WOYWW 432

Last Saturday I went to Vicky Stampers and had a very different workshop using an old product - Alcohol Inks.  Lovely to revive them and do a different technique.  Jacqui was our tutor for the day and she made some fabulous coasters using tiles and Alcohol Inks.  I need to get around to doing some more so that I can improve and hopefully get them to look a bit more like Jacqui's.  

She also had us make a couple of cards and you can see there is a blue one here.  I must have put the other one underneath when I packed up.

Haven't had time to do anything crafting wise since weekend as on Saturday I had my new floor laid. I love it but the adhesive that was used was so strong and took until today to get the smell to disappear. That meant I could only stay in for a short time at once to put some of the things back.  So now I am almost back to normal apart from one or two bits, as you can see, that are piled up on the worktop (to the left of the picture).  I give you - my flooring!

Love it!

So that is it for this week - short and ... well, short - just as Julia likes it.  Follow this link and find out all about WOYWW and (shriek, shriek!!) only two weeks to go to THE CROP!!!

WOYWW 431

Here we are again, visiting desks in various stages of creativity and reporting to Ms Julia so that we can link up with like-minded folks.  Good fun - why not join in and whilst on Ms J's blog have a look at the section about the crop.  Fancy a Day in Llandudno?  Read all about it, it's never too late.

Well after last week's marathon post I am keeping it short and sweet.  Nothing much to show on my desk unless you can see the birthday card I made for my friend who celebrates 80 years on earth today. Mags and I met a few years ago at cake icing classes and have been friends ever since. Gosh it must be getting up for 30 years now.  Hoping to go and take her present later but first of all one son is calling for lunch and he doesn't know but he is helping me move some more stuff OUT of my craft room.  Yes, OUT AGAIN!  Only for the day this time as Daniel is coming on Thursday to lay the flooring and then crafty things can go back and hopefully stay there for the forceable future.  Photos?

both cupboards now almost empty AGAIN

This is the window wall

Where have all the cubby holes gone?
Compare it to last week's photo

some are here

some are in the hallway

and here is Mags' Birthday Card

That's all for now folks!

WOYWW 425

Click here to see what WOYWW stands for if you don't know (you mean there are some out there do not know!!??!!).  Then join in and come along to our crop (see top of Julia's page).

So what is on my workdesk today (or should it be yesterday - had to post early as I was going out. Excited because my new purchases had arrived!  At last I had got myself some Distress Oxides. They are awaiting labelling in the window storage area along with all the Distress Inks I own.  But, wait what is on my actual desk?  Yes, Alice stuff!

Laid out just for you!

My bff had alerted me to these wonderful little dies.  Well, not so little.  The largest is about 4.5" high I now have ideas running around in my head as to what I am going to do with them.  Anyone got a birthday coming up?

I have been busy buying boxes - more of the lovely white ones that I fell in love with from that Swedish store.

Don't you love my Harry Potter box?

I have also got some pots to store all manner of things in.  These will keep changing as time goes on until I settle on something permanent to go in them.  At the moment there are scissors (I have lots), those hand punches, inc. Cropadile, sponges and palette knives (who needs so many?).

The last thing I bought and which I am going to show you are these hooks - such fun

hanging my HUGE dies on

and the tool to open the hatch in the ceiling

Now you might all be thinking how organised I am and how nice (look back at last week's WOYWW) and organised I am.  Well, today we heard that the flooring they were not making until October is now ready for delivery to US!!!!  Help!!!  I never thought I would have to undo my room quite so quickly.  I had just got the house more or less back to normal.  Still, we might find that missing plug next time.

See you over at Julia's in a short while.

WOYWW 424

Well, here we are with another week - and another week less to our meet up in Llandudno with the crop.  Not to late for you to join in with showing your work desk and then coming to the crop with a lot of other like minded people.  Any craft will do - it doesn't have to be papercrafting like me, it could be sewing like LLJ or Annie, Dumfing like Jo and Annie - you can join in and show us anything.  If you decide to join in then pop along to Julia's today and read about the crop at the top of her page.

Here's my desk

As you can see there has been a mammoth tidying up since last week and most of my things are now put away in their allocated spots.  It's been a good 'sorting out' session and now all my painting stuff is in one place, all my stamps in the one space and all my ink pads more or less in the one place.  I say 'more or less' because I have that many that it is impossible and today I bought some Distress Oxides which I swore I was not going to get.  I seem to have more display areas too. Look at this shelf - I have boxes of flowers on it but one end could be display and does have one or two bits on now.  The little tubs are a new purchase and hold all manner of things.  The two smaller black drawer cabinets are new - why does Ikea keep changing the colours - I now have grey (started off with them) then a cream one (no grey when I went back) and now it is black that I had to buy!

