What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday WOYWW 525

Such a good day, Wednesday, such a good day to have a BIRTHDAY! Happy big birthday Helen! Hope you have a lovely day, we all send birthday love. You’re FAB. Even with an age that ends with a zero - who cares! 

And if you’re reading this Margaret, I’m sure we all hope that your gadding about type sabbatical is going really well. Seriously, none of us are envious.

Now, avert your eyes...even for me this is a bit tiresome....

I can explain. When we got back from our holiday (lovely, thank you), I was officially a week behind with a weekly scrapbook challenge. I’m normally laid back about such things, but this one involves being in a team, and no-one wants to be the one to let it all go to pieces, huh! So in between some serious other stuff, I’ve had to come up with the late scrapbook LO and the current one. They were hard too. So naturally, my desk is a fit of creative detritus. Naturally.

See those little foam flowers at right? They were souvenirs from an ice cream (or two) last week. The box of bagged postcard looking things are actually Perspextives. Words and shapes cut from Perspex. I’m a monthly subscriber and I thought I was using them quite liberally. 

Be liberal with your sharing will you...don’t tidy up, just show us as it is! Put WOYWW in your post title and link your blog here so that we can visit and be wowed. Happy whizz day.

Erika

Erika died in the early hours of yesterday, just weeks after a cancer diagnosis. The timeline barely credits the use of the plural. Many of you will know her as a pop-in-and-out WOYWW Desker, she shared her craft passions on her blog, sumbunnehcrafts. You might have connected with her through the Visible Image community, she surely was their number one fan and cheerleader. For no gain, she just fell for the marque and got to know Mark and Helen really well. 

I knew Erika a little. She was much younger than me, I remember her 40th birthday, so it can’t have been that long ago. We were near neighbours for some years and she was a customer in my shop way back then, and when she and her husband Ian moved away into their lovely new home, they commissioned Mr Dunnit to manufacture fitted cabinets for her new craft room. I can still see her smile as she showed me round the finished room and we chatted and giggled over the capacity of stash it would hold. If you met her, you’d never forget her. She was fabulously friendly and very quick to giggle. 

Erika liked to share her experiences and passions; her blog wasn’t her favourite way to communicate - I wonder if it wasn’t responsive enough. Her Facebook presence was marvellous. I learned about Visible Image from her. She helped to establish Chatty Crafters in her new neighbourhood so that she could meet and encourage others to do things that she loved. She loved being part of a twice weekly Zumba class and she adored music. For this gentle human being who I don’t believe was capable of of any sort of unkindness, the best music was heavy metal. I love that about her, such a dichotomy! 

Erika was not vain in any way, and happily posted selfies and pictures so that we could all share her fun. I remember a discussion on Facebook following some unkind comment regarding body shape. She believed, really believed, that who she was and how she conducted her life was more important than how she looked. And that belief shone from her and made her a great role model for women struggling with body image. I really hope she knew that. As with all these things, I really wish I had told her of my opinion.

Because we lived near each other, over the years I have bumped into quite a few people who know Erika. I can honestly say that it’s  a humbling experience to listen to how well liked, how kind, how thoughtful and how sweet Erika is. 

One of Erika’s mixed media pieces. She did love some splat and splash.

 I think that of all the people I’ve ever met, Erika lived up to the sentiment on this piece. I offer huge condolences to Ian and to her family. And to everyone that knew Erika - weren’t we lucky. 

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 524

The thing about having a proper space - desk in my case - on which to work is that anything vaguely related to my hobby is put on it. And if I’m not there to oversee it, it really gets a little out of hand. The neat-ish piles that I create and curate become a bit messed up, and my latest treasures are looked through and examined. It’s fascinating to me, because apparently, no one else in the house is interested in my hobby or the stuff that’s on my desk. Hmm, ok.

So we’re home from a lovely holiday, lots of sunshine. I’m afraid the light in my work room is not as I’d like in on a June morning. But at least I get desk time today. I bought some new pages for my ATC storage whilst in Spain, so over coffee later I’m going to go through the Anniversary ATCs again so that I can start to file them. A complicated process because I don’t like to put similar colours together, similar techniques, etc. Gives me a lot longer to admire and examine, see. 
So clearly, my plan for today is to tidy. What’s yours? Do tell and show. Write yourself a blog post featuring your desk or work area...put WOYWW in the post title. Publish your post and then come over here and link it. Great. Thanks.

