What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 139 the edit!!

Oh, and just to catch y'all out, I'm posting this early Tuesday evening...need to be on the road early tomorrow and..hey, well, why not! Well, starring on mine, nothing particular, but a spectacular mess.  How unusual!  I took this photo yesterday afternoon before the light started to fail (I thought), and it has changed slightly.  Because of course, even though I've had 31 days to do it, my February calendar page isn't ready...and actually still isn't, but it's nearly there.  There's an acrylic box at left which houses my stick on and other gems...open, with a badly drawn sketch thrown on top of it.  Under that are the scraps that I used to make cards that you've seen on this blog recently.  The Elusive Images stamp set and the few clear stamps underneath that are waiting to have their fate decided - put away (again) or give up and sell on. Dunno yet, probably will wait until they really are in my way!  Inevitably there's heaps of glue dots and rubbish that could so quickly and easily be put in the bin.  That would make the place look better.  But hey, the ladder's still out in the garden, why should I have guilt about tidying?! For those of you that drew in your breath when you saw the photo, let me assure you that I did NOT clear up before I started on the calendar.  No siree, didn't occur to me.  Desperate, slutty measures. 

So, share your space..desk, floor, tray, arm of chair, kitchen worktop..wherever and whatever you are creating, we like to see.  Use WOYWW in your post title so we can find it easily, and link your post here....we'll visit if we can.  But you have to visit too...reciprocal nosiness is very much a part of this thing! 

**Ahem...step onto soap box**

Because of our expanding numbers, adverts and posts dated prior to Wednesday or un-related to WOYWW will for the most part be ignored...it's much easier to click away than to really 'police' this.  There aren't many rules, but for the sake of your hit rate/comments/reputation, you should reconsider doing  WOYWW if your intention is to gain from it in any other way than by becoming a part of this very friendly, silly, artistic, inspiring and sometimes tidy community.  Thank You.  Please scroll right down for the edit!!

Janet accuses me of 'do what I say, not what I do' and it's taken me a while to work out why...and I realise it's because I say in the soap box section that posts dated prior to Wednesday will be ignored....of course it's not at all what I mean....I mean that if you link any post other than a WOYWW one (for example, your regular Tuesday post that is unrelated to WOYWW) then it will for the most part, be ignored.  Too many real WOYWW posts to visit.  The time you load your post for WOYWW is of no consequence, and if it suits y'all better for me to post for about 1am (GMT) on Wednesdays, then I will..but I won't be doing it live!!

Ouf!

Next weekend is Ludgershall crop.  Ouf!  That's come around quickly.  If you're a long time visitor to this blog (thanks) you may remember this LO, from the January 2010 crop.  Yeah well, the 'Intention' to do this annually may seems to have escaped me.  Surprise!  But no sweat, I can do one this year.  But can I? The January crop this year was too early, too soon, too sudden for me to get my head around anything like looking toward the rest of the year, so my 'intentions' LO will be revisited this weekend.  Probably. I have every intention of doing a 2012 page based on this idea, because I think I've got some.  Intentions that is.  Some of them are even good.  Mr Dunnit managed to contribute to my conversation about this yesterday by making a couple of suggestions that will not be put into print.  Although I do acknowledge that number eight - 'spend less' was meant to mean spend less on craft stuff, rather than honing the grocery bills!  Wish me luck...this year I fell I'll have to hone the list of intentions just to get them all on one LO!

I have some housekeeping to do.....if you're a WOYWWer, this may be of significant interest to you.  Mary Anne has found this:

http://xxxtglxxx.blogspot.com/2012/01/blogger-issues-white-screen-no- comments.html

This will take you to a blog called The Great Leveller and talks about how to make a fix that allows people that currently can't, to comment on your blog.  A lot of us find if the comment box is at the foot of your post, that 'embed' prevents commenting...but where the blog provides a new page with comments and comment box, all is possible!  So if you wanna get a few more comments, this may well be worth the two minutes and two tabs it takes.  It is a temporary fix....Blogger itself has to come up with a permanent one...so no growling at The Great Leveller, huh!! 

