What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 530

I’m out early this morning, delivering bespoke timber products. Doors, today that means doors and frames. Glamour central. So, to assuage the disappointment of having to schedule a post, I’m offering a twofer. Mainly because I surprised myself so much I wanted to create photographic evidence.....

I tidied and put away all the scrapbooking stuff. Then I emptied my Saturday shopping bag onto the desk. I had already forgotten about the mould and modelling clay, so immediately set to. Didn’t read any instructions, just opened the wrapper and got stuck in. It’s white air drying clay, but it’s not really clay. It’s more a foam. Incredibly light and amazingly mouldable, flexible etc. I was surprised, and will show and tell the results, I’m going to presume that I need to give it 24 hours before I attempt anything too arty with it!

You can see that Shopkeeper Gal, and some of you actually have me in a panic over Christmas stuff. She even wanted to get me to commit to a Christmas Card Marathon. I let her flatter me into saying yes and then felt slightly appalled when she forced me to help set the date! It’s going too fast! So then, my thoughts on Christmas, I did some Christmas style shopping. You can just make out a couple of C6 ish size dies and a 12” pad of Poinsettia papers. I’m not a huge Poinsettia fan to be honest, but the sheets are double sided and the reverse patterns are great for card making. 

It’s not glittery or even easy to see on the pad of paper that became my work surface...but I made a Christmas card just by messing about! Before the end of July. I’m on a roll. And apparent magic...look how that acrylic block is ‘floating’ by the acrylic drawers! So share and tell then, let’s have your stories of tidy and productive desks to make me feel right at home with my single card achievement! Please put WOYWW in your post title and link here. Thanks!

To whom it may concern

It has come to my attention that your colleagues need to be granted extra-ordinary paid leave forthwith.

The less-than-usual climate makes working for a living distinctly difficult; night time temperatures mean that sitting in the garden in the beautiful warm, velvety evenings cause late bed times. Need I remind you about the difficulty of sleeping.  I’ve no doubt that when unable to sleep, you too lie in a muck sweat, considering the chores that weren’t done that evening which must now be attempted before leaving for work in the morning. It’s not at all conducive to mind nurturing, replenishing sleep patterns - and a summer cycle of sleep loss begins. 

The commute has become increasingly difficult. The sun is causing roads to blister, overhead train lines to buckle and a fear and horror of strap hanging on public transport. Stepping out of the front door into the day’s sunlight is fraught with difficulties, there’s so much more to remember for our beleaguered commuter: should I have used sunscreen? If I use sunscreen, will I just look shiny and sticky all day? Has my lipstick got any SPF in it at all? Does my mascara contain anti-melt magic? Where are my sunglasses? Can I remember not to push them onto my head? Especially when I need to use my readers... Is my hair already flat? Is a floppy hat too much? Perhaps I shouldn’t be wearing a sleeveless dress....my upper arms could knock chips off a plate if I reach out. These are genuine extra stresses for your colleagues.

Office temperatures are a problem. Air conditioning is actually a negative; there’s always a colleague who wants it set at ‘Arctic’ and another who prefers an open window. Even when it’s blowing hot air and Saharan sand onto her desk whilst spoiling every ‘to do’ pile across every other desk. The understanding, tolerance (note my use of a trending management word) and indeed, smiling celebration of and between the different office personalities will be at risk. 

A slightly warm packed lunch because of the overloaded, dodgy fridge won’t help either. Nor does a desperate trip to Marks for a decent sandwich in a time limited period. All the stress of a commute and leaving the building as detailed above, but compressed into a ridiculously short time line. Unless you’re buying as a prelude to granting time off, don’t bother suggesting a pub by the river either. It will be packed full of people who don’t have to go back to work, the staff will have suffered from the heat too and be rushing around trying to satiate their bosses desire to ‘rake it in’. And those that manage a rare pub lunch break will be too hot, possibly sun burned and totally unable to stay awake after 3pm.

A good summer does not provide you with a motivated and productive workforce. Cut your losses, and see the big picture. You won’t have to work either. It’ll be fine and you’ll be so popular that production, sales and graphs will immediately spike at the onset of autumn. 

I mean it most Sincerely.

        

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 529

Proof if it were needed, that I can work in as much as a 12” on any given day. The discarded glasses suggest that I was just there doing something, huh! well I sort of was. But it was yesterday. I managed, using the five minutes here and there technique, to create the 12” space. As I sat down after a whole morning out, I had a call from Shaz Silverwolf which caused me to drop everything and drive to an air conditioned Costa for iced coffee and a lot of chat. It was quite marvellous. They were here for the funeral service and genuine celebration of our friend Erika’s life.  The desk has to be cleared of scrapbook gubbins (as Sue would say!) because I might have a couple of new stamps to play with for card making purposes. They are seasonal stamps and I’m not talking about summer. Argh. Cue a couple of sticky sweaty glitter moments. Or at least I hope I get as far as glitter as it’s usually the last thing I add to a card!  Whatever you’re doing, show and tell please. If you’re in Britain, let me just remind you to seek shade and drink plenty. See me for a note to get off work if you’d like! I’ll include a photo of me in my desk crown and they’ll immediately concede. Probably.

So, meet here then please, put WOYWW in your post title and link your blog here. Thank you!

