My Blog Report

So, I've been thinking (strange but true, it does happen on occasion) that if my blog was to receive a school report it would probably read something like this:

Whilst Jools started out the year well, putting a lot of effort into her writing, writing consistently and often, this has tailed off as the year has progressed. With regards to her art studies, it is quite clear that whilst Jools has obviously spent a lot of time researching for her projects and has indeed spent rather a lot on materials to complete said projects, there does not seem to be much evidence that she has actually completed any. In the future I would like to see more actual work being created than time spent just talking about it.

Overall Comment: Must try harder!

Hmmm, I agree, I must try harder... and I plan to... starting... tomorrow!

A Reminiscing Email

I received this email today and thought I'd share it:

Just for a minute, forget everything stressful and read this...............
Close your eyes and go back in time...
Before the Internet...
Before semi-automatics, joy riders and crack....
Before Play stations, x-box or Super Nintendo...

Way back......

I'm talking about Hide and Seek in the park.
The corner shop.
Hopscotch.
Butterscotch.
Skipping.
Handstands.
Football with an old can.
Finger bobs.
Beano, Dandy, Buster, Twinkle and Dennis the menace.
Roly Poly.
Hula Hoops, jumping the stream, building dams.
The smell of the sun and fresh cut grass.
Bazooka Joe bubble gum.
An ice cream cone on a warm summer night from the van that plays a tune.
Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe Neapolitan or perhaps a screwball.

Wait......

Watching Saturday morning cartoons, short commercials or the flicks.
Children's Film Foundation, The Double Deckers, Red Hand Gang, The Tomorrow People, Tiswas or Swapshop?, and 'Why Don't You'? - or staying up for Doctor Who.
When around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed like going somewhere.
Earwigs, wasps, stinging nettles and bee stings.
White dog sh*t.
Sticky fingers.
Playing Marbles. Ball bearings. Big 'uns and Little 'uns.
Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, and Zorro.
Climbing trees.
Building igloos out of snow banks.
Walking to school, no matter what the weather.
Running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt.
Jumping on the bed.
Pillow fights.
Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.
Being tired from playing....remember that?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon.
Football cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle.
Choppers and Grifters.
Twist grip 3 speed gears.
Everyone had Police sirens on their bikes.
Small narrow skateboards and adjustable rollerskates.
Eating raw jelly.
Orange squash ice pops.

Remember when...

There were two types of trainers - girls and boys, and Dunlop Green Flash and the only time you wore them at school was for P.E.
You knew everyone in your street - and so did your parents.
It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.
You didn't sleep a wink on Christmas eve.
When nobody owned a pure-bred dog.
When 25p was decent pocket money.
Curly Wurlys. Space Dust. Toffo's.
Top Trumps.
When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny.
When nearly everyone's mum was at home when the kids got there.
When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.
When being sent to the head's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home.
Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs etc. Parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! (and some of us are still afraid of them.) Didn't that feel good?

Remember when....

Decisions were made by going "Ip Dip Dog Sh*t".
"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest.
Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly".
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was germs.
And the worst thing in your day was having to sit next to one.
It was unbelievable that 'British Bulldog 123' wasn't an Olympic event.
Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a catapult.
Nobody was prettier than Mum.
Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.
Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable aspirin.
Ice cream was considered a basic food group.
Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.
Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors.

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!

And the funny thing is I can remember most, if not all, of these. The good old days. LOL.

The Results of an Innocent Email

Yesterday I received an email from Aldi the direct result of which Richard was promptly dispatched to buy this:

Fun for all the family at the bargain price of £129.99! So what if there is no longer any room in our garden (especially once we put the pool up - which we will shortly I think as the gorgeous weather of the last few weeks shows no signs of abating)? At the moment the garden is for the children. Richard and I have decided on it. All too soon they will grow up and not want to play in it and even though we will then be able to have the beautiful sanctuary of a garden we would like, we know that we will be sitting there and missing their childish screams and laughs of delight. Soppy but true. So for now, it's their space and we are happy it is.

The Emotion Lion

So Hettie, the daughter previously known as Harriet, comes in to our bedroom the other morning and we three, Richard, I and Hettie, have a conversation that went a little like this:

Hettie: I've made an emotion lion!
Us: An emotion line?
Hettie: No. An emotion lion!
Us: An emotion lion? What's an emotion lion?
Hettie: Well get your fat lazy backsides out of bed and come see...

OK, she made not have phrased that last statement in exactly those words... but that's probably what she meant. So we drag ourselves out of our nice, cozy, warm bed and we see this attached to her door (as usual click on the photos to see them in full detail):

This is to enable us all (apparently) to gauge what mood she is in every day. She's created different eyes to portray different emotions - gotta love those sad eyes with the tears welling up in them! How cool is this girl? I love how she thinks.  

ScrapFever: A Review

I had planned on writing a long post about this but now, quite honestly, just can't be bothered - LOL!

