I love to reminisce, good times and happy moments are worth talking and laughing over from a distance of an hour or many years, for sure. I'm a scrap-booker, so I have created a sort of provenance for my collection of memories, that's buying into retropsective isn't it? My birth sign is Cancer, which means I will remember for centuries little tiny details that others don't and worse, it means I can hold a grudge for a lifetime too. Although in my forty something years I must say that I've learned very well that holding a grudge is a pointless exercise. Considering my birth sign and my incredibly wobbly hormones, it is then a surprise to me and lots of others that I can't bear the retrospectives that take place now, just as the calendar brings us a new year to fill.

I have no idea why, I don't think they're mawkish or sentimental, I don't think they should be discouraged, I mean - where's the harm in hearing the top 10 singles (that ages me!) of the last year just before we blare into the next? I dunno. I get really fed up with it. I understand you can't really make good TV or Radio based on music or celebrities that haven't yet been written, invented, blahdy blah, I just prefer to look forward; how many times do I want to have the last year raked over in how many guises? Is it my age? Could it be the security of place and people that I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by? Perhaps that security means that I don't feel a need to remember old times, for better or worse? Certainly could. Although I have no problem telling my child that crisps were less than 10p a bag when I was her age and going to the cinema didn't cost 3 people twenty quid and need weird glasses (but I grant you, the weird glasses do cause the most fantastic effects!)

So perhaps I'm selectively retropsective. Hmm. As I've cruised around blogs this week, I've come across a really lovely bunch of retrospectives - favourite 10 cards of the year and so on. I've enjoyed them enormously. Of course I haven't even contemplated a similar post for this blog - it would take me till next Christmas week to choose, apart from anything else.

Of course, if you were to back me into a corner and deny me gin and tonic for a couple of days, I'd admit that the best part of my crafting life in 2010 was the blogging......so maybe I do need to become a fan of the retrospective. Then I can have an exhibition. It would be an empty space, bright yellow perhaps. And I would invite you to wander around and imagine all the wonderful things I was going to make, just as soon as I finished typing about them. See I'm all about the future.

Happy New Year; may it be all that you want it to be. May you have the strength to make it what you want it to be.

What's On Your Workdesk this 5th day of Christmas?

Mine is a work surface in a different room today.We've been royally entertained this Christmas by family and friends who have stepped in to make what was a fraught week a whole lot easier. This is my therapy of choice for Tuesday, and as I type, we're contemplating an early breakfast and a rush about to do a couple of jobs at work before friends arrive for lunch. I should point out I think, that despite the history of work desk disasters involving clearing up, my kitchen is made spick and span after each 'session' ...it's part of the OCD thing in the left side of my brain..I can't do anything in the house if the kitchen isn't clean and tidy. And as it's the smallest kitchen in Christendom, that's no great effort I can tell you!

I made a massive pavlova and Miss D made some more mince pies. A bit predictable, but hey - our friends like a nice chewy meringue!

Show us what you're up to this day of five gold rings then - either on your craft desk or elsewhere - it's fascinating to see what you do on 'days off', and of course for some in the UK, this is a back to work day....bah humbug! Photo, upload to your blog and link in here...I'm still fighting to get around last Wednesday's desks, so forgive me, you may get a double whammy visit this week!

Since this is the last work desk Wednesday of 2010, please accept best wishes for a truly happy New Year, I hope 2011 brings you peace and security and allows you time for crafting!

On the third day of Christmas..

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Oh sweet Groundhog Day, we're about to go to Mr Dunnit's family home and start again! But it's OK interweb, I'm ready, I can take it!
I thought you might like a brief insight into the glamour of a real blogger's Boxing day, as a sort of reality check against the previous days warm and rich family gathering. To make sure I deserved another day off today, I swept, hoovered, washed and then waxed the wood floor in our bedroom. You can't tell from the threshold, let alone from here, otherwise you'd be looking at a photo! This morning, it took me a while to work out why my knees feel bruised when I did my routine of crawling under the tree to turn on the lights! It's all glamour. How come I feel like this - that I need to offset the lovely with the erm, less lovely? Is it a gene? Have I, deep in my psyche got an inherited work ethic? Is it like pudding, you only get the nice stuff after you've eaten your greens and cleared your plate? Or is it a back log of outstanding jobs that makes me do these things on holiday days. Or maybe it's guilt. Mr Dunnit laughs and says it may be guilt, but it's just an overdue job really. Do it or don't do it. Philosophy I cannot possibly subscribe to - whatever the day....I'd do nothing!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Christmas Eve shopping hints

