Dunnits abroad

it's a promising title, huh. Hey, I should call my book that. you know, the book we all have inside us, waiting to be written ..looks as though I've made a start!

Mr Dunnit has gone to practice his golf. our neighbours are relaxing on their terraces - I can't se them, but every now and then I can hear the clink of a teaspoon in a cup or a slight movement of chair on tile. Yes, it's very quiet here this afternoon. o sounds from the swimming pool either...but that might be because the water is cold enough to induce heart failure. in my opinion.

I cant give you a run down of our touristic achievements and explorations. Unless you count trying a new restaurant last night ( the Sangria was excellent, I must say, and shed loads of atmosphere, lovely). see we came over on 'holiday' to spruce the place up a bit prior to lots of use over the next ten months, so we've actually been quite busy. thing is, you kinds don't mind washing loose covers, cushions and beach towels when you know they'll be dry in a jiffy and looking splendid and vibrant in the sunshine. we've done a fair amount of DIY and making good too...trying to decide if we can touch up the paint work for now or whether we should make a start on the whole thing....I know my preferred option. Hey, YOU know my preferred option!

I've managed to so some SMASH journalling too. Mostly because the stuff is here, I don't think it would have been missed if I'd left it at home.. I fear I'm not a natural at it, it still feels a bit contrived,I must be doing what I never did at school. Trying too hard. May not do much more...possibly because this place is so familiar, I need to take a holiday to somewhere I've never been, Oh what an idea, a holiday! I must talk to Mr D.

 

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The whole photos thing...

Today's topic is photography. I'm on holiday, which is what prompts such thought. That is the good news. The bad news is that I intend to blog as usual. That said of course, this will involve finding a bar with free Internet access...so it"s likely that you'll be reading this if I've had a gin and slimline. Or two. There may be typos. And worse, there may not be pictures. Aha, I'm getting to the point after only a handful of sentences! Possibly.

For some reason, I feel a fool using my iPad to take photos in public. Ya see, I watched the Olympics and I saw all those people blocking other people's vision and generally looking silly by using their iPads (other tablets are available) as cameras. After all, as a camera they aren't exactly discreet, huh. in an age when we use teeny everything and even 'pocket' phnes have cameras, carting a tablet round for Camera pirposes seems a bit incongruous to me. Nor do I want to be waving it about (the iPad, that is) doing the 'look at me, I'm an Apple person' either. Heaven forbid I'm mistaken for an iPad user...someone might ask me how to use it, and as I barely use 10% of its ability, I'm not the sophisticated consumer that Apple wants me to be, or that ownership of the brand apparently implies.

So photos for blog use may well be taken in erm, private moments. Thats is to say that you might end up seeing my daily domestic holiday life as a change from my daily domestic real life. Or perhaps, some food, or the odd swimming pool shot...I don't know. But if we do real sightseeing, there will be a camera and that means waiting to get home to the old PC before I can see and show. In a way, the waiting experience equals the old film and developing thing. I still get the same crushing disappointment when I see that I haven't become an ace photographer in my sleep and without effort!

And here's something else you may need to know.....me and Mr Dunnit, we have no firm plans to go anywhere or do much but walk about in the sunshine...so there may well be no real photography anyway. But if after al that, you're even vaguely interested, watch this space!

 

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What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday? 201

There's a page here that explains about WOYWW, and a page here that explains the plan for the fourth anniversary ATC swap. And..brace yourself...a page here that tells about the WOYWW Crop get-together.

This is  a scheduled post, for I am out and about already, and I fear that I may not get to many of you this week..be patient and kind to me, huh.

Don't be afraid by this sight.  It's taken me an age to get it this tidy and I like it. For now.  On the iPad deckchair you can see a couple of pages from an Autumn Leaves calendar that is 4 years out of date. These are the last few that continue to inspire me a little.  it was great value!  I don't know why there's a piece of card so carefully balanced on it, but in the foreground is my pin book, made for me by Wipso and Twiglet.  It's a needlecase by real name, but I use it for my decorative pins and I love it.  It's one of a few continually used, practical and perfect-for-the-job presents. The button jar isn't front and centre of my line of vision for any other reason than I don't have the imagination to find it house room anywhere else.  I think on average I use about 5 buttons a month, and all those are at Crop, likely on one scrapbook page!  

So there I am, all tidy and smug.  Show us something far more interesting would you? Put WOYWW in your blog post title and link it here so we can all see what your working space is hosting at the moment. Lovely.

The (non) mystery of the white squares...

Now, unsurprising confession: I don't chuck the hoover around the house every single day.  Why?  Are we all pristine and careful chez Dunnit?  No.  Are we all sharing the chores to the extent that I get a couple days off a week? Ha! No.  It's more straightforward than that.  I can't be bothered.  
I thought you'd like to see the losing battle.  There is nothing, I say nothing, that travels through my house like the little squares of glasseine paper off the foam pads.  I have no idea why or how the static gets them, after all, I peel them off and (I think) chuck 'em in my handy desk bin for later - much later - decanting into the recycling paper bin.  
So how come I find them...

 In the lounge?

 On the kitchen floor?

  On my unmade bed?

 On the bath mat?

