Curiouser and Curiouser

Storytelling Sunday: A textbook tangle

2012-02-05T02:30:00.000Z

It's the first Sunday of the month which means one thing: it's Storytelling time over at Sian's blog; From High in the Sky. You can hop over there to see lots of stories from the lives of scrappers and bloggers and crafters across the globe. But first I hope you'll join me for a school story from the last fortnight or so.

A Textbook Tangle

(or: Reasons why Miss Smith should stop making things up to amuseher students)

A good maths textbook is worth its weight in gold. Because at the end of the day, no matter howmany bells and whistles your lesson has, maths is like any other skill. You have to practise it. And a textbook saves you a great deal of timemaking up questions.

Our textbooks are written by a chap called DavidRayner. For the most part, there aresensible, in black and white with neat rows of maths questions marching downthe page.

But every so often there’s a surprise...

***********

On of my Year 7s hands waved into the air.

"What's good in da hood, sunshine?"

"What, miss?"

"How can I help?"

"Do we have to do question 18?"

I plucked my textbook from the desk and sauntered over to him, reading.

The banana man of Tesco became famous after he realised that he could earn money buying bananas from the supermarket. The store's reward point system had a mistake so that every time the man bought a pound of bananas for £1.26, he received £1.43 in points. The supermarket were effectively paying him to take away the fruit. The gentleman loaded his car with bananas, took them to his own shop and then returned to get more. He bought a total of 728lbs of bananas.
a) How much did he spend on the bananas?
b)What was his total profit?
c) What was the weight of the bananas in kilograms?
d) Do you like bananas?

"Of course you have to do question 18. And show all your working. Neatly."

"But miss, even part d)?"

"Yup."

He grinned at me. "But I can't show my working for that, can I?"

"Oooh, I think you can. Now, as we're in maths, I'm not really interested in your subjective opinion like in English or something. So you could consider the problem in the light of a statistical study. For instance, consider a twelve-month period. If you can reference a particular number of number of banana consumption incidents where the enjoyment frequency was high then you can probably conclude, within a certain margin of error, that you like bananas.

"However, if you haven't eaten any bananas in the last 12 months, it doesn't automatically mean that there's no banana satisfaction factor. It might simply mean that no opportunities for banana consumption existed. So your data would be inconclusive and you could instead conduct a series of trials during the coming week and hand your exercise book in after that.

"If, on the third hand, you have documented cases of banana refusal due to prior unpleasant experience, you many assume that banana dislike is the cause. Similarly, cases of banana-induced vomiting may be indicative of dislike. Or food poisoning.

"So, that's the minimum I expect you to show. Any questions?"

"......?"

"Miss?"

"Yes?

"I like banana milkshake".

*************

There are others. When I regaled Y9 with the banana question, they eagerly reminded me about a particular question 3 in the review exercise. There's a picture of lots of people squashed higgledy-piggledy into a car and the accompanying question reads: "You can see the legs of one girl poking out of the front window. What is she saying to the person on her right?". When you look up the answer in the answer book it says that the correct solution is: "You do the steering wheel and I'll operate the break".

Incidently, there are no suggested answer the banana question.

I like to imagine that David, writing textbooks for aliving, occasionally gets a bit fed up and slips something like this in just tosee if he can get it under the radar. After all, we all do silly things from time to time. Some of us even do silly things regularly. But these occasional nonsense questions betoken a dry sense of humour in the author that amuses me when it peeps through.

**************

"I love David Rayner" I announced to me Year 9s. Apropos of nothing in particular.

"But miss, he's really boring and he writes maths textbooks."

I turned a severe expression on the student. "He is not boring. In fact, he is a rock star."

"Really?"

"Yes! Well, metaphorically speaking. He's the rock star of the maths textbook world."

"Small world"

"What?"

"Nothing, miss. Sorry."

"I should think so to. Anyway, he must be a rock star, because he has an entourage."

"How do you know?"

"It says so in the front of the book. Images credited to some ladies called Emma, Amy, Sheen and Paulina. They're his entourage and they do the pictures."

"Miss, the pictures in the book are rubbish. There's one here of a CD being dipped in milk. And the question next to it is about VAT"

He had a point.

I conceded gracefully. "OK, so maybe the pictures are a bit...weird but at least it's got pictures. And David Rayner really only hired them to do pictures because, as the rock star of the maths textbook world, he needed an entourage. And so he's got Amy, Emma, Sheena and Paulina. One wears plusses, one minuses, one timeses and one divide signs, and he goes to rock star parties with two on each arm."

"I bet he's old miss."

I have no idea how old he is, but I wasn't prepared to back down in my defence of David Rayner. "Nah, he's 28" I invented cheerfully.

"Yeah, he's probably bald too. With a beard."

When you're 13, having a beard is apparently a sign of great age.

"I wonder what he sounds like?" one student enquired.

I glared at them collectively. "Look, he's 28 and not bald with no beard and he has a lovely Scottish accent."

"Why?"

"Because he lives in a castle in Scotland. He's Scottish."

"Miss, do you know him?"

"Er... no. Not exactly. But I've Googled him. Nothing came up though. But I'm going to marry him one day. And we're going to set up our own school in the castle in Scotland and use his textbooks to teach people maths. And probably some other stuff as well, but I'm not qualified for that."

Bizarrely, this they seemed to accept. Quiet reigned for about 30 seconds.

"He probably spends all his time playing bowls miss."

"David Rayner does not play bowls! Now enough! Get on!"

*********

They started to request stories about the infamous David Rayner during lessons. So I made them up. It was easy. And it kept them quiet and amused and everyone was happy. Only this week, my Year 9s arrived to their lesson in a state of barely concealed state of glee. They informed me proudly that they have started their own David Rayner appreciation website. And one can like it on Facebook if one is so inclined.

They showed me.

Fortunately, they have not mentioned me.

This week, this all serves as a reminder that I should be careful what I say to the students. You never know what's going to stick. I just, on occasion, wish it was the maths.

Kisses xxx

P.S. My Year 9s have just finished their last David Raynertextbook and will be moving onto a GCSE textbook. It’s written by somebody called Smith. My Year 9s took this as a sign that it’s meant to be.

P.P.S. I asked my Mum if she thinks the website would count aslibel, but she said probably not. It’s(mostly) flattering. So if you’rereading Mr Rayner, I’m sorry. But I amgenuinely a fan.

P.P.P.S. I kind of hope he isn’t reading.

Planning and Paperclips: a School Story

2012-01-28T12:39:00.001Z

A two-week accumulation of dust has settled over my blog. Ooops. But real life has got in the way I'm afraid. Plus all my crafty time is going towards my class Just One Sketch.

But while I don't currently have any scrappy projects to share, I think I can still scrapbook. It's real life that's going to end up on those pages after all. Planning a page in advance means I can dive right in when I do find a bit of me-time. My title, journalling and picture will all be ready to go. It also gives me a chance to draw inspiration from myself and think about the kind of page I want to make. So this is more of a note-to-self, a page I want to make when I can find the time...

The Title

Broken Record (Or: Don't tell the physics department)

The Journalling

I got back after the holiday to find that someone had been using my desk. My draws resembled the place that old stationary goes to die. Only it wasn't my stationary. I'm nicer to my stationary than that. Hello, scrapbooker!

I rescued a jar of paperclips - according to the label there were 500 in assorted colours - and began absent-mindedly clipping them together into a chain during a Year 11 lesson. The students' heads were, for the most part bent over their work. But as always, there was one who had cheerfully abandoned any pretence at improving his mind, and was regarding me curiously.

"Miss?"

"What's up?"

"What are you doing?"

I raised an eyebrow. "I'm going for the world record" I confided, conspiritorially.

"Oooh, what in?"

"In weasel catching."

"Oh"

"You muppet. No, I'm going to make the world record paperclip chain."

"Why?"

A reasonable question. Somehow explaining that I'd just found a lot of paperclips in my draw didn't seem to be a sufficiently inspiring reason.

"Why not?"

The student accepted this without question. I resisted the temptation to call him a muppet again.

"But miss!" A new head was raised from its work. The attached student waded into the discussion. "Miss, what is the world record though?"

"You should be working, sunshine" I admonished.

He smirked. "Nah miss, you said we had to listen to everything you said".

This was undeniable.

"Yeah miss, you did." Two more students. "So what is the world record?"

"Does it matter?" I enquired. "All I've got to do is keep doing paperclips. It can't be that many. People have got to have better things to do than sit around hooking paperclips together."

"You haven't miss"

"Yes I have, I'm teaching you a valuable lesson about setting goals and achieving your dreams and being the best you can be. The paperclips are a metaphor. So there"

"Can we help, miss?" Another student.

"You've got work to do" I reminded him.

"Yeah but think how much quicker it would be if you gave us all 50 paperclips and we made chains for you. Then you could just clip the chains together and get the world record."

I pondered this. "I could make a speech in which I thank my Year 11s for their continued support of my paperclippy endeavours."

They nodded.

"No, I'm sorry gents, you've got work to do."

"Miss...?"

"I said no."

"But miss, we wouldn't do it in your lesson."

"You're right, you wouldn't, because I said no."

"But we've got physics next. We could do it then and bring the paperclip chains next lesson"

"Oh. Well. OK then." I sent a mental apology to physics and doled out handfuls of paperclips.

The next lesson, the boys were true to their word. The arrived in the classroom all wearing extremely colourful necklaces. Made of paperclips. We linked them together and made a chain that wound around the room several times. That's teamwork folks. A second valuable lesson.

As it turns out, if you go for the world record paperclip chain, you can use up to 60 people who all spend 24 hours clipping paperclips together as fast as they can. It's not allowed to be one person who does a bit here and there between lessons. I let my Year 11s down gently. And refused to set up an official record attempt. I explained that first of all, I do have better things to do with my time, and that I'm teaching them another valuable lesson about how sometimes, even when you work really hard, you can't get what you want. Even if all you want is a really long chain of paperclips.

An the moral of the story is that you can turn any situation into a good maths problem. If you have 1,560,377 paperclips and each one is 4cm long, how long would the finished chain be in miles? (NB: there's a bit of overlap between each paperclip.) If 60 people spend 24 hours hooking them all together, how many paperclips much each person do in a minute? Extension problem: see if you can do this.

Learning objectives: Functional skills, reading and interpreting information, conversion between metric and imperial units of measurement. Fine motor skills.

The Inspiration

I'm going to take a combo of the two pages posted here: both ones I've made before, and both pages where I liked the outcome. The first has room for a lot of journalling and the picture is much less of a focus, which is true of the page I want to make. In fact I don't have a picture at all, but I'll snap one and print it at a size around 2x2. The second uses a background patterned paper that I LOVE from Studio Calico. Going round in journalling circles will add a bit of interest to a lot of text. And the paper I've got is a neutral colour, and I want to experiment using lots of pops of colour over it. I want to take the best of both worlds and create my new page.

I'm looking forward to making this page! Also, it was fun to go back and take bits from two layouts I like and coalesce them into one page I hope I might love.

Kisses xxx

P.S. In the end I draped the paperclip chain around my noticeboard in the office. You can only see a bit of it as most of it is coiled into a jar. But it looks pretty and nobody else's desk has one. And scrapbookers can always find a use for stationary.

10 on the 10th: Ten Texting Memories

2012-01-10T18:28:00.001Z

This month for Ten on the Tenth, I wanted to find a way of reviewing my 2011. And rather than trawl my photos or blog, I thought I'd take a slightly different approach. And so I bring you Ten Texting Memories.

Or, more accurately, a selection of texting memories. Because it turns out the texts I have received say more about me than I thought they would. So I've included a selection of 11 for 2011 here that say a bit about me and the things I enjoy.

Having these thoughts collected here means I can refer back to them and think of a good way to scrap this kind of journalling. And I was pretty ruthless as I started with a list of 20 or so; when it comes to scrapping, I'd like to include more.

I'll have a ponder.

In in between, I've shown a few sneak peaks of projects I've made for my new scrapbooking class Just One Sketch. It's only £5 to join, all proceeds go to charity to support my fundraising, and we start on Sunday 15th January (although you can sign up any time :D)

Alle menschen, alle menschen, alle menschen.... Alle Menschen :)

These are the only words my brother and I know to Beethoven's ninth symphony, the Choral. So we sing them with gusto, even when there are other words.

Well if you position yourself underneath the spout, nobody else will be able to jump in!

My colleague's solution for what to do on my maths course if there was only one urn of tea for everyone to share. I need more than that.

Gutted. Didn't get them :(

Olympics tickets. Nope, not a one. In the first or second round. But this seems to have been the experience of the majority. Still, nice to have such a major fail in text form!

Can you bring worcester sauce or shall I buy some?

I love worcester sauce and at university, I indoctrinated all my friends into the cult. Now they can't cook without it and I am called upon to supply it on demand. Apparently.

I think school's open but Gee asked if the maths office could be barricaded so u might need to treat it like an assault course!

What review of the year would be complete without a reference to the dreaded Masters? I left my memory stick with the most recent draft in the office at school. When I went to collect it, the door to the office had indeed been barricaded and taped over. It was an adventure.

I'm here, watching the river.

This message made me feel like a cool and collected young professional Londoner. I swanned into town after work and met up with my friend on the Thames' South bank before we headed to the National Theatre.

Packing my flag, not signalling distress. So excited!

Getting ready for the Last Night of the Proms, and making sure our union flags were the right way up. An improvement on the previous year, it must be noted.

V. excited about cocktails and knitting tomorrow!

As was I! Crafting and cocktails = perfect night.

At the gate. Hurry up they only have one garlic mushrooms left!

Sometimes as a Friday treat after work, we head for the pub after school and have tea and garlic mushrooms. No it doesn't make sense. Yes they are more delicious than you can imagine. And in my defence, I was being conscientious and getting everything done before heading for the pub. Plus I knew they were lying to me.

Your pep talk & mascot did wonders & they got 137 pts coming 3rd.

Our Year 12 maths challenge team had to leave for their next round challenge during my lesson. I gave an impromptu and, if I say so, rather rousing speech about winning at all costs, and presented them with a mascot of an elastic band and a polystyrene cup which I found on the desk. It nearly worked.

Remember to bring your crumpets next week. One toaster bought!

The triumphant acquisition of the maths department toaster. £4. We were told we couldn't have a microwave, so we decided that it's better to ask forgiveness than permission (advice from my Year 9 class) and set up the toaster. Now the office smells delicious and we can have crumpets. That's really all you need in winter.

So what do your texts say about you? Do you keep cute ones? Ones that make you giggle? Or do you do a similar thing on Twitter? I enjoyed this, and I recommend giving it a go, as it's recording someone else's words, not your own. It's fun to swap things about sometimes.

Kisses xxx

P.S. I'm a bit slow on the crafting front for the blog at the mo as I'm working on pages for the class. Plus I have gone to the theatre twice in a very decadent fashion to see the Nutcracker at Covent Garden and Noises Off at the Old Vic. Both TERRIFIC.

P.P.S. You can find more Ten on the Tenths on Shimelle's blog.

Storytelling Sunday (and a little Sneak)

2012-01-01T00:30:00.000Z

***Throughout this post, there are a couple of sneak peaks at some of the projects for my brand new scrapbooking class Just One Sketch. More info at the end of the post!***

One of my resolutions for 2011 was to write down more of the little stories at school. I LOVE being a teacher. It makes me laugh every day. Even on the rubbish days. And I like to jot down those little conversations that I have with the students because I like to look back and remember them. And laugh again. I'm going to continue with this resolution in 2012, partly because it's been fun and partly because I cherish secret ambitions of publishing a memoir of school stories one day. Gervase Phinn eat your heart out.

So today's stories for Sian's Storytelling Sunday have nothing really in common, except that they all contain fruit at some point. And apparently we should all strive to eat lots of fruit because it's good for us. So here goes. Concerning Fruit:

Apples and Bananas for the 6th Form

I sauntered over to two of my sixth formers doing that thing where they pretend to concentrate but were actually carrying on a muttered conversation over their books. They were feigning rather well - they'd got the books at the right page, the right way up, and one had even managed to apply pen to paper. But I am not deterred by such things. I intended to admonish them. Assume stern face. (I am not very good at stern face)

"So! What are we talking about over here?"

They looked at each other.

"Proverbs, miss"

This was a sufficiently unusual response so I abandoned my attempts at stern face.

"Any in particular?"

"Not really"

"Y'know what always gets me about proverbs? They're so contradictory. Like many hands make light work, but too many cooks spoil the broth. How are supposed to gauge the appropriate number of kitchen staff? And then there's carpe diem, seize the day, which contradicts where angels fear to tread, fools rush in"

"And look before you leap, miss"

"Right"

I perched on the table, in full, hand-waving-around flow. Other students shunned their pens, their educations, their futures, and joined in with the chat. I surveyed my audience.

"In fact, I propose a new proverb. You must all start saying it immediately at parties so it catches on, It goes like this: For every proverb, there is an equal and opposite proverb."

They thought about this.

"Miss..."

