I'm addicted!

So I discovered Pinterest.





I'm sure many people reading this will probably already use Pinterest, but I'm a little bit of latecomer to the phenomenon.

But boy, am I hooked now! It's just so easy to make lots of pretty mood-boards that all look wonderfully inspirational. Trouble is, I think I'm going to spend so much time getting inspired, I won't have any time to put it to use! I've only been using it two days and already have more than 150 pins. What a lot of happily wasted hours!

So now I'm going to force myself to shut the app and do something productive. I think maybe knitting this evening, I've got two big projects on the go though I'm a bit tempted to cast on another one...

The one I've decided to work on tonight is this:





This is the back of a cardi/jacket I'm making from Artesano Aran yarn. It's a fairly straightforward cable design but makes for a lovely bobbly texture. The pattern is from a past issue of Simply Knitting - it's a short swing jacket. I don't own anything this size or shape so don't know if it will suit, but I'm enjoying the knitting of it in any case.

Anyway, I'm off to do a few more rows...

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Seaside Layouts

Today I'm in a good mood. Or at least a better mood than I normally am on a Wednesday. I use an app called Mappiness on my iPhone - it's a kind of research survey which I've been taking part in since last October, and it lets you see lots of stats about how happy you rate yourself. And Wednesdays, according to my stats, are officially my most miserable day - too far from the weekend in either direction!

However today, as I said, I'm in a good mood. You can tell this because when I got in from work, I did the hoovering, and cleaned the cat bowls, and emptied the dishwasher, and all sorts of other tasks that normally I have to be practically held at gunpoint to complete! I think it stems from the fact that I finally said 'no' to something at work the other day. It wasn't exactly a big task, but I feel suddenly liberated, as if I have taken a bit of control over something, even by refusing to do it!

I'm also in a good mood because a huge Photobox order which I made a couple of evenings ago arrived today, so I've been happily flicking through photos of my engagement party, weekend in Bath, trip to Paris etc etc. These all bring back great memories. There is something about having the physical photos in your hands - it makes them more special than looking on a screen. But then I guess that's why we scrapbook.

So anyway, I thought I'd share a couple more of my Papermaze layouts - these are some from the Isle of Wight last year. I think the papers are October Afternoon. I really like the 6x12 one - it's very simple, but just really suits the photo.

I may even scrap tonight - I've got work to do (as always) but I think most of it might be able to wait for my free period tomorrow. Anyway, I'm definitely pursuing the work/life balance dream at the moment, so I think I deserve a bit of crafty time...

A weekend away...

Well, after the seriously poor attempt at blogging last time, when my photos didn't even show up, hopefully this post will be a bit more successful!

I'm blogging tonight in a bit of a bad mood. Sometimes work stinks. That is something I have definitely come to learn! But at least this time I had some lovely memories of the weekend to think back to, and so I decided to come along here and blog about them.

Last weekend was me and my wonderful scrappy friends annual jaunt to the countryside to scrap in a cabin. Except this time it wasn't a cabin - it was a proper cottage with lots of space and lovely countryside walks all around. I haven't been too good at keeping up with this lovely bunch of ladies recently - I missed our last outing due to being on holiday in Paris (shame, I know!) and my social networking has been, to coin a phrase, absolutely pants! And since I don't live near any of them, it means that beyond the odd comment on Instagram I had become something of a hermit.

You wouldn't have known it though - everyone was just as welcoming as usual, and in fact more than that, they made me feel so much better about a whole heap of things. I can only say to them - thankyou so much for a lovely weekend. You have even managed to get me a bit hooked on the scrapping bug again. I have (gasp!) purchased some stash. I may even use it. Though I will probably need to go through a whole lot of old stuff and sell it to cleanse my tortured scrapbookers soul, which is weighed down creatively by the guilt of so much unused and unwanted old stash hanging around. Watch this space - I think ebay might be getting a visit from me soon!

Anyway, thought I'd share some of the pages I made. These were done using on old Cocoa Daisy kit (from about 2008 I think) which we decided made it officially vintage which is kind of cool. These pages are all about our weekend in Paris with my mum and dad last October - we had such a good time, Paris was beautiful, even in the Autumn. I would definitely go back there, although I would definitely avoid going back the bar opposite the Opera House which charged me nearly £20 for a small and very disgusting cocktail made of whisky which I then felt obliged to drink. Mental note: always work out what exchange rates are before you start - the euro is NOT the dollar!

