WOYWW? And IIOA?

Well I can just about accept that it's Wednesday already, but October? Good grief Charlie Brown. It's a double good grief really - look at my desk, you'd think nothing creative had happened on it over the week, but believe me it's all good! Because I've been working on the calendar LOs for A Magnetic Year in a Day, I've had to tidy up in between so as not to double up on supplies used etc; it has caused me to work in a slightly more disciplined manner. Slightly. I still, as you can see, break the number one rule really, which is not to have a liquid on the desk. It has to be said that I have only experienced a problem with breaking this rule once 'in all my years as a scrapbooker'. It was my coffee, at a crop, and I managed to launch it across the table, the arc of liquid missed absolutely everything I owned and was working on and landed with a large and horrible splash on the front of the album which belonged to the friend sitting opposite. Just for once, I lucked out - the album was in its plastic cover and apart from soggy scrap paper, no harm done. Can you imagine. heart stopping stuff, I seem to recall that Angie knows only too well what I mean! This picture was taken at 10 o,clock this morning though, and I can't operate without a second coffee at about this time - I'd get a caffeine withdrawal headache! So my desk is not hugely intersting today, unless you want to extend the discussion about things we buy and don't use....the lovely Maya Road tins of chipboard shapes are a total case in point. As I had to dust the tins, I figure their 'new'ness has passed and I can get on and make use of my investment! It's rewarding to know after yesterdays post that lots of you have things you don't use, and to a greater extent I agree with Paige who commented that it reinforces your mojo to rediscover some forgotten tool. Sure reinforces the guilt too! Also fascinating to hear what you've got but don't use! I use all 3 sizes of Xyron, regularly. I use my silent setter still; I don't have a Big Bite so the long reach stuff is still done this way. I think I can blame the Cropadile for my lack of long reach embellishing actually! Linda never uses her Marvy Le Plumes - I wouldn't be without mine....I must use a core of colours every week. Of course, Tombow marched onto the scene and sorta stole the felt-tip show, but I still prefer Le Plume. At one stage (during the Shop years) I had a matching inkpad for every felt tip! Yum.

Come on then, be brave and show us your work area - doesn't have to be a desk, and it certainly doesn't have to be tidy - check some previous WOYWW posts to see that it's not normal for me! Leave a comment so we can swing by and gawp - love that!

Getting on with it

A portion of a picture today, it's one of the LOs for A Magnetic Year in a Day, so can't over divulge. And that's all I've done so far today in terms of craft. But hang out the trumpets and ring out the flags - I've used the Cricut! See those 2 little biddy leaves? Yep - electronically cut by the chirruping Cricut - Accent Essentials cartridge. You see, I do love it, but I sort of forget that I've got it. So it and I go through great phases of use. Or lack of. With the notable exception of my Cuttlebug, I could apply this 'phase' thing to a lot of the tools I possess. Especially my Bind It All. I'm not big into mini book making, so each time I use it it's like the first - and have to keep reading instructions for anything more than the basic punch and wire! And then there's the punches...they're in a basket, behind a cupboard door. I use them in real phases. I know if they were in a basket on the work surface, I'd probably use them more. Same with my clear stamps. I really, really wanna come up with a way to store this in my line of vision, and the busier I become, the more I realise how silly my current storage is. So I'll come back to that, for sure. And definitely the same with my small but colourful collection of acrylic paints. My arty reality is certainly not as good as the fantasy, so they don't often see the light of an open cupboard door! I worry that my Copics will be a bit of a 'phase' thing too - because generally, all the tools and stuff that I have, I use in workshops or willingly, happily, share at crops and get togethers. But at the price and because I'd probably ultimately, need more than one of each, I'm not sure I'm going to use Copics in my workshops. Which means that there will be real periods of non-use. But maybe that's OK? Maybe the occasional protracted hello is all that's needed to make ownership worthwhile. In each case I certainly don't regret buying them. Well, OK, maybe the Bind It All - that was my last hooray idiot moment - I'm totally over the marketing strategies..but I think to a greater extent this year, we've all wised up to that, huh, as we've made our money really work for us. What have you got that you can't part with but don't use much?

