WOYWW 604 - Betwixtmas again...

Good morning, Lovely WOYWWers!  Welcome to the Wednesday blog hop, hosted by our equally lovely Julia.  You can find all the deets and other desks here.  Do join in if you haven't done so previously!

This week my desk is dull, much like the weather down here in Cornwall.  Nothing to report as being "in action" on it so to speak.

This year I will be re-instigating "Rudolph Day".  I'm painfully aware that some folks didn't get a card from me at all (hangs head in shame) let alone a handmade one (hangs whole of body in shame) and this is partly due to the year we had and the state the office/craftroom has been in.  Equally of importance is the complete lack of inspo and simply being out of practice!  I did manage to make a whole four cards for my Vampires (my Myth & Magic Stitch Wars team mates) and I think most of them have arrived by now but as two were going to the States, and they are having terrible postal trouble out there, I've a feeling at least one is still in transit.

I did two different designs...

Sorry, I digress.  Rudolph Day.  What this basically means, for those that haven't heard of it before, is that on the 25th of each month in 2021 (December excluded) I will sit and make a handful of Christmas cards, ready for Xmas 2021.  I know.  Terribly organised of me!  I do however feel that it's the only way to be organised enough as I can get far too easily sidetracked.  My patronus is a Sloth, you know.

I've even started a Christmas journal - not for diary keeping but to keep a record of to whom I've sent cards, who I've received from, what presents I bought for people.  Oh, and what we ate.  That way, next year I've got a record to look back on and to help ensure I don't double up on gifts.  And that at the very least, everyone who sent us a card gets one back.  Especially if they didn't get a card this year! oops.  I know that's not necessarily the spirit of the whole thing - no-one expects a card in return for sending one, and I certainly don't, but that's just how I roll.

I was going to say that I didn't receive a single item of craft related goodness this year, but I've just realised that is a lie.  Kat, one of my Vampires, sent a skein of Caron Wildflowers thread as a little gift.  It's rather poignant though - it came from her Grandmother's stash which Kat inherited, and she's said that she'll never use it all and thinks her Grandmother would approve of it being passed to another stitcher.  I've decided I'm going to make some simple blackwork Christmas ornaments with it.

Speaking of blackwork - the 2020 sampler is almost done.  I'm just finishing off the border which is now more than half complete, and then it can be washed and framed.  Peppermint Purple are doing a companion SAL for 2021 and I ummed and ahhed over whether or not to do it but have been duly enabled by Mr Morti to join in.  I'm just waiting for my fabric to arrive, and can then start it.  I'm going with purple thread for 2021.  There's a surprise.... hehehehe.

The Barn Owl was finally framed....

.... but I was unable to deliver as anticipated on the 20th December.  Essex was one of the areas that was placed into Tier 4 on that day, and our Round Robin trip to Essex and other areas in the south east for drop offs and pickups had to be very much truncated to just Exeter and Bournemouth for dropping off presents. It did mean that we didn't have to leave until about 9:30am, instead for 5am, and we were home by 10pm rather than 2am!  Rather civilised.  However, we still need to do the run as aside from the Barn Owl, I completed the silver memorial jewellery and that also needs dropping off, and we have a large oak overmantle to collect and pickled onions to deliver.  Santa ain't done yet...

The jewellery I made.....

There were 5 in total - the other four said "Nannie", and each had the deceased's birthstone alongside the recipient's birthstone, as a Swarovski crystal.

Morti Jr also got an Arctic fox charm, handmade by yours truly...

I did start another cross stitch in the run up to Christmas - A Christmas Moose, by Panna.  Haven't got very far but I will continue working on him so he's framed and up next year.  

What it’ll look like when done...

I also finally finished Morti Jnr's jumper.  It's taken me a good couple of years, but it's done.  It's also waaaaay too big, but she has professed that she likes a big slouchy jumper.  

I think the wool I used was more stretchy than that in the original, and I've never much been one for a tension test.  LOL.  I have different wool to crochet one the same for me, but I think I'm going to wait awhile on that.  Too many other projects on the go!  However, I will be doing a tension square with that wool...

So, that's that for now.  I think this is plenty long enough without boring you on all the current plans for the next year.  Watch this space for more crafting loveliness!  Also, I wish you all a most excellent 2021, although the dreaded C***d isn't going away so please do all take care of yourselves...

Happy hopping!

WOYWW 600 - The Big Anniversary Edition

Welcome back to What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - the weekly blog hop hosted by our lovely Julia here.  Do go and have a look at the other busy desks and workstations being presented as part of the hop!

