Oooooh errrr WOYWW

OK... somebody give me back the stolen intervening days since last week please! My WOYWW photo this week is a trifle boring... I am making menus for the afternoon tea, which has jumped forward on the calendar to this Saturday! So I have a couple of busy days ahead of me... baking shortbread and mini banana breads and roasting a couple of chickens for the sandwiches.
And for some weird reason Blogger no longer allows me to upload photos direct from my computer!!  When did that happen and why?  I have had to faff about with Picasa and sign up for web albums and all sorts of other stoooopid stuff just to upload a photo... it was so easy before!!  Anyways, I figured out how to get the pic uploaded but for the life of me I have no idea how to add another one.... it just wants to make another post!!  Sometimes I feel old.... very old... LOL   If there are any kind bright sparks out there that would tell me how to get back to being upload from my own hard drive... honestly, I would be in your debt!!
Don't forget to pop over to dear Julia's and have a nosey at what is on everyone elses' desk, there are so many of us it takes me two days to get round them all!!

Yay!!  Thank you to Esme who explained what I had to do to add  photos!!  So just to prove I can do it... here is a photo of Phantom (as in Phantom of the Opera.... get it?) who is a half brother to my Pandora.  He is the only survivor from Mummy Cat's first litter and he visits a couple of times a day to get fed!!  He was a bit of a fighter but since we had him fixed he has calmed down a lot and looks  a lot healthier now he isn't getting into fights all the time.

WOYWW or What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday...

OK... now I should start to get worried... these Wednesdays seem to arrive faster and faster, almost as if there are a few missing days inbetween!!  As I will be leaving here and returning home to Scotland in a few weeks perhaps I should be actually making a plan on how all the (s)crap stuff I have purchased in Big World is supposed to get into the same space that came out here!! LOL  Hmmm, methinks I have failed at that before I start!!  Chris did kindly bring me some archive boxes home from the office so that I could make initial attempts at getting the room sorted... 4 of them.  LOL  the man obviously has no idea how much stuff is actually in all the cupboards and drawers!! 

Of course... the cats think the boxes have been introduced purely for their amusement....

Here is Tom-Tom hiding in the flower bed... he seemed quite put out that I could actually spot him... as though this bright orange and white cat was camouflaged amongst the green and pink flowers!!

Just to keep things fair... Pandora lounging on the back of the sofa with the aircon on...

I suppose I should actually show you my desk this morning... nothing terribly interesting on it... I am busy cutting out chipboard to make some tag books for our English Afternoon Tea event...  you see we are quite a diverse group of ladies so we thought we would have cooking demonstrations to show foods from the different countries... we had fabulous food from the Latin American group and an absolutely wonderful braai from the South African group... and now its the turn of the English contingence to come up with the goods... but we couldn't really see anyone wanting a fish and chip cookery demo so we have offered an English Afternoon Tea experience instead!!  Little 3 tier cake stands with cucumber finger sandwiches and scones with jam and Devonshire cream with little cakes on the top tier.... and we will be dressed in aprons and little waitress hats.... it should be a good laugh!! ;)

Don't forget to pop along to Julia and check out everyone else's desk this Wednesday... the list is now humungous and its such fun to pop in and nosey about in peoples' scrap areas!

On a completely different subject.... every time I go out of my front door I look at the ledge of my porch where I put some sand roses and petrified wood and there is one that looks like a little old fisherman in a yellow South Wester hat....

Can you see him?  Please tell me its not just me!! 

The other sand roses look like sand roses...

Fascinating in their own way but its the little Fisherman that is my favourite!!

and I had to pop into Big World on Monday.... and I found another shoe/boot!!  I like this one even better... Chris says 'please stop buying stuff.... how are we supposed to get it all home'?  But its just a little glass shoe...

Altered Frame Version 2!!

I finished the second frame that I bought the other week, I quite like this version, it is going to go on my scraproom door when I put up the chandelier and table decals that I picked up in Big World.

Though they are identical frames, they have managed to turn out completely different!!

I now have to dash off to the kitchen and throw some dinner in the oven as though I have been working hard all afternoon.... and not playing about in the scrap room!!

It's baking hot here....

Literally!!  Tomorrow is our annual bake sale to raise funds for the ladies group so I got up early and started baking... its now about 35 degrees outside and I am melting inside - even with the aircon on!!  Not such a clever day for having your oven for 6 hours straight!!  Oh and guess what... Chris is bringing someone home for dinner - so I have a fillet of beef to roast yet....

So here are all the bags of chocolate chip cookies!!

and the first batch of little individual banana breads...

They smell very yummy but I am so proud of myself.... I have been in the kitchen since 7.30 a.m. this morning and all I have stolen is one chocolate chip cookie.... it broke so I couldn't sell it!!

and just for all the Big World fans out there.... would you look at this cool shoe I found for the kitchen?  I don't think the contents are edible.... but when I get fed up with it in the kitchen I can empty and fill it with beads or buttons for my scraproom!! LOL

It's Wednesday Again??

So what happened to all the missing days since last Wednesday???  I'm afraid that technically speaking what is on my workdesk today is not scrapping.... but it is for my scraproom!! Does that still count?

Ping and I went downtown in Jubail this morning to pick up a wicker basket for a donation for the local women's group - we are filling it with nuts and dried fruits... so the bestest place to pick up such a thing is my all time fav shop, Big World!!!  So we got the wicker basket and then we saw these.... they are material room decor!!  Aren't they cute?  Can't you just see them stuck on  a scrap room wall?

