WOYWW 779 – my desk smells wonderful!

Happy WOYWW everyone! My desk doesn’t look like much today

The reason my desk smells yummy is off to the back, warming up in the sink!

I am doing a project from The Roben’s Nest. The option was resin-like papers using either beeswax (got none of that!) or coconut oil (got … 84 fl oz. of THAT!) so you can guess what I am playing with. I am intrigued. And slightly skeptical. Will the paper be usable? For what? Will I be able to stick it? Hummmm. What is there on my desk is a selection of papers that might work. We shall see…

Poppy is recovering nicely, she will be seen by the vet for her final follow-up on Friday, and I am hoping it will be all clear. I did try to start feeding her something called Plaque Off, to help keep the tooth problem from reoccurring (the dry crunchy food and so-called Dental Treats did NOT work at all) and she is not impressed. Now she gets neither her anti-inflammatory nor her antibiotic, she is not getting her creamy treats (that they hide in) every day. She still loves the board from the desk to window, especially when the window is open a crack to let in a breeze. Two fingers only, lest she try to get out and climb down the wisteria LOL!

Between slathering oil on the papers and massaging it in, I will be round yours to see what you’re up to! If those papers dry, I’ll share them tomorrow…I am not hopeful. No knitting this week, blood test and a few other things happening, so I might make it round to all on the day!

Have a happy crafty one…

WOYWW 778 – getting close…

… to crop time! Exciting. Happy WOYWW to everyone!

My desk is not too bad, as I have been making a bit of an effort to tidy as I go. Card-making is less of a mess (for me anyway) than art journaling.

That card is not quite done, but uses stuff I reorganized in my tidy up. Who doesn’t have a ton of this stuff??

Some of that stuff is old Heidi Swapp tape, not proper washi. Once the card is dry I’ll add it, probably tomorrow, but you can see the basic idea above. I may have said I was going to do “one more” then shift but I sort of thought I might just finish out the week so I can work on the weekend on something new. What I will share is this card:

Anyone recognize it? Anyone?? LOL! It is one from a workshop … 6 years ago maybe? Led by the lovely Julia. I have always liked it, so much so I have never actually sent it to anyone. I have always thought I might try to re-create it with stuff I have, so I finally did.

Not a patch on the original but I like it well enough, and yet not enough to hoard it! I even had a bit of foreign language book text.

Just a quick shot of Poppy, who, I hope, has forgiven me by now for the hellish day of morning starvation (cause of the sedation) and pain (cause of the tooth cleaning and removal. I guess if she sleeps with me in my studio then that must mean she does…

When she sleeps like this it hides all her white bits. My sweetie kitty, as Darling Daughter calls her! Sadly she did get an infection in her gums, so now on an antibiotic and a moved-up vet check on Friday. Poor little love.

Happy WOYWW – not long to the crop now…

WOYWW 777

Happy WOYWW to all! If you did not grab the ATC backs I made for the 15th anniversary swap and want to, pop back to last week’s WOYWW and grab them. No, my ATCs (12 made!) do not follow a theme – a lot of people asked, but one has not been announced, and I was anxious to get them sorted, life being as challenging as it is. I have had the design in mind for a long time, and Julia usually suggests a theme but it is never do this or don’t take part but do this theme if you want to. I figure I’m safe.

My desk is in a state again, but only cause I have a ton of my cardmaking stuff scattered all around.

My side desk is quite tidy tho’

I have been experimenting with the coloured carbon paper I have to test out how the type looks on different papers.

The best discovery was white carbon paper on black – the yellow works OK too

Really happy about that discovery! What I am not happy about is that my poor Poppy had her vet visit – she just turned 10, which I guess is when stuff starts going wrong. Turns out she has tooth decay and needs a cleaning and possibly a tooth pulled. Ugh. She was VERY unhappy with her visit, they took blood too, and I am guessing it is going to be quite difficult to get her into that cat carrier again. And I will have to do it for tomorrow – no food after midnight, water taken up in the morning. Not going to be a fun day for sure. Really hoping nothing bad turns up in the blood test, and wish we had thought to get pet insurance at any point last year. Inexperienced cat owners for sure. She may never forgive me – just look at that face! Best news is all her bloods came back just fine, nothing of concern, so we sorted pet insurance for the future. No help for dental, but hey ho….

