WOYWW 141 Blog Candy Closing - Last Chance

Yep, the candy closes tonight and I will announce the winner in the morning (Thursday that is) or at some time in the day.  If you haven't signed up for it yet, click on the link in the sidebar or go to "Home" and read all about it.  The signature is genuine.  The bag is full.

Well, it is a week since I/we returned from America and CHA.  I think I gave you quite a lot of photos, including some this last weekend so I will finish off here.  These are some of the things I made at the workshops.

We had been up at 4.30 am on the Saturday as Mary wanted us to get to the hotel for seven and on to the Convention Centre in time to register and for 8am classes.  I didn't have one until eleven so Mary persuaded me to do hers at eight that morning.  You have seen some of the cards I did with "Animal Spirit Stamps" previously but here is the card we got in the class which shows the bear with each individual part of him coloured in.

Can you spot the ladybird (ladybug in America) - it is easier to spot here with it being coloured red than in the pictures of the Woolly Mammoth or the Ray as in my previous posts.  It's not too obvious but it is red and has black spots on its back, part of it is under a leaf.  (These stamps are stocked in the UK by Andy and Janice of Sir Stampalot - some great images and more to come with the new orders)

The whole idea of the workshop was to show you different ways of showing your clients how they could colour in without doing it as above.  So we had pure black and white and Distress Inks (as in the Mammoth), Alcohol Inks as in the Ray and now we did the Crane with Pearlex

This is maybe not a good example as we had to use Q tips to colour with and most of us are used to using a brush with our Pearlex but even so I think it loses the quality of the stamps - here it is in black ink only.

My second class was with Aileene's glue products.  Everyone laughed at me when I said I was going to make a rose out of a slice of bread.  Now I must confess, I thought I was signing up for something else but this turned out to be my favourite class.  Loved it, every minute of it.  I have never seen a class so well prepared, every step of the way it was evident that so much prep had gone into it.

We did a pendant covered with egg shells, a butterfly with a burnt brown paper bag and the rose, all in a two hour class.  Some also did a ring but mine fell off the metal into the wax so mine did not get finished.  Must do it and wear it now I am home.  The burnt bag technique really got to me and I must do some more, the samples they had were fabulous.

Here's a closeup of the rose, it is so tiny but so easy to do and having done cake icing I think you could make other flowers out of it too. Great embellishments and so strong when they have dried off.

This is my journal page done with Suzi Blu, the zaniest person I have met in a long time.  We spent so much time laughing and my poor neighbour had to wear the "bunny" hat because she could not get on with her work but it certainly helped her as she made a fab piece in no time.

Another class I took was Tulip Body Art where I expected to come out with all the knowledge and know how to prepare me to paint faces etc.  I met a lovely guy, Richard, who allowed me to use a stencil on his arm and paint a Chinese Dragon on him.  Ouch, I had to remove the sticky stencil and it hurt me more than it hurt him to do so.  Didn't feel I learned anything in this class - enough said.  Did get some great products though which I will pass on to some friends who might use them.

Another class was by EK Success and Jolee's Boutique (French General).  We had so much stuff to create with that most of us just managed to do the Inspiration Board.  I nearly finished the Notepad cover - just need to add the pad and a pencil and then I have to do the Fold Up Tag and Notecard Holder to complete the class.  Here is the Inspiration Board

All products inspired from old world France ... French General Fabric Sheets and Borders, mix and match buttons, trims and embellishments from French General Notion Kits, die-cut letters printed on adhesive canvas, etc.  We got lots to play with and we got to keep the scissors and the border punch.

This is the notepad

Sadly I got so carried away with the show that I forgot to go to the Dreamweaver class I had booked.  I hold my hand up, I now have to pay $10 "no show" fee and I deserve it.  When I realised I was besides myself and went and apologised to the vendors.  I had so wanted to do this class!!!

My last class gave me this certificate

Several of my friends knew I was "certifiable" and I now have a certificate to prove it LOL.  It was with Tombow (the lady I had done the shoe Make & Take with was leading it) and we did an accordion book but had the option of keeping each section separate to use as a set of cards - I did it together.  Apologies for the wonky photo - took it on the bed

First page was using glue to adhere fabric to card and then another glue to use (as we use Glossy Accents) on the button.  The second page was the dragonfly using Irojiten coloured pencils.  I loved these and wouldn't mind a few sets of them as they blended beautifully and came in sets of beautiful colours.    Third page used Mono Multi Glue to stick fabric together as we were stuffing the body of the bird with cotton wool.  Worked well!  Last page used the Dual Brush Pens by putting the colour on acetate first and then picking it up with the Blender pen.

