christmas and I'm trying to keep it quiet and low, if it's just another job, there will be no pleasure in it, and at this point, anything I don't have to do isn't being done! I think that makes me a housework rebel! I also know that trotting around your desks will fill me awe and longing so I need to get on with this clearing lark!

WOYWW 800

Buried at the bottom of a random blog post on Wednesday 3rd June 2009, I found this:

I hit on an idea last night that I thought may be fun - particularly in view of the cathartic nature of sharing. I thought we (that's you interweb, and me) could do a 'what's on my work table this wednesday' feature thingy. Yep. From me, a sort of down market and probably badly photographed version of the sort of thing that real big celeb scrappers do - but theirs involve finished items, links, articles and sponsor giveaways....none of which will happen here. I just wanna see what you're all doing that I'm not...I really like the idea of seeing your work in progress; specially as your finished stuff is always fab.

The down market and badly photographed comment was very far sighted of me! The greatest change has been that my desk is in a different position in my workroom following some building work, rather than my attitude to clearing up or learning lighting skills for photos. Ah well. 

So we formed a community via looking at our work spaces;  we've celebrated with each other and we've mourned the loss of friends. Such a strong community; when I announced that it was time for me to step back, instead of moaning and pulling away, you brought me a present and celebrated my time. That is one of the nicest things that has ever happened to me. 

And now we continue under Sarah's much more organised watch, and I love that too, that WOYWW meant enough to the collective contributors to 'move' rather than finish. 

The trawl through my old blog posts has caused me embarrassment and hilarity, but it brought to mind so many of you lovely Deskers, maybe we don't regularly see so many people any more, but the beauty and grace of this community is that it doesn't matter, once a year, or never again, you are running through my mind on this of all days. 

Gaslighting myself. Yep.

See these ridiculous pink trainers? I bought them about six weeks ago at a craft show, oddly enough. It was on a Saturday. I wore them all day the following Tuesday, and that included the evening at WI. Which was, incidentally, our branch's first birthday. We did belly dancing and celebrated with cake and jelly and ice cream. Details schmetails, huh. There's more. 

As is my slovenly manner, when I got home, I kicked off the trainers and reclined for the rest of the evening. Three weeks later, I was preparing for an evening out with my Coven. It was a post gym workout evening, so I had a shower and then made the mistake of answering my phone whilst I dressed. The caller was a chap who was responding to an enquiry I had made, so perfectly legitimate. I put him on loudspeaker and carried on dressing. He was, well, a  slow speaker and quite determined to explain in detail the procedure of the oven cleaning I was trying to book him for. I didn't need the detail, I just wanted to book him. But believe it or not, I'm polite and let him carry on. I've donned the undies, decided on the pink jeans and a matching pink and red top and started to look for the pink trainers. 

Greg The Oven finally got his diary out and suggested a couple of dates whilst I unloaded every shoe from the shoe shelf section of my wardrobe onto the floor,  Naturally this involves effort, grovelling and I'm pretty sure some heavy breathing. Poor Greg!  No sign of the pink trainers. I settled on Greg The Oven's first available date, got rid of him. Dried my hair, put some tennis shoes on and went out. Didn't give it a second thought until I got home and had to tidy up the shoes, blaming Greg The Oven for distracting me. Wondered vaguely where the trainers were, brushed my teeth and went to bed. 

I have since checked every room, under beds. Every cupboard, even in the utility room. No sign of these damn pink trainers. Asked my Mr Dunnit. Actually, I even asked him if he'd hidden them because he felt they were inappropriate, embarrassing, didn't suit me. Any or all. He laughed and said he wasn't gaslighting me. I just could not find them and when Miss Dunnit and the Squeeze came home, I accused them of absentee gaslighting and made them look everywhere I already had. Fresh eyes and all that. Nada. Joking aside, I was a bit worried about myself. And the shoes.

So, I woke up yesterday and decide that the day had arrived to change my wardrobe from summer to something resembling autumn and wet weather clothes. Literally...I didn't even get dressed, just made a start. I picked every thing off the shelves in their piles and started to separate 'layer' type tops from genuine summer tops, shorts from leggings, put the jumpers back onto shelves and remove flimsy stuff generally. It went well and apart from needing breakfast rather badly, I felt smug. In the room that I do ironing, I knew there was a pile to done, but largely it was summer stuff, so I fetched it. After all, if they're going to be squashed into vacuum bags, no point ironing them is there. Two t shirts down, I found a hand towel. I probably stuck it in the pile to feel good that there was some non-iron stuff to skim over! Moved the towel and hey presto, there were the trainers.

I must have put them on top of the pile of clothes to take them upstairs, and then like a fool, put another pile of stuff on top of that! It's all I can think  of for them being there. So today I'm wearing pink trainers because I can. And the oven at my late Mother in Law's is sparkling. And no one needs to come up with a plan to gaslight me. Turns out I can do it myself. 

