Crisis averted!

Remember this life changing storage board for my cut'n'dry foam pieces? Well, I was away on an unplanned holiday - really, it was..ask my Father, he sprang the idea as a form of emotional blackmail to 'help him recuperate'. Hard to say no!
Oh, sorry huge digression.
So there sat my lovely new sponge board, proud and useful on my desk, patiently waiting for me to come back and be gloatingly arty. It got me back. Well, not the lovely inexpensive board of course, after all, what can go wrong with a piece of carefully annotated chipboard? No gentle reader, it was the the most important element known to mankind. The sun. It shone and bathed my desk in unusual light and warmth. And the warmth done gone made the sticky velcro pads unsticky. Slidey, if you like. Actually, that's the best and most accurate definition. Slidey. Indeed, when I finally got to my desk on Monday to do real work, I picked up the old (but new) sponge board to stow it elsewhere and every damn sponge slid clean off its fixing. Argh, I don't mind telling you.
But you know how laid back and cool I
am in any crisis. You couldn't tell whether I was laughing or whining a chain of expletives, honestly. Because you weren't there. So I glued the velcro dots back onto the card. With proper undiluted rage. Wait, no. Proper undiluted PVA. And as you can see, all is right with the sponge board. And therefore, the crisis is a 'never was'. Just as well huh, or this would've been another whiney post.
Have a lovely weekend.

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 164

So sorry this is a late post.......loooong story about boring computers!

Which is most impressive? Yesterday's beautiful sunshine or my practically unused desk?  It shows signs of use pre-holiday...some stamps to put away (OK, to clean) and the button jar in the wrong place.  There's no bowl of sponges thanks to my extraordinary life changing organisation.  Which hit a snag this week actually - more later.  The ipad is so positioned because I want to listen to it while I sit under the window outside, so thoughts of working at my desk are a little premature....the paperwork you can just see relates to the business and I'm catching up with that.  Do you spy a different ladder?  That's a really long one to aid the controlling of a vine that grows up and over the back of the house.  SInce we were away for ten days, it's trying to take over the windows, so we're preparing to be aggressive!
That's it in my world.  Show off yours, do, it's bound to be FAR more interesting.  Upload a  photo to your blog of where you work, put WOYWW in the blog title, if you can and don't need it, turn off the Word Verification thingy and then link here.  Visits will be slow and steady!  I thank you.

Walk with me awhile....

The amateur photographer in me was awoken by this sight as I drove past at the weekend.  Yesterday I took my camera to it and spent a lovely few minutes snapping away pretending I knew what I was doing. Isn't it a lovely sight?  I can't remember this particular field ever being poppy strewn, but I'm told that the seeds lie dormant for up to twenty years, so as soon as the farmer decided against using this field for a crop, bam!, here are the poppies.  So I invite you to walk with me, ponder, enjoy the wonderful sunshine and revel in the extraordinary colours of land and sky.  I don't walk for pleasure.  I need a reason.  Like a shop with a Mars bar or a pub with a G&T at the end of the walk.  Having said that, golf is too much of a reason.  Oh I'm so contrary! But the ten minutes or so it took me to get to this field and the few minutes I spent revelling in being a photographer were lovely, and I'm very pleased with my result.  And on the way home, I managed to think about some bits and pieces that remain to be caught up with, so it was a good outing.  Maybe this is why people do it.  Fresh air therapy, I get it.  Although, to be completely honest, I didn't do a lot of walking.

But I did enjoy the fresh air.  And the freewheel from here to where I have to cross the road to get home was a blast!

Hola!

7pm, 28 degrees and looooong shadows.  Irresistible.

 My lovely parents were desperate for sunshine; their most recent holiday had been rather inconvenienced by Papa's life threatening illness.  Medically 'fit to fly', they asked advice about where they should go on a relatively short flight.  Well, you will understand that there was some anxiety amongst us children about them going anywhere without 'back up'.  So we Dunnits went with them, to our place in the sun.  And by golly, it was sunny.  I have to say it was all very sudden and I wasn't really caught up from being away before I was off again, but hey, you don't turn down these chances, huh!  It was lovely, and the best part was seeing both parents eating and drinking as normal, Dad will have even put on some weight;  he declared himself fully recuperated as he finished his millionth bowl of prawns in garlic and chilli oil.  We've played two games this week - chase the Prawns and hunt the Sangri-La.  Of course, the Sangri-La is the great Spanish drink Sangria, but try saying that after sharing a litre jug between three of you at the beach bar.  It was the best I've ever tasted. If you're jealous about the sun - I understand, truly...and I promise, I enjoyed it for everyone who's missed it.  And now, normal service, life work and some catching up must be resumed.......just give me a couple of minutes would you, I'm sure I can come up with a reason not to get going.....

