WOYWW 7-25-18

As Julia said, the heatwave continues. We keep getting predictions of highs in the 70's, but end up in the 80's. Ugh. At least it's not the killer 90's. Unfortunately, my husband thinks it's cool enough to turn off the air conditioning. It's not!

A couple of days ago I made some time for myself and scrapped a couple of pages for our trip last spring to be with my brother. I'm still in the part about his life. These two pages are from his younger days, probably in the 1990's.

I used my new flourish dies for the first time! They work great, and I really like them. I hope to eventually get some larger ones too.

Here is a picture of my workdesk, a little more cleaned up. I'm still organizing and rearranging, so some of the stuff will eventually be moved elsewhere.

That's it for this week! Have fun and stay cool! Check out some other desks at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/2018/07/whats-on-your-workdesk-wednesday-477.html?m=1. Have a great crafting week!

WOYWW 4-18-18

Another week, another WOYWW! Nothing much has changed here. It's still cold and snowy. I watched my granddaughter a lot last week, so I didn't get much crafting done. This week, I decided I needed to make some progress on my scrapbook, so here is the next page.

It's a page that highlights photos of paintings my brother made. He was quite talented! Unfortunately, that drawing/painting gene didn't make it to me. But my oldest daughter, and her niece, my granddaughter, both have it.

And here is a shot of my desk. I got a little bit more clutter put away, but it still needs work. I hope to get more done this week.

That's it for now! I'm kind of tired today, so I have to keep this short and sweet. Check out http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ to see some other workdesks. Happy crafting!

WOYWW 4-4-18

Here we are at the beginning of April, and it's cold and snowy in Chicago! This is a picture of our backyard this morning.

It was in the 20's and roads were icy! But I can't complain, other parts of the country and world have had it much worse. But the cottonwood trees (also known as poplars) are sending out their pollen, as my nose has been telling me. According to the Farmer's Almanac, we are in for a cool spring. I'm itching to go buy some plants for our back porch, but I'm afraid they'll freeze, so I have to wait.

There's not a lot to report this week crafting wise. Though I did cover a metal canister with some Contact paper and washi tape to make a cute container for my Prismacolor pencils.

The one on the left is what it looked like originally. I found that the lid didn't fit after all of my alterations, but I don't need it for the pencils. Next time I'll leave some space at the top.

Here are some stickers and dies for my scrapbooking that I picked up on sale at Michael's, all for $14 and some change. Have I mentioned I love Michael's? I'm especially happy about the dies for flourishes. I see them used frequently in scrapbooks. I don't have a Scan N Cut, just a Cuttlebug, so those dies will be used a lot! The artist stickers are for my next scrapbook page. Right now I'm scrapping photos of my brother. He enjoyed painting, and my next page will feature photos of some of his paintings.

Here is a picture that I picked up at an apartment where they were giving away free stuff after an estate sale. My daughter was able to get quite a few things for her kitchen. I brought home various items, and took this picture to hang in my office because I believe what it says!

And finally here is a shot of my desk. I wasn't able to get to the clutter, so it doesn't look much different from last week.

That's all for now. Be sure to check out some other desks at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com. Have a great week!

WOYWW 3-28-18

Hello to all! This week is a busy one as we prepare for Easter. The next 3 days we will be out of the house at least part of the time, so I'm writing this post on Tuesday afternoon!

I finally got around to making another scrapbook page this week. I'm trying to experiment with different formats and textures. For this page I used some previously embossed cardstock to layer underneath the matted photos.

And I FINALLY finished those death announcements. Not exactly a fun job, but all they need are stamps, and I can mail them - woohoo!

This is how my workdesk looks this week. The announcements are sealed in their envelopes on the right. The rest is mainly clutter that I need to clean up.

That's it for this week. Stop on by at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com to check out the desks of some really talented people! Have a great week!

WOYWW 1-17-18

First post of the new year!! For the past couple of weeks, I've written "blog post" in my planner, and then forgot about it until evening. Since I'm in the States, that seemed way too late to start, so I would resolve to remember next week. And next week is finally here.