Dusting off the previous...

I was looking for a self healing cutting mat yesterday. It took an unnecessarily long time and I confess that I looked in the same place more than once, convinced that it was where I last saw it. It wasn't, of course. This small search caused me to think that I ought to blog about that phenomenon. You know, the one where everything has a place until it doesn't. And so, here I am, figuratively dusting the blog off and literally as always, in a state of untidy. 

Not my desk, but the 'swing right' view. That'll do for now!

For three months, my desk has been Miss Dunnit's workspace, all screen and keyboard, even headsets. I think if my desk could talk, it would be welcoming back the old paper, scissors glue and ink! I didn't miss it. A sabbatical has been had, I think. I can't claim to be refreshed and raring to go, full of ideas and intentions, good grief no. I am more than happy that I enjoyed the stamp-colour-cut-stick process though, and as for finding everything where it should be, well....I suspect the more time I spend at my desk, the better my memory for where I last saw things will become, for as proven by the cutting mat, a lot of things aren't where I thought I last put them!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 785

My desk resembles a control centre. Our lovely daughter is at home and working remotely. She has two screens and a keyboard and a mouse and .....drum roll.....a notepad and pen. Although, I suspect it's more a homage to working at a desk than an actual working tool. I can't photograph it because both screens are open and contain information that is not pertinent to WOYWW! 

I want to show you this

It's a Swatch. I bought it with part of the massively generous gift you Deskers gave me when I retired.  I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm a bit of a collector and Swatches are one of my collections. However, I'm not a collector for display and investment purposes. I wear them. And this one I thought, is a perfect arty/ATC type that will remind me of WOYWW every time I look at it. It does and I love it. Thank you so much. The crown on the face is a tad embarrassing but I loved the overall design enough to think I could overlook it, and I'm hugely amused that it's in 'seven shades of wee wee' which I once (and in many cases will continue) to observe about lots of Tim Holtz style work - in fairness though, that was in the early Distress Ink years and he has since 'found' colour! 
The rest of 'that' gift voucher is waiting. I could accuse of it of burning a hole in my pocket, but it's more about me parting with it..so final;  a great deal of the pleasure of such things is in the anticipation and browsing. The idea that 'I can afford that treat' makes me giddy when I look at something I'd like. As it happens, so I shall brag!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 781. Or 1.

WOYWW is not stopping... Sarah is taking up the mantle! The hosting will go on at a different blog, is all! Delighted to point you in the direction of Sarah Brennan's blog. It's www.sarahscraftshed.co.uk just in case that link in that horrible blue link fails for any reason.

I don't know if Sarah intends to change the week numbers or anything else for that matter, but you will find it all going on at her very tidy, very organised and very comfortable place. We talked a lot about all sorts of things but naturally left out the important stuff until it was too late to talk anymore!

Your responses to my decision to step back have been so kind, positive and complimentary that I've been dazed and quite overwhelmed. Classic British speak...I've been in tears and absolutely lost for words at more than one point. Our fifteenth anniversary Crop, hosted by Sarah and Eva was great. We managed, with some pixelating and signal probs to talk to Jan and to Kathy. We had freshly made sandwiches and Oatcakes for lunch, more cake and biscuits than are sensible and a lot of chat. A lot. We exchanged ATCS. 

And then there was a fuss and a presentation of an extraordinary gift to me. I can't express my thanks in a blanket term for that; you will hear from me separately, probably not till my good eye stops leaking whenever I think about it. That beautiful Twiglet, she seems to possess the sort of organising skills that a government needs. 

I can't thank you enough for the enjoyment, knowledge and inspiration from the last 780 weeks of being invited into your space. Im still around, I still intend to blog and I'll participate in WOYWW when life lets me. Why wouldn't I? You amazing people are a huge chunk of my social life. Thanks.

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 780

Fifteen years! The community that this desk show has unwittingly created is like an iceberg; lots of the activity goes on beneath the surface of the weekly desk show. At the desk, we have a lot in common. Under the desk, we've connected, chatted, got to know each other and met. Not all of us, not all the time. I know that friendships have been struck and have stuck, and even if the parties aren't joining in with WOYWW any more, the friendships persist. It's delightful.

So gentle Desker, this is a perfect time for me to bow out. Doubtless you will have noticed that I've struggled for the past couple of months to keep up, keep my act together and play a full on part. That isn't going to change in a jiffy, so I'm going to stop. I would be delighted to pass the WOYWW 'home page' to someone else. If you're able, let's talk!

Meanwhile, lots of us are so looking forward to our day in Stoke on Trent with Sarah and Eva as our hosts for this anniversary's Crop. If you can't come, please tune in at some point to see pics and read about it, we'll assemble between 10am and 4pm BST. If you can work that out and would like to, let's use Messenger to visit! 

So here's a hurrah type picture. No changes or surprises about the state of it all!