WOYWW 425

Yes Ladies I am still alive and kicking, sorry I have missed two weeks posting but what can I say with the weather  being so hot nothing has been on my desk that is worthy of a picture or comments.

We are still baking in very high temperatures but needs must and seeing as I have booked a Christmas craft stall in November as well as the Dames in Spain fair I really need to get cracking with some more makes.

So on my desk today is a fabric Christmas tree, I made some of these years ago so thought I would make some more but try to simplify the design. I am going to leave off the decorations on the triangles and also the wooden support across the bottom row of  triangles to make them quicker and cheaper to make.

This was one I made in 2011 hangs perfectly on the light fitting!

Also the felts came out for Christmas stockings!

You have to think of your furry friends when it's hot. My two love this fan blowing on them. Can't understand why they lie on the rug and not on the tiled floor when it's hot.

So that's me done for this WOYWW off  to the doctors this morning had a blood sugar scare so have been seeing the nurse for testing three times a week, the doctor will deliver her verdict this morning. I have tried to control it by diet so hope she is happy. 

Now to link up with Julia at stamping-ground.blogspot.com. who hosts our postings every week.

WOYWW 422

Good morning to WOYWW from a sunny Spain. Our weather is still very hot but not as humid so easier sleeping.

Thank you Lunch Lady Jan for choosing me to receive the lovely bag, up to Tuesday morning it has not arrived, but then I am still waiting for a sun dress by daughter posted 10 days ago. One lives in hope it will arrive before the weather changes haha. I did once receive a Christmas card posted beginning of December in March.

So we have a special desk this week because it is Wimbledon, so a table  facing my television, love my turntable tv table that I can swing round so it can be seen from fireside chair or computer or anywhere in the room.

What is on the table today well still preparing for Christmas. I found all this felt in my stash so thought I would cut out some Christmas stockings and decorate with left over pieces.

Also made this week three more aprons for the Christmas stall and that's about it. Have been out and about with my friend Terri who is here for three weeks from her home in Lanzarote.

 Today is my sewing/knit and natter group and afterwards we have a lunch, think I have said before we put 1€ into  the pot each week and when we have enough it buys us lunch and tomorrow is the day.

Will leave you with these two photos. I thought the cat was scattering the wood chips on my plant pots, but it turned out to be a female blackbird and my cat sat watching her. The photos aren't very clear because they were taken through mosquito netting on the window. You can just about make out the bird centre front of pot.

Now to link up with Julia at stamping-ground.blogspot.com

Hope you all have a good week, will try and get round to reading all before the weekend.

WOYWW 421

Good morning from a very hot humid Spain. We are experiencing extreme temperatures for this time of year. Goodness knows what August holds for us.
I and my friends are nervous of fires as a few years ago we had serious fires and had to abandon our homes. Being a Girl Guide I am now prepared and have the cat carriers, food, water, and important documents to hand just in case.

So with the heat and my daughters visit and also a friends visiting from Lanzarote this week, I have not returned to craft mode yet, but found this broderie anglaise material in my stash and thought I could make a cool top for myself. It will be rectangle folded in half sides sewn up and a hole for my head to go through. Sounds easy enough but.....

It is white but the table underneath is cream.

Off to my knit and natter group this morning, then home to make some puff pastry savoury swirls to take to my Woman on Wednesday group (WOW) it's all W's on Wednesday as we are having a closing party, the bar where we meet is not having their lease renewed so we will have to find another bar or that is it. There are not many bars that want us this time of the year but are glad of our custom over the winter months!

So now over to Julia who seems to be having a great time in US. Reading her post it is such a small world. Have a good week one and all.


stamping-ground.blogspot.com

WOYWW 420

Now I know I have drunk a far bit of the old fizz this last week but I think Julia is trying to confuse me by saying WOYWW 421.

Thank you for all your birthday wishes I had a fantastic birthday shared with my daughter and her partner. We hired a lovely boat and took to life on the Med. Mooring up for lunch and a swim in the sea.

Add caption

 Our boat 

Sean Connery old house

Pre lunch swim

My desk is still empty I have been doing a little knitting but with the hot weather and sticky fingers not getting on very quickly. More talc please.

Thank you for all your comments and I will try and get round to visiting all the pages before the weekend.

So short and sweet this week now to link up with Julia stamping-ground.blogspot.com

WOYWW 419

This week is short and sweet as my daughter is here with her partner to help me celebrate a big birthday on Friday. It should have been a big family affair like my 60th but with the death of my son last year I decided to keep celebrations to a minimum. Think we are going to hire a boat and go out to sea for the day, and if this weather keeps up we will need plenty of sunscreen. The temperatures are mid 30's and not much less at night.

