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

WOYWW 536

Welcome back to my blog and another edition of What's on your Workdesk Wednesday! Don't know what I am talking about?  Check out Julia's blog for all the details.

Here is my desk as it stands on Wednesday morning, all neat and tidy with a mug of tea on the go.  You can see to the left my art journal, and my kindle, and hiding behind my mug, my paint water glass (empty) which is proof that I have been crafting since last week! As I said before I am trying to get into the habit of clearing my desk after every crafting session - partly because I use my desk for working from home occasionally and need space for my laptop

Here is proof that I make as much mess as anyone when actually crafting! Here i was working on a journal page - paint, stencils, inks, pads, peel offs, transfers, stamps and the inevitable cup of tea all in evidence.

This is the finished page in my journal - a page commemorating my beloved Gran and incorporating some of her loves, music, books, flowers and her favourite Bible Quote.

For those of you who commented on my blog early last week and missed the news, Gran passed away in the early hours of Wednesday morning. She is now at peace in Heaven (probably having a party with Grandad, Dad and the angels) and we all miss her horribly. I just want to thank you for all your prayers for her over the past few months.  We are currently trying to plan the funeral and the tribute.  I am full of a very heavy, fluey cold, so prayers that I improve before next week would be gratefully received.  
Lots of love and God Bless,
Caro
xxx

WOYWW 535 - back to school

Another Wednesday so time to show you my desk as part of Julia's wonderful What's on your Workdesk Wednesday phenomenon!

My desk is still looking pretty tidy because I am trying to get into the habit of tidying after every crafting session.  To the right of my desk you can still see the pile of books from last week, I have read Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding place - a truly wonderful, and faith inspiring book, and am about to start, with some trepidation, The Shack. The evidence that I have actually managed to craft at least a bit this week is sat on my desk - two new pocket pages as a double spread.

And what a double spread it is - it is the WOYWW 10 year crop! Such fun to look back at the photos and remember what a special day it was.

My cutting mat is missing from my desk as Alex has also been crafting on our dining room table - lots and lots of mess as he crafts on a MUCH bigger scale than me.  This time he was cutting up foam and wooden dowels to make an Orc Sword.

This is the finished object, complete with sharks teeth in the pommel as Orcs have a thing about teeth!  He was determined to finish it before going back to school and managed it just.

Following your questions last week, I want to tell you all that Alex had a wonderful time at Soul Survivor - he loved the worship, loved the atmosphere and really enjoyed being away with the teenagers from church. Apparently, they were all so lovely together - older ones looking after younger ones, and all being really supportive. He really was changed by the experience in such a positive way.  His shoes on the other hand, did not survive!!

We have had a lovely few days before back to school with more wild swimming,

and other adventures including a long promised indoor sky diving experience for Alex.

If it works, here is a brief video of him being taken right up in the tube - he loved it, describing the experience as 'Exhilarating!'. That is all from me for now.  Have a lovely week everyone,
With much love & God Bless
Caro
xxx
P.S. Prayers for my Gran would be most gratefully received - she is in a lot of pain and we are not sure what is causing it, but as a result she is on very large doses of morphine and not eating. If this is time for her to leave us, then we pray that this process doesn't drag out as it is horrid for her.
UPDATE: Gran passed away peacefully in her sleep on Wednesday night. Apparently having been curled up in a ball of pain and moaning despite high levels of morphine, she suddenly relaxed at 11pm and stretched out and went fast to sleep at peace and apparently pain free for the first time in a few days, Mum left her at that point to come home, and Gran never woke up, she died at some point during the night, apparently peacefully. 

WOYWW 534 - hot hot hot!

I know I say it often but this week has flown by and I still havent caught up with everything, not least because it is so hot and I'm not sleeping - peri-menopausal hot sweats plus hot nighttime temperatures are a BAD combination!  Anyway, enough moaning, the reason you are here is because it is Wednesday and time for WOYWW - see Julia's blog for the details.

My desk has seen a little action but not a lot due to the aforementioned catching up after the holiday (house cleaning and tidying, washing, work etc). You can see my mug of tea, the latest 'pocket page' which is my new version of scrapbooking (sorry about the glare - the details are below), various stickers, peel offs etc, a fineliner, and some books on the right. My aunt very kindly sent me a copy of the Shack and The Hiding place - books I have been meaning to read for years, so I will be reading them hopefully.

This is the latest pocket page from my 2019 book - my brother, and the cousins and I all having fun at the fair in May. 

It has been very quiet around here as Alex has been off with church to 'Soul Survivor' in the boiling heat, 

where he has been worshipping with over 8000 other teenagers! 

He gets back today, and I have barely heard from him, but I know that he will have had a wonderful time.  I can't wait to hear all about it.

In the meantime as a relief from the heat I have been wild swimming at my local plunge pool - it is so lovely to stand under this waterfall,

but I have missed my crazy swimming companion - going solo is not the same.  That is all from me for now so have a great week everyone,

With love & God Bless

Caro

xxx