Yes it’s Wednesday again, and no, I’m not going to comment on how quickly it’s come around this week.  Not because it hasn’t, we all know it has so there’s no point mentioning it right??!!  Although I will take the time to mention that it’s February already, and not just any February, it’s a Leap Year too! Hop on over to Julia’s if you’re the only person left in the entire world who doesn’t know about the Wednesday desk link party.

So what have I been up to?  Well, due to me being out of the house for 50 hours each week my personal time is somewhat limited, so I tend to have time for either paper crafting or knitting but not both.  Last week it was the knitting, this week it’s the paper crafting, and that means that the socks aren’t finished yet, so I’m not even going to talk about them!  Sorry sock fans.

Instead, I have a reveal for you.  You may recall two weeks ago on WOYWW, I showed you my ribbon spool collection and my lack of somewhere to put them as they seem to have grown a bit.  I also said that I hoped to have a new addition to my crafty space soon.  Well, that day is now here, and I warn you, I’ve got one or two photos to bore regale you with!

Ta dah!

Yep, the boy made me some shelves so I can start taking advantage of the wall space.  You can see the ribbon spools in the one cubby hole, and all the mess on top of the unit, there’s a sketch folder, Prima type flowers, pens and lots of button jars up there, along with cards and things I’ve received from kind peeps.  It had become a case of knocking three things over for every one item I tried to get to.

So I spent a very happy couple of hours on Saturday, arranging and rearranging!  And rearranging again.  Like you do.

The Prima flowers have a new home over on the right.  The ribbon spools fit perfectly on the shelf, although there are two spare ones on top of the main unit, not sure where they will go if I start filling them up!  The top shelf holds the cards from friends, along with some little glass jars with beads in.  I can finally get to my box of 12×12 papers, which used to be in one of the cubby holes and has hard to get out, it’s now on top of my plastic drawers.  The boxes on top of that are the scrap boxes which used to be spilling all over my desk.

The cubby’s got a sort out too.  Bottom right now holds the large container of coloured card which used to be on the plastic drawers , but it was too heavy for them and I couldn’t close the top two drawers due to the weight!  To the right of that are buttons and tins with gems and pearls in.  Above that is a large box with completed cards in, I don’t go in here very often, hence all the glitter glues along the front!  On top of that is a decorative photo box which holds lots of stamped images, mostly ones set to me by pals, but if I stamp any extra ones they always go in here.  Top left is my Memory Box papers is a decorative Christmas box, some small tins of embellishments and odds and ends like a stamp cleaner and fluid, plus more Stickles!  At the bottom left the cubby is mostly empty.  I pushed the pens, pencils and glue gun in there while I was tidying up.

In all this packing and unpacking, sorting and moving about I opened a drawer and there was my mojo!  So I got on and used it while I had it!  I wanted a blue tissue flower and like how it turned out (it’s on a card now) so I made a few more…

These were super easy to make with some tissue, a scalloped punch, some inks and a bit of sparkle.  I used Distress Inks and  from the top left they are Worn Lipstick, Barn Door, Bundled Sage, Dusty Concord and Wild Honey.

While the desk is still tidy I’ll show you my new stash!  I’ve wanted the Marianne posy/flower dies for ages but they’ve always been sold out any time I was in England, but then Memory Box released their own, so I went to my local craft store on Friday and got two.  Plus they had some stamps for 30% off and I picked up a couple of Penny Black ones.

And finally, we’re almost done here, I got the desk really good and messy!

What seems like ages ago now, before I stamped much, did challenges, or even had a desk of my own, I used to enjoy the ancient art of quilling, and during the clear up I discovered all my supplies at the back of a drawer, so I had a lot of fun and made a card for the Less Is More challenge using this technique.  I love quilling paper.  It looks so amazing when you first buy the packet, with all those strips of colour.  But let me tell you once you open it and take a few bits off it’s like herding cats trying to get it back in the packet in one piece again!

So I better let you go and see some more desks then, you’ve probably been here for hours by now!