WOYWW (but I don't know the number!)

 Hello and welcome back to my blog.  I have been missing for a little while in the realms of teenagers reluctantly revising for GCSEs but I actually managed a little crafting so thought I would share my desk as part of Julia's lovely blog hop - What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.

This is a close up because the rest is a mixture of pushed back chaos (games, revision notes, work etc).  I have joined in with the Index Card a Day challenge again this year.  For those not familiar with it, the aim is to do some form of crafting on an index card every day for the months of June and July. Mine are incredibly simple so far, messing with faces made using one line and then adding a touch of colour so you can see pens, and coloured pencils on my desk as well as the cards. I'm not sure that I will do many more using this theme, but we will see where inspiration takes me!

I realised that I haven't said thank you for all the lovely ATCs I received as part of the 14th anniversary swap - here are most of them. Thank you one and all they are lovely.

Alex is now more than half way through his GCSEs (just less than two weeks to go) and was particularly delighted to finish French on Monday (his least favourite subject - sorry Sarah!) so burnt his notes with great glee that evening. He is so bored and fed up that it is challenging to get him to still revise for the final exams. Neither of us can wait until lunchtime on 19 June!

I am still swimming but carefully due to my on going shoulder injury - here I am sporting my new prescription sunglasses! That's all from me for now. 

Take care and God Bless,

With love

Caro

xxx

WOYWW - 14th anniversary!

 Hello and welcome to my blog. I hope you are all well and enjoying the spring sunshine.  After a bit of a gap due to crazy life stuff involving no sitting room floor, preaching, GCSE revision support etc, I am back to post for the 14th Anniversary of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.  14 years since Julia started this friendliest of all blog hops and just under 13 years since I first joined it.

This is my desk as it is tonight.  Rather empty other than a pile of journals (prayer journal, daily journal, swim journal) and a couple of Bible study books. The black is a neoprene mat that covers the whole desk and hides all the cut and score marks of years of crafting, and provides a nice surface for gaming on.  Regular readers will notice that my mug of tea is missing - please don't worry - I took the photo when Tim had kindly taken my mug for a top up! 

I haven't had a huge amount of time for crafting as Alex (who is now 16 and over 6ft) started his GCSEs this week and I have been needed to test, encourage, nag and help with revision planning, marking etc. ADHD means that he finds self organisation and motivation hard so Mum to the rescue/nag. Hopefully it will all pay off.  I am certainly looking forward to our holiday when it is all over. 

Here are just a couple of my recent cards.  If anyone would like to swap an ATC with me for the anniversary please leave a note in the comments and I will post it out to you next week.

For those who are wondering - yes, I did swim through the winter again, although a shoulder injury has slowed me down somewhat and I am having physio to help me get back to it properly. It is just beautiful at this time of year sharing the water with the goslings.

That's all from me for now.  Have a very Happy Anniversary and let me know about swaps.

With love & God Bless,

Caro

xxx

WOYWW713

 Welcome back to my blog for another edition of What's on Your Workdesk, the world's friendliest blog hop, hosted by the lovely Julia.

This is my desk as it was late last night. Regular visitors will notice something missing from my desk - my mug of tea had been removed to be washed up (after 9pm is too late for tea!)!  All the rest of the paraphenalia I am currently using for my collages is spread around - sticker books, ink pads etc.

I am a little behind with the pages but only two to go and I will have completed my personal challenge/goal of doing 31 mini collages. I haven't yet decided what my next crafting challenge will be - I am away for quite a bit of February so the next one may be in March instead... we will see!

There isn't much else to report. Sadly I haven't swum for a little while as I cut my finger quite badly while stripping wall paper and have to wait for it to heal - nearly there so hopefully I can swim this week. I will leave you with this picture of 100+ young people (aged 11-18) worshipping in Sheffield Cathedral last weekend - Alex is in there somewhere! Take care of yourselves,

With love & God Bless,

Caro

xxx

WOYWW 712

 Hello and welcome to my blog for another edition of What's on your workdesk Wednesday.  The friendliest and most supportive blog hop in the world, hosted by the lovely Julia.  My apologies for not managing to visit everyone last week, life just ran away from me I'm afraid... I will try and do better this week.

