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Another Wednesday morning. A cloudy sky, but enough sunshine and warmth to make it a pleasant day. Time to pop over to Julia's to collect the keys to a whole load of work rooms across the world.

This week sees my table remarkably clear. That's 'cos I had a tidy up after putting the finishing touches to the desk tidy which was the project at Neil Walker's most enjoyable Sunday workshop at the Craft Barn. I'm either going to have to have a bit of shuffle round to be able to accommodate it on my postage stamp desk top, or place it on the adjacent surface. Attached on the right hand side of the tidy is a little notebook with a new cover to fit in with the general look.

On the other side the flower and cat embellishments are made from clay cut with cookie cutters and coloured with Butternut Fresco paint. The cat's stripes are stamped with Venetian Orange archival ink.

The little clay cat is to remind me of my lovely Charlie who is missed so much. It's just over two weeks since it became clear that his medication was no longer dealing with his health problems. I always get so attached to these furry friends, so to lose one is very upsetting. Here he is in the garden where he loved to snooze in the sun, or stalk mice and shrews. A shy but very affectionate boy. I think his fifteen years were really happy ones.

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The things at the front of the workdesk this morning were deposited there yesterday when I had a tidy up of the kitchen table. Periodically I set up there when I think I am going to be messier than usual. In this instance I was playing with various new goodies from the recent Ally Pally Big Stamp show, and having a go at a technique shown by Lin Brown of LB Crafts involving Viva Terra, the potentially messy bit. Love watching Lin's demos. Always so inspirational for me.

My favourite Ally Pally purchase was some Pan Pastels. Now I already have pastels in stick form in my Box of Colours, so I told myself I didn't need more, but these Pan ones seemed different, so I decided to dip my toe in the water with four colours. Trying out what Lin had shown us was lots of fun and I loved the effects achieved. The stick pastels in my box don't work for these techniques, but it did make me experiment with my neglected palettes of chalks which also produce some pleasing effects. And of course, as you can see I have added some new colours to my Pan Pastel stock.



For the chance to peek at workdesks across the world, call in at Julia's. Happy Wednesday.