Over the Rainbow...

When I started teaching four years ago, I was always busy - never-ending marking, unfamiliar lessons to plan, yampy kids playing up for the NQT teacher. But this last week has thrown all that into perspective - its been non-stop work, reading and getting prepared for my first staff residential. I had a folder full of the latest educational thinking to read (if anyone suffers from insomnia, let me know and I can send you this folder to read through - it'll soon solve the problem!) and then we had to plan for the curriculum changes that will take place when we move to the new school. Much as I missed my Friday night vegging out on the sofa, and come to think of it any free time in the whole of last week, I really enjoyed getting to see the vision for our kid's education in the next few years. Its exciting, its dynamic, and hopefully it will motivate EVERY child to learn. As a teacher, you can't hope for anything more.

So scrapping has taken a bit of a back seat. I managed to miss taking my pictures on the 25th for Scrap Your Day, so I plan on taking them tomorrow instead, I don't think it matters too much really. And then next weekend, I get to scrap to my hearts content - I'm going to aim for 7 or 8 layouts over the course of two days, which would be a record for me! So I haven't totally disappeared off the face of the planet, and plan on being a better blogger over the next week.

Friends

Here is a page that went up on the Papermaze blog a few days ago - I made it with the leftover Kelly Panacci papers from my Valentines day mini book (which went down very well, by the way!). I don't do so many pages of my work mates, but I got this photo of me and my friend Emma at our friend David's 30th a few weeks ago and I just really liked it. Sometimes, there isn't that much you want to add in journalling - I don't like being overly sentimental or gushy - but Emma is often there with some sage advice or a few words of wisdom whether I'm deciding which diet plan to follow or moaning about the fella! So I recorded that aspect of the friendship.

I went mad with the white pen doodling and even a bit of stitching too. I just love the Kelly Panacci love words paper - I've been cutting out bits of it for all kinds of layouts - very versatile :)

In other news, unfortunately my iPhone gave up the ghost during the half term holidays, which means its had to be sent back to Apple to be fixed - grrr! Which also means I'm now the proud temporary owner of an o2 courtesy phone, which can only be described as a brick. It doesn't have a colour screen, a camera, basically anything except a phonebook or the ability to send a text message. But there is something a little bit refreshing about the total lack of gadgets. There is just so little that can go wrong! Even so, I have yet to work out how to put it on silent, which led to some embarrassed apologies to my class when the electricity board rang up during period 4 today...

Busy Bee...

That's me! I've been up to lots this weekend and have had a lovely start to my half term break - I definitely needed it. Had a great time on Valentines day going out with Ed, my sis and her man Ross - photos to follow, probably in the format of a scrapbook layout! Part of the reason we had such a fab evening was this film:



If you haven't seen it already, you have to go! I have to admit, that when me and my sis were discussing which film to see I didn't really fancy this one. But it was on at the right time to fit in a trip to the Thai restaurant afterwards, and I'm so glad I gave it a chance. It wasn't at all what I expected - it was much better!

Today I have also managed to get my layouts done for the Papermaze blog for next month - lovely Dream Street papers - and hung out with friends at the same time, so all good. Here's hoping the rest of the week shapes up...

I hate rude kids!

For a teacher, you might think this was just an everyday reality. But believe it or not, most teenagers are not that rude, impolite or disrespectful, and certainly know where to draw the line once you have warned them. Not a kid I encountered today in a cover lesson though - mad just doesn't describe it! So I ended up coming home in a foul mood, having raged at his year head demanding an apology and DT from said kid. Fortunately, tomorrow is the last day of the half term and I'm on a school trip to a medical museum in Leeds with Year 11. I really enjoy this trip, despite the distance we have to travel, and I'm just hoping that the weather isn't too awful on the way!

