WOYWW 235

Hello and welcome to another week of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday 235, courtesy of our Julia.  You need to join in the fun by going here.

This week, my desk is on the floor.  I'm mostly wrapping presents.  The bottom right of the picture is the sack of presents already wrapped.  There are various gifts lying around, ribbons for tying, handmade gift tags recycled from last year's Christmas cards.  The cardboard box in the middle back of the shot is full of jars of chutney and jams waiting to be doled out.

There will be more of the same for the next two weeks, probably.

Have a great week, everyone! xxx

WOYWW 234

Hello and welcome again to another fun week of international snooping of crafty desks, courtesy of our Julia.  You can join in the fun here.

This is my desk this week:

I'm still stamping the Christmas paper.  There are various presents on the table in varying degrees of wrappage.  The blue and white box at the back is a sewing kit I bought from work that was partially filled and I am adding a few more important bits.  It's a Christmas present for my sister who has never shown any aptitude for sewing and calls me to sew on a button for her.  I think this sets a bad example for my niece, so I have bought them both a sewing kit in the hope it might ignite some inspiration.  I will be on standby for the constant advice I envisage will be asked of me.  IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO LEARN HOW TO SEW.

There are newspapers on there for no reason.  Oh, and a tin of Plop Trumps (Yeah, really) that I bought because I felt I should, however I have no one as yet to give it to.  Plop Trumps, to the uneducated, is a version of Top Trumps that features pictures of animal excrement that each player uses to outdo their opponent to win the game.  Yeah.  Oh, and it is highly educational;  marketed toward men and boys of all ages.  You'd understand why.

This week, I carry on with stamping my wrapping paper to wrap more presents, make 3D Christmas decorations and Stormtrooper snowflakes.  Mmm hmm.

Yep, so that just about wraps up this week's edition of Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday.  Please take part and add your own desk! x

Woyww 232

Hello and welome to another week of WOYWW, where you can join in with the international desk snoop by clicking here.

My desk this week features an inverted TV cosy I am making for OH.  Probably best you don't ask.  I think it's fair to say I'm not enjoying this project, yet I still have three more to make him. Mmm.

In other news, I've heard that fellow WOYWWers Patsy and Peggy Aplseeds from the Philippines are OK following the horrific storm that has affected 2/3 of their country.  What a relief, but they are faced with very hard times.  If you like to pray, maybe you could pray for them today and if you have some spare money, perhaps you would like to donate to:

World Food Programme USA

Unicef

Philippine Red Cross

World Vision

Oxfam

who are all running emergency appeals.

Folks in the UK can donate by simply walking into their nearest high street bank or post office where you should see signs up for DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee).

xxx

WOYWW 230

Hello again peoples!  I haven't been about for a month or something due to my crappy computer, but it seems to want to keep it together for the time being so here I go...

Most weeks I join in with an online snoop of crafty desks around the world.  Please join in here.  You'll thank me for it.

Anywhoo...

I think it's finally safe to be mentioning the Christmas word now.  Here is my desk:

You can see my painstaking work of hand stamping a roll of brown paper for presents.  IT WILL BE WORTH IT.  Trying not to think about the fact that it's all going to get ripped up and thrown away at the end of it all.

You can also see paint, felt, some wooden decorations that I am decorating and a lot of bits of paper left over from making Christmas cards.  I made 60 in one sitting from the results of last year's Christmas card amnesty I held at work.  While the majority were shop bought and of little inspiration, the handmade ones were invaluable and went a long way.  I am looking forward to expanding my amnesty this year by asking my mum to involve her work colleagues in it at a big local DIY store.  So excited to see what I get - It's like poring through looted treasure!

I was going to show you the box of jams and chutneys I made but my camera's not playing ball today and frankly, I should be lucky it took a picture at all.

Next week, I'll probably be showing off pictures of a TV cosy in progress.  Yes, a TV COSY.  Once upon a time, we had a customer at work ask if we had fabric to make a TV cosy as her TV was too big for her room.  We all had a good chortle. OH asked me to make four (!) cosies for the small flat-screens he has to take to work every week.  I chortle no more.

Have a great week everyone - I hope you make all the things you have/want to get done: xxx

WOYWW 221

Hello and welcome to another week of WOYWW!  This is where we all have a look at crafty desks/workspaces from all over the world, courtesy of our Julia.  You can join in the fun here.

This is my desk this week...

On the left of my desk is Fifi's baby sampler.  Not long to go on that until I just have to wait for her to give birth at the end of next month so i can sew a name to it.

Then there is a book showing pictures that are useful for the Festival At The End Of The Year.  The aida on the frame is me starting some of those pictures.

Last week I promised pictures of the cross stitches I've been asked to do by another store.  Well, they forgot to send them, so I hope they appear on the van this week.  Instead though, I was asked today to knock up a little design to stick in our shop window this Thursday for the Festival At The End Of The Year theme.  They were going to stick the window in at the end of September, but three other stores have had stonking results since putting their windows in early, so we're being made to follow suit.

