Highlights from rowing camp

Hi all

Well I am back after an amazing ten days in sunny hot France. In typical fashion I took hundreds of pictures so have just included some of my favourites here...

wash from the speedboats, a lovely symmetrical line of moored boats, cooling those feet off and rowing, the main point of the ten days!

The big room in the boathouse where we worked and eat; yes revision did happen! oh look the boat picture again..oops!, an amazing wall in the way into town, a lovely tree lined avenue.

One big cathedral, crazy rides at the fair which I felt sick just looking at! A HUGE candy floss-this wasn't the biggest size! The castle which in my opinion looks like a disney one!

It was a great ten days. lots of rowing, lots of shouting for me (I am a cox), plenty of work and a nice time to relax and get a tan!

Back to school this evening...booh!

Hope you have all had a fab week, what have you been up to?

Loves xxx

row your boat.

Hi

Just a brief note to say that over the next ten days I will be spending a lot of time doing this in Sunny France.

Rowing camp is a great chance to get away as there are no phones, internet or tv's. I will therefore bid goodbye to blog land for the next week and a bit. Have a great few days!

loves xxxx

Sketch challenge for Sarah's cards.

Hi

I want to share a Layout today that I have been making the last few days in stolen moments from revision!
I followed the sketch on Sarah's cards blog which can be found here.

I don't tend to use circles a lot in my pages so it was great for me to move out of my comfort zone. I flipped the sketch 90 degrees clockwise and worked from there. I started making the Layout with just a circle base but after finishing I found it needed a bit more depth to stop it looking crowded so I stuck it on a sheet of Kraft.

 I have been meaning to make a page about blogging for so long and needed the perfect picture before I started. My old Blog header was perfect and had such deep colours so it was fun to pair it with these pale colours.

I tried to include aspects of my blogging in the elements of the page. therefore like my background i focused on it being shabby chic. I put buttons in there to emphasise the love of sewing, the stacked up paper for lots of ideas. Letters to emphaise all that typing and paint for a tad of mess! A few butterflies crept in there as well! Oh, and top tip, to make lovely glossy embellishments, coat them in nail varnish (I used a light bronze on the butterflies) Works a treat!

Thanks for stopping by

Loves xxxx

Dear Abi

Dear me of  nearly a year ago. Regarding this post

Stop stressing. I know exams are just around the corner but they come and they go and the world will keep turning. I promise.

Trust me in a years time there will be more exams, oh and a word of warning. Work for that history exam because trust me it is paying off now having only two subjects to revise for.

From experience as well, don't wake up so early to finish an essay. yep, it needs to be done but sleep is just as important. You will feel that early morning for the rest of the week. Sunday is your chance to lie in so use it! In a years time you will have far more on your plate than you do now so make sure you get your "down time". If you don't know what I am on about have a chat with the boy who is a master of it.

The RS will be fine and you are right to keep practicing, it pays off, trust me.

Keep going on the those pictures. They are lush. The video for photography turns out great. Try it in black and white- will save a bit of time!

Oh, and those prefect interviews, keep cool. It works out great ;)

A few lessons for the coming year...
you will get to the middle of september and life will come on top of you faster than you can keep it going. Breathe, count to ten and don't stress over the little things.

Take time for the boy and don't worry if you can't see each other. He is still thinking about you despite the fact you delude yourself into thinking he isn't.

Your blog will get periodically blocked by the school most of lent term. Don't scream or cry despite wanting to. Vent to the boy by all means and utilise friends who have computers at home! It will get unblocked eventually.

Biggest lesson you will learn this year though is to RELAX. hence why during Easter in 2011 you will get up to this...

 this.

This

and this..

and yep, it is April and yeah you are in shorts! Incredible!

Love your older (not so much wiser) self. xxx

Thanks for stopping by. Can't wait to read this post a year on!

A Patchwork in numbers

3 different materials

49 handcut squares

each one 5x5 inches

40 ish pins

2 cotton reels

6 days start to finish

1 piece of batting

4 border strips sewn together

1 old sheet used for the backing- genius!

3 bobbins of cotton used up.

2 different tutorials combined. Found here and here.

1 major calamity regarding a border and uncooperative corners!

1 understanding mother who fixed said calamity.

3 very pin-pricked fingers.

2 (ish) hours hand sewing the back of the border

10.30 pm, 1 finished, slightly wonky, nice and soft, colourful quilt

and...one very chuffed girl who has plans (much to her mothers constination) to make one to fit her whole bed. Watch this space!

Thanks for stopping by

Loves xxxx

Right this moment.

I am..

Loving the sunshine that I woke up to this morning.

enjoying the temperature rise

amazed that the blossom I photographed a few days ago is now nearly gone.

loathing being stuck inside revising when I would love to be outside enjoying the unexpected weather.

benefiting from ten minute bounces on the trampoline in revision breaks.

laughing a the state of the table after three children decide to work there.

expectant for a parcel of sewing things to arrive in the post. Which it has just done! Miracle!

pondering when the flip flops will break out (worn with jeans obviously!)

experimenting with a bracelet tutorial online- more to come on that.

stuck on a scrapbook page.

jealous of our cat!

Thanking you for stopping by! xxxxxx

The story of the audio tapes

Hi, Today I am joining in with Sian's storytelling Sunday. For the observant of you, it is now monday but I love stories and this was too good an oppertunity to miss, Hope that is ok Sian?!

When we were very young, to while away a long journey in the car we would listen to audio tapes. This was back in the days when CD's were new and hip and an i-pod hadn't even been thought of. Story books are big in our household. Bed time reading was a ritual that happened without fail after baths in the evening. It was only natural then that our favourite tapes in the car were stories.

We all had our favourites. Maximus the church mouse was high up on the list as was Tintin when we got slightly older. My favourites were Anne of Green Gables and The Railway Children but naturally these were not often listened to in the car with two younger brothers!

The Story that we all loved most though was Winnie the Pooh. I hasten to add that this wasn't the disney version. This was the original text by AA Milne and read by Alen Bennett. The stories in their sweetest most simple form with brilliant voices for all the characters. Our all time favourite part of the audio tape though was when Piglet believes he has caught a heffalump in the trap he and pooh makes. His squeals of alarm had my brothers and I howling with laughter for minutes.The tape was played so many times that we could often recite large sections.

The story of the audio tapes doesn't end there.

I still have the tape in my room and every now and again put it on.

Winnie the Pooh is an icon in our household and it is normal for a family member to enter a room and cry "hello everybody" in a very good impression of tigger.

The story of Winnie the Pooh is one that traced through my childhood and one that still makes me smile!

"Owl," said Pooh. "I've thought of something."

"Astute and Helpful Bear," said Owl.

Pooh looked proud at being called a stout and helpful bear, and said modestly that he had just happened to think of it.

The House at Pooh Corner

"I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me."

 

Thanks for stopping by xxx

Mothers Day and Patchwork progress

Hi

Today we had a really lovely time celebrating Mummy's! the boys and I treated her to a new necklace, a card and then we headed to church where we gave her a flower! Such a nice day in my opinion!

I made the card with my favourite October afternoon papers and love the way it turned out. I am really into "clashing" colours at the moment like pink, orange and red. Don't you just love the little girl and boys!

Yesterday I started on the patchwork. The cutting the pieces has to be the most boring thing but hey! I figured the neater I was here, the easier it would be later! I then took over half the lounge lying the pieces out...

I used squares that were 5x5 inches. It is a square patchwork with alternating colours to my design. I juggled the pieces around and found I was most happy with them in a square 7 squares by 7.

I then started sewing them in pairs and then in rows. At this stage the youngest brother belived I was making a, in his words "foot blanket"! So that is now what my patchwork quilt is being called! ha ha!

After I had pieced the patchwork in rows I started pressing the seams. Necessary but oh so boring! 

The next bit was so exciting: joining the rows together! I am pleased with how it has come out. There are perhaps a few wonky seams but it looks neat and at the end of the day it will just be thrown on the bed for myself.  

I am now waiting for the wadding to arrive in the post and the binding fabric. This will be the fiddly bit but it is a learning curve and I am enjoying it. I am glad I started on a small patchwork, anything bigger would have been quite daunting!

What have you been up to this weekend? Thanks for stopping by

Loves xxxx

Walks among the blossom

Hi all

Home at last! So far, I have made and started eating an awesome coffee and walnut cake, made a mothers day card that I will share soon and started a revision timetable. Productive I'd say!

We have this lovely tree in the back garden that comes out in the most beautiful blossom at this time of year. Naturally I was out with my 50mm lens snapping some depth of field shots. they turned out well and after a bit of playing around they are some of my favourites...

But...I have a dilemma. I like them so much that I have made two possible blog headers! One (the feet) is at the top of the blog and the other is here. Which one do I pick??? I really have no preference so would love it if you could give your opinions!

Thanks for stopping by

Loves xxx