WOYWW #185

Still nothing on the desk other than dust, and my new room is coming along nicely, so I shall post some pics in the next few days. My arm seems to be getting better, just more of a nuisance now.
  So as it's the last WOYWW before Christmas, I'm sending this Christmas greeting to all my WOYWW friends, old & new. Time to head over to our own Mother Christmas, Julia, at The Stamping Ground, and have a looksee at everyones desk. Hope you all have a woderful, peaceful and Happy Christmas, and maybe we'll all meet up again on Boxing Day, mince pie & glass of wine (or Baileys) in hand, to catch up with old friends.

WOYWW #184

First things first,I had my gorgeous Angel from Jozarty, as part of her Angel swap. I had it a couple of weeks ago, but waited to post till most had arrived with their new owners. Here she is, on my mini easel stand at the moment- still trying to hide the dust layers,lol.
Second, thanks to everyone for their good wishes- and the lefthanded typing is coming along famously- I can now use all five digits :).
 I am also somewhat surprised to discover just how many body parts want to get in on the action whenever you sneeze/cough/laugh!
 Here we are then, at the weekly snoop we all know & love, thanks as always to our own Julia of The Stamping ground. Computer based stuff is about all I can do at the moment, so I am using the time to tidy up all my folders (now I know why I kept putting it off), watch some Stampscapes vids, a few other tutorials and stuff, been poking around galleries-getting all sorts of great ideas and I can't do any of them!
I also can't do anything on my new room, so Beloved Husband is having to do it all, as well as pretty much wait on me hand & foot, and go to work. So I hope he knows just how much I appreciate him, even though  I am not exactly the worlds best patient!

Here's what he's been up to so far:
 After all the walls & ceiling were plastered (not by hubby), a few days wait for them to dry out,and then the painting started.

 This has to be a first for me, White walls,lol.

That has all dried now, and next job was laminating the floor, and today he has started putting the new doorframe & skirting boards in.

If all goes according to plan, that will get varnished on Friday and the wallpaper put on the chimney breast wall over the weekend.

 So in theory, he will be putting the furniture together early next week.

Well, thats my round up for the week, it'll be a few more yet before there is anything arty or crafty appearing on my desk, unfortunately. Have a great week, hope you've all got your Christmas shopping finished, I can't believe how close it is!

Odds & Ends

A few more boxes to help satisfy my storage fetish!












Some more bits & pieces from Riverside beads- they have so much must-have stuff for embellishments, and yes I know it's supposed to be for jewellery making!.

 I also got a pack of Lavinia Stamps ready made backgrounds to try out.

Some really cool mulberry type paper, which I thought would make some great rosette snowflakes with the Tim Holtz die.

And I forgot these stamps in the other post, all by Paper Artsy.

Some stamps from the NEC

Well as I can't actually do any crafting, I thought I would post up some more things I got seduced by at the Hobbycrafts Show at the NEC in November.
Some Tim stamps, I felt a need for some words for my card making, it is something I really don't have much of, and these were selling cheaper than usual, I suppose because he has new releases out.















These clear stamps are from Kaisercraft, and are really very cheap, but they print well.

I don't think I ever go to the NEC without buying some more stamps from Lavinia stamps!






I loved this stamp- from Cardio. Many of you will probably remember their Rubber Stamp Tapestry 'peg' stamps, well, now they do clear stamps too. This snow-globe just seemed to have so many possibilities, and not just for Christmas.

These were some of their samples, which they kindly let me photograph.

I love the stamps from Inkylicious- these birds & branches will be great for a few projects I (still) have in mind.

Birds are clearly a bit of a theme- I love the gothic look of the Raven stamp from Crafty Individuals, and I have seen some great cards done using the 'Birds on a Wire' stamp.

Last ones are from Dimension, they used to be called Dimension Fourth. The skull attracted me straight away ( no surprises there then), the guitar will have a number of uses, and they had a beautiful sample on display using the leaf flourish stamp.

The Tale of the Injured Shoulder continues....

