No, I can't

take a photograph straight this morning. It's because of the amount of ironing I have done and have yet to do. I can't do any more. No matter how warm it's keeping me - I'm bored witless by it. And no, I can't put it away un-ironed. My workdesk and room may be cataclysmically untidy, but I like to wear ironed clothes, and I especially like my lovelies to step out in pressed and cared for clothes. Reflected image, see. Yep, such is my skill that I can even bring the subject of ironing back to being all about me. No doubt Donna will let me know what that means. I don't mind, because it'll be all about me (and Mr Freud I expect!).

I can't get going. Stuff is spread across my workroom, the lounge room and the dining table. It's paperwork. It relates to Mr Dunnit and his new work. And his old work. And all the paperwork that goes with assessing your life when monumental change occurs. My way of dealing with it is to label it accurately, file it neatly and keep it controlled. Not so Mr Dunnit, and he ain't ready to let me loose on it. So I can't do that either.

I can't go and do some much needed grocery shopping. We're sharing a car and Mr D is out. I could schlep down to the village to pick up essentials, but as we've been away, essentials alone will fill a car boot, so I'm gonna wait. I may even have help if I wait!

I can't get into Miss Dunnit's room....sleepover bedding and all sorts blocking my route. You'd think I wanted to - but my intention was merely to scout for mugs and glasses...the kitchen cupboards are looking suspiciously empty again!

I can't get over that 3 days after getting home, I'm still surprised by the cold! Today is a beautiful sunny and shiny day, I was almost fooled into a t shirt when I dressed. The ice field that is the bathroom floor put me into UK weather mode as fast as you like.

I can't stop thinking about how amazing it was in Tenerife to see Poinsettias planted in the ground, doing really well....the smell of bright yellow Jasmine as we huffed and puffed our way up the steps to the villa (and thereafter used the 4 lifts!) and the delicious hibiscus in full bright flower. Gorgeous sights for a child of the northern hemisphere.

I can't therefore, face the frost bitten and untidy looking garden in front of me without feeling the weight of the work rather than the joy of the planning and the production.

I can't get over how a slight cold has become gargantuan and caused me to lose 2 days of my life sitting in a chair being snotty and hot, and worst of all, practically voice-less. It's OK, me and the will-to-live are fighting back properly now.

And I cannot, can't, will not, get over how lovely it is to be home.

The view from my ice cream....

No really...there I was, enjoying a Copa Caribe (rum and raisin, vanilla and chocolate ice creams on fresh banana slices, enhanced by a splash of coffee liqueur). I looked up and there were no cars, no people and no fishermen in my line of vision. Thus - I have this lovely shot of the harbour at Los Gigantes. We've loved our first visit to Tenerife, sunshine, tremendous thunderstorms, sunshine, snow at the cable car on Mount Teide, sunshine, lava fields that are astonishing in size majesty and awsome-ness, sunshine, and an awful lot of eating and drinking. There are pictures of younger men in our party trying to keep up with the Caribbean dancers at the Restaurant, pictures of 3 middle aged women crying with laughter whilst fish nibble their feet by way of a pedicure (thanks Candace, your mentioning it on your blog put me in the know when we walked past the erm, salon.) There are pictures of dolphins and pilot whales and terraced villas and amazing beaches with dark, volcanic sand. We didn't do anything that every tourist would, and for that, it was fab. There are interesting lingual differences between the Canary Islands and mainland Spain - not least that the buses are called 'Guaguas' - remember to pronounce the G as an H sound....and then, can anyone tell me why a Guagua? There were plenty of lovely friendly locals to ask and we did, but I don't speak Spanish well enough to understand the speedy answers! Love it, made me giggle each time!

