WOYWW 590

 IF A PICTURE PAINTS A THOUSAND WORDS....

I read a very interesting article the other day on how our communication has become more image rather than text based - it made me think of how useful images can be, emojis can express something so succinctly, Instagram (which I don't do) is instant but nothing quite reaches your soul as much as a proper letter or long message can. And then I realised that my blog is the same, I tend to rely on big photos and few words, maybe so you lovely readers can whip through my drivel and nonsense a bit quicker!!! *grin*

Anyhow, the desk (big pic coming up.......)

I thought I'd make some more bits and pieces in the mad 60's purple fabric - still love it!

I also made some spares for the cafe in this fabric that I bought recently - it's much smarter in reality somehow! 

Shoshi, you really started something with your cross stitch, I am really enjoying doing this after a break of quite a few years....

I've made a few small pieces for Christmas cards and decided to have a go at the larger panel. I have a spare hoop the same size so will frame it up for a Christmas hanging in our house. But...*hangs head in shame* look at the appalling state of the threads......

I should be drummed out of WOYWW for that shambles!  I shall have to tidy it up as it's really annoying me now....

Let me introduce you to a new family member:

Dobbin has recently arrived in our house. I needed something to help me exercise in my mission to get the flab off. It's fab, very smooth with a shelf for the iPad so I can watch scenic bike tours of the world while pedalling away (on YouTube, highly recommended is the Bike the World series). I was 'travelling' through the Pyrenees this morning, it doesn't half make the time go faster!! But the best thing is the built in fan at face level, which is wondrous for this old bird, lol!  The funniest thing though, is that the whole rig is very tall and I need a step to get up on it - it's the first time in my life that I've felt short! G calls it my mounting block...... ;-D

Anyway, I may not get round to everyone this week as my eldest son is home, I haven't seen him for months and months so we'll be making the most of our time with him.

Have a great week!

WOYWW 589

 ALL KINDS OF EVERYTHING REMIND ME OF YOU....

The lyrics sprang straight to mind today - I can't say I'm a massive Dana fan but the words are very apt as most of the pics feature items sent by lovely crafting friends!

First up is the gorgeous fabric that Sarah Brennan sent me - I'm really into bold bright colours at the moment and these certainly fit the bill!

I already had this coral spot fabric which is the perfect combo. The glasses case and purse look good and I'm making a couple of small drawstring bags as well....

And finding the right colour popper is important  too, lol!

As the Welsh Government announced that mask wearing is now mandatory in shops, I've had a few requests for extras:

The darted ones are my preference but they take longer to measure up. G and I worked out that that ruler was his when he was a test engineer at the local Royal Naval depot back in the late 70s!! It's doing well, I use it all the time in the JanCave. The fabric was given to me by Underground Helen, a friend and neighbour (she's called that as she used to be a Tube driver for many years!) I made some masks for her mum and the rest of the fabric is mine to play with. Thanks mate!

I made some pleated ones as well and the elastic that Twiglet sent me was used for those - so thank you again, lovely gal!!

And that considerably younger sister of hers - ie the gorgeous Wipso - sent me a huge parcel of masks to sell in aid of the RNLI:

A proper pile of loveliness! They've gone to a Junior school where they'll be sold to parents of the children with the profit going to the RNLI. Thanks Annie, that was so thoughtful of you, I really appreciate it xxx

I often talk about the Harbour Lights, the cafe where I sell my items and as I was down there a few days ago stocking up (again!) I took this so you could see what a lovely little place it is:

It's a B&B too and is incredibly popular. At the moment you can only get takeaway drinks/cakes/sarnies but there's a lovely area to sit at the front or you can walk a few yards and gaze out at the view:

The sea was flat calm that day, not a breath of wind - the paddle boarders were having a good time, that's for sure!

So there you are, each item has made me think of a lovely person. You can't say much fairer than that!

Have a great crafty week everyone xxxxxxxx

WOYWW 588

 ALL YOU CAN DO IS STEP BACK IN TIME...

How lovely to be linking up with all the crafty deskers at WOYWW again this week - I really enjoy seeing what everyone's up to, it's great to have an excuse to be nosy!!

