WOYWW 551 - Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas to everyone who is part of the What's on your Workdesk gang (and anyone else who may be reading!).

Well this week turned out to be even more challenging than last week - I was diagnosed with pneumonia and Strep Throat and have been living on soup and not a lot else as I can't swallow anything solid. I also can't breathe properly, especially if I lie down so sleep has been in short supply. I am now on antibiotics and feeling a little better (yesterday was the first day I didnt doze off during the day) and am hoping to spend the day with my in laws. This is not actually my desk, but the dining room table - they are napkins folded into flowers and filled with party poppers and chocolates ready for the Christmas Dinner table.

Alex and I celebrated Christmas at the Christingle Service, which was lovely and atmospheric with a packed church, sadly my only service of the season.

So that's it from me today, short and sweet and I will leave you with these daft photos of the three of us to say Merry Christmas to you all.
With love and God Bless,
Caro
xxx

WOYWW 550 - the pre-Christmas edition!

Another Wednesday in December and another glimpse of my desk courtesy of Julia (the creator of the What's on your Workdesk Wednesday phenomenon).

To be honest this week has been a bit of a write off - Alex was ill with a temperature of 103 for three days and then gave the lurgy to me!  Hence the box of tissues on my desk. I have been ill for five days so far and although I am slowly improving, I am still not well and am beginning to get fed up.  It is a proper flu and I have felt truly revolting. Anyway, enough moaning, here is my desk - I have managed to fill the lovely little stockings that Jan made with little chocolates and a candy cane ready to decorate the Christmas table.  You can also see my little diary, my mug of tea and my box of tissues (This is my fifth box of tissues since Friday - someone turn the tap in my nose off please!).

That is all from me for now... not up to writing any more. I hope all your Christmas preparations go well and that you all have a wonderful Christmas Day next week. Stay well and warm!
With love & God Bless,
Caro
xxx

WOYWW 549

Welcome back to my blog for the Wednesday blog hop around our crafting community courtesy of Julia (her blog has all the details)

My desk is looking a little more chaotic than normal as I have been working on getting my bullet journal/daily journal up to date and adding penwork and stickers - just photos needed to finish it off.  On my desk you can see little stickers (lots), some Christmas papers and stickers, my journal, a mug of tea and various pens and my little pencil case. There is also a Christmas card at the back from a crafting workshop I attended with my Girls Night Out group from church last week.

14 of us met in the church lounge to create one card from a pack that Sue had put together - needless to say we all went our own way with some following the design exactly, but others doing something different

This is the picture of all the cards together (the one on top right is the original design)

I thought that I would also share the other crafting desk in our house - this is Alex's desk.  At the moment, he is having fun drawing cartoons, using some of Gran's colouring pencils which is lovely. He tends to draw in the last hour before bedtime as a way of calming down.

Finally, Alex and I popped into town at the weekend to sample the delights of the Christmas Market (Bratwurst and donuts) and here is a photo of Alex in front of Santa!
Have a wonderful week everyone,
With love & God Bless,
Caro
xxx

WOYWW 548

Welcome to my blog!  I am back again after a crazy week last week involving several nights of working late meant I failed to post.  As usual I am joining in with What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday - check out Julia's blog for details.

Here is my desk - all clean and tidy because I have been doing my crafting electronically.  Each year I make a calendar for my Mum containing photos of all the family from the past year, so I have been sat at my computer collecting all the photos together. On my desk are a few new decorative items from our trip to The Harry Potter Experience at Warner Brothers Studios last Thursday - a miniature cuddly Hedwig, a Hogwarts Express and a Knight bus!  Finally, it wouldn't be my desk without a mug of tea, which is currently being drunk.

The other reason there hasn't been a huge amount of crafting is because I was preaching at the all age advent service on Sunday and there was a certain amount of preparation involved.  The talk was split into two, with the second part involving children opening some presents which needed preparing!  This was my first all age service/preach and there were definitely some lessons learnt - the most prominent of which was 'Do not help to lead a vigorous action song immediately before you have to talk'!  I was so hot, sweaty and out of breath that it was hard to talk - the first part came out in gasps!  (Mental note to self : Get Fitter!).  That said, I did get good feedback overall so it wasn't all bad.

I am going to finish with a few of the photos of Alex and me from Hogwarts in the Snow last week - it really got us in the Christmassy mood.

Have a wonderful week everyone,
With love & God Bless,
Caro
xxxx

WOYWW 546

Firstly a massive apology.  I failed dismally to comment on many blogs last week - life got severely in the way with a bit of a family crisis, but hopefully all is back on an even keel now and I will be able to comment this week.  If you want to know more about the WOYWW (What's on your Workdesk) phenomenon pop along to Julia's for all the news and how to join in.

