What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday 191

This is my desk at the moment... yep, you are quite correct, it doesn't look very crafty!!

I am in the process of putting together all the documentation for the export and import of the two cats. I am lucky that Chris is doing the Oz side with quarantine etc.... I just need to make sure they get there!!

Papers, vaccinations, documents, invoices... but these two are worth it!!

I did do something crafty this week... made a quilt for our Granddaughter and got it off in the post yesterday and here she is with it!

Little Caitlyn and her raggedy quilt.

Don't forget to visit the linky list at Julia's so you can have a nose about all the different desks!

WOYWW 190

Here we go again, it's Wednesday and the round of noseyness begins!

and this is what is on my work desk this morning!  Now, you have to admit, it's not often, (if ever) that you have seen a sewing machine sitting there!!  It all started with WOYWW last week when I visited Jo of Jozart and read about a new venture she wanted help with making quilts.

So I made her a raggedy quilt. I sort of jumped the gun and started because the sewing machine and 'stuff' needs to be packed in the next couple of weeks, so it was a window of opportunity and I took it. Then she got the new blog for the enterprise up and running called LillyBo Quilts and I read the full instructions... a bag for the quilt to be carried back and forth to hospital for treatments... LOL... a rectangle was one thing.... a bag was another!!  So I put my thinking cap on and reduced the panic by saying it was just a couple more rectangles... with handles!! :)

and so a bag was born... ;)

and would you believe it... the quilt even fits inside!!  I know, I surprise myself sometimes!

Have a lovely Wednesday, I am off out in the snow to figure out why my heating hasn't come on... the house is freezing... 

A Raggedy Quilt

A raggedy quilt

Jo of Jozarty mentioned on WOYWW last week that perhaps people would like to make a quilt for a charity that gives them to people with sick babies in hospital.  I said I would give it a go but my sewing skills are pretty limited and my sewing machine even more so!  Parents with babies in hospital will get me every time, I experienced it first hand when my son was born with congenital glaucoma and had to have operations on both his eyes at 10 days old to relieve the pressure in his eyes and save his sight... oh my, it's the scariest thing in the whole world to have to endure... signing the papers to give the surgeon permission to do whatever he feels is necessary without coming back to discuss it with you because they are so tiny and they don't want to put them through another anaesthetic.  I will never forget the look on the face of a young Mum who was in with her little girl, a toddler, who had her daughter returned with one of  her eyes removed because of a tumour... it haunts dark parts of my mind late at night even 25 years later.  So a quilting I would go!! :)

So this morning I did a search for 'quilts for numpties' and came across raggedy quilts!!  Oooh, they look fab and cosy and loved and easy-ish!!  I found the batting and material and set to work... 3 Youtube videos later I had a little pile of squares and batting. I don't have any of the quilting tools like rulers and templates so I made the squares nice and big! ;)

and arranged and re-arranged them into a pattern...

and pinned and sewed... all morning... and through lunch....pinned and sewed...

and then I sat for two hours and snipped all the seams.... snip...snip... snip!

and then I gave it a cool wash and tumbled dried it and it went all raggedy just like it should! 

It isn't perfect... it isn't an amazing work of art... but it was made with love and I think it shows.

Share a Smile on Friday

Annie AKA Wipso, does a Share a Smile on Fridays and asked if I would like to join in.  As I had just had the camera out photographing the antics of two radiator hogging cats I thought I would!

It all began earlier with Tom-Tom shoving Pandy off her perch above the radiator in my bedroom... so like any Mum of toddlers I offered her a nice cosy spot in the scraproom in the cat chair where she was sound asleep without a care in the world...

then along came Tom-Tom the bully and decided to cram himself in beside her...with a few bites to her bum to make her move over...

and a few more bites because he didn't really feel like sharing at all...

while Pandy gives him a wash in the hope that he will let her stay...

what me?  Noooo, I didn't do anything...

and Pandy oomphed out into the cold... ;)

A little steampunk goes a long way...

This is the piece of chipboard that I was playing with last night.

The words are from Stampers Anonymous the Tim Holtz Collection and the cute light bulb is from Junkyard Findings.  The cogs are Tim Holtz cut from chipboard.

The wings were clear acrylic and I have no idea where I picked them up from and I gave them a coat of glitter paint.

Not bad for ten days of playing eh?  LOL

WOYWW 189

Here we all are again, another Wednesday creeping up and biting us in the bum!  I am sure there were loads of things I was supposed to do during this past week and I don't  think I have done half of them! But Julia and her weekly round of the crafty desk of the world says take a photo of your work desk and reveal all, so here it is:

as you can see I have the paints out and am playing with a piece of chipboard.

here is a close up of the piece, still got to do some stamping and add a quote.

