WOYWW What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 112 & our Cadel, WOW!

Another week and we are enjoying some glorious winter weather here for which I am very, very grateful. Took some more beach pickies this week but wont make you all too envious :D I will post some once a month or so.

Wow! What a week for those of us in Oz who love the Tour de France (see my post below for more details - or my brother's blog). Finally a true blue Aussie has won it! He is the first Australian to win since 1903 when it began and Cadel at 34 is the oldest in about 88 years (?) to do so … here is a photo in our local paper, his dad lives up road from here on our northern beaches. Cadel had an early period of his life here, reportedly his first bike at age of 2 (with trainer wheels on it)!

 

Now to the business end of the day, my desk is in a mess of creation… six cards on the go here! Yep, you heard me right… some have been owed for a while but some juicy new goodies from Fat Cats Card Corner – Spellbinder Lattice Rectangles and Nellie Snellen Square Stitch Multiframe dies – wow! I love Nellie Snellen dies; just wish they had one size bigger, as they only seem to go to small sizes for small cards. Their quality and detail is fantastic though. The dies are only peeking at right bottom front of picture did not take it very well, I meant them to be in it.

And you can see some beautifully stamped images at the top from Ros Of WOYWW - some of her lovely gum blossoms. I saw them on her desk some weeks back and now I have some on mine courtesy of her generosity and few bonuses as well. Thanks so much Ros! You will see my finished six cards next week, all being well. Happy WOYWW everyone and for those of you wondering why we are talking about desk contents? Take a trip over to our wonderful hostess’ desk, Julia at Stamping Ground. You will be amazed at how much you can learn and what fun you can have…

May God bless your day wherever you may be,

Shaz in Oz.x

PS My Calligraphy classes were really great. I have wonderful students and we will be working hard which is fun. God is good.

 

Amazing Race, Cadel! What an Aussie! Le Tour Champion 2011

Ah, the sleepless nights from10pm till 2am will fade into the distance and one rejoices in the win for Cadel Evans at Le Tour de France, wow! the first Aussie since it began in 1903.

Cadel’s tears on the podium after receiving the Yellow Jersey told it all! Overwhelmed, joyous, and very, very grateful, as his interview afterwards showed.

If you dont know what I am talking about - a great summary here, or even check out my brothers' blog. My brother has been riding and watching day by day in France, Italy and Switzerland. Today will be the greatest day of all - the ride into Paris along the Champs Elysees (photo below) to take out the tour - what a day!An Aussie winning this race is akin in importance to when we won the America's cup and brought it back to our shores. We do love our sport over here. A short post cos I am very tired... only one more night to go!!

A big congrats to a worthy champion who has fought so hard to get to this at the grand age of 34, one of the oldest in 88 years to win it.

In conclusion I just wanted to express my sorrow for all those suffering in the tiny country of Norway, such a big loss, and an inexplicable one really. Any claim this killer makes that he had good reasons for doing what he did do not ring true. No matter what his belief it will not justify the terrible thing he has done.
My thoughts and prayers are with them all.


Thanks for looking and may God bless your day where you may be,
Shaz in Oz.x
PS photos are taken with my camera whilst watching the evening news on TV, hence the not so great quality! :D

WOYWW What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 111

Well our year is just flying by! It seems only yesterday we had the excitement of the second anniversary of our pIf for week 104, yet my maths makes it 7 weeks ago…

This week my desk is rather boring and rather empty of any craft but very industrious anyway. Here are the preparations for teaching the six year 8 (aged 14 yrs) in our church school, as you can see by the folder with black writing in the centre left – the subject is Calligraphy! These are 3 boys and 3 girls, and my chief prayer at present is that none are left-handed. It is always more difficult for calligraphy. They drag their hand across their work. Now if we wrote right to left it would not matter, but we write left to right. I taught one boy the first time I did it about 12 years ago now and he was actually very good, so it was a blessing.

Also on my desk are photos of previous student’s works, ( bottom right) I always show them these so they can see where we are aiming. To the extreme bottom right, you can just see the edge of some of the homework sheets. I am going there today at lunch time to do all the photocopying for the course, which is two periods on a Thursday. You can see a calligraphic bookmark to the centre left with my name on it and definition and this is the second project. The illuminated Bible text is the third and the first project is the card verse done inside. I have some sample cards on top right next to pink cancer bear.
For those of you who are puzzled why we are looking at work desks...do join in the fun take a trip over to our very own royal hostess, Julia, and drop by Julia's Stamping Ground!

Happy WOYWW everyone and may God bless you wherever you are..
Shaz in Oz.x  

PS. I was asked by Lisa of Lisa's Craft Garden to show some more pickies of beaches where I go walking, so I have done this in the post below, if you wish to take a look.