They were all there this morning when I did my base chores...I noticed the one in the bathroom last night and dismissed it as a result of unpacking after a day at a Crop.  But in my bed?  Why didn't I notice it when I threw the covers back to get into it last night rather than this morning after an airing....argh.  I suspect that they are sticking to my body - lets be honest here - they turn up in my bra sometimes, so no surprise that they turn up in the bathroom really.  But the rest of the house?  I dunno.  If you visit and see the little white squares, think not of my slovenly housework attitude, but rather the message that they bear around the house.  A crafter lives here.

A lesson....

Now I don't claim to know any better than anyone else.  Oh, OK, from the insistent and stubborn way that I 'strongly recommend' that you do things my way, you may well feel that I'm kidding myself.  I get that, I understand the theory of free will.  I don't claim either, to scoff at anyone who says they 'don't have time' for something.  I genuinely don't...although I do, just as genuinely, feel that they should benefit from some of my advice:  If you want to do something badly enough, you'll find time. 
Anyone with a job and a house to run, with or without family, will know that's true.  At different times of the day and night, we are carving out some time to do something that makes us happy.  No doubt that any sort of creativity is therapy.  (Except the relentless slog of cooking supper...I don't mind doing it, but I hate being the one who has to choose all the time....!)
This is one of my therapies:

Time to visit with a friend. You may well recognise Jan.  It's been ages since we caught up and so yesterday, fresh from her trip to Wales, we took the chance.  We discussed the charity of choice for the WOYWW crop, the menu for the WOYWW crop and life.  As you would.  I was riveting company as you can see.  The lesson - quite clear and profound - make and take the time for a cuppa and a chat. It's good for the soul.  

Here's some details about the pic, in case you're interested...
I made the quilt from Jo's LilyBo instructions and Jan's remnants..I did manage to buy the red fleece lining and the wadding! I have been angsting over not having made the bag yet, and of course, Jan won't have that sort of nonsense.  She suggested it go as part of a first donation to the chosen charity.  Salisbury Women's Refuge.  Women and children often have to leave home with nothing but the clothes they stand up in.  The Refuge offers a place of safety and amongst other things, some bits and pieces to help.  I hope Jo will approve of the diversion.  Jan sleeping through my interesting news just might have offered me another lesson, but I'm too busy to learn....
Have a lovely weekend!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 200

Read all about WOYWW here and the Anniversary ATC swap thingy - HERE

Meanwhile, there's a stunning return to form at my place.  The sewing hasn't been put away, the Smash stuff has been moved aside and the preps for Thursday's workshop have been ignored.  I'm on a deadline!

It's disappointing if you're one of our neat freaks I know, but please, I was in the middle of making a card.  Yep.  Just the one!  Apart from the stamp at right, I've used everything you can see here on the card...well, sort of. The flowers you can see are the discards - and yes, they will be going in the bin.  I do not have room to save or capacity to remember where I saved them for next time!  Trusty iPad on duty, I was listening to a play on Radio 4.  There'snot been much on recently, I may have to break down and buy something to listen to soon.  Oh lord, another lesson in downloading and the Cloud, I can feel it!

Share your working surface will ya?  We like to see what you're doing and what you've got.  And frankly, how much tidier and sensible you are than we. Me.

Put WOYWW in your post title, link it here and we'll trot round for a visit. And a rummage.

I knew from instinct...well, track record actually, that I would not receive an Easter egg or anything remotely gift related from my lovelies. And because I've been on a proper diet for oh, I don't know, my entire life, I felt it was OK to treat myself in a manner which they who do not treat me jolly well ought to. 

I nearly had heart failure when my 'Easter Egg' arrived.  It was huge, and quite possibly a little out of proportion to the spirit of the holiday, the Eggs that I was giving as gifts and erm, even the spirited act of revenge I'd planned it to be!

All this for an A4 book, some tape and a coupla teeny notebooks!

I was expecting a pizza box and this girt great packing crate turned up. Oh my..and I had to leave it there like that for two whole hours before anyone else saw it!  Inside?  The realisation of a longed for bit of stash.  A kit for Smash.  I think I'll be OK with this.  I love the idea and to a great extent the concept of all the lovely Journals.  But they aren't me and I feel the text and entries are all a bit contrived and silly when I do them (a problem I still have with scrapbook journaling).  But the Smash stuff has a reason.  And I think that's what's lacking for me in the Journal thing....I'm much too shallow to be recording my innermost thoughts and feelings or expressing myself 'through' a particular medium.  I blog!  But I have a reason to have a go at the old Smash.  Me and Mr Dunnit are going away together soon.  Just him and me.  This is unusual.  It's more years than I can remember since we've been on holiday without Miss Dunnit of course...but usually too, we are accompanied by one or other set of parents.  It's always a delight, but this time is like the line in the sand of how grown up we're getting.  So I've decided to Smash rather than scrapbook our increasing 'just us' times.  

This may bomb.  I don't know if I will have the 'be bothered'-ness to do it at the time.  And my thinking is that if I don't do it at the time, I might as well bring it home and make scrapbook pages, so we'll have to see.  I wonder if Smash was invented for those of us who can't/don't do digi, I guess you can while away an hour or so at the end of each holiday day by creating your digi scrapbook, so Smash might be directed at those of us who go on holiday and actually manage not to look at a computer for the duration! Who knows.  We'll see, watch this space and all of that.  Meanwhile..oh my, look at my lovely new stuff!