Tea and Tattle

Tea and gossip: two things I love to catch up on during half term. I took one of my friends to YumChaa. my favourite place to have tea in London and we spent a few hours catching up and chain caffeining. I love that they serve leaf tea in pots and they have a milk jug full of each different kind on the counter that you can sniff to decide which blend you'd like. I love that you get a teapot and a strainer which fit into their own cup. I love the shabby-chic decor: mismatched wooden chairs and tired, worn, comfortable leather armchairs. Most of all, I love that you can sit and gossip for ages without being disturbed. I took this picture on my little Diana camera which gave it a lovely vintagey tint for a lovely vintagey place.

I drink too much tea at the best of times but at least during term time, I'm limited by the fact that I'm not allowed to drink during lessons. At half term, there's nothing to stop me and my kettle hardly gets off the boil. Hence all the pages about tea!

The bed arrived yesterday and is now assembled (at 1am with much appreciated help from friend) and gets ten out of ten for ease of assembly and rubbish out of ten for clarity of instructions. Had a cup of tea and thought about it and decided not to do steps 2 and 3 as I didn't have the pieces anyway. Steps 1 and 4 seemed to suffice so I left it at that. So nice to have a bed!

And I'm off on scrapbook retreat today! Time to pack! And then I can do a little scrapping before I go. But first, best put the kettle on.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Wrote my letter yesterday for True Stories but haven't got round to scrapping it. Did manage to print off lots of new pics to scrap while watching Singin in the Rain though.

P.P.S. Ah, Singin in the Rain. They just don't make them like that any more. I heart Gene Kelly and Danny Kaye. Wish I could tap dance.

P.P.P.S. Thanks for all your comments - did a double take this morning!

It's A Numbers Thing

This a page based on a journalling prompt from Shimelle's True stories class. I decided to journal about maths, something I've never done before which is slightly weird as I'm a maths teacher, I did a maths degree and it's been quite a big part of my life, obviously. It just never occurred to me before and using numbers seemed like the perfect way to do this.

Journalling reads:

10: The highest power of 2 I know by heart.

153: The number of students I teach maths to.

11: My absolute FAVOURITE number. Rock on!

3: Number of years spent studying for my maths degree at Oxford.

22: Age I qualified as a maths teacher.

17: The age that I decided maths was for me.

2: The number of calculators in my school bag.

45: The cost in pounds of my graphics calculator (expensive!)

597: My mark out of 600 for A-level further maths. Score!

Still playing with my Studio Calico kit. Still LOVING it. And while I scrapped, I caught up with past episodes of Downton Abbey. Great period drama, any other fans out there?

And, big news: After over a month on the floor, my bed is being delivered today. In theory. They haven't called me yet, but surely they wouldn't lie to me?

Kisses xxx

P.S. Big thanks for Carey for technical photo help.

P.P.S. New ambition is to make cake pops.

Geek and Proud

Geek is a title that I get stuck with. I like maths, Doctor Who, grammar, explaining how aperture affects depth of field, classical music and avoiding diminutive words whenever a multiplicity of lengthier specimens will suffice. Much to the annoyance of my students, whose sub-standard capacity for vocabulary needs enlarging in my opinion. Keeps them on their toes.

Anyway, geek it is, and proud! I like to learn, it makes me happy! I like to know things and to find out things. I love Wikipedia and while I wish it was spelled Wikipaedia, I think it's brilliant that someone came up with the idea of letting the world stick together everything it knows, and some things it's made up. And all these things got me where I wanted to be in life, so what's so bad about that? Geek and proud!

Today, I'm going to make my numbers page.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Still having a kraft phase - I like how it's a little more mellow than cream or white. On the downside, now it's cloudy and miserable outside, I'm finding it harder to avoid this blue tinge on my pics of my pages. I don't use my proper camera to snap them, just my compact, to avoid huge file size and it's quicker. I think I should start and see if I can do something about the white balance because it's annoying!

Beside the Seaside

So I've been playing with the Sassafras Mix and Mend line that was in my Studio Calico box. It's easy to work with partly because it all matches so you can hack up the papers and mix them, but there also loads of bits and bobs you can cut round so layering is easy peasy lemon squeezy. Lots of detail, minimal time.

