T is for Tuesday....

with the lovely Bleubeard and Elizabeth!

I borrowed my son's Christmas Starbucks mug for the occasion... hopefully it looks festive on my newly installed kitchen worktops... just in time for me to cook Crimbo dinner! Yay!

Oh and you can see what Chris brought back from the Netherlands with him on Thursday... Stroopwaffels... yummmmmm....

Quick photo of the finished kitchen... phew!!

and here is Pandy with her crinkle Crimbo hat bed.... because I can never get her to wear reindeer antlers or a Santa hat like other pet owners.... this is it for Crimbo cuteness from her!! LOL

So without further ado, I would like to wish one and all a wonderful Christmas filled with love and happiness, good company, good food, and fun times.  

I am off to the supermarket for the brussel sprouts so will be back in an hour or two to visit everyone.

Merry Christmas!

The kitchen is finished, the new worktops are fitted and my taps have running water and I have a hob to cook on....and only just in time too!  Phew.... and it only took 16 weeks.... and no, if I had known how long it would take and how stressful it would be to sort out the problems and issues we had, I would not have done it.... 

a bird's eye view... 

I am getting used to the lighter colour of the worktops and actually like them!

the new sinks because they cracked the sink in the last worktop when they installed it, so I went with two smaller ones this time round.  The large one was supposed to be on the righthand side but I don't mind, its not a problem having them this way round, it just meant that the plumber had to rework all the pipes and connections for the insinkerator and stuff when he came to connect me up!

Breakfast bar looking into the kitchen...

So that is it.... yay!  Now I can cook Christmas dinner!! 

Happy dance.... happy dance....

WOYWW 288

Hello deskers!  This is on my desk this chilly dark morning, finally finished it last evening and can now wrap and it and get it out of the way.  

The pocket envelope book for Ruth to keep her correspondence in.

The pockets are a decent size as I kept the width of the 12 x 12 patterned papers so they have ended up a good 12 x 6 pocket.

Printed some quotes about friendship and letter writing and attached them to the pocket fronts.

Lots of washi tape and stamping.

I didn't add loads of embellishments because I thought once the pockets were filled with bits and pieces the whole thing  would be fat enough without the added bulk.

Stamping and the odd flat embellie.

I added a pocket on the front to keep her stamps.

and made her a matching notepad to keep track of letters or addresses and things.

and my tree is up and looking very festive... its beginning to feel quite Christmassy now... except I have managed to catch a cold and feel like a big fuzzy headed sub-human... I am trying to give it away.... any takers?

WOYWW 287

Good grief, the days are disappearing at a rate of knots on the one hand... my being ready for Christmas seems to be escaping me at every turn and waiting for the replacement worktops for my kitchen seems to be taking so darn looooong... they are 'hoping' to have them ready to install on the 17th December... which is worrying as it doesn't really leave much in the way of margins to make this a total disaster... and let me tell you, since September I have spent way too much time without worktops and a sink and tap and hob.... especially when originally it would all take 7-10 days.... yeah... they just didn't specify that those 7 - 10 days might have weeks dispersed through them!! ;)

Anyways... enough of my moaning... you aren't here for that but to see my workdesk on this chilly frosty December morning!  I am working on a large envelope style book... it is a work in progress at the moment... which I am making for the same lady that I had a gift wrapped for her birthday last week... she liked her scarf... was totally appreciative and enjoyed the lunch I treated her too but she loved that envelope style packaging I wrapped her gift in... LOL... no, honest, she hugged it to her chest with glee because it had her name on it.... and told me she was going to use to keep her letters in....

So for Christmas I am making her an envelope book to keep her letters in, and a section for postcards and another for notelets and another for bits and bobs and writing paraphanalia... you get the idea?  This is the front cover... it is supposed to look like an airmail letter.... 

oh and look what I got!!  From Toni aka Misteejay, my first Christmas card and the most beautifully hand knitted scarf you could wish for...  thank you so much Toni, it is wonderful!!

and I got this in the Black Friday sales... online... I didn't leave the house to battle the people in the street... so now I have a fabby new printer and can print things again!!  Yay!!!

December Daily

I have done Journal Your Christmas for quite a few years, with mixed success on the completion but... the ones that I have completed, are in fact, some of my favourite books because they take me back to that time, the journalling is relevant, the photos are wonderful.... so when I was noseying about on Facebook and noticed that an old scrapping friend from South Africa had asked a couple of the other girls if they wanted to do December Daily I invited myself along for the ride! LOL  They are being very polite about it so far... didn't seem to mind me tagging along... so I thought I had better put something together zippety quick ready for Monday...

Lots of pocket pages and tags that will make keeping up with each day a little bit easier.

Fold over journalling spots... makes it easy to add your notes and any photos.

