WOYWW 616

Hello and welcome to my blog for another edition of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW) hosted by the lovely Julia.  I hope that you are all keeping well and enjoying the various signs of spring. 

I'm afraid my desk this week is very dull - it is first thing on Wednesday morning and all set up for a day of work!  My laptop, work note book, iPad (just in case of computer emergencies) and a large mug of fresh tea.  I have a day of thesis marking ahead of me so need the tea!

I have had very little time for crafting this week - I have prepared the photos for my next diary pages (just need to print them) and have done another CeeCee inspired painting in my little book as shown here.

I am still loving my swimming - this is an old reservoir in the middle of the moors and is so beautiful. Such a peaceful place to swim and feel close to God.

The contrast is this river plunge pool which is great for swimming against the current and standing under the waterfall allowing the stresses of the day to be washed away. I love them both for different reasons and they are keeping me sane in these crazy times.

There is not much more to report. I had my vaccine last week which I am delighted about and I am loving the signs of spring all around. It makes everything feel a little more hopeful. Do take care and stay safe everyone. 

With love & God Bless,
Caro

xxx

WOYWW 615

 Hello and welcome back to my blog for another edition of What’s on Your Workdesk courtesy of the lovely Julia. I was inspired by Jan’s post last week as you can see in the picture below and for a change I have spent some time this week doodling and watercolouring backgrounds.

This is why on my desk you can see my note book in which I am doodling, my water colours, pens, nearly empty tea and my iPad (I sometimes like to watch/listen to things on iplayer and/or Netflix while I craft)

Jan mentioned CeeCee creations last week and I was inspired to go and have a nosey on her YouTube channel. What a fabulous source of inspiration! I used an adaptation of one of her designs to make Mother’s day cards for my mum and mother-in-law.

I then found this notebook (an old one of Gran’s) and decided to doodle in it with watercolours both using my own ideas and basing them on CeeCee creations.  I am having fun with this! They are nice and gentle to do with no pressure to be precise…. Perfect for where I am right now. It isn’t water colour paper but as this is just for me it doesn’t really matter!

Alex went back to school this week and was delighted to see his friends and have proper lessons again.  It has been good for me too as I have had more time to crack on with my own work (and greater ability to concentrate), although the house does feel very quiet!

I have kept up with the swimming and the water temperature is gradually creeping up meaning I can finally start swimming a little further again. It was truly glorious in the park yesterday with brilliant sunshine. It’s hard to believe that this is in the middle of a big city isn’t it!

I have my vaccine tomorrow so fingers crossed that the side effects are not too bad.  Take care everyone, stay safe, and as ever, if there is anything I can do for anyone, do let me know.

With love & God Bless,

Caro

xxx

WOYWW 614 (I think!)

 Hello and welcome back to my blog. I hope you are all keeping safe and well.  I am sorry I have been missing in action these past two weeks, but we have had crazy building works here.  Back in October we discovered a spring/stream running under our house following torrential rain, and two weeks ago we realised that it was running into a pipe that was not fit for purpose - not only that but the pipe had a hole in it partway along and just terminated outside the front door without entering the drainage system. No wonder our entry way was soaking wet!  Well, this dodgy pipe has now been replaced with proper drains, proper joins and now connects into the drainage system.  We still have bare concrete in the entry way as we are not certain that this is the entire cause of the damp so are waiting for some really wet weather to see whether the concrete stays dry or not before putting a proper floor down.  The additional challenge to all of this is that we are also in the process of replacing our 40 year old air flow central heating system, causing chaos in every room!

Anyway, enough about building works and chaos, I am back for now and here is my desk as part of Julia's What's on Your Workdesk blog hop. I have had very little time for crafting as you can imagine, but in this picture (taken last night), I am in the process of getting my mini journal up to date.... I write the text every night, but the photos are printed out a little more sporadically.  Here I am sticking in the photos and using MU transfers to add additional decoration to the pages. My trusty mug of tea is there - almost empty now.

These are the pages I have completed recently - only two weeks behind now!

I have managed to get out swimming occasionally over the past few weeks. In total I swam 16 times in February, and 4 of those involved ice! The water is slowly warming now and is mostly just above 5 degrees. There is something so wonderful about immersing yourself in cold water and swimming out into the middle of a lake when there is no-one else around - it is so peaceful and refreshing for the soul. It helps me feel truly alive and close to God.

Alex has his first lateral flow test today and will be back in school from Monday which he cannot wait for. In contrast, I doubt I will be back in work properly before September, although I know I have at least one day in work to look forward to, setting up for the medical student's final exams at the end of March.