This page is kind of based on a page from Shimelle's True Stories class. It's only been two days and already I love this class. Journalling is really important to me and I never think I have enough space to write everything I want. I'd also like to loosen up my writing a little as I tend to get a little bit formal sometimes which is silly. I'd like to write on my pages like I talk or write here, more chatty and diary-esque so this is what I'm going to work on. Anyway, I loved this sketch as there was bucket loads of space of for scrawls. Fabadab. More like this please!

Kisses xxx

P.S. I set up my broadband all by myself so I have proper speedy internet again which I LOVE and being a bit of a technocrap I feel quite proud of myself.

Half Term!

I'm still really enjoying scrapping these old photos. This picture is of my brother and I standing at the edge of the sea waving and paddling. And wearing our matching fluorescent sun hats, obviously. Ah, 1995!

It's nice to have a bit of time off after a hectic week. My form at school have collectively tipped over the edge so instead of doing PSHE we made origami dinosaurs using instructions from a birthday present a received; a book called Dinogami.

As it turned out, origami dinosaurs are tricky and mine looked kind of like a dinosaur (or a pheasant or a frog apparently) and theirs looked nothing like dinosaurs. I blame the instructions, but on the plus side, it kept them all quiet for quite a long time. Relatively speaking.

Had a lovely weekend so I'm making up for that today by getting my marking done and trying to put a dent in my Masters dissertation. A small dent will do. Then if I'm very good, I get to play with my new scrapping supplies! I received the American Crafts City Park line as a prize from Shimelle which was totally exciting as I had no idea what the prize would be. I love it and I'm going to scrap some gorgeous Londony pictures with them.

Also my Studio Calico kit is absolutely delicious and it's great to get my hands on some Sassafras embellishments and Mix and Mend, some pretty tape, Studio Calico Papers and Jenni Bowlin butterflies. To name but a little!!!!

But first: research.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Picking up my Diana+ film tomorrow. Eeek! Also, the Talk Talk guy is coming to put me in some proper internet so hopefully I can share them.

P.P.S. And now I must stop procrastinating and actually do some work.

P.P.P.S. It was lovely to hear how many of you were Guides - yay!

Rafting and Promise Renewal

These photos, once more from the box of old snaps, show my brother and I standing on a raft out to sea off the cost of France. We went to this beach several times and when the tide was down, this raft was chained to the floor with the most enormous grime encrusted chain, but when the tide came in, we could swim out to it and spend a huge amount of time attempting to scramble on top. Brilliant! Rafting like it's 1997.

This week has been busy. I baked brownies for a couple of meetings I've had at school, we had Chinese take away in one of the maths rooms as we had to stay late for Year 11 Transition evening, and last night I took a load of Brownies and Guides to Trafalgar Square to celebrate the end of the Centenary year of Guiding. The event was packed and there was lots of music and dancing (of necessity as temperatures dropped!). Then at 20:10 pm on 20/10/2010 we all renewed our promise together and received a special commemorative promise badge to wear. It was lovely to be a part of it!

Oh, and in a week, I will FINALLY be able to take delivery of my bed.

Bring on half term! I'm kicking off tomorrow night with mac and cheese and film and friends night in. Perfect.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Apparently two large packages are waiting to be picked up at the Post Office. I smell scrapping supplies!

Allering A Paris

So much for improving our French.

This is another pic or some of my friends from school with whom I went to Paris for a wet weekend in February.

All this scrapping Paris has got me thinking how little I remember so I have spontaneously booked a weekend in Paris! I've roped in a couple of friends and we're going to hop across on the Eurostar very early Saturday morning, spend the day and a night rocking around the city and then slide back again Sunday morning. Slightly weird ticket times and a random hotel but a cheap deal as apparently not many people want to go to Paris for a weekend in November.

3 weeks in advance is totally spontaneous for me. Going to take no useful luggage and as much camera equipment as I can haul.

People in glossy dramas or American sitcoms are always either popping away spontaneously for a weekend or wishing that they could. I can't believe it hasn't dawned on me before that I can!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Shot a roll of Diana film around London. Will share some pics once I've had it processed.

P.P.S. Oh Kraft, how I love thee!

My First Time in London

Rooting through the box of old photos, I found this picture of my brother and I sitting up with one of the Trafalgar Square lions. I can't manage to get up there by myself, and given that I was much shorter then, I assume Dad gave us a helping hand! I think this was when I was around 7 or 8, which would make it 1996. Perhaps. I will find out and add the date!