"Don't even think about telling me that no one says proverbs at parties. You're obviously just going to the wrong kind of parties."

He grinned. "I'm really not miss."

"Then what's the problem?"

"Your proverb would also have an opposite. So no proverbs would have an opposite".

"That's, like, a paradox, innit miss?"

"Ah! A paradox, a paradox, a most ingenious paradox!" Silence. Bemused silence. I peered at them. "Doesn't anyone know the song?"

"......?"

"From Pirates?"

They looked blank.

"Of the Caribbean miss?"

I scowled at him. "Heck, no! How can you not know? You're definitely all going to the wrong kinds of parties. Gilbert and Sullivan! They write operettas?" Not a spark of recognition among them. "They wrote an operetta about Pirates called Pirates of Penzance when this chap was born on 29th February so when he thinks he's 21 and he can free himself from a life of piracy he's actually only 4 or something so he can't and then there's a song about how amusing the whole thing is.... Actually, ironically, it's not all that paradoxical. But my proverb is. So stick that in your pipes and..... well, don't smoke it because that would be bad for your health and I can't possibly condone smoking but if you can find a non-carcinogenic, non-addictive, non-health-risk substitute for tobacco and you take up pipe smoking and you're careful with matches, then you could put that in your pipe and smoke it."

I concluded, triumphantly. I seemed to have derrailed some of my audience during my soliloquy (I am a loss to the stage, I tell you), but I think the point was sufficiently well made.

Or I thought it was.

"What is she talking about?" This was delivered in less than an undertone by one of the original two malefactors to his friend.

"She doesn't want us to smoke" I nodded sagely. "She was going to say put that in your pipe and smoke it".

"Oh".

A sudden inspiration struck me. "How'd you like them apples?"

"What?"

"That's a better phrase than the smoking one. Apples are healthy. It says so in the proverb: An apple a day keeps the doctor away."

"It's bananas now miss"

I was somewhat taken aback. "What? Since when?"

"Like, a year ago, they changed it to bananas 'cause apples don't really have many health benefits or something."

"So we'll all get lots of potassium, but no proverb? This is silly gents. I think it's time we abandoned proverbs to the heathens in the English department. Or humanities. Lets get back to maths."

******

Lemons for the Year 10s

I flourished my pen. I do a rather good pen flourish. Or at least I thought I did until one of my precocious Year 7s told me that he'd kept a tally of how many times I'd twirled my pen in the air and dropped it. I regret teaching them how to tally. But I pulled off this pen flourish as we tottered to the end of the worked example. Quadratics can be a bit of a challenge, but my Year 10s had manned up to a man, and seemed to be on board.

"Easy peasy lemon...juice" I announced, pleased with their progress.

"Lemon juice?"

I directed a glare towards the miscreant.

"There's no need to repeat it in that mocking tone young man. Lemon juice is wonderful in a sponge cake. Y'know, like a Victoria sponge but with lemon curd instead of jam and a touch of lemon in the buttercream and maybe a couple of strands of lemon zest on top....it was you that interrupted wasn't it?"

"Yes, miss"

"No, it was me" The student next to him cheerfully volunteered.

"Was it? And you let me lecture about cake to the wrong person?"

"No actually, it was him, not me."

Exasperated: "Then why did you lie and say it was you? This isn't Spartacus you know."

"Spartacus?"

"Put you hand up if you've heard of Spartacus"

A smattering of reluctant hands were raised. I sighed.

"Right. In the film there are all these Romans, or something - actually I haven't seen it all the way through so they might be Greeks or anyone really, but there's all these chaps from a couple of thousand years ago and one of them is called Spartacus and he's about to be arrested by these other guys, but when they ask which one is Spartacus, all the men stand up one by one and say "I'm Spartacus" so that they don't know who to arrest. And then I think they all die. Not that cheerful really when you come to think about it."

I casually flicked my pen in the air, dropped it and dived under my desk after it.

"Where was I?"

"Lemon juice, miss"

"Right, thank you. So this is easy peasy lemon Spartacus. This shall be our new motto for when we work hard to overcome a problem in mathematics. Whenever you see a quadratic equation you can think to yourself "Aha! Easy Peasy Lemon Spartacus" and charge it with your ferocious maths and quick wits. We should all have a bit more Spartacus in our souls."

"I thought you said they all died, miss?"

"It is highly statistically unlikely that you will die answering a maths problem in my lesson. So let's get on with some work."

The students bent over their books. Except for one, eyeing the large projector mounted on the ceiling directly above his head with some suspicion. I raised my eyebrows at him.

"I never thought I die here before, miss".

*****

Kisses xxx

P.S. My new scrapbooking class Just One Sketch opens today as the class blog goes live with an introductory task. It's not too late to join the fun! Registration stays open permanently and we don't officially begin until Sunday 15th January. Just One Sketch is a design class based around using a sketch, it costs only £5 and all the proceeds go to support my fundraising for GirlGuiding UK! So why not start with year with a scrappy treat to yourself - sign up and join in! More information can be found here.

P.P.S. More wonderful stories can be found on Sian's blog From High in the Sky. Many thanks to Sian for starting such a lovely tradition and keeping it going in 2012 :D

P.P.P.S. Easy peasy lemon Spartacus caught on, believe it or not. My proverb did not. And I didn't even ask them to say easy peasy lemon Spartacus at parties.

Journal Your Christmas: 26th December

2011-12-31T15:07:00.000Z

Mum made a fab lemon pudding for after the carol service and we begged her to make it again for Christmas day. It became a bit of a saga however, as first I had to run to the shop to get trifle sponges. But they'd sold out so we decided to improvise with madeira cake. Then it turned out one of the lemons had gone mouldy. Lovely and furry. So another trip to the shop. Anyway, Mum managed and she taught me the recipe and it turned out of the dish perfectly. And at Christmas, you're allowed to dine on double cream.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Happy New Year one and all! I'm back in London Baby now, so normal services shall resume.

P.P.S. My scrapbooking class Just One Sketch starts tomorrow! You can still register if you're interested - it's only £5 and every penny goes to charity to support my fundraising for GirlGuiding UK. More info about how to sign up is here and there might be the odd sneak peak tomorrow.

Journal Your Christmas: 24th December

2011-12-29T20:59:00.000Z

Well, I've had a bit of a break from blogging over Christmas and it's been lovely catching up with the family and spending some quality time and whatnot.

But I've got some more JYC to share now, so here's my page about Christmas stockings. This year, my brother and I did stockings for Mum and Dad for the first time. This involved a lot of last minute secret plotting and knitting. We had to stay up extra late (!) and hide them on the kitchen table after the parents had gone to bed. We're allowed to stay up late now. And they ended up being non-traditionally-shaped stockings in gift bags. We'll work on that next year :D

It all worked out rather well as the parents didn't do stockings for each other this year, so it was a nice surprise. And snaps for Mum for making the patchwork quilt you can see displaying my little page to advantage. It's the quilt I've been snuggling with to keep warm while I'm at home.

I've had a wonderful Christmas and I really hope you have too. Looking forward to 2012 now!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Thank you all so much for your wonderful response to my scrapbooking class Just One Sketch. I've really made progress with the fundraising over Christmas - lots more ideas and projects, and the whole thing seems less daunting. And I've been working on pages for the class - I really hope you enjoy it!

P.P.S. If you're interested, registration is still open - it never shuts!- and we officially begin on 15th January. But the class blog will go live on 1st January with something to get thinking about. More info here if you're interested in joining us!

Just One Sketch: A New Scrapbooking Class

2011-12-18T07:00:00.007Z

Exciting news! As part of my fundraising endeavours, I've been busy working on a big new scrapbooking project... I'm launching a brand new scrapbooking class. And it's called...

Just One Sketch is a class exploring ways of using a single sketch to create a whole variety of completely different scrapbook pages. We'll be looking at how to choose or design a sketch that works for you, and incorporates all the elements of your scrapping style. Then over 6 weeks, with two prompts a week, we'll all be putting our own sketch through its paces, developing that one design into twelve unique layouts.

In this class, we'll be experimenting with colour, design, size and style. By applying different techniques to one sketch that really inspires you, you can simplify your scrapping process and create pages that are really 'you' as they all have a basis in a design you love. And by the end of the class, only you will know that they all started from Just One Sketch!

Prompts, and extra hints, tips and ideas, will be posted on a private class blog, and you can scrap along at your own pace whenever you feel like it. There's no pressure to 'keep up' and you'll have permanent access to the material so you can use the ideas whenever and however you like. Just One Sketch encourages you to work in a way that's comfortable for you, to embrace and develop your own scrapbooking style and to preserve and share your memories your own way.

This class is ideal for any and all scrapbookers, whether you're a sketch novice or a seasoned scrapper in search of new ideas. The prompts can be applied to paper and digi scrapping of all kinds, and best of all, the ideas in Just One Sketch can be used over and over again on as many pages as you like!

What does the class include?

*12 prompts on the class blog featuring different sketch ideas*

*Exclusive pages designed just for this class*

*Step-by-Step tutorials for a variety of scrapping techniques*

*Permanent access to the private class blog*

*Discussion threads in the comments and space to share links to your work*

*A Pinterest Board with a visual record of all pages of class participants*

What do I need?

All you need to participate is a Google account and email address. If you don't already have one, you can go here to sign up for an account free of charge. To make pages and projects, all that's needed is the stash you already have on hand. But feel free to use the class as an excuse for a sneaky bit of stash shopping :D

What does it cost?

Permanent access to the class Just One Sketch and all its contents costs just £5. That's about the price of a magazine, and every penny goes to charity to support my fundraising for GirlGuiding UK. (Click here to read a little more about my fundraising).

You can pay securely through PayPal by credit or debit card - simply click the button below!

So why not treat yourself this Christmas? Then there's something to look forward to once the festive season is over and we're facing a cold, wet, dark January!

What next?

Once you've paid via the PayPal website, I've be in touch by email - usually within the next 24 hours - to confirm payment and class membership. And if you don't have a Google account, you'll need to sign up for one and let me know your Google email address. The class blog will go live on Sunday 1st January 2012 and there will be a few ideas to get started with before prompts begin on Sunday 15th January 2012

So go ahead, click the Buy Now button above and join me for an exciting scrappy adventure!

Any questions? Please get in touch! You can email me at kirsty dot merran at googlemail dot com and I'll answer any queries as soon as I can.

Kisses xxx

P.S. If you're interested, it would be lovely if you could give Just One Sketch a shout out on your blog. In fundraising, as in life, every little helps :D

P.P.S. The class may even include a video but that is a little recording-quality dependent. Fingers crossed!

Journal Your Christmas: 17th December

2011-12-17T09:04:00.002Z

The friends and I have opened our presents from each other together. Although it wasn't one I opened, getting my own domain name was a lovely surprise. I'm a dot co dot uk now! Although the T-Rex earrings were a hit too :D

Kisses xxx

P.S. Big scrappy announcement tomorrow! Don't forget to stop by...

Journal Your Christmas: 16th December

2011-12-16T07:00:00.002Z

I'm grateful for my wonderful job this time of year. Everyone in school is cheerful, if slightly manic, we get inundated with chocolates in the department and no one feels like doing much work. I tend to carry on regardless. For instance:

Student: Can't we have fun lesson today, Miss?

Me: All my lessons are fun!

Student: But it's Christmas.

Me:...No it's not. It's 14th December. There are still eleven more sleeps to go.

Student: But it's our last lesson.

Me: No it's not, we've got some in January. And then February. And with a shocking inevitability, we've got lessons in March. There are others too, but I don't want to overload you.

Student: But it's our last lesson before Christmas.

Me: Actually, you've got lessons tomorrow and Friday as well.

Student: I mean our last mechanics lesson before Christmas.

Me: Yes it is.

Student: So can we watch a video?

Me: I've got something way better than a video. It's in 3D and it happens in real time. There's an interactive element and this will be a totally unique, one-time-only performance.

Student:.....?......?......

Me: Go on, you can get there.

Student:....It's just going to be you teaching us mechanics isn't it?

Me: Yes! Got it in one!

Student: Nothing Christmassy.

Me: I'll see what I can do...

[On the board]

eg1. Father Christmas attempts to land on a snowy rooftop, but misses. The reindeer cling to the roof which is inclined at an angle alpha to the horizontal such that tan (alpha) = 3/4. Father Chirstmas, his sleigh and all the presents dangle over the edge of the roof on the end of the reins which run down along the line of greatest slope. The reindeer have a collective mass of 100kg and Father Christmas and his sleigh have a mass of 150kg.

(i) By modelling the reindeer and the sleigh as particles, and given that the coefficient of friction between the snow-capped roofs and the reindeer hoofs [That totally rhymes, by the way] is 0.5, find the tension in the reins and state the minimum force the reindeer must exert on the reins in order to hold Father Christmas in limiting equilibrium. [Don't forget to do a diagram].

(ii) The reindeer are fed carrots by the children in the house and with their strength renewed, make a huge effort and exert a force of 3000N on the reins. Given that Father Christmas is dangling at rest 2m below the roof, [Impersonate dangling Father Christmas] find his acceleration and the time taken for him to reach the edge of the roof and relative safety, giving your answer in surd form.

Remember gents, if you miscalculate, not only do you get no presents; none of the boys and girls in the world will get presents. Father Christmas didn't take A-level maths. No pressure.

[Later]

Student: But carrots don't give you energy.

Me: Yes they do.

Student: No, they don't have much protein or carbs in.

Me: They have vitamins though.

Student: You don't convert vitamins into energy. And how come the reindeer don't weigh more?

Me: They're magic reindeer. They convert vitamins into energy instantly and therefore their mass is constant.

Student: Rubbish.

Me: You will happily accept the reindeer can fly but the vitamin-energy conversion bothers you?

Student: Yes miss. 'Cause everyone knows that reindeer can fly, but you're just making stuff up and calling it magic.

Me: *sigh*

Student: And just adding Santa into the example doesn't make it a Christmas lesson.

Kisses xxx

P.S. The answers we are looking for are:

(i) 2450N

(ii) a=5.5 ms^-2 and t=2Root2/3

P.P.S. How did you do? If you got them wrong, no presents for you. Sorry.

P.P.P.S. Stop by on Sunday for an exciting scrappy announcement!

Journal Your Christmas: 15th December

2011-12-15T06:58:00.001Z

Last weekend, I hosted a Christmas Make, Bake and Cake. My lovely friends popped round and we had homemade soup, present swapping, the boys put up my Christmas lights and we had copious gossip. Then I made them all go outside for some Christmas portraits. And then we were cold so we mulled lots of wine and roasted some chestnuts. Between us we managed to fit in some knitting, paper snowflakes, and endless pots of Christmas tea (yay Whittards!). I made an enormous mac and cheese for dinner with a bit of saucepan juggling and we had more tea, mulled some Winter Pimm's and apple - DELICIOUS - and played Articulate and charades until two in the morning. I found space on the floor (just) for everyone to sleep, piled on the blankets and we snoozed peacefully before having tea and crumpets for breakfast. Perfect.

And with these pages, I've filled another page protector!

School concert last night. Blissful. Baked rocky road for the form so that's chilling in the fridge - got to cut it up in time for school now. Ten minutes - eep! Department night out tonight as well. Excellent :D

Kisses xxx

P.S. Merry Christmas friends. MeChriends. (I hope they get that :D)

Journal Your Christmas: 14th December

2011-12-14T06:56:00.000Z

This year I knitted mug cosies for my friends for Christmas. I cut it a bit fine and had to do a sneaky bit of stitching while teaching. Students somewhat confused. When I finished one and put it on the mug, he offered to drop it for me. Apparently he thought the mug cosy was to protect the mug from breaking. Numpty.

Kisses xxx

P.S. We totally won the quiz! And the 6th formers didn't even take the bribe :D

Journal Your Christmas: 13th December

2011-12-13T07:03:00.001Z

The school Christmas concert was extremely festive - a great atmosphere. I played with Camerata - A slightly ropey Walking in the Air, a clipping Christmas medley and Handel's Alleluia from the Messiah with the choir. In the second half, I watched, along with some ladies who hummed along to all the performances white noisily unwrapping mint humbugs - brilliantly cliched! Particularly amused by the piece which combines, in medley form, your favourite Christmas tunes with your favourite secret agent film and TV themes. To finish, we had singalong carols and I did the descants (Yay!). The boys in front turned round to locate the source of the noise and I surepticiously pointed at Arijit. They appeared somewhat bemused :D

I made this page on a gold holly-patterned transparency which I found in my stash from last year. I love rediscovering something pretty and using it!

Kisses xxx

P.S. School quiz today - a team from each year and my staff team. I've baked them biscuits and one or two for the hopefully susceptible judges in the 6th form. You never know when a biscuit may become a delicious tie-break biscuit.

P.P.S. Also I have lots of specific knowledge but no general knowledge so I'm playing to my strengths. It's what I tell the students to do. Fingers crossed!