And not only but also...this blog, thanks to Janet at fairythoughts, is featured as Craft Stamper's March blog of the month.  Janet nominated, the magazine contacted me, I wrote a few words and promptly forgot all about it;  March seemed a long way off.  But of course, the world of magazines runs strangely and the March edition is out now.  Shopkeeper Gal saves me a copy, so I will see it at some stage, but meanwhile...thanks.  There's been a really warm and positive reaction and I can't tell you how big headed smug and self satisfied I am about it.  This edition will not be used for chip wrappers any time soon!

Really, that was a week?

 Oh I know we say it a lot on Wednesdays, but only because it's true..the last week has just disappeared.  And what have I to show for it? Ah well, in craft terms, not a lot.  Although the two very similar cards you see here are the result of a very long time spent at my desk, mostly fiddling about.  The stamp is from a set (of course) by Stampin'Up!. There are three outline sketch florals and three semi solid 'fillers' for adding colour to the blooms.  I say semi-solid because they aren't solid, slightly grained to give a watercolour effect. As always with SU! stamps, for the price, I get cross that I have to mount and index them myself.  And then for this set...I had to dig out  my stamp positioning tool.  It was a dig too, and that's why I've had the set for nearly a month without producing anything worth showing.  Still, now I've been through the last box in the room of shame (in your house it's called the spare room), I've cleared some more junk, found my two re-positioners, put one up for sale and made these cards.  Feels like a result huh!  It most certainly does, although if you could see my desk, you'd think I'd made enough cards to re-stock a shop! 
Turns out the little deckchair (Bookchair, Trademark) that I've taken unused from Miss Dunnit's room to use for my ipad stand is doing a good job too - whenever you see jaunty canvas striping, you'll know I wasn't even energetic enough to get off my butt and take a photo away from my desk.  
You will probably notice too that I've re-decorated the blog again.  Had to.  The 'Queen of Trends' and the zebra stripe edges was doing my head in, please don't ask why I liked it only a month ago and now I don't -  I'm a very complicated person you know.  
Have a lovely weekend.

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 138

Actually, nothing.  Well, loads of stuff of course, but nothing that shows I've moved on from last week..I've just covered it all up with office work, which does not merit a photo on the blog!  So instead, I've been planning and plotting, and here is my lap as at about 9pm last evening.  I did have my feet up on the wooden chest you can just see, but for reasons of anonymity, I put my feet on the floor and sat in the chair as I was taught by my mother. Grainy photo aside, I'm a bit jubilant that you don't get a down shot of my ample bosom and tummy too! This notebook shows stamp codes and ink colour choices - I've been asked to do a workshop for my friend Janet who has a shop in Exmouth and so I'm in planning stages...which is hard.  It involves looking at stamp catalogues.  I know.  
Meanwhile, back in the real world...how goes it with you?  Show us do, how your mojo is allowing your work surface to evolve. Put a pic on your blog, put WOYWW in the post title and link it here.  I have to say that there were so many desks last week that I didn't make it...and blogger was a bit unco-operative too; it was heart-warming to read comments on my way around and discover it wasn't just my computer!  The thing is, I now have to decide - spend the week visiting WOYWW posts, or catchup with your blogs on other days as well...I'm a bit torn!  

I wanna talk Pub Grub....

....since there's been absolutely no crafting at my desk, let me tell you a story. 

My girlfriends and I - you have seen them referred to as 'The Coven'  - a name inferred by the Enthusiastic Educator's husband (a very brave man indeed)-  have for a few years, celebrated our birthdays, by getting together once a month, for a nice pub meal and gifts. It's lovely.  At Christmas, we do the same and for as many years it's been a table booked at the same place. 

Free photo courtesy of Winnond.

