Celebrating the WOYWW anniversary

In previous years, we’ve marked the WOYWW anniversary with an ATC swap online in a big round circle that marks the occasion but more, celebrates the community. I can’t honestly think of anything nicer to do on the tenth anniversary either. Perhaps be a little less prescriptive and suggest that if you take part, you can send any sort of hand made memento to your swap recipient. It doesn’t have to be an ATC, but remember that you will have to post your gift, so an ATC is a fine and ideal gift.

Before I get complicated with the how to, I wanna point out that this is an entirely voluntary thing to do. You can join in the link up as usual on WOYWW 520 whether you participate or not in the swap. No one will mind if you don’t want to or can’t take part. It’s meant to be fun, so if it’s going to cause any ounces of anxiety or stress, please don’t bother. Can’t bear that. 

I should also add that as WOYWW has always been flexible in that we all have to dip in and out of participating, don’t let your lack of participation in earlier weeks/months be a barrier. If this is your first week or your 520th week, you’re welcome to join in with the circular swap.

So here’s how it works. Between now and 22 May which is week 520, make your ATC, card, gift, blanket, quilt.........and have it ready to post on the day. 

On that day, when you add your name to the link list include an asterisk * after your name. That will tell us you’re taking part.

When your name* appears on the link list, the person above you with a name* will get in touch with you to ask for your address so that’s who you’ll receive happy mail from. 

The next name* below yours on the link list is the person to whom you must send your hand made gift, so you should get in touch with them to get their address. Ideally, the gifts should be sent on the day, or at least within 24 hours. This gives all time zones a chance to wake and be erm, awesome.The last name* on the list will send to the first name* on the list which completes the circle. It’s far far simpler to do than it is to explain. 

Also, if you forget to add the asterisk * when you link, link again. I am the administrator of the Link list and will be on hand to delete incorrect links. It is staggeringly easy to forget the * so don’t worry about it, just link again! 

The first couple of Crops were very close in date to the anniversary ATC swap, and so some people were able to save some postage by trading at the crop or sending them to me or others for distribution at the Crop. There hasn’t ever been a specific ‘Crop’ ATC, the ones given and received were anniversary extras. I’m all for keeping things simple and I don’t think we need to do a Crop specific make. Indeed, I think it would just be another time pressure. So officially, there’s no crop give away to make. Phew.

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 516

Seriously, this Whizzday, too soon, too soon! I sort of caught myself out this weekend. You know, a Bank Holiday or two and you think you’ve got masses of time, huh. So, I had a moment and decided to start preparing for the WOYWW Crop. This meant THIS:

I had to crack a few eggs, as you can see. It involved emptying a box that was strong enough to hold a lot,  - see the pile at the far end. Then I had a need to write stuff indelibly - see the ice cream container filled with my Sharpie collection. Which by the way, is incredibly and indelibly the most useful felt tip collection ever. For a gal that doesn’t do much colouring in, anyway! Then of course, something (and I can’t remember what) caused me to need to put away stuff I took to the crop on Saturday, so the pile of ink pads and nuvo drops and other stuff from my kit bag are just dumped there because as you can see, I didn’t actually put stuff away. Well, I put  three LOs away, that counts! 

So this morning, as you can see, I shall be doing loads of stuff in order to avoid dealing with this. Oh and the stuff for the Workdesk Crop? Also a work in progress! Share and tell then, please. Put WOYWW in your post title and link here please. Thank you please. 

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 515

The approach of the tenth anniversary is hurtling towards me. Anyone else feel this? I do hope so! Now, my desk has seen a little post-Wales action. Although it turns out that if you take 3 and a bit days out of your routine, the stuff consumes you when you get back and it takes twice as long to catch up. I’m pretty sure it’s all connected to the way that time is rushing by. 