The door wall has a grey and a cream drawer cabinet which now houses my fabulous Cutterpillar, the best paper cutter I have ever used, on top and is now my little cutting station.  You can see the large cupboard at the bottom which has the punches on it - well it now holds all manner of colouring materials pencils, crayons, inks, paints etc. Moving along the shelves underneath the worktop contains two nappy boxes (remember those, they were all the rage for crafters when I first began) and they are full of paints also.  Then we come to die cutting machines and dies themselves.  The black box on top has all my Dyary things in, remember how I put them in so I could carry on crafting whilst work was going on?  Well, I was using it yesterday to catch up in my Dyary and still will be today.

The two small boxes next to my Dyary box need sorting as they have lots of bits of things in them and need homes finding.

See the two small shelves up above - they are for display and the fancy boxes on top of the grey drawers and the white ones are only displayed - they are actually empty at the moment.

So basically that is my craft room, a quick peep around a small room, 8' x 11'10".  It needs a new floor but that cannot happen until sometime in October when the company does a run of the flooring I want.  I hope I can keep it clean until then and not spray the walls when I use my inks.

Off now to see what Julia & Co are up to.  Follow the link at the end of the first paragraph and remember, if you aren't in it you need to be.  I'm off for an ECG and a blood test in a short while and then for a bit more acupuncture in the afternoon.  See you sometime later - I am good at playing catch up.

WOYWW 423

These last few days have seen me doing as much as I can in my craft room and doing a little, bit by bit, on my canvas which I did at the last Dare2Create.  I wasn't happy with it so I pulled it to bits and started to redo it.  I did a little altering on the board we did with Tracy too.  In fact that one is finished:

Love the bump technique I did with the circles (thanks Leandra).  I just remembered it and decided to use it in my background.  The colours are so me but not my usual choice when I am at retreats - usually blues and greens - sea colours - but no lilac.

Well, the desk was a bit tidier and I had room to work but gradually I moved one or two things back into the craft area from the study and porch and this is it ... again!

Can you see the difference between this week and last week?  You can hardly see the pretty paper on the board on the right.  I did say it might as well have just been painted, would have been a whole lot cheaper!  Poor Chas has painted endless boxes for me, you can see some of them lined up along the back of the worktop.

Below is the wall joining onto the bathroom, where the door used to be.  If you look closely you can see more of those cubby hole type boxes that Chas has been busy painting.  Then there is the white set of drawers he painted which I edged in pink and the set of pink drawers underneath.  I haven't the heart to repaint the green box on top as it is covered in pictures of Paris and is something I did a long time ago - when recycle bins first came into being.  Yes, they delivered more than one to our house seeing as we have two doors on the front of the property - many people get mixed up with it and think it is two bungalows, not just the one.

Maybe next week you will see an actual work desk.  We went to Ikea on Tuesday night and bought two more sets of drawers on wheels (guess what - they have changed the colours AGAIN!!!) and two shelves.  Once they are up I will need some boxes but it seems they do not do the metal ones that I have quite a lot of.  Oh heck, why do they have to keep changing things?

One thing that does not change is Wednesday morning for us crafters. There is always WOYWW for us to join in with and so I am heading over there to see what Julia has for us this week.  It's another visit to the Chinese Medical Centre for a bit of acupuncture in the afternoon (he talked about doing the "cups" as I still have the pain now and then but I am going to try to talk him out of it, don't fancy it at all).  It has been much better most days although Friday was pretty bad but that was my own fault for reaching high up and cleaning a rail in the bathroom on Thursday night.

Well, will leave it there for this week, hope to see some of you over at Julia's and then I can see what you have been up to.  Happy Crafting to you all!

WOYWW 422

Have I got the number right at last?  Sorry I did not get to all the people who visited me until yesterday.  My shoulder blade pain has been really bad and I spent most of the week in bed flat on my back. Went to a Chinese Doctor on Friday and had acupuncture.  I am back again this afternoon and hoping that a few sessions will put me right, cannot stand being like this.

Anyway, I know most of you have waited wanting to see some photos of my newly decorated craft room.  It was lovely when she had finished although I had to halt her and stop her spending a further £200 on things to put in for storage etc.  I did only want it painting but I think she wanted to do a makeover and no doubt she would have made it look lovely but .... a craft room without a ton of money being thrown at it doesn't necessarily look lovely.  It can look nice but it has to be functional, easy if you are starting from scratch but when you already have lots of storage in the wrong colourway you cannot just go and buy new - well I cannot.  Plus some things come in different colours ie my super duper cutting machine is lime green and is not made in any other colour.

Here are the photos I took when she had finished:

wall to right as you walk in

pink wall with pegboard and stag

I love the stag and the pegboard, and I was going to paint pink edges to the huge cupboards so it was good to see that she had done the same on the little boxes.  The painting of this wall was covered in the bathroom costs because of the doorway being blocked off.