Fifth page was again using glue and fabric (plus a Power Tab), sixth using the Irojiten pencils again, this time  with a strike stroke on the bird, seventh, and my favourite technique, was using the Dual Brush Pens by pressing the tip down and lifting to create the bamboo - it works a treat.  Last page (the one with "Fly" written on is just the printed cs) was using the pencils again but this time with the scrumbling technique.  Because I liked the background cardstock and didn't want to obliterate the images I did cut out some of them rather than leave them as a square.

Now if you have got down so far, sorry I have rambled on haven't I, you need to have a bit of light relief and that can be found on the Stamping Ground which on a Wednesday is full of crazy folks, sorry, delightful crafters, who love to show off their desks.  Just reading what Julia (the boss WOYWW'ier) has to say will provide some light relief and bring a smile to your face, she has a definite way with words.  So I suggest you head on down there, get another cuppa and sit back and enjoy!

So where's my desk this fine Wednesday?  Getting ready for a workshop - Guess what I will be doing.  No peeks at shoves to left or right - it's a tip!  This was me in a panic last night trying to find a worksheet and now I cannot find the correct materials for sale on the internet.  Why would a manufacturer change a perfectly good colour for a crappy one?

You will have to wait until the beginning of March to see what this is all about.  My workdesk will get worse and worse as I have samples to make and loads of birthdays coming up - in fact I have one today and no card - EEK!!

Toodle Pip!

Been Busy

I think I said in one of my blog entries this week that I was busy.  Well all is now revealed.  I have been making a birthday cake for a friend.  I remember her getting one a few years ago at a Stamp Camp as her birthday just fell at the weekend and her saying that despite the fact that she made cakes for everyone she never had one of her own before.

Well now, Jo, you have one.  It is not a special birthday with a nought at the end of it or even a five, but it is your  birthday tomorrow and so I am delivering your birthday present a little early as I am away over the weekend on one of the ArtsyCrafty weekends.

The cake is a fruit one, hope it is nice and moist, and it has been marzipanned and then iced and there are handmade flowers (sugar) on the top.  I am pretty sure Jo is a bit of a "purple" fan and so that determined the colour of the main flowers - but the rest is white.

As I gave up cake icing years ago and don't have the various cutters any more for making the sugar flowers I had to enlist the help of my friend Margaret.  She helped me and had an alphabet set so we could cut out the lettering instead of doing it all as run outs.

A purple ribbon around the base to echo the one in the spray of flowers and some piped shells (was amazed I remembered how to do these)  finishes it off.

Have I Got the Doodle Bug?

What a lot of entries we had last week with Sam's Tim Holtz Challenge.  Just how popular is that guy?  It was great to see so many different takes on the theme and I am looking forward to seeing what people do with the theme this week.

I first met Zentangles a few years ago at CHA when looking at new publications on the Dover Book stand.  My attention was taken, by a lovely young lady, to the newest craze which was Zentangling.    Since then I have been fascinated by the many intricate patterns people can make which you find by Googling the word itself.  How envious I am of the skills they seem to possess when making these intricate patterns within patterns.  A skill I am afraid I do not seem to possess.

However, when Zoe chose to do some Doodling (we have been told we should not refer to them as a Zentangle as that is a registered trademark) I must say I thoroughly enjoyed what I did on an atc.  Maybe a new set of pens is what is required so that I can have various thicknesses of lines which I am sure would make life easier than my plodding on with a very fine nib.

Anyway, here is my rendition for this week's challenge over on Just for Fun - a Doodle

Not being familiar with making these I decided to start off with a rubber stamp and so I used an image of a face which I thought had the possibility of my building some interesting shapes around it.  Perhaps I am over ambitious and made too many little pockets for me to decorate - it took me an age!  Mind you it was whilst watching tv so the time passed and I did two things at once.

This year at CHA one of the stands had some gorgeous Zentangling on display with coloured pens.  The whole world is against me at the moment - well cyber world anyhow - I have lost one of my Yahoo Groups in Outlook and am devastated that my whole album of photographs from my American trip earlier this year has disappeared.  I would have loved to have shown you the work - and maybe replicated some of it myself.  Ah well.