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 528

I believe really that this time it is week 528. I actually believed it was 527 last week, but had a fat fingered keyboard moment and you were so nice about it that I didn’t even think to make a correction! So, a bit more of the same from me today, a slightly tidy desk, just to facilitate what I was actually doing.If you’re a Brit, and self employed or super rich, you may recognise the printed version of a tax return on my desk. Obviously, that means that I am either self employed or super rich, and I’m pretty sure you know which best describes me! It’s actually phase two of my returns period. Phase one involves a year end and return for the business. I know, it’s riveting. Apart from the admin stuff though, the desk will be party to workshop preparation today, and some scrapbooking preparations too. You’re probably shocked by the use of the word preparation, I don’t do it for scrapbooking usually! I’m taking part in a challenge and I have to make my own version of someone else’s LO. Simple enough, except the only way I can do that this week is to make, MAKE, my own frames and embellishments. Blimey. You won’t hear the end of this for a while, be warned! So whilst my desk isn’t showing ‘it’, I hope yours is. Let’s see.

Put WOYWW in your post title and link it here for our viewing ease please. Pleasure. 

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 528

As I took this photo, I was trying to think, or make an excuse for,  why the desk looks like this. And then I remembered- you don’t mind; you’re glad it’s not yours and that’s all there is to it! A little retrospective since last whizzday tells me that I’ve had quite a productive week and frankly, my desk looks more ordered than it prolly should do, given my track record for tidying up!

I swear to you that I’m using those Perspextives as often as I can. I can only use them on Scrapbook layouts though because 
I don’t want to give them away. That’s an embarrassing admission really, for a grown up, but I can’t be the only one, surely?! It’s taken me ages to work out what the gold/yellow thing at front right is...ended up going to have a proper look. It’s a Perspextive...2019. I instantly remember that I was trying to make it fit on a LO but it was a bit too big. Or shiny. Or unsubtle. All the reasons I bought it! My needle case is freshly placed on the laptop stand. On Tuesday afternoons I take my sweet Ma-In-Law to a Craft Bee and I work on my embroidery and enjoy a couple of hours of local natter. It was in the bag with the embroidery (I took it all on holiday) and I need it at my desk...I found myself stitching on a LO last month. Although really, never again. 

So show and tell please, make a nosey parker feel at home. Put WOYWW in your post title and link it here for us all to have ease of access to your blog. Super of you, really.

...and then the doors fell off.

In between the real life stuff, I’ve been trying to do a scrapbook page for a challenge. It has a deadline and I’m in front of it, so I thought a five minute here and there method would work really well. By which I mean, five minutes to re-acquaint myself with the plan and twenty minutes of rifling through stash to choose something. Well, as lots of you know, I’m a sitter. I have a marvellous tractor seat stool which was temporarily unavailable to me. Yes, there was another bum in my workspace. Because it’s also the room where we keep the PC and the admin for the business, so I have to let him. Although he usually stands, because I use the chair designated for PC use (which is on wheels) as an extra work surface when I’m erm, in the zone.

Not the LO I was working on, but a LO done for a challenge, so it all amounts to the same thing, huh.

So he used the stool and I cleared the chair of alphabet stickers all neatly filed (really) in colour order. It wasn’t hard, I just put them back on the shelf in the cupboard where they are supposed to live. So then I’m in the choosing stage, and on wheels, so whizzing the 3 feet between desk and paper stash shelf. Now my shelves are hidden by sliding doors. They were meant to have holes drilled in them to avoid the need for handles, but I got impatient at the fitting stage and so I just manage without. Occasionally, I’m untidy in the putting away and things stick out from the shelf into the sliding door runway place area. I didn’t notice that. And I rather over zealously whooshed one. And the doors fell off - with a crash. 

Well, it only looks a mess. I know where everything is. And with the doors on, it’s tidy.

Luckily, he laughed. Explained the laws of runners, blocking the runners, sliding doors, crashing, blah blah blah. And I regretted wearing flip flops. 

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 527

I had the whole day  off yesterday, out of the house, participating in a lovely luncheon. Great word that, luncheon. Elevates a chicken salad, doesn’t it. Anyway, whilst away, the mouse went mad...

Does it make it any better if I say that I had a card making session over the weekend and decided it was too hot to clear up? No, I know. Oh well. My morning coffee at far right. Looks like a cup of mud in this light. The two cards at the right under my glasses are both made by Tracey  They are in a pile of cards received that I refer to for inspiration. Colouring, images, placement, glitter, mounts, sentiments...all sorts of reasons. It’s a big stack of inspiration too. Nice. I had done a card involving a house stamp but I can’t show you how completely and utterly unlike any detail on Tracey’s cards it is. Because it’s in amongst all this somewhere. I suspect under the scrap I’ve been working on. Which was a 12x12 that I spilt some ink on whilst in a panic to do a LO for a challenge. Deadline. Thank goodness it wasn’t a pile of them! You might notice that our dining furniture is outside. It isn’t really, it’s in the extension what Mr Dunnit is building...it’s weatherproof and with all doors open, a joy to sit at in this lovely summer heat.

come on then, show me what you did to stay out of the heat. Bet it’s all been tidied up by now. Please do not have better excuses than me. Put WOYWW in your post title, and link here. Thank you!