So I turn my back for some sun and I see we have some record WOYWW numbers...great! See you over the weekend then - I won't be venturing far from the computer - it's cold here!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 86

Well well, Julia Dunnit! Are you ill? Are you out of stock of stash? No. See, what happened is that I tidied a bit after making a card featuring stripes and then because it's only half an hour till supper, I thought I'd take advantage of the oven being on. Huh? Stay with me - you can just see the two blocks of Fimo on the table - it is a bit like looking into the sun, sorry about the flash. Can you see the green square in front of the Fimo? It's one of the new moulds from Sarah at Crafty Creations - you may have seen her on the telly, you'll certainly have seen her desk on your WOYWW rounds. Well, I can't show you the results because they're all in the oven, (see - there was a point!) but I'll show and tell eventually - you know me, can't resist a chance to brag. Not many stamps to clean in the basket - wrestling for room with another bag of sweeties - Miss Dunnit successfully getting around me for something by buying me bananas! The inevitable empty cup of tea and a freshly mounted set of Paper Artsy on the left. Marvellous but not overly creative would probably sum this up. Show me up then! Photo your desk, upload it to your blog and link here - let's see what you're up to!

This is the ribbon...

..that caused outrageous meltdown - was it only last week? It wasn't actually in the jar that I emptied onto the floor - apparently in a fit of tidy-itis, I put actual reels of ribbon elsewhere for ease of use. Oh emgee. Don't you wish you were organised like me!!

I think it was worth finding though, it's amongst my very favourite ribbons, this wide organize style...and I'm liking the bright citrussy colours again this year; I may never move on! I thought you might like to know what the outcome of the temper tantrum was. Well........the ribbons lay undisturbed on the floor for two whole days. Apart from the glares of contempt I directed at them. My family went on about their business without apparently, noticing. Which is a whole other skill don't you think - of being blind to that which needs to be tidied? Recognise that?! Anyway, I don't know if you know, but my workdesk is on wheels. Because it is against a door to the garden. Through which from time to time, unreasonable people want access. On the evening of the second day, Mr Dunnit felt the need to stack some timber in the shed. And even my sensibilities were disturbed at the thought of him traipsing through the lounge room to get into the garden form the conservatory. (Sounds frightfully large and posh my house, huh!) So I caved in and said he could move my table. Which meant....yep - forced to finally confront the ribbon problem....if only to stop them being crushed by the boots of the man who can't sit still. So I did confront the problem. I scooped them up and squashed them back into the jar. And despite the un-use-ability, they go on looking very pretty thank you! And the reels are back in there - after all, however terrible the storage, types should all be in the same place!

Out of here....

Mr Dunnit becomes an unreal and frankly unbelievable 50 on Saturday. And because I am his life, LIFE, life partner (OK, you get it, just wanted y'all to know, it's me and him, for life!), it is I who will go with him for a weekend of sunshine, eating outside and reading books by the sea. Gin and Tonics too. We will not be entirely alone, for we have other friends who share the same auspicious age at around the same time. But it will be a grown up weekend. By which I mean there'll be hopeless giggling and ridiculous jokes and probably cheating at cards too. Of course, I tell you all this for a variety of reasons....first because I want you to envy my international jet-setting lifestyle (Easy Jet) , second because I'd really like y'all to pop round and check that Miss Dunnit isn't trashing the place (well, my workroom) , and third, well, it means that I won't be doing much commenting and I'm already running out of time just for WOYWW!

So have a lovely weekend and please, dear interweb, don't do anything exciting without me!!

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday? 85

Ah, the wheel has turned and my lovely little workroom is turning into an office. It's a temporary but daily thing....which is why you can see files and diary etc appear to be on top of crafty stuff. They are. I do the office work - one job off the pile at a time until the craft stuff reveals itself! Then I can get on properly. After the housework, phone calls and incredibly difficult to account for amount of time I spend on the computer. Emails, blah!

But look - the basket on the right is empty - except for one stamp - this has to be a one off. We'll see! The glasses case, which I've only just noticed, is Mr Dunnit's. I sure hope that the glasses aren't in there. If they are, he's down at his workshop looking everywhere for them!

So now, despite the boring and potentially reputation damaging state of my desk, restore my faith in desks generally and show us yours! Upload a pic to your blog, link in here and we'll try to visit. No rules beyond trying to reciprocate the visits and don't be too in your face with the advertising!

