WOYWW 473

Well I had a lovely birthday yesterday, even if it started at work... and now it's time for WOYWW

 I left the pile of early post on my workspace to wake to on Tuesday morning.

I had intended to keep it till after work  to open

but woke early and by 6 had opened the lot.


crafty presents from Lin Lesley and Emma, love you girls!

some very beautiful cards too..

 and some gifts from work too...

plus some beautiful flowers which I seem not to have photographed on the camera...

 some of my gorgeous handmade cards

sorry the photos aren't better, the light is so bright I was really struggling.

 yay! found where google stores my backed up
phone photos...





Work may have been interrupted on Tuesday afternoon for a piece of cake (Colin the Caterpillar, but no photos exist)
and er....

 prosecco...


obviously I didn't drink all of both bottles...

you do believe me don't you!









because of the heat, Monica (my boss) decided it was too hot to keep working so some of us decamped to her garden... for ....err...  more drinks...

 it was lovely sitting in the shade of the house under a huge parasol...

 Lisa (a friend of the company) and Natasha

 James and Monica soaking up the rays

"George"  - I love him!

and Kirsty's puppy Coco played shadow selfies with me!


All in all, a fabulous birthday...

Happy WOYWW!

WOYWW 472

Well I think it's 472... there was a bit of confusion at Head Desker's last week... anyway link this week's desk here   Link?  What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday.... I'll show you mine if you.....

Recently I had the chance to buy a journal kit from France Papillon - it came in super quick time - based on her Journal on Monday videos she does for Facebook/YouTube  - I will keep it nice somewhere until I pluck up the courage to use it! 

the little airmail envelope (which I'll be saving to use on a project, obviously!) contains the needle and some thread to fix the pages together.. 

I've had a somewhat tricky birthday card to make for one of my cousin's, who's birthday is next Monday, the day before mine; she's been going through a tough time mentally recently.
There is no chance of her seeing this so I can share what I came up with..

Wasn't appropriate to use a "happy" birthday sentiment; luckily my friend Lesley suggested this alternative (could I find one?  no,  but I did unearth a gorgeous alphabet set I'd forgotten about!) (Penny Black if you're interested; probably long discontinued)
Can't quite believe that next Tuesday I'll be entering the last year of my 50's.... where did that time go??? 

Anyway, I promised you Kew photos from last Saturday - only took 500 this time... so if you have a while (ahem) there are some on the post here  

WOYWW 471 - not a lot..

Well, yet again, it's Wednesday... time for WOYWW  again! 
I've not been doing much lately, desks come and go and there is very little new crafting...
I am trying to keep up with the Facebook group challenge with France Papillon... week 24 nearly half way through the year; nearly half way through June - flip!! 

 I am determined to keep going, though

this week's prompt is "what is holding you back"

I find it hard to interpret some of the prompts, I'd much rather be told to use blue or green or die cuts or something but it does make you think a bit...









thought you might like a bit of a close up too, I haven't been doing that for you with the ALAD/ASAW challenges

trying to get lots of texture on this week's spread.

we've had some nice skies the last few days - this was Monday night, but I've not been taking them on the camera and can't transfer them from the phone easily; but I took this one to see how different the colour is on phone to camera - much more realistic on the camera!


I missed the one tonight (writing this Tuesday as always)



Will be heading back to Kew on Saturday - I miss the weekends I don't go, but don't miss the very early waking to get there for 8, so last week was a nice treat! 
Have a great day! 

WOYWW 470

Wednesday again!  time for another round of desk sharing.. it's WOYWW time .
I have an apology to make to Jo and Annie because I posted their atcs to Jo's old address... she assures me they will get forwarded eventually!  I really hope so..and have updated my address book!  What a complete numpty... 

I was surprised and delighted to receive another atc during the week, from Christine (Bishopsmate)

 isn't it wonderful?!

It's sitting on my latest ALAD spread for France Papillon's challenge (A Layer A Day)  which this week is "practice" 
I haven't progressed it because I can't decide what I'm practicing!

this is last week's spread.

"Beautiful Memory"

flowers... colour....

could only be one place really!






