WOYWW 655 - wishing you a Merry Christmas!

 Welcome back to my blog for another edition of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday, which is hosted by the lovely Julia.

Here is my desk in all its chaotic nature this morning featuring small stocking presents, a couple of presents for friends, my bullet journal, stickers and pens, a to do list and a cup of tea. 

No crafting this week really other than keeping my bullet journal up to date (my other journal has been sadly neglected) and wrapping presents.  Instead I have been working in the kitchen and starting to get things back into cupboards etc.  It is looking much more inhabitable (still needs painting and a nice floor but that will come in the new year) and I am thrilled with how it looks - so much better than what was there before (a pokey dark kitchen room and small dining room). Even my men folk agree it is an improvement!

I have had some spectacular swims this week, both in glorious sunshine and in the mist - this is the same location on two different days - isn't it stunning!

I will leave you with a photo of Alex standing next to one of the decorations in Sheffield to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

With love & God Bless,

Caro

xxx

WOYWW 654

 Hello and welcome back to my blog for another edition of What's on Your workdesk Wednesday, hosted by the lovely Julia.  I'm sorry I was missing last week, but life caught up with me and there was simply no time for blogging or crafting.

This is my desk this morning before tidying it for work.  I am working partly at home and partly in the medical school and today is a working from home day.  I have my trusty mug of tea and am now putting away all the other bits and pieces to allow me to have space to work properly. 

There has been no crafting this week, but I have kept my bullet journal going with a pop of colour and stickers at the end of each day giving me my little crafting fix.  These are the latest two days.

The real excitement has been the progress made on the kitchen... all the units are in, we just need the drawers to be built in the tower unit, and the worktops to be sealed (the oven in the middle of the floor is our old oven on casters which can be plugged in - it is how I have cooked for the past three weeks!).  The electrician is due to this afternoon to start the second fit electrics.  Fingers crossed we may have a working kitchen by the end of the week if it all goes according to plan. It has been 7 months since we knocked the wall down so has been a long drawn out process. Paint and flooring still needed but just having it working and being able to put things away in cupboards and put up our table again will be truly wonderful.

I couldn't leave without telling you about swimming - the weather, work and the house have prevented me from doing as much as I would like but I have managed a few dusk swims which have helped to keep me sane.

And finally, our lovely Julia, not wanting me to miss out on decorating for Christmas due to the chaos at home, very kindly sent me this gorgeous little tree which came with all its trimmings and is small enough for me to move around as needs be.  So kind and such a blessing.

Take care and stay safe,

With love & God Bless,
Caro

xxx

P.S. I thought this picture of Alex dressed up as John the Baptist for our church service recently would make you smile!  He certainly made the congregation laugh - the poor boy gets roped in a lot when I lead services... he doesn't seem to mind though.

WOYWW 652

 Hello and welcome back to my blog for another edition of what's on your workdesk Wednesday hosted by the lovely Julia...

Truth to tell my desk is pretty empty as I am doing online student interviews for medical school today so need the peace and quiet of working at home.  You can see my laptop, my ipad and my mouse and that's it - Tim is currently making me a mug of tea to have before the interviews start.

There has been very little crafting this week as there has been wall paper stripping, repairing of plaster and other DIY related things... I did manage to write our Christmas letter which I am currently printing out to include with our cards.

Storm Arwen brought with it several inches of snow - Alex was camping with Explorers as part of his DofE training weekend and ended up with the tent collapsed almost on top of him...needless to say he retreated to the scout hut the following night. 

I had my first snow swim of the year and continued with my challenge of no neoprene although I may have to put gloves and socks on if it gets much colder as the fingers and toes started to get rather painful!  It was beautiful and wonderful though.

That's all from me for now.  I will leave you with a photo of Alex wearing the John the Baptist outfit ready for Sunday's Toy service which I am leading.  Alex has kindly agreed to wear it on the day and we hope it will make people laugh.

Take care and stay safe everyone,

With love & God Bless,
Caro

xxx

WOYWW 651

 Hello and welcome back to my blog for another edition of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday hosted by the lovely Julia. Firstly an apology that clearing up after builders and a tonne of marking (300 scripts) prevented me from commenting on many posts last week, I hope to do better this week.  The good news is we finally have a kitchen floor, and the builders have started plastering the room - we hope they will have finished by the end of the week!  Anyway, I digress - you are here to see my desk...

My desk this week is a hive of Christmas card making activity.  I have finally started!  I even broke out the embossing powder for the first time in years.  On my desk is my trusty mug of tea, cards in progress including embossing powder, stamps, gold peel offs and heat gun.

