WOYWW 629 - 'I did a thing!' - Scrapbooking has started

Happy Wednesday to all the crafters around the world who share a photo(s) of their crafty workspaces.  Click HERE if you would like to join in.

My quote in the title is in reference to my new favourite tv programme - Clarkson's Farm (on Amazon Prime).  Very funny, emotional and even I am learning things about farming.  I spent a lot of my childhood living on a farm just down the road (outside Chipping Norton) and remember riding in the fields.  A beautiful area of Oxfordshire.

I didn't blog last week.  I can't remember exactly why not now (goes to look at Google Calendar).  Ah yes.  It was our 16th Wedding Anniversary and we had a generally busy day with all sorts of stuff, so I was prevented from sitting down to type a blog post.

Our trip to Wiltshire/Oxfordshire/meeting up with Mum was fabulous.  The weather was hot and sunny, we loved our day at Castle Combe race circuit, and the Sunday lunch/woodland walk with Mum was a success.

We have collected the keys to the house we have bought in Haverfordwest, and have had meetings so far with builder, electrician and decorator.  Wallpaper stripping starts tomorrow and we are hopefully meeting with our heating/plumbing guy to get boiler checked and some gas safety work done.  The deadline for getting it all done is by the 3rd week of August, so our grandchildren can start at the local school in September.    Lots of decisions to be made, but it is a lot smaller project than the farmhouse (which took 6 months), so I keep telling myself that we can survive!

My crafty table today shows one of the scrap layouts I did with the GoGoGetaway Crop last weekend (this is their Facebook Live event).  Yes, two photos from Castle Combe and they are already scrapped!  My haul of wood ATCs is piled up there, and just some of the Serif CraftArtist digikits I bought last week.  I had over 250 in all from one lady, and now I am installing them.  (I do have a few that are not my taste, so if anyone is interested in a list, just get in touch - aliwadedesigns1971@gmail.com).  There is also a photo of the crochet rainbow hanging in our porch, which was meant to be scrapped with the 4th and final challenge of that weekend, but I ran out of time.  I am going to get that done this week.

I have already paid my deposits for two of the actual GoGoGetaway hotel weekends next year.  They sell out really quickly (I missed the 2021 dates), so now I can just look forward to weekends in a nice hotel and doing lots of layouts with new friends.

I was meant to be going to a craft workshop this afternoon, but suffering after my 2nd Covid jab yesterday (very sore arm and some mild flu symptoms), so have postponed that to another day.  On Friday morning I am going to my first scrapbooking group meeting, so all go with my crafty calendar.

Hope everyone is well.

Ali x

ps  I have come back to add a thank you to both Diane and Susan for their lovely ATCs and postcards - all received safely and now displayed in my 'display area'.

WOYWW 622 - purely digital this week

Morning from a sunny and breezy Pembrokeshire.  The storm we had on Monday was not very pleasant.  Very strong winds and some damage in our area (but just weaker branches down on the ground on our farm).  We did need the rain though!

It is Wednesday again, so I am making an effort to get this post typed.  Very little crafting has happened in the past week (or 2 weeks really, as I missed last week), and if I do make something I often forget to take photos.  I have started learning and using Serif CraftArtist 2 Professional again (to give it its full title!), and joined a Zoom workshop group on Saturday afternoons.  It has been a few years since I have had this software working (my old craft room pc died and had to have its hard drive replaced, and I never bothered reinstalling all the software as I wasn't using it right then).  When I saw these workshops I decided to get my spare CD-Roms out of the cupboard and get it installed on my fancy new pc.  I had forgotten how fantastic it is and intend to learn all the more advanced features this year.

Here is my screen this morning.  Nothing exciting to show so far.  We were learning how to take a page of embellishments and divide them up (so they are transparent to use as 'stickers').  Very useful.

The search for a car for me continues.  We went to drive one locally yesterday, but decided not to get that specific one.  Seen a few online, so may well be buying one 'unseen' and getting it delivered.   We spent all of last Tuesday in Swansea trying out a few different new cars (plus a wonderful lunch down by the beach - exciting to have a meal 'out' again).  Decided on the BMW i3, so at least we have narrowed down the search now.

We might be going to visit family in England this weekend.  My stepson, fiancee and their 2 young daughters.  Not seen them for well over a year.  It does depend on the weather though, as would only be able to meet up outside somewhere.  We also have to stay at a hotel in Wales, rather than the usual Premier Inn close to them in Warrington.  If the forecast for Saturday continues into Sunday, then I will definitely be postponing until later in May when we can at least have a meal inside a pub/cafe.

Hope everyone is keeping well and busy.

If you would like to join in with WOYWW (What is On Your Workdesk Wednesday), click HERE.

Ali x

ps  This is a picture I took on a warm/sunny day recently.  My electric bike up on one of the hills a few miles from the farm.  A very nice place to stop and admire the views from the coast round to the mountains.