A Shocking Discovery

 

A Shocking Discovery

At the grand old age of thirty-two

I'm unprepared for this, 'tis true:

Two strands of hair turned white,

Age ganged up on me in spite.

 

I've much hair yet to go to seed

But we all know where this path doth lead -

So as there's no Time-Backward cure,

Let me begin the Hair-Dye war.

WOYWW 183

Hello, all you What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday-ers - and apologies to most of you, whom I didn't get round last week! Good intentions and all that - oops!

Still, here we are again: Wednesday, and sharing our creative spaces with fellow nosy crafters, courtesy of Julia over at Stamping Ground. As I'm a writer who crafts as a hobby, my actual desk is rather anti-craft in terms of space...

You can see my laptop (closed because not a lot of writing has been going on - boo!), green 'To Action' file covered in Post-Its, specific Novel Number Two notebook (also closed and collecting dust, at this rate!), and, to the right-hand side, Novel Number Two files (pink is my second-favourite colour, with red being my first - girly, moi?! Never!) all stacked up and waiting to be taken out and used!

My desk is in the cupboard-under-the-stairs, which I cleared out and converted into my study, or Scriptorium as I like to call it, several years ago. My crafting supplies have sneaked in to claim a spot to the right of my desk...

Embellishments and buttons are stored in old cranberry sauce jars (try some with a ham or turkey sandwich, and add in some brie if you're feeling indulgent...yum, yum!); next year's calendar is Novel Number Two themed (fashion and handbags play a large part of the story - all to be revealed...when I write the damn thing!) and waiting for January 1st to be daily-inspiring; the top shelf holds my small (yet growing...) collection of stamps and inks, plus an apron 'cause I hate getting messy!; the middle shelf has papers and card; and the bottom shelf hides all manner of bits and bobs. As you can see, I don't have that much room at all...so the actual crafting happens on the kitchen countertop! There, at least, is space and natural light...

Before I away to snoop and nose at your desks, I wanted to share with you the completion of the Christmas present I was making last week. I can't show you the 3 individual canvases, as the friend in question sometimes pops by the Pen Pot (if I remember after Christmas, I'll post pics then!), but I can show you the 'handmade' tag I stamped and included in the wrapped-up box...

 

Hope you all have a good WOYWW for as many days as it lasts - I shall still be visiting on Sunday, I suspect!

WOYWW 182 - Belated!

This is a belated post - oops - hoping to grab those snoopers still looking at the (long!) list over at fabulous host Julia's Stamping Ground, and inviting (er, begging!) you to browse my workdesk. WOYWW-ing on the actual Wednesday was my intention...but unfortunately, it didn't come to fruition, so here I am today.

Such a terrible timekeeper am I, that I'm belated in two other things: paying homage to a fab craft weekend the other week, and welcoming a few new followers. My desk today addresses the first of these: my own creations from the Crafty Boots Design Team meet-up a fortnight ago, where I accompanied (er, tagged along with...) my good friend Zoe, who is one of the wonders of said team. I must say a huge thanks to all the lovely people I met; everyone was friendly, fun and generous in sharing their own craft and top tips. Special thanks go to Stephanie-Emma for organising the whole shebang, to Gabrielle for the book-cover workshop in which I managed this...

 

Your eyes do not deceive you - it isn't finished...yet! Though the idea was to create a kind of souvenir book to house the projects we completed on the day, I loved it so much I want to make it into a poetry chapbook of my work this year - so that's the plan, now I just need the time!

 

 

...and to Bev, whose workshop showed us how to make a felt flower brooch:

I really enjoyed this one, and happily hand-sewed while everyone else waited for a turn at the sewing machine! From Bev's tub of pretties, I chose a dewberry cluster (probably rescued from a broken necklace) rather than a button or some sparkles, and now I just need to find (or buy!) the right handbag to attach it to... 

