WOYWW 1st December 2010

What is on Your Workdesk Wednesday is upon us again and it's now December!!  December and I haven't put together my Journal Your Christmas book... am trying to keep up with Jessica Sprague's class - Inspiration Everywhere and I still have some cupcakes and Christmas Trees to make!!  Make the world slow down... just a little...
My Mum is flying over from France to visit us for 6 weeks and arrives on Friday... so I have a house to clean before then too...  speaking of which... I had the funniest email from her with the flight details for us to fetch her from the airport on Friday afternoon... where she added that she would be wearing the red suit she had bought when with me at home in Scotland a couple of years ago.... I replied that even though it has been two years since I saw her, I thought I would still recognise her... :)
Anyways.. enough of my blathering on... you are probably here to see what is on my desk...

Looking at this photo I think I may need a new mat soon, I appear to have done a lot of damage to this one with my continuous cutting up of chipboard!  I have been playing with a little book to hold ATC's, which I have made for a very special lady of the WOYWW sort.  Not sure it is her style but she is very well brought up so I know she won't mention it!!

and a clue to the lovely lady in question is dangling off the chains....

BE.... now who could those initials refer to?

Don't forget to pop along to Julia at the Stamping Ground to catch up on the list of of desks revealing all their creativity this Wednesday morning!

Christmas Trees!

I decided to take a break from the cupcakes... I find it really difficult to keep repeating the same thing over and over... so I decided to make a couple more Christmas trees before going back to the cupcakes.

This one I chose Wonderful Winter papers by My Minds Eye and it has fresh modern feel about it.

This one, though I did it exactly the same has a completely different look to it.  I used K & Co Yuletide papers for it and inked all the edges.

I think I have used enough avoidance tactics now and had actually better tackle the pile of ironing that is sitting in the corner waiting for me... Chris sort of mentioned that he had no shirts left to wear for work... oops!

Another Cupcake...

It is slow going but I have finished another one... went for a wintery theme with snowflakes this time!! 

Everyone will be pleased to know that overnight the temperatures have risen from sub zero silly numbers to a pleasant PLUS 4 degrees today!!  I think I like the Chinook and will even put up with the thumping headache that comes with it.... locals say some people get migraines and headaches when the Chinook blows in and it appears I am in the lucky numbers that get them!  The snow is melting and I am avoiding standing in the eves of the house in case the lot falls off the roof and I end up doing a bad impression of a snowman!!

Poor Chris... spotted the cupcake on yesterdays post and went off to the kitchen to search for the batch that I had obviously cooked up whilst he was at work.... :(  had to explain they were paper...!!

and another one to join the chocolate ones... 

and I got my cupcake stand out of the cupboard...

only another 9 to go..... good grief, I am insane....

Cupcake....

I think this is one of those occasions when you have to admit to yourself that it was a good idea but... it has taken me all morning to make this bloomin' cupcake and I am not sure I even like it!! I have lots of balls left though so maybe I will get better with practice!!

I think I need ribbon frosting around the edge... and have to find a way to build it up at the top to hide the top edges of the gift card...

and this is how it works... pull the cherry up and voila!   I hope.... LOL

WOYWW 24th November 2010

The weeks are whizzing by at such a speed... just think, in a month it will be Christmas Eve!!  Yikes... so much still to do... so little time!! But, here we are at Wednesday again and its time to have a good old snoop about the ever lengthening list of co-woyww-ers!  You will find the full list at the desk of our esteemed leader, Julia, over at the Stamping Ground.

So this is my desk at the moment... I am going to try and make some of those paper cupcakes that hold a gift card... I have the start of them.... we can but wait and see how successful the rest of it will be!!  LOL At the back are a couple of Christmas ATC's I am working on.  So much for finishing one thing before beginning another eh?

On my other desk there is a pile of stuff all awaiting my attention... more trees to make and a new magazine to read, and whilst in Michaels I found a tub of $1.50 stamps.... so how could I resist??

The last couple of days have been the coldest I have known in my lifetime... jeepers it is cold when it gets to be -28 and when you take the wind chill into account it feels more like -35!!  I shovelled snow off the driveway in record time yesterday.  I am reliably informed that it should start to warm up in the next couple of days... yahoo to that!! I have now figured out why some houses around here sport their Christmas lights all year... who the heck wants to climb about on ladders in this weather just to put lights up.... much easier to leave them up and not have to worry about them.  LOL

My two little Saudi cats are feeling the cold too... they sleep with their noses tucked into their tails... and that is indoors with the temp about 20 degrees... they have no idea what its like outside!! Neither of them has actually gone out in the snow but I can imagine what they would be thinking if they did...