Talking of which, my last visit (resulting in another 440 photos...) can be seen here  
You - and my feet - and the camera  - get a break this weekend as I have a hair appointment.
Have a great week and happy desking! 

WOYWW 469 -the post that nearly didn't happen

Happy WOYWW - the week after the 9th anniversary - and I nearly missed it
We had horrendous rain and thunderstorms yesterday and when I got home from work I found - no tv, no phone (landline) and worst of all, no internet!

Luckily however it has been restored in time to join in - but as it's late and I should be in bed (I got up for a w....  (it's an age thing) and had to check the status... ) er sorry, as it's late, and I don't have anything else ready I am just going to share the gorgeous atcs I've received = thank goodness I photographed them before work yesterday and I could still download them! 

l-r   Cindy (together with card),  Shaz (when i picked the atcs up to photograph, a second one fell off the back, two must have got stuck together!)

bottom - another cute card  - from Kim,  and from Julia our intrepid leader

beautiful stitched atcs from Annie and Jo together with a lovely poem, Margaret again with a card,  and Jan, lovely LLJ.

I love Jan that after all this time of knowing you, you still sign your atcs Jan (LLJ) in case we don't know!!

Ladies, thank you all - you are all very talented.
These will go with my previous years and create more happy memories.


In case you didn't see them, last Saturday, bank holiday weekend, saw me at Kew (no, really?!!) and some spectacular performances were seen, not only by the plants - click here if you're interested)

WOYWW 468 - happy birthday to us!

So it's here... the 9th anniversary of this lovely Wednesday blog-hop fun.  I am sure Julia never imagined in a month of Sundays (or Wednesdays, I guess I should say) that her innocent question "what's on your Workdesk? Wednesday" would last so long...
over the years numbers have climbed and dropped, but we have made friends both virtually and in reality. 

So, Julia, a big big thank you for creating this phenomenon that is WOYWW?  and here's to the next year!
I have posted my atcs ahead of today, to those I agreed swaps with, so have just the one for my official swap partner (although there is always a chance that she will be a recipient already! we'll just have to wait and see when the link goes up!)
I am dithering about whether to show the atcs or not... but I don't have anything else to share today, so here they are!

 in bits! 
they all came from a tissue masterboard background which were then stuck onto atc sized card stock.










and finished!  I have no idea how I managed to take such a bad photograph....but it's the only one I have of all of them together. 










but luckily I checked before I posted them (although not before I'd sealed the envelopes)
and took some close ups

this is the most realistic view of the colour

while this must have been taken in artificial light,I think.



I used different flowers so that some of them were slightly flatter for easier posting..

the shimmer is glass bead gel and the flowers were spritzed with Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays



so, friends and co-deskers -  thank you for another year of enabling and encouragement.  Here's to year 10.  Let's go see what else is on people's desks today.   

WOYWW 467

I am writing this early as I have a bit of spare time on Tuesday morning before going to a (routine) mammogram appointment (lovely, not, but necessary)  and my floor space won't change a lot before it's time to share it for WOYWW....

so last week I hadn't done anything for atcs for the anniversary swap next week, but that has all changed...

 ha ha!! not sharing yet!!

However, I have 8, so one for my swap partner, one for Julia, one for Jan, one for Annie and Jo as they have already offered to swap and sent me some last year when I didn't make spares (spot a theme here?!)  and that leaves 3 extras...

I have new goodies too....   I was watching a You Tube video a couple of weeks ago one Sunday morning, as I tend to, in bed... and don't ask me who, but I saw this fabulous Prima pad called Santorini which then just fell into my basket...


and a couple of days later I also finally checked out of my Amazon basket, the Neocolour IIs which also came super quick

I've had a quick play and so far am very impressed.
Happy week before the anniverary WOYWW... see you at Julia's!
I won't be going to Kew this weekend because I shall be glued to the TV for the Royal Wedding but if you need a fix here are last week's pics...  I took nearly 500 last week - it's getting hard to stop!   ( I know several of you saw them when I linked it on FB )

*  edit.   the mammogram went well, just need to wait for the results now... not expecting to get bad news as I've not noticed anything, but ....