WOYWW 410

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DAY OUT.

I know this is supposed to be about my work desk, but I just must share some amazing pictures of our day out with Margaret, last Saturday.

We left Rhos on Sea at about 10.30 and headed for Beddgelert, where we parked and then ambled along the river.

One of the individual gates along the river path.

View along the river

The weather was beautiful, warm and calm and just lovely.


































The river was clear and bubbling gently.

View across the river to the Welsh highland railway

And the sun went on shining.

Mr D and Margaret eating a picnic lunch

And then we walked up to the station and saw lots of trains at Beddgelert station.

Pair of Fairley steam engines on Welsh Highland Railway

 We had a really blessed day, and delivered Margaret home where she fed us a lovely supper.

Ah yes, I've just remembered. this is What's on Your Worktop Wednesday, so I'd better show you what was on my worktop on Tuesday.

 There a card I made for my great niece, she is 7 on Friday, sorry you can't see it very clearly.

And card I made for my great nephew who is 12 on Easter Monday. (Not the same family, so the similarity of the cards won't be too obvious)
If you would like to see more worktops, instead of a tour of the beautiful Welsh countryside, I'll direct you to  Madame Julia who hosts this thing called WOYWW where we are open our desks to snoopers and say 'welcome'
And I'll beat a hasty retreat before being castigated for having a picture heavy post.
Have a great day visiting desks and Happy Woyww.
Chris 

WOYWW 407

MESSY DESK ALERT

Well as usual my desk is so messy that I haven't shown you the bulk of it, just the working part.

Trying to keep it tidy is just beyond me, so I'll just share what I am at at the moment.

On the left you can see my box of inks, the dewdrop inks, I like those for stamping. Behind the box are some dies from China that haven't been put away yet, I think they have only been there for about three weeks. To the right of the box is a card I started making and reached 'Not sure what to do next stage' so it will join the box of 'unfinished symphonies' until I have further inspiration.
On the right front corner of the glass mat is something I have working on for a swap, so had to cover it with the glue before I took the pic, and then on the extreme right is a card I was playing with and was please with the result until I realised that I got water on it and there is a smudge in the top left corner. More inspiration needed to work out how I conceal that.
So why am I telling you this, because it is 'What's on Your Worktop Wednesday' hosted by the wonderful Julia at her Stamping ground. where we willing expose our crafty desks so that others can snoop at them, but more than than, we make good friends.
Sorry I have been AWOL for a while, we have been out on our boat, and while I do manage some craft work there, internet access for blogging is not always brilliant, and the time available for replying to comments is even more limited, too many locks to do!  As I haven't managed to share much craft with you recently, I will let you see where I have been over the past couple of weeks.

 Sunset over the Shropshire Union canal and

a spring morning on Shropshire Union canal.

And if you don't know what a lock is,

this is the type of lock that has to worked by hand and you can see the next one in the near distance too, and there are a lot of them on some stretches or the system
Thank you for visiting, I will try to reply to all your lovely comments.
and have a wonderful Wednesday.


Chris

WOYWW 400

So it is February and I haven't managed to blog at all this year so far. So here I am and what have I got to show you for WOYWW 400'th edition? What would you expect from me except this:

Yes chaos on the desk, I'm trying to sort it all and Margaret will testify that I have put a lot of stuff out,. She had a rummage in the bag before I send it to the children's ward of our local hospital. But as usual that term 'sort' has beaten me, I just can't get to grips with how to separate it into different categories, die cuts and toppers are fairly simple, but bits of embossed card and bits that have stamping on them and bits to go on toppers and bits of master board, and I would need about 20 categories to sort it all, so is will go back in a box or a bag for further 'sorting' at a later stage.
The problem with sorting is also as I pick up a piece, and then another bit, my brain goes 'click!' I could make a card with those two bits and a bit out of the drawer, shall I put them on one side, or shall I make it now? Much more interesting than sorting to make it now, shove the unsorted stuff aside and make a card, like this.

  Or this. Actually that looks quite pink there, and it really is very green.
And here are a couple of cards I made earlier in the sorting chaos.

So, why am I sharing all this nonsense with you?
Because it is What's on Your Worktop Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Lady Julia over at The Stamping Ground.  Do pop over  and see lots of interesting desks there,
and thank you for dropping by here
and bless you if you comment,

Chris

WOYWW 391

So I am back again for one of my haphazard visits, still in the throws of moving , or not, and thank you everyone for all your sympathetic comments last time I talked about our move.
So to clarify about our move, we feel God is telling us that this house and garden are too big for us if we are to do what he wants us to do, which we believe is working as Waterways Chaplains on the canals. For that reason we have sold the house and are looking for a smaller one with a mooring at the bottom of the garden, however we have not found the right one, so will, at some point, be moving onto our narrow boat. But I sincerely hope it will not happen before Christmas, we are out of the country from 19th December and are certainly not moving in the week before that, so I am desperately hoping our buyers cannot sort out their legal problems until the new year. So 'Yes we are moving' but 'No I am not not tearing my hair out waiting for it to happen'
So my work top this week, just the  usual chaos, not really worth taking a picture of it 'cos it looks like so many times before. However what is not on my work top any more is the 70th Birthday for my OH. I  spent many hours planning, thinking, discarding and generally worrying over this card and could not decide which idea was best, so in the end I went for them all, so here it is, on the coffee table, (not enough space on the cluttered worktop.)