Well, then I spied these and had to get them too...

OK.. before anyone mentions it, I do know that both these schemes cannot go into one scraproom... so I can decide on which theme goes where when I go home and take the other to Calgary with me for the scrap room there!!  LOL  Do you have any idea how much the candelabra and table lamp cost???   You won't guess.... £2 each.   Yep, honest!! 

Sorry there isn't anything creative for you to see today, but do pop along to Julia's and have a look at all the lovely workdesks... I am just about to get the other frame from yesterday out and have a play with it.... so maybe I will add a photo later of one very messy desk!!

Sometimes you should just...

leave stuff alone!!  I was shopping last week in Mr Price in Dahran Mall... (now, any South Africans reading this are going to be hopping up and down saying 'They have Mr Price in Saudi Arabia'?) and found these photo frames... I certainly would not have paid the full asking price for them but as they had reduced stickers and were now pretty cheap-ish, I figured they might be good for a bit of tarting up!!

This is the way they came... I think they were trying for a vintage type effect...

So this is it after a couple of coats of paint and some gold and as you can see... I had company in scraproom today...

OK... so I think this where I should have just stopped....

but I didn't.... LOL

WOYWW

I cannot believe the speed at which Wednesdays keep arriving!!  I was sitting and playing with Picasa this morning and made this collage of Tom-Tom.... which means that all those photos in folders still haven't been organised into anything resembling an order of any sort... but he's cute, isn't he?  LOL

So, this is what my desk looks like this morning!  I am in the middle of making an example up for the scrap class on Sunday.  It would be so much easier if I just kept stuff... then I wouldn't have to make it again each time the ladies ask me to teach something!!  This class is in readiness for Mother's Day next month.  I know, we had UK Mother's Day last month but most of the ladies here seem to celebrate the US or South African date and wanted to do something for all their Mum's. 

It will hopefully turn out something like this version... albeit in different colours.

and once opened out is quite cool and spells the word MOTHER.... or any other 6 letter word you would like to choose... SISTER and FATHER and FRIEND work as well!! The big tags are removable and can contain photos and journalling.

We are now counting down the weeks till we leave here and I am trying to get the cats used to being in their carriers for longer periods....  Pandora has adapted well, she thinks its pretty fine that there is a carrier next to my desk and she sleeps quite happily in it for hours...

I'm still working on Tom-Tom.... who actually prefers to be more hands on in the scrap room!!

Hmmmm.... still have a little work to do on his carrier behaviour!!

Here is a clue to our next assignment destination....

This may help..... LOL

So that's all from my workdesk this Wednesday, so pop over to Julia's and see what everyone is up to this lovely spring morning!!

The Cat Files

I decided that having bits of paper and vaccination records and such like all over the place was not going to do much good when it comes to export Pandora and Tom-Tom home so I made up a book with pockets and things to hold all the important stuff in one place. I have kept the cover deliberately plain as I want to be able to carry it in my bag and didn't want embellies to be squished or torn off.

This is Pandora and the pocket with her vaccination documents.

A transparent pocket with all the vet contact details and Tom-Tom's documents.

Another transparent pocket to hold the bar code strips for their chips and a few blank pages for me to be able to add export documents and such like.

I wanted to keep all the bits from falling out and being lost so I used a piece of elastic to hold the book closed and keep all the stray bits of paper safe. I used eyelets to hold the elastic ends in place inside the back cover of the book.

 and made a wee half circle with my trusty Crop-a-Dile so that the elastic will stay in place.

Another Book in a Box

Finally finished playing with the little tags and the box that I was working on last week. I have been playing with Picasa and trying to see if I can finally get all the photos on my poor hard drives organised.... hmmm, may have taken a huge bite of whatever and may never be able to chew again!! LOL  But... I did manage to create a collage... (big pat on Annette's back please) and am wondering if people prefer individual shots of a project or one of these?  I often think I am perhaps boring any peeps that pop by with all the little shots of stuff and this would actually make my pages load faster.... which may not be a problem to those who sit with super dooper speedy broadband but I have to admit our internet speeds here in Saudi are on the turtle side of the scale and when I open a blog and it tells me 'downloading 35th of 218 photos' my little heart drops into my shoes and my brain sort of numbs over knowing that I could be looking at the screen for one heck of a long time to just be able to see the latest post!   So, if you would be so kind, leave me a comment and tell me what you think?  Thanks.

Al Qatif Market...

Ping, Emy and I went off to Al Qatif market this morning, its about an hours drive away and one of those places that has been on my 'must see' lists!!

The first thing I came across was this market seller with all these little chicks in bright colours... and people were buying them and putting them into brown paper bags..

I am sure they use vegetable dyes... if that makes it any better...

one lady showed me her pink fluffy chick and let me hold it... but I refrained from asking what she planned to do with it... I have learned sometimes it is best not knowing!!

The perfume seller let me take a photograph of him and all his lavishly designed perfume bottles...

They are a little OTT but beautiful too...

and these gentleen didn't mind me taking their photograph either... the women would not allow it though so I have no shots of the basket sellers.

I thought as signs go... this was seemed very sensible!! LOL

We then drove to Half Moon Beach - the wind was blowing a gale and the sand was blowing about but the beach was stunning... on a nicer day it would have been lovely!!

Of course, no matter the weather, we are still obliged to dress in abayahs!! LOL

In the background you can see the cabana type structures that are all along the beach... in which the women can sit and not be seen but still enjoy a day at the seaside!!