WOYWW 607

 GOTTA GET UP AND TRY, TRY, TRY

Today's lyric was written by Pink which I found when I searched for a song with Try in the lyrics - it resonated with me in my attempts to DIB (Do It Badly)  Annie C came up with an excellent alternative last week - HAG!! Standing for Have A Go, same idea but with a more positive slant. And as one of my all time heroines is Nanny Ogg from the Terry Pratchett novels, an all time champion hag in all senses of the word (mistress of growing old disgracefully), I think that I shall HAG rather than DIB in future, thanks Annie!

Here are some little juggling balls I made to fit in the blue fabric box shown last week - they're a present for my great nephew who turned one yesterday. I thought he could hold/chuck/throw them in and out of the box, they can stack and can be thrown in the washing machine, sounds like a good prezzy to me, lol!

I had to have a bit of a splurge as some craft stocks were running very low (no, really!) so I spent a Christmas voucher online, ooooh lovely :-D

These were all 3 for 2 at Hobbycraft - all for blankets.

And some new art materials, the paints are metallic which you can't really tell from here!

The dining room 'desk', I've really enjoyed just mucking around with different tutorials on YouTube, the latest I found was a whole series by Peter Sheeler, who has a more illustrative style that appeals to me.

It's like line and wash more than free watercolours - not great but....HAG!!

Again, more try-outs, I took this to show you the lovely metallicy tones of the paints but it's hard to get sparkle and sheen to show in photos....

Ah, there you go, that's a bit better - they really are lovely to work with and will add great highlights when needed!

Hope you're all having fun with whatever crafting you're doing, here's to all the lovely HAGs out there!! xxxxxxxx

WOYWW 606

 WHO PUT THE COLOURS IN THE RAINBOW?

I seem to have spent the past week messaging and chatting - it helps me to keep in touch with people, whether they want me to or not, lol! 

A little more crafting has been done, some sewing in fact:

I'm making a present so can't show you exactly what it is yet but that blue fabric box is part of it - it's now all finished and amazingly I remembered to take a photo before packing it all up! I was quite impressed with myself, little victories and all that.... On the desk is my new Fiskars Rotary cutter (a Christmas prezzy) which is fantastic and very very sharp, I will have to keep fingers out of the way!

I'm crocheting granny squares out of the yarn that I have left as it all tones nicely apart from the orange and am wondering whether to border them all in white or that lemon, will just have to experiment with both and then decide!

As part of my DIB (Do It Badly) kick, I was having a play with the watercolours after watching a YouTube tutorial. I should have used a bigger brush so the effect was looser but it's all a learning curve eh?  I'll use it for a card or something...

The following day was grey and drizzly:

So I did another tutorial on negative space which did my head in at first...

I quite liked the outcome but decided that they looked better chopped up to make cards!

Hope you're all keeping safe and well, it's good to know that Shaz is back home after her stay in hospital. Please get in touch if you fancy a chat, as I've said before, it's a skill *grin*

Have a good week xxxxxxx

WOYWW 605

 YOU KNOW I'M BAD.....

Happy New Year folks, it's going to be tricky still especially with the new lockdowns, but I am very grateful for family, friends and the ease of communication and keeping in touch.

Oh, and crafting! Though I haven't done a huge amount this week to be honest.

The JanCave has been emptied of tech and now looks like its old self again:

This, would you believe, is the sum of my quilting cotton stash, I have a few pieces of furnishing weight fabric as well, but that's it. I had a Hobbycraft voucher as a Christmas prezzy so I need to get ordering!

And this is the sum of my yarn! After dumping (sorry, repurposing...) my chunky yarn on Twiglet, I was left with DK. The rainbow blanket was snaffled by my son so I've been doing 2x rib beanie with the pink variegated, this will go in the charity box. I would like to buy more yarn from my local shop but they're all shut at the moment.

