I apologize if it’s a little sparse on the old desk this week, the thermometer has been stuck on the wrong side of 30C for a number of days now and it’s more than a little draining trying to craft in those temperatures, actually trying to do anything in those temperatures is draining to be honest.  Yes, we have air conditioning but my little room is upstairs and so takes more cooling than the downstairs.  It also doesn’t help that our third world electricity delivery in the city that I live in can’t keep up with demand and shut down on the holiday Monday (4th July) for three hours in the afternoon!  The electricity company are also forecasting more rolling “brownouts” as they call them, across Metro Detroit as this heat wave continues and people crank up the air conditioning.  Relief does appear to be in sight though as we have a high of only 28C on Firday, instead of the 35C’s that we’ve been having!

Still, I shouldn’t complain about it, at least we’re having a lovely summer!  We had a fantastic 4 1/2 day camping trip over the American Independence holiday as where I work was closed both Friday and Monday, and I had a few overtime hours saved so we took off to a State Park right after lunch last Thursday.  It did get a bit hot by the Monday but we had a terrific weekend, hiking, kayaking, mountain biking, swimming in the lake and sunning ourselves at the beach.  It was a bit hard to come home and find out that we didn’t have any power!  Especially as we had to unload the car of the bikes, kayaks and camping gear in full sun when it was a humid 34C and it was almost as hot inside the house as it was out!

So my desk this week has had very little use, but I’ve been busy making a birthday card for my FIL which is a WIP on the desk.  The Distress inkpads are out because I was having another go at the collage technique (not for this card, just because I wanted to play about with the technique a bit more), but I wasn’t getting anywhere fast due to having to pack and get ready for the trip last week, and it being too b****y hot this week to just sit in my room and mess about a bit!

The usual long shot of the desk….. the Penny Blacks that were new a couple of weeks ago haven’t been put away yet, they’re still there at the very bottom of the photo.  There’s also a new Inkadinkado clear set that I bought yesterday for $5 with a 50% off coupon and the three little wooden stamps were in the $1 bins by the tills in Michaels.  The card that I’ve started to make for my FIL is in the center and is a gate fold, haven’t made one of these in ages.

Ah that’s better, more to see here!  The four items with the orange tags on them were all on clearance in Meijer, which is a huge mega store close to me, it’s a bit like an Asda or a Wal-Mart.  They never seem to put their crafting stuff on sale, but they do rotate a lot of things through clearance so I always check if I’m in the shop.  I’ve wanted a decent pair of scissors for cutting out fiddly items for quite a while and was very happy to spot these Martha Stewart ones at 60% off (only $4.99!).  I also got two little Rhonna Farrer clear stamps for 71c each (40% off) and a pack of grosgrain ribbon for $1.99, also 40% off.  The wooden stamp was going to be inked up for the birthday card I was making, it’s an Inkadinkado one called Time Flies, I bought it a while ago but it was about to get it’s first use.

And oh boy, did those little scissors work a treat?  What a revelation, should have got a pair yonks ago!

Well, that’s me again for this week.  Looking forward to cooler temperatures so I can get back to some more crafting soon.  If you’d like to join us at What’s On Your WorkDesk Wednesday, follow the banner over on the right to head over to Julia’s for the start of the trip around the craft desks of the world, but you might want to first make yourselves comfortable and get a coffee or something as you’ll be there a while!