Is this cute enough?

While lots of you dallied at Alexander Palace and still more of you did sensible and possibly wholesome family things on Saturday afternoon, I went to a workshop as an introduction to the Copic pens. Ally was the 'teacher'. I know, it all sounds a bit incestuous because she's the other scrap lady, but that's how it is. Her workshop was great. Incredibly well prepared, confident and knowledgeable about her subject with some great hand-outs. And because the shop is on the cutting edge, we even had digi-stamp images to colour. Obviously these were pre-determined, and so dear interweb, brace yourself. I coloured in a Magnolia, or maybe it's a Tilda! I dunno. Bit of a Moomin really, and I was forced to add the mouth. And not do the wings...they will get the chop I'm afraid. Just a quiet rebellion, you know! Great exercise in colouring, huh. Then I did the Dustin fish in a balloon and by the time I got home, I was feeling cocky, so I had a go with a couple of Stampotique images that Carmen sent me. She's terribly depressed poor love; so I tried her in other colours and employed a black felt tip to try to relieve her enormous forehead a little. Trouble is, she remains thin and awkward, even in colour! Really happy with the tips I picked up from Ally, and really enjoying my Copic pens. An afternoon well spent methinks.

Bet you wish I had a knack for knowing how to use light properly when I have a camera in my hand, huh?

I could read the manual, but I probably won't.

The car window was fixed today, thanks to a Toyota dealer in Salisbury. Seriously impressive service; my car was washed and valeted as well - funny how you don't really notice how gunky and horrid it gets until someone else cleans it huh? If I had any sense of pride, I'd be embarrassed!

An angel whispered in my ear...

..and it said, 'join Facebook'. So I did, and I have no idea why. Of course it wasn't an angel, it was alcohol and boredom...I was skimming the web on Friday evening with a glass in my non-mouse hand and Miss Dunnit was ignoring me in favour of instant chat on Facebook. So I decided to join so I could muscle in on what she was doing! Is it me? I'm a member of several forums (fora?) that by their very name, are established to bring the 'like minded' together (doncha love that phrase - 'like minded'; I think the writers of Enterprise used it as inspiration for the Borg Collective). I think I'm so late joining Facebook because it strikes me as being the absolute opposite - a forum for everybody with nothing in common. And you face your 'wall' and have to 'search' for friends. Oh my. How depressing; and then you have to wait while your friend decides if you actually are a friend or not. Gah. Lucky I've got thick skin! And then of course there's the obvious 'out-there' thing about your life and details. Somehow more so than on a blog. But I joined anyway. And I'm feeling a bit vulnerable about it actually. Is that very 40-something of me? A couple people I've looked up and their page says that they don't show any information about themselves until you're accepted as a friend. And so the point is? I'm not getting it am I? I've been a member for all of 48 hours and have already written that I'm probably not going to be a regular! (I wrote this on my 'wall'. You just know that the inventor of this network is at the very least, half my age.) And I need to find out how to turn off the email notification. Lord, I just about had a power surge when I checked email tonight - 17 on a Sunday - apparently if you're my friend and your scratch your, erm, nose, I get an email about it now. And then I can go read it off a wall. Sounding tetchy? I am aren't I! My angel card is soothing though - Inkadinkado image - quite lovely, huh. Cuttlebug embossed the card and a bit of printed vellum. It's for the White Christmas workshop. Cue Linda, singing a song and talking about a film I've never heard of. Really.

A useful old bag indeed...