Well here I am, freshly splinted! Got a phone call yesterday afternoon from the hospital, and as soon as they said who they were, I knew they'd found something on the x-rays. I didn't for one minute think they'd phoned to ask how i was :) .The Doc that phoned said they review all x-rays the next day,and was very apologetic that the Doctor who had seen me did not see that in fact I had chipped a bit off my shoulder blade!To make matters worse, I have chipped off the bit that the tendon attaches to, so I now have a splint to keep the arm in a suitable position for the piece of bone to reattach itself. I'm signed off work for 4 to 6 weeks, I have to go back in 4 weeks for an x-ray to see how its mending. On the plus side, at least the splint comes in black :)
  And my left handed typing is getting better, I can use up to four fingers at a time now, but I can't always guarantee that the letters are in the right order, or even the right ones, so there's a lot of proof reading going on :) Thanks to everyone for all your good wishes, I think there will be a lot of blog hopping and You tube video watching over the next few weeks,as I now can't do much at all. I also just made a really helpful discovery- if I put my mouse on the left instead of the right, life is so much easier.Doh! I think I should be very close to ambidextrous in 6 weeks time!

WOYWW #183

Good Morning to all WOYWWers, courtesy as always of the fantastic Julia at  The Stamping Ground.
    Just a pic of the room now fully plastered- and this morning I am really glad I am not in the same condition. I am also discovering that typing with one finger, left handed at that, is a very time consuming process! Due to an attack of stupid last night, I am sat here with my right arm in a sling. So here is the story:
 As you all know we are decorating what will be my new craft room. Well, last night I stopped what I was doing, made our lunch for work & cooked dinner. Put said dinner out & called Beloved Hubby for his, took my plate & mug of coffee into the front room, so we could sit & watch something while we ate. Didn't turn the light on first, as I intended to put my plate down on the stool, and go to the light switch. Completely forgot that there was a pack of 9ft long skirting board lay on the floor along the back of the one sofa, hadn't got the light on so didn't see it in the dark, and fell over it. Would have been a better landing had I not had my hands full and fell straight down, arms out in front of me, 'cos like an idiot I was STILL holding onto the plate & mug.Knew as soon as I landed that my right arm took the brunt of the fall, Hubby thought I had probably dislocated it. After an evening/night spent in A&E, and x-rays,because the first assessment nurse thought I had either dislocated my shoulder, or fractured the upper arm, it turns out I have sprained my shoulder/ possibly torn ligaments. I have some record breaking bruises,only to be expected, I'm the sort of person who bruises if you look at me hard,lol. Amazingly, the plate & mug came out unscathed, so I can vouch for the toughness of Ikea crockery, by the way. In fact the only thing broken is my attendance record at work- first time off sick in 10 years. So there is a bit of a picture shortage this week, I can only use my arm if I keep it right up close to my body, which sort of limits the options a bit.
 So I shall be getting round as many people as possible, but I apologise in advance for what will be very short comments, as I am not the worlds fastest typist at the best of times, and lefthanded, one finger- well, I'd probably only be a quarter of the way round by next week, lol.Its really annoying how you always manage to injure your main hand/arm- if it had been my left I landed on, I would be at work, and could carry on doing most things- although Hubby did have to help me get dressed this morning- I did comment to a friend  that its possibly the first time he's had to put a bra on me! Have a great Wednesday everyone.

Great night at The NIA

Had a fantastic night last night- with great friends at the NIA Birmingham, to see these guys:  Marilyn Manson & Rob Zombie. Awesome night, both were fantastic. Seen Manson before, he is always great, but the first time we have seen Rob Zombie. Well impressed!

 The pic above is us with Suzi, and this is  her hubby Nick, the couple we went with.

WOYWW #182

 This is my offering today- everywhere else is still too mucky to show you, lol. I ordered some die-cuts from e-bay, as I don't have the dies for these, and received a fab package, with not only the die cuts, but some lovely other bits & pieces too. I especially liked that she sent me the 'whole piece' of the die cut, so I have masks as well. So a huge thank you, and well deserved credit to Dawnbirdsong , who also put me a lovely personal note in with the goodies. Its so nice to be able to give someone such a big thumbs up for amazing customer service! She later sent me a great e-mail, and is more than willing to make up special packages, to customer orders,so if you need die-cuts, and don't have the dies, I highly recommend her.Its also a good way to try out die-cuts, to see if you would actually get your money's worth out of purchasing the die, I think.  A little more of the 'work in progress' that is to be my new craft room:
               Most of the old plaster & lath down;

All the old plaster & lath now gone, and the plasterer starts today putting up new plasterboard, and then plastering the ceiling & skimming the walls.All being well, should be putting down the laminate early next week, then paint ceiling (a few times) then the walls ( another few times), paper the chimney breast wall- I have a fab black sparkly paper that didn't get used in the bedroom in the end, then we can start putting the Ikea stuff together.Have a great Wednesday everyone, see you around the desks!