I have to apologise because I seem to have shared the same things for weeks on end but that's just how life is at the moment. I'd stocked up the RNLI box two weeks ago and had Laura, the cafe owner, messaging me yesterday that nearly everything had gone! Yay *happy dance* but it means that I'm making more of the same!

I shall start with some happy mail however - Twiglet, bless her, came to my rescue with some elastic supplies! It arrived with a beautiful Tilly Teadance card and postcard which are both in prime position on the JanCave shelves now. Thank you so much Jo, you're a star!

It's often been mentioned how tidy my desk is - I think when I'm cutting out lots of stuff, it sort of has to be (plus I'm a bit OCD......)

But not yesterday:

Fabrics, templates, a shirt to be ironed, Aida to be cut out and that pencil need sharpening! Talk about trying to do too many things at once....

You know that mad purple fabric I showed last week - I have fallen in love with it especially because I knew I had a lime green spot that would complement it well.

I'm in love! I was making this for the cafe stocks but it's staying with me, mwahahahaha....

It's so loud - I LOVE it!!

A matching set - it will give me joy each time I use it!

And as for the lyrics today, this fab number from the divine Kylie Minogue has been my ear worm this week. So get your gold lame hot pants and platform boots on, click HERE and have a boogie around the kitchen/craft room.

Remember the old dayyyyyyyyssssss.......

Have a great week all you disco queens!

WOYWW 587

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU'RE GOING TO ?

DO YOU LIKE THE THINGS THAT LIFE IS SHOWING YOU?

Linking up with the lovely girls around the world for WOYWW at Julia's place over at Stamping Ground for another round of desky shenanigans and sticky beaking!

One thing I've noticed about the past few months is that it's given us a chance to step back from the normal run of life and I for one have very much enjoyed that. Why feel guilty for sitting down to read a book for a couple of hours? I was very much a person who did too much - well, that's changed! I've decided to do just what I want to do and to rush around no longer. It's quite liberating!

Anyway, the desk:

After not making any for a while, I've had a couple of requests for masks, so have made a few of both styles. I am nearly out of elastic however!! I might have to have a bit of retail therapy (again!)

I say that, cos I had a return visit to Foxglove Fabrics in Carmarthen market, having used up quite a lot of what I bought previously.

I bought more of the three fabrics at the back and two new ones - Jane the stallholder gave me that lovely Bag for Life with a shiny rainbow on, it's already gone into my backpack for future use!

Two very different fabrics but I like them equally - no idea yet as to what they'll be used for, hopefully inspiration will strike.

My downstairs desk has been the kitchen table where I've enjoyed looking at the garden - it feels distinctly autumnal here over the past couple of days, the light has changed and it's fresher, I love it!

There's a lot of colour still, hydrangeas, roses, echinacea, kaffir lilies - I picked some of my roses and echinops for a little posy, the scent has been incredible. As you can see, I'm still doing some cross stitching (for Christmas projects) and boy, am I enjoying it! I've decided to change the colourway of the new one - it's just the perfect size to pick up and put down.

Even fraying the edges has been pleasing - quite meditative!

Hope you are all keeping safe and well - it was wonderful to see Elizabeth back on the desks last week after the awful few months she and her EM have had.

Have a good week and I'll see you before we know it!

WOYWW 586

 I'M JUST SITTIN' QUIETLY DOING MA OWN THING...

I think the incredibly windy weather has whooshed the week forward at a rate of knots! It's seems only five minutes ago that I was writing last week's post and here I am again, composing this week's drivel ;-D

I have to show Lynn Holland this pic first, I did the puzzle the day it arrived from her, it was fun!

Lots of interesting crafty detail made it very enjoyable, thanks Lynn for sending it, I really appreciate your kindness. It has already been loaned to two other crafty friends, one of whom sent me this pic,

I was intending to start on G's shirt this week - I'd traced and cut out the pattern pieces:

and even got the fabric out to wash and iron....

Isn't it fab? I bought it from a very upmarket Asian fabric shop in London a few years back, when I went to visit my friend Kate. It has sat in my stash for ages. Betty has also expressed her approval and thinks that G will look very fine.

And then plans changed...the load of glasses cases/purses I took down to the cafe a couple of weeks ago have all sold out! As it's the Bank Holiday this weekend, there's bound to be more visitors so out came the old templates and I set to.