Journal Your Christmas: 11th and 12th December

2011-12-12T07:02:00.000Z

I love the tree at St Pancras station - it's made of Lego! It always surrounded by people snapping pictures of it and it's great fun to watch small children suddenly light up - I heard one exclaim very loudly to her Daddy: "Oh my gosh! They've made it out of Lego!"

I've gone off on my own a little bit for my Journal Your Christmas on 12th December. I wanted to record memories from the Guides disco.

We turned the church hall into a disco, decked out with tinsel and balloons with little lights inside. Of course, once the first one popped, the others all followed in quick succession as they tried to get the lights out and add them to their outfits. We practised our formulaic 90s dancing, had hotdogs and pizza and also had a colouring in corner for the Rainbows. Bless. Having partied the night away until eight, we packed them off home and retired to Alison's for drinks and excessively competitive Pictionary.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Making a massive to-do list this week. Does anyone else find that the amount of sleep you get per night decreases the nearer you get to Christmas?

P.P.S. That sounds like a whine. It's a nice to do list :D

Journal Your Christmas: 10th December

2011-12-11T14:02:00.001Z

I have a soft spot for gift bags. I tend to collect them from school and Guides and this year I've found myself left with half a dozen wine-bottle shaped gift bags. However, with a bit a forward planning and a lot of cunning and guile and other such attributes, all my friends' gifts will fit in long thin bags. So they all have matching presents and I no longer have odd shaped gift bags. Life is good. As we all know there's nothing worse than having the wrong size gift bag.*

*This is something I happened to exclaim quite loudly on the tube in the summer on the way to a birthday party. At the time I had a small gift and a large gift bag, which made the gift look a bit pathetic. Obviously, I know there are many things worse than this and the mocking derision I have received since has taught me to be careful about exclaiming things on the tube. And also to ensure that friends' gift bags are the right size. They now notice.

And exciting news time: I'm a Guide leader with a unit of Guides and a member of Girlguiding UK, but as I'm 24, I'm also a member of senior section, which is term which covers people who are anything from 14 to nearly 30 and are involved in Guiding. A few weeks ago, I went on a camp called InTops (International Opportunities) to find out about some of the things Girlguiding does overseas, and to take part in some completely off the wall activities. While at camp, I applied to go on an overseas project. There then followed a long wait while they reviewed the things everyone did on camp and look through applications.

And my exciting news? I've been invited to go on a voluntary project in Armenia for three weeks in the summer! I'm totally excited and a bit nervous as there's so much to do beforehand and I've never done anything like this before.

A team of six of us will be completing the fourth year of a 5 year project which helps to start Girl Guide units in Armenia, provide leadership training for the volunteers, run a national camp for existing Armenian Guides and help build an infrastructure so that more girls can get involved with the fantastic opportunities available to Guides. We're going to be running sessions, camping, staying in hostels, providing resources....it's going to be busy :D

And before any of that happens, I need to raise £2000 to support the project.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Friends have all left now. But I think we spread a good bit of Christmas cheer about the place :D

Make, Bake and Cake: Ten Christmas Portraits

2011-12-10T17:44:00.004Z

This weekend I'm hosting a Christmas Make, Bake and Cake. My lovely friends are here and we've had soup, present swapping and gossip and then I took them all outside for some Christmas portraits. And then we were cold so we mulled lots of wine. Now we're knitting, baking, listening to Chirstmas songs and I'm about to teach them to make paper snowflakes.

So here are my 10 on the 10th.

Check out Shimelle's blog for more!

Kisses xxx

P.S. More JYC tomorrow! Also, some exciting news :D

Journal Your Christmas: 9th December

2011-12-09T07:03:00.000Z

How to pick a Christmas tradition to write about? Just one? But, Shimelle says, so here we go... I love traditions: they give me something to look forward to and revel in, and play a particularly important part at Christmas. Some are serious, but some are just a little bit of fun.

Most of the year, I am not a telly addict. But come this time of year, I will happily watch a Christmas episode of anything. For the umpteenth time. It all begins with the purchasing of the encyclopaedic Radio Times - two weeks of Christmas telly in one issue. Then I turn my red pen from it's usual marking into a circling frenzy as I stick a ring around anything that looks promising. And hope that Christmas Doctor Who hasn't been scheduled against Christmas Downton. Then, last of all, I have to figure out when would be the best time to insert a viewing of White Christmas, the ultimate Christmas classic, a viewing of The Christmas Card, the ultimate Christmas fluff, and any of the cheesy Christmas films my parents have found. Plus Christmas episodes of any DVD boxed set that I habitually watch. In this I will be ably aided and abetted by Matthew.

It's lovely to beguile cold winter nights with lovely nibbles, actual real time to craft in from of festive telly, and family around.

Kisses xxx

P.S. And now the red pen goes back to the marking. With any luck, I'll be done by Christmas :D

P.P.S. School Christmas concert last night which I pitch in with. Particularly amused by the piece which combines, in medley form, your favourite Christmas tunes with your favourite secret agent film and TV themes.

Journal Your Christmas: 8th December

2011-12-08T07:02:00.003Z

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

I just thought I'd share the progress my album pages are making - I'm going to put my JYC in my usual albums with my other pages. I like everything to be together as Christmas time isn't separate from my life - it's a part of it.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Been trading with Christmas ginger biscuits at school. Fellow teachers, it turns out, will do you favours for biscuits. If only it were possible to apply this to students.

Journal Your Christmas: 7th December

2011-12-07T07:02:00.001Z

Trying to get in as much handmade stuff as possible this year. So far this includes 6 batches of ginger biscuits, at least a double batch of rocky road, miscellaneous extra baking and handmade decorations. Then there are the gifts, but shh... it's a secret until the big day. And not forgetting a dash of scrapbooking too. Yay!

Kisses xxx

P.S. I've got my first Christmas present. Can you guess what it is?

P.P.S. No?

P.P.P.S. I've been given my own domain name! Thankyou techno-brilliant friend (you know you you are :D)

P.P.P.P.S. At the weekend, I am going to officially become:

www.journalofcuriousthings.co.uk

All being well, the rss feeds will all continue to work so if you subscribe, you should get new posts automatically. Also, if you type in my current blogspot url, you'll automatically get redirected to my new web address.

P.P.P.P.P.S. I'm so excited!

Journal Your Christmas: 6th December

2011-12-06T07:05:00.001Z

It's not nice to be ill at Christmas. I remember one year when Dad was. We' been a tape-playing household up until that point but Mum had bought Dad a CD player - our first - as a surprise. Each Saturday as we went down the village to do some shopping, Mum would pick up a CD or two. She individually wrapped them all and arranged them so that Dad would be nonplussed, receiving all these CDs before finally getting the CD player. Unfortunately on Christmas day Dad was really full of cold and flu and didn't feel like opening any presents, never mind all those CDs. A great idea though!

Ah, the best laid plans.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Christmas dinner with the Guiders last night. But being Guiders, we had fish and chips down the hut (read little shed where we store tents) with twinkly lights and our coats on.

P.P.S. Also the obligatory cuppa. :D

Journal Your Christmas: 5th December

2011-12-05T07:05:00.000Z

The time of advent is well and truly underway. I really look forward to going to church at this time of year.

I loved reading your comments on ginger biscuits (or cookies!) - I think the consensus is that ginger is definitely Christmassy. So I thought I'd share the recipe.

Elizabeth's Ginger Biscuits

8oz self raising flour

4oz butter

3oz caster sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp ground ginger

(Optional extras: Extra half a tsp of ginger, half a tsp of nutmeg and half a tsp of cinnamon. 100g white chocolate. These are my own additions, but I highly recommend them :D)

1. Mix together all the dry ingredients.

2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the golden syrup.

3. Mix the two together.

4. Roll into balls about the size of a walnut. I get about 12-15 from a batch.

5. Bake at 170 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

6. Leave to stand for 5 minutes and transfer to a wire rack.

7. Melt white chocolate and drizzle (or dollop) on the top.

And if you sprinkle them with sugar stars, you get an extra wish!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Not sure who Elizabeth is, so if you prefer to think of them as my Nanny's biscuits, that's OK. Although you probably don't know her, but I can vouch for her awesomeness.

Storytelling Sunday and Journal Your Christmas: 4th December

2011-12-04T08:39:00.007Z

A bit of a two in one post today! I'll start with Journal Your Christmas, and Storytelling Sunday is below.

Journal Your Christmas

The prompt for JYC, Shimelle's wonderful Christmas class is all about dreaming of a perfect Christmas. Well, I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.

Dear Weather Providers,

I'd like to put in a request for a white Christmas this year. If it comes to that, I'd also like a beautiful house with a wraparound porch that I can sit on with a cuppa and watch it from. But failing that, the snow will do. Good snow that we can build things out of. Like that igloo years ago. Not the wrong kind of snow, because I need to catch the train home. And not of the day when I'm going to see the Nutcracker as last year the tube stopped running and I missed it. But good snow is magical and makes everyone happy and Dad would love it and we could all shovel the drive and go for a walk.

Thanks, that would be lovely,

Kirsty xxx

P.S. And I'd like my car to keep working.

*********

Storytelling Sunday

NB: All names changed

Another one from the school archives today and it concerns taking the register. As a form tutor, I take the register every day. Twice a day. This, as you can imagine, becomes a little tedious. And I don't remember how the tradition started but I do say to my form that I don't mind how they respond to the register as long as it's polite and it ends in "miss".*

They began by sharing pieces of information.

Alan?

I've got a cold miss

John?

I haven't miss

Peter?

I like Haribos miss

Dave?

There's a dairy milk wrapper down the radiator miss

Is there?

Yes miss, it's been there for three days now.

Keep me updated. Ben?

And so on. Incidentally, the dairy milk wrapper resided in the radiator quite happily for a week and a half and the register was filled with various ploys to either extract the wrapper on a weekend, Mission Impossible Style, or a range of sub-ploys from the dairy-milk-radiator-protection squad.

But I digress. Sometimes, the responses keep me on my toes.

Tom?

Miss, yes.

Oooh, I like it! Michael?

Absent miss.

Don't lie. Alex?

He's gone to the medical room miss.

Is he OK....Oooh, that was a bit cunning.

I have to visually confirm presence as well as taking the register these days. And sometimes they answer for each other to confuse me. For the nervous amongst you, I always headcount and check I've got everyone so I don't get the register wrong. That would be embarrassing.

Harry?

Don't say Ollie, miss.

...Ollie?

I thought that was pretty creative.

Sam?

My name is Sam, miss.

Yash?

My name is Yash miss.

Callum?

Sam and Yash are lying miss.

These days, we've progressed to themed registers. We pick a theme and everyone has to respond according to the theme. So when the theme is chocolate bars, each person has to answer with a previously unmentioned chocolate bar. Everyone except Mike who's got a bet with Nikhil that he can answer every register all year with a different quote from Harry Potter. He's therefore exempt from all themes.

Previous themes have included Pokemon, Animals that taste like chicken, Types of Haribos and speed registering against the clock. When the bell is about to go and I haven't done the register yet. One of my favourite themes was Colour.

Right gents, one again it's that time of day when I read out all your names in alphabetical order or you indicate your presence or otherwise appropriately. Colour is our theme, attendance is our purpose. Are we ready?

But there aren't 29 colours miss!

You're right, there are way more, so off we go.

...

We got quite far before there was a problem.

...

Andrew?

Dark metallic blue miss

Mike?

You're a wizard Harry miss

Matthew?

Dark metallic green miss

Peter?

Light miss

Light what?

Just light

That's not a colour.

Technically as a scientist, he's right.

OK David, I will allow that light it composed of different colours, but white light is all the colours in the spectrum mixed together. So I don't think you can call it a colour. Pick another one Peter.

Silver then miss.

David?

Can I have microwave miss?

It's not part of the visible spectrum is it?

But someone's already had vermillion.

It's a hard world David. Pick another colour.

...

We did get to the end though. Eventually.

Well done folks. And there's loads of colours we haven't even used. We could have had lilac, mauve, sand, aquamarine....that colour they always paint new houses in...Man, what's that called?

Oooh, I know what you mean miss.

Eggshell?

Dove?

Beige?

Angel White?

No, no, no...begins with m. I've got mahogany stuck in my head but it's not that. This is going to annoy me all day. So nobody leaves...I don't care if the bell goes...Nobody leaves until we work it out.

...

MAGNOLIA!!!

Oh, brilliant! You're a star. Off you go now then, time for learning.

Apparently I have a form of budding interior designers. Angel White? I ask you...

***************

For more stories, hop on over to the lovely Sian's blog, From High in the Sky. This is the last one of the year, and it's been wonderful to read about others' lives and memories. Merry Christmas, storytellers.

Kisses xxx

P.S. The misted snowflake mask idea is totally inspired by (read stolen from) a blogger somewhere on the internet doing JYC but I can't find their blog again. If it was you, let me know and I will credit you with the fabulousness you deserve :D

*There was the day when I tried out chief and after going through the register with a series of unconvincing "Yes Chief"s, I realised I probably couldn't pull it off. The form were unanimous in their agreement. Wretches.

Journal Your Christmas: 3rd December

2011-12-03T08:20:00.000Z

Every year I bake 'Christmas cards' instead of writing them. I think it's more fun. Also more delicious. And delicious is important. This year I'm doing ginger biscuits for cards (and for the Guides bake sale). I got the recipe from Nanny and it's called Elizabeth's ginger biscuits as she got it from someone called Elizabeth (?).

Anyway, I took my recipe to the supermarket, picked up all the ingredients, got home and couldn't find the recipe. Even now it's probably floating around the street, waiting to be found by a passing stranger who will take it home, make biscuits and have their own Christmas miracle. However, this didn't help me. I rang Nanny but she was down the church decorating Christmas trees. This was annoying, but Christmassy. When she got back though, she was able to read her copy of the recipe to me. Fortunately she hadn't foolishly dropped hers in the street. So everyone will get the biscuits.

Except my form who will get Rocky Road. But that's another story.

Oooh, and there will eventually be little sugar stars.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Ginger is one of those delicious Christmassy flavours isn't it? If you've never made rocky road with ginger nut biscuits, you have been missing out. Nuff said.

Journal Your Christmas: 2nd December

2011-12-02T09:10:00.000Z

I confess that warm weather doesn't do it for me. But while I could do without the drizzle and the dark mornings, I love the weather this time of year. Mist covers the school grounds obscuring the rugby goals and making me feel cosy and snuggled in. The crisp cold filters the sunshine and makes my breath come in clouds and with the nip in the air come the scarves, gloves, mittens and the all-important red beret that I affect and swan around in at winter time. Now all I need is the snow. Fingers crossed!

For this page, I did the journalling on a 4x6 card and then included a 4x6 print as well. I print at home on a little Canon Selphy photo printer that has been worth every penny I paid for it. It doesn't work out very cheap per print (I reckon maybe 20p per 4x6?) but as I only print exactly what I want when I want it, there's no waste. Plus, I can print any size I like up to 4x6. Ideal for this journal. So thanks little printer :D

Kisses xxx

P.S. I'm having a new level of appreciation for tags. LOVE them. Especially when tied with a bow.

Journal Your Christmas: 1st December

2011-12-01T09:00:00.000Z

My Journal Your Christmas album this year is in divided page protectors. The first one I'm using is split into 6 horizontal 4x6 pockets. My first page is about some of the things I'm looking forward too. After all, 'tis the season!

The season for cinnamon, nutmeg, singing and twinkly lights. The season for mittens, scarves, candles and cards. The season of Advent. 'Tis the season of good food, good cheer and goodwill. 'Tis the season of ballet - the Nutcracker (twice) - panto (oh, no it isn't?) and parties, whether that's the Guides' disco or Aunty Josephine's Christmas do. I LOVE this time of year, I look forward to it and I revel in it. All I want it to make the most of it with family, friends and a big smile. Merry Christmas!

Kisses xxx

P.S. 40 ginger biscuits baked = not bad going. Especially since I lost the recipe on the way home from the supermarket.

P.P.S. For those of you who are of a nervous disposition and wonder how I managed to make the biscuits without the recipe, don't panic. I called my Grandma who gave me the recipe when Elizabeth(?) gave it to her. She hadn't lost hers on the way home from the supermarket though, so she read it all out to me over the phone and Christmas was saved.

P.P.P.S. Ginger biscuits 1 - Grinch 0

Journal Your Christmas: The Title Page

2011-11-30T18:42:00.001Z

The festive season has begun. And I love it already. Merry Christmas!

Kisses xxx

Midnight

2011-11-26T12:41:00.002Z

I can't believe how fast this year has gone. I started making this page in January, about New Year's eve with my friends. I hosted at my flat last minute. We partied hard with pizza, mulled wine and dancing to the Macarena. Because we all know the dance to that. We also played Articulate and waved to the people on the balcony on the flat opposite.

I pulled out out a couple of days ago (tidying up as my parents are visiting - yay!) and first of all I felt all warm and fuzzy because that was a lovely night. And secondly it made me think about how my pages have changed in a year. So I put the finishing touches to this page, and I'm going to scrap my New Year this year and take a look at how I've changed. Interesting times.

