WOYWW 283

Is it really Wednesday again, where did the week go? It really seems to be true that as you get older time goes by faster than it used to. I'm sure the EU have altered our time, they have altered everything else, so now we only have 50 seconds in a minute, and 50 minutes in an hour, although there do seem to be still 24 hours in a day, the days are just so much shorter, and as I mature (like good wine) everything takes longer to get done. Ho hum!

For those kind people who regularly visit my space, you might recollect last week, that my worktop was almost sterile as I took the picture just before bedtime on Tuesday evening. Well it didn't take long for the situation to change, by 4 pm this was this was my desk! What a mess.

And this from the other end. Actually I was trying to sort stuff out and combine two boxes of Christmas stuff. and I did throw away pass on a lot of paper and embellishments that I knew I wold never use.

However I can assure that some good work did come out of it, these are just a few of the cards I finished.

 Sorry for the crummy picture, too dark for no flash, but mirror card reflects is so much.

Right, what I'm supposed to be showing you is my desk today. Err.... it  doesn't look very different, still covered in rubbish detritus, but different detritus, but at least there are a couple of almost finished cards and the makings of another.
Why is it that I can never work tidily.

Anyway, I'm off to gate crash other people's parties, oh no, I've been invited, and so have you. So come on, join the deskosphere at Julia's. and see what great offering are on display there.
Have fun
Chris

WOYWW 282

Wednesday comes once a week, but sometimes it seems far too often when I am trying to share what is on my desk, and so often there is very litle of interest there. If you want to know why I am sharing, just take a trip to the Stamping Ground where all will be revealed.

A bit of play with distress ink, a lacey die cut and the die folder and box of distress inks. Oh and the broken necklace still at the back and the pile of Christmas bits also at the back.
Not had a lot of time to make anything over the last few days.
Daughter no.2 came to stay with grandson no. 3 and on Saturday we took them down to the boat to move it from Middlewich to Barbridge. So they stayed on the boat and I had to do the car/boat leapfrog. Doing a lock, back to the car and drive to the next lock in time to help with that one before repeating the process, and unfortunately the locks aren't always very close to roads, so it means parking the car and hiking a distance along the towpath.
Then on Sunday, daughter no.1 and grandsons 1 and 2 and hubby arrived to take the boat up the Llangollen canal for half term, so we were back down to Barbridge to hand over keys and give instructions, and travel through the first 4 locks with them and we would come home in the car we had parked just beyond the lock. Fortunately the car hop had been done with two cars so I didn't have to do any significant walking this time. At this point the plan was OH and daughter no 2 and grandson and I would come home and have a quiet day on Monday, with just a quick trip to Abakhan, to relieve the boredom. However just as we were getting ready to leave, grandson no.3 decided that he liked this boating lark and being with his cousins, whom he see very rarely, so it was agreed that he would stay with them on the boat overnight and I would drive down, another 50 miles each way, to collect him.
So Monday was 2 hours in Abakhan, very restrained craft shopping, 60 pence worth of embossed vellum, and then the 50 miles, down single track roads, to bridge 53 and back again, exhausted.
Then while I was preparing supper grandson and daughter were playing with all my craft stuff, so what you can't see on the very left of the desk, is a big pile of paper that they had played with and just left because they didn't know where to put it away.
Just before I go, I will share a couple of cards I made before the weekend.

This one was for a friend from my craft club. I wanted something in pinks and purples, her favourite colours.

And this one on the subject of Friendship for a group I belong to.










Well that's all for now, I am going to spend the rest of the day making Christmas cards, I hope.
Thanks for visiting
Chris

WOYWW 281

So here we are again, another Wednesday, another day of snooping, courtesy of the lovely  Julia at her Stamping Ground. Lots of super desks to peruse and be amazed at, and lots of sensational craft and creations to drool over, and and praise.
Then there is my desk which at 9pm on Tuesday was singularly uninspiring.

Very little has happened on  my desk since last week, a very busy few days, and the weekend away feeding the gannets, have meant I have not had much time to do much crafting.
On the left is an unfinished symphony with stamping and gems, but it has not turned out how i want it to and then in the centre I have just 'put' a few bits of card in preparation to make a pink and purple card for a friend, so somehow in my busy day today, I have to find the time to create for her birthday on Thursday.
Further to the right is a pile of magazines, I have been doing some major sorting of stuff, and these will go first to my card club, and then if there are any left over they will go to the charity shop.
Now I have a bit apology to make.From the comments I got last week, I clearly made your mouths water at the mention of the marmalade cake I was going to make for the weekend. Well I have to confess it never got made. I just decided that the strongly flavoured homemade marmalade would taste too strong for young palettes, so I chickened out and made chocolate cake. We had a brilliant weekend, in a field in the middle of nowhere, and everything I put in front of them just disappeared, very rewarding.
So I am done here, I'm off to do that creating and some visiting,
Thanks for popping by
Chris

WOYWW 280

Good morning lovely people and thank you for dropping in to see my desk. Not awfully exciting, but Margaret, John and I went to a Crafter's Companion demo at Holland Arms garden centre on Saturday, wonderful time, bought some dies and embossing folders so in between making a Ruby wedding Anniversary card for friends and lots of baking, I had abit of a play with the dies I bought.
 Not sure what else is going to happen with these three Wise Men, but time will tell.

