A collaboration.

When I write a blog post, I don't consider who might read it. Is that selfish, normal, odd? I don't know. I was very surprised a couple of weeks ago to receive communication from a bloke who had read this post about a vacuum cleaner. Allen, he is called, wanted to use or link to the post on the website that he runs. His website is all about tips tricks and articles for keeping a lovely house, Cleaning, keeping, products, you name it. It's called home viable and is super slick. Of course, it features some amazing properties (amazing photography too). And these properties are clean. Man they are clean. They remind me of some of the paper crafting celebrities houses - you know when they post about how busy they've been decorating with all their new products to celebrate that the third fence post from the left had a bird on it this morning. I know, I'm just jealous.

Allen and I had a to-and-fro. I pointed out that his proposal to have a presence on each other's web pages would cross the Atlantic Ocean. No problem said he, he is in the process of adding UK products and recommendations too. I did not point out that the kitchen pictured is almost the size of the ground floor of my home. But he might have heard me shriek at the inclusion of a high chair. It's not something I'm any longer associated with - babies in residence. Oh how tiring.

I also pointed out that there is a weekly thing on my bog that exposes the current state of my uncared for, neglected, unpolished, slovenly looking desk. Often featuring filthy windows and an unswept floor. He said that his site visitors aren't all perfects, it's a place to find tips and tricks (which it has, in abundance) for when us not-so-perfects need to ask questions. Well in the end, his enthusiasm flattered me and I think it harmless. After all, I can aspire. So for a while at least, one of these lovely photos will appear on my blog, acting as a link to home viable. I might get some more readers from it. To my eternal disappointment this 'deal' didn't come with a cleaner for life, a house that resembles these two pictures or even a pot of turquoise paint, which it would seem I need if I'm to be a trend leader. Nothing. But now there's a bloke called Allen, somewhere in the US, who thinks I'm joking about my domestic propensities. Meanwhile, there's an article  which bears further investigating - how to keep my 1975 Shag rug looking shaggy. You can't make this stuff up - me and domestic bliss! 

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It's not looking good. For so many reasons, this desk is neglected and superficially unchanged from last week. The photos are still spread out on it and horror, some stuff has been dumped on top of them. It's OK, I can sort it today. The boxes are still on the floor and will require a little more motivation, but I suspect that won't be too far behind, simply because I'm getting sick of the sight of them! 

I've scheduled this post. It's currently late on Tuesday night, and I'm engaged early in the morning and don't trust myself to remember to do everything I need to before leaving the house! And I really need to have a coffee and get dressed as a priority on an early day!

So as usual friendly Deskers, please link here and show what you're up to; I feel it's been an age since I was up to anything of any usefulness, so your input will be appreciated. Please put WOYWW in your post title before linking up here. I thank you. We all do.

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Lots of us have been thinking of Deskers caught in or helping others as a result of the  hurricane and typhoon that have dealt harm and hardship. I don't know what, but am pretty sure that if any of us can do anything to help, we'd like to. 

That's not an icy, snowy morning out there, it's the early morning light coloured by a blue tarpaulin. The glass will go into the lantern this weekend and thus replace this ghostly ghastly colour. I shall record it for posterity. And scrapbooking. Which may well be the same thing, actually. I'll show you though, because several of you have been kind enough to wonder about it. Don't worry, I'll include a warning for those of you that don't want to read about my everyday domestic life! 
Meanwhile - look at my desk. I ordered some more prints (to add to the 8 kerjillion that I'm behind with) and was sorting them into rough categories. That's the most creative thing that's happened at my desk since last week. I was absolutely sure I would spend Saturday ignoring everything else to get a bit scrappy, but it didn't happen. Despite giving myself permission, I couldn't summon up the mojo! These new photos may do it though, I love scrapping recent stuff. Share and tell then gentle Desker, it's been a week and you know how I thrive on routine.

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 484

It's been wonderful to see your photos and posts from the Crop at the weekend, I really loved them all, and the feeling that I knew exactly what kind of a day was being had. Looked like fun and I'm not in any doubt at all that this WOYWW community is a success because of friendships. 
Now on to the part of having a friend like me that you'll never understand... my 'working' method.