This was our very first trip to London (it was a long way from Yorkshire) and I only have hazy memories. I do remember going to see Starlight Express but that's pretty much it. We must have taken an open top bus tour and visited Trafalgar Square and Buck House. These are the places that I took pictures! Most of the film that came off this disposable camera are wonky shots of Nelson's column with bits of bus or people's heads in the way. Mum must have taken this one as it's basically the only decent shot!

I might be fin to scrap this others in a "This is how I used to take photos" kind of way. When we were little Mum and Dad used to buy us one disposable camera each for a holiday and I remember thinking that you had to choose very carefully what you were going to take photos of, as once you'd run out, that was it. 25 exposures for a week doesn't seem like very much when you're seven.

I also remember that you could only take pictures of things that were over 1.5 metres away and you had to be outside or the pictures were just dark and grainy.

It's amazing to think how far photography has come since then.

Kisses xxx

P.S. And now I'm going retro - I just invested in a Diana camera... More on that another time!

Paris When it Drizzles

Still scrapping the old photos! This was back when I had a film camera which I saved up lots of Weetabix tokens to buy. I loved it because it used APS film and I could take three different picture sizes which was pretty high tech at the time.

I went to Paris for a weekend with school (a long drive from Yorkshire!) and it rained pretty much the whole time. This did not particularly dampen my enthusiasm, but it does mean that all my pictures came back with this grey tint and cloud obscurity. I wasn't particularly impressed at the time, but now I quite like these pictures!

Thinking of popping to Paris for a weekend with better camera and better skills. In November, I could enjoy and revel in the gloom. In the meantime, I will keep digging through my box of school pictures.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Totally scored a free to trip to France in the summer on an adventure holiday! As long as I supervise 70 odd 12 year old boys...

Scrapping Old Photos

A few things have turned up in the move and one of those things was a box of photos that I organised when I was in the 6th form. I did scrap then but not in the 12x12 sense of the word - I stuck photos into a notebook and cut letters from newspapers and magazines and bought A4 paper from stationary shops. How times have changed!

This picture was a trip I made one summer holiday between high school and sixth form of me and some friends from the orchestra on our way to our Italy tour. It was the first trip abroad the orchestra had taken in about 20 years and it was amazing. I didn't know anyone that well until after this trip. Yorkshire to Italy by coach takes about 30 hours which is a lot of getting-to-know-you time and we were firm friends by the time we arrived. I wrote an account of the trip for the local paper which I will dig out and put on another page with some of the other pictures.

I've not really scrapped any photos that are older and I felt excited and inspired by the idea of scrapping them! I think I'm going to turn lots into Polaroid style pictures as I prefer a white boarder, and as these photos were taken when I had a film camera, I can't print them as I like. What I do have is a box of carefully organsied photos in matching lilac envolopes labelled with the place and date. I like to think of 17-year-old me, completely unaware of what my scrapbook would become and where I would be, six years later, sorting through this box of memories as I make my first new ones in my own place.

Good nostalgia.

Kisses xxx

Learn Something New Every Day: The Album

Well, so much for being back into doing a page a day. It was extremely naive of me to think that that would be the case! However, these are the pages that I did do. I lack an album for them at the mo but one is on its way. I think 12x12 was definitely right for me as I'm not really into minibooks because I never feel I can fit enough on the page and I like to be able to keep all my pages together. Roll on Journal your Christmas I say!

I am still not unpacked but thanks to the efforts of my parents this weekend, I now have a fully functioning wardrobe and chest of drawers, and several bookcases up including an Expedit for my scrapping stuff, amongst other things! Love Ikea!

So tonight I shall be doing more unpacking. There's still so much to do; moving is definitely a longer process than I envisaged!

I love, love, love having my own space though. I can't say this enough. Once I'm unpacked and settled, I can get back into scrapping, (I miss it!) but until then, it's going to have to be flat first. On the plus side, there will be lots to scrap about.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Still no bed or fridge/freezer. Beginning to wonder if homebase have lost them. Getting sick of sleeping on floor and running out for milk all the time. Then I need to get internet as I'm on a mobile dongle at the mo which hardly gets any signal here. Then suddenly it will have just enough (like now!)