Neglect

Oh my poor neglected blog! My intentions of blogging everyday in December are completly dashed due to being taken to bed with the consumption - alas! Ok, I may be overdoing the dramatics there a little bit....not like me at all! My mommmy says I'm 'expressive' not the 'drama queen' my colleagues refer to :-)

Well, today was my first day back at work after feeling apalling all weekend so I have been fairly miserable with no festive excitment going on at all! No Dickensian Christmas Fayre for me on Friday....boo! No festive wrapping of presents whilst supping mulled wine and listening to Christmas music...double boo! And no Christmas craftiness at all...triple boo!

Very miffed about the whole thing - especially when my workload always triples after being away. I would have been in danger of being completely grumpy and very bah humbug if it wasn't for this lovely lady....


Ah Kirstie! I love you! An hour of watching Kirstie's Homemade Christmas is enough to rekindle anyones flailing festive mojo. With my snowball in one hand and my notebook in the other I'm now feeling lovely and inspired again - just need to finish all my work and get on top of the household chores before finally I can get started on enjoying my advent.

You can catch up on Kirstie's programme on 4OD if you missed it (yay!) she is also on tomorrow night too (double yay!) AND on Thursday as well (triple yay!) Wahoo!

Mmmm....maybe I've had too much advocaat now... :-) x

If I could have three wishes...

There is something so lovely and British about going to the pantomime. How did men in drag, corny one-liners and audience interaction become such a traditional way to entertain yourself at Christmas?

I don't remember going to the pantomime when I was little, in fact the first pantomime I really remember was the Footlights production of Sherlock Holmes at University (but that was far too grown up and satirical to be a real pantomime!). My first proper pantomime was when I first joined my present school about 5 years ago. I wasn't that keen on the idea - the whole school? Cheesy dance routines and bad jokes? Who wants to spend an afternoon sitting through that and doing dozens of toilet runs? I remember feeling pumped full of adrenalin and constantly counting the number of children I had with me....1, 2, 3, 4, 5....1, 2, 3, 4, 5.... as we walked from the coach, through the foyer and into the auditorium. Once we'd sat down I felt like I could breathe again - now there was no need to worry until the lights went up and we were on our way home again. It would have been easy to sit and fret about all the other things I could be doing with my time - the planning....marking....end of term assessments. As I sat thinking through my to do list I was physically shaken by the child next to me rocking in his chair, he was doubled over and giggling. Next to him was a wide-eyed girl absorbed in story. As I looked along the row I could see similar expressions....laughter....amazement....joy

Today's pantomime was Aladdin and on the way home we talked about what we would wish for if we had a magic lamp. If I had three wishes I know that one of them would be that every child had the opportunity to enjoy a pantomime at Christmas....why not spoil your inner child this year?

Or if that sounds completely horrendous to you there's always an adult pantomime like this one!

Magic

Christmas starts for me the moment that I put up my tree. Some people think the 1st is too early, others put there's up earlier, but mine always goes up on the first day of December - because that for me is when the magic starts.

I have a fake tree, I would like to have a real one but I find it so depressing to see all of them abandoned by the dustbins in January! I know I could plant my own one but I once bought a tiny 30cm spruce from a market back home in Birmingham for my mum - it cost £1.99 and was covered in fake snow. After the holidays she planted it in the rockery...big mistake. That little tree grew and grew until my dad had to try and 'trim' it. He cut off the branches that he could reach and it ended up looking like a giant topiary lollipop!


I love getting down all my decorations out of their boxes, unwrapping the tissue paper and enjoying finding things I had forgot I had. I was so pleased when I pulled out this felt snowflake - I'm going to attempt to make my own versions of these, I think they'll look lovely as coasters, what do you think?


I had hoped to make a layout today for my journal but I'm feeling very under the weather at the moment. Instead I'm going to enjoy one of these wonderful hot toddies and go to bed with my hot water bottle.

Excitement

December is finally here and I couldn’t be happier.

