WOYWW 829

Well, there's nothing to show you despite my being been really busy this week.   I've been starting some crafting but not finishing it if you follow.  There's a lot going on but nothing finished at the moment.  A bit like three steps forward and two back this week.  So much so that I have even contemplated getting the knitting needles out.  Did try the crochet hooks Lynn but my right thumb is ready for another injection and it was a bit too much for it.

In fact my desk is a bit of a muddle and I've had enough so I've just left it that way for the night (it's Tuesday night)  and sat in my new chair watching TV and having a natter with my other half.  It's not often I leave my desk in a mess, preferring to tidy up at night so it's nice to go into the next morning but to be honest things went so wrong  with my stamping that I just had to close the door on it today.  So here is what it looks like:

I've been using my Pan Pastels but got myself so covered in them, especially when I used a charcoal grey one that I abandoned all thoughts of them and put them away.  You can see my box of newly washed sponges on my table.  The clear box by the water pot is full of my newest Lavinia stamps as shown to you last week, would you believe it, I have not done anything with them as yet so I think that tomorrow I will do a Journal page using those cute mice with the bulbs.  That might give me the nudge I need to get doing something at last.

Guess that's what you came for, to see my desk, so see you next week hopefully.

Jeudi Journal - Grumpy

 "Sometimes I wake up grumpy ... sometimes I let him sleep" is the quote for this week and I had to smile when I read it as I imagined lots of women out there agreeing with this.  Not so me as my other half wakes up fine, just snores at night which is annoying.  I was wondering how many of you have grumpy morning husbands, or one that snores?  If you don't have a husband I wondered if you have a dog that snores as mine used to snore like crazy - thinking of Elizabeth do cats snore?  Remember Milly and Molly from last week?  Well they have moved on from the parrot house and are now in the aviary looking at birds from other countries.

"Milly and Molly had really enjoyed the parrot house and now they continued into the aviary.  This one had species of birds which the twins had never seen before and they enjoyed reading the notices which identified the birds and where they came from.

"Oh, look at that one" shouted an excited Milly, "it looks just like Richard when he has just woken up."

What's he like?" asked Molly, "is he a Mr Grumpy when he wakens, like his twin can be if he hasn't had at least eight hours sleep?"

"Oh no," answered Milly, "he's usually alright, it's when the kids come home he gets a bit grumpy in a morning but mainly because they won't get up until lunchtime.  You know what these teenagers are like when they've left home and got into Uni life.  Are you saying Rupert is a Mr Grumpy in a morning?"

"Well, most mornings he is rushing to catch the train to the city but at weekends it's a different story.   Sometimes I wake up grumpy ... sometimes I let him sleep.  It's much better that way."  

Both girls had a fit of the giggles at the thought of Rupert being like the bird.

"We'd better not mention this aviary, or at least the grumpy looking bird, just talk about the pretty one up there with the blue plumage."

And with that the two of them made their way out of the aviary and off to the cafe for a cream cake and a coffee.

WOYWW 828

Well, didn't we have some lovely weather - I hope that is not the start and end of our summer, surely not!  It was lovely to have some sunshine on your bones and be able to sit outside in the fresh air.  It was nice and sunny here again at the beginning of this week but there was a cool wind blowing that meant you had to wrap up again.  Not to worry, hopefully we will have some warm days ahead.

I had a nice time on Monday stamping up my order from Lavinia so that my cataloguing could be up to date.  It was lovely to ink, stamp and clean the new stamps because they do look good on a white background.  Here they are as they arrived spread out on my table to show you.

I just adore the two little mice (top right) with the light bulbs and the various book spines will be so useful for lots of things (including DH's birthday card as he loves reading).  I think this was my favourite collection to date along with the Halloween one last year (I adored the witches).

Saturday morning saw me doing an online workshop with Jo Rice in which we made four cards.  We used quite a bit of low tack tape so I've just taken it from my table and put it on one of those plastic pockets so I can use them again.  As Jo said, it is expensive so we should try to get more than one use out of it.  Here are my cards, more or less the same as Jo's apart from the last one (hers was floral but I decided to do a scene and I love those Herbalums [pixie gardeners] ).  Mine still want a word added to them but as I am undecided what to use them for I left them blank.