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 163..for reals..

I'm not here.  Again.  But you can't tell my Mum, she already knows and she doesn't mind.  We're together, see.  which is why I was unable to comment or indeed post the correct number for last week! Sun - fries my brain; so unused to it! So I thought you may like to continue my cupboard tour.   

Mr Dunnit built the cupboards and they have sliding doors which is why you have to see the cupboards in two halves.  This is the scrapbooking half.  Papers on the right hand shelves, photos on the third shelf, behind the packets are long awaited blank mini albums in various shapes that once spoke of scrapbooking ambition.  Bottom is a basket of punches...much weeded, it now contains a handful of borders, tag shapes and others that I deem 'essential'....I can't part with them, but don't use them a lot. In the end section are the scrapbooking embellishments....stickers and alphabets in the top shelf..also a box filled with 'kits' that I've got together to take at a moment's notice to a crop or such.  Dwindling fast though, I don't 'kit' as often as I crop!  The other polythene boxes contain jewels, tags and journalling spots, chipboard, metal pieces etc, respectively.  The bottom shelf shows more of the boards that actually make up the shelves and my spare acrylic blocks...again, I like to have plenty because of the odd workshop or event.  The PC and stool are in the corner of the room directly behind my desk..it's all of 6ft from front to back.  The checked bag is a gift from Sarah and we use it as the 'beverage bag' for crop.  You can also see where I keep my Copics.  So now you can probably work out how often I use them.  There is only one stool in this room - I drag it between desk and PC bench...it's fine and discourages visitor type distraction! Like I need any help on that score, I welcome distraction, it's an excuse for procrastination.  So there we are, my desk might be a nightmare, but the cupboards are a little better, surely?  

Show me what you're up to in the cupboards, desks or work surface department today.  Load a pic onto your blog, put WOYWW in your Post title and link here.  Couldn't be easier!  

To prove that I'm well........

But I sort of am.., I think.  The whole colours thing...the seven shades of wee wee, it's a bit too dark and same-y for me, so this masterboard and card that resulted from the background is about as wee wee as I can get.  I remember at a wedding I overheard a guest talking about another - 'how many shades of navy is she wearing for heaven's sake'...well this has kind of stuck with me, and so shades of any single colour are a bit of a scare, but browns especially, because of the whole grunge thing and not knowing really when to stop. Psychotherapists dream, me, donchafink?!  So I applied heavy amounts of my current favourite Distress Ink, Wild Honey.  Current as in most recently purchased and favourite because I don't have the Limited Edition summer colours. (Yet.) ( I think.) And  the addition of white helps me to stop hyperventilating and besides, if I produced a master board workshop without using this Kaiser flourish stamp, people would think I was ill.  And I'm really not, despite what you may think having read this.

Life Changing.

Look!  See what I was doing!  Oh man this has changed my life.  Really, a roll of velcro sticky dots and an idea off several WOYWW desks and I'm a happy old gal.  Page back through any number of work desk posts from me and that ceramic pot is on my desk filled with used pieces of Cut N Dry foam. Nice pot, once had a flowering plant of some variety in it.  Naturally, I killed the plant and employed the pot by way of alleviating the guilt. But the foam is all springy and pingy and well, foamy, so it doesn't stack or behave properly and I have to spill the contents to find a suitable colour and they're all mixed up and cross contaminated and well, ARGH!  So I've rescued the pieces that are obviously one colour use only, I've written on the edges with a fine tip marker and now stick it on the appropriate matching velcro dot after use.  They're on a piece of mount board, so it's standing up to the handling pretty well...let's face it, I don't use these tools every day, these techniques are still outside my comfort zone really. Note:  they're on a piece..not pieces..so the key here is that the tidying has a condensing result again.  I fear my guilt will never end though.  The ex flower-pot, ex sponge-pot -  it's a gonner.

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 163

I'm not here today.  It doesn't mean that my desk is clear, tidy or clean.  It just means that there's not a lot going on...so I thought you may like to see the swing to the left.