Versatile Blog Award...Wow!

Well recently I had a message from Hettie of Hettiecraft to say there was something on her blog for me, so I popped over and there was an award for me… wow! how unworthy I felt especially as I admire Hettie for a fantastic inspiring blog and also for the lovely things she wrote… thank you Hettie! I think to receive such an award from one of your peers and from one whom I respect so much is really quite humbling!

 And let me say, Hettie,  you teach me with each visit to your blog how to be a little more versatile in my craft, to think outside the square...

Hettie on her post defined versatile to quote:- "...capable of or adapted to many different uses, skills etc, liable to change.."… it sounds like me, especially the "liable to change" thing! I have always dabbled in lots of things – rather like the Jack of all trades and Master of none!

Now the Rules of accepting this award.

• In accepting my award I must place a link back to the person who awarded it (tick)
• Share 7 random things about myself (see below)
• Award 7 recently discovered bloggers and contact them to let them know (will do!).

Seven great bloggers – have only been blogging for short while so all mine are of fairly recent duration. Please do take a peek at them all!

1. Maggie at Silver crafter – Maggie as one of my first followers and I have always been blessed by her very beautiful work and helpful tips thank you Maggie!
   
2. Vika of Melody of Scrap in Russia. Her work is really amazing very versatile – from furniture to cards, all made with love and care for detail.
3. Glenda of Magpie’s Corner - her cards are simply awesome - the detail and elegance is something I really enjoy and would love to emulate.
4. Joyce of Crafty Quills - now this is one versatile crafter from her Irish home she makes beautiful cards, exquisite free-style embroidery, and clever Calligraphy.
5. Jocelyn of Instead of Ironing Blog (don’t you love the title, fellow crafter?) Jobear does the most amazing work, have loved her blog for the longest of those listed and really love her watercolour pencil work.
6. Lisa of Lisa’s Craft Garden - this is one generous crafter! Not only does she do the most beautiful cards, shows us her gorgeous garden on her blog, but she sent me the latest copy of Craft Stamper all the way from the UK, all because I said on Elizabeth’s blog how interesting it looked.
7. Shazsilverwolf of Silverwolf cards – now this is one talented lady –clever work with her brayer and her work with Stampscapes is also so very awe-inspiring.

Seven random things:

1. Born in large north western NSW town, but never lived there; first home was on a sheep station.

   2.  Moved every four years during childhood. (Dad was a teacher)

  
  3.   In first 14 years of adulthood, I moved 11 times!

  4.   I have lived in this house since 1985 – yes, 26 years! When you find a good spot, why move? it took me long enough!

  5. Have loved calligraphy since teen years, my oldest work done when 16 yrs.
  

 6. Card-making since starting school and stamping, embossing etc. since 1992.

 7. Favourite place is quiet walk along our beautiful beaches, talking to the LORD.

 Lisa asked me to post some more pickies of my beach walks, so here they are!

These beach photos are about 5 to ten minutes walk away from my house, I am pretty blessed, aren’t I? I was down there this afternoon and try to get there most days. The top two were taken in August last year. Hence the coastal wattle flowering in the first shot.

This shot is down at the jetty at the harbour. There is mooring for quite a large number of boats; this is only a very small section of it. Nearby is the Fish Co-op where I can buy the day's catch for sale.

I thank the LORD for the beauties of His creation!

thanks for looking and may God bless your day wherever you may be,

Shaz in Oz.x

WOYWW What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 110

Here is the finished work from my desk for this week and ... finally finished.  Hurrah!! Took an awful lot of gold leaf - 3 sheets in all! I use 23 carat gold leaf on tissue back, with glue size for build up. This is not the frame it will be in, as my customer is taking it to her framer, but did it up in one so you can see it properly finished!

The verse is from Psalm 62 vs 8 "Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah." ("Meditate" in Hebrew). Praise God for His unfailing love and place of refuge in this troubled world.

I have finished Morti’s mother’s piece, and it is safely in England, so here it is. Her mother’s birthday was about now (a big HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY, MUM!).

 

After the interest last week on the birds in my yard I thought I would show you the photo of the “clowns “of my yard. They love the grevilleas and the bird bath is another play area for them. They are really amusing and at times quite raucous in their disputes among their flocks.

 

These rainbow lorikeets love the grevilleas. These are some photos of feed-time on the Honeybird Yellow Grevillia, which is most definitely their favourite of the grevilleas in my garden. along with Birdsong which is the gorgeous Orange one on my Verse of the week - see sidebar. 
Truly God's creation is very, very beautiful!

