Those lumps of wood

This may not make any sense to you because I live with a craftsman who can make lovely furniture. The two lumps of oak that were on my desk on Wednesday are shelves, or more precisely, lifts! They do a particular job of raising up two of my most used items.

I've had it in my mind to do something to them for ages, as they were (as I asked) literally picked out of the offcuts pile, not re-sanded or finished in any other way. I was feeling all organic and naturel in my interior design moment I guess. Anyway, my other love is bone china. The Japanese repair breaks and cracks by mixing glue and gold leaf together and making the fissure obvious. Well, thought I, splits in oak are really no different...

It wasn't my intention to fill the splits...not least because I don't have that many gilding flakes - but to accentuate them and if possible, make them prettier. The old Duo glue once again proved it's worth. I brushed it on..not altogether carefully or sparingly, then tipped on the flakes. At this point I stopped breathing because they go everywhere....
Tamp it down with a stencil brush, brush off the excess. Turn chunk around, repeat. Easy.

There is no good angle to shoot the photos - the snow makes everything too light! But you can see the gold if you concentrate.

And here they are in situ, being shelves. The mirror I've no doubt you understand about instantly, but the jewellery tree? I searched quite long and hard for a plain style tree to hang my most used necklaces upon, twisted chains put me off wearing them. But it really did bug me that the 'tree' wasn't tall enough for the necklaces to actually hang! No idea why. Probably for the same reason that odd lumps of unfinished, slightly gilded lumps of oak cluttering up his house make Mr Dunnit's teeth itch!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 504

Well, self explanatory, I think!

Two great lumps of oak. They've been in use in my  house for ages; yesterday when I was dusting and cleaning upstairs, it occurred to me that I could gussy them up a bit. So after chores today, they are my plan. Should only take an hour or so. There's the remnants of a weekend scrapbook session - the acrylic box contains embellishments like fabric brads, flair badges. Some essential tools at right and a stamp that says 'Let the evening Be Gin' - it seems appropriate!
No snow in these parts, although it is horrid cold; stay warm and safe y'all. In fact, stay in and visit desks after you've shown us yours. If you need one, I'll write you a note.
Please put WOYWW in your post title and then link here as normal. Thanks ever so.

What's On Your Workesk? Wednesday 503

My desk is a visual 'to-do' list. I spent some time last night doing a bit of sorting. Not tidying up type sorting, no no. Perish the thought!  Sorting things so that I can keep my creative momentum up. On the left, my folder of metal dies. I need to flick through them and make sure that the one I've promised to lend to a friend is not in fact, a figment of my imagination!  In the middle, a small pile of 15 or so scrapbook pages I've made since the beginning of December. They need to go in the album, but I was waiting for some decent light first, so I could photograph them.(They make great decoy pics on this blog when I'm dong the blah blah and have ne relevant photos!) I did that on Tuesday morning in a rare half hour of sunshine. Under my Bluetooth speaker is a plastic sleeve containing samples for a workshop. They need to be delivered to the Shopkeeper Gal. All these chores will be done today, thanks to my organising yesterday. By the way - that isn't snow outside. It's a blue tarpaulin covering some building stuff or equipment. I know not what. Can't remember!
Show and tell please, we like it when you do. 

Looking back, already

Remember New Year? Well, I do, because January 2nd was the 500th WOYWW and it all ties in nicely with the beginning of the month, year. At some stage over the preceeding week, a card came by post. It was whisked away from my sight because it said on the envelope that I wasn't to open it before the 2nd January. I didn't actually see it until then, such is the efficiency of secret keeping Chez Dunnit.
It was this beautiful card:

Our lovely WOYWW logo reproduced, embellished beautifully and numbered in that shadow technique that really is amazingly effective here. Isn't it beautiful. The card contains computer generated text that is flattering, friendly, lovely and purports to be from any and all of those who take part in WOYWW. It's quite the loveliest; I look at it more than once a day and it makes me smile. Just as on a Wednesday when I ask you to link and perpetuate the foolishness of WOYWW, I can only say THANK YOU.

 It seriously is a lovely card isn't it.

Feeling inspired - or perhaps - enabled?

I'm linking this with Annie's Friday Smiles, because it's Friday and because it makes me smile.

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 501/502!

EDIT; better brains than mine point out it’s actually 502 this week. Brains that haven’t had a week off. Yes, that’ll be the excuse du hour! 

I have to say that typing 501 this morning is a bit of a buzz! We’re home from our lovely bright sunny break and really not enjoying the grey cloud filled days, it’s so dark! Still, one thing for sure, it will change to something else, better or not! 

Here it is then. It’s just about to morph back into a crafter’s desk. It had a belated month end and other boring stuff to support first. I took a long shot so that you could enjoy the sight of the bin and the papers that float out of it while I’m sitting there, discarding stuff. Don’t freak out at the waste, it gets sorted and used as desk top saver or recycled as is appropriate. You can see boxes of card stock under my desk that came from Mary, I simply have nowhere else for this stuff to go. You can see three pairs of glasses on my desk. This is proof that every room in my house has a pair of Julia-suitable readers in it. And that I use, them, push them onto my head like a hair band to walk about and ultimately then end up collecting them from wherever I visit most! You can’t properly see it but there’s the makings of a large card on the desk...I’ll just summon up my courage and finish it before showing you properly. After all, it’s been yonks.

Meanwhile, please join in. Link up to your WOYWW post here and give us a free pass to rummage. I thank you. 

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 501

Well, hey hey, here we are breaking into a fresh hundred number...5somethings from now on. You lot are amazing. And amazingly nosey. So, just for poops and giggles, we are in Ternerife, wasting a bit of January on sunshine. We looked at the work schedule, realised that this first week back for our customers would involve them shuffling in trays and trying to remember what they wanted, so we fled!

Consequently, I can offer you a choice of desks.

A little bit of easy-travel crafting as the sun goes down..

The actual view from my pool side recliner.....

Or our much deserved Sunday lunch.

I can’t go on bragging in all good conscience, so will leave the rest to you...please link and join in the usual way....I’ll try to find some shade so that I can see the screen, brag brag! 

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 500

Happy New Year! And welcome to the 500th edition of What's On Your Workdesk. 500. That's a big fat roundy number and a lovely way to start another year, don't you think? I know LLJ does, it suits her statistician tendencies.  I planned it you know, ten years ago, even before we’d met. *cough*
My word though, 500 posts about my unchanging, untidy workdesk. 500 times I've made excuses and you've rolled your eyes and said 'yeah yeah'. 500 once weekly opportunities to call in and make a friend. And something I am really quite proud about - vey few rules and total flexibility, no membership and minimal advertising. I wanted it originally to be just for fun and I think it still is.
And there’s more this week. Beautiful, colourful, scent-full flowers from Jan to mark this big fat roundy 500. The lady who delivered them asked me if I would explain the card, apparently the florist was a bit worried that she’d copied out the messsage wrongly as it didn’t seem to make any sense to her. I opened it, grinned, and then watched the shutters closing in her eyes as I tried to briefly explain. Weird how some people don’t get it, huh. Truly lovely aren’t they, and totally unexpected. So as always, thanks for joining in. After all, without other desks it would have been a very short lived thing!