Also, I'm planning on launching a big new project that I'm working on. Watch this space :D

Kisses xxx

P.S. I learned this week that my Year 12s impersonate me. They do it frighteningly accurately. Apparently it's the face I do when I'm trying not to laugh and attempting to tell them off at the same time.

P.P.S. I am ludicrously transparent.

And it's Finished!

2011-11-24T21:58:00.002Z

I've had this page half finished for ages as part way through, I decided I didn't like it. But I also didn't want to ditch it. So I hauled it out, yanked off a couple of offending items, added a few news ones and presto change-oh, I like it now.

I am nothing if not fickle.

The pics are from my friend Maja's birthday party. I've already made a page about the party, but never a page about our friendship. We met in first year at uni and by the end of the year, we were firm friends and we were hunched around a laptop booking me a plane ticket to visit her in Poland in the summer when suddenly, a thought occurred. What if we fell out before the holiday? Awkward.

However, being Oxford gals, we put our extensive scientific minds to the problem and came up with the perfect solution. We promised never to fall out. Problem solved!

And we never have fallen out. So clearly, it's working.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Is anyone else finding snapping pics of their pages really annoying since the dark descended?

P.P.S. I think that if I periodically complain about this, it might go away.

P.P.P.S. I am reading your blogs but not finding much time to comment. But I am enjoying :D

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

2011-11-20T19:28:00.003Z

Christmas! I love it - it's my FAVOURITE time of year, and in recent years, Christmas for me includes Shimelle's class Journal Your Christmas. I've had a root through my stash and put together a little kit of things I'm going to be using. And I've come up with this:

I'm going to work in mainly 4x6 with divided page protectors, but I also reserve the right to chuck in 12x12 pages when I have more to say on a particular topic. I've got a couple of different styles of page protector: in the 4x6 ones I can include little journalling cards or just a photo, or a combination. But in the mixed dividers, there are 6x12 slots, or 4x4 and other different sizes to play with. Bring it!

I've looked out quite a bit of older forgotten stash to use, and I'm not buying any new Christmas supplies. I don't think they really go out of style. And I love these snowflake stickers :D

I've sliced up some little cards and found various scraps and things so I can layer up different bits and bobs as I like.

I've pre-cut lots of 4x6 rectangles to work with from patterned paper. Most of the sheets were partially used so I feel like I'm getting the most from my stash. And it's clearly time to use this pearl embellishment that I've been saving. Maybe to adorn an introduction-style page?

Finally, here are a few of my less traditional 4x6 rectangles. I love having a whole range of colours to work with, so my JYC won't be coordinating, but it will be festive and colourful. I hope!

Kisses xxx

P.S. I think this is the most organised I've ever been, JYC-wise. Good times.

P.P.S. Feeling extra Christmassy today as we took the Guides to Ringos. Wear warm clothes and wellies, tow an inflatable ring up the snow slope, and gleefully slide down. Repeat for an hour and then imbibe hot chocolate. Real snow indoors? Fabcakes!

New Challenges for November

2011-11-13T19:31:00.003Z

Given how much I enjoyed challenging myself last month, I'm going to have a go at a few bits and pieces this month.

1) Scrap a story about work

I collect loads of anecdotes from school and jot them all down in an exercise book. But I never seem to get around to putting them in my scrapbook. This month, I intend to change this!

2) Finish an unfinished project.

I suppose quite a few of us have half-finished scrapbook pages. My goal is to get at least one completed and into the album. However, if I don't like the half-finished bit, I reserve the right to pull it to pieces and start again.

3) Prepare my Journal Your Christmas things

A little preparation goes a long way. And given how manically busy December often is, I want to get a head start. Christmas is my favourite time of year, and now that I'm onto my third JYC, that feels like a part of Christmas too. So looking forward to making a start!

4) Scrap a large photo - bigger than 4x6

I always scrap pictures 4x6 or smaller, simply because that's what I can print at home. And yet I love seeing pages with huge photos on. So this is the month I'm going to pull myself together, go out and get a giant print to scrap. Hurrah!

5) Include some stamping on a layout

I'm bad a stamping. But then I have always supposed that to be because I have not taken the trouble to practise. However, recently I bought a graph paper background stamp by Hero Arts, which I love and will make brilliant lines to journal on. So I'm going to take a deep breath and give it a shot.

Kisses xxx

P.S. No pictures today - this is a flying post between doing other things. Although I will admit that some of those include watching The Big Bang Theory, knitting frantically and pondering the advisability of ordering take out.

P.P.S. I'm thinking that the advisability level is high?

P.P.P.S. Also, did not win the lottery yesterday. Miffed. On the plus side, there's a whole story behind why I played and why I don't mind losing (much). Remind me to tell you about it :D

Ten on the Tenth: Challenge Round-up!

2011-11-10T06:00:00.001Z

OK, a month ago I set myself ten scrapbooking challenges. I wanted to try new things, step outside my comfort zone and motivate myself to get some real scrapbooking time in. Initially I thought this wouldn't be a problem. Ten challenges in a month equates to 2 pages a week. Give or take. Ish.

Turns out that was pretty woolly thinking for a mathematician. However, on the plus side, it really has been a challenge. I've really enjoyed it. I've tried new things. I had the motivation to keep going because I posted here that I would. I don't want you to think I'm unreliable, obviously.

And you know what? I feel really good about it!

So here are my challenge pages and projects - I've linked each one back to its own blog post if you want to read more about them. Then below, I've set up a little linky thing, so that if you joined in with any of the challenges you can leave a link for me and world to stop by and say "Oooh!". After all, I need inspiration for the next month now :D

Challenge 1: Take an Autumnal Picture

Challenge 2: Use a Yellow and Blue Colour Palette

Challenge 3: Get Stitching

Challenge 4: Scrap from a Sketch

Challenge 5: Use a Found Object

Challenge 6: Scraplift a Page

Challenge 7: Use Paint

Challenge 8: Find a New Way to Tell a Story

Challenge 9: Scrap About Myself

Challenge 10: Take up an Internet Challenge

Thanks for playing along and joining me for Ten on the Tenth. Check out Shimelle's blog for other timely tidbits.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Now whatever shall I do for the next month? Check back soon to find out. And if you have good challenge ideas, totally share!

Challenge 9: Scrap Yourself

2011-11-09T17:59:00.000Z

The last challenge for the month! And cutting it a little fine :D However, this challenge was all about scrapping an aspect of myself. So I picked.... my craftyness!

Just keep tinkering.

I am a third generation tinkerer abouter. If not more. I scrap, knit, crochet, sew, bake, muck about with photography.. Too many hobbies, too little time. But I love it, and you've got to spend your pennies on something, and better crafty stuff than fags or booze, as Mum would say. I get it from her anyway. Mum scraps, sews, patchworks, gardens and makes dolls houses, to list only a few of her talents. She got it from Papa, my grandad, who makes model railways in more than one scale, can fix anything and makes radios. In biscuit tins.

I suppose we all like to keep our hands busy. There's always something to have a go at, to learn or to take to pieces to see if we can make one. And Papa says hobbies are good for your health. Keeping your hands busy keeps arthritis at bay. Who am I to argue with that?

With craftyness in mind, I added paint, ink, a hand-stitched title, chipboard and pretty paper all in together. But keeping in a yellow and white colour scheme with small scraps and the odd touch of blue helped to keep everything in check, and not become overwhelming.

And that sees me to the end of my challenges! Tomorrow, I'll post a round up of them all to coincide with Shimelle's Ten on the Tenth. I'll also stick in a linky thing if you've got pages to share. I've never used one of those before, so fingers crossed :D

Excited!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Ordered three 12x12 albums. I've decided it's finally time for me to get organised and come up with a system. I think I like Shimelle's way of doing it. Any tips?

Challenge 10: Take up a Challenge on the Internet

2011-11-08T17:47:00.003Z

All the time, inspiration, tips, techniques and challenges role through my Google Reader. And many of them make me think "Ooh, I want to do that!". But in between scrapping the things I want to scrap anyway and ..y'know, life, I never seem to get round to it.

All that is about to change, now that I'm tackling Challenge 10: Take up an internet challenge on my challenge list And the challenge I chose was Take 1, a challenge set by SJ on her blog Little Musings. Every fortnight, she looks back through her pages, chooses one that catches her eye and scraps a new page, borrowing a particular element from the old one. And she shares her own pages in a lovely video. I thought this was a brilliant idea - self-inspiration means we can celebrate the things we love in our own scrapbooks.

This is the page I chose for my inspiration. I made this page about going to the Last Night of the Proms just over a year ago in September. I really like the mix of patterns and the way the red-white-blue colour scheme echoes the Union flags in the picture.

So I borrowed those things for my new page, made with this year's Last Night of the Proms photos. Red white and blue colour scheme, mix of patterns.

I spy checks, polka dots, clouds, stars and the all important ledger :D I also included some stitching for good measure, and a bit of grey to add into the colour scheme.

We had a great day at the Proms - I still have more to scrap - but I did want to document these awesome bowler hats. We were sat on the pavement waiting to get tickets for the concert (ten hours folks!) and over the road, I could see some people handing out hats to other queueing concert goers. Heedless of my own safety, I dashed across the road (gasp! shock!) and went to get one. Were they free? Yes. Score! Could I have one? Yes.

I mimed across the road to the other folk in the queue. It's quite hard to mime: "these people are giving out bowler hats for free and I'm not sure why but free is free so do you want one?". But I managed, the folk across the road thumbsed-up, and I tottered back across the road clutching half a dozen. We assembled our hats by making sure the extremely classy Union flags were secured to the top, and carried on queueing. In our frankly awesome new headgear. Win.

They helped to keep off a bit of the rain. I snapped this self portrait of me and the friends with my fisheye (by the way friend, I hope this photo meets your approval. You know who you are), umbrella bobbing behind us, wearing our definitely-not-ridiculous hats and flying our flags the right way up too.

We are not in distress.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Last challenge tomorrow! Which means I have to finish off the page tonight. Stop by on the tenth to share your creations if you've been challenging yourself too, and to see the full round up!

Challenge 6: Scraplift

2011-11-07T18:58:00.002Z

So, I'm getting near the end of my challenges now: this is the eighth I've completed and, because I'm not all that great with numbers, it's challenge six. I love stealing ideas from other scrappers. It's one of my main form of inspiration. But I rarely set out to scraplift so I thought this would be a great way to try something new.

I love this page by Kelly Purkey: it has brilliant misting and wonderful circle details and a feature photo... It's brilliant! Bingo, I thought, my scraplift.

Turned out to be harder than I thought. It's just not my style. No real space to journal, I'm rubbish at misting because I hate page curl, I don't really so stamping and I don't own a circle punch. Error.

So I took bits and pieces. I made a central focus point for my photo (check) and added a few circles to the background which I cut from a sheet of paper that was already covered in pretty circular designs. Check. Plus no need for a circle punch. I give myself extra scrap points for this. (And I award everyone reading this 138 extra scrap points, just for funsies). I added little mist splatters to get the misted effect without page crinkle. Ooh, and I took the twine from Kelly's page too. Because who doesn't love twine? In fact, if you don't like twine, I'm taking back your scrap points.

I added in some of my own stuff though to made the page seem a bit more me. I included a block of journalling (yay!), bits and bobs like little tags and butterflies and lace, I inked edges, layered paper and machine stitched around the edge. Since Challenge 3 I love stitching.

The final result is interesting - it's not my usual style but there's enough of my usual in there to make it feel 'me'. And I would never have thought to do circles behind the design had it not been for listing Kelly's page. So I definitely gained something by doing the scraplift.

My conclusion then, is pretty much the same as when I'd done Challenge 4: Scrap from a Sketch. Scraplifting and sketches are fantastic resources for inspiration when it comes to designing a page. They also challenge me to think outside my comfort zone and try something new. But copying exactly makes me frustrated as it doesn't seem to come out like the original, but also doesn't feel like something I made.

I shall definitely scraplift again. But I'll do it my way :D

Kisses xxx

P.S. Loved popping around and reading everyone's stories yesterday -thanks for the comments you left, I really appreciated them!

P.P.S. Is anyone else feeling totally Christmassy? Looking forward to Journal Your Christmas with Shimelle!

Sian's Storytelling Sunday: Lessons in ....Um Yeah

2011-11-06T07:49:00.000Z

The topic for my Storytelling Sunday is perhaps a little unorthodox... but it's kept me vastly entertained this week. This half term, my form and I are discussing the big daddy of PSHE topics. Could they guess what it was?

Form: DRUGS!!!

Me: No, but I am worried by your enthusiastic yelling.

Form: ....sex? *snigger*

Me: Exactly. Sex and relationships.

My form are mostly thirteen, there are 30 of them, and they are all boys. But y'know what, for my first attempt to teach sex ed, it's a nice group to be working with. They're giggly, absolutely, but still curious, and really quite naive. Older students tend to be harder work. Less naivete, more innuendo.

When it came to my form having some input, they clammed up somewhat.

Me: First of all, we're going to think about some of the things we might be discussing, and come up with a few ground rules for our discussions so that no one feels uncomfortable or embarrassed. So, what might we be talking about.

Long silence. Eye contact avoidance. One tentative hand is raised.

Student: The....um....genital area?

Me: A bit yes, but the biology and the anatomy is more something you'll be talking about in science. We're going to be thinking about the social and emotional sides of sex. How to make sure you're being safe and responsible. What to do if you have a problem, that sort of thing.

Student: Isn't there like an age.... in the law...before you can....um, yeah?

Me: There is, yes. We'll certainly be talking about the law and your rights.

Student: Will we be talking about.....er....self service?

*******

The ground rules we set later said that no one should laugh at anyone else's questions. Everyone will know different things and what to know different things and if they laugh at each other, they'll all be too embarrassed to ask anything about "...um yeah".

I didn't realise that the person who would find it hardest not to giggle would be me. Navigating the world of innuendo was extremely difficult. I had to hold on to my laughter with both hands and all my strength until I could get back to the office and collapse helplessly at my desk.

All the boys tried desperately to avoid saying 'sex' and their faces would contort marvellously mid sentence as they tried to come up with a politically correct way of saying what they wanted to say. I think it always made it worse. But they kept trying!

******

The school nurse came to do a session with us on contraception and STIs and the effects of alcohol and sex. She showed us a video where a rather drunk young girl is pressured into sleeping with her boyfriend. Every so often, the video would be put on pause.

Nurse: So, what are your thoughts about the behaviour of the boy here?

Student: I think the quality of the acting is poor. It's really overacted.

Me: *not laughing. Definitely not laughing*

Nurse: *taken aback* OK.... but we're really talking about the relationship between the characters.

***

Nurse: Everybody's different and different people use different forms of contraception, but whether it's the pill or the coil-

Student: What's the coil?

Nurse: *holds it up* This is the coil.

Student: How does it work?

Nurse: It's implanted into the uterus to prevent pregnancy.

Student: How does it get....up.... *resorts to hand gesture*

Me: *Still definitely not giggling. Or smirking*

Nurse: Oh, a doctor puts it in at the clinic. It comes in a little plastic case. The case gets removed and the coil stays behind, and then this string gets cut off.

Student: Hm....doesn't it hurt?

Nurse: No, no, you can't feel it. And once it's in it can stay there for ten years.

Student: How do they get it out again.

Nurse: Again, a doctor will do it, and get it out using some forceps.

Student: *turns pale*

Nurse: I won't deny that it's uncomfortable, but some people can't use the pill, so it's a good alternative for them. Better than an unwanted pregnancy.

Student: *blanches*

The nurse moved on and I edged around the room to my worried looking student.

Me: Pssst!

Student: Yes miss?

Me: You don't need to look so worried.

Student: Yes miss.

Me: The coil is for women.

Student: Ohhhhhh.....

Relief really brightened him up.

The nurse got out her model penis and showed them all how to put on a condom properly.

Nurse: If you come to the sexual health clinic, we will give you free condoms, but you'll have to demonstrate to us that you know how to put one on properly. We keep a record of your visits, and then if you've been to see us 6 times, we ask you to give us another demonstration to make sure your still using them properly. If you don't use a condom properly, you can still potentially pass on lots of STIs, or get your partner pregnant.

Student: You mean you have to show, like, a nurse or someone?

Nurse: Yes. Just to be on the safe side.

Student: But will they...like...watch?

Nurse: Well, yes. So that we know you're doing it properly.

Student: ....But......

Nurse: Not on you! On the model.

Student: Oh.......

*******

Here ends the lesson for the week. Who knows what next week's lessons will bring :D Wish me luck! With keeping a straight face, if nothing else.

Kisses xxx

P.S. For a whole range of wonderful stories, check out Sian's blog From High in the Sky where loads of bloggers will be sharing as part of Storytelling Sunday.

