WOYWW 5th Birthday

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

That's bunting for this special day!

Because of WOYWW....

I received a lovely surprise today.... thanks to Annie (Wipso) and Jo (Twiglet)

and Dolores gave me this lovely ATC when she visited some time ago...

the reason is that today is 

the 5th Birthday

 of Julia's family of deskers. 

Happy Birthday

 to everyone who participates each week, the snoopers as well as the deskers who share their crafty places for all the world to see. 

It has brought fun and friendship to so many crafters over those five years so to join in the celebrations get over quick as you can to Julia's Stamping Ground before the champers runs out!

Thanks so much to Julia for being the hostess with the mostest.

 I can't get to my crafty stuff to make any ATCs due to my renovations  and I didn't plan to participate, but Annie & Jo still each sent me lovely ATCs and cards. Thanks to such

special friends made through

WWWWWWW

that's the 

Wonders of the World Wide Web

 and 

What's on your Workdesk Wednesday

 I have to mark the day and just realised that I can make just one, which will probably be stitched, so I have added my name to the list.

My desk isn't in a very celebratory state and this above (pictured mid state last week) became this below.
Two wall and two base cupboards emptied and removed.

All this, below, is now in my neighbour's garage

All the shelves and stash have gone from this side of the window

and this will be my last job to box up this lot today before the plumbers move in and transform one end into a ground floor shower and toilet.

I really don't know where it will go but it will have to go somewhere!

You are all invited to the grand reopening... on line of course! 

Have a great 5th birthday.

WOYWW 259

I made this card on my work desk ready to send to my oldest grandee in Brighton who will be 7 at the weekend. It stood on the table to dry the glitter glue and when I went to retrieve it the peony had kindly shed it's petals over it. An amazing amount but the flower is still so full with lots more petals waiting to drop.

I'm just popping in late to warn everyone that I will be out of action for some time and this will be the last thing I make in my craft room for a while.

 I am in the process of emptying my stash into boxes, and trying to squeeze them into the garage, ready for the plumbers to take over......

such an onerous task.

I'm not the only one to be sharing my work space as there are many more to be spied upon over at Julia's place, the Stamping Ground.

I'm really sorry I cannot take part in the WOYWW 5th Birthday swap but I'll be around to help celebrate on the day amidst all my huge mess so spare a thought for me but please don't send me any ATCs.

Some of the cupboards will be have to be removed and where the freezer stands will soon be a downstairs shower and in the anti chamber behind the door there will be a toilet.

This will all go and may never return! What on earth will I do with the contents of all those boxes? I bet a few of you could tell me!!!

I will be AWOL for quite some time until the work is finished but it can't even start until I make space for the plumbers to work. 

So sorry if I don't get around too many desks but I'll do my best to visit as many of you as I can.

Liverpool Sights & Friday Smile

Continuing Cardarian's (Dolores) visit to Liverpool, showing some more of the places we visited during her visit to Liverpool.

As Dolores is a librarian so she was eager to see our city's spectacular Central Library, which won an award as last's year's best new building of the 2013 for UK.

I'm adding this post to Annie's Friday Smile as I'm remembering the happy, fun time we all had together.

You'll see even more to brighten your weekend over at Annie's (Wipso) place. 

At the top of the library there's an open area providing views over the city, just outside the atrium.

The main body of the building is linked and flows into the renovated Picton Reading Rooms, a splendid domed Victorian circular library. 

We visited the Anglican cathedral which is, very aptly, at one end of Hope Street and at the other end of Hope Street stands the Roman Catholic Cathedral. We enjoyed an excellent lunch in the Anglican and I must say that both cathedrals serve excellent food. 

You can see the building in the distance from the piazza of 

                       the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King.

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King

I didn't take photos inside the Anglican Cathedral as, with respect, I didn't feel comfortable taking any in such a place. The Metropolitan Cathedral was so quiet and the few people there were tourists snapping away, so I took the opportunity to discretely join in. 

The colours of the lantern change with every angle as you move around.

This is the large panel made by their embroidery workshop to celebrate the visit of Pope John Paul ll's visit to Liverpool in 1982

I love to see the exceptional artwork in each of the side chapels

This glistening mosaic was rescued from another church at the last minute just in time to save it from demolition.

Can you see the face in the facade?....

Geometric crosses on the bell tower.

As a final smile here's my shock view when we stopped at traffic lights as we drove home one day!

WOYWW 258 / Cardarian & Doone Visit

My desk was clear with plenty of space but it's amazing that we didn't do much crafting on it, just cut a few dies and talked and laughed over the long weekend that Cardarian (Dolores) and her DBF stayed with us. We had such fun and enjoyed a great get together here in Liverpool.

To share lots more far more interesting desks than mine zip over to Julia's abode...the Stamping Ground

It was wonderful to also be joined by Doone (Donna) who took the long drive over from Derby to share Dolores's birthday lunch. 

and we all enjoyed her wacky profiterole birthday cake, complete with the chandelier I bought from a Tiger Store in Germany. (It's a Danish company and they now have stores in UK. )

If you have one of their stores near you, be sure to pay a visit as you will be in for such a treat. 

They sell an amazing range of unusual goods at such cheap prices and lots of crafty items.

Dolores and I both received fantastic birthday gifts from Donna (mine in advance) and here's mine...I'm so thrilled to own it and to have a quilt made  especially for me. It is fascinating that Donna has veered towards fabric art, particularly to patchwork and quilting, just as I have.

We did a bit of shopping....and fought over who has which pair of these shoes in Schuhe, just like I did when I was a child!! 

We drove to the North of Liverpool to Crosby beach as Dolores dearly wanted to see "Another Place" by Anthony Gormley. A hundred male figures (modelled as usual on his own form) cast in iron.

Over the few years since they were installed they have eroded and are now so different, with amazing patinations, some with barnacles and some with human intervention. Last time I visited another stretch of the beach there was one in a bikini and one with a football scarf and hat.

They are spread far apart across a 2 mile stretch of beach so it can be quite a walk getting around a few.

As you can see Dolores really loved them....

The dome in the distance is a swimming pool.

This fellow was not set so low in the sand. 

The natural drift shifted the sand and it may well change again in the future.

Here you can see how far they are spaced, all looking out to sea and there in all weathers.

For more info on this amazing art installation check it out HERE and HERE

Lots more to come over the next few days as we enjoyed our time together out and about in Liverpool.

Blog Candy Winner!

Blog Candy Winner

Drum roll, fanfares, cheers and applause for the winner of my blog candy prize!!! 

No Vuvuzelas please.

You will remember the oppressive annoyance of the vuvuzela horns which wrecked the atmosphere of the last football World Cup. 

They were eventually banned at UK matches.

 Well it looks like we will have yet another annoyance to endure at the forthcoming World Cup in June.

Be warned the Caxirola will be there in full noise!

Here it is... 

the Caxirola Maraca

and the winner of my blog candy is .....

****

**

* 

 Samski

 who, amazingly, was the first to guess and who was also spot on with 102.

I have since made another 40 pieces during my travels and thanks to easyjet delays! 

Well done to Sam and I will be making her a handmade needle case or patchwork covered note book. 

I'll be getting in touch to arrange the choices of fabric, colours etc.

More pics from my German trip.

The white building is the Rathaus in the town where my DD2 lives and it dates from the 13th century.

This is the Heinrich Heine Haus where my DD was married

 The wisteria was in full bloom a whole month earlier than usual.

We loved this little quality piece of graffiti and it looked somewhat like a Banksy.