It's been a beautiful day. And busy. Started well with a cup of Macmillan coffee and a chat with Fiona and then I, well, just got down to it! Finished the cards for another workshop and managed to get this LO ready. It's to illustrate the sketch for the Ludgershall Crop next weekend. I know, flying by the seat of mah pants again, but to be honest, I'm in a bit of shock about it being October next week. Then I did some gardening and I sorted out the who and the what for mending my car window, and got it booked in. Thank goodness. Driving around with a bin bag taped over the near side rear window isn't exactly a look I want to foster! I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do for tea, so am thinking that although I've been very useful all day, I might be falling at the final hurdle!

If you're off to Alexander Palace this weekend: take cash. When the cash has gone, GO HOME! (Life tip!) I'm not going, on purpose. But I am going to a class to learn about me Copics, looking forward to that. Have a lovely weekend, interweb.

I've had a smashing day..

I went to Marlborough today with my friend the Colonial doll. We met at Kraft Crazy, my local shop, she comes to some of the Workshops and we've become friends. How often do you hear that about people we meet through crafting. Stacks. Ain't it great! Now my Colonial friend has a gift; she's cheerful, upbeat and her wit is quick. I like it. She's very quick to the see the joke and will laugh like a drain, which is frankly, good for the soul. We were in my second favourite sort of store - a cook shop, independent, stuffed to the gunwhales with wonderful gadgets gizmos and stuff that you need in your kitchen. Mmm. Like the Onion Goggles which really had us going. Seriously, a pair of swimming goggles, styled to put on like glasses, but cushioned around the lenses so that onion vapour can't penetrate and cause you to cry. And the frame was pink. Well, we kinda did cry, but not from onions. The lovely ladyshopkeeper tried really hard too - told us about a chap who had chosen a green framed pair to use on his bike in the summer - anti bug, see. Cue more crying from me and the Colonial doll. I did manage to get what I'd gone in for (I have a seriously ridiculous thing for buying nice shaped biscuit cutters), but really, I think the ladyshopkeeper was relieved when we paid up and left! So now I must settle in and get the LO done that I was working on when the Colonial doll arrived this morning. Sitting, front door open (full on sun shine, see) on the hall floor, photographing a pile of rubbish. Really - the contents of my handbag to be precise, but oh my, how much rubbish! So watch this space, I don't know if it'll reveal any more than you already know about me, but it may turn out to be as interesting as WOYWW! Oh and the car window? The result of driving past some rather zealous strimmer guy on a verge in the village. How very inconvenient. But it has been a smashing day!

IIWA? What's On YOUR Workdesk Wednesday

Blessed with a prudence far greater than mine, Angie has numbered her WOYWW entries and believe it or not, today is week 16! And I'm totally still up for it, I really enjoy a nosey around your work surfaces/spaces/desktops. I'm sure any psychologists looking for a study group would sing praises if they were to stumble upon this! So WOMyWorkdesk? My diary. A sketch for the next Crop challenge. A Dolly Mama image waiting to be erm, mounted. The best and most used script stamp I own. My 150 Xyron. Two cards for a 'Paper Engineering' workshop, which need tweaking. You can just see my new gloop punch on the right. And two cards, which qualify for a couple of challenges:

Fiona's inchy challenge is 'Leaf' which of course I've had to interpret because I can't do

one of anything and also...one inchy does not a card make for me! Same style as before too - inchy mounted and stuck over relevant part of same image. All made from scraps so am not too unhappy about it.

And then on the right, my card for the Daring Cardmakers challenge, which is Shabby Chic. Hmm, always leads me back to the thought that it should be grunge style and accomodate lots of wee wee colours, but as you know, I can't do that. So it's turned into an 'old lady' card as Miss Dunnit was kind enough to dub it whilst waiting for me to photograph it this morning. And she did wait too; I'd offered her a lift to College so that she could have a bit of a lie-in - the bus times don't work well for her first lesson time on a Wednesday and I took pity on her. That'll teach me. I can't send this card to anyone now because it has connotations!

Come on then - show us your workspace - desk, floor, surface, lap tray...we don't mind! Show us what you're working on and how you work. Fab. We'll drop in for a nosey. Add a button from the left margin if you like. Makes you easier to recognise!