WOYWW 299.... a patch of patchwork

Hello lovely blogreaders! Today we desk hop again! I’m looking forward to seeing all your projects, new stash and reading about what you’ve been up to.

My desk is in card making mode. I have promised to make 15 cards for my DIL which need to be ready next week. So you can see I am in full flow, as they say.

The scrapbook page of my dad’s photos (Last week) hasn’t seen much progress as my priorities have been elsewhere.

The printed paper just by the ‘Travel Lite’ lamp is a list of keyboard shortcuts for PSE 6&7 (!). I’m itching to learn to digiscrap but I only have an older version of PSE that I bought years ago and use (a bit) for photos. I’m not going to buy an updated version until I can manage this one reasonably.

Then on the left you see a piece of patchwork which I’m finishing.  Last Saturday I went on a day long workshop to learn to do patchwork. (see previous blog) 

I really enjoyed it. Here is a photo with the first thing we learnt to do. (A cushion cover) and in the afternoon we started to do the hexagons but I haven’t quite finished those.

Monday is the day we always go home for a day and a night (we are still ‘camping’ on the building site), so that not only means I can use my lovely bathroom (in stead of a utility shower) but we collect the mail of course. This time there were 7 postcards! Oh joy! Here is one of them from Germany. 

The writing reads: “ An eine altbekannte Tur klopfen,

Erinnerungen vom Staub befreien, Den Garten neu bepflanzen."

Translated that would be: To knock on a familiar door, to dust off memories and to re-plant the garden. (I’m doing this off the top of my head but Gabriele will correct me I’m sure, if it’s not right.)

That’s it for this week. If you have been wondering what all this desk hopping business is all about... have a look at Julia’s blog at http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/

Have a great week y’all,

Lisca

Anyone for Patchwork?

Hello lovely blog readers,

Saturday I went to our nearby town to do a beginner’s course in Patchwork. I’ve always wanted to do this.

In the morning we made a cushion cover with strips of material. (Log Cabin I think she called it) We sewed (by hand) onto a backing that had a pattern on it. Every piece on the backing was numbered to make it easy, and it felt a bit like ‘painting by numbers’. It really was easy.

This little chicken sat on the work table. 

We were given the pattern so we can have a go at home with whatever scraps we have. She looks cute doesn’t she?

Here are a few action shots.

This is a shot of the shop. I was like a kid in a sweet shop! All those gorgeous fabrics! Lovely! 

In the afternoon we started on the hexagons. That's very pretty but very labour intensive. In fact I haven't finished this project yet. It will be a cushion cover matching the one we made in the morning.

I shall definitely come back to this shop to buy more of these gorgeous fabrics and perhaps make a tote or a zipper bag. There are so many tutorials on the internet. I'm going to have some fun!

Thanks for visiting my blog,

See you soon!

Lisca

WOYWW 298 New layout, new stash and new bedsocks!

Hello deskhoppers, it's wednesday again and time for our 'snoop fest' where we look at other people's desks to see what they are up to. (If you have no idea what I am talking about, go visit Julia's blog where it is all explained: http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/ )

Thank you all of you who have visited me last week. If you want to see the final result of the scrapbook page I was doing, I've posted it on the previous blog page.

So here's my desk. 

I've started to do a new layout. It's got 4 photos of my dad from 1955 that I scanned. My mum gave me a whole pack of stuff of my dad's from WW2. He was picked up and taken to Germany to do forced labour. He wrote a note to my mum to say he was OK when he was transported in the cattle train. It was smuggled out and now I have it! There are pictures of the lager he was in and German ration cards. Also registration cards from the Allied Forces when he was liberated eventually. Very interesting stuff. I will write a separate blog about that soon.

You can see my red tin with 'distress stuff'. I only have a few ink pads but I've recently bought a mini set (see further down). The thing that says: Travel-lite is a day light lamp. I suffer from SAD syndrome which means I get depressed if I don't get enough sun or even day light, so on days that I don't go out I sit in front of this lamp (only in the morning as it sets one's body clock. If I used it in the evening I would have difficulty sleeping).

I mentioned new stash, well, here it is:

A bottle of crackle paint, a spray can of fixative, a pipette, chalkboard paint and the above mentioned mini-set of distress ink. This came from a Spanish website 'Mi Tienda De Arte'. They deliver the next day. Great.

Now for the bed socks:

A friend's mother in Holland made these. I love them! I never thought I'd ever use bed socks but.... it's bliss. (and my hubby doesn't mind). We have continental duck down duvets. They are gorgeously warm and they mold themselves around your body but of course they are not tucked in at the bottom and somehow during the night I get cold feet. Not anymore!

Finally: You might have noticed a different badge on the side column. I have started a new virtual walk. (Walking4fun.com) I've finished the Wonderland trail and now I'm doing the Florida Keys trail which goes from Key West to Key Largo and a bit into Florida too. 

Well, thanks for visiting and I'll try and 'do the rounds' in the course of the week and visit as many as I have time for.

