A day off in the life....

Watch out, photo heavy and not entirely fascinating, but the strap line of this blog does mention tales of domesticity....
For reasons numerous, I didn't have a workshop to prepare for this week, so I commuted my Thursday off to Wednesday. I did, as promised, have a long chat with myself about the motivation required to get a grip of the putting away part of the card marathon. It's like the post-retreat ennui, you know; unpacking is a terrible bore dahling. But look at the state of it, so I took this photo at 9.52 yesterday. And I got stuck in. I cleared the baskets and put away systematically, and then started the cards....the unused card kits had to be broken down and put away in parts for future use. The cupboard was a mess from being practically emptied in the preparation stages! But by 11.20 I'd finished the breakdown and the putting away and my card cupboard looks better for it, huh! Things were looking up, the floor cleared, baskets emptied and card stock sorted. At twenty past eleven I abandoned the work desk and went upstairs to change. That turned into a quick round of domestic chores before leaving the house. I hung out washing. A day off can't be all glamour, after all. It improved.

By one o,clock I was firmly seated opposite chums for lunch at a pub. Fifi Trixiebelle Le Beau on the left is a friend made through workshops and the Incredible Prepared Woman on the right used to manage the Post Office shop in Salisbury, where I did a few workshops too.

We had a lovely lunch, although Fifi and I were a bit astonished at Incredible Prepared Woman's incredible preparedness - she knew what was for supper and had all the ingredients ready for when she got home.She makes her own pasta. She has mostly got Christmas under control. She had remembered photos to show us her gorgeous and neat as a pin new garden. Me and Fifi..well, what can you do - we ordered pudding.

My afternoon was rounded off with a grand prix around Tesco. I'm not going to show you the photo of my car boot full of shopping - it's the sort of repetitive horror that none of us need but we all go through. So instead, as I have to admit to not quite getting round to the stamp cleaning (sorry Ally!), I'll show you the progress made in the workroom...am loving the floor space again! But I accept - it's only progress!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday

Well, mine isn't strewn with post-Marathon wreckage (yet), nor the new stamps (yet). rather it looks fairly sedate as if I haven't done much since Saturday. True. It's been nice, but I am definitely feeling the need now, so will have a little chat with myself in the morning and set about starting something. Like Elizabeth I will punctuate my starting with coffee. And like Elizabeth, I will be tidying up and putting away and washing stamps off before I set to starting anything new. Oh my word what a fine example she has set. With the coffee, anyway! The full horror of the work to be done is on the floor in two large boxes and a wheelie tote. But I didn't think to photo that and now the light's all horrid and erm, dark, actually!

See I've changed my stripey tape for clear tape - was wrapping something up that clearly needed to reflect a more serious person than the impression given by the stripey stuff. Other than that, I'm pretty sure this desk is uninteresting.

So here's a gratuitous shot of my stamp shelves....looking

very naked without the crowd of Christmas stamps that I

took down to place in my direct line of vision for card making

inspiration. It sort of worked, but tomorrow they are to be restored to their rightful place.

So then - show off or confess, whatever your desk style; we'd love you to join us.. not many rules, no membership necessary, dip in and out as and when you can, but know that you'll make some friends; Wednesdays are a very inclusive day in this portion of the ether! Add your pics to your blog, link it here and we'll swing by to rummage and comment over what you've got and what you're doing. Doesn't have to be paper crafting....we're very interested in you, whatever you're doing. Umm..is that asking for trouble?!!

Well, you asked..

Well probably not you - but some people! Here's a couple of the cards that featured at saturday's Marathon. I have to confess to not having unpacked properly yet...and certainly I haven't washed or cleaned any of the stamps involved. Yet. Maybe. I'm sorry if it makes you go wobbly and grind your teeth, but it's OK really - they're my stamps and I'm still living and breathing! So why's it taken so long to post even a paltry couple of cards? Because my camera SD card was missing. Totally OK, clearly I've found it now. I had lent it to Miss Dunnit for use at the convention over the weekend. Apparently it was my idea; aren't you happy your memory is as good as mine? I took a couple of pics on the day with my phone, but they aren't up to much, and like so many pics of workshops and things, they simply show a bunch of gals sitting at tables!
Although I haven't fully unpacked I can tell from spplies left over which of my cards were more popular (or which people did first before becoming selective in the time remaining!). This foiled tree went down reasonably well - I know you can't see it well but the pink foil on the Kraft paper is lovely. Miss Dunnit still thinks it deserves the name we used to identify it at the Marathon - Pink & Gaudy. Still, makes a nice non-traditional change, huh!I'll show you a few more cards as the unpacking progresses. To be honest, I need to get the unpacking done so I can hae my supplies back in their rightful places (yes, they DO have rightful places). because I have new stamps to play with and I'm a bit excited about that. Specially as they aren't Christmas stamps!

The warm glow

...actually has nothing to do with Hallowe'en. My warm glow is supplied by the passage of a deadline! Yesterday was 2 Scrap Ladies' Christmas Card Marathon. Me, Scrap Lady Ally and Lunch Lady Jan set about creating a day of card-making with a hot lunch, punctuated with cups of tea coffee and most importantly, fabulous home cooked cakes. About 6 varieties.

The girls that came included Kay who got out of bed early to get on the train from London, Hilary, who came from the Bridport seaside and Anna and Eileen who zoomed up the M3 from Wokingham. Impressive, huh! Yeah. And nerve wracking when people put themselves out like that!

It was a glorious Autumn Day, Slipper Lady's 25th birthday, and it seemed to go without too much of a hitch. Attendees were kind and complimentary - I think the greatest skill is of course mine - and that skill is finding friends that can pull it off for you. Really.