So first up we have Notre Dame, which we did queue outside of in the cold and then proceed to climb up, despite the woman in front of us nearly collapsing with an asthma attack (unfortunate!)...

And next we have the view from the Eiffel Tower (which we didn't go righ to the top of because my Dad nearly gave himself a coronary when he saw the length of the queue. He is not a patient man, my father!) As always with Cocoa Daisy, the kits are put together so well that the pages almost make themselves.

I made a few other pages, but they are going to go up on the Papermaze blog before I can share them here. Who knows, maybe this will be the start of something beautiful again? And if not - at least I've blogged Rach!

Slow and steady

Okay, so I'm not blogging every day again, but that was never on the agenda. However, I'm hoping I'll be able to keep up a more regular post, once a week perhaps? I've definitely tried to keep things in perspective a bit more over the last two weeks. I've tried to get out of work a bit earlier, giving myself nights off from marking and say no when people ask me to do stuff (one of the hardest things to learn how to do!). And I feel much better for it.

Yesterday was my birthday - 29, just one more year before I hit the big three oh and become an official grown up (in my eyes at least!). I don't want to spend the whole last year of my twenties stressed out and feeling ill because of it. New leaf officially turned, hopefully I can keep it that way for more than a fortnight!

So I thought I'd share two more pages here today - both appeared on the Papermaze blog Scrap Paper Scissors in the last six months. The first is my other half doing his level best to ruin a photo, a common occupation of his when I have the camera around. If you can't beat them, scrap them is what I say...

Next up is hubby, his sister's boyfriend and their gorgeous little boy Luca - all these were taken on the same day as the photos in the last blog post, and show us at the bottom of the valley having climbed (or in my case slid!) down a rather treacherous hill in the Peak District...

I do like these little 6x12 pages - they are really quick but also quite striking. 12x12 is still my favourite of course, but if you are struggling for time or inspiration as I have in the last year, these are ideal. So hopefully I will be back blogging in another week or so. I will be on Easter holidays as of next weekend so I'll have no excuse, will I?

Edit: Oh dear, only just realised these photos didn't post properly! Seriously, how often do I check this blog? Hopefully they are now all there...

Feeling inspired

For a number of reasons, I feel inspired to do a bit of blogging today. Life has not been so enjoyable lately, or for much of the last year if I'm honest, but I am gradually coming to the conclusion that I can't let my job rule my life. Blogging was always something I enjoyed doing, so I should really start doing a least a little bit of it again. So I thought I'd start uploading some of the pages I have been making. The majority have been done as Design Team work, and so may have already appeared over on the Papermaze blog, but it will be nice to have everything on here as well.

This page is recording a very lovely day last April when I went away with my hubby's family to the Peak District for a weekend. The sun shone beautifully on our last day there, and we were treated to spectacular views over a valley (which we then proceeded to climb down into, but that's another story!)

I like a bit of paper-piecing now and again - it appeals to the child in me who used to enjoy making pictures and collages from pieces of paper - and I've been using the technique a few times recently.

Who knows, maybe I'll blog another page this week - I do most of my blogging via Picasa now which appears to have an annoying four photo limit, but is infinitely less frustrating than uploading photos in blogger itself, which always seems to crash part way through. I guess you can't have it all. I'm also planning on sharing some of my knitting projects as well - they are many and varied in terms of success and closeness to completion, but are probably my main creative outlet at the moment so are worth sharing anyway.

In fact, I'm off to do a spot of knitting and relaxing and not thinking about work now, so I'll close this short and sweet post here!

Still learning...

I think I have to resign myself to the fact that I am never going to be a regular blogger during the week. Especially by the end of the week when the majority of my lessons are timetabled, I come home so tired it's enough to actually be bothered to cook dinner and load the dishwasher, let alone scrap and blog about it. But one blog post a week is better than nothing, and I need to share most of last week's lessons.

First up is a lesson I think everyone should have in their book, because it's one that I think too many of us (certainly the kids I teach) forget. I was reminded last Tuesday that I am valued for my contribution at school and my work, no matter how often I am overly critical of myself. There is always room for self evaluation, but you should never underestimate your value. If you don't believe in yourself and your capabilities, noone else will.



