Wednesday 28 October 2020

What’s On your Workdesk, Wednesday 595

The last desk day of October. Whoosh. I don’t know how we’re all hanging on to be honest! 
I’ve been using my desk as a stamping, colouring, assembling, and glitter drying area all in the same time frame.
I finally got my Christmas stamp box from the attic room and having raked through it and considered the few unused clear stamps from last Christmas, and having added the clear stamps I’ve picked up already this year, guess what spoke to me?...yep, a wood mount from probably ten years ago, by Magenta. Strange. Using the Tri Blends for colouring again. But I did mix it up a bit...here in the drying area are some gernomies that I actually painted with Cosmic Shimmer mica watercolours. 
I have to give you a second photo to prove it. This is the ultra sophisticated drying area. I thought they’d be good to use up some old papers but seemed really plain, so I added glitter to the beards, which is why they are drying. yawn. All of this industry occurred on Saturday whilst it rained and rained and rained. Awful day. I’ve barely been back to it all since, but have moved some stuff around in a five minute moment of wondering yesterday. As in, now I’ve got all these images done, I wonder what to do with them! Time will tell, gentle desker. I’ll be road testing my Zoom abilities this week with the Coven, and will report back and help with answers to the short list of questions that have come up as soon as I have a couple of trials under my belt. Meanwhile, please carry on as usual, show and tell in that most generous way that you do.
See you at your place.

Friday 23 October 2020

Advantage Mrs Dunnit

At last. I can genuinely tell you that there is an advantage to not making up scrapbook pages in chronological order. Of course, as I’ve always maintained and promise it’s true, I would give up scrapbooking if I had to do it that way. I can feel myself falling asleep at the very thought.

This layout appeared on my desk a few weeks ago in a WOYWW post...I think it was assembled but not stuck down. Whatever, anyway, it’s a photograph of Mr Dunnit taken in the summer of 1984. We had only recently met and this was one of those outdoor classical concerts at a stately home that ended with us wrapped in blankets and watching fireworks. It was at Highclere Castle  - known to most of the world as 
Downton Abbey.
Anyway, the point of showing you this is to illustrate the ‘sense’ of leaving it 36 years to use the photo on a scrapbook page. See, Mr Dunnit is known as Bart. It’s not his name, it’s a nickname that evolved after  we married. See, his given name is Barry. One evening, in the pub with friends following the birth of Prince Harry, we ruminated that if Harry is short for Harold (it isn’t*), then Barry must be short for Barold. (Drink had been taken.) So, for a couple of months, we laughed and called him Barold. Then he and I went on a road trip to visit friends in Germany and they could not get their accents around the lack of consonants, so they called him Bartold. And he’s been Bart ever since. And if I had been a scrapbooker at the time this photo was taken, I wouldn’t have been able to come up with such a snappy title, huh! And that’s why chronological order and I don’t work. There is already a scrapbook page detailing the story of the name; I just think it’s important to be able to help you understand my erm, method in recording family life.

*Just in case you’re wondering, Harry is the nickname for Henry, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone actually being called Barold.




Wednesday 21 October 2020

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 594

Before anything else, I have to tell you about yesterday’s tech shenanigans. Well, not to bore you, but if you can’t see LLJ on the list, or if her link doesn’t work, it’s still worth visiting. You can go old school and type her url into your browser instead! www.lunchladyjansfabricfrenzy.blogspot.co.uk. 
I deliberately haven’t made that a link, we’re not actually sure that links will work from here to there. Or they will. We can’t work out what the problem is. Was. We’ll see. If any of you use BT for Internet it would be interesting to know if you’ve experienced any problems too. 
Meanwhile, back at the messy outpost....
I’m trying to come up with some card designs for Christmas, using some of the new Woodware stamps. I’m a great fan of Francoise’s designs, but I can’t use them like she does, her colouring is amazing. Anyway, I decided to paper piece this little reindeer and that’s where I shall pick up after chores this morning. The stamped image is resting atop a basket full of Twinkling H2Os, pulled out and (literally) dusted off in a vain attempt to avoid using my TriBlend felt tips again. Still loving them! Behind the basket is some of the new air pump mica sprays from the Cosmic Shimmer collection, very nice they are too. I’ve got four, and used one, twice. When I’ve made something worth showing, I’ll show and tell. On the iPad stand is a set of Christmas sentiment stamps. Don’t know how or why they are there. Behind them, Belinda, is a couple of postcards from my daughter’s company, I’m a tier 1 sponsor and one of the perks is a couple of postcards featuring cells from the animate. Check it out on You Tube - High Hopes Low Rolls. It’s a thing of beauty. There’s a few completed cards at right back, with angels on them, and trying to use up scraps again. The rest of my desk is a mess of powders, discards and stuff I might need so don’t want to trot back to the other room. You can tell I’m trying to make some nice cards, even the box of ribbons has put in an appearance, peeking out from under the desk, show what you’re desk is accommodating this week will ya? Thanks!