Challenge 4: Scrap from a Sketch

2011-11-05T09:00:00.000Z

Scrapping from a sketch was quite an obvious choice for a challenge, and while I often sketch out my own pages before I draw them, I don't often use other peoples' sketches. So I thought it would be good for me to try using another scrappers design for a model and went with a sketch that I felt would be a challenge for me, away from my usual style (found on Pencil Lines)

The result? Well, I ended up quite a long way from the sketch, scrapping in my own way and using the sketch more as a starting point for inspiration instead of as a map for a page. I'm glad I tried it - I got to borrow elements of the design while still scrapping a page that I feel is "me".

I used a selection of scraps to make this page (thanks Shimelle and PPP) and used the scroll shape out the side in the design. But I wanted to include more space for journalling and also more white space with a smaller, more focussed section for just one photo.

The page is about a recent weekend in Newcastle to celebrate the housewarming of two friends who qualified as doctors and moved up there to begin junior doctoring. We had a lovely time out seeing the city. They have a statue of Earl Grey (score!) and I got to see the lovely concert hall, the Sage (after being convinced it was called the Herb for a while. The Herb sounded OK but not quite right and I couldn't figure out why...). We followed it up with sunset over the river and a wonderful dinner and evening of fun in the flat, which is lovely.

Miss these folks, so here's hoping we can visit again soon!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Thanks for the comments about my Masters. I'm so pleased to have finished, it's a giant relief. Really chuffed!

Challenge 3: Stitching on a page.

2011-11-03T20:07:00.003Z

So, looking at the list of challenges once more, brings me in completely non-numerical order to the technique challenge. Stitching. I've recently started to get on board with the sewing machine (Thanks Mum!) and I wanted to combine my tentative skillz - skillz are way cooler than simple skills - with a bit of good old fashioned hand stitching.

So here we are! Machine stitched border and hand stitched title. I'm really pleased with how it came out :D

The title stitching was inspired by the titles I've seen on pages by Amy Tan which I love. But I've wanted to do more stitching since I've found the blogs of Michelle Clement, who uses lovely touches of embroidery, and Marcy Penner who has lovely loose threads falling across the page after machine stitching. Check them out!

I also enjoyed layering up lots of bits and pieces for this layout - thank you Studio Calico kit! - and it fits in nicely with Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party prompt for today. I even tore through a sheet of kraft cardstock (shock! horror!) to have a piece of this gorgeous pattern from Crate Paper peep through. It's got a lovely floral which normally I would think is too big to use easily, but the colours are so soft it matches really well with other patterned papers.

This page is about a stroll of six miles we took as family along London's Regent's Canal. We walked from the Limehouse Basin up to Camden, stopping in Angel for lunch. You have to leave the canal there for a bit anyway as it goes underground, but it was a bit of a challenge to find out way back to it as you're meant to walk the other way. Instead of following the signposts, we had to guess where the previous one would be pointing from. Fortunately, I'd done the walk before.

Lovely day out, playing choose-your-favourite-canal-side-property, peering into canal boats we passed, clambering over locks and taking pictures. Highly recommended day out!

Kisses xxx

P.S. And now that's six challenges vanquished. And therefore four more to share by the tenth. But I'll let you in on a secret: I've actually made the pages for three of them already.

P.P.S. It's been exciting times for me this week as well with two pieces of big news. One I can't share just yet, but the other is definitely worth shouting from the rooftops.

P.P.P.S. Did you want to know? Probably not, I know.

P.P.P.P.S. Sure?? OK.

P.P.P.P.P.S. See, now I've built it up and it won't be as exciting any more.

P.P.P.P.P.P.S. I passed my Masters.

P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. So that's Kirsty Smith BA (Oxon) PGCE MA (Ed) signing out.

Challenge 8: Tell a Story

2011-11-02T20:55:00.003Z

From my list of challenges, telling a story was right up there as an obvious one for me - I love to write a lot. The hard part was getting it all on the page.

In then end, to challenge myself to do something new, I branched out and made an extra coordinating 6x12 page on notebook style paper. That gave me the space to tell the whole story which I lifted from my Istanbul travel journal. The story of how we realised our dreams of being lady travellers of independent means.

My friend Ruth and I have travelled together a couple of times. We both have very similar tastes holiday-wise so it works out well. It was Ruth that got me hooked on Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody novels, where Amelia, our herione, sets out as a lady traveller of independent means to see the world. She's a forthright Victorian lady who takes no nonsense and has many adventures solving crime and studying archaeology, armed with a parasol and "damnable self-assurance". And rope. For tying up criminals, apparently. If you haven't read them, do. They're fab! Anyway, she is our inspiration at times, and since we both have jobs and therefore are of independent means...

-*Travel Journal extract*-

I'm having tea in the MOST AMAZING hotel, sat in a ballroom that looks as though its exotic elegance hasn't changed in at least 70 years and I'm sipping tea that, at 14TL a pot, cost 14 times more than most cups of tea we've had here. It did come with a free tiny pastry on a dish in the shape of a leaf though.

We came because apparently Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express here in room 411. As lady travellers of independent means, we decided to see if we could step in for a cuppa and a journal. After all, pressing our faces up against the window had revealed an attractive tea room.

We tailed a doorman into the hotel and were immediately greeted by hoards of staff who security scanned our bags (odd) and ushered us into a gorgeous lobby. A promising start, as I was in jeans, a hoody and walking boots and half expected to be told to go away and not come back until I looked decent. We asked if we could have tea (yes) and were offered a tour. We looked like tourists, not guests, clearly...

-***-

There's more on the card about the wingback armchairs that we sat in to write (I want to upholster everything I own in that fabric), the marble staircase, the old lift-in-a-cage (second oldest in Europe after the Eifle tower. The tour was quite informative), the chandeliers, the parquet floor and the way everything was dripping with a combination of vintage European decadence combined with exotic oriental touches.

Poirot would have approved, I think.

Anyway, long story shortened somewhat, we aspire to travel in that kind of style one day. But until then, we're content with tea and a tour and a complementary map. It's pop-up. Score.

Kisses xxx

P.S. It's dark when I'm at home these days, so it's tricky to get good pictures of pages. Sigh.

P.P.S. Thanks for the comments on my last post - made me all happy inside! Loved hearing about your travel journals, and I LOVED the links Elizabeth, thanks!

Challenge 5: Use A Found Object. Istanbul Travel Journal

2011-10-31T21:32:00.000Z

So on my Istanbul trip I kept a travel journal. So did my friend. So each night around nine found us in the same cafe, reclining on sofas, drink Turkish tea by the glassload and writing furiously. We packed a lot in.

But, being a scrapbooker, I didn't jsut want words, I wanted pictures and stuff. Tricky on holiday with the pictures still very much inside the camera. And no pretty paper to be fitted in the backpack. Sad face!

So I took a roll of washi tape, a pen and an exercise book and taped anything I could find into my exercise book: business cards, postcards, receipts, maps, tickets...even little packets that used to contain wet wipes (don't ask) and sugar (to go in the tea).

And so I bring you: My Travels in Istanbul: A Travel Journal by Kirsty M. Smith. Interspersed with some of the pictures that I I now intend to get scrapbooking :D

Book pinched without kind permission from maths department.

Which is what it says on the back of my travel journal. Technically, another found object.

P.S. I think this qualifies as using a found object! So that's Challenge 5 sorted! The tenth of November is not far away at all now, and I've completed all but a couple of them now. Look out for more posts soon, and details of a roundup to link them all together on the tenth!

P.P.S. I'm really enjoying it actually :D

Challenge 7: Paint

2011-10-30T11:33:00.005Z

First, let me tell you a little about camp cupcake. We had an indoor weekend with the Guides in October to do our cupcake challenge bag. We made cupcakes (so far, so obvious), cupcake pincushions, cupcake fridage magnets... Then there was the cupcake relay: grab a cupcake, run, slap on icing, run, write your initials in writing icing, run, sprinkles, run, tag teammate. Then you cheer your teammate while wondering if we guiders will believe that you always write your initials "splodge, squiggle, smear". Fortunately, there was also proper cupcake decorating too.

So, how did Challenge 7 work out for me? The paint here is minimal because I've figured out that's how I like it. Fewer page crinkles :D After some backfires and some now rather sad-looking Bazzill that I practised on - on the plus side I used the colours I wasn't keen on. Just a bit of paint means I don't get the wrinkles but I do get a suggestion of the paint effect I like. Lesson learned! So I've got a bit of a border in white paint around the patterned paper, and some splatters.

Inspiration for the paint border came from this page of Shimelle's which I love! Inspiration for little paint drips? Everywhere!

Spent the most fabulous day in pyjamas, crafting, sorting my new Istanbul pics and generally lazing about which I haven't done in soooooo long. Feels good! I've caught up with episodes of Smallville, Ugly Betty (Thanks LoveFilm!), and Merlin and I shall be catching up with the gossip and scandal over at Downton during the week. So no spoilers, do you hear?

I'm making a stern face and pointing at you all.

And now I'm grinning and yawning so it had better be goodnight.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Going to snuggle in bed with the iPod and watch Shimelle's latest 4x6 photo love. What is it about watching scrapbooking videos in bed that's so relaxing?

Long Time No Update Because...

2011-10-29T23:00:00.003+01:00

I've spent the week here, exploring and having adventures!

But don't worry. As a scrapbooker, I wrote it all down in here.

And I have a whole free day tomorrow (marking done - HA!) and I intend to start scrapbooking it and working on the challenges.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Thanks for being patient with me blog-wise. Have massive blog backlog but I'm really looking forward to seeing the challenges you've joined in with!

P.P.S. It was Istanbul by the way. I've just got back after spending a week there with a friend and I have LOADS to tell :D

Challenge 1: Photo on a theme of autumn...

2011-10-19T21:10:00.004+01:00

So this challenge was designed to make me get out and find some pictures that said Autumn to me. I take my camera almost everywhere but it's been a manic few weeks lately and I was starting to think that I was going to miss this beautiful season.

I've got a variety of shots. The cliched leaves of a tree, the vibrant shades of autumn, season of mists and whatnot...

But this is my favourite. Season of putting on wellies and running around outside in damp, dew-coated grass, kicking up leaves, wearing a scarf and mittens for warmth, breath coming in clouds and really crisp clear air that makes you inhale deeply. This is my autumn.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Working on other challenges too - quite enjoying myself :D

P.P.S. I'd appreciate it if you ignored the yuck that is clearly on the end of my lens and shows up on the pictures. Needs a clean!

Challenge 2: Colour

2011-10-13T22:15:00.003+01:00

Being a mathematician, I find it important to approach things logically, so I've started my month long scrappy quest with challenge 2: the colour challenge. Normally, yellow and blue is not a colour combo that works for me. It's a bit primary colours, a bit bold, a bit too... not sure what, but I've never been keen.

But then came Pinterest. And so I fell in love with the colour combo below. The colours were muted and sophisticated and delicate and cheerful. Not brash and bold and brassy, but subtle and lovely. So here's my page: I went with an almost grey-blue and soft yellows, and stuck in some general grey to tone the whole thing down. And I can't deny I was hankering to use this background paper. It's ledger...that goes in CIRCLES!!!

Everybody say HECK YES. Add some layers, inky splatters and a quick camera stamp, find my journalling about the Tower of London in this post, and I was good to go.

Thanks Pinterest :D

Kisses xxx

P.S. Lovely to hear that some of you are jumping in with me :D Anyone got a favourite colour palette? Or a loathed concatenation of colour?

P.P.S. Guide Camp (indoors) approaches. Better start packing. And preparing to cater for umpteen hungry Guides. Frantically sewing badges to the camp blanket. But the to-sew-on pile doesn't seem to be going down.

Ten Challenges for the Month

2011-10-10T06:30:00.001+01:00

This post is brought to you from Shimelle's ten on the tenth: click on the clicky to see what other folks are thinking.

You can interpret a challenge as Stuff-To-Have-A-Little-Tinker-With-When-I've-Got-Five-Minutes or as a less relaxed, more military, I-Want-To-See-Your-Pain type thing. Although quite why you'd choose the latter I'm not sure. But last month, I found I didn't do nearly as much crafty as I wanted to because I didn't make the time. And hobbies are important. My Grandad says so. They keep you busy and stop you from getting arthritis.*

So, I want to set myself ten little scrappy goals for the month. Then I have an excuse to break out with the stash, and something to work towards. During the month they can also work as prompts for blog posts and then I intend to round up my progress at the end. Ding! If you play along with any, some or all of the challenges, let me know and I can share linkages.

Oh, and there are no rules :D

*1*

It's got to be a photo challenge. The weather has turned chilly lately and the trees have all burst into a fanfare of colour and the air smells good - not sure why, it just does - and everything is autumnal. So, the photo challenge is: Autumn. Interpret as you will :D

*2*

A colour challenge. Just clicking on 'everything' on Pinterest produced a wealth of lush pictures in a wonderful variety of tones. I highly recommend trying it. So I thought I'd have a colour challenge to make the most of such loveliness. There are lots of options on the aforementioned procrastination capital of the internet, lots of inspiration on Design Seeds and so many different faces of colour that it's hard to choose. But I pick this one :D Feel free to pick your own.

*3*

Bit of a technique challenge this one. As I've just started getting savvy with the sewing machine (even managing to whip up a last minute drawstring bag to take to camp - oh yes!) I set the challenge thus: Include some stitching. I interpret this to mean hand stitching and machine stitching. It's meant to be a challenge after all. Feel free to eschew one or t'other.

*4*

Scrap from a sketch. Self-explanatory, so I'll leave it there. All you need to do is find your sketch!

*5*

I think this one will be tricky: use a found object on a page. I'm rubbish at including bits and bobs on the page that aren't stash items. I think they're not as pretty. So I am going to confound my own short-sightedness and find some pretty labels or tickets or leaflets or something to use on a page.

*6*

Scraplift a page. I love scraplifting, because you can steal, appropriate and generally thief as much as you like. So I shall find a page I adore (like this one by Kelly Purkey) and borrow the best bits for my own design. Then I shall call it inspiration and credit the original page because the internet is nice like that.

*7*

Time for another techniquey one. And this time it's paint. I love paint and lots of people use it beautifully. Witness Shimelle's page above. So I like the paint look, but I hate the crinkles. My challenge is a way to incorporate paint in such a way that I get the look without the wiggles.

*8*

Tell a story. A long one. And find a new way to include the words on the page. I'm all about the journalling and I love finding new ways to share it. So this challenge will (hopefully) make me think up something new!

*9*

Scrap about myself. Not something I did, but about me. So whether I go for the contents of my purse, my google search history or a timetable of a typical day remains to be seen. What would you choose to scrap about to show a new side of yourself?

*10*

Take up a challenge from the internet. Studio Calico, October Afternoon and Shimelle all have blogs bursting with ideas and challenges whether it's a sketch, a starting point, a product or a technique. I follow lots of scrapbooking blogs but somehow I never seem to get round to participating. This month, that's about to change.

And that's all folks! It's going to be a scrapbooky month. With any luck :D

[Images from Pinterest or linked blogs]

Kisses xxx

P.S. Actually have about fifteen more potential self-challenges in my head so if this works for me, I can try it periodically. Are there any other kinds of challenges that you love? Are you planing to join me on any of these this month?

P.P.S. Please so. I get lonely.

P.P.P.S. In case you were wondering, I'm making a cliched yet strangely heartbreaking sad face,

P.P.P.P.S. However, it was immediately ruined by excessive smirking.

*True story. My Grandad totally says this is true. He makes things too, but things like radios and model railways.

Marzipan the Page and Challenges

2011-10-07T18:21:00.003+01:00

Following Marzipan the One Act Drama, I finally got around to scrapping it! I feel like I haven't blogged for ages. And when I thought about it, I realised it was because I hadn't blogged for ages. Additional thought led me to consider ways to remedy this and even more thought after that landed me with the idea of doing a blog post.

I'm an ideas person, clearly. It's amazing how intellectual I can be when I try.

As I've already blogged this page story, there's not much else to tell. Except that I love doillys. And I wish I knew how to spell doillys. I also love graph paper. It's like ledger paper for mathematicians. It makes me happy inside.

Anyway, to ensure that the whole no-blogging-and-minimal-crafting thing doesn't happen again for a while, I had another think. I'm really getting the hang of it. And I've come up with this: I am going to set myself some challenges. Ten of them. To have a go at during the month.

So check back soon for ten crafty challenges on the tenth. I've never tried setting myself challenges before and now LSNED has finished, I'm looking forward to grabbing some inspiration whether from colour, photos, sketches, products or journalling. Would be brilliant if you want to play along!

That's all for now, gotta go!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Why have I been absent? A weekend in Newcastle for an awesome housewarming, a crazy weekend on Guide Camp where the first rule of Guide camp is that I can't talk about Guide Camp, tutoring, meetings, Guides, cinema, marking, running (can now do 30 minutes) and figuring how to dry out a soaking wet grass covered inside because it's raining.

P.P.S. It's dry now. Nailed it!

P.P.P.S. I have also discovered the joys of the Big Bang Theory.

One from the archives...

2011-09-26T21:35:00.004+01:00

Hello little blog. I have neglected you. But today I am reminded why you're here.

