WOYWW 285

Hey, hey, hey!  After a difficult month moving Granny and trying to get her some occupational therapy, we are now there and for the first time in months, I find myself with a complete day off!  What better to do than take part in this week's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?!  You can join in here.

My desk (and other spaces) this week -

 Christmas prep has begun in earnest.  On my desk today, is the second half of finished presents for my colleagues.  The first half is already sitting in my locker at work.

 All of these bags have presents in various states of wrapped-ness.  I ran out of commercial wrapping paper and just have brown paper left that needs to be printed, so I've stopped for now.  Plus, I'm a little bored of wrapping anyway.

Dining room table - Family hampers are go, go, GO!  All jars are done, now just for homemade chocolates and peppermint creams, which I'll do the Sunday before the main event.

While wrapping the presents, my monthly shop arrived and I had to quickly sneak away all the tasty treats I've got in for Chrimble before O/H spotted me.  Looking forward to the three bird roast.  Oh, and the sprouts.

Still to do:work out when to decorate and what to use, figure out the impossible task of how to split myself three ways on Christmas day for different parts of family and more importantly, when to get my roast in the oven.  I have two weeks to get the fabric advent calendar made, hung and filled, To make a batch of relish or not (?), Will I find decent priced maple syrup for the bacon jam in time (?),snowmen earrings to make, Christmas CDs to burn, blah, blah, blah.  Ultimately, there is still lots left to do.

With a bit of luck, I should be back next week.  Tatty-bye all! xxx

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday 275

Hello and welcome to another week of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, where we take a peek at crafty desks from around the world.  You can join in by clicking here.

My desk this week -

On the bottom left my my desk are two Christmas greeting cross stitches I am making.  They are on my desk as I featured them in my Creative Blog Hop post this week.  There is jam sugar on nearly every surface and shelf/cupboard of my house.  Well, not quite but it feel like it as there is an awful lot of it about, with it being jamming season.  Two batches bitty blackberry, one batch blueberry, two batches plain plum and one batch plum and port jam down, another batch of plum and port jam (or two), one batch Doverhouse chutney and one/two batches non-bitty blackberry jam to go.  That's if I don't get suckered in by Mr. Marketman beforehand.  Likely.

The purple in the middle is the remnants of a birthday card making session I indulged in at the weekend.  Face wipes are essential at all times.  Surprise, surprise, the yellow stars are still there.  They probably need dusting by now.

Coming up this week - more jamming, looking into starting a fabric advent calendar ad getting on with the Christmas cross stitches.

Hope you all have a great week! x

WOYWW 224 (FESTIVAL AT THE END OF THE YEAR ITEMS WARNING!)

Hello and welcome to another week of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday!  You can join in the international peekfest of other peoples' craft desks here.

My desk (of sorts) this week...

This is part of the cross stitch commission from another branch of the shop I work in.  It's a table runner and I've been asked to only complete half of it.

This is what the warning is all about.  I spent ALL (6am-10pm) on Sunday making preserves to be given away as Festival at the end of the year presents.  I made 20 pots total of the following:

Blackberry jam

Apple and blackberry jam

Crab apple jelly

Plum jam

Chilli jam

Green tomato chutney.

Last night, I looked at my forlorn garden.  Summer has taken her love with her and now everything look wilty and sad.  I took a carrier bag to collect the last of the tomatoes and was astounded to completely fill it up.  I have a shedload of chutney to make.  I've estimated that I have at least 36 pots worth of tomatoes.  Eep.  Waste not, want not.

The sky from my playroom this morning.  Just had to share it with you.

Have a happy crafting week all! xxx

Lazy Days and Muse

I had planned to do something today.  Anything, in fact, except spending all morning on my laptop.  Fail.  I excuse myself by noting that i will be going out after lunch and probably won't be going home again until the early hours of tomorrow morning.  I've got approx. five hours to find two uniforms for me and my boyfriend to wear on a mates birthday night out, with no clue of what to buy and trying to justify the cost, which i can't.  I've looked around our cupboards trying to find remnants of our old dressing up box, but its probably made its way into the loft by now.  Poo. 

I've just been really naughty and listened to a live stream of the new Muse album 'Resistance'.  I've waited so long for it to come out on Monday that i couldn't wait any more.  Two days, i know.  I always find first listens of albums difficult to sum up - they need more listening!  I'll write what i think about each song now and no doubt will update each with every new listen. 

UPRISING:  Beautiful tribute to Dr. Who theme.  Very beefy with the bass.  Currently my favourite.
RESISTANCE:  Starts off slow and wishy-washy, quickly picks up a catchy verse before the first chorus.    
                          Goes etheral for a bit.  Repetitive.  I like the catchy bit a lot.  It reminds me of something
                          from the 80's but i don't know what.
UNDISCLOSED DESIRES:  Starts off like some catchy R'N'B tune Destiny's Child would have cooked
                          up.  Very different sound.  Punchy lyrics.  Very distant strains of Depeche Mode.
UNITED STATES OF EURASIA:  Stunning tribute to Queen.  Full of twiddly bits and power chords. 
                          Video is very good, if not a bit sinister where the maps of the U.S.A., Europe and Asia are
                          merged together to a very creepy part at the end of the song.  Makes the hairs on the back
                         of my neck stand up at the end. My second favourite tune.
GUIDING LIGHT: Epic arena anthem reminiscent of 'Invincible' off their last album Black Holes and 
                              Revelations.  Reminds me why i love his voice.  The occasional Queen-esque twiddle. 
                              A pretty song.
UNNATURAL SELECTION:  Good beat, very slappy.  Queen moments.  Great lyrics.  Poetic.
MK ULTRA: Reminds me of the tune from Anneka Rice's Treasure Hunt right at the beginning.  I love the
                      voice mashing in the middle, spooky bit.  There is a song by the Manics called 'Paul Robeson'
                      that features the lyrics 'MK Ultra turned you paranoid.'  Just thought that i would get that one
                      in there.
I BELONG TO YOU/MON COEUR S'OUVRE A TA VOIX:  My second favourite song so far.  Very
                     different.  Reminds me again of the 80's for the use of the sound effects in it.  Love the 'Oooh-
                     ee-oooh-ee-oooh's.  Fat on the piano.  Includes Matt singing in French.
EXOGENESIS:SYMPHONY PART 1(OVERTURE):  Reminiscent of Holst's planets, Alien soundtrack,
                    various creepy space films.  Orchestra sounds amazing.  Matt howls unrecognisable words in 
                    harmony thoughout.  Fantastic.
EXOGENESIS: SYMPHONY PART 2 (CROSS POLLINATION):  I wish i could remember the names
                   of all the classical music i like.  This one is heavy on Piano and sounds like a famous classical
                    song at the very beginning.  The lyrics are very *The world is in your hands, so save us*.        
                    Orchestra and band playing at the same time.
EXOGENESIS: SYMPHONY PART 3 (REDEMPTION)  Sounds like its going to break in the funeral song i've learned to fear (can't remember the name of that now, either.)  Starts getting happier and fairytale like.

I need to go and do something else now.  Might make some jam tomorrow.