Friday 16 October 2020

Save the Date

I hadn’t really given a lot of thought to week 600 for WOYWW, except that its a nice round number and that it’s heaving into view rather quickly, given that it actually falls on December 2nd. Well, a few of you have mentioned it in your WOYWW posts and there’s been some chatting behind my back about doing something. So, encouraged by LLJ and Shaz, we are going to. Something that most of you seem already to be doing in these socially-distanced times. 

A ZOOM Crop on Saturday December 5th. There’s nothing to it from your end, as a lot of you already know. 

You will need to download the Zoom App to take part.
Also you need to spend some time achieving the kindest angle for your phone/tablet/laptop on your desk. It is a given than none of us look our best on these cameras, and that part of it isn’t important. It will just be smashing to actually see you.  We’ll try to work out timelines so that our international Deskers can join us too. 

We have the best ever tech support for this undertaking, Shaz Silverwolf’s hublet, Doug. We heart Doug. He will set it all up so that I can publish a meeting password and number to gain you entry. That’s it for now, if there are questions, please ask. I will talk about this and the date quite a lot between now and then, but please understand that access details wont be published until very much closer to the date.

I wonder if my hairdresser will stay overnight at my place on December 1st.....

Wednesday 14 October 2020

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 593

I took this picture at about 630 yesterday evening. I very much hope that by lunchtime today, it will look a little different. Note that I didn’t say tidy. It is packed with GKW. It’s not that I don't really Know What, the problem is that in this mess, I don't Know Where! 
A lot of you have started, and I was feeling the pressure, so I stamped a few Christmas images for colouring. The I got carried away and wanted to use glitter, pearly rub on stuff, foils, all sorts. So every time I had an idea, I had to trail back into my real work room to find whatever it was. Hence the mess..I never manage to trail the stuff back into the workroom. There’s a waiting to be stuck down fox on top of the silver foil flakes on top of the little pot of badges on top of the clear drawers. There’s 4 of the same, finished at right next to the fallen-over bin. (Empty, fortunately.) Now I’m colouring angels. You can only see one because I’ve dumped a small book and notebook on top of the second. Honestly, they’re taking me ages. I rather suspect that if I was actually in the groove for making them, I could do better! So I’m thinking that you’ll enjoy showing me up today....show your neatness, do. 


Wednesday 7 October 2020

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 592

This is scheduled. I hope! I’m off for outdoor coffee and before I go, I have a short list of chores that require me to be elsewhere. I’m being collected from home so have to ensure I get it all sorted and get back home before anyone suspects that I’m busy and not home!  So this pic was taken at about 530pm on Tuesday. Gloomy. There’s some bright white on my desk though...
See at the right..I’ve got a new cutter. I had a virtual coffee with Cindy on Saturday and had to confess that I’d stood at the sink and quaffed the coffee before joining the party because there was absolutely no safe room on my desk. When we’d said goodbye, I knocked my old grey cutter onto the floor. Picked it up, dropped it. The corner shattered. I could have cried, it’s done me such a good service for years and although I was thinking of changing it because it was really getting a bit dull in the blade section, I wasn't ready. Separation anxiety looming, I ordered another..there are certain things you I cannot work without. So it arrived yesterday and I’ve slotted it into the position always occupied by a cutter. Meanwhile, everything else on the desk will need dusting when I get to it. I’ve made a start..tidied up the scrapping stuff and got to some card making on Saturday afternoon. Haven’t been back to it all yet; not entirely sure what I’m doing with these images which actually explains why I haven't rushed other jobs to get back to my desk! See the cuppa there in the middle...I put it there whilst I took the picture. Can’t have wanted it much - typing this post at 10.25pm and I’ve just realised that it’s still there! Show off your tidy and cold coffee free desks then, I’d like to catch up with you. Put WOYWW in your post title please, and link here. Marvs.