That's all from me for now. Take care and stay safe, and if there is anything I can do for anyone, do let me know.

With love & God bless,

Caro

xxx

WOYWW 611

 Welcome back to my blog for another edition of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday - courtesy of head desker, Julia.  This week we are remembering the lovely Shaz who passed away peacefully at the weekend after battling cancer for so long.  She was a truly wonderful person who's kindness and sense of fun touched so many, and we will all miss her immensely.

My desk this week is covered in a jigsaw (and my trusty mug of tea).  I do love a jigsaw but don't do them very often as in our little house there is no where to leave them up while I work on them (Alex is doing school work on the dining room table, our coffee table in the lounge is too small, and I have to work on this desk during the day). I was delighted to discover that the white Ikea picture frame was just the right size to fit this 1000 piece jigsaw on so I can work on it on my desk, then move it onto the bed while I work during the day.  I am enjoying the challenge for a change.

I haven't done much crafting this week - other than make this Valentine's day card for Tim.  The Bible verse was actually a stamp that I picked up on the swaps table at the last WOYWW crop in 2019, and I heat embossed it in gold. A clean and simple card overall, but Tim liked it.

This weekend Alex and I went on a rather challenging walk across very icy paths to this beautiful disused reservoir.  It is one of my favourite places to swim, but this weekend the ice was so thick that there was someone ice skating on it, and Alex was able to sit on the ice.  People had kept a small hole open in the ice so I was able to dip into it, and had fun making the hole a little larger for the next people. The water temperature was ~0.8oC, and the Air temperature was -3. I loved every minute of it.

That's all from me for now. I am pleased that the weather is warming up (our snow has finally melted and pavements are safe to walk on again) but will miss the fun of swimming/playing with ice.  Take care and stay safe,

With love & God Bless,
Caro

xxx

WOYWW 610

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

My desk is currently all set up for work, with my laptop, iPad and bullet journal on display. Each day I have to pack away and tidy my desk ready to set up for working at it. The confession is that I am writing this at 8am this morning and the mug is an old mug of tea from last night - the kettle is boiling and a new mug of tea is on the way, to help me wake up enough to interview prospective medical students which is my job for the day.

There has been very little crafting this week with sledging, snowball fights, church services and other activities taking up much of my time.  I did however, manage to complete these few pages in my journal. Someone was asking about the stickers I use in my journal. The ones on these pages are actually Transfers from Make Up your Life, that I was sent from Japan, but I use any stickers that I find and suit the pages.

We have had quite a lot of snow up here in Sheffield - we live above the snowline and so have had snow since Sunday so Alex and I have both been out sledging in it every day. Good exercise and good fun, especially bumping into friends on the slopes. 

Yesterday was the first day I managed to get the car out and go swimming since Friday and we actually had some sun while we were in the water, and then it clouded over and was snowing by the time we were changing - such fun!

That is all from me for now except to say that I am holding our dear friends Shaz and Doug in my prayers at the moment, surrounding them in love, as Shaz is seriously ill in hospital. Take care and stay safe everyone,

With love & God Bless,

Caro

xxx 

WOYWW 609

 Hello and welcome back to my blog for another edition of What's on Your Workdesk, hosted by the lovely Julia.  I hope that you are all keeping well and safe and warm.

This is my desk as it was last night. In the process of putting some simple decoration (stickers or transfers and some pen) onto the pages of my bullet journal.  You can see my various stickers and transfer sets, my mug of tea (almost empty), my diary journal and various pens etc scattered around. I haven't actually done much in the way of crafting this week as I have been busy with church related things so there is nothing new to show you I'm afraid.

This weekend I counted up and realised that I had swum 20 times in January with water temperatures ranging from 1.6 with ice to 5.1 degrees. This was Sunday's swim, totally beautiful and peaceful.

There isn't a lot more to report from here. Alex and I headed out into the snow yesterday afternoon, where he found some friends to have a massive snowball fight with (he is in there somewhere), and I found several of my friends to stand around and talk to - perfect for both of us.

To give the kids a break from online teaching and screens, his engineering teacher set them a challenge, to make an automata from things they had at home.  Alex put the hot glue gun to good use, and without any help from us, created this from cardboard, kebab sticks, straws and sandpaper.  We were really impressed with the trouble shooting to make it all work, the perseverance and the creativity. 

I will leave you with this photo of the park where I swim taken on Monday - look at the sun!  I hope you all have a good week. Take care and stay safe.

With love & God Bless,

Caro

xxx