Not feeling up to knitting today, and a ton of phone calls to make and stuff to sort, so expect me early and then depending on the vet visit, perhaps not again till Friday! But happy WOYWW.

WOYWW 776 – Tidy reveal

Happy WOYWW! Time to share my tidy up. Desks first:

Main desk is not much different than last week, although I do have a few piles of things set aside that I felt “went together” and could form the basis of an art journal page. The side desk has all my gel plate tools (stencils in binders on the rack, handmade stamps in the blue drawers, mark-making stamps in the tall rainbow drawers plus more in the bulging binder on top of that. Hard to see but my brayer bin is there and the green bin has Poppy’s brush, comb and nail clippers (as if she’d let me clip them. HA!)

Computer desk, with my April daily journal sitting just under my monitor, right were I can see it every day!

I moved a shelf to a more accessible place and it has already proved useful to keep stuff where I can see it! Poppy’s access board to her Cat TV (window) is still in place.

The big pre-cursor to a Kallax unit (same size squares but without sides) is where my new magazine boxes (matching!) house all my letter stickers, divided by colour. Also at the top all my collage fodder:

And that catastrophe of a shelf that had my cardmaking stuff? Still looks a mess to the untrained eye but to me, it is way organized!

Pretty happy with it and annotating the photos will (I hope) help solidify in my mind where all the things that moved, moved TO. We’ll see.

Looks like (baring any unforeseen issues) I will be able to make the crop, and my ATCs are very nearly done. As I do most every year, I have a set of ATC backs for you, and these will replace the usual Poppy photo this week. Sorry kitty lovers! Multiple versions for you so be sure to click the ones you want! I like the smaller ones when I am not building the ATC on the back, but attaching the printed back to an ATC. But hey, you do you!

• A4 options: Smaller (3″ height) and True 2.5 x 3.5 inch
• US Letter options: Smaller (3″ height) and True 2.5 x 3.5 inch

See you round yours – I am really good about getting to the early responders first thing, but once I step away from my desk, all bets are off!

WOYWW 775 – and AJ – page 16

Happy WOYWW to all. I am not sharing my desk, per se, but my new paint storage system. I mean it’s kinda my desk, or at least beside it. I have worked slowly and surely to get my desk tidy and get things re-organized. To save you looking back, here is my home-made cardboard box shelves from Monday

and I think you can see at the end of the process my desk was clean. Of course in making the page from yesterday and this one for today, it got messy. But this paint storage bit of it is wonderful! It’s made using one of the over-the-radiator dryer thingies from Lidl (I think about £3, and I used one + the hanging piece from another) and a few cable ties plus lots and lots of binder clips!

It is amazing. With all the tiny bottles that used to also be in the rolling cart shifted to the cardboard shelves, it made room for all the bottles of craft paint (and my watercolours) in the cart – especially once I got rid of all the duplicate or less than great paints. The binder clips clip the paint tubes thru the hanger part to the racks and it all hangs on the side of the bookshelf.

Not wanting to get too long here, Page 16 is a double page in the Paper Bag journal. That means I only have ONE SIDE left before I finish that one up. Another thing I came across in the tidy-up was this gridded collage I made from a collage class (Catherine Rains, I think)

I played around with the arrangement, then grabbed those spray inks to fill the background with colour. Glad I managed to clear out my spray box. Phew!

I added a bit of stenciling too, although I can see a few areas where I might add some more. The angle makes the bright bronze paint stand out more than it does from a different angle.

I liked this collage, but my grid was a tiny bit askew so I was never going to hang it on the wall. This way I can see it in my journal any time, and I won’t lose track of it in a random bin of scraps again.