Here is my desk as it was last night (I am on a long and boring team training day today so this is a scheduled post).  The desk is pretty empty apart from a few bits that need to be put away (cutting dies, stamp and pen), my mug of tea, and a lawn fawn stamp shammy for cleaning my stamps.  Neet demonstrated one at the 10th anniversary crop and I have finally got around to getting my own.  Can't wait to try it as my stamps are in a bit of a mess!

I also had some happy mail this week from Jan (10 little stockings) and Jo (3 knitted chocolate orange covers), but am trying to keep them hidden from the family as a surprise for Christmas!

My desk has seen some action this week as I had to make a 100th birthday card for my Great Aunt - she can hardly see now so it had to be a clean and simple and bold design.

I took a day off work to see her on her actual birthday (19 Nov) - here she is with her card from the Queen.

And admiring her cake (as Mum described it to her). 

We also got her to pretend to cut it (like a wedding cake). It was lovely to see her as it has been a while, she tires easily but was on good form.
That's all from me for now folks. I hope you have a lovely week.  Happy WOYWW.
With love & God Bless,
Caro
x

WOYWW 545

Another week, another Wednesday and time for another desk hop courtesy of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday and Julia.

This is my desk, looking rather empty as this week I am helping my ADHD son try and learn how to revise for tests - trying to get him to concentrate is hard enough, no chance of getting him to sit still and do it!  Needless to say it is stretching both our patience.

On my desk you may have seen this - it is a paperweight that was designed by my Gran - she spent a lot of my childhood making bobbin lace including my Christening gown and wedding veil, and this is another of her pieces that will now live on my desk with pride.

I did do a little crafting on Sunday as part of rememberance day - the layout used neocolour water colour crayons, acrylics and Lavinia stamps.
That is all from me for now. I hope you all have a lovely week,
With love & God Bless,
Caro
xxx

WOYWW 544

It's Wednesday and so time for the most wonderful blog hop in the world! What am I talking about?  What's on your Workdesk Wednesday of course!  Check out head desker Julia's blog for all the details.

This is my desk as it was on Tuesday evening - somewhat chaotic as I was making Tim's birthday card so you can see repositionable tape, distress inks and oxides, stamps  and my trusty mug of tea.  There are even some Christmas stamps as I am thinking about what I may do for my cards this year - still not decided!

This is the finished card - the image of the stag is something that means a lot to him, so I hope he likes it.

I am sorry I was missing in action last week - it was half-term and we spent longer than originally anticipated down at my Mum's in Somerset as she needed help clearing out Gran's flat.  It was a heartbreaking task but in the process I have inherited some lovely crafting goodies including lots of paintbrushes and watercolour crayons (and a new kitchen bin and microwave!). My brother and his family were down so the boys had fun playing together and we went for some lovely walks.

Helped Mum pick the apples and pears

I took loads back with me - so fresh and yummy -

And played with JayJay who is not quite so tiny any more, but is still adorable.  That is all I have time for now. I am at work today and then out this evening so may not get the chance to comment until later in the week, but promise that I will do so!  I hope that you have a wonderful week.
With love and God Bless,
Caro
xxx

WOYWW542 (I think)

I am sorry I was missing in action last week but various aspects of my life caught up with me and it was Friday before I drew breath again!  Anyway, here I am for this edition of Whats on Your Workdesk, the friendliest blog hop in the world, hosted by the lovely Julia. I missed you all last week so am looking forward to catching up with your news.

Here is my desk this week (as it was last night), mug of tea nearly finished and a journal page in progress... still don't really know where I am going with this one but am having fun finding out!  There are some die cut butterflies made from gelliprint images, stamps of various sorts, pens etc.

By way of comparison this is what my desk looked like last week - mid sermon prep and assignment work pushed to one side. The only constant is the mug of tea! As you probably all know by now I work full-time as a University Lecturer (my subject is Cancer studies) but in my 'spare time' I am doing a school of ministry course as a precursor to potentially becoming a lay reader in the church of England.  As a result I get the opportunity to preach occasionally in my local church and I have a number of assignments to do throughout the year.  With both needing urgent work, this is why I was missing in action last week!
Anyway, sorry for the rather boring post this week.  I hope you all have a lovely week.
With love & God Bless,
Caro
xxx

WOYWW540

It is Wednesday and I am travelling to Bristol and back for work so this is a scheduled post for WOYWW - check out Julia's blog for all the details.

Here is my desk as it was yesterday playing with my new distress oxides and Carabelle stencils. You can also see a new art journal ready for playing in and the base of some Harry Potter figures in the background.