Here is my desk as it was last night... a nearly empty mug of tea, my little collage book and the things I have been using to make the collages. A creative mess that was tidied up before bed as I am working from home today.

Here are my latest mini collages...in addition to playing in my bullet journal which I will show you at some point soon, this has been my creative outlet.

This weekend I had a wonderful play in the ice in one of my favourite locations... those of you on Facebook will have already seen this, but it made me SOOO happy!  That's all from me.

Take care of yourselves,

With love & God Bless

Caro

xxx

WOYWW711

 Hello and welcome back to my blog for another edition of what's on your workdesk Wednesday hosted by the lovely Julia.  I can't believe that another crazy busy week has flown past and there is a sprinkling of snow on the ground and sun in the sky.  I prefer this weather to the wind and rain we had most of last week.

Here is my desk as it was late last night. My laptop is buried near the back, you can see my bullet journal and my prayer journal at the front of my desk. The bullet journal just needs some photos printing to finish it off.

 

I have managed to almost keep up with my mini collage challenge so here are the latest ones.

 

I have also had a couple of lovely long walks across the moors nearby 

and of course a swim or two!  This was yesterday's swim - absolutely beautiful with snow on the hills in the distance and brilliant sunshine and blue skies (air temp -1, water temp ~5). That's all from me for now. I hope you all have a good week,

With love & God Bless,

Caro

x

WOYWW 710

 Hello and welcome back to my blog for this week's edition of What's on your Workdesk Wednesday, hosted by the lovely Julia. 

This is my desk as it was late last night - my mug of tea is almost run out, but not quite, and I had just finished another quick collage in my little notebook. Towards the back of my desk you can see two books which are on the Hebrew names of God - they are there because we are starting a series on this in our cafe style church and I am leading the first session on Sunday, so I am hoping they will inspire me!  The rest of the contents of my desk are usual crafting things that are for collaging. 

I am trying to do on average one quick collage (less than 10 minutes including planning) a day in January to kick start my creativity.... 

so far so good but we will see if I manage to keep it up!

I am still swimming now that I am well again, but the weather hasn't always been kind.  I did get two good swims at the weekend though, one in the sun which was lovely. 

As a special treat this week I got to go to the theatre to see a new musical "Standing at the skies edge" which is transferring to the West End in a fortnight. It is based on lives in a block of flats in Sheffield called, Park Hill Flats.  They were built in the 60s with a lot of hope, and then became really rough and run down in the 80s-90s and then saw a major refurbishment in the 2010s and the musical follows the stories of three different families from those three different eras - it was incredibly powerful and moving and I thoroughly enjoyed it, sobbed at the end and can't stop thinking about it - that is the sign of a good musical! That's all from me for now.  Take care of yourselves,

With love & God Bless,

Caro

xxx

WOYWW 709 (Happy New year!)

 Hello and welcome back to my blog for the New Year (2023) edition of what's on your workdesk Wednesday. Happy New Year to you all. Sorry, I have been missing so long from blogland, but life has been more chaotic than usual.  I hope to be able to join in again more regularly this year but time will tell!

Here is my desk as it was early this morning - I am trying to be a little more creative this year and actually use some of my Christmas presents (new stickers, stamps and A6 books to craft in) so here I am making a 5 minute collage.  In the process everything I may possibly need is scattered across my desk!

This is a close up of the collage.  Simple but effective.  I love to sing and go to the theatre so this is a reminder to me to do more of what I love this year.

That's all from me today, keeping it short and simple.  I will leave you with a daft photo of the three of us taking at Christmas to say Happy New Year to you all, and I am wishing you all happiness, fun, laughter and good health this year.

With love & God Bless,

Caro