Have a good week

Lisca

I had to let go (scrapbook page)

In spite of my mojo still being on holiday, I made myself make a scrapbook page. I know from experience that I just have to start. At some point my mojo will come back when he sees I’m working without him!

Some of you have asked to see my new washi tape in action and there it is under the photo. Well, at least one of the tapes. I bought several (see previous blog). 

Olive green was in the palette of the CSI challenge that I like to to. (Colors, Stories and Inspiration. http://csicolorstoriesinspiration.ning.com/

I tried to do ‘messy’ but the whole thing didn’t come together. Oh well... still waiting for Mr Mojo.

The photo was taken in 1989 when my son was living with his dad in Italy. He and his childminder spent a summer with me. I have many good memories from that summer.

The journaling reads:

“When I divorced your father I had to let go of you too. That was hard. A mother has to let go at some stage but you were 12 years old and that was difficult. In the summer of 1989 you came to visit me in Rotterdam with your former childminder Lilla. That was the last time I saw you until you were an adult twelve years later.”

My son is now 39 years old and we are gradually building our relationship again. He and his wife now have a baby boy, whom I hope to meet next month when we travel to Italy.

Thanks for visiting,

CU soon

Lisca

WOYWW 297 New stash and strung up dried fruit

Hi Folks,

It’s Wednesday again and I’m looking forward to do some snooping around the desks of crafters all over the world. If you don’t know what I’m talking about look at Julie’s blog at http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/

But first of all I have to reveal the mess on my own desk! Here it is. 

I’ve started to put together some stuff to do another scrapbook page using the CSI challenge (http://csicolorstoriesinspiration.ning.com/) . One of the requirements this time was (amongst other things) to use leather, so that piece of black you see, was once part of a little coin purse which had ripped. As a crafter you don’t throw anything away, now do you! There is also an old sketch from Page Drafts and the prepared 12x12 page on top of my laptop.

I’m very excited about some new stash I bought last week. Here is a better picture:

There is an alphabet stamp set and six packs of beautiful washi tape. The blue things are embellishments in the shape of fishies. As I’m a Christian and the fish is a Christian symbol, I can certainly find use for those.  I bought the whole lot at Lidl’s, a European supermarket that changes their non-food range every week and occasionally sell craft items. When they do, I’m straight there as they do nice things. I’m particularly pleased with the washi tape as these are lovely, and up until now I’ve only been able to buy tape online.

My last photo has nothing to do with crafting but is something typical about living here in rural Spain. 

It’s a string with dried fruit on it. My neighbour gave it to me when she heard we were on a diet and couldn’t eat sweets or chocolates. Apparently they are small fruit that look like a small apple. These have been dried and then strung up. We occasionally pull one off and eat it. They’re very sweet and yummy.

That’s  it for today. Have a good week all of you. I’ll try and visit as many of you as I can over the course of the week.

Hugs

Lisca

PS I've just realised I forgot to reduce my photos in size. I do apologise. I just hope my page doesn't take a long time to load....I really haven't got time to take them down, reduce them and then put them back on.... sorry.

WOYWW 296 The brayer saga continues

Hi peeps,

We’re back from Holland and I’m aching to get in that craft room and make something, but nothing seems to come out of my hands. I’m just faffing about! I've joined His Kingdom Come, (Christian artists and crafters) and have been doing some faith journaling, but my desk hasn't seen much action. (Where's my mojo?)

I do apologise for not visiting many people. Not my fault this time: we've had terrible gales. Here out in the sticks this means No Power! We're used to it and do most things on gas and even have gas lamps. But it does mean we have no internet. For several days we been without internet. The storm has died down a bit now but it's still horrible out there. The power cuts yesterday have been short luckily. 

My desk is an unholy mess. I’m trying to make cards for my grandson’s christening next month. I’ve been asked to make 15 cards. My first efforts are there in the foreground (turquoise and cream). On my laptop is a photo of my mother having her hair done which I was going to scrap for the CSI challenge but I never got any further than prepping my 12x12 paper with gesso and you can see it drying in the background. 

Also on the closed laptop is a box with acrylic mediums. The middle one is gel medium! I have been trying to buy/source gel medium for nearly a year and I have finally found a tube of it in a shop in Holland! Hurray!

And what have we here? Another thing I have been trying to find is a brayer (unsuccessfully I might add). The other day my DH asked me to ‘close your eyes and hold out your hand’ . And I ended up with this half brayer. I know it’s not what crafters use but it’s the closest I’ve ever got to a brayer. He used to use it for wall papering seams. I haven’t used it yet but I’m going to experiment with that.

We had quite a bit of mail, having been away for two weeks. Among the pile of mail were many postcards (10) from all over the world. I belong to Postcrossing.com, a postcard swap thing. My favourite this time is this beautiful card from Hongkong. 

If you were wondering what all this deskhopping is all about, then have a look at http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/

That's it for this Wednesday. Wishing all a good week (with lots of mojo),
Lisca