I have sorted out what I am taking to Oz scrapping wise... and the shippers will come in and pack mid February.  I think I have cut it down to essentials only? ;)

My front garden.

This was taken from the front garden looking over the fields.  It was supposed to get to -12 for us over night so I do't think I will be going anywhere much today, indoors in the warm is the place to be!  I'm just glad we have no wind at the moment or it would be bitterly cold out there.

Have a good Wednesday!!

Still playing...

I had noticed that Andy used little number/letters on some of his pieces and I really liked the way it made the 'metal' item look authentic so I did a quick search on eBay and found a punch set which was reasonably priced and when it turned up at the house yesterday morning it was in this plain wooden box....

 well, what's a girl to do when she is faced with a wooden object? LOL

This is it opened with the punches all neatly lined up.

and this is it now!!

and I think I have the coolest punch set ever!

and the biggest laugh of all?  I forgot to use the punches on the box... I know, what a numpty!!

and just to prove that nothing is safe in this house at the moment... I picked up this silvered sheet metal rocking horse a couple of weeks ago for a certain person's birthday (yep, like you need any clues on that one)! It had some scuff marks on it so i thought I would have a play...

I think he looks like a very old and loved rocking horse now...

Davey Jones Locker

So this is how the cigar box turned out... not exactly as the image in my mind intended, but you know what leaky elbow syndrome can do when you are playing... it doesn't quite reach the fingers, but I am happy with the effect all the same!! Andy Skinner will probably have an iffy fit when he sees it because I think I broke a few rules here and there .

The pipework was made from drinking straws... I saw them in the cupboard last night and a little light bulb went off... speaking of which, the light bulbs are from a car bulb replacement kit and I made the springs from wire wrapped around a pencil.

I found a jar of pumice medium gel and tried to create a rust effect... it turned out looking more like lichen and I like it!!

I think I need to sign up for Andy's other class... this is way too much fun!!

WOYWW - 9th January 2013

Here we are at another Wednesday already, this year seems to be going by at a rate a knots and it has only just started!!

On my desk is a wooden cigar box... well, it started life as one and is undergoing some renovations!!  Whether these will be a success is still to be seen but I am having fun with paints and stuff so it doesn't really matter.  To the left of the cutting mat is my lazy susan, bought for the kitchen some time ago and I'm not really one of those mix a hundred spices sort of cook so it has been adopted for holding the paints and bits and really does make life easier as I can just whizz it around to get to something!!

and I cleaned out a drawer (well, it sounds better than I was looking for something) and turned my back for 10 seconds and this is what I found.... ;)

I did say last week I was going to find time to play and I have and I feel so much better.... until yesterday when I got an email from the relocators asking when they should send the man to survey what I am putting in the household shipment that is going to Australia. :(  I think I will manage to squeeze a couple more days of playing before I have to change tack and start organising things.  It's not the what is going bit that drives me nuts but the inventory and insurance form that goes with it... yep, you have to list everything you are going to put in a box and give it an insurance value.... think about it... kitchen = pots, pans, china, glasses, cutlery, tools, then its the clothes from the bedrooms, the computers, printers etc and then the best is the scraproom... as crafters we know it is always best not to put a price on what we have in our stash or we would frighten ourselves, our husbands and draw horrified cries from strangers... how many sheets of paper at 50p a sheet?  You paid how much for all those Tim Holtz dies?  Who needs 156 rolls of ribbon? Stamps... don't even go there...

I am off out this afternoon to a funeral of an old neighbour who died on my birthday last week, she was a lovely lady and will be missed, but I will poking my nose in blogs later.  Her house has tarmac driveway all around it on 4 sides and when my son was little he loved to ride his bike around and around and around her house... giving her a wave on each circle and she never complained or shouted at him.... which would have happened if it had been me in my kitchen window, let me tell you! ;)

Happy WOYWW to you and don't forget to check out the linky list over the leader of the snoopdesk fest, Julia!!

A Map for My Book of Secrets

I decided that practice is a good thing so have had another go at the techniques from Andy's class.  

I decided to make a little folder to go inside the 'secret' drawer of the book box.

and here it is tucked away quite nicely!  It opens up to reveal a treasure map...

a very olde worlde well creased treasure map!

Andy Skinners Book of Secrets Online Class

I was all prepped and ready to start the class nice and early!!

I cannot remember the last time I had so much fun!  

I learned lots of lovely techniques that I know I will continue to use on my books and altered stuff.

Andy's videos are brilliant, he explains and shows you how in such a calm way that you just dive in and give it a go.

I need to go order some more of the boxes... they will make great gifts for the males in my life!!