Time ATC's

Last night I sat and made a little box for my printer's tray type house thing... so now there is something in the attic!!

 and while I had all these little squares of chipboard all over my desk I thought I may as well make some tags to hang from the roof...

and I think I got a better pic of the sewing square this morning when it was light...

hmmmm, maybe not! LOL

As it is -20 degrees outside and Chris had to go into work this morning because they have a panic on... I thought I would sit in the scrap room with a mug of hot chocolate and use up a few more bits of the chipboard offcuts so I made some Time themed ATCs and added some of the left over bits from the tray!!

They look a little washed out in this photo... they are a much richer colour and have a lovely Glimmer mist glint to them in real life.... poop! :(   A photographer I am not... I will try and get a better photo or nobody will want to swap with me!! LOL

Printer's Tray.... sort of....

The lady in my local scrap shop must have looked at all the stuff in my basket and fingered out I might be the sort of person who would find one of the 7Gypsy and Ranger's Configuration trays of interest as she took me along the aisles and showed me them... I declined to purchase one as they aren't cheap!!   But... I still liked the idea so I got my sheets of chipboard out and started cutting it up!!

Once the construction side of it was completed the fun bit began and I stuffed it full of all sorts of bits and pieces that represent home to me.

Well, there had to be a putty cat in there somewhere, didn't there?

I am a big romantic at heart...

the locks and keys that keep us safe...

the importance of my family...

my growing collection of birdcages...

my love of jewelry and beautiful things...

My crafts... sort of figured the sewing theme looked better than a mini scrap shop!! ;)

And yes, I know there is nothing in the attic... I am sort of working on the idea of a heap of boxes and trunks to go up there... which would represent all the boxes of stuff sitting unpacked in my home in Scotland from all our trips!!  

Speaking of birdcages... when I was out shopping the other day I saw these lovely little feather birds that you can clip on your Christmas tree... well, I have big brown bears on my tree this year but I picked one up to sit on the top of my latest bird cage which sits with the other on the long shelf on the third floor of the house.  Pandora was the first one to find it clipped onto the cage and promptly attacked it.... so to save it, I put it inside the cage where it sat safely for a couple of days... until yesterday....

Hmmm, so how do we get in there?

Ok... you put your paw in that side and I'll reach in from here....

You pat it over to here.... where my mouth is...

I've got it!!  I've got it!  Darn thing won't fit through the bars....

I found the tail feathers when I woke up this morning... RIP little birdie.... LOL

What's on Your Work Desk 17th November 2010

It Wednesday again!  Actually it's still Tuesday night to me here in frozen Calgary but my desk will look like this till tomorrow morning - when I start shovelling the snow out of the driveway again... yep, we got hit with about 8 inches last night and all day and it is still falling! It's a wee bit nippy outside too, about -9 degrees at the  moment so goodness knows what it will fall to whilst I sleep.
But, you aren't here for the weather report - hopefully you are here to check out what is on my desk.... and if you are wondering what I am talking about, check out Julia's blog for the background and list of fellow WOYWWers!

So this is what is on my desk at the moment... I have looked at the Rangers and 7Gypsy printer tray type thingies and love the look of them so I thought I would have a go at making my own out of chipboard.  

On the corner is a bunch of stuff I have gathered together to put in and on the tray, lovely lace, some gorgeous flowers and a plastic tub full of fun stuff.

here you can see some odd bits, the bird cage and watch bits, some steam punk cogs etc.

Oh and just in case you were here last week and asked for a photo of the Coach bag... here it is!

and this is the view from the front of my house... looking very wintry!

This is from the deck out the back of the house...

and this is a photo looking down onto the basement scraproom window - so I am hoping it doesn't get too deep and cover it up! 

Oh Christmas Tree and Table...

So I thought I would make some coaster and placemats for the table to go with my centre piece, the tree!

I think it will look great Christmas breakfast or high tea?

Here is a better photo of the tree now it is daylight! 

A close-up of the tree...

It all matches the little china Christmas dishes Chris bought me last weekend!

Don't you just love those little snowmen... so cute!

Looks like someone else is taking an interest in the Christmas table....

and even bigger interest in the Jelly Beans!!  Think I may have to eat those and put fresh ones out for the guests.... 

I have also just finished making some napkin rings with a little section to hold a candy cane!

Made little chipboard Christmas trees to attach to the top of the napkin ring to finish them off.

So now I have a question... I have a lovely retired couple living next door to me, they have been so kind since we bought the house and moved in, keeping me right on garbage collection days, who to get to clean the furnace and air ducts, etc and I wondered if it would be an ok gift to make them a set of these for their Christmas breakfast table?  What do you think?  

Oh Christmas Tree...

I got sidetracked from the Christmas cards and thought I would have a play with the styrofoam tree shape I picked up in Michaels last weekend.  I had looked at the ribbon versions and liked them but I wanted to make a paper one... so I did!!

I'll take a better picture in the morning - its pretty dark here and my camera doesn't seem to like the dim lighting.