Do you know I blogged when I was 16? I kept going until I was 18 and university got in the way.

Well, I did. And every so often, I dust off that corner of the internet and have a giggle at myself.

Two reasons: firstly that I was terribly egotistical. I still am, but I suspect I will not appreciate how much I am until I am older when I will still probably be egotistical but will not appreciate it until I am even old than that which is a long way off yet whereas at the moment I am merely amused by my sixteen-year-old self.

The other reason I enjoy this is that I have not changed all that much. I still mainly write about little incidents and anecdotes that happened to me at school. Often in maths lessons with the unwitting Mr S. To whit:

***

I rave about maths. Maths rocks. I love it. I have lots of little problems to puzzle out and several little maths friends to puzzle them out with, who not only enjoy puzzling out but also enjoy talking about how they puzzled them out. So I thought I would share with you all the sort of thing we do. Today, for instance:

Mr S: Can anyone tell me when the third second comes? Simon?

Simon: ...After the second second?

Mr Sharp: That's right

Mr S: You got that puzzle right. Jammy.

Me: *wibble*

Mr S: When it comes to parents evening, I will see half the register and split you down the middle. This is not very good.

[silence]

Mr S: That was a joke.

So you see? Magic.

***

It's nice to know that the Miss Smith of today has these memories from the other side of the teaching tracks. I kind of hope someone is writing a hopeless little blog about me too. In an affectionate sort of way, because, as has been mentioned, I am egotistical.

And most of all, I am going to love scrapping these things one day. It reminds me that, if nothing else, I will always have these little bits of memories to scrapbook and that these little snippets kick of huge waves of nostalgia that I can gleefully revel in as the evenings get shorter.

This is why I scrapbook.

Kisses xxx

P.S. I have been crafting too, but it's been busy to the power of several hundred thousand and two. Plus eleven.

P.P.S. On the bright side, I ran two miles without stopping. Very slowly. But it still counts :D

P.P.P.S. According to the comments on my 16-year-old blog, my friends were disturbed and amused. And fearful, apparently.

I Stitched!

2011-09-20T19:03:00.002+01:00

I learned something new! I machine-sewed on my page. Actually, I sewed on 2, but the other one isn't done yet. I've really been admiring the stitching on pages that I see, especially in the style Marcy Penner does it. If you haven't come across her work, check it out as she designs for October Afternoon and Sassafras, my ultimate favourites :D

Anyway, I've started off small, and just done a few lines to journal on, but I rather like the outcome, especially with a few threads loose at the end.

Thus! Lo! Other Declamatory Phrases! I scrapped the lens baby - finally. I loved the packaging so much as on the box, it said "Congratulations! It's a lens baby!". And when I opened the box, the leaflet peeped out the top with the word "Mama?" in soft cuddly letters. An instant page title was born.

It's of the fisheye variety and I love it because firstly, I can fit whole chunks of London in the frame all at once without cropping bits of Nelson off. Secondly, it's virtually impossible to scalp anyone in a self portrait as the lens sees all. And finally, lovely soft focussy effects. Lush.

So I went with a pic of me, unscalped, and Nelson perched on his column, uncropped. Me and Nelson are like this. *demonstrating that weird crossing fingers thing people do*

Anyway, here's to many more machine stitched and fish eyed pages. Anyone got any good sewing machine tips for pages?

Kisses xxx

P.S. Just want to say a big thank you to everyone who took part in the blog hop. A lollipop for you all! I've come away with so many ideas and so much inspiration and I can't believe how imaginative and crafty and awesome you all are :D

Embellishment Challenge Blog Hop

2011-09-17T10:00:00.002+01:00

Welcome to the blog hop challenge! A few weeks ago, I put out a call; I offered up little handmade embellishments in exchange for a promise. And I've been overwhelmed by the response. So without further ado, I cordially invite to you hop on board!

I sent embellishments zooming (sort of) through the post to far flung places in Britain, Europe and even the USA! And in return, a whole host of wonderful ladies have put them to use in all sorts of fantastic crafting projects. To see their ideas and unashamedly steal their inspiration, you can follow through the list of blogs below.

But first, I'd like to share my projects. I used my own embellishments as features on a couple of pages. I like to scrap with lots of bits and pieces in layers and so the embellishments made a great focus point for me.

This page is all about recent trip to the seaside - I've already blogged my journalling here, and I spread it around the page in little blocks. I've found this to be a really helpful way to journal recently as I can get lots of writing on the page without having to find a big chunk of space to put it in.

The embellishment clipped neatly onto one of the layers and I added a die cut from Sassafras underneath. I used the back of the die cut because the white really made the focus embellishment stand out. And partly because I really didn't like the front. Finally, I added a bit of hand stitching for detail.

My second page is the same process, but I've kept the embellishment a little more subtle. It helps to add detail to the page and balances the design, so that there's an element in both the top right and bottom left of the page.

I also really liked the way the blue in the embellishment matched the tones in the photo. I took this picture of cupcakes at a friends house after a slightly... shall we say interesting?...baking session. But they turned out quite tasty in the end, and we really went for it with the food colouring. Anyway, when I took the picture, the light was really bad and it came out rather bluer than intended. Because the cupcakes were green. But I loved the atmosphere in the picture and really wanted to scrap the memory of the weekend, and I tried to turn the blue to my advantage!

So, that's all from me, but things don't end here. I'm passing you along to Beki's lovely blog What a Load of Scrap for the next project...

If you get derailed from the blog hop at any point because the internet elves won't stick the right picture on your screen when you click on a link, you can find the total list of the blogs below. I really encourage you to have a look at some of the amazing crafting that these talented ladies have to offer!

Kirsty of Journal of Curious Things (you are here!)

Beki of What a Load of Scrap

Louise of Scrapbook Me

Hannah of Young and Crafty

Sonja of The Secret Life of a Scrap Stash Collector

Katy at It's My World

Kirsti of One Mad Moo

Kate of Funky Tales

Joanne of Sugar and Scrap

Julie of J Squared Scrap Spot

Nathalie of An Ounce of Creativity

Nat of Scrap Adventure

Lou of Lou

Alison of Ali T. S.

Becky of Craft Jar

Amanda of All Kinds of Wonderful

Mel of I Speak Melsh

Jennifer of Jennifer's Jumbles

Sian of From High in the Sky

Carrie of A Princess Ponders

Alison of Alison's Life in the Slow Lane

Alexa of Simply Alexa

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. I'm going to alternate between erratically exploring London with camera in tow, and scrapbooking. Lush :D

Kisses xxx

P.S. If all goes well, maybe we'll do the same next time I hit a blogging milestone.

Pop back tomorrow.

2011-09-16T17:45:00.004+01:00

We're having a blog-hop extraordinaire tomorrow, so do pop by for some embellishment action!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Been hit by disaster this week. My form and I are supposed to be putting together our class assembly. But my projector is broken, so no PowerPoint. On the bright side, we can all just about see it on the computer screen if some of the boys climb on the furniture, until the computer stopped working on Thursday morning. I was waxing lyrical to the class:

"So, we will get this assembly together somehow gents, even though there's no projector, and no computer..."

[POWER CUT]

"...and...no....lights????? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!!!!!"

You can't make things like this up.

P.P.S. Check it out! Mug cosy in Beki's shop. *wants* I would be the envy of the staff room.

A few things I've learned this week.

2011-09-14T18:19:00.004+01:00

The masters-binding machine doesn't work like I think it does. Also, it is not called the masters binding machine.

Going to the theatre after work is always worth the effort. London is gorgeous at night.

The plastic tubes were perfect for the Guides. To wallop each other with.

Last Night of the Proms tickets come to those who wait. 10 hours.

Just because running hasn't killed me yet, doesn't mean it won't. But I may as well keep going in the mean time.

Spouting enough Pokemon trivia to appear fluent will win over almost any new class of students. Along with interested questioning about Yu-Gi-Oh (Spelling????)

Comedy with the staple guns is unappreciated by colleagues. Staple gunning without comedy is dull.

And finally, my lesson for today: I can draw a rectangle with three straight lines. This was set by my Year 11s and took me quite a few attempts before I hit on the solution. So, I challenge you to see if you can learn something else today:

Draw a rectangle with three straight lines.

Answers on a postcard!

Kisses xxx

P.S. I'm working on the Couch to 5k running app on my iPod - you listen to a calming Australian lady who tells you when to run and when to walk at various intervals. Every few runs, you have to run a bit more and walk a bit less and, having hit week four, I can tell you that it is HARD.

P.P.S. But I want to beat it :D

Our Third Last Night

2011-09-11T19:56:00.004+01:00

Oooh, long time no blog! But it's been busy. First week back at school with all that entails, having a social with the guiders, which predictably went on all night (on a school night), squishing in a play at the National theatre and then, the crowning glory... The Last Night of the Proms!

There's so much to tell about that night, and it merits a post in its own right (see: the future) but for now, I want to share a few pre-scrapping thoughts.

When going to something like the Last Night, I know I'm going to want to scrap it afterwards. So I make sure I've got the camera stuff I want. In this case, I took the fisheye lens, because I knew I'd want wide angle pictures inside the hall and I know I'd be taking lots of self-portraits of me and the friends. The fisheye has a really wide angle of viewing so I know I can always get everyone in. After all, when you're queueing for ten hours, you may as well make your own entertainment :D

Once I know what camera stuff I'm taking, I can make sure I've got plenty of battery life and memory card space and I know I'm going to get millions of pictures. And maybe a few great ones!

Before any really scrappy stuff starts, I like to get my journalling down, while it's fresh in my mind. I often edit a bit afterwards, but I think it's always best for me when I sit down and type out whatever I happen to be thinking, the sooner the better. I have to type because my handwriting can't keep up with my thoughts.

Next, I go through the pictures, choose the best ones and print. I print at home because that way I can do any size I like. I do love photo strips if there are lots of pictures that are quite similar, and that can be great for scrapping. However, this year, I've got half a dozen or so that I really love and can't bear to shrink down. So I'll print them all at 6x4 and scrap one or two at that size. The rest can go in 6x4 divided page protectors so that I can still enjoy the full-size effect in my album.

When I've got the pictures and I'm good to scrap, it's nice to work out what colours are really going to work. With the last night, we dress up in red white and blue, and it's really easy to pick out and emphasis those colours using patterned paper. This is my page from last year, and I borrowed the union flag motif as well. The grid motif really helped to make the most of the photos; I had just a handful of good ones and the grid made it simple to incorporate them all.

Then I scrap! I often don't have an idea in mind, I just go with the photo and see what works. And what works for me is usually quite a lot of shuffling about bits of paper with the photo and wondering whether I can fit all the journalling in that space or not.

So, with this process in mind, I need to get my favourites printed and set aside some crafty time for this week. Fingers crossed!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Yes, that was us at 1 hour, 24 minutes and 55 seconds on iPlayer in the first half of the Last Night. Finding out if you got on telly is the cherry on top :D

Learn Something New Every Day

2011-09-05T21:15:00.003+01:00

Kisses xxx

P.S. I think more on some of these another time.

P.P.S. Thanks for the lovely comments :D I love storytelling Sunday.

Storytelling Sunday "Marzipan Education": a drama in one scene

2011-09-04T09:52:00.006+01:00

A drama in one scene featuring:

Miss Smith, in normal text.

Year 9s, various, in italics

Stage directions for future productions of this fine work of literature, [in brackets]

***

[October, 2010]

Right gentlemen, put your pens down and look this way. It's time for a little trip to the land of ratio, so everyone hop on board the maths train and we will be calling at proportion on the way....pens down now please.

Good, thankyou. So, let's see what we can remember. Someone give me a context, a topic, anything. Anyone?

Sweets, miss

We always do sweets.

But we like sweets

Alright. But next week, we're going to do starfish or yoghurt or kettles or something. Here's my problem....Sweets are sold in a packet and in the packet, you get reds, yellows, and greens in the ratio 2:3:5. So if I have12 red sweets, how many greens do I have?

Thirty

Hands up!...Yes?

Thirty

Exactly. But how did you know, and don't say because he already said it.

Can I show it on the board?

[I pass him the pen and he does it in giant wobbly numerals across three quarters of the whiteboard.]

Perfect. Even the people at the back of the classroom can read that. The back of the classroom in the far reaches of another continent. Where I am supposed to write now?

[He hands back the pen grinning sheepishly]

Lovely maths though. Fantastic. Anyone got a question? Well remembered gents. What about a different method? Let's take this ratio red, yellow, green in 2:3:5 and find how many reds there are, but with a different way of solving the problem.

[I pick a volunteer and he completes the problem in the remaining small section of the whiteboard. We all look meaningfully at the original volunteer. Still grinning.]

There are also oranges and purples in the bag. What kind of sweets are they?

Skittles

And what can we taste?

The rainbow

Brilliant, so that's fantastic progress in this topic, and it looks like we're all on board. Let's have a look at a slightly more tricky problem...what's your favourite kind of cake?

Fruit cake

You have the whole world of cake related options to pick from and you choose fruitcake? What about chocolate cake, brownies, carrot cake, lemon drizzle, jam roly poly-

That's a pudding, not a cake.

It counts, I'm in charge here. What about triple decker chocolate fudge cake with chocolate icing, sparkly sprinkles and banana cream?

[They wisely refrain from comment]

Fruit cake it is then. OK, so, write this down, have a think about it, and then we'll talk it through.

[I write "A 350g fruitcake requires 250g of marzipan to cover it and make it extra delicious. How much marzipan is needed for a 400g cake?". A hand goes up]

Yes, you can use a calculator.

I wasn't going to ask that.

Sorry. What's the problem?

What's marzipan?

You don't know what marzipan is?

[Other heads pop up from being bent over exercise books]

Me either, miss.

Nope.

What is it?

It's delicious.

Thanks for that, miss.

[I make a face at him]

Everyone put your pens down. Now raise your hand if you know what marzipan is.....No one? No one at all? In 28 of you? Good grief, you're all missing out. And sadly educated, but that's another issue. Marzipan is... well, it's a bit like play-doh in texture and you can make it into shapes and cover cakes with it, and it's usually either yellow or white, and you can eat it and it tastes sweet and like almonds. Because it's made of almonds.

Gross.

No, it's delicious.

Play-doh is not delicious.

Yes, but you aren't supposed to eat play-doh. It doesn't taste good. But marzipan is great!

[Unconvinced faces]

I will PROVE it to you. Like an equation. I will bring you all some marzipan and you can try it and then you will love it. And fruit cake will never be the same again.

[They perk up]

When can we have it?

Um..., maybe Christmas. Or the summer holidays. Now, on with your work, that's quite enough of all this....

***

By picking an unspecified future date that is a long way in the future is a guaranteed way to ensure that students will forget. But this class was special. They were bright, sure, but they had character, and charisma, and other things beginning with cha, and more than that, they remembered things.

About once a week, marzipan would crop up as an in-joke, as a context for an example, as a theory. And at Christmas, they were adamant that I had promised. They needed the proof. I resisted. I am not encouraged to feed the students.

And they kept on remembering and reminding each other and me. Every time we broke up, they requested marzipan. It became a Big Deal.

So I brought them marzipan at the end of the summer term. Hidden away in my bottom desk draw (and accidently discovered by another teacher borrowing the classroom during a cover lesson while looking for a pen). I decided to bake little chocolate buns as at least then if they didn't like the marzipan, they could console themselves with cake.

Obviously, I deadpanned through our last lesson. No, I didn't bring any. Did they have any idea how expensive marzipan was? I'd forgotten anyway. etc. They didn't believe it, but they played along. And so at the end of the lesson, I passed out the little cakes. May contain nuts. In fact, here is a list of ingredients in case you're allergic, and have we all got our epipens? Right-ho.

They quite liked it. Well, they ate it all, some cautiously nibbling the marzipan from the top, weighing their opinion, others swallowing whole, figuring that anything with chocolate can't be all that bad. A slight anti-climax after a whole year, but a contented one. Everyone a little bit fuller and a little bit more educated.

I will miss this class, and hope that there are new and equally entertaining lads in my lessons this year.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Don't worry, I didn't get caught feeding the students as I paid off those who knew about it in cake.

P.P.S. Now you should definitely hop over to Sian's to read her story and find some others :D

Learn Something New: The Beginning

2011-09-01T16:16:00.003+01:00

It's Learn Something New Every Day time again! This year I am going to do a tiny album. Last year, I did 12x12 and tried to move house at the same time. Error. But fun trying! And I managed about 2 weeks solid, a page a day, and then intermittent contributions after that.

This year, I am going smaller. Nope, smaller than that. In fact, I am going....this small:

Two and a half by one. I picked this up a few years ago in Leeds, and I am going to use it to note down my learn-something-news each day. And stick in some index print sized pics. Then scrap the ones that turn into bigger pages once and for all. This totally works for me as a non-minibooker. I never feel like I have enough space in a mini to journal and say everything I want to. If I want to scrap it, I want to do it big! And I like all my pages together. So I think this might be a good compromise.