So instead, here's a quick summary! Donna Downey was lovely. Very down to earth, easy to chat to and a great teacher. No airs, no pretensions, just a downright lovely woman. We made and covered our own 12"x12" album made from chipboard and brown wrapping paper which we then decorated with our choice of patterned papers (which we could choose from the Willow Tree Crafts shop on site). Inside there were 12 pages 8.5"x11" in size for which we had to think of 12 words and, if possible, bring 12 photos to best represent those words. I semi cheated on this, although I would say 'thought imaginatively' and my words were: 1995, 1996, 1997 and so on through to 2006 and I used a photograph of myself and Richard from each year. Boy, did this make me realise how little photos I have of us together. In fact some years I had a choice of ... actually no choice, just 1 photo!

[I'll upload photos of the project here later today - as and when I've scanned/photographed it]

Stacy Julian's took 2 classes, the first one was a lecture on how to be 'ScrapHappy' and I really enjoyed it. It made you think about what/how/why you scrapbook and I will certainly be working on some of those and making some changes in my scrapping life. It came at quite a timely moment for me as I've been doing quite a lot of thinking lately about why I do what I do and what things I want to change. The other class was completely not 'me' as it was super quick class, creating 20 pages in less than 2 hours! Yes, I admit, they were only 6"x6" LOs but I am a slow, thoughtful scrapper and just don't work in such a hectic fast paced way. However, having said that, and having not finished that number of pages, I do think the technique/advice was useful and a great way to complete a mini-memory album very quickly, easily and painlessly so I may well sit down one day and give it another go. I can say though that I love Stacy's philosophy and approach to scrapbooking and for that reason alone it was great to meet her and very inspiring.

The other 2 classes were fab. Alison Drummond taught a very different sort of class, not a LO, in fact not scrapbooking at all - we painted! Five 6"x6" paintings on acetate and all then placed in a great frame from Ikea. I really enjoyed this, the getting out the paints, splashing it on and getting mucky - shame I forgot to take an apron!!!

[I've still to photograph this but will upload it later]

And finally to Venessa's class and yet another great one it was too. So nice to meet Venessa, who now lives in South Africa. Loved the colours for this class and I knew straight away which photos I wanted to use. The class was for a single LO (the LHS) but as I had so many photos of Noah playing on the space hopper I ended up creating and extending the design to a double LO. This doesn't always work but because Venessa's design was quite graphic it was easy to carry on to another side and I think it works quite well.

So, my overall thoughts on the weekend? The teachers and the classes were great, it was lovely to meet up with old friends and also to meet some new ones. The venue was OK, the food was OK too (despite some awful problems on Friday night but as we were compensated with 2 bottles of wine, well, I'm not complaining), my only criticism was the busy pace we had. It didn't feel like you had much time to sit and relax, chat with friends and I didn't even touch any of the photos/projects I had brought with me. But then I suppose you can say it was definitely value for money as we got to do all the classes on offer. For myself a weekend crop isn't just about the classes though, it's about the opportunity to socialise, relax a bit and, if I'm lucky, complete a few pages. But having said that I had a great time and came home with finished projects (unheard of for me!) so it was a success.

And I've just realised that once I got started I actually did write a rather long post :D

Too Nice A Day To Sit And Blog!

I fully intended to blog about ScrapFever today but the weather is continuing to be so glorious that it is just too nice to stay in. So far this morning I've been sitting in the conservatory playing board games with Richard and Noah but we have had to come in it's been too warm out there.

The weather is set to continue in the same way this week, reaching a high of 22º degrees on Friday. Don't know what it will do after that as I've only seen the 5 day forecast.

Anyway, so this will be a quick post from me because we are going to have some lunch and then go off on a geocache to the old and interesting place of Wayland's Smithy, a Neolithic burial chamber, the second phase of which was started around 3500BC - really makes you wonder how old it is then and when the first phase was started! Will take lots of photos, including Flat Stanley (more on this in another of my planned posts) and will post them later.

I'm gone...

Lots To Catch Up On

But instead of whacking it all in to one post I'll spread it over the next few days or so.

First off, as promised, albeit late, the photos of my gorgeous knitted felted bag. The first one is pre-felting and the second one post-felting. I'm really pleased with how it turned but will add that I reshaped it further after I took the second photo as I realised it wasn't quite 'right'.

The Cornflake box is for size comparison!

Happy Easter everyone. The weather here is glorious and has been so for the last couple of weeks. I love Spring, I think it's my favourite time of the year. The daffodils are out, and I've also seen a few bluebells. The days have been those perfect Spring type days, starting out really fresh and crisp, with blue skies and then warming up. Perfect. The last few days have been around 15-18°reaching a balmy 20° today! Bliss - off to sip a glass of wine in the garden.

To come over the next few days: ScrapFever: A Review, The Emotion Lion, a couple of layouts, geocaching update and whatever else I can think of. LOL.