WOYWW 672 Finally

As Julia said in her WOYWW 671 entry ‘if you want to get a job done, give to a busy person’ the following happened to me while I did a 4 week full time Mon- Fri job.

It's been 2 long years since I showed my "Desk" craft area in our new house. We've been in this house almost 5 years now and I am still unpacking boxes.

My last WOYWW was 572 on May 20 - 2020, then the pandemic hit and everything went south.

I needed a reason to get this show on the road so I invite my good friend Rhonda to come for a weekend stay over soon. I gave myself 3 months to clean up and just didn't stop for 3 weeks straight cleaning up.

I feel so much better, I keep sitting in my "new" craft room in wonder that this is now as permanent as can be and I wont have to move for the next 30 years.

I have had it tidy in the last 5 years then it really went to gross as you can see from the before photos.

Before photos:

Could barely get into the craft room with the hallway blocked with stuff

After

Ahhh can finally see the floor and move freely, will be cleared even more during the weekend

My music desk, gotta have a music desk so I can listen to books or music while I craft

My colouring in station

I will have a dedicated tools section when I get a new wooden table, much more stable than these fold up ones.

Hop on over to the Stamping Ground to see more desks.

WOYWW 569 - Window Art

How has lockdown been for you? I'm down to one day a week work at one job, the second job shut down.

Those of you who are crafters will notice that I haven't been crafting since WOYWW 513 when I went to craft camp and ate all this wonderful food, but the bigger news is I am now going to run that Craft Camp as the previous coordinator has too much on her plate. Next years dates have been booked and I am about to contact all the previous attendees to see who is coming so we can lock down the camp.

Apr 25th was Anzac Day for Australia and New Zealand. You can read about it on my post HERE

Everyone in Australia was doing driveway commemoration due to the social distancing rules. We normally go to a commemoration  park on the island called Pat's Park.

I wanted to do something at home so I decided to make some Poppies and stick them to my window. My inspiration came from a cousin's daughter in the US who decorated her mum and dads windows with hearts to show her support for Healthcare workers, it's such wonderful display of support and artistic creativity.

I have posted her photos below mine with her permission, thank you Rachel.

 So I found a poppy flower template on the internet and printed it out onto 80gsm paper which I cut out.

 There were three sizes but I only used the larger one, next year I'll plan it better and use all three. I also used a Stampin Up flower punch I had that almost looked like a Poppy flower, and a circle punch for the stamen. I would have liked to put green leaves too but didn't have enough time.

 I then traced the flower onto a thick plastic to trace onto the red cardstock, You can see the Australia map I punched out as well to use as the stamen on some flowers.

 I stuck the completed flowers on my arms to transport them outside to the window.

I couldn't reach the top of the window so that is why the flowers ended where they did.

I made a mistake on one and glued the Australia Map back to front so now all the eastern states are on the west hahahaha.

This is my cousin's daughter Rachel, she used a Silhouette Cameo and Cricket

 She did an awesome job decorating all the windows of her house downstairs, I believe it took her a day to do it. They live in the US, I have visited this beautiful house and gorgeous family, I am so glad they are my family by marriage.

So each Wednesday we virtually visit craft desks around the world via Stamping Ground and see what others are up to. 

Also entering this into CARDZTV Anything goes Challenge

Sending love and healing to those deskers that are suffering from Covid. May you heal through all the work the Healthcare workers are doing and from our love. Saluting all those front line and Healthcare workers out there that are putting their own lives at risk to keep us safe. 

Whats on your Workdesk? Wednesday 511 - new Craft Space - Island Paradise

Good afternoon Ladies of the Workdesk Wednesday.

I have missed doing the desk hop, and crafting.

The last time I posted here was on WOYWW 401 February 2017, I seem to be posting once a year since we had a life style change and moved to an idyllic island in Queensland. I must say I am surprised at how many desks have dropped off, there used to be over 100 postings.

I also started a new job with the Australian Federal Government whilst we were in the process of buying our house which took 7 months from go to woe. Surely was a hectic time and took up much of any play time I had.

1.5 years later after our move I finally got to unpacking my 100 boxes of craft staff in the new house and boy was I motivated and seemed to have a lot of energy. I worked 7 days a week, 11 hours on some days, 9 on others. I think I was living on adrenaline. My feet hurt some days but I wore good shoes and drank so much.  

So much has happened since the move as you can read in previous posts. 

We should have moved to the Islands a long time ago, we would have had quality of life earlier, not to mention the houses would have been cheaper to buy.

Firstly thanks to Maxine and Nil for suggesting photo editors, I went with this one because it was easiest to work FOTOR

Anyway here are some photos of my new craft room 

These boxes were moved to the dining room until I could make space in the garage to unpack them to.

Boxes in the garage

The garage with all the boxes out of it. This door will have a screen over it so I can open it up and get some air inside when I am crafting on my own.

The floor came up well with just some mopping

The table had a glass top but I sold it at the old house, I found it cumbersome. This is the formal dining room which we dont use so I claimed it as my working craftroom for when friends come around.  The garage set up will be where I craft with my projects so I dont have to pack up and tidy up and make room when a friend/s come over to play. The table was set up for my friend Faye to come and craft with me. I needed a break from unpacking and just to chill. Faye wanted to colour in so I brought out all my colouring medium so she could test it out.

I forgot to take a photo of when we were crafting to see our mess creativity. LOL

This is the garage space at the moment, I have yet to tidy up and put stuff in their places but I needed to finalise the dining room craft space first before I could move anything. I still have 5 boxes to unpack.

