Look on the bright side

Dear Donna,

It’s always important to focus on the positives. 

Never forget that you are there for the pupils in your class.  They are the reason you get up on a cold, wintry, dismal day like today at 6am.  They are the reason you wake up at 4am and cannot get back to sleep because you can’t switch off.  They are the reason you are walking in the door exhausted every night at 6.30pm.  They are the reason why you get up early on a Saturday morning while your husband is still asleep to finish off your planning for the following week.  They are the reason you spend hours on the internet finding resources that will enthuse them.  They are the reason you still read a chapter of the class book when you’re throat is red raw.  They are the reason that you can’t pass a museum shop without buying something to inspire them.  They are the reason you bulk buy shiny stickers and self-inking stamps. 

They are the reason you plaster a smile to your face and reply politely when parents tell you you’re not doing enough!

Focus on the positives: parents evening is only once a term :-) x

 

With a puff of smoke

Last night was our traditional Halloween/Fireworks party which involved lots of costumes, tonnes of food, a chocolate fountain and masses of sparklers.  It was a great night but unfortunately marks the end of the half-term holidays :-(
 
Tomorrow it will be back to work, endless to do lists and limited time for crafting.  I will try to keep on top of my True Stories prompts but I am already two behind (even though I have started to work on them but they're not ready to share yet).

I'm planning on some computer time on Tuesday - see you then!

How many times do I have to tell you?

It seems most of my days are full of repetition. At work there are the same phrases that I slip into again and again, mainly have you checked your work?  And where are all your capital letters and full stops?

This prompt could be a whole series of pages titled 'How many times?!' as I can think of many repetitive conversations I have with my husband, my friends, my mom...

The journalling for this prompt came really fast but I struggled with LO as I don't have any pictures to go with it.  I read this post which was quite useful, any more tips out there?

Life Dictionary

I've been playing around with the concept of letters and numbers all day for the second prompt of True Stories but I couldn't get the idea of a dictionary out of my head.  I know the focus is supposed to be the journalling but I could just see pages of large letters staring out at me.

I started with developing an alphabet of words that mean something to me and I've decided to make a life dictionary.  I'm hoping this will be a really easy form of scrapbooking that I can dip into every now and then so of course it had to be digital.  The ease of slotting the photos into the templates and adding a large letter will make it easier to focus on the writing aspect, the description of that moment or word that is essential in my life.  The definitions are going to be tricky too - have you ever tried to define what being a daughter is like?  What laughter is?  This is definitely going to stretch my writing skills!

The layouts I have done are only A and B.  I have a long way to go and I'm not happy at all with my journalling but since its digital I can always go back and edit ;-)  On the more personal layouts, like my very first letter, my journalling will be written on the back once its printed so I can keep some things private.

I've made two pages but four templates and they're available to download here.  I would love to see anything you make using my them and any advice would be greatly appreciated as this is my first time at making templates.

Thank you so much if you have visited my blog in over the last couple of days and left a comment :-) x

Where are you from?

 

Having lived in the South of England for ten or so years now I don't get asked where I am from as often anymore.  My accent only really shows itself on those tell tale words such as bath, path  and grass.  Automatically people say 'Where are you from?' or 'Are you Northern?'

I'm not.  I'm  from the Midlands.

This doesn't seem to register in their faces.  If they are from the South then the Midlands still counts as North, if they are from the North then the Midlands is the South.  So where am I from?

I'm from the home of Aston Villa, the Balti and Ozzy Osborne.  I'm from where the words sing, thing and bring have an extra phoneme.  My home town has more canals than Venice, more inhabitants than Manchester and more students than Cambridge.  Where I come from there are people of every colour, religion and creed.  I come from a place where cultures mingle, mix and evolve.  Where music, art and food fuse diversity together.

Where I come from, it doesn't matter where you're from.

Crafty Sunday

I've been looking forward to today for ages :-)

It's the first Sunday of the half-term holidays and I have nothing planned apart from some crafting, a bit of Sunday lunch and maybe a little nap later!

Yesterday we rescued some of my  Christmas craft supplies from storage - I really miss my craft room while we're trying to sell the house.  I've now got all my stamps, paper inkpads and promarkers so I can make some cards again.  I'm also really excited to finally use my new stamps from noolibird.  Hope you all enjoy your Sundays blogland! :-) x

Down on the farm

This time of year always makes me think about growing my own fruit and vegetables.  I think its seeing all the lovely pumpkins and apples around.  I'm not organised enough to fit self-sufficiency into my life but I do appreciate quality, locally produced food that hasn't been tampered with or had to travel across the world to get to my plate.  Thankfully there are people out there who make it easier to be lazy and still get lovely grub!

We went to Church Farm today - it wasn't planned, just one of those spur of the moment things.  Don't you love it when your plans change unexpectedly and you end up having a lovely day?  We met some cute chicks, some very snuffly pigs and had a mooch around the farm shop.  The cafe there is very nice too and they have the biggest jacket potatoes I've ever seen!

I'm also lucky to work somewhere with lots of apple trees - I think I may have to go scrumping so I can make this!