Distraction Thursday

I got up (relatively) early this morning, the finishings of a couple of cards on my mind. My plan was to ignore the chores and essential stuff until Miss Dunnit was awake. That way you see, I can sit quietly in my workroom with a clear conscience - she would probably be woken by my kitchen chores: unloading the dishwasher, putting the washing machine on etc, and certainly would be woken up by me throwing the hoover around. (Literally or figuratively, you decide!) I planned to have executed the two brilliant ideas that floated into my head overnight and be ready to do all the other stuff later in the day. My plan was shot to pieces almost as soon as I sat down. I needed felt tips; the first one I tried was pretty dry. Fed up with this re-occuring scenario, I spent half an hour scribbling onto a pad, testing every felt tip. Now the bin has more than I do, but the ones in the pot will at least deliver colour when pressed to paper. I was working on a fairly simple set of cards that will allow the makers at the workshop to get their heads around various masking techniques. I decided to pre-cut the masks for a couple of them, on the basis that it will save heaps of time and groaning in the actual workshop. So then I had to hunt out plain, suitably thin paper, stamp the correct number of images and sort out the best time to actually sit about and cut them out. Since I got my glasses, I realise that non-daylight cutting out is really not a great idea! Then, the card I made first needed to be re-made - 'honed' if you like, to make sure the order of the instructions made sense. But to do that, I needed a clean stamp. Off to the kitchen with all of the stamps I haven't cleaned this week, having a bit of a marathon with the old scrub-it pad. I re-made the card - it only takes about 2 minutes to re-make, even if it's cost me 2 HOURS previously. And then Miss Dunnit chooses to grace me with her presence. Cue the guilt of having the kitchen and lounge looking very erm, lived in. Only thing for it - whizz around and do the chores. Bin emptying led to cleaning and sorting of recycling containers. Throwing the hoover around required emptying of the collection thingy (note to Mr Dyson here: I am ashamed enough of the filth in my house - please make the cylinder collection thingy opaque so that others don't have to witness the filth I've actually bothered to deal with every time I open the cupboard to put a coat away - or 'hide' something I just don't know what to do with. Thanks. Feeling sorry for the Flyladies who may be reading this now, they're probably hyper-ventilating!).
Back in the workroom, the search for an acrylic block of a particular size requires shelf re-arrangement and it will no doubt happen again tomorrow when I try to put away the ones I've just cleaned. Make last card (Bagpuss, above). Looking for the brown vellum caused me to re-arrange the contents of my vellum box,and reminded me to start a list of things that need to be re-stocked. Which means checking another cupboard to assess envelopes and white card stock supplies. So here I am, at nearly 3pm BST, having set a plan at 7.45am that I thought would only take an hour. I've finished writing the instructions and thought I'd share - after all, my biggest distraction is without a doubt this interweb thing. Smirk stamps are waiting to go on the swap table at the next crop and Ann's comment about trying too hard when you're making something for someone special has really struck a note. I'm off for some fresh air, and to mull over what Ann said. This will be my distraction because I'm going into the garden; bet your life no-one will call me away from a job I don't want! And Ann - congratulations on your Anniversary.