The first few using up the oriental fabric....and you can never go wrong with unicorns eh?!

Thought this was a good combo too - I'm going to make a couple of smallish drawstring bags and see how they sell. Worth a try!

In the evenings, I have been doing a bit of cross stitch, nothing quite as complex as Shoshi's but fun nevertheless:

I have really enjoyed doing this again - had forgotten how much I enjoy the process of simple stitching. I had created a chart on graph paper, but true to form, did my own thing. I'm going to use these for Christmas cards!

And many doubted my brother's claim about his cherry tomatoes last week, so here are a few more:

One weighed 600 grams on its own! There must be something in the water where he lives...... ;-)  He offered to show you the photo of his cucumber but I said that your imaginations are probably vivid enough *grin*

And on that happy note I shall bid you farewell for today - have a great week and keep safe and well xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 585

 A LITTLE BIT OF THIS, A LITTLE BIT OF THAT...

The weeks are rolling by and here we are at No 585 of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday (nice palindrome number!) It's the one day of the week that I'm guaranteed to know at the moment and at least taking photos of the desk helps me remember what I've done lol!! Honestly, it's getting bad.......

Anyway, the desk looks like this:

A low shot! This is a roll of fusible fleece that I buy online from Fabricland, it's one of the few sites that sell it. I use this with 90% of the things I make so I get through a lot. More cases/purses in the background though I haven't made loads this week, I've been busy doing other things.

Using up more woolly scraps for the community project...or is it G's crochet onesie Christmas present....mwahahahaha.... I use my needle case all the time Twiglet, thank you so much for it!

And Shoshi has inspired me with her cross stitch diagrams so I thought I'd have a go and am transferring a section of a free pattern onto graph paper. It's good to have my beautiful pencils out - I really enjoyed myself for a couple of hours sitting in the cool doing this!

A subtle colour palette! The magnifying rule belonged to the late mum of my sister in law, Jill who passed it on to me a while back. It proved very useful indeed in creating the chart!

I put away my birthday cards but this one made it to the JanCave gallery - that Julia knows me too well :-D

My brother sent me this pic saying that his cherry tomatoes plane had gone beserk in the heat and humidity:

Hmmmm, think someone's telling a porky!! I've had a lot of teasing from my considerably older brothers over the years, think I deserve a medal ;-)

Have a great week, keep safe and well xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 584

 THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND...

I've used this lyric before but make no apology for a repeat performance this week - thank goodness for friends, both WOYWW deskers and crafting Muggles, and the joy they have bought in these crazy times!

I needed to replenish stocks of the glasses cases/mini purses for the RNLI fundraising, so this is what's happening during a huge thunderstorm (pic taken Monday morning)  I've already made some and am just using up fabric.

The anchors and hearts are the last of this fabric bought a month ago at Carmarthen market, the grey spotty is from my stash.

They came out very nicely as did the Scotty Dog fabric sent by Wipso - I got about six items out of the FQ. Generous with life, tight with fabric, that's me! :-)

The box is filling up nicely!

It's the turn of this Oriental fabric next - I was just wondering which spotty went best with it. Which would you have chosen?

I have a denim jacket, pale lilac in colour, which I wear ALL the time and consequently it had faded terribly. So I thought I'd dye it - so much easier these days with a single pod you put in the washing machine. Anyway, my faded old jacket is now:

PURPLE!! I love it, it's going to get even more wear now, especially with my WOYWW and other badges on the lapels. It has dyed really evenly, looks darker at the bottom cos of my shadow.

I had some more happy mail too from Lynn Holland:

Another crafting jigsaw, woohoo, plus some sweeties and a lovely little angel which is going straight into the JanCave!

Isn't she beautiful? I love her Lynn, thank you so much. And what you wrote on the card is true, WOYWW really has been a godsend in lockdown, with friendships deepening.

But I have to end with something that another friend sent.....

Lololol!!! It's the way the pattern draws the eye to a certain area...ahem. I've already started making G's Christmas present, just sayin' *grin*

Have a wonderful week everyone and let's keep that WOYWW love flowing around the Interwebs xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx