WOYWW

Well, you asked for it,Your Majesty,Wondrous Queen of WOYWW!
Here's the whole sorry mess of the table and Sofa, as requested by Julia. It has been worse but this week I had only spent a couple of hours at the table.
Pity my poor husband with his OCD and this mess! He's like a cat on a hot tin roof until I've finished and cleared it away. Only then is he happy, but of course he has to hoover the Lounge before totally relaxing.
You can see the messed-up throw at the far end where I sit, and the rubbish bin in all it's glory. Never let it be said that I don't recycle, because that's a plastic carrier bag in there, which gets emptied after a craft session and eventually goes in the rubbish itself when it's sticky and gunky enough!
On the sofa there's a box under the guillotine that I don't think you've seen before. It holds my supply of alphabet and word stickers. Another new-to-you item is on the table itself with the ruler resting on top. It's a box of brads, another of my loves, along with buttons and ribbon! The box is full of brads in every colour and size, from every manufacturer known to man (and woman). Under the 2010 album is my box of American Crafts white cardstock - yes, that Bargain Buy is still here, and I have half a box to use up! I'm always open to ideas.
If you'd like to join in WOYWW madness, hop over to see Queen Julia and leave a link to your craft-table photo. We'll all be round to take a look.

52 in 10; Prompt 5

This week's prompt for 52 in 10 is Family. I'm half-regretting (if there's such a word!) my choice of 12x6 format for my album as the size of page doesn't give me enough room to explore each Prompt in detail. To get around that choice today I used two pages, making a 12x12 layout, but split into two halves to fit in the album.

I used Bo Bunny and My Mind's Eye papers along with green Provo Craft word stickers (which don't show up very well on the photo). There are journaling tags under the girls' photos describing each of their characters. As I've said before, they are so different in appearance and character too. Jenni is chatty, bubbly and The Scrapbooker. Karen is quirky, creative and The Photographer.
I sometimes wonder how people choose their childrens' names. How did you choose yours? I was going to be Andrew but that was hastily changed to Ann when the expected boy turned out to be me!
I chose Jennifer's first name because I have always liked it and Hubby was tasked with choosing her middle name. It seems that the oldest girl in his family is always called Ruth (I think I was taken for a ride with that tale!) so Ruth she is. But, for our second child, roles were reversed and Hubby got to choose the first name. Never give a man an important job, I say! I had Elizabeth ready weeks beforehand for the middle name- we knew she was a girl -  but she remained nameless for three days, poor thing, because Hubby couldn't decide!!
Eventually she was named after Karen Carpenter because he liked her singing voice. That's the honest truth.
(I've just Googled Karen Carpenter and discovered her middle name was Anne - now there's a coincidence!)
Perhaps I should have devoted the 'Family' page to how our family got their names?!

Scrap Weekly in 2010: Week 4

This week's challenge from Ruth at Scrap Weekly in 2010 is to use tags on a layout, preferably in a different way to normal. I've thought about the 'different' part all week and only came up with one idea which was to turn 6 or 8 tags into a flower. However, I tried that today and didn't like how it turned out, so I admitted defeat and made a standard two-page layout - with vellum tags a part thereof.
I so liked my photos of a walk around The Lanes this week, especially the one with old sewing machines, that I wanted to make a layout featuring them. I changed the photos to black and white and knew I needed a two-page layout to include as many as possible. But I changed my mind - again - and printed the ones of choccywoccydoodah in colour, creating a layout in two halves: one black and white and plain, one red and white and bling!

The Lanes, Brighton

There is journaling on a tag under one of the photos which reads:

'Amongst the deserted cafes and months-long Sales of the deepest Recession since the 1930's, can be found a quirky, colourful, extravagant shop with stunning chocolate sculptures; Choccywoccydoodah.'

It took me a very long time to put this layout together today as I haven't done a two-page layout in ages and found it challenging. But enjoyable just the same!

WOYWW

This is more like it! This is how untidy my desk should look, especially when I've been getting my fingers dirty! There's distress inks and applicators, stamps and a spritzer bottle and lovely Glimmer Mists. All evidence that I've been making my own backgrounds and enjoying the process.
I don't seem to make this much mess often enough. Getting all the necessary items out of the cupboards is daunting enough to put me off usually, but not this time. Of course the mess has spread even further than you can see - there's all the ink-covered newspaper in the bin and some backgrounds drying at the other end of the table. I find it very satisfying to create from scratch and to produce something I'm happy with, from what is, if the truth be known, a very hit-and-miss affair!
I'm off now to check out everyone's WOYWW posts. If you'd like to join us hop over to meet 'Her In Charge' at Julia's place and see who's taking part.

Do You Have A Favourite Shop?

Do you have a favourite shop? One that's too exclusive and expensive for you to even set foot inside? A shop where you gaze through the window in awe at what's inside and dream that maybe one day you could afford to order something? I do.
In Brighton there are lots of little touristy shops, expensive boutiques and jewellers, spread across the Old Town in streets known as The Lanes. It's an area with an eclectic, even eccentric, range of shops. I went there today with my camera for 52 Walks in 2010 and, once again, found myself outside my favourite shop.
My favourite is a specialist shop which is world-renowned for what they do. What is it famous for? Do they design dresses? Jewellery? Leather goods?
No........What then?

The clue is in the name; Choccywoccydoodah.
They make chocolate sculptures, be they cakes or anything else and they made all the chocolate for the Tim Burton film 'Charlie And The Chocolate Factory'. The window display in this outwardly unassuming shop is 'to die for' whether you are a chocolate-lover or not!

Would you believe that the two dresses and the central rose creation are all cakes, covered in sculpted white chocolate? The attention to detail is fabulous. A few years ago a doctor retired at the hospital where I work and Choccywoccydoodah were commissioned to make a huge dark chocolate cake (which was the best I've ever tasted) and a life-size white chocolate skull. The skull was so life-like I could hardly believe it was edible!

Here's another of the cakes in the window today, completely fashioned out of chocolate. How do they do that?!!
I'm like a child with my nose pressed up against the glass. I just look and dream.

Getting Ahead

I often try to get ahead with card-making. I've made Christmas cards in July, sometimes straight after Christmas! And I just hate to be caught out and have to make a card in a hurry for someone's birthday. I need time to come up with an idea that's personal to the recipient or in a style they will appreciate.

So what's next on my calendar for getting ahead? Valentine's Day of course!

Am I really going to be sending two Valentine's cards this year?? Does Hubby know about this? No and no.

One card is for me to give to Hubby and the other is for my eldest daughter to give to her boyfriend.

So which one's for Hubby? Would you believe the frilly one? I know no other man who likes flowers and frills as much as my dear husband. He often gives me a bunch of flowers and then proceeds to arrange them in a vase and centre them on the table - you see he's actually buying them for himself but pretends they're for me.

I stamped the card background myself with Tim Holtz distress inks (Faded Lipstick and Shabby Shutters)and a small heart stamp, then sprayed with two colours of Glimmer Mists to get a sparkly finish, which doesn't show very well on the photo. The large hearts are cut from My Mind's Eye paper and backed with cream card. The sentiment stamp is from Graphicus and I also used some American Crafts ribbon.

I just love the effects you can create with the new punches from Martha Stewart, but with my self-imposed ban on buying new stash, I had to dig out my Fiskars border punch instead to make the frilly border.

Maybe I should have made three Valentine cards as my younger daughter has a new boyfriend? Hmmm, maybe not. Something this pink and girlie would probably frighten him off!

Musical Memories

This is my 12x6 page for Prompt 4 of  52 in 10 which is about the music that rocks your world! Again I have too small page format to go into great detail about all the musicians I listen to and the songs that bring back memories for me, but I've named quite a few artists  on the page, and given a brief few words about how important music is to me. I've included a photo of me for the last three weeks so I avoided that this time. The music is printed onto acetate which is why there's a strange reflection in the bottom left corner. The back of last week's page and the stitching I did is on show but I promise it will be covered at some point with another week's offering.
I cannot play a note nor sing in tune but I love to listen to music. I remember snaffling my sister's records and record player when she was out and pretending with my friends that we were on the TV programme 'Hit or Miss'. We would listen to a song and give it the thumbs up or down sign. She had a lot of Beatles singles, and to this day, I cannot stand listening to them after playing them so much! Do you remember where you were when you heard that Elvis had died? You might be too young, but I was in Bedford shopping with my family when the radio presenter made the announcement. Elvis was my favourite singer back then.
These days I have an i-pod and listen to it as I travel to and from work. There are many artists on the playlist, dominated by Coldplay and Michael Buble at the moment. Quite a contrast in style, but I like many singers and bands, both old and new, male and female, and I regularly change what I listen to. The fun of digital music for me is that it's portable.
I've listened to 7" singles, LP's, tape players (with fiddly rolls of magnetic tape) and danced to cassette players, Video players and CD's. I'm listening to i-tunes now as I type this post. Music definitely brings back good memories for me.
I wonder how long we'll have i-pods (or the equivalent) before something new comes along?