This is my absolute favourite time of year – I love the weather, the celebrations, the traditions but most of all the excitement. Today at work there were definitely two camps of people, you could hear the murmurs everywhere… I haven’t even started my shopping yet….There’s too much to do…Its turned so cold…And on the other side….I can’t wait to put up my tree…There’s only 3 more weeks till we break up…I’m so EXCITED!!!!

I’m definitely in camp two. Who am I kidding? I’m the camp leader :-)

I don’t know what shapes our views about this time of year, and I’m not sure if I’ve just been really lucky to have so many happy memories of Christmas, but I do believe that those people who express such stress, anger and bitterness towards the holiday have either misunderstood, or forgotten what it is about.

There are many reasons why Christmas can be stressful, and its no surprise that all of the comments in Camp Humbug today were from staff members and not the children! So what stops us looking forward to Christmas? Well, I’m not going to dwell on that – I’m going to focus on everything that makes this holiday the BEST and I’m going to record it so that should I ever get close to the gates of Camp Humbug I can look back at my memories of Christmas past and remind myself why I feel so excited today!

And the award goes to...

I wanted to take a bit of time to think about what I have learnt during Shimelle’s online class Blogging for Scrapbookers. Although I have picked up a few technical tidbits about using blogger the main source of growth for me has been getting the inspiration to post more and to delve in the world of scrapbooking.

My issue with both blogging and scrapbooking is the worry that I am going to get it wrong. The good thing about blogging is that you can check your spellings and edit your posts whenever you want, whereas with scrapbooking it feels like there are so many decisions to make and one glue spot later you’re tied to something you’re not completely sure about. That’s probably just me but I just find the idea of scrapbooking scary. Then I found out about digital scrapbooking. I will definitely be getting to grips with that a little bit more now that I have decided to do a digital/blog scrapbook as my effort to join in Journal Your Christmas this year.

I have also learnt a lot about blogging – why people do it, what works well, what I like and how I want my blog to develop. This is what I wanted to think about when I was choosing the blogs I would like to pass the Making Smiles on Faces award on to. I think its important to not only say ‘thank you’ and ‘well done’ but also to say why these blogs are so good.

Welcome to Suzyville I like this blog because there is so much inspiration on it. Each post is packed with images from a variety of sources and I always see something that I like or that gives me an idea of something to do myself. She has great taste and I love her jewellery too!

{2H Design} I love the photography on this blog – each image is so well lit and the colours are amazing. Lauren was kind enough to respond to my post on Shimelle’s forum about tips for photographing during the winter. She then posted some of her tips on her blog here. Check it out she has some fab ideas!

Tales from the Scrapheap This is a very inspirational blog for me as there are so many lovely pictures of layouts for me to drool over and aspire to. I also love the way Karen always ends with some reasons to be cheerful – a great way to make you think about things to be cheerful in your own life even on a bad day. Thanks Karen!

I have to admit that I have been very lax in getting through my Google Reader list of all the blogs from Shimelle's class, I'm sure there are so many great blogs out there which I am still to find - can you recommend any?

Lovely

Every now and then I need to stop and look around me. It's far too easy to get wrapped up in 'doing stuff' and not actually living. I know that sounds daft but I find that weeks often go by and I'm just spending my time racing around like a headless chicken but not achieving anything worthwhile.

This week many people are preparing for Thanksgiving. They will be getting together with their families and friends and taking stock off all that they have to be thankful for. I don't know whether it is reading about people's preparations, or just how unelievably close it is to the end of the year, but I feel the need to do this too.

Without really knowing it, or planning for it, there have been so many changes in my life this year, there have been challenges, successes, achievements and so many good things. Its easy to think about the big things but often it is the small things that make a big difference.

The journalling above says:
Sometimes its nice to sit back and think about the good stuff in life.
The people that matter. The things that make life worth living.
Its nice to be thankful for those little things that make your heart
beat a little louder. That makes you smile.
That helps you to remember that really people are...lovely.

