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 205

Hello everyone!

I have cheated a bit this week (sorry Julia!).  When this week's WOYWW happens, I shall be holidaying sans lappie and desk in (hopefully) sunny Mudeford.  So here's one I prepared a little earlier, and if Fairy Thoughts is able help me, she'll be posting this up for you all to see!

Last Wednesday, I went to a colleague's leaving do at a local eatery.  I was in such a hurry to seat myself in the far corner of our table area that I was practically running along the gap between bench and table before tripping up on the final table leg and in one neat motion, managed to twist myself firmly into my seat.  Unfortunately on the way down, I whacked my spine against the bench back.  Didn't think much of it until Thursday when I couldn't move.  Saw the doc on Friday.  She prescribed codeine and two days off.  In my codeine induced fuzz, I spent those two days doing this:

 It is a drug structure embroidery (of sorts).  You see, when I got home on the day the doc signed me off I went to drugbank dot com to see what pretty picture codeine looked like.  Then it occured to me that I could start embroidering these pictures.  So I decided to start with the A's.  So far in the whole picture, we can see Paracetemol, Acyclovir (in Zovirax for killing herpes virus), Allopurinol (cures gout), Alprazolam (treats anxiety), Amiodarone (heart medicine), Amitriptyline (anti-depressant), Amlodipine (improves blood flow in vessels), Amoxicillin (antibiotic) and Asprin has been marked up to do next but is already fading.

 This beastie is Paracetemol.

and this is the Acyclovir.

Strange project.  I don't know what I'm doing it for.  Maybe I'll make a wall hanging out of it or turn them into patches or something.  WHO KNOWS?!

In other news, Nathan's Diatoms cross stitch is packed up ready to go on holiday with me.  My goal is to fill in as much of the black work as possible while I'm away.  I am intending to do a fair amount of beach combing this week as I never get to do it.  I'm looking for sea glass mainly, as it is a lucrative business on Etsy and Ebay, but we'll have to see abut the state of my back and whether I can get down far enough to see what i'm doing.

If you leave me a comment, I shall endevour to reply to you and peek at your desk when I get back this Friday.

Enjoyed this blog?  There are others in the same vein of crafting here, have a scooch around looking at other fantastic craft desks, all courtesy of Ms.  Julia.

I do believe it's codeine o'clock already:)  Have a great week, everyone! xxx

WOYWW 204

Another chance to be nosy at other people's craft desks. You can join in here.

Short and sweet this week -

In a clockwise fashion - Magic roundabout birth sampler for my friend Charlotte who had a boy named Henry last week, a new unopened project waiting, a special cross stitch project and Nathan's Diatoms cross stitch continues.

Thank you for visiting.  If you leave a comment, i will visit you!  Have a great week! x

WOYWW 203

My first time back in weeks, it's time for another What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday.  You can join in by clicking this link.

Here is my desk this week -

Two weeks ago, we had to have our cat Guinness put down.  She was diabetic and we'd rescued her and her sister, Taz, from my Dad who wasn't looking after them properly.  I gave Guinness a happy and loving last two weeks and miss her character enormously.  The vet and I decided to start her on insulin on Sunday morning two weeks ago as it was my day off and I'd be able to watch her like a hawk.  She was good as gold, no problems.  I went to work on Monday and got a panicked call from OH at lunchtime saying Guinny was limp and flailing around on the bathroom floor - she was having a diabetic seizure.  He rushed her to the vet, where I met him and I had to make the terrible decision to put her down as she had fully slipped into a diabetic coma by that point and the vet agreed it was fair as she was 14 an showing signs of liver damage, possibly bought on by years of untreated diabetes.

I am at peace with my decision now but as you can see from my desk, have completely thrown myself into my crafts.  I got out of my maudlin mood by making a felt brooch of Guinness's face taken from a photo, complete with whiskers! There is a very old tshirt belonging to OH that I have to sew the neck line back together, fix a hole in the armpit and patch a number of moth holes.  He refuses to believe it's had it.

Since I sold a batch of fused plastic bags to a lady in New Zealand last week, I've been experimenting fusing together different kinds of plastic and cutting discs and squares out of it.  There was a lot of interest in the bags so am thinking of opening yet another Etsy shop to cater for it.

There are cotton spools, scissors, repair tape and glue, a photo album my sister gave me for my 30th a couple of years ago made in the style of This Is Your Life and opened to a picture of Guinny and Taz when they were much younger.  Guinness has her arm around Taz, I love it!

I'm waiting for a friend to give birth this week so I can finish baby's nursery sampler.  Another friend has just announced she's expecting so am plotting the next one.  I've also got a leaving present and birthday present to magic out of thin air too:)

So sorry for the long post.  I hope life is treating you all well and see you next week:) x