WOYWW - 148

Ahem, you won't see my desk as clean and tidy as this very often:

Taken just before I ran away yesterday afternoon to have a break. Working on repetitive makes is likely definitely going to end up with my mind wandering (not hard!) and mistakes.

It's only 80 wedding invitations, 50 folded ones that I'm doing first ready for the inserts as the bride and groom haven't finalised the wording as yet. Then 30 evening function ones just in postcard style. Colours are aubergine and white and each of the 80 envelopes will have a little swirly heart stamped on the back in aubergine :)

Lots of threading diamante hearts onto ribbon to do, but first it's measuring, cutting and layering.

For much more exciting things to see, do hop over to Julia's here and thence other desks, floors, dining tables, trays and beds - even my little white fluffy 'screen duster doggie' looks fed up and a bit bored :)

Crumbs, this 'burning the midnight oil' lark means I hopped in at number 12 this week!

Happy WOYWW!

Di
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Friday Feast - Chicken with Parma Ham and Cranberries

Well, the pumpkin and I had fun yesterday. I won Round One in the morning and it won Round Two in the afternoon - at the moment of truth! I won't publish a recipe on here if I'm not 100% happy with it so, although that was my first disappointment out of at least four times with the 'pumpkin fun' and it was still perfectly edible (yummy in fact), it didn't look as it should and I'm going to have another go when I get a chance :)

Today's Friday Feast is almost a traditional Sunday roast, but a low-calorie option apparently - although you don't feel terribly self-righteous when scoffing and it's really easy to make! Like a lot of the recipes I save and file away, it came from Woman's Weekly. The Mail on Sunday is another good source of yummy recipes to save :)

Chicken with Parma Ham and Cranberries:

50g butter, softened
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 large chicken breasts
8 slices Parma ham
300ml hot chicken stock
4tbsp cranberry sauce
6tbsp red wine

Pre heat the oven to 180 C/ 350 F/ Gas 4. In a bowl beat together the butter and garlic. Make a deep slit in each chicken breast. Spread the butter inside each chicken breast and close the chicken back together. Wrap each breast in 2 slices of Parma ham. Place in a roasting tin.

Pour the hot stock around the chicken and roast for 30 mins.

Remove the chicken from the oven and roasting pan and cover with foil and a tea towel. Place the roasting pan on the hob and add the cranberry sauce and red wine. Boil rapidly for 10 mins or until the sauce has thickened.

Slice the chicken and serve with the sauce.

Things I do:

For two of us I still make the full amount of cranberry sauce. I do use red wine but am sure you could substitute either water or cranberry juice.

As I often make this instead of roasting a full Sunday joint, it has to come with the traditional accompaniments of course :)

Enjoy! 

PS I had a lovely surprise yesterday, my friend Joy came to collect the wedding stationery for Stuart (her son) and Jess. And they had sent her along bearing these:

A very sweet thought indeed! :)

Di

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Pumpkin Pie anyone?

That title (taken from the sentiment on today's card) has reminded me of a recipe to dig out and share! I trotted home from Sainsbury's yesterday afternoon proudly bearing a pumpkin - so this morning there will be a wrestling match between said pumpkin and I in the kitchen. If I win, tomorrow's recipe will be something a bit different to Pumpkin Pie or Soup - if I lose then the recipe will be something else and the subject will never be raised again, snort, snort!! My optimistic OH has already smartly remarked that he awaits the outcome with bated breath - and the First Aid kit to hand :(

Back to today's card, during Tuesday's 'photo rescue' service here that I posted about yesterday, I started this card and just finished it yesterday morning:

Oh my life, this could be me after the wrestling match!! I love this stamp and am ashamed to admit I don't fully recall where it came from - I suspect it was from my friend Bernie?

I used:

- white linen 6" x 6" card stock

- Penny Black 'Apprentice' stamp, coloured using Pro Markers to match the papers I'd already selected

- patterned papers free with a recent issue of Making Cards magazine

- black, orange and green snippets from the snippets folder

- sentiment stamp from Pink Gem Designs

- orange gingham ribbon from stash

- tiny little star shaped gems on the witches hat from Papermania, also from stash

As I used more snippets - yay, that snippets folder is the first place I check now - I'm entering this into Jules Crafty Snippets Challenge Week 42

I'd also like to enter it into the following challenge:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - week 174 - 'Too Cute to Spook'

I can't see these two cuties spooking anyone!

Last, but not least, although it will be the last of these for now - here's the box of Wedding Save The Date cards and envelopes, all prettied up in an A4 plastic box and tissues paper ready for collection :))

Back tomorrow with a recipe for Friday Feast - pumpkin or otherwise!

Di
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WOYWW 125

This is my desk, exactly as I left it last night:

Looking suspiciously tidy too, for a reason in the next photo. It's chucking it down with rain and pitch dark in here so I had to switch the daylight lamp on for any chance of a photo :( Above are the bits I was playing with yesterday afternoon to make a Halloween card. To the right of the Nesties I'd been using is the sweetest little pink pincushion, made by Bernie - brilliant for keeping pins to hand to poke into the nozzles of slightly blocked up Stickles bottles and such.

I was keeping occupied whilst my OH recovered a load of lost photos for a friend from his archery club. She's just returned from an amazing holiday in the Kruger National Park and losing photos from a holiday like that is no fun at all. He used some free software that I came across quite a while back when the same thing happened to me with a whole load of photos from Thailand. It took the deeper recovery operation (about 25 minutes or so) but success! The software is free from Piriform, called Recuva, and can work wonders just so long as photos, or files on your PC, haven't been totally overwritten, even if they are showing as deleted or just 'missing in action'. They are usually still lurking there because of the way indexing systems work (that's how the police - and others - recover files from seized laptops etc. - although their means tend to be more sophisticated). So, if you ever think you've lost a whole load of files - don't do any more fiddling with the camera's memory card or your laptop - go straight here and download the free Recuva software. We did a little dance of joy here when the much loved first sighting of an elephant in the wild reappeared - along with all the other photos :) I do love happy endings - oh, and I'm not on commission for recommending Recuva - it's freeware anyhow!

The 'safari' friend is also an amazing needlewoman and totally loved my poppies 'dumfed' picture that Annie made quite a long time ago :)

And, a quick swing to the right shows why I'm keeping anything messy right OFF my desk right now:

Yay, the completed 'Save the Date' cards all ready to be packed in white tissue into an A4 clear box (oh boy, Hobbycraft was manic when I nipped out later yesterday to buy it - half-term!). I've got some wide aubergine ribbon and a large heart-shaped diamante slider, from my stash, so I can tie the box and make it look pretty and a bit special. All the envelopes have an elegant 'scrolled' heart stamped onto the back in aubergine - thanks to Sandra's recent stamp sale. There's one lying to the back of the ribbon from an extra four that I've stamped to include in the box, in case of mistakes when writing addresses :))

So, that's me for this weeks WOYWW - the rain is lashing against the window here and what better to do than to hop round and see what everyone else if up to today - go to Julia's here and see for yourself :) She's showing off some amazing completed sewing this week - hilarious that her daughter refused to hop onto her desk in keeping with WOYWW though!!

Note: If you go to Home on my blog, there's some candy on offer - there's a 'sticky' posting until next Tuesday. Dumbo here ended up with two sets of heart shaped Nesties dies so one is looking for a new home. No catch, no need to follow or publicise, it's just to celebrate over 300 posts.

Happy WOYWW!

Di
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A decision has been made.......

......about the Wedding Stationery! Jess and Stuart came over yesterday afternoon and loved the samples (phew!!), and the aubergine is spot-on :) There wasn't a shred of aboulomania (today's long word!) and they almost immediately decided on a later sample style that I made:

The cute little diamante heart shaped ribbon sliders clinched it for sure. The wording is to be changed a bit and will say 'Stuart and Jessica' - plus the addition of their Wedding website and password at the bottom. Minor changes and they liked the font :)

This is the invitation itself - although this sample one says Evening Invitation:

The hotel will produce the place cards, menus and table layout in plenty of time (I hope!), which I'll 'pretty up' for them. Ooops, then there's the Order of Service of course.