This is the other end of the surface showing my Tool box, and Christmas box and assorted clutter that hasn't been put away since we came back from holiday.
No chance of anything else happening here until after the weekend.

Once again I have agreed, mad fool that I am, to feed 30 hungry young people for a church weekend,  so today I will be shopping, making cakes and preparing vegetables for the sausage casserole and cottage pies for them. and making carrot and butternut squash soup.
And just to make your mouths water, this is what I did on Tuesday, ginger biscuits, mixed fruit biscuits and very crumbly chocolate chip cookies, (I think the recipe was wrong, not enough flour, but they taste good) all safely buried in the freezer away from tempted fingers.
And if you are wondering why this mad woman is rambling on about her desk, this is the day those of us with a creative bent can reveal all, so visit the desker extraordinary,the good lady Julia and poke around where souls are bared and some exciting creativity is on show.
So I will strive to visit as many desks as I can and  will certainly return visits if the technology allows. Unfortunately there are some frequent visitors, on whose desks I seem completely unable to leave comments, especially those using Google+. If that is you, I do appreciate your visits, but cannot comment on your beautiful work which is disappointing.
Anyway my cooker calls, off to make Marmalade cake and then head off to Sainsbury's for veg.
Bless you for dropping by
Chris

WOYWW 279

Well I was completely out of internet access last week, up on the Llangollen canal on our new beauty, and today we still be aboard heading back to a boatyard for further repairs to the damage done by the previous owner's modifications to the plumbing, Monday 29th September had me bailing out the loo with a yoghurt pot.

I bought some craft work with me and have glued one topper on a piece red card, that is all I have managed to find time for. My Christmas cards are going to take a long time at that rate.
 

So instead of my work desk, I will show you Max enjoying a boating holiday!!!
He does seem to be happy most of the time, but would like to be free to come and go when he chooses instead of when it suits us.

And this is the new boat, she is 8 years old and 9ft longer than our previous one, making more room for comfortable seating.

Well I have locks to do, so will probably not be visiting until tomorrow when we get home, but will return your visits eventually.
Chris

WOYWW 277

Well Good Morning lovely people and if you are new to my blog and wonder what I am on about, visit Dame Julia who hosts this weekly convention of crafters.
This morning my desk is rather bare, just a few incipient Christmas cards and a birthday card lurking almost out of sight because it is for Margaret.
Also there are a few pieces of paper from a magazine, a necklace requiring mending and my trusty radio which brings me The Archers every evening and lots of daily radio programmes too.

As I said last week, my sister and her hubby were here last week, so no card making there, instead we had days out so here are some pictures of Snowdonia to share with you.

 The view over Llyn Peris.

And a stream coming down from Pen Y Pass.
We spent about an hour just rock hopping over this stream, and paddling in it, it was so warm.

Well that is all have for you today except to say that I have been encountering problems putting comments on some people's pages, especially those with Google+. Either the comment window opens then immediately closes or the comments just disappear. If anyone visits my desk, I always return the call, so is very frustrating being unable to say how much I appreciate your comments on my page or say how much I have liked yours.
I will persevere, sending messages via emails if necessary, but sometimes even that is not possible so please forgive me if I haven't commented on your page and if anyone has any idea why this is happening and what I can do about, please let me know.
Bless you for dropping in
Chris

WOYWW 276

Good morning lovelys and welcome to There's Nothing On My Worktop Wednesday.
Well apart from two mats and the guillotine,  because I have my sister and brother in law from Netherlands staying so card making is not on the menu at present.
But to show I appreciate you dropping by I'll share a pic of the  goodies I got at the show last Thursday. Margaret and I had a wonderful time, and we met up with Chris and also met Jo and her hubby and friends.

Didn't I get a lot for my money, very hard to resist some things. I had a list and only managed to buy two of the five things on it, so to make up I had to buy other things! About 10 items for every list item I failed to get!! So you can see Inka Gold and ink dusters and stamps and dies, some lovely 12" Christmas papers, (16 designs, two of each in a pack, £3.99) so Margaret and I shared the pack, ink pads, butterflies to colour, a stencil and some card.

Well these stamps were not on the list, but the Majestic stamps are so beautiful I could have bought dozens of them so three lots was very restrained and the other stamps were £1 each, I just couldn't leave them there, could I? The bird on the branch is very cute and has been used already.

Actually on my list was the Christmas decoration die, in the centre. When I was visiting some WOYWWs last week, I followed some links on someone's page and saw it and thought it was such fun, I just had to have it. The other very naughty dies just hopped of the shelves and into my hands!!!
Oh I could have spent so much more on dies, they were all so tempting.

And finally, just to show that I do craft some time, and don't just buy stuff, this is a 70th Birthday card I was asked to make for some one and intended to use one of the new dies on it and it didn't look right.

Now if you have landed on this page and wonder why I am baring all, so to speak, click on the link and visit Dame Julia who is hosting, as always on a Wednesday, a display of crafting desks from around the world.

Bless you for coming in, and I will visit all those who make a comment and I hope many more, but we are out all day in Snowdonia enjoying the views and the sunshine.
Happy WOYWW
Chris