First day of class...

...in more ways than one! It was back to school today after a VERY lazy half term. I hardly slept a wink last night (I never do on the last night of the holidays for some reason, I'm always thinking of all the little things I forgot to sort out at the end of the last half term) but everything was fine as always, and the kids were just as thrilled as us teachers at having to be out of bed at 6.30 in the morning again! (Yep, that's sarcasm for you).

Another class that starts today is Shimelle's Blogging for Scrapbookers. Now I know I've been keeping a blog for two years now (originally set up when I took part in my first ever Shimelle class, When I Grow Up - Shimelle, you have so much to answer for!) but regular readers may have noticed that in recent months my posts have been less than regular. Now some of this is down to the inevitable work overload that can come with a new job, but its also been down to a significant reluctance to either scrap or blog that I've been suffering from since the Summer all told. So I wanted to take the opportunity of a short, three week class of daily prompts to actually get me blogging again. Let's see if it works!



Our first task was to blog our intentions for the class. So my intentions are as follows.
1) To blog at least every other day.
2) To try and scrap at least two layouts each week (this intention might be a little more difficult to maintain!)
3) To visit some new blogs and get some blogging and scrapping inspiration from others.
4) To not feel guilty if all these plans fall by the wayside! Blogger's guilt is NO FUN.

I have a number of obstacles that may stand in the way. First up, we have the job, and the mountain of marking than can form part of my evening several nights a week. Second, we have a few busy weekends coming up during this class, with Ed playing the last post at the Remembrance services and my sister coming to visit. Thirdly, Ed's near obsession with playing Age of Empires III which hogs the computer for several hours every night (I've had to kick him off just to do this post!). And finally, my own sheer apathy. I'm hoping that by identifying the obstacles at this stage, I'll have more chance of overcoming them. Wish me luck!

A dent in my marking...

...has finally been made! I put off the dreaded marking for most of the half term holiday, and when I actually sat down to do it this afternoon, it wasn't all that bad! I built it up in my head to be such a dull task, that the reality could only be an improvement! So it isn't all done, but it nearly is, and I can relax a little this evening and prepare for the onslaught of being back at work again.

Just a couple of layouts to share this evening, the first one was started on my weekend away (two weeks ago now, can hardly believe it!) and finished at the start of this week. The photos were taken on holiday by Lake Garda. I think that scrapbookers are obliged to take certain cliched photos when they are out and about, and the 'obligatory photo of feet' are one of them! I really like the way the title came together - I don't usually do such long titles, but the different letter stickers look great, so maybe I will start doing a few more.

The second layout was made a week and a half ago, and was a reaction to the way I was feeling at the time about my job, while I was having a little crisis of confidence. It needed to include a lot of journalling, since this was my way of getting my head straight and really deciding what I wanted. The photo was taken while I sat at my desk and printed out straight away - and it definitely looks the way I was feeling at the time! The papers are the gorgeous Basic Grey Lemonade line - perhaps an odd choice for this subject, but you don't have to always go for the obvious.

Now, I'm off to eat my dinner, and find something to do this evening now that I don't have a gorgeous costume drama to whisk me away into a world of escapism on a Sunday evening!