WOYWW #181

 I can't believe its Wednesday again- where do these weeks go? I really must start some Christmas shopping soon, I think. Welcome to this weeks Workdesk wander, courtesy of our charming hostess, Julia of The Stamping Ground.
                   This fridge magnet sums up what is on my workdesk this week, along with every other surface in the house- even poor old Ambrose if he lies still long enough, and being a cat, lying still is possibly what he does best. He definitely gets in enough practice to be World Class anyway.

 And why do I have such a dusty house, you ask? Apart from not doing any housework?
                                       



                                               The reason is here:
This is the ceiling.Well, part of it anyway. And yes, it is on the floor.






 This is where it used to be:

This is Beloved Hubbys current project, my new craft room. Which was my youngest son's bedroom, until he moved out. So the room is being redecorated,( for redecorated, read renovated!) and needs some plastering. Actually now it needs a LOT of plastering! Seriously though, that ceiling has been up for a hundred years plus, plaster on lath, and in places it seemed a bit loose. So its all coming down to be replaced with plasterboard.

This was just as he started. I did think that if he'd strapped the vacuum cleaner to his back, it would A) have made him look even more like a Ghostbuster, and B) meant he could have cleaned up as he went along. I didn't think it wise to voice that thought, though. And yes, Hublet, I can see you looking over your glasses at me as you read this, :)

 Been some interesting stuff  here, not least of all the old gas pipes in the wall from when the houses all had gas lamps,
and the Lead weights from when there were sash windows fitted were still inside the wall.






This is Hubby trying to hide the tide mark on his forehead from the goggles. My current room isn't blue, by the way, it has a fluorescent light in it, and I have to keep changing the settings on the camera between rooms! You can also see the old  bedspread pinned over the door to try (unsuccessfully, I might add) to stop the dust escaping.

I have been getting round to some Christmas cards as well, and here they are part way through.

The fronts, anyway, as they are to be easel cards.





Final round off, you remember I posted earlier in the year that we were re-doing our bedroom? had a new roof to the house, and our bedroom ceiling raised. Well, it finally got finished, apart from one or two little details, and this is what it was:

And this is what it looks like now:

  

Well, I shall schedule this post, and see if Mr Linky is up and awake before I go to work at 5.30( that is just such a stupid time to have to go out), and I will be back to visit this afternoon. Have a great Wednesday folks, see you later!

 Had this urge to write Catch you later, Dudes!then, (watched Bill & Ted again recently, lol.)

Hobbycrafts NEC,November 2012- a few bits & pieces.

First addition to this years stash, was another visit to the Riverside Beads stand- for a selection of their Steampunk style charms. Skulls, cogs, watches etc etc, they make great embellishments for tags & cards.Available in a few finishes too- brass, antiqued silver and bronze for instance.

Next stop was the Sweet Poppy Stencils stand. You may know that a lot of their stencils are  designed by Tracey Dutton of Lavinia Stamps- and many are larger versions of her rubber stamps.

I bought these three- I love the Butterfly Tree. Actually, I just thought I should have included a ruler in the picture so you know how big they are! Right, been and measured them, the cat stencil is 3 1/2" x 4 1/2", the two tree ones are just under 4 1/2", x 5 3/4".


The smashing people at the Sweet Poppy stencils stand kindly allowed me to take some photos of their samples- these are the images which sold me on the stencils I bought! The cat stencil is completed using Black glitter over the stencil paste, and the trees stencil has had Abalone leaf added.

This last picture shows just how different the same image can look, depending on how you choose to complete it:

                                                  One stencil, three different looks.

 Everyone on the stands that I asked if I could take pictures for later inspiration very kindly said yes, and I would like to say thanks to all of them, I really appreciated it. I will post some more pics of what I bought later in the week, and if I have any pics of the inspiration for my purchases, those as well.