This is because my birthday was this week and I was given this lovely pile of goodies - a mixture of Harry Potter and crafting toys!

This is the card that I made with my first play using distress oxides, Carabelle stencils and Lavinia stamps.  I haven't tried distress oxides before so now need to spend time on YouTube looking at all the different ways you can use them -LOL!  I love the vibrancy of the colours.

My birthday was lovely and peaceful, a mixture of family time with the three of us, time to read, time to craft, some crazy golf and a meal out.  I missed my birthday chats with Gran and Dad, but other than that it was a perfect day. 

That is all from me for now as it has to be short and sweet - I am back from Bristol tonight so will try and comment on everyone's posts. In the meantime, Have a lovely week,
With love and God Bless,
Caro
xxx

WOYWW 539

Another week, another Wednesday and another hop around the crafting desks of the world courtesy of Julia. 

Here is my desk looking relatively neat and showing some evidence of crafting! This journaling book is almost complete, and this rather busy page was made using acrylics. I put the acrylic paints away before doing the more detailed doodling with the acrylic paint pens that you can see. There are fine posca pens and some much thicker cheap pens that work nicely.  To the left of my desk you can see a colouring card that I have started which was sent to me all the way from Australia by our very own Shaz in Oz (more later). At the back of the desk is a somewhat unusual item that we found tucked into my Gran's top drawer - something called a promise box.

This is a closer image of the box...

and this is the inside of the box.  We don't know when Gran was given the box (Mum didn't even know she had it until I found it), but from the type face it appears to be from the 1940s so may have been when she officially joined the Methodist church or could have been something that Grandad gave her.  For those of you unfamiliar with these boxes the little scrolls of paper each have a Bible verse on them, something comforting, encouraging, or guiding, and the idea is that you read one each day and memorise them. You could do it personally or in a group. At a family gathering, meal time or worship time. The description says that the verses are “a careful selection of precious promises from the Word of God for Comfort, Cheer and Guidance of His own”. My Gran was a Methodist all her life, and her faith was really important to her so it was lovely to discover this aspect of her faith that I didn’t know about. From the edges of the scrolls she has clearly used it so that is really special.

Here is a close up of the journal page - just doodling for fun, but was lovely to do while it was chucking it down on Sunday and Alex was happily engaged in building a Lego castle.

This is another journal page completed using gelli plate images and then doodling in white.

Finally I have to say a massive thank you to Shaz from Oz who sent me this lovely card with these images for me to colour in - I admired the image so much on her blog that she kindly sent me some to play with. I have made a start on one of them, but only have the odd little bit of time here and there at the moment as it is the first week of teaching at Uni and I am dealing with all the new students and associated chaos! 
That is all from me for now.  Have a lovely week
With love & God Bless,
Caro
xxx

WOYWW 538

Another week and another Wednesday so time for another glorious blog hop round the crafting desks of the world courtesy of Julia!

I was missing in action last week because I was down in Somerset for my beloved Gran's funeral service.  It was a religious service at the Crematorium in Taunton, with a live organist, two good hymns (her favourite two). I read the Bible passage and the minister who took the service read the family's tribute which I wrote. The sun was shining and the crematorium was light and airy.  We included a few unusual pieces of music as well which were very Gran - the arrival of the Queen of Sheba because she and Mum used to play it as a duet, and one of the big choruses from Elgar's Dream of Gerontius (She loved this and sang it many times - as she put it "the theology is suspect but by golly its a good sing").  We gave her a good send off, but I miss her terribly as I spoke to her twice a week, every week for the past 20 years.  I miss being able to have those conversations with her.

Here is my desk this week, very tidy having had to clear enough space to write an assignment for my School of Ministry course (yesterday there were books everywhere as well as my laptop).  On the desk you can see a nearly empty mug of tea, Gran's order of service and some of her needlework.

 Gran was amazingly creative trying her hand at all sorts of different things over the years, but particularly needlework and lace.  She made the lace for both my Christening Gown and my wedding veil, and did a lot of embroidery, tapestry and cross stitches.  This is her handmade needlebook complete with some of her embroidery and I will treasure it, even though I am rubbish at sewing!

I have spent some time crafting, as well - learning to play with my Gelli plate - boy have I made a mess in the process, but it has been very therapeutic and great fun.

Here are some of my more successful pieces!

 And to finish I thought I would leave you with a couple of photos of  where I grew up.  Mum still lives in this house, which has 5 acres of land, and Alex loves being down there as he can run free in the garden with the dog.

 That's all from me for now. I hope you have a lovely week
With love & God Bless
Caro
xxx