And what a hop it is today!  600 editions.  SIX HUNDRED.  A quick review of my blogging history and I'm embarrassed to admit that I've only been present for 165 of those 600, scattered across time, with my first WOYWW post being made on 12 August 2010 - WOYWW #62!  for those weeks I didn't join in, the WOYWW clan were never far from my thoughts though, I have to admit.  Time between posts sometimes flew, and I never realised how much time had passed until I sat down to blog again.

In that time I've remarried, and moved house 4 times too. Hopefully settled in my latest dwelling and looking forward to the next 600 WOYWWs (hehehehehe).

So a huge congrats to the great Mrs D and her wonderful hop, which has inspired and encouraged me, and given me some friendships which will last a lifetime and cross countries and continents!  Love you, lady.

On with the hop...

Today's desk is back to normal.  A mess.  Miss B has been staying for a few days as it's the only chance she'll have before Yule/the holidays to visit.  Some much needed R&R for her and a chance to catch a beat before the Xmas rush at work.  And get floof therapy.  So 'stuff' from around the house has been deposited in what is deemed the only free space... huh.

We also put the Christmas tree up, so that's another reason for my office/playroom becoming a dumping ground.

The blackwork is nearly caught up - I'm only a couple of weeks behind (three as of this morning) and I'm about ready to start on the border as well.  The Christmas Moose is also on the frame but not photographed.

On another frame is a spoon - this is from the Medicine Spoon Memorial - a planned art installation to memorialise the women persecuted and killed as part of the witch hunts. Do go and visit here for more info. I’m not yet decided on how I’m decorating my spoon but I’m sure it’ll involve needlework. 

And that's it for the moment!  Short but sweet.  I'm working on some memorial jewellery for a friend - 5 pendants.  Sadly my friend lost her mother very early on in the first wave of Coronavirus, like so many people, and she wants some handwriting jewellery for herself, her two daughters and her nieces.  Must crack on with it and get them done before Christmas.

I am determined to get round everybody today, and hopefully we'll see a few familiar faces pop up and join in from back in the day - a reunion of sorts.  A virtual gathering is indeed planned - and when we can eventually meet up in person, t'will be a joyous occasion.

Happy WOYWW, Happy Hopping, and...

See you on the hop!

WOYWW 597 - Remembrance Day

Welcome back to What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - the weekly blog hop hosted by our lovely Julia here.  Do go and have a look at the other busy desks and workstations being presented as part of the hop!

This week has been quiet on the crafting front, but busy on the tidying front.

Mr B even got in on the act, working hard to clean up the shed after we discovered rats living in there.  A moment's lack of judgment in placing a bag of unwanted dog food (it upsets the dogs' tummies too much) and the rats thought it was fiesta time.... oops.  So now starts the hard slog to rid ourselves of the wee beasties.  Not that we dislike rats, with Miss B having kept pet ones as a child, but the vermin variety as opposed to the domesticated variety are far more problematic and can cause some very nasty diseases.  The trouble is, the in house rat catcher is not allowed out, with us living on a very busy main road.  Sigh.  Otherwise it would be problem solved.  So down go the traps and bait and we wait.

Indoors, I dealt with the desk spaces that need a tidy up although looking around me now I can see a degree of slippage.  Must remember to read books when I buy them, not six years later.  And dispose of packaging!  Tut!

On the desk are multiple projects awaiting completion.  Including sourcing a new home for our pet rock, Iggy.  His broke in transit and you can see his home in a bag on the desk.

I stitched the edges of the two cross-stitches that are on the desk - they're just awaiting stretching and framing now.  It's quite fiddly getting it right, to ensure that pictures are straight, especially when they have straight lines on, so I can't do more than one in a week or I end up thoroughly depressed and a bit slapdash by the time I get to the last one.

The cactus has also progressed a little - back-stitching makes such a difference but it's quite tedious on this design as there's lots of jumping about for odd stitches.  I don't mind it as a general rule but I did so much stitching the last couple of months, I'm enjoying taking a break. Back to it this week though, as those other projects won't get done otherwise!

Enjoy the hop - I hope to get round to as many of you as I can today...

Toodlepip!

WOYWW 596 - Calm Before The Storm

Hello again and welcome back to my desk for WOYWW - What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday. Hosted as ever by the lovely Julia. 