 

Rainbow Lorikeet “Lorikeets are considered a small to medium parrot and range in size from 150mm (6") to 400mm (16"). The colour of the bird depends upon the species and the variation with in that species, however bright colours are common and popular. Lorikeets are one of the few parrots that eat mainly nectar and pollen. In Australia, it is common along the eastern seaboard, from Queensland to South Australia and northwest Tasmania.”

For those of you who are puzzled why we are looking at work desks... join in the fun take a trip over to the royal hostess, Queen Julia of WOYYW, drop by Julia's Stamping Ground!

And may God bless your day wherever you might be,

Shaz in Oz.x

PS the birds are wild birds, not pets as some asked.

WOYWW What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 109 + Send a card - see below

It seems to me the year is speeding up as we now hit the half way mark and that means it will go even faster from here on in, but as we have had such amazing winter (23C yesterday and much the same today) weather this week for the school hols, I am not too worried about it…

When school goes back Mid July (3rd term) I am teaching calligraphy to year 8 students (about 14 /15 yrs as think there is one older ring-in there). It is only a small class at our Christian school thankfully and have been told they are all very keen. If you like at end of term I will show you some of their projects as the final project for the term is always a text (not embossed, but gold leaf) they really do well some of them, it quite blows me away.

Anyway as you can see this week my Bible verse has all the painting finished and now working the building up of the gold leaf, layer by layer (about 5 to 10, it varies).
Now it looks like some of red paint has bled but the glue size has red paint in it to see where have done it and it is dry in a few spot so it is red, mostly the pale pink bits are where the gold leaf will be next week, God willing.

Couple of quick cards… with Stampin Up papers, the feather one is a feather from a Tawny frogmouth, an amazing night bird, which really camouflages so well with trunk of tree, here is a little pickie and you can see what I mean, they are amazing! I just wish I could buy more of these feathers, I found it in our backyard!

 Some info on them: "The Tawny Frogmouth is often thought to be a species of owl, but they are in fact related to nightjars. They do not have the strong talons (claws) of owls. There are 14 species, or types, of frogmouth. Tawny Frogmouths are commonly seen throughout Australia."

The cards are basically just the papers and some stamps all stamps are really old and have no names on them from 1990's.

If you want to enjoy a snoop at desks around the world, and learn so much, please join in the fun and pop over to Julia’s blog, Julia's Stamping Ground for the best blog hop around! 

Those of you who may have Get well , Thinking of You, etc. card check out this kind idea to help Ellys on Sheree’s blog in Canada (click here)… a generous thought indeed, and one amazing story of one lady's courage and there is really great CANDY folks! Yummo! hope I win!

Well thanks for peeking everyone, happy WOYWW and may God bless your day wherever you may be,

Shaz in Oz. x

PS. If you like brayers, you may like post below too?

Bright Brayer Cards - don't you love the brayer? I do!

Hi there everyone! I am feeling very cheery over here 'cos we have had the sun out again for a few winter days of sunshine! after nearly a week of cloudy rainy days, ugh! I was so over it - love my sunshine in winter (but if we have max. of 16C, and no sun I whinge). The sun comes in the house in the morning and lounge in arvo, you cant beat it folks :) In summer wide eaves means we miss it inside, good huh? God blessed, indeed. 

Oh, also excited cos am doing my own verse of the week now; the pickie on this week's verse is down at our jetty at sunset, a favourite spot, rather like the verse too...Google Picasa download after a free tip from Jobear, see her great blog!

Now to my cards...I just love the brayer and this was an order for a teen girl so ended up making two cards, and used one for the order, the second one!

For both these cards I have used the Kaleidacolor pads in Spectrum, and on the first card I have used the swirls twice by Inkadinkado, Flourishes/Arabesques plus a Nestie butterfly. I cut it out of the off-cut from this brayered piece and then inked black where there were spaces, while it was still in the die. 

The key to successful brayering is using the right paper ( I use glossy a good one, I find it easier - Kromecote if you can find it - is really great or Stampin Up Glossy is not too bad) and using a light touch when rolling the brayer. 

Make it light even stroked generally one way but sometimes I turn the paper around and go the other way too just to smooth up the finish. Really the best way is to watch an expert and I have one of these (Sandy) click here - or link on my side bar.

The second card is on bright magenta pink Mirri card cuttled with Caramello Cuttlebug folder, then the brayered piece stamped (two different stamps actually, which I joined together!) with the Asian Artistry set from Stamping up. It is discontinued as was a hostess promotion. I picked mine up on eBay! Also used a computer generated greeting, punched out with Stampin Up punches, and black ribbon to finish it all off.

Thanks for looking and may God bless your day everyone wherever you may be!

Shaz in Oz. x