So my desk for this week is:

Table cleared and all put away, couldn't possible let my daughter see how I work, so on my desk  - 10 point plastic canvas that my daughter brought me from the UK as I can't purchase it here. Wait till next week and this 70 year old will be back in business materials everywhere.

Of course I have to have something to keep me going so my pick up and take anywhere is my knitting - multi coloured leg warmers.

So off to link with Julia at stamping-ground.blogspot.com

Hope you all have a good week am now going to wake my lazy visitors up!!

WOYWW 418

Firstly these are the ATC's I have received so far, they are all beautiful and so different. Thank you all very much.

I was wondering how you all visit one anothers pages, I tend to try and visit  and comment on 10 at a time. Sometimes this can take me a few days so apologies if I didn't manage to visit and comment of your page, will try and do better.

This week's desk isn't very interesting:-

In the front I am putting the finishing touches to my friends card, My cutters, the box of patterned papers, tape and more tape, like I said no very interesting.

So thought I would show you my card store room shelves. 

Top shelf boxes of  finished birthday cards and Christmas cards and laminator. Next shelf cutters, glue sticks and gun. Next box of tapes,etc tiles I use for painting, my ultimate pro of which I think I have only ever used the scoring board. Bottom shelf hidden from view my boxes of stamps, inks etc. Oh and the red at the left hand side is a roll of waterproof nylon material that I use to line my aprons with.

Top shelf are boxes of embellishments and punches  my boxes of card and papers, sorted into white, coloured, gold etc.

These are the Christmas shelves more or less, along with assorted envelopes and some coloured card I bought from the Chinese shop this week not yet cut into sensible sizes.

And finally some of my ribbons.

This room used to be the en suite shower room to my third bedroom but seeing as the bedroom is now a store room for my material and wool I had the shower etc taken out and am now making more use of the room. It can always be reverted back to a shower room when the bedroom becomes a bedroom again but not in my lifetime I have too much material and wool etc.!!!!

These are two seats I talked about in WOYWW 408 I have finally got around to covering them, next it will be the jet spray on the bamboo seats and perhaps a lick of paint. Who knows they might be finished for summer 2018. Keep watching this space.

Please may I be permitted to ask two questions this week - how do I put the facebook link to my page on this site?

My second question is any suggestions on how to store acrylic stamps I have found that some of them are going sticky and breaking up. This could be because I live in a hot and humid area of Spain as I never had this trouble in the UK. all the rubber ones are ok and dare I say all my Clarity ones also perhaps you get what you pay for.

Now link up with Julia our host for WOYWW  stamping-ground.blogspot.com

WOYWW 417

Firstly thank you for allowing me to join in with the ATC's  I have received one so far but postal deliveries to my part of the world are very slow, not so much as from here to the UK but the other way I think they must go via Australia!

So what an untidy desk this week but then this to me means productivity! The usual items for any card maker, cutter, scoring board, scissors, washi tapes (well not the real ones but from our local Chinese) as are the embellishments. Oh and a Spanish flag ready to send to my friend in UK as a birthday present joke. He has a flag pole in his garden and flies the Union Jack, French flag etc on certain days, but when I stayed with him he had no Spanish flag.

 Next photo some quick cards I have made mostly with a butterfly theme, these will go into my stock.

An early post for me this week as I have to be at the hospital for 8.30am for an x ray then an appointment at 10.00 to see the consultant about having my other hip replaced. It is 18 months since I had the first one done and it left me with one leg quite a bit longer than the other, so hoping this can be rectified. If all was ok I wouldn't be having the other one done as I really suffered with sores and ulcers last time and no way do I want to go through all that again.

Now to link with Julia our host at stamping-ground.blogspot.com Thank you for your visits and comments I will visit yours when I get back home.

WOYWW 416

Wow Congratulations all on this 8th anniversary of WOYWW and a special thanks to Julia who hosts this every Wednesday.
Although for me it is only a little over a year I first joined on 6th April 2016 WOYWW 357. Thank you all for making me feel so welcome in this unique club.


Now for the reason we get together every Wednesday. To be nosey and look in on all your work desks.

So this is my desk or table this week, gone are the fabrics and a change of crafts, the beginnings of card making. Next week should reveal what I have made, well I hope so that is if I am at home long enough.

Wonder how many of you sew on a machine like this, my faithful old industial Singer. It might only be a straight stitcher but I really like it.

So that's it for today short and sweet now over to Julia on this special day.

WOYWW 415 17th May

Good morning all, well I did promise you something on my desk this week but I am sorry to have to break that promise. Although I said I had a free week it didn't turn out like that knew I shouldn't have said anything.

I did manage to sew a few more bits and pieces for Christmas and below is QC helping to make sure the snowmen are stuck down properly.

So here is a staged picture of some of my makes for this week.