This is a very sad state of affairs. The 'new stash' and tool bag are still where they lay last week. I honestly haven't done anything crafty since, it's been a right old whirlwind.You don't often see this full frontal angle, so I've labelled. The three boxes are filled with inherited stash from Mary. It's mostly card blanks and A4 sheets. So it's a lot. The clear stamps in the blue drawersare perfectly at hand but very higgledy piggledy and need a better storage solution. But that isn't going to be sorted in the foreseeable, I can tell you! The cup clip is useless unless you have a tin or a cup without a handle. Mor often than not, I hang a bin bag from it! The mess of wrapping paper is usually stored in a long thin duffle-shaped bag. It happens to be a great bag for transporting my Scan&Cut, and as yesterday was S&C training morning, I emptied the bag and...well, you can see...apparently I don't need the chair! Just the sight of it is driving me mad, so today is tidy up time. Again. Sorry to be unproductive and boring. I look forward to your non boring desks, I can tell you.

It's Who You Know...

My kind and gentle Father in Law died in July. Unexpected and therefore quite shocking. My sweet Mother in Law has been bouncing off the walls between what needs to be done and not wanting to do anything, as you can imagine. She found catharsis in sorting through Dad's wardrobes and drawers about a fortnight ago. She was content to let his clothes go to charities and a couple of big jumpers were snatched up by grandchildren. Even though he retired from work about 20 years ago and weddings and funerals were the only occasions that he needed them for, Mum was a bit reluctant to let go of Dad's ties. Of course, we encouraged her to keep whatever she wanted and the ties were no exception. After all, they weren't exactly taking up space! By coincidence, my sister was telling me about a girl she knew who had scoured charity shops for ties and made a waistcoat out of them. PING. I suggested to Mum that we could use the ties to make each of the grandchildren a gift. And when I say we...I mean Annie, Wipso to you and me.
Off they went. And in four days flat, back came a box full of little Brian teddies. Mr Dunnit and I were quite choked, all over again. Then, when I took them to Mum, so was she. We had a good Boo hoo and a little argument amount which Grandchid will get which bear. Meantime, I'm looking after them. What's the collective noun for a box full of Brian Bears?

Excuses, excuses

I am not going to be at the WOYWW Crop this year. There's been a lot going on here, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's because I'm doing the decent thing and spending more time with my Mum. But it's not. Some time ago, when he realised the clash of dates, Mr Dunnit revealed that he'd bought us tickets for an event on Saturday that frankly, we can't afford to let go. I am looking forward to a 'day off' from everything and a day basking in the attention of my husband who will not talk about the work that takes up 6 days of his week or the extension that takes up 5 evenings and one day a week. We have been living together in parallel lives and I'm happy to be breaking that routine!

You may want this in your head as you eat my share of the goodies.....no prizes for guessing who sent me this after nearly collapsing with laughter when she found it!

I won't half miss all the chatter and buzz of being at the Crop, but there will be other dates and locations and apart from standing on a chair and bossing people about at mealtimes, I'm not exactly indispensable to the day! Margaret has it all in hand, as she did last year, so you lot just have to turn up and chat. Oh, and eat! There will be a raffle, the charity to benefit will be of Margaret's choice. As usual, we will ask for subs to cover food and hall hire. And as usual, there will be the odd spare table for swaps, give-aways and I small sales.  Have fun. Take pictures, and remember, I will be asking questions!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 483

You get a twofer today, because it made me laugh! I've been getting in a stitch over fitting stuff in and over the weekend spent a ridiculous two hours producing one card. And I made a huge mess. I whined about it on Facebook. I had to clear up, because last night I went to a 'Marython Inspiration' meeting at Shopkeeper Gal's lovely shop. I had to take some stuff with me and it would have been impossible to find anything in the mess.

So here's the 'tidy-ish' version that greeted me today. Then a little swing left and you can see why it's tidy. I seem to have dumped all the clear stamps I was thinking of using on or around the 'cutting station'. I didn't even realise. Which proves that for me, tidy just means space on the actual desk!

As I thought, I needed last week off and will probably not make many visits this week - today is the culmination of lots of miles and a few sleepless nights I can tell you - we're moving my lovely Mama into another care home. Poor Mama is deep into 6 years of life-robbing dementia and needs more care. The difficulties of wrenching her from an environment that she is even vaguely familiar with fill me with sorrow and dread, so please hold her in your thoughts over the next few days. The plus side is that she will be 6 instead of 56 miles from me, and I intend to share all my scrapbooks with her as we spend more time together. I can see my younger sister's eyes rolling at the thought! 

Show and tell will you, you may just provide the distraction that Penny and I need at some point today!