In between dreaming up LSNED ideas, I am working on my Masters (yuck). On the bright side, there is probably a lesson to be learned there.

I am also remembering my lovely week. I've squished in the London Aquarium, Doctor Who, sleepover and pizza with the friends (hey friends, whats up?), made and posted all the little embellishments, picnicked up London style in Hyde park, and paddled in a fountain. Twice.

And I also went to the South Bank and enjoyed the pretend beach - it's totally cute with sand and beach huts and buckets. Couldn't see any spades though. So I treated myself to an imaginary beach dinner (the beach was imaginary, not the dinner. Imaginary food is slimming but not very filling), sitting outside in the not-quite-cold and watching the world go by while scoffing delicious yummies and reading Lord Peter Wimsey's latest exploits.

Then I went to Foyle's, London's most awesome bookshop and held tightly onto my money with both hands and didn't buy any books. I popped to the iMax - HUGE- to see Harry Potter vanquish Voldemort (yay!) in 3D and went to see Legally Blonde the Musical. Again. Actually, it was my third time. In London. I also went once on Broadway. Ahem. But's it's SO CHEERFUL.

But my favourite thing of all? Hands down, seeing Much Ado About Nothing. David Tennant and Catherine Tate were terrific, the comic timing exquisite, and the whole thing was so slick and perfect. I laughed so hard I could scarcely catch my breath and I am feverishly trying to work out if I can go again. Quite possibly the best night at the theatre I have ever had.

What have I learned? That with a little bit of planning, and a touch of spontaneity, and a working knowledge of how to bypass the closed bits of the Underground, you can fit a lot in in London in 5 days.

I've also learned that I LOVE the summer holidays and I would like some more please. But I knew that already.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Maybe another lesson should be that if I splatter mist onto things over the sink, it doesn't go over my clothes, furniture and flat. Just a thought.

P.P.S. Why has this only occurred to me today? I first bought some mist, like, a year ago?

P.P.P.S. I hate my masters. Hence the eternally long post.

P.P.P.P.S. Still reading? Loser.

P.P.P.P.P.S. Just kidding :D I have to be kidding because I am the kind of person that always reads little unrelated things at the bottom. Or those funny little numbers you get in books that refer to footnotes at the back of the book which reference reference books that you will never read.

P(x6).S. In fact, if I write 15000 words on this post, I could just submit this, and forget the masters. And hope no one reads it.

P(x7).S This is probably unlikely. Shame.

Giveaway - with a twist...

2011-08-31T18:07:00.001+01:00

***This post will stay at the top of the blog until the giveaway closes - scroll down for new posts!***

So, to celebrate my 200th blog post, I thought I'd have a giveaway... but this is a giveaway with a difference.

Last week, I got to work making some embellishments: a little lace, a bit of the old tape measure, a button or butterfly or two, maybe some text paper, a spot of stitching.... and the all important paper clip. And here's what I've come up with:

Each one is slightly different but they all follow a similar design with a scalloped circle and a little tag, combined with snippets of lace or ribbon and an embellishment or two. Each one also features a paper clip. They can be glued to things permanently or you can use the paper clip to simply to clip them to something, and take it off when you've had enough!

The giveaway challenge is this: all you have to do is request an embellishment and I will send one winging its way to you through the post. Then, you need to do something with it, whether that's include it on a scrapbook page, a minibook, a card...even just using it as a bookmark counts! Whatever you do, however you use it, snap a picture or two and get ready to blog it. All being well, I can then set up a bloghop so we can all admire your work! Interested? Just scroll down for the details.

But first, a little inspiration. Not my final project, but a work in progress :D

Below are the nuts and bolts of the thing. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch!

If you want to take part, drop me an email at kirsty dot merran at googlemail dot com. Or leave a comment with your email address if you prefer. Either way, let me know what address you'd like me to post your embellishment to! Make sure you include your country if you're outside the UK!
Wednesday 31st August is the last day for emailing - I hope to get the embellishments made and posted out by the beginning of September.
Assemble a project. It doesn't matter how big or small, but it must include the embellishment somewhere. Absolutely anything goes! Well, apart from throwing it in the recycling.
You have until Friday 16th September to get it ready, snap a picture and put together a blog post ready to publish. I'll email anyone who wants to play along nearer the time and organise the blog hop for Saturday 17th September, and all the posts will go live together.

I really hope you can take part - it doesn't have to take hours. I've never done anything like this before so I'd really love it if lots of people could join in, in any way at all! One of the things I love most about projects like this is seeing the hugely different interpretations people have on the same idea :D

So. Have I whetted your appetite?

Kisses xxx

P.S. If you mention this on your blog, let me know and I'll send an extra embellishment your way! It's a good way to get people involved (I hope :D)

Le Cidre

2011-08-29T21:22:00.002+01:00

On our school trip, we stayed in a fab centre in Normandy with a chateau, doing adventure activities and learning French. Par exemple, je suis une moissoneuse-batteuse. See?

An awesome, proper authentic-looking Frenchman showed us how they brew their own cider au chateau. After a quick look at the antique, enormously heavy apple press, Gerrard (the Frenchman who also goes by Monsieur-le-moustache due to his magnificent set of handlebars) popped a bottle and let the boys taste a couple of fingers of the brew.

He said "Il y a seulement 50%, oui?"

"NON!!"

"Oui, c'etait une blague"

"...Parce-que il y a 80% alcool"*

Actually, it was maybe 2-3% proof and very delicious. Most of the boys didn't like it so I got them to tip their cider into my glass. Win. The whole experience was a bit surreal, but certainly quintessentially (or stereotypically?) French. Merci Gerrard.

And so I made a page about it. Naturellement. Alors, non? etc.

The photo, incidently, is from French disguise night. But the moustache reminded me so much of Gerrard's that I had to stick the photo in. So it's wine in the caraffe, not cider. They were terribly keen on shoving the stuff at us. As I said, surreal on a school trip. Don't worry, we were very sensible. But it was amazing to sit in the glorious sunshine of the evening at a picnic bench, watching the students haring around, dealing with the odd bump or bruise ("You're alright now aren't you? Or maybe you'd better stop playing and lie down...?" "No miss, I'm fine now!") and having a good gossip. With the chateau behind us, rolling green scenery in front and the odd glass of wine, it really didn't seem like work. Good times!

Kisses xxx

*French errors in journalling obviously intentional. I am clearly completely qualified to make up spellings of geniune French dialogue. I have a GCSE and everything.

A trip to the Tower

2011-08-27T16:12:00.002+01:00

I loved the Tower of London! It's incredibly imposing and absolutely creaking under the weight of history. And a bloody history it is, in places. I took a tour with an extremely entertaining yeoman warder (or beefeater) Mitch, who was very cheerful, garbed traditionally, and a very good raconteur, doling out enthralling and gruesome tales spanning the ages in a melifluous Welsh accent. After the tour, he kindly posed for photos. Various family groups trooped up dutifully for their snap, but mine was the only camera-at-arms'-length selfie. This was declared to be very modern. Perhaps they don't get many scrappers at the Tower.

Once the tour had given me my bearings, I trekked up and down lots of the towers, although doing all twenty defeated me. Especially as each one seems to consist of innumerable cramped spiral staircases with uneven steps that catch you out! I went to a demonstration of knights fighting. They wouldn't let me wave a flag - apparently that's for the children - but it livened up my picnic and I cheered dutifully for the red Lancastrian. He won, but I secretly wanted the York knight to win. I took another tour in the white tower, the oldest of all built by William the Conqueror, the highlight of which seemed to be sitting on a king's...er...water closet. And I had an ice cream which wasn't very historical but was quite delicious. The weather was perfect and I patrolled the battlements armed with my camera. I was not obliged to oppress any peasant revolts, sadly. I'll have to practise my peasant-revolt-repressing skills another time. Oh, and I saw the crown jewels. I have to say - tacky. But suitably royal and enjoyable nonetheless.

I've had a busy week since then - my family popped down for a visit which was lovely, and today I took a trip to the London Aquarium. Oh, and you'll be pleased to hear I spent last night making embellishments!

That's all for now - friends coming around tonight for Doctor Who. Geeky excitement win!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Just to let those of you who've emailed me about the embellishments, I haven't forgotten you! I'm so happy that you want to take part in the Giveaway Challenge (still open if you want to join in!) and I'll be emailing you before long to let you know I've put your embellishments in the post.

Les Escargots, s'il vous plait

2011-08-22T13:16:00.002+01:00

I think I've kind of wanted to try snails in my head but never actually made an effort to eat them before because, let's face it, they're snails. It's one thing to want to have had them and quite another to actually want to nibble on a slug with a caravan. Ew. Anyway, they turned up at the French evening as a "Suprise" course. The shells were very pretty. There was a blind taste test first with an unwitting volunteer from among the boys. His face went through a series of fantastic contortions behind his blindfold before he grinned around at his audience, totally hamming it up, and gave everyone a thumbs up. The applause was spontaneous, and we started dishing out the snails to the rest. It turns out with snails that there's not much to dislike. The taste a bit like gravel but with garlic. Not much to like either if I'm honest. The most fun was getting the boys to eat them, be it through motivational pep-talks, chanting "EAT IT!" or via the medium of some, frankly unpleasant, threats. Fabcakes.

One of my colleagues was kind enough to snap this series of pictures of my own snailey experience. To embellish, I used a little envelope and scattered butterflies and sticky pearl around the page, tumbling from it. It's a great effect that I'd definitely use again.

And the background sheet? It's by Sassafras from their starters line and is my new favourite paper ever :D

Kisses xxx

P.S. A week left to sign up for the giveaway challenge!

Dissertation Day

2011-08-18T18:37:00.003+01:00

I have I love-hate relationship with my Masters, but without the love part. So I made a bargain with myself. I would work on it and in return I would make a page out of pretty things. I'm 15000 words plus a few in, I never want to venture into academia again even if it is free and I'm going through and editing and improving now. It's dull work.

I didn't have a picture. I took a few but they looked contrived. Probably because they were contrived. So in the end, I settled for no picture. I journalled about the good and the bad. The good being it was free as a cunning government initiative to raise the qualifications of teachers, I only had to do 2 years instead of 3 due to masters credits earned during the PGCE, and I bonded with my colleagues doing the course about how much we hate the masters. I suppose on the good list would also be how much I enjoy ranting about the masters. There's nothing like a good rant, I always say.

The bad is basically that I had to do the masters. As a pilot programme it has turned out to be full of holes and seems to me to be little more than a hoop-jumping exercise. Sadly.

But back to the good: it's due at the beginning of September and then I never have to think about it again.

In the mean time I was consoled by my October Afternoon 5 & Dime Miscellany. It's the most wonderful collection of vintage-style die cuts, book plates, chipboard, ribbon and the most beautiful vintage buttons. It's like getting a little bit of each of the coordinating embellishments for the line without having to buy the whole pack. Lots of the stuff on this page is from the Miscellany.

Oh, and I got in the obligatory paper clip, which is becoming something of a staple on my pages now. (Stationary pun anyone? Six bonus points if you got it before you read the bracket)

Day out tomorrow: the Tower of London awaits. I hope it stops raining.

Hope you're all having a wonderful summer!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Thanks so much to those who've said they'll take part in the Giveaway Challenge, I was really touched! I'm totally looking forward to it and I'll be in contact this weekend, just to confirm. If you haven't signed up and want to join in (which I'd love :D) then check out the Giveaway post here!

P.P.S. Planning to do the making next week as I get an idea of numbers and then post the first batch at the end of next week. You've got until the end of the month to join in if you want to!

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

2011-08-14T17:19:00.000+01:00

For the past three weeks I have been here there and everywhere which has meant scheduled blog posts and little to no chance to read up on anyone else's stuff. I hope you've all been behaving yourselves, but Google reader informs me that you've been busy blogging about it at any rate. So my apologies (and thanks for your lovely comments :D)

This post is an attempt to recount recent adventures in Whitby. Never mind writing the journalling first, I'm writing the blogpost first. And then I can sort all my photos, pair them up with the relevant paragraphs and go to town. Thanks go to Sian and Sandra for the idea...

So, the family and I tootled on over to this lovely seaside town partly to spend a cheerful day by the sea but mainly to eat fish and chips. Or that is how certain of us viewed the prospect.

Everyone knows they don't make proper fish and chips in the south. They just can't. But they do it rather nicely at Whitby. Very nicely indeed. So having found our clifftop parking space, we descended into the town and the first thing that strikes you is the delicious aroma of freshly cooked fish and chips. It being lunchtime, we hit up our usual haunt and tucked in. Yummy!

The seagulls cheerfully attack the tourists as well. I maintain they wouldn't if the chips weren't really good. QED. Plus this on eyed my camera in a particularly malevolent fashion.

We explored the town and made the obligatory trek up and down the 199 steps to the abbey and back again. And then it was time to take tea, naturally, although I intend to devote a whole post to that another time...

Post cuppa, we climbed back up the cliffs in order to play crazy golf. I, obviously, trounced everyone except Dad. The only explanation must be that he cheated.

Rivalries put aside for the present, we sauntered down the cliffs again, beachward, singing "I have often walked down this street before" from My Fair Lady at the top of our lungs. No particular reason, but it had been going round in somebody's head all day and things like that are catching, so snatches of tune and hastily patched-together words could be heard drifting along in our wake all afternoon. On the cliffs, no one can hear you sing as the wind carries your voice away. And words like "Oh, the towering feeling!" suddenly take on a new significance.

Reaching the brightly coloured beach huts, we quietened down and gradually headed back along the beach into town. The sun reflected off the damp sand, the pier arced gracefully out to sea, lively waves tumbled and crashed, and spray lent a hazy edge to the scenery. It was lovely photography practice.

(We debated having chips for tea too but didn't in the end. Probably good for us. Still, it's always nice to leave things to be accomplished in the future)

And then it was time to go home...

Kisses xxx

P.S. This was my 200th post. Cool beans and fabcakes! I think this means it's time for a giveaway-bloghop-challenge. Check back soon to find out more!

Glamping

2011-08-11T18:03:00.000+01:00

Oooh, the Great British weather! It takes a special kind of damp little island to make people think that sleeping out in the rain is a good idea. There's a lovely sort of community feeling on a campsite in the rain. The one at Hay-on-Wye lit fest is the same.

I think one of my favourite moments was getting up one morning, donning the waterproofs and joining the cluster of silent folks gathered around a trough, avoiding eye contact, to clean our teeth and getting rained on by the extremely traditional weather. If you looked in the dictionary under stoic, it would look like this.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Lots of new lovely October Afternoon Boarding Pass for me! This line makes me want to go on holiday!

P.P.S. It also makes me want to go on holiday as an aristocrat from the 50s.

Me at 24

2011-08-08T17:54:00.000+01:00

This has been some time in coming really, as it's a while since I turned 24. But I wanted to record a few of the things I love most at 24. I did this when I was 23 as well, and some things have stayed the same - I'm still quite fond of my family and friends, for instance.

I still scrapbook a bit (ha!) and still love tea, mac and cheese and London, baby. So in many ways I've not changed that much. But I am into my second year of teaching with my own form, I have my own flat, I'm working on my Guide Leadership training and I have a car. In short, I think I might be a grown up.

Cool.

Kisses xxx

P.S. You can find last year's here!

Organisational Obstacles

2011-08-05T21:35:00.002+01:00

When I get together with friends, we tend to beat about the bush a bit. Where and when and what order, who can meet up with whom where and which direction will they be coming from. This is often debated in a series of emails and inevitably someone (me, a lot) forgets to hit reply all and ends up suggesting a plan for the morning to someone who can only come in the afternoon.

When all this to-ing and fro-ing has taken place, we roll our eyes and agree to play it by ear. As long as we get to hang out, and tea is involved, and I get my obligatory self-timed photo, the rest isn't all that important. If we make it to the museum, great. If we never find the dinosaurs, we'll watch the ducks instead. Not free this morning? Ring us this afternoon and we'll let you know where we are.

And you know what? We do this every time.

Kisses xxx

P.S. I hate when I write a post here and I like the words better than the ones on my page. I resolve to change this. Still working on it :D

You'd better go in disguise...

2011-08-03T18:59:00.002+01:00

I had the most amAAAAzing time in France (according to Mum, this is what I say about everything, but I maintain that this is merely attributable to my positive, sunny, delightful personality and the fact that I am a sheer delight).

The boys behaved, mostly, I behaved, or at least, I was no worse than the boys and I took loads of pictures. Some of my favourites were from the Deguisement evening we had. Everyone dressed up French-style and I got some fantastic pictures that I was simply itching to scrap.

These pics are the staff but I shall put others in some 4x6 divided page protectors - too good to pass up but obviously I can't put pictures of the kids up here. Even if they are disguised behind their liquid eyeliner mustaches and goatees.