That's it from me this week.  Now go and have a look at all the other lovely desks that have put in this week.  xxx

WOYWW 220

Hello again folks.  Time for another week of nosing at other peoples desks, courtesy of our Julia.  You can join in the fun here.

My desk this week:

The book contains many previously unseen photographs of the members of the rock band Queen.  It was a birthday present from OH.  The pages shown depict the four members of Queen taking part in a Japanese tea ceremony on their first promotional tour of Japan.

The fabric container at the back of the desk is a JoZart desk bin, made my my friend, Fairy Thoughts for my birthday.  It currently contains chocolate.  Of course.  The cross stitch in the middle is Fifi's baby sampler that I've bought back out of the cupboard since finishing the wedding sampler.  I am going to try and finish it in the next three evenings because something exciting is about to happen...

About a month ago, I asked my buyer at work if she could circulate an email offering my cross stitching services.  I hoped to hear back from one of the others stores, but didn't believe I would.  Today at work, I get another store asking me to stitch up two Christmas displays a supplier gave them.  I hope to obtain them this Thursday, so will hopefully show you what's going down next week.

That's enough from me!  have a great week all! x

WOYWW 219 (Sorry I'm late!)

Hello and welcome to another week of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday!  Each week we peek at crafty people's desks from around the world and you can join in the fun by clicking this.

Apologies for being so late to the party this week.  I'm on a week off work and my time keeping skills have vanished somewhat.  You don't care about that.  Here's what you care about, my desk this week...

Set the party poppers off - the behemoth (biggest one yet) is now finished and framed.  I have mostly solved the issue of the join line by sewing over it.  Yes, a line can be seen but not so much anymore as I've covered up all the white bits.  Now I have to wait for the lovely couple to get back from their honeymoon.

Halfway through the walk to the wedding venue, my beloved left black strappy wedge broke.  We stopped at a nearby shop for superglue but it just seeped into the fabric sole.  I had to take them off and carry them back home over 3/4 mile of broken tarmac in just my tights.  Which was painful.  OH is trying to save said wedge by using decorator's caulk on it.

I got to the wedding eventually though and through the fug of champagne, white wine, black and white rum, I did manage to take a pic of the wedding cake topper...

The groom is into model making and he painted these himself.  An alternative idea.

This week I have already enjoyed a hangover, gone bowling and visited Avon Beach in Dorset.  I hope to prepare some glass jars for the festival at the end of the year.  I also have to pick up where I left off with Fiona's baby sampler and Nathan's (now Christmas present) Diatoms cross stitch.  Oh and it's my birthday on Saturday, so quite a busy week - hurrah!

Have a great week everyone! xxx

WOYWW 218 (AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!)

Welcome to another week of nosing at people's desks, courtesy of our Julia.  You can join in here.

Here is my desk this week...

I may be starting to lose my mind!  Pleased send chocolate covered thoughts my way!  I'm trying to stay positive for you guys, but the wedding is this Saturday, and I work full time.  I'm currently working on it for an hour before work everyday and 5 hours after work, I believe I need an extra 20 hours than what I can afford.  Oh well.  On the plus side, I have learnt that this size cross stitch which would ordinarily take 4 months can be done in 2 1/2 to 3.  Hopefully when you pop back next week, you'll see the finished piece.

Have a great week all! x

WOYWW 217

It's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, where we visit the desks of the craftily-minded.  You can take part here.

T minus 11 days (insert comedy gulp here).  Here's my desk this week...

My desk this week, as it has been for about two months, is my lap.  An accord has been struck with Taz (pictured) and I that she may sit next to me if she doesn't attack me everytime I move a bit of thread.  So far, so good.

With eleven days to go until the wedding, things have been somewhat fraught.  I'm really worried about the join line that runs along their necks.

I THINK I HAVE FOUND A FRAME FOR IT!  A chance discovery in Sainsbury's the other night produced the only frame I've found so far that might fit, with some mounting.  Egads.

Still, on the plus point, it's also only 11 days until my birthday week off.  And I won't be cross stitching that week, that's for sure.

Thanks for visiting.  I'll do my best to get to your page.  Have a great week! x

WOYWW 216 (18 DAYS TO GO)

Well this was unexpected.  I popped along to Julia's page to remind myself what number we are up to and see that this week's blog hop has started a day early due to some internet issues down Julia's neck of the woods.  I better get on with it then!

Every week, a lot of people take advantage of participating in an international blog hop around the world, courtesy of our Julia and you can join in here.

My desk this week...

So all hell broke loose at the weekend when I discovered that the top panelling was misaligned from the bottom pannelling by a whole three stitches.  I turned into some kind of banshee until OH gave me an uncomfortable solution:  TO CUT THE TOP HALF FROM THE BOTTOM HALF WITH A PAIR OF SCISSORS.

Understandably, I felt sick about the whole thing, given how long I've been working on it.  Can you see a very faint line running across Tom's neck?  That's the cutline and I'm hoping that when I've done the picture,  I can go back and fill it in a bit.  I'll either frame it to the edges or mount it.  Can't decide on that at the moment.

