Life has been manic...

I have not had a spare moment to breathe this week - its been totally manic and I'm absolutely exhausted! Its been a week of highs and lows - working late and school trips, fabulous scrap-related news for me on Tuesday (which will be shared in due course) and unfortunately very little scrapping. I managed to design a layout but haven't glued it down yet, I made a CJ entry on the theme of Millionaire Dreams and I am now horribly behind on my journal again. Still, these weeks are sent to try us I suppose.

Here is a piccie of my CJ entry - its a dreadful photo because it was done at about 10.45 at night on the evening before I was due to pass it on. But hopefully you get the idea!
This weekend I'm off to Brighton to visit friends and hopefully have a fabby time - god knows when I'm going to get the chance to do any cleaning, washing or planning for next week! Still, at least it will be a nice break after the week from hell.

A stressful week...

This is just going to be a quick post - while I do have more journal pages to share I think I will upload a few tomorrow when I'm feeling less tired and have time to scan them in. Its all go this week for me - had a presentation in front of leadership group today, a hospital appointment tomorrow, a parents evening on Wednesday and then a trip to Bosworth battlefield on Thursday! And then Friday I'm off to visit friends in Brighton so goodness knows when I'm going to get a chance to relax :/ I did manage to get my first project for the new DT done yesterday - I really like the page so can't wait for that to be shared some time in October. I was very excited to receive my kit from Back Porch Memories (an American kit company) this morning - its gorgeous Scenic Route Ashville and I can't wait to play! I had to open the box at 7am this morning even though it meant I had to leave for work without breakfast. What with Scenic Route Laurel in my Sarahs Cards Kit this is def becoming my fave range of papers.

A lovely day with mum and dad

For once I have spent the weekend with my mum and dad (which I get to do a lot less than I'd like) and while we haven't really done very much, just spending some time catching up and enjoying each other's company is fine with me.

Thought I would share a page from Friday 14th, this one is celebrating the 'Friday Feeling' you get when work is over and you can enjoy a glass of wine in the evening without worrying about hangovers or getting up early in the morning!

Some good news, it looks like one of my pages will be published in Scrapbook Inspiratons (space permitting) so I'm quite excited about that. There is a pretty quick turnaround though - it has to be there by Thursday next week. Gotta come up with a safe way of packaging it for the inevitably bumpy ride with Royal Mail!

There is nothing amazing about washing up...

So two more pages to share from about a week and a half ago. The first page is recording the beautiful flower that appeared on the clematis that Ed had planted not so long ago - the first flower and its remained looking just as stunning for ages. We now have another one about to open too - its really lovely to see something looking so colourful as the weather turns and we feel cold all the time.

The second page is about one of the most tedious household chores - the washing up. It just feels like a neverending process and if you leave it till the next day it gets even worse as you HAVE to do it before you can cook again. I have to admit, that despite this very good lesson I have unfortunately not learned and the same thing has happened several times since. But we can always hope.

I've had some good news - I have been invited to join another DT for a shop that I use quite regularly. I'm not allowed to announce it yet but its all very exciting and I think it will challenge me to step outside of my comfort zone even more. I will let you know as soon as I can who I am designing for but some goodies are winging their way to me now, ready for me to create.

I hope I don't end up being overwhelmed by everything - I've committed myself to rather a lot of CJs at the moment as well! I think I will just have to get very organised with my time and speed up my scrapping too.

More journal pages

So these are the journal pages for Monday and Tuesday last week

On Monday, my cats were all over me when I got in the door from work. I took this shot of Bert and though its a bit blurred it made me laugh and I decided to include it in my journal - he's got such a surprised look on his face!

For Tuesday's page, I decided to make an ode to Department (or indeed, any) Meetings at school. Despite all promises to the contrary, these are never short and snappy, but instead go on forever and ever as each point is discussed to death. I should just accept this before I go in, rather than hoping against hope that each time it will be different!

Went to a crop tonight which was good fun, at least it lets me catch up with my pages and be focused on scrapping for several hours at a time (without thinking that I should be getting on with some work :( ). Got several CJ entries to do so I may post those over the next few days, though quite when I'm going to find the time to do them I'm not entirely sure!