 Because the food is great, the menu vast and the service friendly and timely.  This Christmas, not for the first time, we were forced to comment on the general lack of lighting, acknowledged that the masses of Christmas lights strung about the place were indeed atmospheric, if a little lacking in erm, light. (And actually on that particular night, a lot of lights going off unexpectedly type action..we suspected fairy light overload.)  In fact, we had pre-ordered from the Christmas menu, so we kinda put up with it and a jolly evening was had.  Now, fast forward to last weekend.  Mr Dunnit, my one true love and all round best ever person, had a birthday.  When I asked if he'd like to feast on some home cooked delicacy involving hours of preparation and toil and therefore the necessity to enjoy and be grateful, he suggested that we went to this same pub, so that he could taste for himself why we 'The Coven' liked it.  And so I must admit to some reservation when I made the reservation.  I was right.  We had to use our phones to light the Menus.  Of course, I took this up with our waitress. I of course alluded to our 'old eyes', but really, this was a bit much. She expressed surprise at our discomfort...and gave us more time to wrestle with the choices that we could actually read.  Rather unsurprisingly then, our enthusiasm for our meal was a little coloured - indeed, Miss Dunnit couldn't actually see well enough to distinguish the colour of the leaves in her mixed salad..red lettuce leaves or green....and oh no - is that beetroot or not? It sort of ends up making you cross.  So, when came bill paying, I mentioned it again, adding that we were skipping dessert because we couldn't be bothered to battle in the dark with menus or not being able to see the food properly,  and I said, sadly it would put us off returning. The young woman said that she would tell management. She came back with the credit card machine and then had to step away from our table to gain enough light to see the screen on the machine .  And without a hint of irony, she said "I've spoken to the Manager.  He says the lights are deliberately low to create atmosphere and if you want them, they have torches behind the reception counter'.Well now, colour me dim....but rather than buying torches and expecting us to swallow the dark-equals-good-atmosphere idea, wouldn't it be a better thing to complement the fab food with decent lighting and surroundings to match...that's atmosphere, isn't it?

A sort of half day...

Strange colour.....it's navy red and white really!

 Here's a couple of cards from the first workshop that I half conducted this year.  Lemme explain:  on a Thursday there's a workshop in the morning that repeats in the evening. In between, I generally have a late lunch with Mr Dunnit and faff around the house getting not much done. I know, that's a shocker.  Often I come home and because I've spent the morning watching other people make cards,I feel quite inspired to get stuck in.  But that wears off really quickly when I realise that my guillotine is in my tote, at the shop, waiting for the evening re-run.  Oh well, I'll manage.  Just die cut some...oh, can't..the die I want to use is also in my tote...you get the picture.  So I've learned to sort laundry or do a bit of baking after the morning workshop..not such a mojo killer as not having your stuff to hand.  Yesterday I discovered why it's such a good idea to leave the stuff at the shop.  I squeezed in ANOTHER dental appointment in the afternoon.  He really hurt me...took the offending (and expensive!) problem out. So I wasnt able to go back to conduct the workshop...I was still shaking at tea time.  And I'm not even scared of dentistry....just my age showing I guess!  Shopkeeper Gal stepped up and did it instead of letting the gals down, how nice of her.  So, I just need a couple of days to get over the feeling that someone smashed my jaw with a brick, the feeling that I now have a 6 foot deep hole in my jaw, the feeling that the three lots of treatment that I paid for prior to yesterday were a complete waste of money and that the dentist knew that, and then of course, the galling feeling of shelling out £47 to be so bruised.  And then I'll be back at the front of the line, supporting and believing in the NHS as I thoroughly do.  Miss Dunnit and I worked out that this treatment may well have cost over 900 dollars in the US.  Well, I would have had to suffer, no doubt.  And you would have been hearing about it. No doubt!

Have a lovely weekend.  Off to create delightful supper involving mashed potato!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 137