I can reach all this from where I sit, but to use the Big Shot, I do have to get off my erm, stool. It looks tidy from the height of the worktop...but in a photo - ach.  So you see the pots of embossing powder on the top left, and in order under that shelf are inkpads...per shelf - Distress inks/stains and Stazon, then pigment ink pads, then Fluid Chalk ink pads and on the botom shelf, two baskets - one with dye ink pads and one with Brilliance ink pads. yes, I love 'em all.  The white drawers at right are full of embellishments, tape, tools and apparently loads of stuff I need.  I might open them and photo them one day.  I might clear them out one day..they'll probably condense into two sensible sizes!  At the time of building this room, I thought this would be a great storage solution, but actually, I prefer the baskets on shelves, more portable and I do move stuff a lot - to crops, workshops etc. 

The toy boxes at right under the desk are a necessary evil, they store the sort of multiples that you need for doing 'event' days...multiple heat guns, paper to protect tables, light boxes, paper trimmers..you know.  It's a bit over exposed in the corner, but that's my scrap paper boxes and you can just see the open needle case and WOYWW baby wipe cover from Jo and Annie at Sister's Crafty Creations...the needle case is full of decorative pins which I like to look at.  I'm not great at using them...obviously.  So there we have it, a bit more of my favourite room.  

Show us what you're doing this week, post a photo on you blog, put WOYWW in your post title and link it here...fascinating stuff.  

Fancy silicone? A review...of sorts.

Mention on WOYWW of my relatively new attachment to silicone glue sparked quite a lot of interest.  So I thought I'd try to summarise some of the comments and my experience of the stuff. 
First, this brand is craft specific and is odourless.  I couldn't use the DIY stuff because the smell is awful and it comes in too large a quantity for me to deal with it without a tantrum.  You can see that the glue in these two syringes is not entirely clear...that's because I leave them on my desk or in a basket in daylight and it does discolour eventually.  Fresh from the tube it's crystal clear.  If you use the glue in normal use it won't last years and you won't notice any change in it.  If you leave it in a draw for a couple years, expect it to smell horrid. It's air drying, so if you lose the lid or the syringe top, might as well kiss it goodbye....or put a blob of blue-tack over it...it must remain airtight.  Unless you like picking at tiny apertures with a pin to remove plugs of oddly shaped glue.......
The manufacturer of this product sells the syringes too...indeed a tube and a syringe together as a starter kit if you feel the need. If you don't have the syringes, you can squeeze the tube and pick the blob of glue off with a cocktail stick or the like. 
It's a great dimensional glue. Does the job of a foam pad, in a slightly more sophisticated way.  If you're sticking onto creased ribbon for example, the glue will take up the 'slack' and fill the valleys so that your embellishment will sit evenly.  Or of course, you can stick things at angles by applying more glue in one area than another.  Useful too if you have shaped stuff to stick..like a few die cut leaves that you've carefully shaped - the glue sticks and holds their shape, and you can dictate the height of overlapping and overall finished height.  Useful.  If you can get used to not squashing it flat - you have to trust that by placing the 'thing' on top of the glue blob, it will stick without having to apply pressure.  It does.  But it is sort of counter-intuitive.
Because it's relatively slow drying, excess glue needs to be wiped off onto a scrap or area that you aren't going to work on, lean on or put food onto.  It tastes awful and feels slimey. If you get the glue onto a section of card that it shouldn't be on...argh..it needs to be removed without panic and finally taken off with something dry.  Go back to foam pads if you're using mirror card.  It shows up every silicone weakness you have and then magnifies it to make you feel foolish. Ask me how I know all these things.
So that's it really...I like it a lot.  I could live without it, but there's about 8 kerjillion things on my desk that I can say that about.  At least this one has a practical purpose.  

It's a cracker....

Ha, that got you swooning at the thought, huh!  No, nothing to do with that particular season.  Instead, I wanted to put an idea to you.  Well some of you.  And it was LunchLadyJan's idea, not mine.  Because she's braver than me.  But it is a cracker of an idea.  OK, get on with it.  How about, on Saturday October 13th 2012, you come to a 'Crop/bring a craft to do' day here in Ludgershall or somewhere near.  Bring another WOYWWer, or two.  We'll meet, chat and possibly even craft.  Most importantly, we'll have lunch...designed and prepared by erm, LunchLady Jan.  So pretty much what we did recently with Elizabeth and Di, but scaled up a bit.  It's fair to say that Jan has been trying to co-ordinate a meet of about five WOYWWers but diaries are a problem, so the idea of picking a date relatively well into the future seems sensible, non?  Might give you a chance to consider your diary, and make a plan.  There are railway stations within an easy drive so you could be collected from Andover, Pewsey, Salisbury...check 'em out if trains work for you, that's the sort of co-ordinating that we need to know about!  We think about 10am to 4pm, we think that to cover hall hire and food it will probably be about £10 per head for the day...it will work at whatever it costs, this isn't a commercial venture for profit, obviously.  
If you'd like to come, leave a comment...if we can get a feel for numbers, I can get the hall booking committed and we can look forward. Don't be afraid of coming on your own...I'll be nervous enough for both of us. And it will be fine.
Told you it was a cracker.