Close-up of stag and pegboard

So you have to admit, even if you are not into pink as I am not (gave her freedom to choose) it is lovely and she made a super job of it. Now I have to move back in and already it is not looking quite as beautiful as it was originally.  I just have so much stuff.  It will probably take me a week or two to get everything back - poor Chas is busy painting more boxes for me and I am hastily trying to work out where to put them and what to put in them.  Think a trip to a Swedish shop is on the cards as I need some bits and pieces yet.

This is part way through my moving things in - note all the extra boxes Chas has painted for me (the paint gets on my chest and affects my breathing plus I cannot do too much lifting and carrying if I want my back to have chance to heal).  Gotta get right for The Crop!!

The pinky-lilac cupboard on top and the lilac and pink cupboard underneath will have to be repainted eventually but at the moment I want my house back to normal - ie the spare room and study empty of craft things.  Oh and the porch/sun room which I keep forgetting about.  The only place that is back to normal is the hallway.

Won't be buying a new chair so that will have to remain blue and the filing cabinet which is a dark grey will have to stay like that.  I might get around to painting the black cabinet ... but when??

Adirondack pads, envelopes and tall canisters

The stag has come in useful

The yellow tub will be going and the container on the left is going to be redone all in pinks.  Took no time at all to fill the shelves on the pegboard but I am not sure the tub is big enough for my palette knives - did I really always have so many?  Now I can display the jewellery I have made, mainly in make and takes at CHA, or Creativation as it is now called, although you might think I have spoiled the whole effect of the stag - have I?

Boxes, boxes, boxes

Poor Chas has been kept busy these last few days painting boxes for all he was worth.  Now I have a whole row of them on the worktop and a couple on that filing cabinet too.

I do need a new floor but the one I want is the same as the one in the kitchen and hallway.  We live in a bungalow and I want the flooring to flow through, besides which, I love my kitchen flooring.  Sadly I cannot track any down anywhere in the country.  Even had the UK distributor looking for supplies. So I have some on order with the company who did the kitchen and when the manufacturer does a run (in Belgium in OCTOBER!!!) my order will go through and I will have to undo my craftroom all over again to have the floor laid  One day it will be worth it.  I might be straight for Christmas!

Well, you have seen my work desk at last so now I am off to see Julia and to get the lowdown on what she and others have done.  Next week I will have finished off my canvas that I did the other weekend and will be able to show it to you along with the other two projects.

Have a good week!

WOYWW 414

Morning - and what a lovely morning it is - much better than last Wednesday when I was full of doom and gloom.  Procedure over, another in 14 weeks though (UGH) but let's put that to bed for now.

Had to show you this first of all.  It was packed away in a box and is the first (one and only actually) Friendly Plastic Mask I made.  This was under the guidance of Liz Welch at a workshop in Oswaldtwistle (Topaz as was - Dawn Bibby's original shop) and little did I know then that Liz would become one of my greatest friends.  I am going to have a go at making another before my FP turns to 'snappers'.  You should see some of the masks Liz has made - she is one uber talented lady and the best thing is, she is pure sunshine inside and out.

Went to Port Sunlight on Saturday and met up with Shaz who introduced me to Sarah.  Unfortunately I missed Cara but here we are at lunchtime.

Sarah (purple top), me (grey top) and Shaz (black top)

If anyone wants a laugh join me on Friday with some more photos (I cried laughing when I saw them) of me trying to get a photo of Paddy's Tutors.  That is Paddy to my right with the long hair, Lynne is next to her and Sarah and Helen are counting money with Chris (Pearshaped Crafting) who was the photographer for Fridays photos.  Not a clue what she did but the photos are so funny.

The craft room is progressively getting emptied and all the other rooms are progressively getting messed up.  Sunday evening saw the alarm having a bit of a silly do and making funny noises when we activated it.  Then Monday it was fine.  Not wanting to chance things I rang the alarm company and arranged for them to call either late Monday or Tuesday.

A trip to the anti-coag clinic - two telephone calls on each mobile - the alarm was going off.  Luckily we were on our way out of the clinic when the phone rang so we hastily made our way home and decided to stay there rather than go anywhere.  What has this to do with crafting?  Well, nothing really but it sent me into a frantic plea for the house to have a "bit of a clean" before the alarm people came - not easy when boxes are piled everywhere.  

Like this

  

Behind main door

(towels on the floor to protect it)

His Study
(his desk emptied for me to work on)

Utility Room

Back Porch

Still Back Porch - to side

Got lots to empty yet from the craftroom - woe is me - where will it all go?  The only thing I did not take a photo of is what is remaining to be moved and the spare room window sill (where we will end up sleeping).

Doing this Tuesday evening as I have just had a phone call from one son who is on nights this week. His neighbours are having some work done and he cannot sleep during the day at home so he wants to come here tomorrow for a day of sleep.  Just had to make room for him in the spare and make the bed up.  What are mum's for?

Off to bed now, up early in the morning for one 6'5" son - and WOYWW of course.  See you at Julia's in the morning.