Some of you may remember that we have had what could be termed an "interesting" year, which included 2 semi-unexpected family deaths. I say semi-unexpected because both family members were ill, but the deaths were still sudden. Well, you know how they say it comes in threes . . . (If you don't want to read anything depressing, you should stop here.) My brother-in-law, a great guy, died very suddenly of a heart attack while using a snowblower on Christmas Eve. He was only 63. He and his wife Betty had planned to retire at the end of June, and take a long trip in the fall, similar to our fall trip when we visited Yellowstone. He was in apparent good health, with only the aches and pains that come with age. It was a great shock to all, especially his wife, two sons, and my husband. So we spent Christmas week dealing with that, along with the usual family celebrations. His funeral was the day before New Year's Eve. It had an unexpectedly great turnout, in spite of the holidays and the cold. Like I said, he was a truly great person, friendly and down to earth and very helpful.

And the beat goes on. This weekend we are attending the funeral of a friend. I really didn't know him well, only met him a few times, but my husband knew him. This poor guy was on dialysis the past few years. Every so often we would get word that he was about to pass, but he would somehow rally and hang on! Both he and my brother-in-law are dancing in glory in perfect joy, but it's hard for those of us still on earth. We would all appreciate your prayers!

Now on to more cheerful things. I forgot to take an actual picture of my desk, just some projects I have been working on. Here is a picture of a card I made for my daughter, who shares a birthday with the late, great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The quality is not great with these photos, but I took them very quickly with my cell phone. I hope to use my camera for photos next week. For this card I used a pink base with a lavender panel and a white die cut.

Here is a scrapbook page I did. I'm scrapping our trip to California in February to be with my brother. I'm at the point where I'm pasting in a few pictures of his life.

So far I matted the pictures, added some journaling, and put on some stickers. I may add some washi tape to jazz it up a bit. This is his early life. I will have four pages of pictures when I finish with this section.

Here are the front of the death announcements I made for my mother-in-law.

The base for the card on the left is white, even though it looks bluish. The one on the right is cream. I stamped butterflies and leaves on the bases in corresponding colors. Since I need to make several of these, I kept the design simple. These are smaller than the usual size I make for birthday and other cards. I'm a bit behind - she passed in June! But I was waiting for Christmas so we could get people's names from the Christmas cards people sent to her. Unfortunately, I will have to change the wording inside to include her son.

That's all for now - sorry for such a long post! Be sure to check out some very talented people at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/. I hope you had a merry, uneventful Christmas and New Year. Like I wrote in our Christmas letter, I know that whatever comes in 2018, God will be with us and will help us through it. Nevertheless, here's to a boring 2018!

WOYWW 11-15-17

I didn't realize how long it's been since I posted! I've missed it, and reading everyone else's posts, but things have been kind of hectic.

We made it back home from our trip on October 19th. After Dodge City, we went to Texas and the Ozarks, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. But it's nice to be home! I'm doing a lot of cleaning and sorting, trying to get ready for the holidays. And I'm now in charge of the children's ministry at my church, probably because I volunteered! So it's easy to keep busy.

 I haven't gotten back to crafting yet, but below is a picture of some scrapbook/cardmaking supplies that I picked up on sale during our trip.

That's it for now. Hopefully I can get back to crafting this week. Take a look at some talented people who have been more consistent than me at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com.

WOYWW 8-23-17

Yay - another WOYWW! I just feel glad about that, for no particular reason!

I've had a busy week, as usual. I forgot to mention last week that I was planning on going to the Scrapbook Expo in Schaumburg, a suburb of Chicago. It's a big deal around here. Not only can you find some great bargains, but they also offer classes and space to crop. So far, I haven't been able to take advantage of the latter two, but I do enjoy the shopping! I promised my husband that I wouldn't spend much since we're trying to save for our trip. Here's a photo of my (rather small) haul.