Will I do another?  Watch this space.

Can't be Wednesday Again

Gosh! these Wednesdays seem to come round awfully quickly.  Am sure it was only two or three days ago since it was Wednesday yet my calendar tells me it is Wednesday today.  That can only mean one thing - it's WOYWW.  Guess what?  Have nothing really to show for it.  Thanks anyway to all of you who so kindly commented last week, promise next week I will be more organised.

There's my new stamps at the left hand side of the photo, then there is my Queen card - that might be interesting to you, some diecuts waiting transformation and a tray full of buttons.

I bought one of the button packets (three of us shared the £10 offer) and tonight set about making a necklace.  The guy did not tell us how much ribbon you needed and as my head was not working I just measured off the length I want plus a bit (you know how you do) and it is too short - more like a choker!  Forgot to allow for the up and down through each button hole.  Doh!  Reckon you need about three times your length.

The card - well first of all the bodice is an acrylic piece with a stamped image behind it and then coloured in with Glitter pens.  The wings are a stamp, as is the head and legs.  Two cards from a mini pack - Joker and Queen of Hearts - the words are all computer generated as is the negative look picture.  Lastly there are some glow in the dark hearts scattered about , a skeleton leaf and a butterfly.

Right, better go now as I have heaps to do and got a hospital appointment later - off for a lovely soak in the bath!  Have a nice WOYWW day everyone and don't forget to go over to The Stamping Ground and see what everyone has been up to.

WOYWW 99 (oh wow!)

Not much to show you on my workdesk again this week - I have been doing a lot of resting since my ordeal last week so crafting has had to go on the slow cooker.  What you see on my desk is something I am working on for tomorrow - yes, last minute, adrenalin and all that.

Instead of my dirty green cutting mat you now have my equally dirty red foam stamping mat.  I would not be without it, it is fabulous - thanks Mary!  I did try to keep it pristine but it soon got stamped on, hence the grubby look.  So what is on it?  To the left you can see a bit of a tin that I store my um's in.  Then there is the window for my domino stamping, a matchbox with some tags that I once did with Lynne and a blank one in front as I want to do another and some bits and pieces to the right for something the "thing" I am doing for tomorrow which is part of my DT piece.  I am hoping to do a video tutorial for it as well.

I'll show you the tin and give you some idea of how I store my um's.

This is my "Women" tin

I try to categorise my stamps and then I stamp the images on a sheet of A6 and laminate it, then put my um's on the reverse side and put them in the appropriate tin.  Some tins are way too full and have spilled over into others and some, I must confess, are still in drawers.  

You can see a bit of one of my drawer sets - these mainly house my mounted stamps and A4 sheets like Oxford Impressions and Non Sequitur but there are some others that get put in there.

How do you store your um's?  Would love to read all about it on one of your postings on The Stamping Ground.  If you are new to the "snoop of the week" you won't know what on earth I am on about or what the title of this blog stands for.  Pop on over to Ms Dunnit's blog and see - click on one or two of the names and have a good old nosey around to see what others are doing.  

Oh, get a cuppa first, it is addictive!

WOYWW 97

Is it really the 97th edition of WOYWW?  Not that I have been in since the beginning or anywhere near there but Crikey Mikey - that's a long time to run so successfully.  Well done Ms Dunnit, you are a star!  Just in case you don't have a clue what I am twittering on about pop over to The Stamping Ground and see what it is all about.

Whoa!  Before you go here is my desk.  Doesn't look as if I have changed it since last week when I unveiled my needlefelting (dumphing to some of you out there) but if you look closely you will see it is full of threads this week.  Somehow I am supposed to do some fancy hand stitching but to be honest my hand stitching leaves a lot to be desired.  You ask Leandra!

Without giving too much away you can have a great big sneak peek at something which I enjoyed doing - it's resting up at the back of my workdesk.  Love it!

Think I need to treat myself to a new Giant cutting mat - this one is looking decidedly grubby.

Going to have to get a move on with this project as it has to be completed by weekend so no time to stay around - you just get over to Ms Dunnit's blog and see what goodies others have in store for you this week.

Have a good snoop!

