WOYWW 253

Hello and welcome to another week of WOYWW.  This is where we take a peak at other crafty people's desks and show our support.  You can join in the fun here.

My desk this week:

I'e been making little felt tissue dispensers with the thinking of putting them in my Etsy shop.

 This is the shirt I've made so far for the Sewing Bee competition at work.  Hard work when you've never made any clothing before.

You may have noticed the cat face on my desk.  As I write this on Tuesday night, it is the first anniversary of my little Guinness having to be put down.

Taz and I were glum for a bit.  But then we started to remember all the funny things Guinny would do to make us laugh.

We have now bucked up.

Before I go, I would like to share the following link with those who wish to help out with this.  Be quick though, it finishes this Saturday.  If you can't help, please pass the link on.  They are so close to the finish line! 

 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/byhandlondon/by-hand-london-design-and-print-your-own-fabric.

See you all next week! xxx

WOYWW 209

Hello everyone.

This is the 209th What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday and I hope that you will join in with our weekly feast of blog hopping around other like minded and crafty peoples desk by clicking on this.

Firstly, I would like to thank my WOYWW 4 ATC partner, Kyla, for the beautiful butterfly ATC she sent me (at top of first photo) and to Fairy Thoughts, for thinking of me and giving me the lovely lace and button ATC, even though I wasn't able to give her one back.  THANK YOU GUYS!

The lovely ATC's from Kyla and Fairy Thoughts!

 My desk this week.  My mum works for Homebase and every couple of years they throw ou all of the demo display curtains.  They are single curtains and about half the width of a regular one.  The first time they threw them out, I salvaged the lot by ringing up friends to bring their cars to collect it all - all 100 of them!  This time though, I've been given six.  I unpick and keep the linings separate to reuse as lining, for embroidery or as practice fabric for my sewing machine.  I pln to use some of the top fabrics to make lavender bags with, as the fabric looks like real silk I think they'd look lovely with some lace wrapped around them.  The rest of my desk is a mess of cross stitch!

'Cat Pile' is coming along nicely.  The first page is now becoming a little more defined.  The black part is a cat's tail!

I'm sorry!  I've started on my Christmas card designs already!  Tee hee.

This is the Bartlett-Cobb baby sampler.  Can you guess what it is yet?!  Nah, didn't think so!

I've done nothing to Nathan's Diatoms piece this week as I had to reboot my computer which meant losing my place on the chart I had on my screen.  I'm now intending to print the chart out instead.

That's all from me - I hope you all have a lovely and productive week! x

WOYWW 208!!

Finally, the time has arrived - the 4th anniversary of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday!  I think I've been waiting for this for two months or something.  I'd like to suggest you take the time to check out the other workdesks available for perusal here.  Happy hopping!

So, my desk this week...

 One hot mess of cross stitch preparation.

 I've decided that as I'm not declaring what this is until it is completed (by which time, you'll be able to guess the subject matter for yourselves), it will, until that point, be named the Bartlett-Cobb sampler, after my friends surnames who are having the baby.

 'Cat Pile' is coming on.  The width of the work that you can see is just one of the 15 A4 charts that is part of the design.  Gah?!

Nathan's Diatoms are racing onwards.  Thanks to the bank holiday weekend.  I managed to get a record amount done to all the pieces.

I'll do my best to get round as many desks this week as possible. x

WOYWW 207

Hello and welcome to another week of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday.  This is where we all take a curious peak at other peoples work/craft desks.  It is good fun and you can join in here.

Well, this is what I have been up to this past week...

On the left is Nathan's Diatoms cross stitch.  I've done a fair bit to that this week, although I'd be guessing it's difficult to tell that.  I'm starting to doubt whether I'll get it done in time for his birthday in August.  May well end up as a Christmas present then.

The middle one is a birth sampler for my friend Fiona's baby, who is due in September.  I'm not saying what it is - it's a surprise and you'll have to check my desk every week to see how it gets on.

The one on the right is the Cat Pile cross stitch.  It has been started, at least.  If i'd been clever, I'd have stood back a bit so you could get a view as to how big that piece's Aida fabric is.

I was going to start another one for another friend's birthday (Nathan's mother, to be exact) but the design of a cat in amongst  mosaics and flowers comes out of a hardback book she bought me for Christmas and the picture isn't very clear.  It requires me to sit down with some square paper to knock up the pattern properly.  As I also want to turn it into a lavender bag, it's a project for the near future.

I hope you have enjoyed taking a look at my desk this week.  I intend to look at as many desks this week as possible.  Take care all of you!

XxX

WOYWW 206

It's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday again.  For details, please see Ms. Julia's page.

My back appears to be getting better and I have started scaling back the codeine this week, although I took a double dose at lunchtime by accident (should have been a single dose) and spent the subsequent three hours effectively stoned.  I got a lot of work done, administered first aid and dealt with two complaints (not about me), so I don't think anyone notice.  Need to be more careful.