Love is...

I know I'm supposed to be making my page a day for Shimelle's class. But when you've got an idea for a page sometimes you can't stop until you've made it. Thats what happened to me last night. At half ten I was cutting and trimming away (even though I should have been in bed ready for work the next morning) and as soon as I got in today I finished the page.


Its called Love is... and uses some photos I've had since my birthday which I changed to Black and White. I used Love Elsie Betty papers, a selection of pink buttons and some stickers by 7 Gypsies on the page. The most scarey thing I've ever done is decide to paint onto a page - when I did the first strokes I thought - this looks awful! - and regretted it but as I got going I was really pleased with it. That will be the influence of the Autumn leaves Designing with Colour book I bought recently! The title is handdrawn and cut to reflect the doodle style of Love Elsie paper.


The journalling is all about my take on love - something that is about being totally open, honest and being yourself with someone - not all romance and candlelit dinners (though of course thats nice too!).


I will carry on sharing my journal pages tomorrow, but tonight its off to badminton for me!

A Music Question

I know that many people who view my blog don't comment (please do! I love to read your opinions) but I would like to know whether anybody really hates that I've added music? In the last two days I've had one person tell me that they love it, and another say that music on the blog would put them off visiting again. I don't want to put people off reading my blog, obviously I love listening to my tunes but I would understand them not being everybody's cup of tea! :) So any feedback would be appreciated.

Last weekend's pages

So we have reached last weekend's pages now, two pages which I particularly like as well. Saturday's page was about an evening in a pub garden to celebrate a friend's birthday. I tried to get a photograph of two of my friends together, but every time I took it, one of the girls blinked when the flash went off, leaving me with about ten photos of her eyes closed! In the end I gave up and accepted that I wouldn't get the perfect shot, but this album was great for showcasing an imperfect shot!

My second page is a bit more personal. Of course, I have always known that my mum means the world to me and I miss her every day as I live so far away. But last weekend, my mum felt really poorly and my sister had to take her to the hospital. She turned out to be ok in the end, but they worry I felt and the complete uselessness of not being nearby really upset me. It reminded me how much my family mean to me and how much I hate not being able to see them more often.

A day to myself

Well, an afternoon at least. Ed has gone off to the football and I have managed to get another few pages of my journal done - I'm nearly up to date now. In the meantime, here are another couple of pages for you.

The first page is about my attempts this year to try and be more prepared at work. I have a 'Things to do Today' book and I'm actually trying to use it. It does make me more organised, but I don't know how long it will last!

My second page is also about work, but about knowing my strengths, weaknesses and limitations as a teacher. I went into the profession through a love of my subject and this is what drives me when I plan and deliver lessons. Of course, I love working with the kids and hearing their opinions on things - there is nothing better than helping one of them succeed. However, I am not at my strength when faced with a child who is particularly needy but who does not accept help readily. Of course, with a child like this endless patience and persistence is required, but when faced with a class of 30, endless supplies of these virtues are not always present. I will continue to do my best. But I'm not sure it will ever be enough for this boy.

Thank Goodness its Friday!

My first full week back teaching and its gone pretty well, though I am VERY glad that its Friday and I can enjoy the weekend and a bit of my own time again. I'm trying to keep on top of my school work though I'm sure this won't last too long. At the moment I'm enjoying a nice glass of red wine and hiding upstairs away from the rugby match (I don't think I will ever get that game), so I thought I may as well share another couple of pages from my journal.

I have to say that, while there is nothing like the sense of achievement you get when you finish a 12 by 12 page which you designed and worked on for several hours, it is nice working in a format which means you can finish several pages in an evening. Which is ideal as I'm still catching up (though I'm getting there - I'm actually in the current week now!). I might try to get back to the 12 by 12 this weekend though, as I still have ideas for pages floating round in my head from several weeks back.


The first page is about how tired I felt when I returned to work and embraced all the stress that teaching and planning entails. I managed to start developing a sty on my eye, though fortunately it never really got going and just felt incredibly sore without actually looking ugly. Hadn't had one of these since I was a really little girl and used to read in the dark all night! So I thought it was worth recording.