Just for Fun - Anything Goes

Well, we have come to the end of Zoe's month of choices and now we have an "Anything Goes" week which pleased me no end as I have been wanting to have a go at a certain something for simply ages.

I first saw decorated spoons on the ever talented Sarah's blog and really wanted to do some but you know how it goes, this cropped up - and then that - and before I knew, I had forgotten about them.  Each time I thought of doing some, something else got in the way.  Last year when auntie died she had lots of old spoons in the drawer and as they were loose and not really suitable for the charity shop I brought them home.  At last I have got around to decorating them - well two of them.

Sarah had directed me to Kelli Perkins site and there I found a tutorial but realised I could not drill my spoons as they were stainless steel.  Bother!  Still, I wanted to do them so hit on the idea of using some strong magnets - and they worked.  Took more than one attempt at finding a decent glue to hold them (those magnets are so strong) but now they sit proudly on my freezer door.

Ok - waffled long enough - here they are:

I am rubbish at finding quotes

Love how the Alcohol Ink works on the spoons

I have had this butterfly stamp for simply years

Love these roses

All you need to do is colour your spoon all over with Alcohol Inks, let it dry and whilst it is doing so get stamping on thin paper.  Add your stamped images and then embellish with ribbons, beads, whatever takes your fancy.  It is so girly and so therapeutic I might just have to go and do some more.

Do you think this should go under the heading "altered art"?

Hope you join us at Just for Fun this week and I am so looking forward to seeing what you all come up with.  We should get lots of ideas from one another and this is where we can let our imagination run riot.  Check out what the other DT members have come up with - awesome stuff on there!

WOYWW 95

I cannot believe it is Wednesday again and I have done so little crafting.  Thanks to all of you who popped by last week and thanks to those who left me a comment - I love comments.  Not a clue what I have been doing with my time but I know it is not crafting.  Look at my workdesk!

To the left you can see the beads that I blogged last week - there is another set in the oven though.  Then there is a Bandana Technique which I did with Robin Beam years ago at CHA (taken out to show someone) and the beginning of a 50th Wedding Anniversary card for a friend (late!).

Here is the Bandana Technique Tag in closeup

In the front of my desk you can see some calendar pages.  This was a gift to me from my friend Cathy in America.  It's out because I am going to bind the pages together.  If you enlarge the page you will see my sorry excuse for a Tim Holtz ruler - most of the grid has come off - going to have to buy another one.

Anyway, TC as I affectionately call her, had this calendar made for me by her friend Susie Reneau.  This is the 32nd Calendar Susie has produced and she has had over 60 one-woman shows and many joint showings.  She has produced more than 250 post card designs, lots of wedding invitations .... a few book illustrations and record covers and over 800 silk-screen prints.  You can Google her and find out lots more about her life as an artist.

I thought I would share the first three months with you - must fill them in

Little pockets with tag in

These cards were in the envelope at the top of the page - it's all the little touches that make this so special.

I'll try to remember to upload a month at a time (before I write on it) so you can see what it looks like.

That's all for this week folks.  If you want to see more desks, some clutter, some tidiness and get some downright good tips why not pop over to Ms Dunnit's blog and follow the links there for a "reet good ole snoop".  See you next week - once more at the Stamping Ground.

WOYWW

This is a quick look at my desk as it was the other day for all you WOYWW'ers.  This is when I unloaded the suitcases from our recent trip to America.  Too late to include last week as we did not get home until Wednesday evening and it was some time on Thursday or Friday when I "dumped" my stash.

This is my work area - EEK!

And to the Left

Don't ask me what I bought as I cannot remember and in order to clear some space to work in (yes, I had cards to make this week) most of the stuff is lined up against the wall in the hallway waiting to be catalogued (I have to stop myself buying duplicates) and put away. Put away?  Where???

Not time to let you see anything else as I am off on my travels again. This time only to Milton Keynes but it will be a girly night out with my lovely friend Lorraine so we will no doubt have some laughs together tonight.  Also meeting up with Janet and Wendy and going to the Chinese for our evening meal.

I say, only to Milton Keynes, but it is so exciting as we are taking a workshop with - da da .... drum roll please ... the one and only Tim Holtz.  Plus of course those two wonderful ladies Lin and Leandra.  yes, I managed to secure a place on this workshop which sold out in next to no time.

So check back here at weekend - hopefully there should be some photographs.