And...if you live too far away, but tend to visit the Crafts for Christmas show at the NEC....watch out, there's another plan being hatched!

Performance Anxiety

Colour on this is looking particularly naff.....

After all the shenanigans of family, unexpected and planned travel, catching up and getting behind again, I've finally arrived at the day of the men's cards workshop.  It's this morning and repeats this evening.  Honestly, the cards are straightforward because that's the advice I was given (as you know from a previous post) and the techniques used are, if not favourites, ones that I've used and demonstrated many times.  My kits are packed, and I've even double checked supplies, and remembered my paper cutter.  I often don't.   But I'm suffering a bit of stage fright...honestly, it's been so long since I last conducted a workshop that I feel rusty.  It's been a while since I made these cards and am slightly scared that I won't remember the order of inking etc....where it matters, that is.  I once felt the biggest pressure was having new people at a workshop - new to the craft or the shop, just new.  But in fact, I now feel the pressure from regulars, people who know more than I do that come for ideas.  That pressure is a positive one, keeps me trying new stuff and trying to work out of my comfort zone, after all, there's nothing more flattering than a workshop attendee that signs up for another. So to borrow a phrase often used elsewhere in life, the anxiety that surfaced this morning: can I keep this up?  Coffee and Adrenaline please.  
   

What's On YOUR Workdesk? Wednesday 161

Well thanks for enquiring within....I took this photo at about 3pm on Tuesday afternoon.  I had been at my desk, crafting.  Yes people, it appears a deadline to deliver a bunch of samples and a need for a very special birthday card is all it takes to let everything else in the house go to hell while I enjoy some inky fun.  It was fun, too!  

All is well, the desk is legitimately untidy.  You can see a partially used master board and the result of its use.  Only two pairs of scissors...blimey.  The syringe holds silicone glue...I'm late to discovering this as a dimensional glue, but I do now use it quite a lot. The little orange lidded tubs hold embossing powder - currently there are over 20 of them in the cupboard...and mostly I use clear powder, so how come?  Trusty heat gun at left, getting on for 15 years old now....passed a few drop tests, I can tell you!  At the right of my ATG runner, (which is in the proper, designated, tidied up place) is a blue packet filled with photos for next weekend's crop.  Ironic then that despite my early preparation, I'm not going to be there. C'est La Vie. Today's view is obliterated by double glazed units taken out of old windows that Mr D has repaired and re-glazed.  Given the episode with the ladder, I don't hold out a lot of hope for an early removal!  Anybody want to start a book?
So now, the idea is to show us what you're up to in the desk section of your life.  Post onto your blog, include WOYWW in the title - don't link to a post/article that isn't related to WOYWW, especially if it's out of date, it causes confusion and does your reputation no good!  If you can and want to, turn off word verification.  When you've linked, please inlcude your list number in any comments you leave at other people's blogs..very easy to return your visit that way.  Oh, and one last thing that is asked quite a lot...links are often incorrect or doubled...it's not a problem, but where I can or if I'm asked to, I remove them.  (I also remove irrelevant links...new policy.) That's why your number changes now and then! Gasp..that seems quite a list of rules for something that's meant to be fun....
Make it fun then.......link here please!

Unsolicited, but I had an idea....!

I borrowed the logo from the website

There's an exhibition at Newbury Racecourse over 7th and 8th July.  It's popular, features stamping and scrapping and general papercrafts. And very much to the point, could make a great place to meet a fellow WOYWWer.  I know that Morti will be there on the Saturday, and I know of a few others that plan to go, but aren't yet committed to either day.  You can buy tickets at the door and parking is plentiful and free....although if it's wet, it might be a bit muddy.  I can't make it this year, a big family occasion forces me to go spend a weekend in an Oxfordshire village hotel.  Tough huh!  

But if you're planning to go, why not plan to hook up.  And please - take photos!