We cropped on Saturday. It included our now-to-be-regular pot-luck lunch. I know, and at the risk of gushing, it really was one of the most fun, noisy and for some, productive days. Of course, not all of that statement applies to me! I did manage 3 layouts which I put away without even thinking about photographing. Huh? I probably could have done at least two more, but I was too busy gosspiping and admiring Mary Anne's works - her albums are amazing. And she can work back to front too -by which I mean that she can make a whole mini album based on an idea and not have photos for it just yet. Now that's a skill.

Crop preparation is today's subject. Bear in mind whilst I whinge, that I am the hall booker. So I know sooner than almost anyone else when the next crop is. OK, so usually it's the first saturday of the month and that's no secret of course, but you take my point. So how come on the preceeding Monday I'm desperately searching photo files and praying that Snapfish can turn a miracle and get my pictures to me by the time I need to choose papers etc? Yes, I have about a million unscrapped photos which I could get on with if Snapfish can't deliver, but you get an urge to do something in particular don't you, and I really like to scrap the present. So much so that even at a January crop, I have never managed a Christmas LO! Miss Dunnit's albums look as though she had a great life, but without Christmas!

I spend the Friday before the crop whining to get home early enough for a daylight paper choosing session. That rarely works out...lets face it, non scrappers, especially men, just don't get how important the right shades are. For them it's well, black and white! Then I have supper and frankly, that's fatal. Once in the post supper armchair....oh how hard it is to move. Especially when the body knows it's going to sit - because kneeling is physically impossible for more than about 4 minutes (Helen -you reading this?!!) - on a nice but cold laminate floor in front of a cupboard where the papers that will not match my photos live. It takes ages. By which time of course, I'm stiff from sitting on the floor like some rubbery teen, and I still have punches, alphabets, gems, chipboard, dies, folders, stamps, inks and consumables to decide on and pack. And I just know I can't leave it until the morning because like most Saturday mornings, I cannot trust myself not to oversleep. See, Mr Dunnit goes out early on Saturdays and never ever has the heart to wake me or set the alarm. So I soldier on. My bag packed, the blood rush as I stagger to the armchair is incredible if not a bit of a worry. And as I settle in, Mr Dunnit returns from his well deserved Friday night darts-and-a-pint and says it's time for bed. OK, so it may be 11.30, but I just sat down! Oh man, it would be easier to stay at home. No doubt. Except for a couple of teeny details. I would never make LOs at home, just wouldn't get round to it. And it's just such a fun day.

Warning - this is all about what I made by myself I did

Here's the little book then, it's about 5.5" square and as you can see, is intended as a birthday book. It's been an antidote to the doom and gloom of post Christmas rubbish to work with these lovely papers - they're ipapers from Amber Ink. I know you already know this - but I bought 5 different patterns and the bunting image for five bucks..and they're never ending. How slow to catch up am I?!

So you can see how I used the punch that's on my WOYWW desk, to make the page tabs and a Cuttlebug folder that I love, it's a sort of officey file page. I used the ipapers to extend the width so that the birthday details aren't lost in the punched area. Then a handful of Hero Arts' stamps, couple inkpads and a cropadile saw to the rest. See, I sold my Bind it All last Year. So I used the cropadile to make the binding holes which was probably very labour intensive. It was. But that's fine, I've done it now.

I like it, it's fresh and cheerful. After all the glimpses, hope it was worth waiting to see! I completely forgot to say that over at Amber Ink there's a challenge - enter anything you make with one or more of Amber's products - the theme is organisation. Bit ironic for the likes of me! Go see!

Dear Santa....

..have a word with Mr Dunnit will you? I'm fairly sure that he deliberately misunderstood my simple answer to his annual question: 'what shall I get you for Christmas, darling?'