Not much to see or report this week.  The whole room is a bit of a mess - in the corner you can see my actual “office” area. I’m waiting for Miss B to move out properly, that is, finish Uni and decide if she’s staying in Exeter, or if she needs to come home for a bit first. The plan is to move the office into her bedroom, move the desks around a bit, and put a sofa bed in so that I can stitch upstairs, or we can have guests. This year has been really tough for Uni students, and the part of her Drama course she loves most (practicals) is on hold, thanks to Covid-19, which is making her feel very down. 

On the right you can see a sheet hanging up. This is my dreadful attempt to screen the Kallax unit when I have to do a Zoom call for work. Teams is good because I can change the background but because work won’t pay for a pro subscription to Zoom, I can’t change the background or blur it and it’s just too busy and interesting. 

The other side of the room is just as bad, but improving. I’ve bought a tripod and ring light because the plan (er-herm) is to start doing Flosstube videos. I’ve also started working on a video showing the Barn Owl progress from start to finish. I’ll post a link when it’s uploaded. The poor Halloween wall hanging is still waiting for attention!

I’ve also had a trolley from IKEA waiting for me to decide what goes in it, and a moment of inspiration prompted me to make it my sewing trolley. When not in use the machine has sat on the floor, occasionally getting kicked. Oops... this means that the desk it’s usually sat on can be alternated for other purposes - scrapbooking, laptop work... now to clear the rest of the mess on it and put the theory to test. 

And lastly the cactus picture. A little bit of progress from last week - I’ve not worked on it since last Friday - but with lockdown starting tomorrow, the wedding it was intended for has been postponed and it won’t be finished now until the week before the new wedding date - once the bride and groom have picked it. 

The original chart called for satin stitch in the ring, but I didn’t like how it looked (messy!), so picked two of the colours they used and cross-stitched it instead. Much neater!

So that’s it for this week. Posting this has given me a push to pick the stitching back up and get it as finished as possible, before putting it away, and then to work on the next thing. 

Adios - catch you on the blog-hop!

WOYWW 595 - the Spooktober edition

Eh-up!

Or should that be "BOO!"?

Welcome to another edition of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, the linky and loads of other desks can be found here, courtesy of the rather lovely Mrs Dunnit.

I don't have a very interesting reason for having skipped a few weeks.  Seems I'm usually quite forgetful and then by the time I remember it's Thursday and it kind of negates the whole point.  However, today I have managed to get here relatively on time.

The desk itself looks little different.  I'm gradually compiling components for a Halloween bell jar project.  Might need to get a shift on with that, as Halloween itself is only a couple of days away!

The world at present mostly revolves around needlework - the joy of joining an online gaming....thing.... that vaguely resembles a book you used to roll dice to read.  Adventure books.  Except not much adventuring goes on - you join a clan, you all stitch, and create enough stitches to buy ingredients to build spells which you then throw at another clan until only one remains.... In it's most base form it sounds dull, but it certainly drives you to get big projects done and dusted!  I'm not the fasted of stitchers, but have managed to complete a couple of projects, as you well know.

The barn owl is finally complete, washed and awaiting framing...

The Peppermint Purple SAL is almost complete, we're in the final quarter of the year and although I'm a little behind (fnar fnar) by a couple of weeks, it won't take long to catch up!

I've been working on another project which I won't say too much about as I'm not sure the recipient ever lands on my blog, if she even knows it exists but suffice to say I'm working on this baby and it's close to done.  Just got to finish off the ring and add the back-stitch.

I also managed to make a couple more masks for me...

Next up to be worked on is this Halloween Hanging - I bought it at the Harrogate Knit & Stitch show back in 2017, and it's been lurking in my pile of "I'll get round to it someday" projects.  It’s a printed panel that you machine quilt and I’m looking forward to whipping it up. Somewhere I have all the bits for a Lily Bo quilt I promised.  It will still get done and sent... 

Once that's done, it'll be a few other stitching projects, as well as finishing off a half done jumper for Lil Miss B.  Back and front are done, need to stitch/crochet them together, do the sleeves and neckline, and it'll be done.  I have a couple of other knit/crochet projects to do after that one.

Oh - the knee is a lot better, by the way.  Going to have some doozy scars!  It's Mr B's turn now though - he managed to badly scald his left foot on Saturday 17 October and has been off work since, but hopefully will be fit enough to return to work on Monday.  Fingers crossed!

Anyway - off to do some work now (bah, hiss, curses!), so happy hopping folks!

WOYWW 589 - back again, a day late....

Well, hello!

I bet you thought I’d done a full disappearing act again. 