Gracious me Julia Dunnit, is that actually something crafty going on at your table?  
Yes indeed it is.
And why is it daylight?  
Because I took the picture on Tuesday lunchtime, just as Mr Dunnit came home to ask me to go out to make some deliveries.  And I was afraid that I wouldn't get back to it. And I was right.
And why is there a large ladder and a fork in the garden, interrupting your erm, view?
Because Mr Dunnit had to repair a wind tortured fence.  (The ladder is stored on the ground in a small gap between our shed and said fence panel).  What I should have answered is the bleedin' obvious: Mr Dunnit doesn't excel at putting stuff away.  Unless it's in his workshop of course! 
So what's on your desk?
A pad of fresh, cheerful  Tilda papers - the nearest I've come to liking anything Tilda-ish enough to buy it.  My jar of buttons...with a few pink ones sprinkled about the desk (sounds artistic that way).  Lots of rolls of different size and dimension glue dots.  A small deckchair.  Yep.  Bought for Miss Dunnit as a book holder some years ago, and relatively unused.  Now employed for my ipad.  A wire bound notebook, standing on its side.  I'm using the pages of this book as the 'scrap' surface to swipe, splosh and 'clean' stamps and sponge inks and blah...Elizabeth did something similar last year and ended up with a bunch of wonderful journal pages.  We'll see! 
So now I've seen yours, shall I show you mine?
Yes, please!  Upload a pic of your work station/surface/floor/worktop/armchair/lap tray to your blog, title your blog post with WOYWW and link here.  (The title is important, finding the right post can be time consuming enough to make a visitor click away...) Not everyone will visit, but a few will, and believe me, the inspiration is: well, inspirational.  
Can I promote my etsy/shop/tv programme/latest product?
No.  We love a recommendation based on good service, and no-one minds you mentioning your sources, but really, this is not an advertising platform. It's a bit of fun.  If you want to advertise...write a really good blog that people wanna visit.  Take my advice, I ain't using it. And if I'm exercising a double standard, it's OK see, because this is my blog.  


Thank you a kerjillion times if you got involved yesterday.  Huge fun, a great buzz for Stephanie and, as Di almost suggested, we're currently considering our own range of knickers *grin*!

Heart on sleeve moment

Well, the title suggests that this post will make a change, but I'm a 'heart on my sleeve' type of gal and I'm too old to change now.  
I had this idea to freshen theWOYWW logo in preparation for the new year, because it's a ridiculous acronym and deserves a spring clean, and because it looks as though it's going to make a third anniversary for goodness sake.  Honestly, you'd think none of us had anything else to do! 

So when you need a nice design and you don't have a single atom of clue about such things, to whom do you turn? Yep, I commissioned a design studio!  I know, how self important is that!  And the Design Studio took the brief and frankly ran away with it and gave me choices and asked me questions that I didn't understand.  So I made up the answers, and now have three styles to choose from.  Of course, it happens that my sissy Stephanie is a partner over at the Design Studio, but y'all knew that from previous bragging posts.  

Steph has posted these on her blog too....wanna visit her and tell her which you prefer?  I have already chosen, and will not be influenced.  Well I might.  But likely not.   
See you tomorrow for WOYWW, old style or new!  The badge might change but believe me...oh lord, nothing else does!

Is it just me?

I did this LO at the Crop, the weekend before last.  (Originally, I typed that sentence as 'I CREATED this LO'.... and when I read it, couldn't believe how pompous it sounded dahling..) 

over exposed...only good light in the conservatory this morning and it's absolutely freezing in there.  I actually moved fast!

Anyway, until this morning, I hadn't done any more than unpack and set it onto the work surface behind my desk.  My 'pending' pile, I think we could politely call it.  The other LOs I did at that same crop were immediately put into the album.  Note to self: you need more page protectors.  Now here's the question:  Is this LO (of me and that Lunch Lady Jan) in the pending pile because I've run out page protectors, or is it, as I rather worryingly suspect, waiting to be finished?  Damned if I can remember, but feel rather sure that I'd have doubled up in the album for now rather than have it hanging about....so what had I intended to do?   If you don't know and I can't remember, how am I going to get on with the rest of the day? Argh, makes me so cross with myself!  But the biggest question remains - is it just me? 

Who doesn't like a show?

badly copied advert..please follow the link for good pictures and proper links!