Yup, that's 18 days to go until the wedding.  In that time, I have 96 hours left on this project.  You're not hiding your laughter very well.

And I still need to find a frame for it.

Start crossing your fingers folks.

Have a great week! 

xxx

WOYWW 215

Hello fellow WOYWWs!

It's another week of nosing at other people's desks to see what crafty projects they have been up to.  You can join in the fun here.

My desk this week...

Hope is slowly fading that I will get this finished in time for the wedding.  I'm not a pessimist, just a realist.  With 25 days left to go, I still haven't finished all of the bottom panels.  I will keep at it though as I would dearly love to see the bride and groom's faces when the see it.  Wouldn't quite be the same to have to take it around at some point afterwards.

Also on my mind this week...I'm thinking of making hard boiled sweets using recipes from a book I bought myself.  I hope to wrap them individually, stick in the jars I've been saving like a nutter (got around 15 of them now), pretty them up and distribute when the big festival at the end of the year comes around.  I DIDN'T SAY THE WORD!

Thanks for looking, see you all next time folks! x

WOYWW 213

Hello and welcome to another week's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday.  If you would like to join in with the weekly global snoop into the desks of the craftily-minded, you can do so here.

My desk this week...

On the left is the guitar strap and metal shabby chic heart I bought for my mate Lou's birthdy.  next to them is the birthday cake cross stitch I've made for her birthday cake.  In the box in the middle of the shot are all my DMC skeins that are waiting for a new lever arch file and DMC plastic archive sheets.  There is about 150 in there all tidily wrapped around their stitchbows.  In the lid, however, is a whole world of hell.  These are all the bits of strands that are too long to bin, but are no longer attached to their appropriate numbers and so cannot be identified.  I'm going to wrap them all onto cardboard tags and will store them in this box to use for creative xstitching projects I plan to do in the future.  The cardi is still in the background.  I am still painstakingly colouring in what was black with a black dye pen in a hope to spruce it up.

Here is the wedding present I am still working on.  Getting a bit antsy about it now as I only have about 40 days left to get it done.  This hasn't been helped by the fact that there is virtually no time to be spent on it this week as I have been cat sitting for OH's mum's cat and this weekend is the Hat Fair here in Winchester and I have found that I am going out for it on both Friday and Saturday nights and am also joining in with the Sunday picnic, so that's the whole of Sunday afternoon/early evening gone!

When I'm working on it, it is just a mess of colour and is very difficult to see any detail forming.  Huzzah then for having a camera as I' seeing the detail in Tom's shirt now and can see his beard starting to creep into the shot.  It's starting to get exciting!

I hope you all have a lovely week.  I will visit all those who visit me and then some. xxx

WOYWW 212

Hello again!  It's another week's peek at crafty desks across the globe and you can join in too by clicking  here.

This is my desk this week...

I am currently painstakenly filling in all the washed out areas on my favourite top with a dye pen.  I can't do more than 10 mins at a time due to sheer boredom, but I'm not ready to let it go, so suffer I must.

There is a pile of stitchbows waiting for m to wrap my DMC flosses onto.  That will probably happen on Sunday.

OH is a computer game nut and he has been known to buy limited edition merchandise.  The foldy paper you see with shapes on is a 3D tab Duke Nuken doll.  Oh yes.  I will show him off next week to you all.

The wedding present continues.  Starting to get irked with it now.  Don't worry, this is perfectly normal behaviour for me.  When I start a cross stitch, I am in love with it.  Then comes the obsession in stitching it every waking minute that I am not at work.  Then I get irked, start to dispise the piece and at the point of handing it over to it's new owner, I utterly hate the thing.  Thank goodness I have a deadline!

Thanks for peeking at my desk this week!
x

WOYWW 211

Good morning!  Welcome to another week of creative desk blog hopping.  You can join in by clicking here

My desk this week has been the chair sat next to the one I sit in.  Here is what is on it this week...

This is the wedding present I am making.  It is still not showing any sign of a face.  What looks like a face on the left is not a face.  

I spent most of my Sunday unpicking half of the white work I did down the middle.  I was out by 22 stitches!  Then I filled it back in to find I'd done it wrong again and spent Monday evening sorting that little pickle out.  I've nearly finished with colour number three.  To put it into perspective...

...This is only a quarter of the colours going in.  HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.  I may have just broken.

Have a lovely week everyone, I look forward to seeing your desks! xxx

WOYWW 210

Hello and welcome to another week of desk hopping, courtesy of our Julia.  You can join in the fun by going here.

This will be a painfully short blog today.  This is my desk this week...

Can you even see it?

This is a brand new design I'm making as a wedding present.  It will be a double portraiture and currently, I'm filling all the edging whitework.  Boring, sorry.

This means that all other cross stitches are currently on hold.  That includes Nathan's Diatoms.  It's going to be a tight squeeze as this new cross stitch is due to be gifted the day before Nathan's birthday.

In other news, two curtains have been unpicked and I am currently trying to source loose lavender locally.

That is it, I'm afraid.  Have a great week all! 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 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