 

It was a great weekend, and I really enjoyed learning new techniques...as well as confirming that I don't like being messy! Since then, though, I've bought inks and done some stamping (for a Christmas present that I can't share - yet - as the friend in question sometimes looks on my blog!), so you're all rubbing off on me, after all!

 

Before I sneak off to nose at your wonderful WOYWW desks, I want to thank my new followers - I've been rather blog-shy these past few months, so imagine my surprise and delight to log on today and notice you! Many thanks for joining the Pen Pot and I hope you enjoy/chuckle at my mad ramblings.

 

Right then, the teapot is brewing and the day is all mine...let me get my snoop on!

 





Retail Therapy

Sometimes, you just need to shop. Yes, you really do. To treat yourself – because you deserve it. You do. I know bank managers and husbands the world over moan about this, but it’s true. Sometimes a girl’s just gotta shop.

A couple of posts ago I shared with you the pages I’d crafted in my fabulous new SMASH book – I was excited, enthusiastic, chuffed with what I’d done and keen to do more, and then... Life and its ups and downs interrupted. Sneaked in and stole my SMASH book bliss, how dare it!   

A couple of weeks passed and it was time for a catch-up with my wonderful and creative friend Zoe, who always cheers me up and inspires me – and, as usual, she didn’t disappoint. However, one could argue she’s a bad influence on me – after lots of craft-talking, digi-designing of a funky signature to end each blog post with (it’s still in the blog-interface development stage till we iron out the niggles, I’m afraid!), and a request for a new SMASH book (!), I went home and blew some hard-earned dosh on craft stash!

And here it is...

All together...

Up close: you can see I got a bit excited with some papers...

...and some fab fun bits! Can't wait to use them.

 

All bought with my SMASH-book-as-story/character-portfolio in mind, I can’t wait to get it all out and play, play, play. Hopefully, that’ll lead me on to write, write, writing...so here goes, crafty-toes! Shame I'm working tomorrow... But as soon as I can, I'll be crafting!

Just in Time?

You know when you know you’ve got to do something but don’t do it immediately, because you’ve got ages before it needs to get done? While this is often my ironing pile (!), today it was a small, short competition entry; one that I’ve known about for a few months, brainstormed (to ensure I don’t pick the obvious angle), planned and even First Drafted...and yet forgot all about the closing date!

Imagine my horror at my disorganisation this morning when I realised the deadline is in 2 DAYS! Oops. Imagine my relief, though, that I’m on a day off and had time to scrabble together a couple of rewrites and then the Final Draft...and that I’ve caught the last post of the day. Phew!

Who knows if it’ll make the judges desk in time?!

If it doesn’t, it’ll teach me not to leave things to the last minute (though you would’ve thought I’d have learned from all those school homeworks and uni essays...!)

But if it does, I might very well be in with a chance to win a book called ‘The Writer’s Treasury of Ideas’ by Linda Lewis. It’s a 365-day collection of writing prompts, triggers and nudges that might spark off a piece, or even simply act as a warm-up to the day’s main writing. I’ve always fancied books like this and made a few mistakes in buying ones that don’t quite match my expectations – but, hey, life is a gamble, right? And if I can win a copy, that’ll keep my bank manager happy...!

So, the competition was to write a 250-word fictional passage in which “a bottle perfume [one of the prompts from the book] plays a major part” – and, as I’ve been Blog-Absent* for absolutely ages, I thought I’d share my entry here with you:

 

The bottles line up on the shelf like optics behind a bar. It was her addiction, collecting these scents; her alcoholism. Each morning she’d take a nip, spritzing her body, selecting which aspiration to buy into that day. It no longer exists, not for her.

Now it is my turn. I’d yearned for this once; coveted the delicate crystal unicorn, the elegant ballet slipper, the iconic square bottle with the interlinked double C. Never mind the perfume inside, never mind the allure it promised. For me, it was always about the shape, the artistry of the glass itself; pushed and pulled in its making to the brink of collapse yet still surviving.