There’s a bit of interest. At left is a pile of four card destined to go to Shopkeeper Gal as samples for the next workshop I’m slated to conduct. There’s a needle felted heart thingy in the front, waiting for me to use as a topper for a card. I made it at Jan’s, she hosted a WI craft morning and we had a go. I was faffing trying to decide what to do when Christine offered me a book of ideas and said the heart was a good starter, and then when she saw what I’d done, suggested it would be good for a card. So a card it shall be. It’s clever, needle felting, but am not sure it’s for me. Only one pair of scissor and one pair of glasses...a minor miracle, frankly, and something else that is always present but rarely seen...the old lip balm. I have them dotted everywhere around the house and car and in my handbag. The damage to my facial nerve means I don’t have spit on one side in my mouth and it’s amazing how dry that makes the lips. You live and learn! There’s also a packet of freshly printed photos, I find that I like the mix of doing really old photos and very current...keeps me going. If I had to do things chronologically I wouldn’t bother, I’d be bored, and my memory wouldn’t work well anyway!

Now, if y’all forgive my lack of input last week, I promise to make good this week! Put WOYWW in your blog post title and link it here please, makes visiting easier! 

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 514

I am at Jan’s, getting a top up of erm, soft water, landscapes, seaside, another language, shopping, home cooking, laughter and chat. I do not have a desk to offer you, and I know that Jan is sharing the crafting section of this visit on her blog today. Honestly, I’m so laid back about being here I haven’t taken any photos! Which is silly, because yesterday, we went to a charming town called Narbeth and met Ali W for lunch! Fun! Lots of you will meet her at Crop, all being well with her. Bring it on!

But, I thought I might share a photo that I took way back in February when I was away with the Coven for a weekend of scrapbooking. All the crockery was ‘stamped’ with lovely phrases.  The weather was vile and I was safe and warm inside, scrapping. No guilt attached because I wasn’t at home to do chores or wholesome Suzy Homemaker work, outside-y jobs or bracing country walks were out of the question because of the weather. So I present...a perfect day:

Arty, huh! the pencil is called Black Cherry because that’s what it used to smell of. It came in a fragrance saving tube with a lid. Long lost. The LO I was working on involved a sunset over a Canary Island, and the mug was full of coffee. See - perfect!

I’m travelling home this morning, so gimme a chance to catch up won’t you. Meanwhile, please show and tell, it’s the name of the game. Thank you very much!

Prepare to shudder....

I conducted a workshop last week. Whilst making the kits up, I obviously felt generous and included greeting stamps as well as the alphabet I had used, just in case workshopeers didn’t want to lose the will to live. Oh, and I was trying to avoid the savage comments that come when you force people to use individual alpha stamps!This is the card. I think you can tell that I was very careful with the stamping of the text, I think it actually looks careful! Apart from the smudged ink on ‘niv’ because I didn’t allow drying time in my triumph of getting the spelling, spacing, wobble factor and relative straightness correct. But I digress hugely. 

Frequently when a workshop finishes, someone cleans the stamps before I chuck everything in a bag. It’s a really nice thing that someone does, particularly as it’s often days before I get round to doing them. 

When I unpacked the kit for this particular card, I knew immediately that I didn’t need to turn out the alphabet and check that each letter was clean. I try to turn them out and handle them as one block, but that often gets away from me, and frankly after that, I’m the one who loses the will to live. Here’s my stash of the smaller alphabets I own:

Now you can see why I could immediately knew that the stamps would have been cleaned. I can’t help it. It seems easier to find them from the wrong order next time I use them than stop and sort them alphabetically at the time of cleaning. I’m not ashamed, alarmed or worried. Just resigned. Perhaps I should take all of these over to the shop and let the shuddering minds loose on them. Or does that put me in line for a slap, for gross pre-supposition and congenital laziness?

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 513

Welcome to the mad house. I have it ALL going on! One desk looks like this

And the other square inch of space in front of the computer is crammed full of month end stuff for the business. That’s come round too fast and I am NOT enjoying learning accounts by computer. Gimme a ledger! Here on my real desk I’m playing with ideas for a card making workshop. I try to keep stamping at the front of the workshop because I love it, but it would be very easy to do them all from die cuts and stencil work these days. Anyway, as always, playing with stuff creates a huge mess and a lot of you will be blinking in alarm; I can’t reassure you yet about any tidying up. You can see I’ve been inking and sponging, gah it’s messy. That was Sunday and my nails are still an unrealistically healthy pink! 

Week 520 and therefore WOYWW 10th anniversary are really coming up now. If you missed it, there’s news about the Crop on the previous post. We’d LOVE to see you if you can and want to come! Meanwhile, keep my untidy mind full of inspiring stuff please - post and link here. It really helps!