My lovely list:
* an unexpected smile
* an insignificance remembered
* a promise honoured
* an honest compliment
* an unrequested gift
* an unconditional love
* a shared memory
* a beautiful moment
* sincere gratitude
* a secret kept

When I look at my list it makes me happy because every one of them has been a moment this year that has made my heart smile.

This post is dedicated to all the *lovely* people who have visited my blog during Shimelle's class. Thank you so much for your kind words and comments, they really are appreciated. A special thank you to Angela for my award:

Wow! *blush* I don't know what else to say apart from a heartfelt thank you.

I'm afraid you'll have to wait until tomorrow for my 5 random facts and list of blogs I'm going to pass the award onto!

How to organise your Christmas - Step 1 Make a planner

I can't believe a whole week has passed since I last posted! Time seems to speed up after the October half-term and I feel like we're hurtling towards Christmas pretty damn fast. This week has been hectic in so many ways so I am spending a little time today to step back and think about how I'm going to survive the rest of the term AND achieve everything I want to. Yes, its time to organise my Christmas! Love it!

I found the above video via the Organized Home website which has loads of ideas and printables to make life easier over the holidays. I do find it a little daunting when so many lovely people are creating such wonderful things - that's why I love this video, it breaks it all down into tiny little steps which is just perfect for me. I don't need to think or make the big design decisions myself, instead I get to just play with pretty papers and buttons.

I hope to share my planner with you very soon and I'd love to see yours - post a link in the comments to share :-) x

We did it!

Yesterday was our first craft fair and we loved it! Me and Helen got there very early to make sure we got a good spot away from the door - unfortunately the warmest place was in front of the mixing desk so please forgive the nasty background in the photos.



It was lovely to spend the day sat together chatting and making things. We were very proud of our stall and think it looked very nice - that's Helen sewing behind our stall, give her a wave! She is the neatest sewer I've ever met - her stitches are tiny and really even, I'm very jealous as most of my stitching is wonky. How cute is this blue and brown keyring? I want it!


Oh, I also want this:


It was a really fun day and I even managed to sell some of my hats and neckwarmers - yay!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Well, a little bit....

Things are starting to feel a little bit festive around here - first Christmas fair on Saturday and I'm adding lots of festive loveliness to my ever growing crafting to do list. Like these from LucyKate Crafts.

I'm also enrolled in this class with Betz White


Our first project was posted today - it's to make one of the cute felt trees pictured above and I'm very excited! Such a shame I have to put it on hold till the weekend :-( Life getting in the way of craft yet again...

How to organise your life - Step 1 Find a Notebook

Every now and then I get a new obsession – usually after seeing something amazing on somebody’s blog or from visiting craft shows. I’m one of those people that just has to have the new fangled thing which then proceeds to sit in a box under the desk gathering dust. I might buy a new book and do nothing else apart from read. I can get into a crocheting mode when all I’m happy doing is curling up on the sofa with my wool and ignoring the washing up. As a result I have an ‘oh deary me my life is so disorganised everything is falling apart around me and I just can’t cope’ moment too. You know what its like – several different to do lists scattered around the place each one getting bigger as you procrastinate by moaning about how much you have to do and how little time there is - all the time you could be getting off your bum and ticking things of your list…if only you could find it… (your list that is – not your bum!). You do know that feeling too, right? It’s not just me?

I really enjoy trying to organise myself. I will go to the shops and buy new stationery – pretty folders, dividers, note books, diaries and pens. I will spend a good few evenings hunched over my new pretties setting myself goals, timetables and deadlines. I will feel renewed, positive and focused. Before you know it I’m feeling in control again. Everything is fine. I can manage my job, my house, my craft obsession AND spend time with my husband, friends and family, no problem! Who needs a timetable? Just go with the flow….And then one morning I wake up and I’ve been ‘flowing’ so much I haven’t noticed the washing piling up, the cupboards emptying, my ‘to do pile’ overflowing…

I ask myself all the time – why can’t I be one of those people always on top of their chores? Why can’t I be organised enough to take my camera with me when I’m out on a walk? Why can’t I get my work/life balance quite right?