The second page is about the unfortunate problem of money and lack of it. The little enough said about this one the better, but it will serve as a useful reminder to stay on top of my finances in the future.

Not too many plans for the weekend now, though I may have to go and buy new tyres for my car, which is slightly depressing as my bank balance had started to look healthy again. C'est la vie I guess...

More lessons...

I've been to our fortnightly crop at the local community centre tonight and it was absolutely rammed with people! Was really good to see as there have been occasions when very few people have turned up so at least we are getting a stable base to ensure we can carry on.

I've been working on my journal tonight but thought I would share two more pages from last week - from September 2 and September 3.

On Sunday me and Ed spent the day putting together furniture for our living room which we finally finished doing up and we were really pleased with the results. So this page is a homage to that experience!

And of course Monday was the dreaded day back to work after the 6 week break (which feels like ages ago now!) so the page had to be about the feelings associated with the return. I had no pictures for this day so just used a journalling stamp to create a space to share my thoughts.

Two more pages tomorrow...

Learn something new every day...

Well believe it or not, despite being back at work, I have actually been taking part in Shimelle Laine's journal class, Learn Something New Every Day. Its about reflecting on each day in September and using it to create a page for a 6 by 6 album. I am a little bit behind but have surprised myself by only being behind by a couple of days, so I thought it was about time I shared on here.

My album uses Scenic Route papers and the 7Gypsies inspiration stickers which Shimelle had encouraged us to use and which by chance I had bought several months ago and not found a use for yet! It must be fate, as they say. I also used a few buttons and some stamps by the Art Warehouse, Docrafts and Autumn Leaves(date stamps). We purposely had to keep the designs simple to make sure we can acutally get it done as it could otherwise be quite a big undertaking.

My first page is about a night out we had on the 1st September - I wasn't totally happy about the bar we were going to and can get a bit negative, thinking I will have a bad night. But on this occasion I decided to stop worrying and just go with the flow - it was much more laidback that way and I thought this photo from the night really summed up my attitude.

More to share tomorrow...

(A very) Moving Day

As promised, I finally got the page I was working on finished and here it its, (a very) Moving Day, all about the day that me and Ed finally moved into our first house together and started on a very new, very grown up stage in our relationship.

I wanted to get a few pics from the day on here (all taken by my lovely friend Mags) and decided to use some circular stamps, bought from Make the Moment Last as the sentiments fit in pretty well. There is a fair bit of sewing on the layout as well as loads of buttons (courtesy of Rebecca's Scrapbooking Stash). It took a while to come together but I'm quite pleased with this one - it really does bring back memories of that day in August 2006 for me.

Its been a bit of a stressful day here for one reason and another but at least getting the page finished kept me distracted for a while. I will try and upload some of my journal pages this week too - they are being done more in batches than everyday!

Bad blogging...

...and I'm afraid this is going to be a short post too. Going back to work has been SO busy - I am trying to keep organised and ahead of myself but it means that my free time and scrapping time has been greatly reduced too. I have been working on one layout however, and plan to upload that at the weekend. Its called Moving Day, and yes, I finally got around to scrapping the pictures of me and Ed moving into our house in 2006. Lots of nice yellows and oranges to cheer us up too.
Also got some journal pages to share, so will also upload those at the weekend too. Will be good to look back on the last few crazy days in my journal when I am able to put it all into perspective! Off to sleep now, happy dreams all :)

One busy weekend...

Wow, what a busy weekend we have had. Made all the finishing touches to the living room and it looks great now! I am so proud of Ed for doing it - it may have taken him a while but its now all done for me to go back to work tomorrow. We had a marathon buying session in Argos yesterday buying shelves and mirrors and CD racks and then spent most of today putting it all together. I will try and get some pics in daylight tomorrow.
Haven't had any chance to scrap but I have joined up to Shimelle's journal class so now plan to spend some time reading through the information and catching up. Although a little thing called work may get in the way tomorrow...