Now you see, we've had a year; if you swing by this blog relatively regularly, you might have started to understand that I returned to work full time after being a pampered and spoilt lazy stay at home mum for bloomin' years. I know that the world over I'm not doing nearly as much as millions of women do on a daily basis....but nevertheless, full time, moi?! And this work? For the first couple of months, unpaid and frankly, with some resistance, for Mr Dunnit at his Joinery Company. Then I kinda got into it a bit and started to accept that really, I should help out because I could. So I embraced it. And the nice part was (apart from secretly enjoying it) - I thought it would leave me with some choices in the Christmas present department. After all, I was being ever so good!

So I answered, unassumingly and with very un-greedy good grace, that something large and very shiny would be just lovely, thank you. By which of course, I meant a chunk of diamond on a ring, chain or earring posts - but you understood that immediately, huh.

Imagine my surprise then, on the 23rd December when a delivery was made at home of fifteen different size brown boxes, all relatively heavy and unhelpfully labelled in a language I do not speak.

Yep, it was my large shiny Christmas present alright. See how it shines.

So Santa, now it's installed and making the wood burner useable, I like it, really I do. Seriously though, - can you help him sort out his idea of a lovely pressie? And can you help him speak girly so I don't have to be my own interpreter next year? Can you please?

Yours in beautiful snug warmth, and constant romantic hope

Julia (Number 3 kerjillion and 12 on the nice list.)

xxxx

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 84

Well, there's still some space which is a miracle, and a finished project already..will photo that in proper light and show off about it...my word, 11 days into a New Year and I've finished something! There's my lovely glass mat (welcome to the club, Lin!) and a girt great pink punch. It's by Woodware and it's 4 teeny file tabs, different shapes. I love all things office-y that can be used in any way for cards or scrapbook pages. And I felt the need to buy this when I noticed that The Colonial had one. Hoist by my own jealousy, I have since discovered that hers has different shaped tabs - oh me oh my! Eagle eyes will see that I've still got Tracey's Cookie Cutter Dies in nesting ovals. They're on my desk to remind me to use them and give them back. I've had 'em about a month and will probably have for another month. But I will use them before they go back! Cards are still waiting to be contributed to the Phoenix Brass band's raffle prizes...LLJan, if you're reading, we deserve an evening, you him, him and me!

The very large pink spots are printed on some silvery holographic wrapping paper which is barely visible in this picture - how odd. That is for Scrap Lady Ally....her Secret Santa gift before Christmas was lacking this. I saw her last night. The fact that it's still on my desk makes me look even more unreliable; I'm embarrassed!

OK, so this turned into a confession, but yours doesn't have to - share with us do - upload a pic to your blog of your workspace - desk, table top, tray, workshop floor - whatever, wherever. Show us what you're doing today. Then link here and we'll swing by for a visit. I nearly very nearly got around everyone's desks this week. How inspirational your stuff is!

Not such a little green rocket..

You're doing the best you can, getting on, only whingeing at the people who know you best, and the post Christmas routine is a bit well, blah, and you really could do with a lovely bright shiney diversion.

You power through the day's official work because you need to be at home to do genuinely important ( but not life threatening) work of your own in helping to set up your new business. It's all ok, you're winning.

And then your car won't start.

And as you pull your lovely new CKidston spotty bag off the passenger seat in disgust, you notice that the pint of milk you're taking home for refrigeration has leaked. Which means the documents in your bag will be a bit whiffy when you hand them in at the bank tomorrow! And the helpful mechanic bloke from round the corner said he'd come over before the end of the day, which is entirely reasonable, but makes you feel neglected and well, put out. He says it sounds like the alternator's gone if the battery is flat. Huh? I don't really care, I just want it to work. A bit like the loss of broadband, or having your water turned off for a few hours, it is staggeringly inconvenient to live without such conveniences. I feel spoiled and Hilton-esque for complaining, but without a new alternator, what can I do?



Please, don't advise me about public transport, shanks' pony, or calling a friend. I'm enjoying the moany pouty fifteen year old that has sprung out of me this afternoon. She's likely dressed in skin tight green jeans and an orange t shirt and prowling around seeking attention. I'll leave you to figure out what hasn't changed.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Colour me lucky

Look at this beautiful brooch, dumfed and beaded by Twiglet. I won it, simply by leaving a comment. How easy for me. I'm genetically drawn to these colours and so this brooch is perfect for me. I'm also genteically drawn to the sort of crafts that I don't do from lack of any skill, and the collation of silks, fibres, beads and metallic threads into a wearable piece of art is beyond me. I love it. Thank you Twiglet.