Whilst you are here - for those who saw my earlier posts about my friend, Mary, falling and breaking her knee cap whilst we were staying with her in America - the good news is she has had her op and is back in the land of the living.  Mary, bless her heart, had Maria ring me (all the way from America) as soon as she came out of the op and they were told she had opened her eyes.  Tears of relief came I might tell you.  Now eagerly awaiting an email from someone - anyone - to tell me how she is and, hopefully, that she is home.


Here she is with Maria, Carole, Becky (her sister) and that's Mary in the wheelchair.  She had gone out to look at one of the glorious sunsets and I just had to get my camera.

Jet Lag and a Challenge

In more ways than one ...

Saturday night I had a good sleep and could have slept on but I wanted to go to Jayne's Stamp Day so I got up and went and had a lovely time.  Didn't do much of Naomi's Album - spent my time nattering.  Think Jayne didn't get much of her project done as she was busy in the kitchen delighting us all with her Corned Beef Hash and her Potato and Leek Soup - yum yum!

Here's a couple of photographs from the day

I was sat next to Lorraine and she made this beautiful card in next to no time.  Not like me!

Mo brought her beading and made some sales - not a clue what she is going on about here.

A long shot down the hall - missed quite a few folks off sadly.

Tried to get a closeup of Paul - guess the camera isn't up to it.  One day ...

Well, now about the jet lag.  You may not believe this but I have not slept all night.  Got up in the wee small hours and tidied my craft room.  Mind you half of the contents I tidied are sitting on the hall carpet.  But at least I had room to craft and so I decided to join in with the Just For Fun Challenge.  It's a new Challenge Blog and I love it so I entered the first week whilst I was in America but events took over and I missed the next one.  Decided to do the current one which is following the monthly "Wings" theme set by Sam and is "Wings of a Bug".

It started off as an ATC and ended up as a card.  Now my other half just didn't get it so for all you folks out there I will explain - the little mouse has bought a pair of wings and today they just don't work.  He went back to the shop but they explained that they won't work in the rain so here he is trudging along with his umbrella.

I used my favourite inks (Distress) Wild Honey and Rusty Hinge for the background with the raindrops stamped in Rusty Hinge.  The image background is Crushed Olive at the bottom and Tumbled Glass at the top.  The mouse and his umbrella are coloured in with Promarkers and his butterfly wings with Gel Pens (slot in his back and inserted through).  The words are computer generated.

I was really "miffed" at having missed the week before ("Time Flies") so I made a hanging on a computer disc and although it is too late to enter it here it is:

This is an image I bought from Mary whilst in America because I just fell in love with those ladies (Art Impressions).  The image is coloured in using Promarkers, the wings are grungeboard coloured with a gold Dabber and the words "Time Flies" were done with my Dynamo.  The other writing is my own with a pen.

I had great fun doing this one but now am feeling sleepy so will leave it there.  There's still time for you to join in with the Wings of a Bug Challenge - go along to the blog and read all about it - sounds exciting what they have planned.  

Maybe more tomorrow - perhaps Naomi's album will be completed.

Blog Award

The lovely Cardarian of Cardarian's Happy Place gave me an award at the end of January and I have only just got around to passing it on.  Thank you so much Cardarian, it is an honour to receive this award.

There are a couple of conditions for the award

You have been TAGGED and want to participate?

Then create a post where you post the 'LOVE BLOG' image.

You should also blog the persons link that gave you the award and inform her/him that you accept the award.

You then choose 3 - 5 favourite blogs which you also link in your post, then inform each blogger that they have been tagged.

Dear bloggers:

The aim of this action is that we bring unknown, good blogs to light, so I would ask you not to blog fellow bloggers that already have 3,000 followers.  

As always, the hardest part is to pick who to pass this on to, there are so many bloggers I could give it to but I pick these.

Karla

Karen

Peggy

Sarah

Tracey

Blog Award

First of all a Big Thank you to Jinny for giving me this award (see right).  You really should check out her blog - it is fantastic - she makes some amazing things and I just love her blog to bits.

It is the third award I have had since I came to America so I am so chuffed I might just stay over here.  Only joking, the money is running out and the insurance on the house would be invalid if I stayed any longer.

Now I have to pass it on to eight others and tell you eight things about myself:

1.  I really don't know how long I have been stamping but prior to that I was into cake icing and decorating (sugar flowers) and guess I have been into crafts most of my life but not as seriously as now.