So thanks of course to Ally, without whom there would have been a paltry number of fairly uninteresting cards. And thanks to Jan, our Lunch Lady, without whom the catering would have been much less cheerful and very uninteresting.

So this is a self indulgent post. But hey, it's good manners.

How do you do it?

Yesterday, mid morning, mid workshop. Sun shining through the windows of the shop, defying forecasts. Eight women, busily making cards. We're having a very sociable time. Nothing like a big table and some crafting to make you feel like a chat. A relative newcomer to the world of Thursday workshops is Willpower Woman. She's lost three and half stone and still refuses cakes biscuits and sweets without so much as looking up. No fuss, no showing off. So unlike me - I'm full of admiration.

Last week, Willpower Woman and I spent a good couple of hours chatting over coffee while I was *cough* being a shopkeeper. Naturally, when she left, she had a bag with some craft shopping in it. Bling, I seem to remember, and ribbon, for sure. So yesterday I asked her if she'd managed to add the new stash to the existing work desk collection without it bein

g noticed. She laughed and indeed confirmed that she'd felt pretty clever in sneaking the bag past Mike. Well, that set everyone off in turn, about how they deal with their purchases - as in, how the bag physically gets across the threshold of the house and into stash central. Isn't it amazing, and funny, how our guilt manifests itself! Some leave the bag in the car until the other half goes out or at the least, upstairs. Some transfer it into a familiar shopping bag and breeze in with it, all front and pretence.....stroll casually past the partner and then leggit to the desk. No doubt that it seems not to be truly un-returnable until it's safely stashed - or added to the general work on the desk top. Then ownership can begin. I suspect this is more about the feeling that if it's on the desk it kinda just gets 'absorbed' into the general 'stuff' and can't be told apart as new or not - unless you're the one that has just acquired it of course!

Mr Dunnit seems utterly immune to my matter-of-fact approach

to this dilemma. I front it out - just walk past him and dump the bag on my desk...almost daring him to say something. He never does. There are moments when I feel guilty about the amount I shop (wouldn't be blogging about it otherwise, probably!). I can' logicalise' this for you though dear interweb......I shouldn't feel guilty; after all, I'm not spending any money that isn't mine and we're not going without food or shoes because of my habit. It's because he DOESN'T complain that I feel guilty - it would seem (in my head) that I should have the opportunity to raise my voice and make my point about my financial independence. *more coughing*. So it's his fault. And still he smiles; he knows that he's twisting the guilt knife when he says that it makes him happy if I'm happy. And he knows I know. Which is why he does it. He thinks it's funny. Which is probably how (or why) we're still together. Someone want to logicalise that one for me?!!

Thanks for asking about the Manga costume, I promise to show it when Miss D gets back from convention with the promised kerjillion pics...I'm not really one to miss a showing off opportunity, now am I?! And if you're reading this and booked into the 2 Scrap Ladies Card Marathon tomorrow - go to bed, it's an early start!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday

I've been gathering supplies to get the cutting and kitting ready for the 2 Scrap Ladies Card Marathon this weekend. So although it's new stash, it's not really for me. But it is me that's working on top of this pile. I'm frightened that if I move it, I'll lose some essential piece of paper! The very shiny Christmas lettering at the bottom left of thepile is a piece of foiled scrapbook paper - doesn't it look great in this weird flash lit yellow light! The Copic colour chart is only out because it was carefully stored inside a pad of thick A3 papers that I'm now using to make sleeves to hold the card and paper supplies for the weekend. So I guess it needs a new home, which means it will be a while!

It's all over the dining table too. Here are the sleeves full of stuff - so far...more than half still to be done. The sewing machine is still out because I've just finished another Manga costume for Miss Dunnit - there's a convention this weekend. She's going as a Pokemon trainer. If you don't know, probably better not to!

So despite all the dark and gloomy photos, I've shown you mine - now you show all of us yours! Photo your desk, workspace, counter top, lap tray - whatever you're doing, put it on your blog and then visit here to leave a link. Then loads of us will come by for a rummage. Simple. It's all about sharing what you're doing and showing us what you've got! Thanks!

Tales from behind the till. Epsiode 8,0746329

another completely unrelated photo, it's a skill you know.

Well, it's episode four I think, but do stop me if I get boring. I'm back at my real job now. Believe me, even the excitement of a new desk made to order and fitted into a proper office can't compare. Actually, all the new stuff is just a smokescreen; Mr Dunnit doesn't want me to realise how permanent this job is!

So back to bedlam; I can't remember which day it was, but I know I wasn't alone in the shop (you never are for long). I was definitely sitting at the workshop table, and I think I was bravely pretending to make a card. I know I was chatting. Anyway, in comes tall gentleman, beautifully dressed for autumn in a nice jacket and a cravat. Perhaps he was going on to luncheon. He asked if I sold epoxy resin. I regretted that I did not. He asked why. I explained that us paper users tend to stick with tape and PVA, or as emergency use, Glossy Accents. Well said he, epoxy glues are a craft item. I suggested that they are if you're a model maker, but that this shop is all about paper crafts and besides, we wouldn't like the smell of epoxy glues. He sagely pointed out that I wouldn't have to smell it if I just kept it for sale. Score. I sagely pointed out that I'd never sell any if I didn't use it, for lots of people wouldn't know its application. Score back! He expressed his disappointment that the sign over the shop says Kraft Crazy but it was not a general craft shop as implied. The sign also says scrap booking, card making and children's crafts, says I, again adding regret that I can't help. He wandered around for a bit, expressed a couple of further disappointments and left. And blow me, as I went to close the door before 80 thousand leaves blew in, he was standing in the middle of the road, reading the shop sign. He waved - I don't think it was a two fingered salute.