Slide out tags for journalling and photos.

Folded journalling spots.

Tall narrow pages with spots for tags behind the centre strip.

Same as above... for those days when there is very little to say!

Another narrow page for journalling.

Pocket page, with central pocket for tags and then side pockets for tags also.

I have left the pages pretty minimal for the moment and will be able to add to them as I go along each day.... yep, you guessed it... its going to end up one of those fat monstrous unruly books of mine...

Tags and pockets....

Fold out page with lots of places for journalling.

Another page for photos and words.

Pocket on front with lots of tags.

Now... if you know Ali Edwards style of scrapping and have seen December Daily pages you will be thinking... what on earth is Annette doing? LOL  Well, I can't do that style with ease... but I can do this... so I see no point in making the entire thing a pain in the bum when it will turn out looking like a great big fat mini book no matter what... so I have gone with what I like... and just hope that Ali Edwards never spots this version or she may just have a hissy fit.... ;)

WOYWW 286

This is my desk... actually this is my desk yesterday evening while I was making an envelope to wrap a scarf for my friend's Mum who is having her 80th birthday this weekend.  

I decided to make a little post it note holder while I was sitting there... she might find that handy as she has a much busier diary than most people who are half her age! ;)

Oh and I also had a tidy up in the corner of the scraproom, so bit by bit I am finding things and homing them properly!  It could take a while but I will get there in the end! LOL

If you are wondering why I am showing you my desk then pop over to Julia's and she will explain it all, then join in and have a good nosey at all sorts of wonderful crafts! 

WOYWW 285

 I am joining Julia and the WOYWW deskers this week...

This is my desk at 6 a.m. in the cold and dark... next week I will try and get the photos while there is some daylight so people don't get the impression I am living in a cave! LOL 

The cover of the mini book I have been making is done... just need to print the photos but it seems that my printer has other ideas about that little task... it seems to have lost the ability to print.... which makes it a large chunk of uselessness sitting on the worktop!  Poop. 

Pan right.... someone asked for a closer pic of the wall last week... so I hope they visit again and can see some of the bits in more detail.

and the wall to the right of my desk where I scrap... odd bits and pieces I have made.

So this is short and sweet and I will be over to nosey at everyone desks to see what you have been to up to this week!  

T on Tuesday

I am joining Elizabeth and Bleubeard for T on Tuesday with the blind my Mum bought me for my new kitchen.... just loving all those stacked cups.

and as finishing touches go, it was working really well....

but... this morning this is what the kitchen looks like.... with my tea cup and saucer sat on the kitchen units without any worktop.  :(   :(   :(   

I chose Corian worktops for my kitchen and went for Deep Night Sky as the colour.... nobody told me that this wasn't quite the cleverest thing I could do... nobody mentioned that they wouldn't fit... that I would have gaps that I could drop pens down at the back of the worktop, that the invisible joins that are the big rave and thing that Corian go on about wouldn't apply in the dark colours, nobody mentioned that the very dark Corian colours really didn't work in kitchen situations because they show every mark, that the simplest of things will scratch the surface and the effect though pleasing from a distance is not so nice when you are up close and personal.... 

 and this is kitchen worktops... you can't make food or work in your kitchen without the up close and personal bit!  

Invisible joins anyone? 

Gaps at the back for all the grease and carp to fall behind... or the odd mouse! LOL

So after two attempts over the last couple of months and me enduring weeks on end of having no worktops at all, yesterday was the third attempt when they were supposed to come and take them away and template my kitchen again and bring me back new properly finished worktops..... 

and then they mentioned that they were going to take these back to the factory and 'rework them' and bring them back next week.............. ummmmmmmmmmm no.  

 I am reasonably easy going, I will accept that we live in an imperfect world and all that that entails but you cannot charge me a small fortune for the most expensive worktops on the market  and deliver something substandard and expect me accept the situation....

so today I have no worktops cos I got cross and told them to take them away and not come back.  LOL  

What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday 284

I woke up early and it was cold and dark and blowing a gale outside so I went back to bed... its still cold and dark and still blowing a gale outside so I guess I will just have to deal with it now! LOL  I am joining Julia and the WOYWW crowd for another Wednesday of snooping at desks around the world.

So without further ado... this is my desk this morning... the innerds of the mini book I was working on last week are done and I have the makings of the cover on my desk... so by rights it should be finished to day?  ;)

and last week we went left and viewed the other side of the room so this week I am swinging right to reveal... yeah, lots of stash and stuff....

and further along that wall.... more storage and then my printer and computer...

and this is that corner if I stand back... ahuh... it could do with some major sorting but its one of those long term jobs now I am in one place... I can take my time and make it work for me.

Stay warm and I will along to visit and have a nose at what you are doing!