Temper, temper

No New Year resolutions were made. Because I can't stick to them and I can't handle any more guilt when they crash and burn. Last night though, all my procrastinated plans for ribbon sorting came back and bit me on the beeeehind. Oh yeah. All I wanted was a length of lime green spotty ribbon. and in order to get it - I had to throw all of my ribbons onto the floor and get angry and hot. How grown up and big girl crafter is that!! Miss Dunnit was a bit alarmed and did not offer help. Mr Dunnit was much much more understanding. He says it was a reaction to some stresses we've been having over work. Well, I expect he realised it would be good to rationalise this mad situation! It was certainly a frustration. Actually, it still is - because in order to get to my stool and computer to whine at you about it, I had to step over it! Yep - it's still there. Almost as an ugly, writhing, snakey, knotty punishment. Well definitely, because let's face it, no-one else is going to sort it out, clear it up or even vaguely understand. Luckily, I'm over it already, and will finally do something tonight. I can't do it now because I'm actually working *cough* at home this morning. And I can't do it this afternoon because I have actually got to go into work. I hope I'll be in the mood for sorting and ironing by the time I'm free. Don't, do not, put money on seeing my sorted out ribbon collection in the next post. You know me well enough to know that would only happen if I have triumph and smugness to report!

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?

Oh my word...relatively tidy and showing a work in progress - yes fellow WOYWWers, I have suffered some strange and very likely temporary need to craft and be tidy at the same time!I got me some ipaper from that Amber Ink, and then started a little book - will show and tell a bit more if I finish it! You can see not one but two sets of Paper Artsy stamps (yep, still waiting for the mounting foam!) and I can count 6 ways to apply sticky - am on a mission to use or use up! You will not be surprised however, when I tell you that I gave up on that and used the old yellow Monster after a while, honestly, so fiddly these little applicators!! In my empty stamp basket on the right are some cards, in assortments of five, bagged up and waiting to be labelled - a small bunch of raffle prizes. If you're reading this and hoped to see work in progress towards next week's workshop - don't worry, I've hidden it for a surprise!

So, ifyou've shaken off your New Year torpor and your desk is set for some action, let's see it! Upload a pic to your blog, then leave a link here and we'll visit. Slowly for sure, but as many as possible, certainly we try to visit those who visit us. On this I failed dismally last week - I promise that I prioritised and regret that for a change, me and my leisure time weren't the priority! Anyhoo, join us do - it's fun, it's free and it's harmless. Unless you count an addiction to looking at everyone's desks!

Right, snap out of it!

So Shopkeeper Gal re-opened this morning, having spent days getting stock ready and re-arranged and sorted for the January Sale. I visited, obviously. I even had a list in an attempt to maintain a semblance of self control. I picked up the horrid sticky stuff for my unmounted stamps, picked up the smooth as silk white card for printing onto, picked up some fab polka dot Bazzill for a workshop next week. Doing well so far - all of these were on my list. Then of course, I see a sign that says that every wood mounted stamp in the place is half price. I had a teeny tiny splurge. 5 stamps in all - must be a record of self control.

And then I blew it and I'd like to entirely blame Helen. See, I've been eyeing up the Tim Holtz rosette/flower die thingy for some time, particularly as I swear, Helen talks about it every time I read her blog. So, understandably not in the sale, my bargains were wiped out and my expenditure doubled in one purchase. Dang. Now all I have to do is remember to go back for the foam mount tomorrow - because in my rush to get home and justify myself...I left it behind.

So now, with the return to absolute normality I need to get a grip, snap out of the 'blank page syndrome' and start to get on with it. I'll just go and start supper and then see if I can find my glasses, and a pen, and the list of workshop plans and oh well, you know - wish me luck, I may take some time getting around to 'it'!