I bought 5 pages of stickers, which are on the left. I don't have dies or stamps that are very interesting for boys, but have two grandsons, so I rely heavily on stickers to make their cards. The sticker pages were only $1.00 apiece! I also got an embossing folder with a nice floral pattern, two adhesives ($2.00 apiece!), some magnetic sheets to store dies, and last but not least, some Christmas sentiments, since I will be making our cards this year (guess what I'll be working on during vacation!).

I also got some cardstock on sale at Michaels.

I use 110 lb. weight for my cards' bases, but only had cream and white, which was getting a bit boring. Since I mainly make cards for female recipients, I chose this package of delicate pinks for some more colorful bases. It was on sale for $10.00, not bad at all!

Here is my second scrapbook page for our California trip.

This is the house where we stayed. It is set up for families who have relatives in the hospital and need a place to stay. It was very beautiful and comforting. Unfortunately, I am having some trouble with my photo editing software, so the colors in my printed photos are way off and require several attempts before they are even passable. I'm trying to figure out what to do about that.

That's it for this week! Be sure to take a look around at some other workdesks from a group of very talented people at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com. Have a great crafting week!

WOYWW 7-19-17

Yay, I made it - another post in the same month! So far, things have been all quiet on the family front. Let's hope it stays that way.

 I got a new rug for my office/craft room! Here's a photo:

That's our cat, who can frequently be found on my office chair or the new rug. (Well, it's new to me. I found it on Facebook for a fraction of the price I would have paid on Amazon. And no offgassing!)

This week I started working on a scrapbook for our whirlwind trip to California. Here's a photo of the first page: 

Since I am the only driver, and my husband doesn't take cell phone pictures, and we were in a hurry, we have very few photos of the first leg of our trip. I relied heavily on stickers for this page. 

One more photo - this is a picture of one of those paintings that you do in a group and everyone paints the same picture.

I'm not going to pretend to be a great artiste. But it's been rattling around the house since we moved last year. I finally got a frame and hung it up!

That's it for now. Check out some talented people at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ to see what others are doing this week.

WOYWW 7-12-17

Time for my monthly post! I hope to get back to a weekly schedule soon.

Unfortunately our family travail continued into June. My mother-in-law, who had end stage heart failure, passed away on June 17th. My husband and I went away for 2 weeks in May, right after the memorial service for my brother, and on the way back home we got the call that she was in the hospital. We spent a bit of time visiting her and running errands until she passed, and if you've ever handled funeral arrangements, you know what the next week was like! Not to mention cleaning out her apartment with a deadline of 2 weeks after her passing. We did manage to put together a nice service. We're still running back and forth settling the estate. Hopefully our family situation has settled down for a while,and we can get started living a somewhat normal life now.

I finally got a chance to work on my office. Here are a couple of pictures:

That is my writing area. Here is my crafting space.

I was going to use a long wooden table, but decided to use a card table that I got from my mother-in-law's apartment. The card table takes up about half the wall space (it's a small room). Eventually storage will be along the same wall. I decided to put my Cuttlebug and other cutters on the TV tray behind my chair. It's not done yet, I still have to hang pictures, shelves, etc. Along some other walls are furniture and boxes that still need to be moved to our daughter's apartment.

On the table I have a scrapbook, paper, and stickers. I'm starting to scrap our whirlwind trip to California and back. I just started on a page, so I will have more about that next week.

Have a great week crafting and check out some great people with lots of talent at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com.

WOYWW 9-30-15

Here is what I've been working on this week. I decided that I will do some scrapbooking on Sunday afternoons. I've been so busy with cardmaking than I have neglected my scrapping! I got married 4 1/2 years ago and still have barely begun our album.

Well, you can't scrap without pictures. I had problems with my printer on Sunday, so I only got as far as editing and printing out the photos. Oh, well.

I read a great tip somewhere about using the extra ink on stamps to decorate tags, so I have a couple of those on my desk too.

Thanks for the visit! Head on over to stamping

-ground.com to check out some more talented people from WOYWW!