Finally, Poppy. Happy the weather is a bit warmer now – just wish it wasn’t so windy every day! She looks a bit less mean than she usually does LOL!.

Happy WOYWW!

WOYWW 774 – hard to work

Happy WOYWW to all! My desk is in such a state I can barely work. And such a poor showing last week but honestly my saving grace was I knew it would be difficult to create with my head thumping like a big bass drum so I worked hard over the weekend to get a few pages done in advance and claimed back a day with my Monday re-cap. It took a lot longer for the headache to go this time, probably due to the higher infusion rate, to cut down the time spent in the hospital. Enough of that. Here is my desk, with page 12 in place:

A few process shots! Still using up old bits, the tag has a cut out of a old gel print image transfer, were I added gold glitter to the plate before the paint layer to pull. It worked OK, might need a bit more experimentation!

More of that painted fabric tape at the top of the tag. The biggest decision was what page to put it on in the journal. I must have auditioned all of the 28 pages left before deciding this B&W page worked best.

I think I need a calendar sheet so I know which journal is next. SOOOOO tempted to just finish the paper bag journal but I am staying strong!! But I do think I’ve slightly lost track of the order. I’ll need to get back on track with that! But that might be a plan for tomorrow, at least to assess where I am. The I may just finish out the week and then start afresh next week. We’ll see.

In any case the plan is to also get back on track with WOYWW too so be round to see your desk soon, and will be drifting back to last week as well cause when it come to WOYWW, I have total FOMO (fear of missing out!)

Poppy is very happy for me to be home after last week. She barely leaves my side, where before it seemed she would wander off to find a warm sunny place to sleep (if there was sun) after breakfast. She does love this little off-the-floor cat bed and as you will have seen, loves lurking right behind my desk chair, till I get out the brush. Then she is all preening and mewling and happy, and then back to sleep in an instant.

I also have to add my current purchase. While I was in the hospital, The Hubster took Darling Daughter to a flea market in Salisbury. A stall that was not opening till Saturday had TWO typewriters and he gave them my number. Someone actually called and we talked thru it. We went to collect one on Saturday (the first day with tolerable headache) and the ribbon was dry as a bone but all the keys worked. It was the cheaper one, so RESULT! Also a common brand (Smith Corona) so I thought I might be able to find a replacement ribbon. WELL, Amazon reviews were full of complaints saying did not fit, don’t buy so plan B was to try inking the ribbon with an archival ink re-inker. The Hubster, genius that he is, said why not just type with carbon paper! The result?

Excited to try multi-coloured carbon paper as well. There was another one there (I think it is called The Phoenix Emporium, in Salisbury) and if you call they will reserve it for collection. Just sayin’….

Happy WOYWW again!

WOYWW 773 – should be done…

Happy WOYWW! You may see me in a day or so but it may not happen today. My “desk” will be a table in the infusion suite as I complete my course of IVIG. Fingers crossed I will soon be feeling stronger. To ANY degree will be much better than how I have been. Fingers crossed. Certainly a worry end of last week when my back went and I feared I might miss out on the treatment! Lucky I had a few scheduled posts. Phew.

I will carry on with my pages, and this is AJ – page 8 in my a-page-a-day in rotation in my five partially filled art journals. I might be down to only two sides in my original brown-paper bag journal but the rest of them have loads of pages left, I’ll maybe do a re-cap after I complete that one and see where I am. I’d like to fill at least two during this process but we will see how it goes.

I guess this is kinda a desk shot LOL!

These are some border sheets that I made from my own scanned art. I have a couple of sheets I may share at some point and the one on top seemed perfect for a page in my Health journal.

I think the background is a roll-off underpaper sheet that I liked too much to rip up. I got a massive number-and-alpha-stencil set at Dollar Tree when we were in the USA and used that, with some neon pink and marks to bring it all into a cohesive whole.

I snipped this little phrase from a non-food related article in the Waitrose magazine a couple of years ago and have been saving it ever since. It is true and probably worth remembering.