Son No 1 and I did my jigsaw of the boys, it was tricky, we resorted to grouping the pieces by shape. I might mount this on card or board and put it on the JanCave walls because this is one I won't be doing again, lol!! My lad left to go back to his home after being in our bubble, good timing before the new lockdown starts. It was so lovely to have him with us for those few weeks, worth giving up my workroom for xx

And the reason for the Song Lyric today? I read an article about positive things to help you get through the dark months until Spring and one of them was Do It Badly. It made me stop in my tracks, but what it meant was have a go at anything and don't worry if you do it badly, or the picture in your head doesn't quite match up with the reality, just have a go and enjoy the pleasure of creating something. It rang a bell with me, I used to paint and draw quite a bit and haven't really done any for years. Hence why my old paints are out while I check what state everything is in!

I'm just going to have some fun with no particular purpose in mind!  And if I Do It Badly, well, the world will still turn!

Have a good week and if you want a chat, gimme a shout - talking is a skill of mine....*grin*

WOYWW 604

 FOR AULD LANG SYNE, MY DEAR.....

Here we are at the end of one of the most tumultuous years ever, it seems to have whipped by so quickly which is strange given how life has been less frenetic. The Wednesdays have been a point of focus in all those weeks and I thank you for the support and friendship - let's hope that 2021 is a kinder year for us all. 

The JanCave is still out of bounds so crafting continues at the dining table and on the sofa:

My school friends and I are all turning 60 in 2021 and Diane is the first so that's why the card making paraphernalia is out!

The 'ballerina' photo is from a sketch we did at school, I was also dressed up like that!! Note the gorgeous 70s blue eye shadow, lol! That pic is going on the inside of the card to give her a surprise *grin*  She doesn't read my blog so I think it's safe to share!  There'll be a whole series of 60ths until it's my turn in August!

I started a crochet stripey blanket on the Zoom Crop day and finished it a couple of days back:

Rainbow stripes made me smile! I picked these two variegated balls up in a bargain bin and fancy knitting up some beanies.

I had a lot of lovely presents for Christmas including three jigsaws, this was my favourite.....

My boys, then and now, I may have shed a tear..... :-)

Happy New Year everyone, thanks for the desky nonsense that has helped me immeasurably this year, I look forward to seeing what you're all getting up to in 2021 xxxxxxxx

WOYWW 603

 MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

After all the chaos that has ensued after the national lockdowns, it's decidedly odd to know what to say - everything is going to be different this Christmas. I really hope that we all manage to celebrate however we can even though plans may have gone awry - the friendliness, love and caring of the Deskers is second to none, I think we all have to keep ourselves going as best we can and check up on our dear mates. 

There have been some wonderful reminders of the friendships over the past couple of weeks - I may be one of the few that adore Christmas cards, making (or buying!), writing and receiving. I make a gallery of them on the doors in the hallway:

I see them every time I walk through the hall and it's wonderful! I spent a happy couple of hours re-reading the cards and messages and then putting them up with blu-tac. It just makes me smile xxx

And talking about Happy Mail:

A parcel arrived with some sewing kits from Eva in Austria, which was most unexpected and really lovely! Eva has read my blog for quite some time, though she does sew, she doesn't blog but she contacted me by email last year and we've been penpals ever since. She's a lovely thoughtful lady and I've very much enjoyed the correspondence. Maggie in France, if you're reading this, I hope that you and your hubby are ok too. The sewing kits makes a little screen wipe with a towelling back that really cleans your ipad or phone beautifully and you can chuck them in the washing machine too. It's Eva's own design which uses up small scraps of fabric, a clever idea!

And that's what I love about WOYWW, I have made some awesome friends through it, the sharing and caring is something I truly cherish.  So I'll leave you with this:

 

WOYWW 602

 HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS....

I think that the Christmas lyrics can be rolled out now, lol, I've missed playing carols with my brass band so much so can't hold back any longer..... ;-)

As the JanCave resembles Mission Control at Houston with all the computer stuff that my son needs for his job in cyber security, I've had to resort to crafting where I can! And it's pretty much what I showed you last week except things have moved on a bit....

