What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 158

EDIT: Sorry about the early lack of linky,,,it WAS there, and then it wasn't!

Finally by staying up late and being uncharacteristically cross with the state of 'being behind', I've managed to reclaim my desk and drop onto it a couple things that I want/need to do in terms of craft. You see a new punch and a small stamp in a packet - a prize what I won!  Colour me chuffed!  And bunting and harlequin stamps (from The Artistic Stamper). I have a couple birthday cards to make and bunting is just not going to go out of style for me! Still got Tracey's oval dies, see? And the plastic bag has some bits and pieces in that Miss Dunnit bought for me..you know, emery board, lip balm, blah blah.  So how did I achieve this state of readiness?

Yep, swing left and push back basically!  The office work has gone to the dining table because I need my craft space back, whine whine, and the craft papers that need sorting and organising have been ignored into a great big pile.  I'll tackle it, soon.  Let's not talk about tackling the jar of ribbons. Ever again. Argh.
So what are you tackling this week? Got time to show us?  Upload a pic to your blog..please.  Put WOYWW in the title and link to that post here.  Visit a few of the links...you'll be amazed, inspired, delighted, relieved.  Yep, we're ALL human!  See ya.

What's Your Favourite Colour?

Edit: Godbrothers are the children of her Godparents...worked out all be herself!

Without and beyond a shadow of a doubt, my favourite colour is yellow.  Not too citrussy, but sort of custard and brighter.  I know, my powers of description are wanting.  But note that without even thinking,  I've used food to illustrate my preferred colour.  That probably says more about me than the actual favoured colour! On the basis that Mr Dunnit just wants to get on with his life, he didn't argue over my choice of a pale yellow for my workroom walls, or indeed a deep and warm yellow for our lounge room.  No really, it worked.  Still like it.  Nor does he try to change my mind when being a romantic...yellow roses and gerbera do it perfectly, thank you!  I don't wear it....gah, it makes me look very poorly and frankly, it's too late for real yellow...it  strikes me as too young.  And the sophisticated autumnal shades like mustard, well as I say, they make me look terrible.  I don't tend to choose yellows for crafting.  It's a difficult colour to take seriously (one of the reasons I love it) and so doesn't always belong in my oh so artistic repertoire in large amounts.  That's not to say that every card or page I make is of a serious nature, not at all.  But in crafting, I tend to move towards golds and ochres and dare I say it - TH's seven shades of wee wee. 

It's a cheerful and irresistible colour for me, speaking of summer and daisies and lollipops and things that are fun.  The LO above is the only one in my entire collection that features yellow in such quantity.  And it didn't start with the yellow coat either, oddly enough.  Although as a small digression - I was a bit pleased when it turned out that my daughter actually suits the colour...not least because it makes her easy to spot in a crowd and any mother of any aged child will tell you how important that is!  I bought the little laser-die-cut wooden figures (from Sarah's Cards, if you're interested).  And whilst visiting a friend in Basingstoke, I happened to find the paper in Hobbycraft.  Believe it or not, it's the reverse of a sheet of very plain something or other.  Well, at the time, I didn't have the wooden figures, but I do have a die that cuts teeny figures just like those on the paper.  So I bought it.  Great justification.  And then, while preparing for crop last month, with stuff all over the floor, the photo presented itself..the paper stack was flipped through and this was found.. I realised I could use three of the little wooden figures too.  Perfect for the picture that is two years old and that I thought was headed for the 'ones I didn't scrap' album.  Amazing huh, two purchases, within weeks of each other and for nothing specific have come together and been used.  Shock and delight!  

I think it's extremely fair to say that yellow is a lucky colour too.  Don't please, try to tell me I'm wrong...I'm too old to choose another favourite colour. 

Show and Tell

Another story of WOYWW. If you're a reader but not a WOYWWer, you probably wish I'd get over it.  Sheesh, it was just another day, anniversary or not.  Yeah.  You're right.  It was just another day, and I'm over that.  I'm so not going to get over the swap.  Fun, creativity and friendship from everywhere, and that also means generosity. Just look:

                                                

Not just a lot of work, time and materials, but postage too and it all makes for a vivid  collection of art that makes me smile. These are the ATCs I received as a result of the swap.  You will be unsurprised to know that I need to make more!  But also....shh. I really quite enjoyed making the first bunch, so am kinda looking forward to getting back into the routine of procrastinating and whining on my blog about getting nothing done.  Standby.  I thank you.

The Chocolate Spoon effect

How much would a chocolate spoon enhance your coffee break? Compare it with WOYWW.  A silly idea, born of being nosey..of being in a panic in case other crafters have got stuff that I haven't....of wanting to see what I'm missing...all of those reasons.  So once a week, many of you join me to post a desktop picture for each other to look at and pick over.  There's the morning coffee.  It happens that weekly is enough for many of us to recognise similarities and interests and become real friends, locally and across the world. Contacts are made, daily life is enhanced.  There's the rich and enjoyable taste that a morning break brings.  And then, the WOYWW thing gets onto being another year older and because we can, we offer each other a small piece of art, handmade in our own unique style.  Much pleasure is derived from 'real life' mail arriving...and stories of meetings.  Much pleasure.  And that, surely is the effect that a chocolate spoon has on your coffee break. 

Travelogue

The thing about visiting the same place on an annual basis is that you stop taking photos of your surroundings.  Most of this last week's snaps are of the people that enhanced my holiday...and they choose, for some reason, not to be pasted all over my blog.  I don't get it either...they all look fab in hot sweaty summer temperatures and tight spandex type swimmers.