Maybe I just haven’t found the right notebook yet.

Brrrr.....its a bit nippy!

The weather here seems to have turned bitterly cold over the past few days so I have been busy crocheting some winter warming goodies which I hope to share with you very soon but at the moment I'm relying on an old favourite.


I love this neckwarmer - the colours remind me of the autumn and its so snuggly and warm. When I get it out to start wearing it again I'm reminded of defrosting the car but being so grateful I have my neckwarmer on - it fits right inside my coat and bridges that tricky gap between it and my jumper.

Its quite bobbly now so I should really make a new one.

Maybe next year.

Button bonanza!

Tonight is craft night at Helen's - we have our first fair next week and we have lots of stock to get ready.

There will be lots of buttons, both this kind...



and maybe this kind too...



...have a fab Friday!

Fiddlesticks and flapdoodle!

I’ve always been fascinated by words. I love the etymology of them. What was the first word? How did language develop? Why is it called a wardrobe? As a child I remember lying in bed at night unable to sleep imagining cavemen making sounds and choosing which one they liked the best to describe a rock!

I love using silly words too like collywobble, higgledy-piggledy and thingummybob. I totally blame Roald Dahl for this!

Today I went on a course all about phonics and spelling which sounds very boring and mundane but I found really fun – I’m such a geek! I love the idea that every word can be broken down into really small sounds and that by putting them together in different ways you get new words and new meaning. We played a game where you have a group of compound words which you need to rearrange in different combinations to make a new word and give a definition:


afterstorm – the feeling you get when someone has upset you
braindream – when you go to bed but can’t sleep because your brain keeps ticking over all your to do lists
eyeprint – what you see when you close your eyes after reading blogs all evening

Can you make a new favourite word? Try getting it into a sentence and see if anyone notices!

A sense of time

My favourite things at the moment...

To see...
Ysolda's Whimsical Little Knits 2 is at the printing stage! I already have the downloads of the patterns already but there's nothing like holding the pages in your hands and breathing in that fresh new book smell. I really like Ysolda's designs, they are so different from things you can buy in the shops - its the extra details that make them so special like the fan shaped shell pattern on her Peaks Island Hood.

To hear...


Florence + the Machine album Lungs - this is pretty much the soundtrack to my life right now. We went to see her at the Shepherd's Bush Empire last month and she is amazing live. Check her out on Spotify!

To smell...


The gunpowder from fireworks. I love bonfire night, I always pretend that my sparkler is a magic wand :-)

To feel...


Wool! This picture was taken at the Knitting & Stitching show at Alexndra Palace, don't you just want to plunge your hands in it? I love the feel of wool - it has to be good quality though. Helen calls me a wool snob but acrylic mixes 'squeak' and make my teeth itch - yuk!

To taste...

Jool's favourite beef stew by Jamie Oliver - yum!

Big fish, little fish...

My earliest memory as a child is a blank orange wall. I was laying in a bunk on an overnight ferry to Dublin and it was my very first trip to Ireland. I can remember hearing the sound of the sea on the other side of the wall and holding on to my precious rag doll to protect me from the water crashing in on top of me.

Most of my holidays as a child were spent visiting family in Ireland. When other children were enjoying the sunshine on the Costa del Sol we were knee deep in mud, wrapped up warm in woolly jumpers, swathed in waterproofs and always clad in thermal vests. Looking back now I wouldn’t change it for the world.

My favourite times were spent in my uncle’s row boat on the lake fishing. We’d pack a lunch and make a day of it, even now the taste of a hot, sweet cup of tea from a thermos flask can take me back there in a flash. I can picture every angle of that landscape when I close my eyes as if I’m standing on the quay right now – the mountains in the distance my Dad would tell us legends about, the forest to the west hiding a castle, the gates near the boathouse where the headless horseman lurked. It felt magical to me, as if anything could happen – like catching a bigger fish than your brother!