There are two adult aprons but I have sewn about six, two baby bibs, some handbag shopping bags. and a couple of cross in your pockets.
I have been sitting with a friend of mine who is ill to allow her husband to go out. So the box of 'cross in your pocket' is handy to take with me and something I can do silently as my friend sleeps most of the time.

I really want to join in the ATC's have never done anything like that before so hope mine are up to standard! Not too sure how it all works but hope to find more out next week.

Now to link up and get ready for my knit and natter group to catch up on all the latest gossip.

Will try and get round to visits later, but feel free to leave a comment and thanks for visiting.

WOYWW 414 10th May

Where on earth did this week go to?
Nothing on my work desk this week as it turned into a hectic week probably because I was without a car the previous week and had a number of visits etc. So my desk looks the same as last week but I have cleared all the tapestry wool away.

This weeks project when I had a spare few minutes sit down. It is a drop stitch scarf knitted in variegated wool obtained from one of our many local Chinese shops. I am wondering about the length, have read that it should be a least the height of the person, so with this in mind only another 6 inches to go, then I will fringe it. Love the way the colours have turned out.

 

Promise I will have something more exciting to show you next week as at present I have a free week, but then it is only Wednesday.

So to finish my faithful companion QC asleep by my side on the computer desk.

Now to link up with other deskers at Stamping-ground hosted by Julia.

stamping-ground.blogspot.com.

WOYWW 413

Sorry I am late with this but I don't know where the days have gone. Seem to have spent most of the past week to and fro from the garage, my car has been having problems again, and the garage is an hours bus ride away and the bus only goes every hour, so a great deal of time is wasted. Hopefully now it will be ok as it has passed its ITV (MOT) for another 13 months. I just have to pass mine next month when I renew my driving licence. Here in Spain we have to take a medical, eyes, ears, blood pressure etc.

Not so much my work desk this week but my work table.

Full of tapestry wool as a lady at church asked for some more 'cross in your pockets' it was the Spring fair on Monday well should have been Saturday but even here in Spain you cannot guarantee the weather, so when Saturday started with showers the decision to change date to Monday was  taken. The fair is always held outside on one of the car parks by the paseo. So along with crafty things in preparation for the Christmas fair I had to sort wool out. The red material is waterproof nylon that I back bibs and aprons with and also used to make some fold up shopping bags. The other material top right is doggy patterned that I saw in one of our big Chinese shops I happened to go in while waiting for my car. Well one has to pass the time somehow and one can only drink so much coffee. This will make a few doggy bandanas to go with the ones I have made already.

Sorry this is only short but I feel my eyes closing it is 12.30am  so I only missed the deadline by 30 minutes.

Please feel free to leave a comment and I will try to read and comment on as many posts as I can.

Now linking with Julia who hosts are weekly get together. www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com

If you would like to see what else I get up to I do have a facebook page if anyone is interested under the name of Ann Marshall.

Night night

WOYWW 412

Firstly an apology for not posting last week I did start but other things took over and before I knew it, it was weekend. Anyway I am here now so what is on my desk this morning.

Nothing very exciting I am still looking into Christmas ideas, yes I know but when you live in a place like I do you have to be really prepared, and if you know someone who is travelling by road from the UK to Spain you have to think ahead. 

Someone suggested dog bandanas would be a good seller as nearly ever Brit here has a dog and we have a very active animal rescue charity called Paws/Patas. I have plenty of suitable material but was a question of getting the measurements correct so with the help of Amazon and Google and lots of brown paper think I have a last come up with 4 sizes. Just didn't use the vinegar!!

Another suggestion was fold-up shopping bags so with the aid of one I had and brown paper again I came up with this red one made out of waterproof backed nylon. Should be strong enough.

I now have to go on the hunt for a shop that sells hardboard so I can cut the templates out much easier than paper. All my apron templates are hardboard that my late husband made for me. Will have to see how I fair with a jigsaw that should be fun but to find the hardboard first is the biggest hurdle here.

Just before I go must show you my amaryllis I won it in a raffle a few years ago and it has flowered every year but this year it has 8 flowers on it. I keep it outside all year round and only attend to it when the leaves need cutting back. Not bad eh?

Now to link up with our host for the WOYWW Julia at stamping-ground.blogspot.com

WOYWW 410

Ok buenas tardes or Good Evening, yes I am very late today have had a busy day and did not get time last time to do a post.

Well what a week I have had no phone or internet for a week but hopefully it is all repaired now  I have a new modem/router and new in house wiring. So the only source of communication was my mobile and I am not very good with mobiles, I either leave them at home, do not switch them on and have no battery charge. I managed for over half my life without a phone so why do I need one now, really I don't but other people seem to think I should be at the other end of one.

So to my desk or should I say desks, another table has been called into play this week and what do you see on there but Christmas material yes Christmas material. Well it is only 257 sleeps to Christmas!