The lesson for last Wednesday was a reminder to myself for the rest of the year. My Wednesdays are absolutely manic - I teach every period of the day, in lots of different rooms and from year 7 to year 12. It can be really hard to keep track of what you are doing - planning is absolutely essential for these days and I will have to get used to spending Tuesday evenings getting ready for it.



Day 16 is about a lesson when I felt totally out of control - I hadn't felt so frustrated with a class (not just an individual pupil like last week) for about 4 years, even more surprising because they were year 7. I was a bit shell-shocked, and it inspired one of those dreams at the weekend when you wake up crying. (Bizzarrely in the dream, the kids had run riot in the classroom and broken my bedroom mirror. God knows what my bedroom mirror was doing in the classroom, but that's dreams for you!)



Day Seventeen is about sometimes forcing yourself to make the effort to go out and socialise, even when you are knackered and feel like vegetating in front of the TV. It was a friend from work's birthday and she had organised drinks at a local pub. I ended up having a nice evening, and was glad I had got myself into gear and gone out in the end, even though my eyes were a bit droopy all night!



Saturday was a very frustrating day. I have been doing a Developing Leaders course for the last two years, and the last assignment is due in this Friday. A 4000 word assignment. You can't just conjure one of them out of thin air! So I had to give up most of my Saturday to write it, and I wasn't happy to say the least. But I got on a did it, and have so far managed about 3300 words. Just a few finishing touches to put together during the week before I submit it in a few days. My lesson was that however much you want to, you can't leave an essay to the last minute - there is no way I'd have been wanting to write this on Thursday night!



Finally, we have my page for yesterday. Apart from a trip to the supermarket, I spent quite a lazy Sunday catching up on some scrapping, while Ed cooked a gorgeous roast dinner. He really is good at cooking a roast, and it really made for a lovely Sunday evening when I normally get the Sunday blues really badly.



So, all caught up again. I'll probably try to do today's page this evening, but after that we'll see...

A plethora of pages...

I apologise for not blogging my pages for a few days, but as this post will prove it doesn't mean I haven't been learning something new every day. My mum and dad came up for the weekend, and I spent a lovely couple of days catching up with them after various holidays/honeymoon meant we hadn't been able to see each other since the start of August. However, I managed to craft a few pages while they were visiting and finished the rest off this evening. So I'm now totally caught up again!

First up, we have my lesson from last Thursday. It was our nephew Luca's first birthday, so we went round after work to see him and give him his present. Unfortunately, due to my appalling school timetable I teach the majority of my lessons at the end of the week, so by Thursday evening I was exhausted. A couple of glasses of wine and I was nodding off on the sofa at my sister in law's! So my lesson - don't get drunk on a school night. I just can't cope with alcohol during the week!

My page for Friday reminds me of a very important philosophy which I had started to lose sight of last year with my new job but I'm determined to keep in mind this year. I don't live to work, I work to live. Therefore, I stopped myself from marking books at 4pm and gave myself permission to go home and enjoy the weekend. I need to make a concerted effort to chill out more this year, I was so tense by the end of last week that my shoulder was totally knotted up and it took a whole weekend and a lot of Deep Heat and Nurofen to sort it out. I might have to keep looking back at this page!

My lesson for Saturday was a simple one - it's important to spend time in the company of family and good friends, as these are the best times, even when you aren't doing anything particular. Mum, Dad, my friend Corey and me spent a whole afternoon enjoying lunch and coffee at a local bar. It was so nice to chill out with them. I miss my parents terribly and I need to make an effort to get down to London and see them more often, because it makes me happy.

My lesson for Sunday was 'Try not to give into the Sunday blues'. I felt so down yesterday after my parents left as we had to go and do the food shopping, then I had to spend several hours planning lessons, it felt like a bit of a come down. I got a bit weepy, but it doesn't make you feel any better really. In the end I got my lessons planned, Ed cooked dinner and we enjoyed a bit of TV and I did some knitting. So it wasn't such a bad Sunday after all.

Finally, my page for today. When I got home and opened the front door to find Ed had cleaned the house and was making me a cup of tea, my mood lifted considerably and I felt quite cheerful. I love coming home at the end of the day. My house is my refuge during the week, once I'm in the door I hate to leave it again. I have to make sure I go out at the weekends to avoid being transformed into some kind of hermit!