Somehow I’ve managed to make it on Thursday this week, instead of Wednesday! I had the full intention of posting yesterday, but somehow time got away from me. It’s been a busy couple of weeks here at Morti mansions. I’ve had visitors three weekends on the trot, and my mum bless her, 89 years old, stayed for the whole week. I will admit that she stayed at the Premier Inn over the road, because our house is a little challenging for an elderly lady who is not as mobile as she once was, especially with three animals hellbent on tripping her up!  However, she spent the days with us and Mr B took her out a few days to keep her entertained. One of the days - Tuesday - we went to Trebah Gardens, near Falmouth. A beautiful historic garden being restored to its former glory. It’s set in a valley, or Chine, and has a beach at the bottom.

Unfortunately between her wheelchair, my husband, two dogs, and a hidden rock, I managed to have an argument with the gravel path and the path won! So for the last nine days I have been nursing a very poorly knee where I managed to take the skin off, in places full thickness. Needless to say, last week I didn’t feel much like posting to my blog.

The photo of me and Mum together was taken at the beach and was after my accident, while hubby fetched ice creams and first-aid supplies. It was a lovely day, the whole week was lovely and we had good weather. It was good to see her - the last time we were together was just before Christmas. 

My sister and brother-in-law brought her down from Essex, and they also went on a tour around Cornwall during the week, to give themselves some respite from being mums personal assistance back home. We also visited Charlestown near Saint Austell which was lovely and a bit different.

You may recognise it from various TV programmes (Taboo, Dr Who, Poldark, Frontier) and films (Alice in Wonderland, Rebecca, Treasure Island). I’m sure there are more but can’t think of them!  I heartily recommend a visit to the Shipwreck Museum. It was only £6 to get in but worth it for the myriad of treasures/salvage and history on display.

Unfortunately, Mum is not in the best of health, and wound up at the doctors on the Monday after getting home. They took her into hospital, for tests overnight, and found cardiac arrhythmia. She is being treated, and I have FaceTimed her in hospital with my sister assisting, and she’s looking a lot better than she was when she was with us.  She should be home on Friday. 

Onto other news! The whole point of this blog is in fact to join in with What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday, as hosted by the lovely Julia.

The answer is not a lot! But you’ve come to expect that from me. The desk is piled high again, but the barn owl has moved on considerably and is very close to the finish.

So, next week, hopefully full service will resume and I may have something different to show you. Until then happy hopping!

WOYWW 586 - missed a week!

Welcome again to WOYWW. Missed me?  Just testing!  Once again another hop through the blogs and crafting desks of the planet. Well a couple dozen at any rate. 

I nearly missed this week too. The working weeks have been horrendous of late  - very busy as you can imagine during the current pandemic and how it’s affecting businesses worldwide. It’s been a huge learning curve for those of us on the HR frontline, I can tell you!  

So desk and creativity wise, what’s going on at Morti Mansions?  A whole lot of the same nothing really!

The desk is tidy. Tidier. 

The little Mill Hill kit I was working on is done...

I love Mill Hill ornament kits, they are quick little things to work on and true heirlooms to pass onto other family members. You can just catch a couple of others I’ve done this year, in the background. 

The owl is progressing steadily...

And that’s it for now!  

We have three weekends of visitors coming up, so not much will get done in the house or garden for the next couple of weeks other than a whole lotta cleaning. 

Toodlepip!

WOYWW 584 - there’s a fog blowing in

Welcome to another edition of WOYWW!  Hosted by the lovely Julia over at The Stamping Ground, if you’re a random visitor you can see more desks here. Can’t  see much in Cornwall today - the whole North Coast is shrouded in very thick fog!

After a week off, I do t really feel like I’ve had a holiday. It’s always that way when you have a stay-cation and spend your week on household stuff. We do have a couple of major developments, one of which is some new shelving in the craft-room-cum-office. 

They’ve made a huge difference - the room somehow seems bigger, but maybe that’s just because it’s tidier. Mostly....

Creativity-wise, I’ve now got three cross-stitch WIPs on the go!

The barn owl...

The Peppermint Purple SAL

More boxes added and last week’s box done (new box chart released today). 

And I’ve started a Mill Hill beaded ornament kit...

Not much else doing at the moment but that’s plenty to be going on with. 

I do need to sort that desk out because I’ll have a load of memorial jewellery to start soon for one of my best friends who lost her mother early in the pandemic. I knew Marion myself, many a tuna and salad cream sandwich was I fed as a teen, and it is a sad loss. 

Right! Onwards and upwards - have a great day, all!