I love this background paper - made for journalling fans! - and I recorded a few of the moments behind the photos. I went for a rather Parisienne chic look, but managed to get red lippy on my teeth which is definitely not that sophisticated. Thanks to the colleagues who pointed it out ;) One of my fellow teachers wore a top that she'd actually bought in France and claimed to be more French than anyone. Once we added the obligatory beret and neckscarf, she looked positively revolutionary. Perhaps borrowing berets from the Cadets wasn't the best idea. One went all out with a fantastic mustache and (plastic) garlic and then found a little mini-me and one staff member confessed to being embarassed when out shopping for French gear because people looked at him strangely as he was trying on three slightly-different horizontally stripy shirts. I promised to delete the pictures I took as he thought he looked to camp. Ooops.

And then we all took it in turns to wear the mustache. I think we all successfully avoided the French cliche. Alors, non?

See? AmAAAAAAzing time!

Kisses xxx

P.S. I LOVE the summer holidays! What could be better than having time to take millions of pictures and then scrap them all?

25 Before 25...Update!

2011-07-31T19:24:00.000+01:00

Just after my 24th birthday, I made a list. 25 things I wanted to accomplish before I'm 25. I love lists. There are all sorts of reasons and delights that are encompassed in the love I have for lists, but one of the top ones is that satisfied feeling of crossing something off. A job well done, if you will.

So first of all, I made a page about the experience....

And this is the updated list....

Completed:

5) Have a London scrappy event.

6) Go to the globe.

13) *Secret*

16) Find a place to get chipotle chillies and cook with them.

18) Go camping.

19) Put together my Guiding camp blanket.

20) Finish my unfinished knitted jumper!

24) Branch out and try a new mac and cheese recipe.

Work in progress:

1) Take every opportunity to travel.

4) Improve my Spanish.

12) *Secret*

7) Write down my school-year anecdotes.

15) *Secret*

23) *Secret*

Things yet to achieve:

2) Learn to crochet granny squares.

3) Take a photography course.

8) Frame and display a mosaic of photos on my wall.

9) Go for a really posh afternoon tea.

10) Make a brightly coloured layer cake.

11) Organise my photos.

14) Get all my pages into albums properly!

17) Make a crazy union flag skirt for the last night of the proms.

21) Get to grips with the sewing machine.

22) See the Nutcracker at Christmas.

25) Go on a patchwork workshop.

I think this is pretty good going for four months in :D

Kisses xxx

P.S. I realised that when I wrote the original list, I included "Organise my photos" twice. Clearly this desperately needs to be done :D So I changed one of them to learning how to patchwork. Mum, I'm going to need your help on this one!

P.S. I'm using this page as a project for Shimelle's class 'Explore'. It's nice to document these things and even nicer when you have October Afternoon vintage map paper to play with.

Traditionally BBQ-ing in the rain.

2011-07-24T07:20:00.000+01:00

So, at Maja's birthday party, which is in the summer, we barbecued. It's what you do if you're British and therefore in possession of an endearingly misguided belief that the weather might hold. It rained. Clearly. Actually, it didn't do much, but the token gesture enabled me to make this page.

"The weather just about held for Maja's birthday BBQ which is not very in keeping with the expected traditional downpour. A little spattering is a mere trifle. And Connie proved to one and all that you do not need a man to BBQ, even though Maja foolishly requested manly assistance. Win! (Unfortunately when Connie volunteered to be the many assistance, Robert assumed she was bringing Tim. Error.)"

I went with some wonderful Sassafras for this page. I recently ordered LOADS of their Starters line from 2peas and I LOVE it. It's subtle enough to be background, decorated enough to count, texty enough to be cool.... What's not to LOVE? I also picked up what I could of the Sunshine Broadcast line and some of the Sweetly Smitten but lots was sold out. Sad face.

Anyway, since I was breaking out the Sassafras love, I thought I'd take up the challenge of scrapping a summer tradition. So consider it done!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Hit the National Gallery for Renaissance Alter pieces, St Martin-in-the-Fields Crypt for a cuppa, the National Gallery cafe for another cuppa, Soho for a wander around and Chinatown for dinner. There's nothing like a good London day with friends - and now I can have a whole summer of them:D

P.P.S. Look!!! Fisheye!!!! Let's just say it's a little treat for the summer. I took so many pictures around London with it today, the city won't know what's hit it. But I can fit so much of the capital in at once. Plus, it's impossible to miss with a self portrait....

P.P.P.S. Expect to read MUCH more about my lovely Fisheye lens next week. This week, off to France on a school trip. Back soon :D

Going Postal: Postcards from Guide Camp (3)

2011-07-22T18:14:00.006+01:00

The bottom of this pair of postcards is the last one in the series of Postcards from Guide Camp. Although I may make others in the future as I took hundreds of photos. I wanted to mention this particular Guiding routine: getting the welly sticks up. The Guides found it quite tricky to get their tents up. They were lightweight and roomy but you need quite a lot of strength to get them up. So even though they couldn't manage that, they could hammer two sticks each into the ground outside the front door. Voila! Prop your wellies upside down on them and you can grab them first thing in the morning when you're wading through the dewey grass in search of breakfast.

After checking inside for spiders.

If you want to check out some of the others in close up, you can see Part 1 and Part 2. But here's the full set!

You can check out Julie Kirk's lovely blog Notes on Paper for more Post-themed projects and inspiration. I just love this as a topic, and would totally recommend the Going Postal series. There's something so scrapbookey and vintagey and romantic about the post!

Kisses xxx

P.S. School's out! Bring on the adventures!

Going Postal: Postcards from Guide Camp (2)

2011-07-20T17:00:00.000+01:00

Another couple of memories-on-a-postcard in my collection of Postcards from Guide Camp. The top one describes how we made s'mores...

"For Guides: 2 digestive biscuits, 3 marshmallows, 5 chocolate buttons. Leader special: 3 digestive biscuits, marshmallows and chocolate: unlimited. Leave in campfire embers wrapped in foil until gooey".

The second is about my favourite time at camp...in the dark. For Guides, that means running around in the woods with torches, shrieking as people jump out at you and looking for the reflective silver stars we hid earlier. It means huddling around a campfire in camp blankets, singing silly songs, toasting marshmallows and drinking hot chocolate. Perfect.

(It also means explaining that there really aren't any flying red ants and that the reason the moths are fluttering against the tent is because they won't turn off their torches...but that's another story for another postcard.)

I stuck more to the traditional postcard form here, highlighting key works in mini alphas. That October Afternoon Rocket Age paper was perfect! And it was a fun picture to take, using the bulb setting on my camera while the Guides waved their torches. When I projected this photo on a screen at Guides last week, it was quite surreal to hear the girls squeal, "Oooh, that's me!". Some of the other girls were a bit non-plussed...

Kisses xxx

P.S. Off to see Harry Potter tonight. Fabcakes! Have stocked up on Lime Flavour Dorritos especially.

P.P.S. This is another post in the Going Postal Series. Hop over to Julie Kirk's blog to see some more inspiration and visit the Pinterest Board for lots of postal themed lovlies :D

Going Postal: Postcards from Guide Camp (1)

2011-07-18T18:58:00.003+01:00

Going away on Guide Camp, even for a weekend gave me so many little snippets of stories and lovely memories and collapse-able giggles that it felt a bit overwhelming to write about it all. So I hit upon this idea. I call it Postcards from Guide Camp.

These are the first 2 of 5, although I reserve the right to add to my collection as and when I feel like it. Each one is made from one 6x4 photo with a few embellishments and then a 6x4 piece of patterned paper or cardstock which I turned into the back of the postcard. Beyond keeping the general shape of a postcard, ie, marking out a writing side, an address side, and including a postage stamp made of embellishments, I did each postcard slightly differently.

The first one explains our camp routine...

"And the weekend went pretty much like this: tents up, food, cake, run around like loons, bed, talking, giggling, get up, breakfast, fetch wood/water, second breakfast (cooked), jobs, cake, run around like loons, lunch, cake, run around in the woods, cake, jobs, dinner, cake, run around in the dark, campfire, marshmallows, bed, giggle, shriek, get up, breakfast, fetch wood/water, second breakfast (cooked), tents down, run around like loons, cake, jobs, lunch, cake, get badges, go home. So you see, the cake is necessary or the running around wouldn't happen"

The second describes a few of the camp duties the girls had to do to get their camping badge, as well as to ensure that there's enough firewood and water for everyone! In the gaps, we all mucked about, obviously.

I've got a few more postcards to share this week. I've really enjoyed making them and I will put them in divided page protectors. I'm not going to stick them back to back however: I like being able to see the back and the front at the same time. Massive design flaw with normal postcards. But mainly, I love that it's a great way to capture memories. I'll definitely be doing this again!

Kisses xxx

P.P.S. Only one more week until the summer holidays!

P.P.S. Hop over to Julie Kirk's blog Notes on Paper if you want to see some more lush post-themed projects!

A Few Scrapbooking Secrets

2011-07-16T15:07:00.003+01:00

A couple of days ago I saw this post on Abi's blog (which is lovely and you should totally check out, by the way) about her scrapbooking secrets. So on a similar theme, I bring you a few of my scrapbooking secrets...

I find it had to use plain backgrounds. All seems good until I've finished a page and then I have a vague, undefined, it's-not-quite-finished feeling. I never think this about other people's pages so I don't know why I think it, but I prefer to steer clear. Although I am experimenting a bit with mist and paint and ink.

The same does not apply to kraft cardstock.

I LOVE ledger. I just got a 2peas order jam packed full of ledger paper. You get lines for a journalling, a little bit of background detail and often a touch of the old vintage-distressy look. The one in the background in this page is my favourite ever, by the Girls' Paperie.

Give me vintagey-off-white over white any day.

I can't do tape runners. I would love to and I marvel at Shimelle tape-runnering away at speed in her vidoes but when I use them, they work for half an inch, then the tape pings off, slides up inside the runner and sticks to the inside. The next ten minutes are spent levering the thing apart, un-gummying it, working out how the pieces are put together and getting another meagre quarter of an inch of sticky before the process begins again. So double sided tape all the way for me.

I thought the butterfly thing was weird for ages. I couldn't work out what butterflies had to do with anything. One day I changed my mind for no reason and love little butterfly accents with the Martha Stewart 3-in-one butterfly punch.

I love watching Shimelle's videos. Why is it so relaxing to watch someone else craft?

I don't do minibooks. I don't like that they won't be with the rest of my pages and there's not enough room for my journalling.

This does not apply to putting smaller pages in divided page protectors.

Even when I journal like this, I always end up having to cut down and edit my writing. Apparently I don't believe in using 1 word when 284 will suffice, and it's often very hard to squash them in the space I leave. But despite that, I love that the journalling is there and I am loathe to change my habits. Tough.

I don't have any big machines or tools. I don't really see the point, so beyond the odd notebook-edge punch, I don't buy them. (I love the notebook edge punch!)

I drink tea while I scrap constantly, but rarely notice myself drinking it and keep on doing that thing where you slurp from the cup while looking at something else only to find that, somehow, it has emptied itself. A brief ransacking of memory reveals nothing and there are never any suspiciously tea-shaped puddles in the vicinity so I must drink it. Go figure.

I've a DVD box set fiend and like to watch an episode or two of something while I craft. That could be the West Wing, Gilmore Girls, Doctor Who, Friends, House, Doctor Who...as long as I've seen it before and can keep half an eye on the characters, ensuring they all say their lines in the right order and so on. If it's new, I get too involved and can't concentrate on crafting.

As with the ledger paper, there are some scrapbooking products I would not wish to forgo. They include anything by October Afternoon, ditto Sassfras, Thickers, Walnut distress ink and sponge-on-a-stick ink thing (what are they really called?) and patterned paper. YUM.

The one product I really wish for? A perfect journalling pen. I'm still looking.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Thanks go to Abi for this idea and I highly recommend you give this kind of post a go! A little challenge for the weekend if you like...

P.P.S. Totally leave me a link if you do - I'm massively nosey about this :D

P.P.P.S. Who's doing Shimelle's new class Explore? I'm totally excited to start on Monday!

Seven Summer Scenes

2011-07-12T19:28:00.004+01:00

...And the Birthday Girl herself! Happy Birthday Maja, hope you have a wonderful day and I had a wonderful weekend :D

Kisses xxx

P.S. Baking caramel shortbread tonight as we're having a staff cake morning (there may also be coffee and stuff too but that didn't really register). Therefore the logical thing to do is not cook tea as well but order pizza and read in the gaps.

The Breakfast Club

2011-07-11T20:04:00.004+01:00

The Breakfast Club is a fabulous cafe in Shore Ditch. They have a couple of others as well, but this is the one we visited. As we queued for a table, a sure sign of a great joint, I spied a tub of badges propped on the shabby-chic piano entwined with twinkly lights. It's that kind of place, where the ambiance seems to make your food taste even better if that were possible. Anyway, it turned out the badges were free so I snagged a few to adorn the now-inevitable scrapbook page...

"First of all, the food at the Breakfast Club is delicious. Apple and cinnamon French toast? Oh yes... But it's also some of the best people watching I've had in a while. The place was packed out with ultra-trendy, achingly cool Shore Ditch types in shabby-chic vintagey clothes. And the atmosphere of a mismatched sixties punk diner just soaks into everything. Except the French toast which is soaked in lashings of maple syrup."

If you live in London, go there. If you don't live in London, come to London and then follow step one.

I made this page for the UKScrappers Scrap Factor Contest, from which I am now, alas, knocked out. Allow we a wallowy, self-indulgent "Noooooo!!!!" and then I can move on and say that it has been brilliant fun tackling the challenges each week. The best of luck to the last three and massive thanks to everyone who voted for me. You're the best :D

And the busy continues, so here I must sign off. I have been a terrifically fickle blogger but I intend to return to it with renewed vigour (and lots to blog about) forthwith!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Just want to say that the word vintage was gratuitous when I was talking about the tent here. That's the kind of tent I camped in when I was a Guide too. And the reason we hadn't done the sides was that it was six thirty in the morning. Just testing the camera, getting the wood and water and waiting for the girls to appear so they could do it for us :D

Pages and Pictures

2011-07-06T21:10:00.005+01:00

My scrapbook page for the knockout in Scrap Factor over at UKScrappers. Story found here!

Campingtastic! I ran a little photo booth which caused me to run around after Guides all weekend with my camera and then spend the evenings getting them to pick their four favourites before printing them on my little 4x6 photo printer. I printed them in strips of 4, photo-booth-stylee and flogged them for 50p. It went down rather well, if I say so myself.

Vintage tent. Very old-skool.

Photo fun. Guides, it turns out, are inexhaustible posers.

Fire=dinner.

Smores = YUM.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Parents evening tomorrow, school concert last night. Just when, exactly, will the holiday begin?

Occasional Day

2011-07-04T21:46:00.003+01:00

We had a random inset day at school today so no going into work for me. Hurrah! Good thing too as I was EXHAUSTED after my weekend camping and slept for about 12 hours. But I had an amazing time, took almost 500 pictures and am getting ready to start scrapping!

And speaking of scrapping, I want to share my Scrap Factor page from UKScrappers for last week. Competition is really tough now with fab pages popping up every week. I was in the bottom two (gulp!) but made it through the knockout round (sigh of relief).

Last week's challenge was to take an old page an re-scrap it in your current style. I really loved the idea behind this challenge and I like my new page much better than the old one.

So here it is old-stylee...

This is one of the first pictures I ever scrapped. Actually, I think it was my second ever layout. I used to do all doubles (at some point I switched from doing almost all doubles to almost all singles) and I had put all the photos I could find from several river expeditions all on the same page. I thought I was supposed to and couldn't bear the idea of leaving some out!

I never quite finished it - the strip down the right was meant for journalling, but I was really pleased with the triple matting and layering I did for EVERY photo to match the three colours of stripes in the patterned paper. I hand cut my title because I thought letter stickers were overpriced and I extravagantly tilted one photo onto the diagonal.

Anyway, here's the newbie!

My new page uses just the main photo and I kept the same title, but all else has changed. I'm really pleased that I finally did the journalling as that's really important to me, and I can include any other pictures I want in the album in a divided page protector without feeling that I need to cram them onto the page.

Journalling reads:

"Navigation on the river is virtually aimless beyond a vague desire to float past the Flete flouting our study-free state. Or to find that bit of the river that requires you to get out of the punt, push it up rollers over the bank and then ride it gleefully down to the pool on the other side. It's important to snap Sound-of-Music style photos and to eat cherries. If there are no cherries, there's no cherry-stone spitting contest to see who can hit the bank from the punt. Strawberries are worthless in this context. On a particularly well-planned expedition, we could pick up Ching and a second punt just down the river at Hilda's. Time can then be carefully divided between catcalling the other punt's crashes and extricating oneself from trees and reeds. And we can play pirates, which involves the boarding and comandeering on the other vessel in order to gain possession of the all-important biscuit tin."

Kisses xxx

P.S. Have been bitten by the camping bug an can't wait to go again! I heart Guides! But now bed and a little bit of Paperclipping Roundtable I think...

P.P.S. Thank you so much if you voted for me - I'm loving taking part in Scrap Factor and really appreciate it!