2)  Every year at CHA I have to have my photograph taken with Lisa Pavelka as she is so wonderful.

3)  I work for Oyster Stamps in the UK demonstrating at the northern shows and Tracey and Graham are the most wonderful people to work for and great vendors too.

4)  I do workshops for Paddy's Stamping Place in Prestwich which is the north of England as well as several other companies.

5)  I have the most wonderful small family consisting of my other half, Chas, my son Andy and his partner Sam(antha) - my other family live in Australia and I also have my adopted family now here in America who I love with all my heart.

6)  I go to Victoria Stampers in Rainhill once a month with a great bunch of people.

7)  Despite having a HUGE garden I am not much of a gardener but I wish I was.

8)  I wish I was 20 years younger and at the place I am right now as there is so much I want to learn and do in the crafting world.

Now to pass on to some amazing blogs which you must check out:

http://anne-ectdotes.blogspot.com - my dear friend Anne who does some beautiful cards

http://cockneyblonde.blogspot.com - Alison who had a brief spell away from blogging but who, I am glad to say, is back in blogland with her lovely colouring

http://harpie38.blogspot.com - Sid, who everybody loves so much

http://atcsbylottie.blogspot.com - Lottie who made the most amazing journal a few months ago and who makes beautiful things all the time

http://rarelizzie.wordpress.com - Liz Welch who is the greatest tutor ever and does the most amazing Friendly Plastic work

http://sam21ski.blogspot.com - Sam, who I love dearly and who has branched out into so many wonderful medias with fantastic work

http://yoursartfully.blogspot.com - what can one say about Lin, who, with Leandra, runs the most fantastic workshops ever and does some truly inspiring work

and lastly, but certainly not least http://theartsiders.blogspot.com - Paul, my best friend who not only is a very talented crafter but also the nicest friend a girl could have.

It was so difficult to decide who to list as there are so many talented people out there that I could have sat here all day listing peeps - a hard decision to choose but eight.  Do check them out and don't forget Jinny who gave me this award.

Shopping

Not done any crafting for a couple of days - been shopping instead.  Here are some of the crafty bits on Suze's blog - courtesy of Michaels:

Spent a fortune at Michaels yet again and introduced Jo and Carol to Bev Mor's which is the most fantastic booze shop ever.  They have some really expensive bottles of wine but it is the spirits that are fascinating.  The bottles are fabulous and just calling out to be bought, emptied (by any means) and altered.  Trouble is they are quite expensive.  Maybe if I go again I will take some photographs.

This is a bit of a catch up as the day before (Tuesday?) we went out with Mary and visited three craft shops.  This is the workroom in one of them - quite something isn't it?  What about that lounge area?  It was lovely to go in and meet up with someone who worked there from Lincolnshire of all places.  We had a lovely chat about "good old England" but she would never dream of moving back there - who can blame her!  Weather, standard of living - no comparison.

They had some terrific samples on show, as had the other stamp shop we went in, and it was very inspirational.

The real reason for my blogging is to say a BIG THANK YOU to Nicola (Sunshine Girl) for giving me the Magical Blog (see Tinkerbell to the right) on Sunday last.  I did upload it but now have to pass it on to seven other people so I am giving it to

Minxy
Peggy
Helen
Elizabeth
Kay
Dot
Sam

I enjoy visiting these blogs so much, they give me so much pleasure and inspiration that I think they need some recognition and I think they will like that cute little button.  Hope so.  It was not easy to limit things to seven people so I hope nobody feels left out.

I also received another blog award yesterday from Cardarian and need to nominate some people for that one.  Think I will leave that for tomorrow (American tomorrow) if nobody minds.

WOYWW

This is another room at my friend's house where all her inks and things are kept - these are things that are for sale so not really part of her stash.  Mind you, I have had a good time rummaging and filling my shopping basket up with bits and pieces.

On this shot you can see a Dreamkutz which is a machine I really like - would like to have - but the snag is it is designed for American sized cardstock.  It is so handy if you are doing a workshop where you are making books and wanting the pages cutting.

This is a shot of the shelves with all the inks and things on.  One of my jobs earlier this week was to make labels for the containers and put prices on.