The Aida has been shifted on the hoop so I can do the right hand bit of the pattern. You can see some new flosses in the small tub as I needed some greys. At the back you can see our games box, we love all sorts of games in our house, from board games of all sorts to Yahtzee. Eldest son and I have a Cribbage tournament going (I'm 4-3 up at the moment), it's a great game, my whole family play and that maybe explains why we're all good at maths, cos there's a lot of quick counting involved!

I was setting up for a video call and had the crochet to hand whilst chatting:

Note high tech stand for my ipad, lol!! The blanket has grown, I've just started the sequence of rainbow stripes at red again. Hey Shaz, can you see that the bay tree you and Doug bought me all those years ago is still doing well in the big blue pot?!

Annie Claxton sent me this gorgeous card to celebrate The Big 600, it's a keeper for sure!

The details are fantastic and so precise (I can see why you're so good at those book nooks Annie!)  The little crochet elves were sent to me years ago by a desker called Famfa, in Canada - they come out every year and I often wonder how she's getting on. 

I was in our local Co-op and saw this amazing yarn bombed Christmas tree, the details were amazing and the knitting and crochet expertise too good not to share:

It was about 6' tall - I didn't know which detail to focus on first, they were all so good...

You can just see more and more detail! It must have taken ages to set up - I hadn't even spotted the Grinch whilst taking the pic.

A little nod to all the amazing NHS workers who continue to do such a fantastic job. I've just noticed the pompom Christmas pud, that's a fun idea!

Knitted prezzies and poinsettias....

And a mutant Santa/Mickey Mouse...room for everything, I suppose!

And of course, if you have a woolly tree, you have to have....

...the angel on the top - whoever made her is a fantastic knitter, great attention to detail, even her halo is covered in yarn, she's beautiful!

So, there you go, not the usual sort of desk reveal but I hope you enjoyed the tour nevertheless!  Enjoy the next week, avoid the crowds and make lots of time to fit in some crafting, whatever it is xxxxx

WOYWW 600+1

 THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND...

Wishing my wonderful husband a Happy Birthday today, he's a quiet, understated, awesome, funny person whom I love dearly - he has had to put up with a load of nonsense living with me all these years!!

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed both the 600 celebrations last week and the Zoom Crop on Saturday! How lovely to see friendly faces old and new and to meet people properly, it was just wonderful and also great fun to see who was an uncontrollable giggler like me...yes Felicia, I'm looking at you!!  I really hope that we can do something again but maybe in smaller groups to make it a bit more manageable. It was fun to hear voices, meet pets of all descriptions and trying to describe Marmite.....you had to be there.... :-D

As the morning gals saw, my eldest son arrived home during the first session and as he has to work from home during his stay, the JanCave is now full of monitors and laptops. So I've been crafting where I can!

The coffee table in our lounge for example where I was making something to identify myself at the Crop, using some old reindeer antlers and card/felt tips.

There I am, top row, 2nd from left, looking really daft! Hey Lynne, we could have pretended to be in University Challenge, lolol! I seemed to get everyone looking down or out of frame, sorry.....  It was great fun and I was impressed with Zoom, mostly the pics and sound quality were great.

I was crocheting another stripy blanket during the Crop and carried on during a Facetime chat with Julia:

This is at the kitchen table where the light is lovely to work in - I like doing stripy blankets, don't have to think too hard ;-)

And it's where I've been doing some more cross stitch, a hare has started to appear top right and I'm doing what should be snowflakes (but which have morphed into dandelion heads) in a silver -gilt metallic floss which is a complete and utter monumental pain in the A£$e!! It splits and tangles at the drop of a hat - I'm doing my best to be calm and zen but I am never using it again, pretty though it is. The air has been blue......

I shall leave you with the decorations that my SiL Jill has been making from scraps left over from quilting:

So pretty and effective, love the little bells - they'll be treasured for years to come. Well done Jill, they are really lovely and, yet again, I am in awe at your meticulousnessnessness (If that isn't a word, it ought to be, lol!)

Thanks for all the friendship and support you lovely lot, I enjoyed the last week a lot but here's hoping that we won't have to use zoom to meet next year xxxx