Sometimes when something unexpected occurs, and a forgotten memory enters my head like red wellies splashing in puddles or the smell of a peat fire welcoming us back into the warm, I can get that little flutter in my belly that I used to get as a kid and it reminds me anything is possible.

I hereby declare my intentions...

Well its the first day of Shimelle's class and I've already learnt some important things. From reading He Got Down On One Knee earlier I realised that I spend more time looking at other people's blogs than my own. I can spend hours a day gazing at the lovely pictures that other people take, their creative ideas and being amazed at all the wonderful things that they find the time to do. No wonder I'm always moaning that I never have the time to pursue my own craft projects!

I've also discovered how wonderful it feels when someone you have never met takes the time to visit your blog and leave a comment. I can't believe how long I have been surfing the blogosphere and never posted. I've always been worried that I would sound lame or insincere, that my comments would somehow 'taint' an otherwise perfect blog. How wrong could I be? Just the fact that someone has taken the time to read what I have to say, look at my photos AND bothered to write something nice makes me feel all warm and fuzzy!

My intentions for Shimelle's class were simple - to learn more about blogging and invest some time making mine better. Now my intentions have changed - I'm going to spend more time using my blog as a channel for my creative interests rather than just ogling everyone elses and not using my time effectively. A way of setting aside more time for ME. I need to listen to my own advice - I'm always telling the children in my class not to compare themselves to anyone else, as long as you are trying your best and improving then everything is ok!

Sometimes I won't be able to post and thats ok.
Sometimes I won't have suitable photos and will have to trawl through totally unrelated (but very pretty)ones like above and thats ok.
Sometimes I will spend far too long lurking around forums to work out how to upload things to Google Reader only to find out someone else has done all the hard work for me in a much shorter amount of time....but thats ok too :-) x

New class with Shimelle

I've signed up to the Blogging for Scrapbookers online class with Shimelle. I'm very excited as I'm not a scrapbooker but would really like to be - I'm hoping this class will give me some much needed tips on how to get myself organised!

Class starts tomorrow so click on the picture to sign up!

A hug in a mug

Its been very autumnal here today. I love the autumn, its my favourtite time of year. On my way to work this morning I was tempted to stop the car and get out to kick the large piles of golden coloured leaves that have been collecting on the pavements. I think I would of if it hadn't been so cold!

Although I love autumn I hate the dark evenings and mornings, they always make me want to curl up in bed and hibernate. I try to combat that feeling with a nice cup of chocolate with marshamallows, some hot buttered toast and a big ball of wool. What is it about this weather that makes me want to knit?

First batch

My first batch of Christmas cards for the year - lots more to go! I don't think I'm ever going to have enough stock for all the Christmas craft fairs Helen has signed up to so I hope she is being more productive than me!

World Card Making Day

Well, did you make anything? After a whole day of organising my supplies and with masses of good intentions I managed 5 cards in total - 3 of which were rubbish! Nevermind I did make two that I really liked.


I love the colour combination in this card, the spots and the button! It makes me so happy I've put it up in my craft room to keep me inspired. Does make it quite hard to stop thinking about cake though...


This stamp is from Everyday Button Bits from Papertrey Ink. I have been so excited waiting for this set to arrive so its no surprise I had to start using it straight away. I think this is going to be one of my all time favourites!

A busy summer!

I can't believe its the end of the summer holidays already, they always seem to go so fast these days. What happened to those long, hot hoidays that seemed to go on forever? Having said that we did manage to cram in a lot of stuff!
We got married...


...went to WOMAD...


...went to Devon for Paul's 30th...


...had a garden party...


and finally went on our honeymoon.


So why do I feel like I need another holiday?

Under Construction

This blog and accompanying website is under construction. Thanks to everyone who followed me previously - I have removed old posts to start afresh!

Please come back again soon for crafty bits and bobs x