Poppy, the little traitor, decided to spend a recent knitting session contentedly purring on my bestest mate’s lap, severely hampering her ability to knit!

The picture of contentment.

Happy desk-hop day! Forgive me if I end up too headachy and wiped out to get round till the weekend…

WOYWW 772 – still art journals

Happy WOYWW! Another blood test today. Always fun…

I am still working away on my not-full art journals, each one of the five in a week. I’ll share my desk, which has the stuff out for tomorrow’s page, and the page I did yesterday – I am always a day behind!

Yikes! And sadly my side desk is just as bad. Cast your mind back to last week then shade your eyes!

Yesterdays page (#3) was in a small journal filled with good quality watercolour paper. WHY did I not do a bit of actual watercolour in it? I should rectify that, but this page had a lot of paint already on it, and I am trying to work on those first. Just a bit of stenciling and some extra ink-swipes

then a bit of text cut from some printed quotes, but not any of the actual quotes! A bit like found poetry but not quite

Still a little chaotic, but even so I like it well enough. It could have sat comfortably in my health journal but hey ho…

I thought it was quite interesting, the slightly later shots of my little Pop-star after the effects of the catnip wore off. I didn’t realize it lasted such a short bit of time. Doesn’t she seem disinterested, compared to her blissed out state in last week’s photos?

Hopefully some shots outdoors soon. Maybe we’ll have a go with the leash! “Walking” a cat seems like a crazy idea, but I could of friends have mentioned their cat’s love it so… She is due her vax and an annual check up too. Hopefully she won’t hiss at me when she sees the carrier come out.

Have a lovely desk hop!

WOYWW 771 – tidy for a change

Happy WOYWW! Less so for me, as last week’s blood test was not all I hoped it would be. As I mentioned on Monday, my CK was up a total of 1200 points since mid-January and as normal total is 60-200, no matter how ya slice it, it is not good. Ugh. Next test is NEXT week’s WOYWW.

My desk is quite tidy, as I have been photographing my various Art Journals. Yesterday I focused on the totally filled ones, so that stack there is the many, but not an overwhelming number of blank pages. You will see more on them tomorrow.

My side desk is also a bit tidy, which makes a change.

You can see the teeny journal from Monday in the plastic tub and the recipe-card one on the top of that tub. Oh, and my Dear Son and his Pretty Girl found a couple of real, original ledgers at a market in Bath and gave them to me! They are different to the US ones I’ve seen but very wonderful in themselves. GREAT collage fodder for sure.

Of course the slightly warmer (but not actually WARM) weather means we have been able to pop open the window for short bits so my Poppy-girl can meander out. I also dragged out the catnip spray and sprayed a bit on her cat tree scratching post. She seemed to enjoy it LOL!

What a silly kitty!

That’s it for now. Happy WOYWW!

WOYWW 770 – chaos again

Happy WOYWW. I’ve been doing pretty well on my visits – not that I want to curse it – but I do have to pop to the Drs. for a blood test today and perhaps knitting, not sure as I type. I do know it is for sure The Hubster’s birthday so some cooking to be done and celebrating. No surprise with everything going on, my desk is again in a bit of a state.

I have the pouch journal open, ready to work in, and if I swivel the camera to the side, my not often captured desk is also in a bit of a state.

A mix of fabric (considering a quite ancient journal project, which may come to nothing in the end) and some digital prints or real artwork. I am not sure if I will actually make a page in that journal or not. I do want to at least begin working in the recipe-card loose sheet journal so we’ll see.

A couple of random Poppy photos. She loves lurking in warm spots, but seems to really hate the pattern on the heated blanket. It’s a bit busy and while she will sometimes lay on a lap when it is turned to the plain side, she avoids even walking over it on the patterned side. She loves a lap but still craves the outdoors, even on super cold days. Neither of us can wait for Spring. Maybe one day she will actually turn to the camera instead of away from it – silly kitty!