Speaking of weather, we thought we would see what photographs we could get of the snowfall last Sunday night - a compact camera is not the best piece of kit for difficult shots like that. These were our attempts (any tips on taking better photos of snow would be much appreciated!):

I've been doing a bit of scrapping this evening, but its for the Papermaze blog for March so not likely to be seen for a while yet. I will however be spending some time scrapping with friends on Sunday when I take a trip down to my parents in London, so looking forward to having more to share after that...

Missing: Peace of Mind

Things have been quite crazy for me over the last few months - quite a few really sad things have happened and work has been very busy, and in the last week or so I've felt like everything is getting on top of me. Because we shouldn't always scrap the happy stuff, I thought I'd try and cheer myself out of my woes by creating a layout reminding me that it isn't always so bad!



The photo of me was taken by SJ who takes spectacular photos and has made my eyes look blue and sparkly which in real life they are not. I was really happy when the photo was taken, at a retreat with friends and scrapping all weekend. So looking at the photo reminds me of that.


The papers I used were Scenic Route and Scrapworks - I've also used a multitude of different stamps on there from my collection to create the embellishments. A bit of bubble wrap paint stamping also thrown in for good measure. I love that ribbon printed to look like a tape measure too - I found it in my stash, I think it came with a kit.


It has been snowing here for the last hour and we have quite a blanket covering the ground. Not enough for another snow day, but it does look pretty. Just hoping the drive to work isn't too treacherous in the morning!

My name is Chloe...

...and I am a total slob! I thought I would share with you the bombsite that is my desk as I prepare to go to bed this evening. Yes, I have had a desk for all of a week and already I have managed to cover it in paper and letter stickers. Not to mention the floor underneath. But what some may call a mess, I call creativity in action! At least, thats my excuse ;)

You can just see the layout I have been working on at the front of the mess. I'm just waiting for Ed to fetch my Dymo labeller down from the loft tomorrow morning, then it will be complete and ready to share on here. But for now, I'm off to sleep!

Why I love my iPhone...

Despite the fact it had been playing up a bit recently, I really love my iPhone - all the 'gadgety' phones I'd had before had been too difficult to use, but the iPhone is so user-friendly and lets me download all sorts of applications and browse the web - I wouldn't be without it now! So when Laura pointed me in the direction of the Category Stories inspiration blog, I knew what the subject of my layout would be! Now don't get me wrong, I love my partner, but sometimes its fun to do a 'love' layout about an unexpected subject, and use up some of that Valentines paper at the same time...



Here is my effort, with slightly strange colours from the scan for some reason, its a bit brighter in real life. It's quite busy and with lots of different papers from Love, Elsie, Kelly Panacci and Sassafrass as well as some cool doodle alphabet stamps and various stickers (which I'm really getting into again recently - is it just me??? They don't have to be tacky do they?)

I've actually managed to complete two layouts this evening, but the other one is for the Papermaze blog first so will have to wait a few days before uploading here. I do believe I'm on a roll...

A Love Mini-Book

I am currently sitting at the computer in my new scrap room, looking at a Winter Wonderland outside. School has been shut, and I plan to go out and get a few snowy photos later on, as well as wander up to the post office. But first I want to share this mini book I made for the Papermaze blog this month. I plan to give it to Eddie for Valentines day, though I have to admit he has seen most of it during construction so it won't be much of a surprise unfortunately!

I adapted the book from instructions in a book I got for Christmas, Mini-books in Minutes. There are loads of different ideas in there, and you can make them your own just by making small changes to the instructions or materials. In this example, it is easy to change the number of pages by adding more or less accordion folds to the bindings. This book is made from the gorgeous Kelly Panacci papers by Sandylion - I really love the little man and woman figures on several of the papers in the range.

Hope you have a good day if its a Snow Day near you, I may even get to scrap later!

Nearly there...

The worktop is up and the units are back in the scraproom. Just a few more things need to happen - we need to go and pick up some more units from my parents in two weeks and assemble those, and then the room will be ready :) Can't believe how good it is looking already. Now tonight I'm going to chill, scrap and watch Lark Rise to Candleford. A very satisfactory Sunday evening!