My desk this week:

To the left, don't know if I've mentioned this one before, but it's a cross stitch pattern a dear friend gave me for Christmas just gone.  It's called 'Cat Pile' and is a heavily Photoshopped picture of a number of different kinds of cat.  I don't think my friend read the specs, or more likely didn't know what she should look for as this pattern is 15 x A4 pages and after I converted the colours from Anchor to DMC, discovered it has 107 colours in it.  Yes, that's 107.  I feel it would be rude of me not to give it a go a she is a good friend and she did spend money on it.  Just don't expect it to be done anytime soon.  I envisage it as the background piece I pick up between projects.

Dan bout me two big Caramel bars, half of one has already been snaffled.

I started a felt bird tutorial on Sunday, which explains the green felt clippings and scissors.  The bird is roughly in the centre of the shot, near a small pile of stuffing.  It is terribly small and very fiddly, so I may make up a load for Chrimble prezzies

Nathan's Diatom cross stitch is still going, at the back of the shot.  I mentioned last week I was taking it on holiday with me to Mudeford to fill in some of the blackwork.  That went well for the first two days of the holiday, when I was in control of my embroidery skeins.  At the end of day two, I found my niece posting the black down a gap in the sun patio of the lodge we were staying at.  Thus ensued a quiet search for a Haberdashery to buy another one.  Ha ha ha - Haberdashery?  What's one of those then?  I obviously take the fact that I work in one for granted, because it seems that no one else has one.  We went to the one I'd heard of in Christchurch, but it had closed down.  I spotted a Bradbeers in New Milton as we drove through the town and made a mental note to stop on the way back and investigate it.  Plans were changed and I never got there, so I packed it away and got my book out instead.  Want a new and exciting book to read?  Get 'The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson out of your local library - it's the bomb! (snigger)

Work have just bought in a load of Decopatch stuff in and it's payday tomorrow and I wonder whether I have the will power to resist.  I will buy the tissue box at some point because I like giving useful gifts.

That's enough words.  See you next week:))) xxx

WOYWW 199

Hello all!

Welcome to another week of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday!  This is where you can peek at crafty (and less so) desks on the interwebs.  You can take part in it here, and you'll find info on how to take part there too.

I have a confession to make.  I'm really sorry, Julia, but there is no picture of my craft desk this week.  If you read my last WOYWW post, you'll know that OH and I were about to take on the big responsibility of rescuing my two family cats from my dad.  In a way, it has been my project this week.

I would like you to meet Guinness (or Guinnyminns):

 Guinness is 14 years old.  My dad fed her nothing but biscuits for those 14 years and now she has diabetes. Way-to-go Dad.

Now I'd like you to meet Guinny's sister, Taz (or Tazzy-toodles)

Taz is also 14, and a complete picture of health.

OH and I rescued them last Saturday night.  I'd taken Guinness to the vet for a complete M.O.T. with blood and urine tests and was presented with a diagnosis of Diabetes.  I then spent the end of the week in bits wracked with making a decision between putting her down, or trialling her on insulin.  I chose to trial her on Insulin for three months.  I am in the process of changing her diet to a cat meat high in fibre, low in carbs and fat and have had an absolute nightmare trying to find a cat food that doesn't list meat derivatives as it's first ingredient.  I've also come to the conclusion that vets in general are rip-off merchants, thanks in part to the rules and regulations of the E.U..  So far, I've spent a whopping £150 on her for just one appointment!

The plan now, is another appointment to show me how to inject her twice a day and manage her glucose levels, then in three weeks, she gets to spend 24 hrs at the vets being monitored and glucose tested 5 times to the tune of another £150.

Taz was showing signs of separation anxiety and  didn't like OH quite openly, but they seem to be getting on now and she seems to be eating her food better and is using the litter tray, so I'm not so worried now.

It is truly lovely having them around.  Knowing they are depending on me has given me a purpose in life that I have been lacking.

Thank you for coming to have a look today, and sorry Julia, for the long post.  Back to ordinary crafting again next week - I promise!

xxx

WOYWW 198

Hello again friends.  Sorry this has been put together a bit late in the day, but at least I got here at all.

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday is a weekly look at other crafty minded folk's work desks.  To join in the fun, have a look at Ms. Julia's blog here to take part.

My desk this week:

Here we have  the Diatom cross stitch attatched to a stand lent to me by Fairy Thoughts.  It's brilliant and I want one of my own now.  To the left of that are two Christmas cards with birds that have been painted by kids.  Chck out the robin Cuthulu-style card.  to the right, there is a black bag of ribbon, more of which in a minute.  Below that is a pile of my cherished postcards I got when I was an avid postcrosser. My decimated ribbon box, and a lot of other random rubbish!

There is so much going on here this week.  The dining room table is still unchanged from the previous week's photo.  I'm hoping to get all the items we're not keeping onto Freecycle just as soon as OH gives the signal.  However, I have finally just managed to load all the crappy items from Grannys into the back of OH's car in anticipation of a trip to the tip tomorrow.

****News Flash!****

I am proud to announce that we are getting two new additions to our family this weekend.  My dad is no longer able to carry on looking after the family cats, so on Saturday I will be collecting Guinness and Taz and will hopefully be able to provide a clean, loving home for them to live out their days in.  So excited!

Thank you for popping by to have a look.  If you leave a comment, I will be sure to check out your desk!  xxx