 I lost 5 kgs in the process over about 4 weeks.

Next weekend I am going to a craft camp in Brookfield. I went once before about 3 years ago and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Who doesn't - when someone else cooks all the meals and all you do is craft to your hearts content. It goes from Friday 9am - Sunday afternoon.  Can't wait and will have photos to show.

I hope to post regularly now that I have less shifts at work and I found an online Photo Editor

If you have a workdesk to show, mozey on over to
Stamping Ground and link up your desk on WOYWW.

WOYWW 332 - A Day of Fun with the Ladies

 Shock horrow, I had to find a place for two friends to come around and craft for the day. My usual desks did not work so I had to clear of the dinning table that lives in the craft dungeon. This is the lovely clean table. My daughter gave me the chalkboard you see hanging upside down, she keeps writing on it upside down and I dont have the heart to rub it off so I just hang it like that hahaha.

 I took over the table with my Galaxy Envelope decorating, Doreen kindly let me take over her side of the table to dry off my envelopes as she had finished all her projects by then and we were just sitting around chatting.

I didnt take a photo of the mess when the ladies were here, this was the cleaned up version that will hopefully stay like that and I have a work top to work on from now on because all the other desks are chockablock. Yep my craft room is the kitchen and the laundry as well, I told the ladies all I needed was a bed in there and I'd never have to go upstairs hahahaha.

 A close up of stuff. The two Christmas cards were Doreens contribution to the projects we did. I forgot to photograph Annette's which was Christmas themed and mine is the tiny little fridge magnet holder beside the bone folder and has a calendar on it. It can hold a quote that turns into a bookmark or a gift card

Of course we had to have food, I provided the lunch of make it your own sandwiches in the form of triangle bread rolls. It was a yummy experience. We sat outside to eat as the table was full of craft stuff. Still bummed that I forgot to take a photo of us crafting and making a mess, oh well we were having too much fun for me to remember!!! LOL

There was a craft fair on last week. This is the first craft fair I have attended since we moved to Brisbane so I had no idea what to expect. It had a lot of quilting stalls, so wasn't the best crafting show, I will have to attend the other two earlier on in the year to judge what is the best show. Can you see my scissors haul LOL. I will never run out nor worry if I lose one now hahahaha.

Joining Julia's Stamping Ground and her fan of Deskers for a sneak peak around the world

Where Bloggers Create 2015

I counted  9 tables in my craft room, these are the operational ones, the others are storage tables. 1st table behind where I sit at my computer is the Postcard Table where I write all my postcards that I send all around the world for a group called Postcrossing . I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting people all over the world via postcards and made a few penpals too.

The 2nd table behind the Postcard Table is the storage table for all the postcards and parapenalia to go with the postcards. Not only do we swap postcards but we swap magnets, stamps, calendars and chocolate etc.

This is my computer desk, with the tv to the right so I can catch up with new and my favourite tv programmes while I craft or communicate through my computer.

This table is the clean table LOL but also the second table to write letters and more postcards as well as craft. The shelves hold rubber stamps and anything to do with rubber stamping.

This 3rd table has the pocket letter folder where I make up Pocket Letters and post to who I have tagged in Postcrossing. It is my craft desk, and shelves holds cookbooks, books on crafting and more rubber stamps.

Behind my 2nd and third tables are my half my scissors storage, ink pads, dies, tape etc

My 4th table is the cutting area where all the machinery goes and of course its in a mess and has pillow cases LOL, not sure why because I dont use pillow cases in my crafting.

Joining My Desert Cottage for Where Bloggers Create 2015 this is my first year in participating

2013 Bloggers Create Party

WOYWW #278 Ribbon Storage

A real eyesore to an OCD person hahahaha

Answers to last weeks questions from commenters: Someone asked if I had any other ribbon other than green and white after last weeks desk post. So I thought I'd show you some of the ribbons I have unpacked so far.

Belinda also asked if I could reach the drawers in front of my desk and yes I can when I move the boxes between the tables and the shelving that are still to be unpacked hahahaha.

Those dowling sticks were made by my friend Sandra's friend. I've commissioned hubby to make me one with two square ends so I can lie it down on my desk with ribbons I use at the moment.

Cook books can be seen. Non slip sheets ready to stick on tiles for my photographic studio. Lace for any project. Dummy books. Glue sticks, my favourite go to adhesive for 3D projects. Blue and Red material for photographic props. Knitting needles. Empty corned beef tins ready for any project.  Glad wrap cores saved for a rainy day project.

Joining Julia's Stamping Ground to see more craft areas around the world.

My craft space or the lack of it

As you can see you dont need a clean large space to create in hahaha, that space that my mouse sits on is where I create, small huh! I am not that tidy of a person when it comes to my craft, heck if I tidied it all up I wouldnt find anything would I? My problem is I got banned from the kitchen and lounge room because I was too messy-tell me a creative artist who is tidy!!! So I found myself restrained to a room 8feet x 8feet with no shelves, just a desk and 2 wobbly fold down tables, so I do the best I can and it takes me half an hour to search for an 'ingredient'. I have learnt very quickly what patience and preplanning means, I was allowed one shelf in the linen closet in the hallway for my stuff but for some reason I have now taken over 4 shelves of it-I didnt do it!!

Check out some of these to die for stamping rooms. Personally I would like to have one like Cathy's. If only dreams could come true!!!
Cathy's Stamping Oasis
Christy's art Studio
Dee's Stamping Room
Jan's Art & Craft Room
Stamper's Workspace
Rubber Stamp Artist's rooms