Wednesday 1 July 2009

What's on your Workdesk Wednesday



Good grief, doesn't it roll around fast! Here's a slewed shot of my desk taken at about 8.30 this morning, completely as I left it last night. I had a moment of panic because I didn't have a July calendar LO ready for my frame...I seem to have a lost a week of June!

For a change my desk isn't too untidy. But then there isn't much involved in making up the calendar LO really. A few minutes after this post, it will resume it's usual untidy state - I have things to do, and lucky us, the deadline is to get something done before the sun hits the back and makes this room a tad too hot for my comfort levels! There is no sign of the overloaded basket of dirty stamps which has freed up rather more room than I thought - they are all drying nicely in the kitchen. What you might just be able to see are the two bottles of Smooch. These are pearlescent accent inks in nail polish type bottles. They are made by Clearsnap, the ink pad manufacturers. I'm fairly sure they are a fast drying embossing ink in a bottle. No matter what they are though, they are lovely and very blendable, spritzable, embossable, accentable blah blah - I really like them. Except the packaging. I think Clearsnap have gone for the look over function, probably to do with cost. These inks have a foam applicator tip on the end of the sexy looking bottle handle. It's absolutely U for unique. Yeah. Actually, if you ask me (and I know you didn't) it's absolutely U for useless. Cheapskate for a brush. The ink doesn't move off the tip unless you overload it and then it blobs - and the coverage is hopeless because each time you dip it back in the bottle to 'refresh' you need two hands because the tip snags on the neck. Man that drives me mad. I thought it was me but I found a 'Smooch' video on You Tube and the demonstrator was trying to overcome the same thing. So I coloured the text 'July' with 2 shades of Smooch using God's paintbrush. (My finger). Obviously it's a large area and I wanted the product to go as far as possible, so I probably would have done it this way anyway - blending the colours as I went. But originally I was just going to scuff the edges of each letter, but the applicator just isn't up to it. Nor is my patience! No-one from Clearsnap will be bothered by my opinion, but if they want to make a good product even better, bring the price down and change the packaging. The thing is, the price makes it a considered purchase, particularly when there's plenty of optional competition. They're bringing out 8 new colours any minute, which are just gorgeous. But, hmm.....it's a real double-edger for me, this product. I would suggest, without hesitation, that investing in a couple of colours would be a lovely addition to your stash, for highlights, accents etc...but I recommend a nice thin pointy paintbrush to go with it!

As always, somewhere on my desk, are the metal flower pots joined in the middle with a wooden handle that I got from the bargain section at Laura Ashley. They house my scissors, sharps and pointy things in one pot and pens and glue pens in the other. If you have pens, felt tips, glue pens in pots - please take pity on them in this weather and remove them from the windowsill or direct sunlight. They dry out and get old really quickly!


Come on then if you're brave enough - What's on Your Workdesk this Wednesday? Leave a comment so we can visit, or eme a picture and I'll post it here! Like now - here's the Cricut Queen's workdesk as at late last night...actually this is a sneak peek - watch our spaces as they say!!

8 comments:

Angie said...

Yeah ... its WOYWW .... have done my post and photo.
I so agree with you about packaging etc. I haven't seen these nail varnish bottles in real but I think your comments should be passed on to the manufactures. As with many products ... the designers have no real working knowledge of the product and those at the helm of a company often don't either. When they do, you know it as the product works on all aspects ... including price. I experienced this when I was a hosiery consultant and met many of the top bods and product designers. A few were glad of my feedback lol.
Thanks about reminding us about the heat and its effects on our pens etc ... can I add that eye liner pencils etc, especially in wood, can be ruined if dressing tables gets hit by the sun .... found this out many years ago when all the cores oozed out and it was an expensive lesson !!!

oops ... sorry ...I went on a bit. xx

Carmen said...

Do you know - when I read Angies blog I could have sworn she had posted early and that it was tuesday. And now with yours I have just had to bring my calendar up... and it only is wednesday! Where did tuesday go? Flaming sunny weather - that's cos I went to bed at 8pm last night with a splitting groggy head, hate the summer! Pah! My workdesk is my lap today so when Craig gives up my camera later I'll take a piccy ;)

Jay said...

Wow! I've just noticed the time, got to dash. Just time to post a link (I hope) to my blog where I've uploaded my dek. I'll check you all out later. Bye.

Kim Dellow said...

Oh fab idea! Love the calender you are working on :) Kim

Anne said...

It's soooo annoying when a good product is ruined by poor design. They do sound interesting though!

The calender looks fab - do you do a different page each month and then frame it somewhere then? Sounds like a great idea!

Ive managed to add some scrapping to my WOYWW now!

Paige said...

Yey!!!! WOYWW!!! I love wednesdays now :) once tea is sorted and dogs are walked the craft table is my date for the evening. Dh is upstairs still wading through the photos from the wedding at the weekend so I can scrap all quiet and happy :) I'll do a post later.

Ginny said...

they seem to think we'll be happy with pretty or cute packaging, they just dont get it..

posted my desk on my blog

Lyn said...

Ok, ok, I know it's Thursday, but I have just blogged my WOYWW - http://periodicallypuggled.blogspot.com.

Fab idea, a monthly calendar, love the photo - by the time I got around to it 2010 will have arrived! Interesting post about that product too - never heard of it, but it does make me cross, however good the colours, when manufacturers don't fully test products before releasing and it doesn't do exactly what it says on the tin!