Of course, I mean a craft show.  The nearest to me geographically is the Make It! Show at Farnborough's FIVE exhibition centre.  (If you're anywhere near as old as me and know the area, you'll remember it as Farnborough Airport - it still is, of course, but there's more to it these days!)
This year the show opens on February 24th at 10am each day, (half an hour earlier for disabled visitors) and continues till close of play on Sunday 26th February.  It's a good show; plenty of catering or space to eat your picnic, free parking (unusual) and aisles that are wide enough to mean there's room to walk around the crowd clamouring over one thing or another.  All these things are important to a woman of a certain age who has a bit of cash to spend, huh!  
The list of exhibitors includes card making, stamping, scrapbooking, beads, finished crafts from foreign shores, wools, fabrics, a few clothes, storage, honey and books, the introduction of stitching and knitty type crafts certainly reflects current trend, another good reason to visit...it's so important to be trendy.*cough* . So there'll be a lot to look at and even more to buy I suspect!   There's also a selection of workshops that you can book yourself into; a good reason to purchase advance tickets for sure. A full list of exhibitors, and other important details can be found at the web site. There's a Facebook page too.
 If you're a demonstrator or exhibitor and read this old blog, or join in with WOYWW, do let us know in the comments, am sure a number of us will be visiting and would be nice to be able to say hi!
Make It's website, further details, booking forms for workshops and advance tickets can all be found here.
Please note that this post is brought to you by me, Julia Dunnit,  at the request of the Make It organisers.  No money changed hands. Although I now have a free ticket.  But I'd have been going anyway (on the Friday) - don't tell them!  

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 136

Well, mine feels relatively unchanged to be honest.  And acts as proof that if you pile enough stuff on it, you can use the stuff as a work surface without any problem!  So I've wrapped up a couple of bits for posting and used the marker and ruler to draw some charts for Mr Dunnit...and spent a few quiet minutes cleaning off a stamp or two - Stazon cleaner at right.  And cleaned off my scissors...at left.  And made no decisions about the apparent 'pile' at the back..yet.  All this on top of the Really Useful Box I collected yesterday.  This is the clear stamp storage.  It's deep enough to hold loads...it's shallow enough to fit where it's going and it's the best I can do...laminated sleeves neatly loaded with stamps and stored in file sleeves just doesn't work for me.  Renders them inaccessible and renders me absolutely pathetic when it comes to putting them away.  I'd rather rummage through a box!  So I'm going to deliberately STAIN each image with black Stazon (so I can see what it is!!) and then chuck 'em in the box...you can't say the style doesn't suit me.  We all know that would just be kind words..really, and I know 96% of you are horrified by this as an solution.  It's OK though, cos I'm in the 4%!


Go on then, spill. What's going on at your workspace this week.  Put WOYWW in the title and link your Wednesday desk photo here.  The visiting will be slow, but visits you will get...it doesn't matter if you link at No1 or No 150, promise!  No blatant advertising please!  

Points of Inspiration: 5: My Sister

You know that Sissy Dunnit is Stephanie over at Luscious Life Studios right?  And she's a designer and a clever clogs and all round good egg, right?  Well, she had some some of her designs committed to fabric just before Christmas.  And then, after a holiday in Australia, Hawaii and England, just to prove she's no slouch, she made these cushions up from her designs.  You'll recognise Lily (at the front) because the original design was bragged about on this blog.  See, Steph took my advice and made a brightly coloured version of it.  It's a beauty aint it, all bright colours and polka dots and you know, it speaks vividly of the fun in my sissy's character. Actually, so did the original, paler, more grown up colour way. You couldn't help but be cheered by these two patterns, huh. 
You know how it is, my advice amounted to a kerjillion emails worth of going on and on and on about loving turquoise and lime, so she changed it to shut me up.  Works for me.  And now it's a fabric...wow, works for her too.  And won't it be amazing when it's a paper or a digi?  Makes me giddy thinking about it.  When I grow up, I'm gonna be just like my big Sister.

Note to self

Stop moaning about the lack of space in your work area.  Or, stop buying stuff.  Today I've tidied up sufficiently to discover that I need a shoe horn to get anything new into the correct places. 