I have tried to make sure you can read most of the pages.
If somehow dear reader you are wondering why I am bearing my soul, visit the lovely Lady Julia 
who hosts these crazy Wednesday get togethers, and see what we all try to share on our desktops.
Well I'll not blather on for the sake of it, Thank you for visiting my page and if you make a comment I most certainly will get back to you.
Bless you
Chris

WOYWW 387

Good morning lovely peoples, I hope I will be here this Wednesday to join in with What's on Your worktop Wednesday, hosted by the wonderful Lady Julia. 
And if you think that is a strange statement, over the past couple of months I have tried at least 4 times to be with you, started draft posts and not been able to carry the exercise through, because life has been too busy. Life has been busy because we have sold our house, and are at the end of a chain which seems in danger of imploding on itself. They say moving house is the most stressful thing after marriage and having a baby, and they are not wrong. In mid September we started on a major downsizing exercise, as we don't wish to pay to store stuff we will instantly ditch when we finally find a new house. Then first one legal problem, then another with deeds and boundaries and mortgages, and suddenly everything was on hold.

 So all the craft stuff I had sorted into three piles, storage at Margaret's, paid storage and take with us, suddenly got mined for stuff to make Christmas cards and eventually my worktop became like this!
Actually that was a week ago, by yesterday morning it was much worse, but I didn't take a picture before it got too much even for me.

















 So while OH was out Monday afternoon and I cleared it up to this, picture taken Tuesday morning, but as we are going out in an hour and will not be back to it before tomorrow, will be just the same  on Wednesday.

So on the cutting mat you can see some of the stamps I have been using to make Christmas cards, then beyond that are the cards I have been sorting into sizes, for inserts and envelopes. the largish pile beyond that is the papers and embellishments I have piled up, and then there is the storage folder for dies, and some lamps.

And artfully! arranged for you to see are some of the cards I have been making; bit of stamping, bit of die cutting, some recycling of last year's card and  some nearly mass produced with a picture off the internet.At some point I have to put inserts into them and find envelopes, and then the difficult task of writing them and telling people that we have no new or old address anymore.

So we still have no idea when we are moving, and for those who are interested, our plan was to spend a couple of summer months on our boat looking for the right house with a mooring, in the place where God wants us. However our plan did not include spending the worst of the winter on the boat, we will have to wait and see because we can do nothing more.

Thanks for reading and I love comments and will endeavor to get back to any lovely person who does comment.
Bless you all
Chris

WOYWW 372

Hello lovely readers and welcome to WOYWW, or What's on my Worktop Wednesday, and for those who have no idea what I am talking about, go over to the wonderful Julia's Stamping ground. 

Talking of Julia, a big WELCOME BACK, we have missed you so much and we are so pleased to have you back. Not that Jan hasn't done a brilliant job as an understudy, but the star is the lady we all want in the starring role

 So to the business of the day.

As we are still on the boat, this was the dining

table yesterday where I was making a couple of cards.  A birthday card for my niece and a wedding anniversary card for my sister.
It was quite dark unfortunately, we spent the whole day moored under trees because it was so warm, which kept the temperature bearable, but meant it was not very light for making cards.

Being on the boat means that I have to clear away my stuff every time we want a meal, and all my stuff is stored in two drawers and I have to get out everything to find what I need, as a result I don't manage to get much done, however I did make a wedding card last week, before we hired a car and drove all the way back to Wales for the wedding.




 







 

We are moored near Roydon in Hertfordshire, which is very beautiful, and in spite of the train line being fairly close, the trees muffle the sound of the trains quite well.
We are heading up to Bishop's Stortford on Thursday and then slowly back through London and then working our way north towards Cheshire.

Well that's all from me for now, have a lovely WOYWW day.
I love reading all your comments, and will try to get back to you, internet access on the canals permitting,
Bless you for visiting
Chris

WOYWW 367

Hello WOYWWers, this is going to be a short post, mainly because I am writing this on my phone. However

  as this is all about our worktops, I will show what was effectively my  worktop at 11 am yesterday, Caen Hill  locks,  although by that point we had already done 11 locks before we tackled these 16, and then another 6 beyond  to Devizes.








As you can see, much of it was done in the pouring rain, as a consequence, today's work place may well look like this, at least if I have my own way, although the inexhaustible  Mr D. might expect me to plod on even further.
Anyway, you may, dear reader, be wondering why I am telling you this? If you click on the link it will take you to the inestimable LunchLadyJan who is hosting What's on your work top Wednesday.
Thanks you for reading my drivel, and if you make a comment, I will do my best to get back to you, but with internet access rather sketchy on the canal, it may not be for a few days.
Just edited because all the comments so far have understood that we had continuous rain yesterday and we didn't, just some of the time and glorious sunshine other times.
Bless you and have a happy day
Chris