WOYWW 330--Lazy blogger, busy crafter writer girl

So here's a clean desk for you...

It is What's-On-Your-Workdesk-Wednesday time. I am busy on a few writing projects, which are on my computer, not here...and some stitching projects on another table. But here is some knitting, a sheet of stickers I just printed out, my Midori where I'm doing planning and art journaling daily, my morning cuppa in my Minnie Mouse mug that I love, some planner supplies in a repurposed makeup caddy, and all of that adds up to my lazy blogging!

Hopefully I'll get some blogging done next week--I am just loving working on my writing projects and I will have to interrupt that soon to make an anniversary card for some special friends. If it turns out halfway cute, I'll share! I found this free printable. I print these on the Avery Shipping Label sheets to make them into stickers, and then my 2-inch circle punch is perfect to punch them all out.

Summer is turning into fall today it seems...I don't like it, but I like it more than winter! Also for my British lovelies, I have some news. I did one of those ancestry.com DNA kits and it says I'm 30% Great Britain!! Now I know why I love all my Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife, and Mr. Selfridge programs! It makes sense now. From there it narrows down to 20% Iberian Pennisula, 19% Native American, 8% Irish and so on. It's all amazing.

Have a happy week.

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch

WOYWW 329 - Midori Re-Do

Playing with some scraps for a Midori September challenge

Happy What's-On-Your-Workdesk-Wednesday! Here on the pullout on the side of my crafty desk, for a change of view, I've got my new Midori. I know, call me crazy crafty, but I made myself another Midori with the matryoshka fabric, because I wanted it to be a bit bigger than the first one I made for myself. I need my Midori to be around 9X12-1/2 because it must accommodate my five notebooks and a six-folder pocket inside a dashboard. The notebooks include a planner which I'm really loving and an art journal made of watercolor paper. I think it's time to post another little tour of my Midori. I'm making several from this fabric, some cute owl fabric, some Mary Engelbreit fabric from my stash, and some Christmas fabric. I'll either sell them on Etsy, or in a local shop owned by a friend if that works out for around $25 for these large ones without notebooks and $30 with a 2016 planner and notebook included. I line them with white felt and include a pocket in the front. But for my own Midori I took the time to embroider the inside back cover. I love wearable art, and this is kind of like wearable art--being able to take your embroidery around with you everywhere.

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So it's time to get on the treadmill (I'm watching a show called Land Girls these days) and have my coffee and go for some desk visits!

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch

Visible Storage in a Make-Up Bag for My Most-Often-Used Stamps and Ink Pads

 Now I can see my stamps and ink pads! It all the started the other day when I was ordering my favorite Anew moisturizer from Avon and needed to up my order a little to get the free shipping. So I found a four-piece makeup bag set marked down from 20. to 8. The perfect amount! (sorry, I think they sold out of them, but this is a common type of makeup bag.) When I received it, I realized that a couple of the bags in this set should be repurposed for crafts.

I love using makeup bags in the craft room--case in point, my hanging makeup bag that houses my jewelry making tools and findings, and the small pink Caboodles Jellies organizer that holds my planner stuff.

I wasn't sure right away how I would use these new bags until I stared at them for a few days. Then it hit me. I always wanted a way to keep my most-often-used ink pads and stamps so that I could see them, have space around my desk for them, and also just grab them on the go. This big square clear bag was perfect for that.

This bag holds a lot, zips all the way around, and has a handle on top. Inside I have six big ink pads, three small ones, three square acrylic blocks, one large rectangular acrylic block, my big patterned stamp cube I use all the time, several other wooden block stamps, an alphabet stamp set, my Smash date stamp with the green handle, and several unmounted stamps as you can imagine. The unmounted stamps are the ones I'll switch out sometimes depending on what I'm working on. But I do love my typewriter stamp, so it will live here.

It doesn't look that big but holds a ton!

And it all zips up nice and tidy. So nice that I can hold it up and see what's in there! Yay! I can easily switch out stamps from the large storage of all my unmounted stamps and additional blocks. I don't have that many ink pads--but I tend to go to a few favorite colors anyway. And I still have three other makeup bags that came with this set that were meant to go inside this clear bag. Woo hoo! Thank you for the sale Avon.com. Glad I got this while you had it. Have a good week.


Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday 328 -- I am Back and I am Blessed!

Happy Wednesday lovelies! This is actually my first blog post in two weeks. I had an eye surgery, and had to go through a two-week recovery process which included pretty much staying off the computer except to watch Netflix or videos. Can you imagine? It was hard! And they didn't really prepare me very well for my recovery process, so that just added to the hardship. I won't go into detail. However, I am blessed to have a brilliant surgeon, great medical team, and an awesome family. I continue to heal with my left eye and get better vision every day.

After two weeks, not much going on with my crafty desk that you can see. But, if only you could see the plans in my head!

Visit all the desks at What's-On-Your-Workdesk-Wednesday.

#creativemidorichallenge Day 12 - Keep it real

 I'm happy to start feeling like myself again. One of the things that really got me through this two weeks was, of all things, my Midori traveler's notebook. I wrote things in my planner which I keep in there--kind of amazing considering I wasn't going anywhere or doing anything except recovering...yet I needed my planner to make me feel like a human! I also have a list book in my Midori, an art journal made of watercolor paper, a notebook for my side hustles, dashboard with folder, and a notebook for quotes and thoughts. This kept me motivated on these days when I wasn't allowed to do much else. It was so nice that all these notebooks were together in one place. And I had the time to finally put a table of contents in my notebooks which I now love, and I did some journaling about how I was feeling along with a Midori creative challenge every day in my art journal. The creative challenge goes through this month, and I was ahead on it, but no more now that I'm back in the office. I'm now struggling to keep up with it every day. But I'm not giving it up.

the little desk that stayed by my side with my few little creative goodies

My family took good care of me and brought me little presents every day which even included some washi tape! Boy, they know me. The cats loved having me home every day. My hubby bought me the softest neck pillow which I needed during recovery. It became my "Wilson." (You'll know what that means if you've ever seen the movie Cast Away) I guess my Midori was my Wilson too.

I love my fabric Midori - I call it my Dolldori

Now I'm happy to be off to do something I couldn't do for two weeks. Forget my troubles and visit you guys!

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, Be Happy