Off to see the Muskoskeletal Guy on Saturday, yes, Easter Saturday, for the results of my X Ray on my hip.  I've been in a lot of pain with it for quite some time now but it is going worse and something the radiographer said made me wonder just what he saw.  Did I damage my hip when I fell last year (remember the nasty fall and cut knee, broken ribs)?  All will be revealed when I see Kurt, the young man whom I taught at school many years ago.  Good to see he has made something of himself career wise but then he always was a well behaved student at school.  Hopefully good news next week when I share my desk with you all at Sarahs Craft Shed.

Jeudi Journal - Money

 "Milly and Molly were twins.  Identical twins in fact and they had married twin boys and now were both the proud parents of twins.  Milly had twin girls and Molly had one of each and the two families were pretty inseparable and spent most of their time together even on holidays abroad.

The children had flown the nests and all were now at university but in a house share so they were still together.  Richie,  Molly's boy was having the time of his life with the three girls doing most of the cooking in the house and even the cleaning.  They had drawn the line at doing his washing and ironing and so he did look after himself a little, and to be fair he did any of the heavy lifting jobs around the house, cleaned the windows and emptied the bins on bin day.

It was a lovely summer day when Molly rang her twin and suggested that they had a day out.  Milly was only too glad to get out of the house and spend some time with her twin as they hadn't seen one another for over a week, both had been so busy.

Molly suggested they went to the local zoo where they had just installed a new butterfly house and so the two of them met up in town and made their way to Chesterton.  

The butterfly house was wonderful and Molly got so excited to have butterflies landing on her arms as she walked around.  

"I had no idea it would be like this" she said to her sister.  "I didn't know they would be flying around freely, it's wonderful to be able to see them so close up."

"Wonder if the parrot house is the same?" queried Milly, "I'd love to go over there, they are such colourful birds and you never know we might get a cheeky one that talks.  Do you remember when we went to San Francisco and saw the Parakeets sitting on the telephone lines?"

"Yes, I remember.  We took lots of photographs.  A bit like when we went to Australia and  there were Parrots, Lorikeets and Budgies flying around, all different colours.  Remember the Galahs?"

"We have been lucky that we could afford to have such lovely holidays.  It means a lot to be able to visit all those far away places.  I'm so glad we have been in good jobs when we were younger and that our husbands are both earning well."

Milly stopped, and with a pensive look in her eyes she said "Money isn't everything, but it sure keeps us in touch with our children,"  and then she smiled, "but I wouldn't have it any other way would you?"

"No" replied Molly, "but then my son always says we should spend our money, have Ski holidays which means 'Spending Kids Inheritance' and enjoy ourselves. Guess they will have enough once they get jobs and start earning themselves and don't forget mum and dad left a Trust Fund for all of them.  They'll be alright, all four of them."

So the quote is at the top of the page which shows the twins enjoying the Bird House at Chesterton which has some exotic colourful flowers for the various birds to sit amongst creating an environment that pleases both them and the visitors.  The quote was supplied by Wendy for her part of the challenge and the bird is part of the Art Journal Journey challenge as set this month by Erika.  The background was done by smooching Elements Inks and then a stencil was used down one side for the flowers.  These were coloured with Inktense pencils.  The bird is from a magazine.  Figures are Dylusions.

WOYWW 827

Another week has gone by and it is almost Easter, it will be with us before too long and we can then eat our Easter Eggs, that is if you are better than I am and have not eaten any sweet stuff during Lent.  I just had to try one of those Cadbury's Creme Eggs with White Chocolate and I really did enjoy it.  Maybe not as much as the Hot Cross Bun with crumbly Lancashire Cheese though.  Now is that a northern thing like eating Christmas Cake with Lancashire Cheese?

Hasn't the weather been gorgeous?  We decided to make the most of it and spend a few days, like a long weekend at, well close to, Morecambe Bay.   I've often heard them marvelling over the view of The Bay but never really appreciated it as much as I did on Tuesday.  We had gone into Morecambe to do some shopping, and keep out of the sun a bit as it was so hot.  On the way back I just had to have Chas stop the car and take in the view.  I would say this was about 4 - 4.30 pm and you could see right across to Grange and the hills of the Lake District.

Well, despite taking crafting stuff with me and having things to do in my Journals I have done absolutely nothing.  And so my desk is. the dressing table in the bedroom which had my craft caddy emptied on it when I arrived and is now all packed up ready for home later today.