So a shoe horn I have fashioned!  Yeah, I finally made it over to Shopkeeper Gal's to have a rummage in the sale.  The beeyoooooootiful wood mounted stamps with little orange stickers were £1 each.  £1.  And the boxed Hero Arts sets were £5 each.  I mean, it would have been rude not to, huh.  I shall choose a quieter day to go back again - so I can fully concentrate; it was busy, and I was chatting of course, and that doesn't help my focus!  Also pictured is the new Portobello Road stuff from DO Crafts.  The first I think, of many vintage and new style scrapbook collections featuring all things Great Britain and Union flags.  It's a big year here, in dear old blighty, and this particular Brit intends to make the most of it.  Meanwhile, back in the bulging cupboards...I think I've resigned myself to a storage 'solution' for the clear stamps, and will show and tell next week. I've also had a good clear out of the 12" paper section.  I haven't tackled the felt pens or embellishments yet.  There's a limit to my strength of purpose.  Well, unless it's about taking note of my own notes.  Then I'm hopeless, obviously. 

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 135

Well. Loads of shhhtuff.  Waiting to be organised.  After my mugs made me want to do something, I made a calendar page for January.  And got it into my head that the clear stamps and Christmas stamps should be put away properly to make some room.  Which involved emptying the shelf that they were on.  Which involved cluttering up the desk with stuff that I've been shoving onto the shelf for the want of somewhere to put it.  My bad.  So today you can see detritus.  Some very large Heidi Swapp playing cards (boxed, under the CD), a blank canvas (there's a joke there somewhere) a bag of souvenir postcards and tickets from Tenerife. (A year ago this month, that holiday!) and then the usual suspects too.  Even Jan's desk bin has been unceremoniously shoved aside to let me at the clear stamps.  Man if I didn't love the images, truly, I would dump the lot.  Instead, they are on the floor in the lounge.  

I thought that perhaps if I watched some catch-up tv it would make organising them a bit easier.  Not so.  Uh uh.  Gave me pins and needles. Couldn't see the small images properly to sort them.  Couldn't get some clean enough to make 'em clingy.  Lost the will to live.  Time to compromise! Sorted the Christmas from the others, filed those with the Christmas wood mounts and have squashed the others back onto their original shelf.  There has to be a better way.  Part of my day was spent modelling today.  Man, I have such a varied life.  This is a scheduled post...am off to the Dentist again; 3rd time this holiday. I may be some time!


So, post and brag, do.  Please show us your work surface and what you're up to; upload a pic to your blog, put WOYWW in the title and link it here.  People will visit - reciprocal visits are plenty, and please: no blatant advertising, this is about sharing what you're doing, what you've got and where you do it.  Don't be the spoiler.  

Points of Inspiration: 4 More colour!

 I was chuntering a little about the loss of the dishwasher this morning.  I know it's hard to imagine me in a whiney, less than good tempered mood, but stretch yourself if you can. The dishwasher situation is serious.  I noticed on Christmas Eve eve that it was taking rather longer to run the cycle than it should.  So there followed a test run after we'd provided supper for 7 that evening.  Suspicion confirmed, the programmer is shot - it won't stop working!  Next day, Christmas Eve, after supper for 9, I decide it's safer to wash up..because I don't know how long  a cycle is meant to be, I don't want to forget and leave it running pointlessly and I'm scared that if I do leave it, it'll blow up and spoil my kitchen. And therefore, Christmas.  So I've been a slave to the sink and the drying up.  I know, how tough; but do note the use of the singular person in that sentence.  I.  Turns out everyone else is really busy at washing up time.  Ha! My childhood excuses coming back to bite me on the bum!  

why are iphone photos always so bad?!!

Anyhooo....for once when putting stuff away, all the other, non matching mugs were still waiting to go into the cupboard, so I piled up these, my favourites and took a photo.  I don't know why it pleases me to have them, but it does...shape, colour outside, white insides, practical handle I can actually hold properly and of course, the colours.  Made me, for the first time in ages, want to get to my desk and make something.  So I'm going to.  Even if it's just a mess, at least it will be colourful.  And probably not red and gold.


Oh also, you can see, I've been housekeeping.  Honestly, I don't believe myself to be trendy at all, how funny a delusion that would be!!  But, I  love the blog template, so I have to use it!!