I look again and see used-up femme fatales; spies with no intrigues left to report on. Some have scent left, so old it has become jaundiced; jaded. Others are empty, the life sprayed out of them. I remember the power they had, the gulp of her taste as she passed an unwelcome intimacy. They are mine now – and I no longer want them. The glass that sparkled with her reflection seems stained; surrendered.

Unlike her, I can make my own Twelve Steps. One by one, I take the bottles down and pour their perfume down the sink. I consider sensibly putting them in the recycling bin, but it is not enough of a spectacle, a ceremony.

Instead, I smash each exquisite bottle and cherish the delicious crunch of glass which punctuates the “goodbye” I never got to say.

 

Hope you liked it – self-centredly, I’m pretty pleased with it! Let’s wish it good luck for the comp.

*Apologies – it isn’t that I’ve been neglectful because I have thought about my Blog and its purposes a lot, and made attempts at posts that haven’t worked. My absence has been because I’ve been working on and crafting the background ideas to Novel Number Two – and this has taken priority. I hope to share some of this with you as time goes on, but I need to do it first to know what’s worth keeping and showing, and what’s just for the wastepaper basket!

Ta ta for now!

WOYWW 170

Wow, it's been a while since I participated in What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday...so long ago in fact, the week numbers were down in the 140s! For those lacking a previous introduction, here's today's invitation - join in the global desk-hopping courtesy of fab host Julia and become just as nosy as the rest of us!

So, what is on my desk this week? My pink Smash Book! I'm sure most of you already know about these, but my good friend Zoe showed me hers (she has one in every colour...yes, really!) and explained they were the new scrap/journalling craze sweeping across from America...and the pink one was so lush I had to have it! This is a promotional image to tempt you if you haven't already taken a fancy...

Being a writer, I'm using mine rather differently to how most people would and to explain this, I need to let you into a little secret... 'The Dressmaker's Daughter.' Hey, who's that, I hear you cry? Well, it's the title of my next book, which I've been nicknaming Novel Number Two here on the blog...and this is the first online reveal of the proper title! In previous posts, I've detailed how I've found it hard to get into the narrative writing and even planning of this story...but now with the Smash Book in my life, I can make this ideas-process fun, fresh and fuelling!

 

'The Dressmaker's Daughter' gives away the fact that there is a dressmaker and her daughter, but the rest of the plot I'm going to keep quiet, as I don't want to jinx my writing mojo! I've been collecting magazine snippets of clothes/fashion for ages, and this past week I've been working on putting them together as my dressmaker's collection...

 

So, scroll down with me to see some select pics of how I did...

 

You are lucky, you know... Not only do you get to know the title of Novel Number Two, but you also get to meet visual prompts for the two main characters! I've not used this technique before but I'm liking it so far. Now, which do you think is the dressmaker and which the daughter?!

This is a retrospective page in terms of process - it was only after I'd compiled the fashion pics in their 'stories' (as capsule collections tend to be known) that I could narrow down my dressmaker's style and produce this, her Design Signature list! It should help me stay on track when writing about the designs/outfits, as well as inspiring me anew...

 



Each fashion 'story' has its day half and night half, each of which which gets a Smash double-spread, but I've just picked my favourites to share with you here.

Originally, I was going to leave these papers blank as I love the birds and didn't want to swamp them or overdo the page, but then I noticed this fab fashion sketch, lonely on the side of a gift bag in M&S! I spent ages wandering around the wrap section, but when I found the greetings card I was disappointed - it was half the size and yet more expensive! I'm really pleased with how it's turned out, especially as I had no idea how I was going to use it when I bought it!

And to end with today, here are the end pages of my Smash Book - oops! You've caught me in an unfinished moment - I've used the slogan from the side of the M&S gift bag on the right, and am waiting for that to dry before I stick down the other femme fatale sketch on the left...!

 

 

That's it from me, hope you're enjoying your WOYWW - I'm going to make a cup of tea after linking this post, then I'll be a-visiting for the rest of the afternoon! See you then :0)

 

 

Happy Blog-Birthday!

Little Miss Pen Pot is one year old today...