You can just see my craft caddy underneath next to the pouffe.  You may recognise some things like my spotted CC bag that has my gel pens etc in it, my blue pencil case that holds my Inktense pencils and then my Lavinia boxes with my Journal on top.  For the keen eyed there are some Black Sharpie pens, these are new and I am hoping they will get forgotten about as they were bought along with household stuff.  The boxes with the blue lids held ink pads, stencil brushes, paint brushes, scissors, glue, etc.  I remembered everything I could possibly need but didn't use anything.  Typical!

Hope others have got more interesting desks for you to see at Sarahs Craft Shed, so until another week, toodle pip!

Jeudi Journal - Interrupt

 "The man who says it can't be done should not interrupt the woman doing" is the saying this week and I struggled to think of something to do for my journal page.  I could think of a few instances but how to portray them in my journal was another thing - so here goes:

"Susie Cat and her husband, Basil Bulldog had been having a bit of a rough time.  Susie wanted to take their children to 'Lampland' which was a bit like our Disneyland but for cats and dogs.  It had been built from the proceeds of the film 'The Lady and the Tramp' and had proved a very successful venture for all.

Now Basil loved Susie so much.  He had fallen for her pale blue eyes the moment he had seen her and he was as much in love with her today as he was the day they met.  He found it very hard to say 'no' to her whenever she wanted something but this trip to Lampland was a  huge expense that he knew they could not afford.  Not with five children!  He worked hard down at the fish market, was willing to work extra hours and even some weekends to bring more money into the housekeeping but he felt it was an impossible task and besides which he would never get to see his children if he was always at work.

Susie on the other hand, was determined to save up as much as she could and with her job at the local school she did have more time on her hands and so she was determined to earn extra money and put it away in the Lampland Trip jar.

So, unknown to Basil, Susie had been using her skills in the kitchen and had been baking cakes and selling them at school.  Her skill at decorating cakes had been recognised by her colleagues and she had so many orders for wedding and special occasion cakes that she found it hard to keep up with the volume of orders coming in.  

The Lampland Trip jar was filling up nicely and her mother had helped out with some of the baking and nipping to the bank to deposit the money in a special account in her name so that Basil would not know anything about it.  It was going to be a huge surprise to him when Susie finally produced the final sum to him.

After all, as her mother said to her on more than one occasion "The man who says it can't be done should not interrupt the woman doing" and Basil certainly couldn't, because he knew nothing about it.

I am trying to use up pages in an old journal that I used to have for demonstration samples and this one had a rectangle of colour in the centre of the page coloured with Pan Pastels.  I tried to cover the surrounding area with Distress Oxide Seedless Preserves and then Wilted Violet.  I used Salty Ocean through Tim Holtz stencil 032 in patches over the whole page.  The figures are all coloured with Promarkers and are Dylusions except the window and the birds which are from Aall & Create.

I included birds to comply with Erika's challenge at Art Journal Journey.

WOYWW 826

Busy week - had something every day starting Sunday, ending with Dentist on Friday.  Today is more luxurious - getting my hair cut - at home.  Had to go 6 weeks this time (her mum was in hospital)  without a trim so it has got a bit out of hand and I am looking forward to Rachel coming.

Had to make a birthday card for my nieces youngest and it ended up being made in a bit of a rush.  The first card I made did not turn out acceptable for him so it's been kept to one side for a more suitable recipient.  So this is my desk/table.

It's not as elaborate as usual but I was pushed for time, just hope the wee man is not disappointed but I am sure the money inside will help hide any disappointment.  There is a bird and a butterfly holding up the banner saying 'happy birthday' and the birthday boy is wearing a crown and the other one is his older brother wearing claret and blue for the football team he supports.  The background was not made by me, about time I got rid of some of the endless paper packs I have bought over the years.

Not been any time for more on the cull this week and hopefully it will continue starting with the coming weekend, actually there's not that much to do but I want to find somewhere to put my diecutting trolley - or at least the things on it.  Here's hoping that another week I can show you that they have a new home - but what do I do with the trolley?

So that's it for this week folks, must get on with the cleaning ready for the hairdresser to come and give me a much needed trim.  Off to see Sarah's Craft Shed and meet up with the other WOYWW'ers so see what they have all been up to now and then see you all again next week all being well.