Width ways 

Length ways

As I said last week we are beginning to prepare for the Dames Christmas fair, and looking into what materials etc we have. This is the best time of the year to do it as in a couple of months time it will be too hot to be moving boxes and rolls of material about.
So you see on the table  some knitting, aprons cut out, paper work for the Dames AGM next week that needs sorting, my knitting needle box and yet more Christmas material.

And on another table yet more Christmas material along with some every day aprons ready to sew.

So there you have my desks for this week, and of course on my computer desk as I type this is my faithful friend, QC the cat.

Sorry I couldn't comment on posts last week but hopefully this week I will manage it. Thank you for visiting.

Hope you all have a blessed Easter don't eat too much chocolate.

WOYWW 409

Not much exciting on my desk this morning. I have had a friend visiting this week, not seen her for over four years since she left here to live in the Gambia so we have so much to catch up on.

What you see is some experimenting Christmas items, this is a little apron to go on a wine bottle to catch the drips. I am going to put a label in the pocket to say something like the Cooks Wine and also make an adult apron in the same material and sell as a set. The knitting to the left is another drop stitch scarf but it hasn't grown much.

Sorry this is short but am now off to my sewing class and if I don't hurry will miss the bus, am trying to be healthy and not use the car, if I go on the bus I have to walk to catch it and also walk at the other end. How I miss walking with my dog.

Hope the following week is good for you all, nearly Easter, the early holidaymakers are here already.

Now to link with Julia and all the other deskers at stamping-ground.blogspot.com

WOYWW 408

Here we are again - the last Wednesday in March, how the year is going so fast.

On my desk or should I say table this Tuesday evening isn't very exciting I have put together the things I have been working on this week.

Starting from the left are some fun wine bottle aprons experiments for the Christmas stall I spoke of last week.

Then at the back is a seat ready for covering for some bamboo patio furniture that someone was throwing away. These sets when new cost about 800€ and I am sure with a little paint and material can be made like new again. Watch this space.

At the front is the drop stitch scarf I am knitting, unfortunately I only purchased two balls of wool and went back to day to get some more only to find they have sold it all, so quick thinking, as I have only used one of the balls I managed to find a contrast colour that I shall use in the middle and then finish with the original colour. If you understand what I mean.

So that is my desk and workings for this week. Don't know if much more will get done as I have a friend visiting for a week, she used to live here and moved to The Gambia over four years ago so we have lots of catching up to do.

Now to publish ready to link up with Julia and others at www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com. in the morning.

PS forgot to say both cats are now using the scratching posts and fighting who gets to play with the ball!

WOYWW 407

Hi everyone, well here we are at another WOYWW hosted by Julia from stamping-ground 

Nothing much to show on my desk this week packed away all the card making materials now I have quite a stock for the coming months celebrations. Given the table a good clean - glue gets everywhere.

 So on the desk today are some balls of knitting wool I have purchased yes I know I said shoot me if I buy some more but I have a good excuse as I am preparing for our Dames in Spain Christmas fair and carol concert. This year we have decided to man and supply all the stalls ourselves instead of inviting outsiders to have a table with their goods. So one has to begin early in the year doesn't one? The knitting you see is the beginning of a drop stitch scarf not to sure of the pattern but have tried to keep it simple, something I can do without too much concentration. Will also be looking for fingerless mitts etc. patterns as these make good presents and the cost of posting them to another country isn't too great.
Any more ideas please.

As I type this here is my furry friend helping me.

Earlier this week I bought the cats a new scratching pole and the photo below I have given the caption - if you think I am using that instead of your chair and settee ........

Hope you all have a good week will try and do the rounds later and thank you in advance for your comments.

WOYWW 406

Thanks for visiting last week, I did manage to get round to all posts and commented on those that would allow.

As promised last week some photos of our International Women's Day celebrations. First starting with my sewing group and a glass of cava yes drinking at 10 in the morning tut tut.

Then moving on to the Dames in Spain lunch at a local golf club. 

The beautifully set tables

All the ladies

The ladies on my table. The middle lady is our mayor. She supports all we do although she doesn't speak English.

This was the table prize won by yours truly!
An Easter egg and plant.

So that was my Wednesday last week. Thursday was spent recovering in the sun!

Now for this Wednesday my desk has been very productive mainly because the weather has been very bad - cold, windy and two days of rain, so it was on with the heating and to work. I do feel sorry for visitors who come for a little winter sun and have to endure rain. 

This is my desk Tuesday evening reasonably tidy with just the last two cards to put away. Used a little flower soft on one of them.

So here are the products of my labours.

My finished Easter cards

and birthday cards using stamps, washi tape, old music sheets

Now to decide what to do next week, some knitting, crocheting, or maybe heaven forbid some housework. You will just have to wait and see. Hope you all have a good week.