Lunch Lady Jan suggested (in the comments after yesterday's post) that my taste might run to Kitsch. I hope so. I couldn't reproduce it here because it's too long, but do go to Wikipedia and read the definition, it's hilarious - especially the bit about gaudy and unsubstantial works of art - so true and so totally within my skill range! Which is why you see the lovely gaudy cakes above - I could not resist them when I was shopping for some goodies for our get together with the Lunch Lady Jan family today. It was sparkly and fun......although the bobbly bits on the cakes are not terribly nice. Actually, they taste horrid..you really shouldn't mix your E numbers, it just never works. But the silver lining here? These characters faces are actually rings for us all to wear with pride over the season. Can't beat that for value and taste!

Lots of you were surprised by my inclusion of Christmas Loo roll in my preparations. See, I might not have all the presents or enough food to feed 30 people over the next five days (but there are only 3 of us, so we'll probably be fine). But last time I staggered down the aisle for cleaning equipment and kitchen paper and loo roll, there it was - the Andrex Winter edition printed loo roll pack. So I bought it. A double whammy of luxury, for this house does not usually enjoy such branding in the bottoms department!

OK my third shopping tip - don't do anymore, unless you need petrol in the car to get to somewhere special tomorrow.....you won't regret doing that today; then you can just jump in the car and go, stress free! This is a tip brought to you by a woman that once drove 40 miles on petrol vapours and prayers one bright Christmas Morning after a dark Christmas Eve. Say no more. She reminds me every year you know, in her generosity.

Happy Christmas.

Christmas Eve Eve Checklist

Present shopping finished ? Er, no

Presents wrapped? ergo, no

Food and drink purchased? No

Got crackers? No

Tree decked and lit? Yes

Cards written and distributed? mmmmostly

House clean and shiney? Ha! no

Oven cleaned as traditionally done for some reason? No

Christmas loo roll in bathroom? Yes

Christmas tea towels, cutlery and crockery in kitchen? Yes

Hall bedecked with bunting? Yes

Camera charged and ready? Yes

Mince Pies made? More needed!

Travel arrangements sorted? weather dependant

Finished work? not quite

Surrounded by people you love? yes

Able to stay warm and safe? yes

Gotta problem then? Absolutely not.

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 81

Gawd, sorry about the lack of Mr Linky - it was entirely a human error..indeed, that human might even have been me....told you I had a memory problem! That's what I get for trying to schedule and be organised!!

The Christmas edition! Good grief already! Do not be afraid or alarmed, do not fall in a faint or choke on your snack, worse, do not spray coffee over the keyboard. My desk is (relatively) tidy!

I don't know if you can tell from the awkward angle, but the basket of stamps waiting to be cleaned is full of....just cleaned acrylic blocks and some other bits waiting to be put away! I know! I'm in as much shock as you are. I didn't enjoy it, there is no therapy for me in the cleaning and putting away, but hey, Wipso, Twiglet, at least when you get here we can just have coffee and chat! I've made a couple more of the tags we made in a workshop last week; but that's all I've done, and it was driven entirely by need. Need for tags, not need for creativity! I'm scheduling this post because I'm doing a Helen, and setting off for work at OhMyGoshO'Clock. Loads to do and not enough hours this week for sure. But by this afternoon, I'll have crept out of work and down to Tidworth for a cuppa with Shopkeeper Gal. One last hit of potential buying before the holiday and a session of diary planning for some more workshops...the fun part of the day, for sure. Christmas Party tonight too - I wonder if that will finally help me to get' in the mood'. Probably. Well that and a pint of Bailey's should do the trick! Happy day bods, stay warm stay focused and it'll all be done....and probably perfect!

My days of torch bearing are over and I'm very proud that I had a chance to play with Amber's designs...she and Pam forced me to consider Digi and square up to some of it's challenges. I have a bit, and I will a bit more, actually. What I need now is a really super and completely fool proof printer!

However, for once this post isn't about me, I wanna introduce y'all to the gal to whom I've passed the Amber Ink torch. If you're a WOYWWer, you will at least have visited Jane at one point or another, and if you aren't, well prepare yourselves for a treat. Jane is a super Digi user and (probably - hopefully) because she's 20 years younger than me, she really knows how to do digi. Jane also has an uncanny eye for colour and cheerfulness and is a precision merchant. In short, her cards are everything mine aren't! You can find Jane at Milliesmarvels Please visit her, you won't have wasted a click.