I have made three designs of card this year, all of which are clean and simple. The penguin is painted with water colours, the others are stamped.  I think I nearly have enough now which is a relief.

Despite the marking and builders I have managed to get out for a few swims. I love the plunge pool as you know, and this week I had the most fabulous sunset swim in a much needed break from marking. That's all from me for now... trying to keep it short and sweet!

Take care and stay safe,

With love & God Bless,
Caro

xxx

WOYWW 650

 Hello and welcome back to my blog for another edition of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday hosted by the lovely Julia.

This is my desk as it was yesterday evening as I was catching up on my diary. My laptop is taking up much of my desk and you can see my transfer stickers, my diary, my mug of tea etc.

These are the latest two pages so I am nicely up to date.

This week has been busy as I was preaching at our Remembrance Day service on Sunday to a completely packed congregation including our uniformed groups and children's' choir. Always a challenge to make things accessible to all but a challenge I enjoyed. This stunning display is outside church and is made from plastic bottles by a member of our congregation - amazing, isn't it?!

We still don't have a kitchen floor down which is making life challenging but I have been assured that we will have one tomorrow - we have completed all the insulation which makes it more likely! I did as much as I could manage and then the builders finished off today.

It wouldn't be me without a mention of swimming and I have had some lovely swims this week both in the local plunge pool and a lake up the road from me. The temperatures are around 9oC at the moment so not too bad!  That's all from me for now, I hope you are all keeping well.  Take care and stay safe,

With love & God Bless,
Caro

xxx

WOYWW 649

 Another week has flown by and it is time to show my desk again for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday, hosted by the lovely Julia.

This is my desk as it was at 10pm last night when I was working in my journals.  I am often asked how I keep my journals up to date and the answer to that is by having 30 minutes set aside at the end of the day to fill in the days events and to write my to do list for tomorrow.  On my desk you can see an empty cup of tea (even I don't drink tea this late), my three journals (the one that isn't open is my prayer and gratitude journal - a journal where I write my prayers of thanks and requests for family and friends and things coming up in life), a couple of pens, a to do list on a blue pad, and my little box of stickers being used for this month.

My only crafting this week was a fun evening with a Girls night out, a group of ladies from church and our local area who get together once a month. This month we were hand sewing Christmas decorations.  As I have often said, I am rubbish at sewing, usually end up with the thread in a tangle and generally get frustrated so I was quite impressed that I had success with this!  Mine is the tree with the gold ric rac on it.

The reason there has been little time for crafting is that Tim and I have been trying to sort out pipe insulation under our kitchen floor so that we avoid the risk of freezing pipes.  This has involved me crawling under the floor to much hilarity (and subsequent stiffness) - it might look like a good fit, but there is a small wall under my thighs that left some interesting bruises, and I nearly got my shoulders stuck trying to insulate the pipe in question!

My swimming challenges are off to a good start... I have swum 5 times so far this month, not wearing neoprene at all, and the temperature is now down to 8.5 degrees in some locations. It is harder to swim during the week, due to the shorter days but I am hopeful I will be able to complete my challenges!

I will leave you with this photo of the three of us celebrating Tim's birthday at the weekend.

Take care and stay safe,

With love & God Bless,

Caro

xxx

WOYWW 648 (possibly!)

 Hello, and welcome back to my blog for another edition of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.  Apologies for missing last week, but I was down in Somerset with my family to see Mum (a few photos later). Anyway, you are here to see my desk... 

A somewhat busy offering this morning (for me anyway) consisting of a mug of tea, my various journals (bullet journal, main mini diary journal) and a tray of stickers sat on top of various other notebooks.  At the front is my mini book with an on going to do list. 

These are a few of my latest journal pages... one is a record of my swims for the various winter challenges I have entered.  This year I have entered the Polar bear silver challenge (swimming 250m twice a month outdoors in only a swimming costume, no neoprene) which is probably going to be the most difficult one.  Last winter I swam using neoprene socks and gloves and a woolly hat which was fine.  The feet and fingers may find lack of neoprene too difficult but I wanted to set myself a new challenge this year. The Antarctic Penguin challenge is to swim 3000 metres each month, but I can use my previous outfit (gloves, socks, hat) so I am more confident of achieving that.

Yesterday's first swim of the challenges. I thought I would finish with a couple of photos from Somerset - Mum's garden looks stunning at anytime of year... photo overload warning!

That's all from me for now. Take care, and stay safe,

With love & God bless,

Caro

xxx