This room also held the laptop and there is Chas working on his Master's degree at the table - at the moment the central tables have been removed and a blow up mattress installed in there so that Caz can sleep on it for the time she is staying here prior to CHA.  We set off on Friday - early morning.

Hopefully all you WOYWW'ers wil be able to see the goodies we see at CHA.

WOYWW - Wait Till You See This

Hi Everyone - It's now just gone 4 in the afternoon so I reckon it is Wednesday over in the UK and time to upload my latest peeks at my workdesk.  Not really mine is it, it's that of my friend, Mary, but I am working on it at the moment.  Nothing new to show you but am sure you will just enjoy seeing the area.  Here is a longer shot than last week - last week was just a tease as I had only just arrived.  Ready all you WOYWW'ers - faithful followers of our Guru, Julia?

That's where I am working at the moment.  If you click on the picture you will get a bigger view and I am using the chair in the foreground (you can see the orange scissors).

I can hear you all crying "Where are the pictures of the diecutting room" as promised last week - well look no further:

Yes those baskets contain dies

What about this Grande Mark?  And Mary's baby - the Big Shot! There's no Vagabond - well, that is residing along with the Grand Calibur up in Mary's retreat and I forgot to take photographs of them.  Will amend another day.

Hope you have enjoyed the snoop and just to make my friends back home green here is a picture of me this morning taking in a little of the Californian sunshine.  Only kidding, I am longing for a bit of rain already.

Toodle Pip for now!

WOYWW - A Bit Late But Got an Excuse

Think I am scraping in a day late but not quite sure what day it is in England as I am across the water in America.  Consequently it is not my desk but one on which I am working at the moment.

This is in my friend Mary's workshop and is only one end of the desk(s) that form the work area.  Oh what joy it is to be here working with such a wealth of materials, lots of light and so many new things to try (plus buy).  Couldn't begin to tell you what there is on this desk - or on the carousel at the end - but there is a lot more to show you another time.  Then there is the diecutting room ..... Am I making you all drool?

Here for a couple more weeks so plenty of time to do more reveals but in the meantime a quick catch up.

Set off from home on Monday, overnight stay in an airport hotel in Manchester for an early flight to Heathrow next day.  Arrived in LA, still Tuesday, at around 3 pm (by this time it was Wednesday at home) and went through the various checks at the airport, on to the bus to take us to Van Nuys where Mary was going to meet us.  Busy time so it took a while to get there on the I5 as it was the start of rush hour.  

Lovely to meet Mary again, twelve months since we had seen her but she looked just the same, then on to El Presidente - oh how I longed for a Margarita on the Rocks.  Fed and watered we made our way to Mary's lovely home where we sat and caught up before going to bed, totally exhausted as we had been up some 25-26 hours.

I really wanted to do a posting for WOYWW but was too tired and it has taken me until now to get around to it so am now off to Julia's blog to see where I figure in the list.  Why not pop over yourself and have a good nose around at what others are getting up to.

Here's a photo I took through the plane window as we were coming into LA - enjoy!

Nearly Forgot (Again)

I forgot last week - well to be truthful I got my days muddled and didn't realise it was Wednesday until Friday.  Yes, I lost the plot!  What am I on about - I forgot to do my WOYWW where we all go to Ms Dunnitt's blog and show off our workspaces; good or bad, something to show or nothing.  I did visit one or two blogs but if I didn't get round to yours I apologise.  Whilst I am here though HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL THE WOYWW'ers - ideal time to wish you all a happy, safe and crafting new year.

Well I have had a terrible time searching all over these past few days for my Mojo.  Gone completely on  vacation and never even had the decency to leave a forwarding address.  Think he took my typing fingers with him as I am making the most ridiculous typos and this post is taking ages as I have to keep correcting.  Guess I should leave it there.

Last night I took my 40 or so beautiful hand-made Christmas cards down and began making a list on the computer so that I can write to the various friends to thank them for the beautiful cards they sent.  As a consequence this is what my desk looks like this morning.

I need to ask Julie who makes the stamps she used (bottom left) because I just love them both.  Especially the one with the "Figgy Pudding" sign outside the shop.  I don't want to single out any cards as they are all beautiful but thought I would stand the cut out one at the back up so you could see it.  That's from my friend, Audrey.  Right, got to leave it there - it's time to get linking.

Do pop over to Julia's blog and join in the fun.