We did have a laugh - Jess trotted off with a length of ribbon to use for matching the bridesmaids dresses and it amused us that they will be matched to the stationery, not the other way round :)

So, if you see a mad woman racing round Hampshire today buying up aubergine card from Hobbycraft - that'll be me then :))

It's gonna be busy here as the Save The Date cards need to be ready ASAP. We even had the presence of mind to check the thickness using my posting gauge - and they will go at the normal sized postage rather than large letter.

Sorted............now let the action commence! :)

Di

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WOYWW 123

Well, it's been a fun time in the craft room this past 24 hours! Right now my head is spilling over with wedding stationery ideas - eek though, what if they don't like anything I manage to come up with by next Monday evening! This is the state of the bit of my desk I feel able to show as I left it yesterday evening:

Only two samples finished but lots of bits in the oblong box at the back ready for some square invitations and example place cards, umpteen pairs of scissors, different sticky stuff, ink pads from colouring flowers as shown on the lovely Jules' blog here (great idea and worth a look!) and the hot fix wand - also one of Jules' brilliant gadget ideas :) I know that Elizabeth is very taken with the idea of hot fix nail heads and I promise you wouldn't regret investing in one. Just resist the temptation to touch the nail heads too soon after fixing them - ouch :)

There's an invitation sample with butterflies on and, although I could find aubergine card in Hobby Craft, there was no paper - and the butterfly punch does not do card at all - so, thanks to a little bit of inspiration (today's long word) I bought some aubergine envelopes to match the card and carefully dissected those instead. Not the cheapest way of doing things but at least I can play until I know exactly what shade Jess really has in mind. Carol also sent me some SU eggplant/aubergine card which I can show as an alternative if my definition of aubergine is too dark! Thanks Carol :)) Aren't crafters just the very best at diving in to help!!

Behind the butterfly card you can see a creamy white stick. This is sooo cool - a great find for clumsy folk like me (the arthritis in my right thumb doesn't help either - poor old crock!):

This is it with the lid off for a closer peek. It's a Pinflair Pick Up Tool and can be bought from Amazon, e-Bay and quite a few craft suppliers. The end is like a sticky blob so you can pick up little gems etc. really easily - I use it a lot to help me to pick up/position hot fix nail heads. If the sticky loses its 'tackiness' you just rinse it in warm water and leave it to dry. So far I haven't needed to do this and I've had it for a while - but I do keep the cap on it in between picking up stuff which probably helps.

To see what everyone else is up to today and to have a good nose at their desks etc. - just hop over to Julia's here. Happy snooping :))

Di
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The art of making cards that are impossible to photograph

Fiddling round here yesterday I had what seemed like a good idea at the time:

Yikes! It's almost impossible to photograph embossing and this one above is the best I could do with the light coming in sideways from a window :( It's a real bummer shame as they do look very tactile (a grown-up word!) in real life. I bet they would look good using the ink pad, brayer then emboss technique too.

The cards are 8" x 8", embossed with dots that look a bit like snow, bought from The Range. Embossed Christmas trees were done using a folder I bought at Ally Pally to replace a Cuttlebug one that was misaligned from the word go. It's the only folder I've ever had like that so I was skipping for joy when I found this even nicer one at AP. Gems and pearls came from my stash, along with the ribbon and the backing card behind the trees (Glossy Black and Silver Mirri). Each tree was topped off with a Josy Rose silver star nail head.

I'm off out shortly - to snoop saunter round a Wedding Fayre at our local Community Centre. I have a ton of ideas whizzing round in my head for the wedding stationery I'm about to begin playing with - but, it's always good to see what others are doing. And, if I'm cheeky, to ask if anyone knows where I can get plain card stock in aubergine :)) Man, I've searched the internet in vain - I have mulberry paper and a lovely embossed paper, both in aubergine, but also want some plain card to play with :(

Thank you so much by the way for the advice about keeping it 'simples' - noted :) !

Right, time to get ready, put my Hettie Wainthropp outfit on, then go out investigating :)) Hope you're having a fun Sunday!

Di
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