Vista Alegre, Torrevieja

So I've recorded some maginifcent flora, some wonderful architectural additions to our usual holiday haunts and the odd bit of whimsey.  Honestly, I think Mr Dunnit has more pictures on his phone than I do on my camera!  

Loved this!

I did record some of the ex-pat and holiday maker British enjoying a garden party (because we went to it - it wasn't a 'through the railings shot, honest!) and real sunshine to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee.  It was heart-warming and slightly unnerving at the same time.  Mr Dunnit felt that it was a bit jingo-istic....but I figure the Spanish will celebrate King Juan Carlos' jubilee's as they arrive, so perhaps they understood.  It was held in a public Park and remained open for everyone to enjoy, so at least in that sense it didn't suffer from that British 'exclusive-ness' that drives me nuts.  

Spot the Brit

Our holiday home is on a large development, and the English permanent residents have of course established a Resident's Committee for the road, set some stupid rules and worse, done that frightfully english thing of throwing up locking gates to stop other people from using the communal pool etc.  Makes me so cross to have to carry a set of keys 50 yards to have a swim.  And not to be able to hang my towel over the balcony railing afterwards for fear of 'street untidiness'.  The gates, I should tell you, are 3ft high.  So if you forget your key and are in any way fit, you can vault over them.  So they aren't keeping anyone out.  And the towels?  I hang em out anyway...gives the Chairman a reason to come and say hello! 

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 157

Yoo hoo!   Man, it's good to be home.  Man, it's cold and wet in southern England. Here's my almost real time work desk!  As evidenced by the ipad, photo taken on Tuesday evening. As you can see through the window, 10 days of neglect has given the erm, 'wildflowers' a chance to engulf the patio.  Ah well...it'll wait, I can't do that sort of work in the rain; sugar melts in the rain.  So on the desk is a catch up attempt.  I have ATCs to send to ensure that I participate in the anniversary project...you lot are so great at joining in, and so very generous. Thanks.  
You can just see evidence of Union flags in the tin; they're for cakes and sandwiches, but I'm planning to use them in a scrapbook...I should have closed the tin to show you the patriotic lid too, ah well, not much forethought here! The flags-in-the-tin is a bit of bad tidying really, because since Laura gave me the tin, it's really the home for my collection of tapes. Not Washi tapes per se, but some nice ones anyway..maybe I'll show them off some time.  


Show us what you're up to then, we need a photo of your working area, kitchen, sewing room - wherever and whatever...post it to your blog, include WOYWW in the title and link the post here.  Easy.  It will be good etiquette to return visit....and that way, you're hooked! 
Danielle, who usually links around the 110-ish mark asked me to tell you that she's using WOYWW to maximise her Ranger give-away...she was a little worried that it's against the rules.  It's not particularly, because it's a give away.  The self publicity and linking to every product the blog owner sells is less in the spirit of WOYWW.....and if this seems a contradiction, well....I could bore you to death with my logic, but actually...why bother.  Your visitor numbers will tell you if you're taking part in WOYWW or promoting to no avail.
Lecture over, here comes the linkmeister:

DIY Upholstery

So, lemme treat you to a before and after story.

This chair was given to me 20 years ago.  By a friend who knew I would enjoy 'doing it up'.  And for 20 years, we've used it as a spare chair, exactly as you see it here.  Grim, huh.  Every time - every time - we've been anywhere that involved fabric and  furniture, I've looked for something that would 'do' for the chair.  You need to understand that it hasn't exactly been very often.  In the last couple of years, I've had a realisation about my marriage, and that is basically that unless he HATES it, Mr Dunnit is mostly ambivalent about furniture, furnishings and house stuff.  He seems happy if I'm happy. I know this is rather lovely actually, but it also frustrates me when I want more than a 'yeah, s'nice' and a shrugged shoulders type of opinion.  Ah well, can't have it all.  And frankly, if he had a strong opinion that was contrary to mine, we'd only argue.  And there would be an impasse, like the time we couldn't agree on tiles for the new bathroom.....oh I digress. So, LLJan posts a picture of one of her craft sale cushion makes and the fabric makes me realise  - that's what I've been waiting for to do the chair!  Cool.  Cue a quick trip to Marlborough and as usual with LLJ, some laughter.  So, then there's the colour of the chair to consider.  I decide to try to match the brown in the pattern, as the chair 'lives' next to a piece of oak furniture against a creamy coloured wall.  (Am I making it sound posh? I hope so!).  I took the fabric to the paint matching people that we use in the business side of our lives and they made up a colour.  Mr Dunnit took the chair to the workshop and sprayed it.  And brought it home.  It looked very thoroughly as if I'd chosen the colour of Poo.  I wasn't distraught so much as put out...after all, a litre of bespoke paint colour isn't quite like the off the shelf can for price....argh.  So I buckled and let him spray the topcoat. And decided it was two things - 
1.the perfect colour match, how clever of the paint people, and
2. going to have to do.  

So then, in my extremely amateur and unprofessional way, I added a new foam seat pad and tacked in 100 upholstery nails....also spray painted the colour of erm, Poo. And the result, as you see here, is  not showing a lot of the brown to which it was all matched.  Shucks. See, told you it was an amateur job.  And those tacks were so much harder to do than I thought!  Now, I know it's an 'on trend' fabric, and you might think I'll tire of it quickly.  But I won't.  I love it. So does Mr Dunnit. I think.  And hey, it took me 20 years to get around to changing the last fabric, and I hated that!