Whats On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 523

Well gentle Deskers, this is a scheduled post. I’m on me ‘olidays and am delighted to report that there is very little to report. We’re in Spain, on the Costa Del Sol and it’s living up to it’s name. Bliss. We did practical things yesterday, you know a bit of food shopping and erm, some scenic route driving. Good job it was daylight. Anyway, I digress. The point is, that we got back with the shopping and wanted something to eat in the sunshine. So we put the milk and butter in the fridge, the bread in the cupboard, the fruit in the bowl and......went to the pool bar for lunch. It was nearly 4 o’clock and no one batted an eyelid when we asked for a lunch menu. Some time later, the lovely waitress cleared our table, including the little potted plant that we had discussed and failed to name. 

She came back with a candle and explained that they were preparing for evening activities. Then there was a bowl of nuts and a bowl of crisps. And olives. And a sudden queue at the bar. Ohhhhh, hello happy hour!

I should qualify this photo by telling you that we are not on holiday as a couple, there are four of us. Does that make it any better? Makes me feel better to tell you, anyway! So, Sangria aside, I’m looking forward to you showing me what I could be doing. I have actually bought some stuff with me, but it’s still in the case. In the wardrobe. In the other room. I’m not going to do it, am l! 

Back to ‘normal’ next week, but in the meantime, link your desk photo here please. salut! For reasons of I don’t know, I can’t get this to schedule, so I’m publishing early...I’m not entirely sure, see, that I’ll be up and around at 6am on Wednesday!

Today......

Today:

It’s been raining in stair rods. I can’t quite get over the force of it....the garden might need it (badly) but it’s hammering the flowers!

Today:

I’ve collected my grown up baby gal from the station, so my home is as it should be.

Today:

I was up and about quite early, so an early elevenses , about tensy actually, involved finishing a LO. Get me.

Today:

I’ve had to tackle some accounts queries for work and decided that whatever else I do for book keeping, I will not be using Quickbooks ever again. This feels good.

Today: 

I remembered to tell you that I’ve made a huge donation of £262 to Alzheimer’s Research. This is profit and donations from the WOYWW Crop. Isn’t that a fabulous amount of generosity. 

Today:

I’ve got to do some ironing. It will be no hardship a Miss Dunnit is already pottering around upstairs so will be able to keep me company.

Today:

I’ve had a haircut. That feels pretty good too. Am grateful to have thick hair, but if gets past five weeks.....urgh. 

Today:

I’ve finally put my crown on a shelf by my desk. I think Mr Dunnit was beginning to think I was going to keep it on the arm of my chair all the time. Well, my ego has deflated a little since last weekend, so this proximity to my most used space will do! 

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 522

The post WOYWW Crop edition. Oh my word, what a day. Lots of you will have seen it all on Facebook, and there are lots photos on lots of blogs, so I’m only going to bore you with a handful that I haven’t shown anywhere else yet. Let’s hear it for Jo and Annie, they worked so hard and made it a fabulous day. Mostly, we celebrated WOYWW the group, community, the support, the bonhomie. We celebrated with chat, hugs, cake, and photos.

Taking photos of the people taking photos....seriously helpful husbands

After a fabulous lunch, there was a quiz. It was a fun journey around some of our blogs. Of course, I didn’t recognise my own blog from the clue. While I had my back turned because I was chatting and being sociable, a table was covered in glasses of bubbly and after the sweetest words from Jo, there was a cake!

It all became a bit emotional then, and I bet somewhere there are pics of me crying out of one eye, I remember looking up from cutting the cake and feeling distinctly over-photographed! There was a full on, proper real cake topper too, and I photographed it at home after a good polishing...

Be warned gentle Deskers, you may never hear the end of it. Just like this weekly thing. I think we decided that it was fun enough to carry on with...so here, in a post Crop haze is my desk. Can you see the haze of bonhomie hanging over it? It’s palpable, believe me.

I thought it was quite tidy, but it’s more just, well, full. Am doing that five minutes here and there thing and I’m not good at it. Or tidying, but you know that! Seriously long post, sorry to hold you up. Please link and show and tell and share. Put WOYWW in your blog post title so that we can find it easily, link here as usual. Thank you!