Back in the saddle

Feels like ages since I've designed a class so it's good to be working the grey matter again and putting together a class for our crop retreat at Eastbourne.

Thought I'd whet your appetite and give you a sneak peek of a few of the items I'll be using . This isn't a definitive snap of everything but just a smattering of some of the detail ... wouldn't want to give too much away now would I ?

Talking of saddles , just brushing up the finishing touches to my outfit for the 'Wild West" Saturday night . If anyone has a pair of leather chaps they could lend ?

Another Year ...

... as the title of my blog proclaims ... yet another year has bitten the dust . I said goodbye to my 53rd year yesterday and waved my 54th year over the threshold.

Hmmm .... 54 - not a bad number I suppose and being a mathematician made me think up the following :

2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10 = 54

There are 54 cards in a pack of playing cards ( including the jokers)

There are 54 squares on a Rubik's cube

Ally Pally Haul

I always love seeing what others have bought , so I thought I'd share a pic of what I picked up at the Scrapbooking show at Alexandra Palace on Saturday. Apologies for the rubbish photo but it's so dull outside today and I hate using flash.

An eclectic little pile . I was tickled pink to find the McGill tab punch which I've been hunting for years ( and reduced ) at Scrapshed's stand ! Bought the holly punch as it was only £1 , form the Everything a Pound stand -  can never resist a bargain.

You can just see the duck egg blue ( my all time favourite colour ) cardstock peeking out top left corner - 50 sheets of A4 for only £3 another bargain.

Not many papers to choose from but did find a few lovelies on Sugar and Spice's stand. Arrow stamps reduced to £7.50 courtesy of Scrapshed , my favourite charcoal chalk ink for a pound and a woodgrain Kaisercraft stamp for £2.99 .

Also delighted to find the new metalic Distress Stains on Artistic Stamper's stand plus the embossing dabber.

Also bought a roll of Prima washi tape ( can never have enough ) , a hexagon template and some heart shaped gems and chandelier drops. Lord only knows what I'll use them on but you never know when you might need one.

With a name like Gin and Tonic , I also had to buy the Indigo Blu gilding flakes and the Flitter Glu to stick them to the paper from Samuel Taylor's stand. I may use these at a class I'm doing in November.

Can't show you the rest as it's for the Advent Swap we do at our crop - so that would be giving the game away.

All in all a lovely day out , all the lovelier for being able to share the day with my buddies Kate and Emma and rounded off with our Gin and Tonic ritual out on the terrace admiring the skyline of London in the Autumn sunshine.

Work is so much lovelier ...

... when you have beautiful stationery on your desk . With this sentiment in mind, I felt justified in spending a teensy amount of money - well, teensy relative to the joy they will bring.

When they arrived this morning, my day was instantly brightened and I almost expected them to fly out of the packaging.

If you're coveting them already, you can buy them from an online eBay store called The Journal Shop . I may have to go there in person, as they're only in Ealing, and see for myself how beautiful their notebooks would look alongside my feathered friends.

SAHM

... as the Americans call it or Stay at Home Mum as we Brits prefer . That's what I am . I'm trying to think of an alternative translation of those initials. Maybe - Sanity Altering Hateful Menopause might be more appropriate.

So, the dust has settled on the unpacked holiday suitcases, the flip- flops have been consigned to the cupboard under the stairs until next year and the school term is in full ( ish ) swing. That means one thing ... homework and lots of it. I know a lot more about the negative effects of tourism on the human geography of the Inca Trail in Maccu Picchu than I did last night and I also now realise that not sending in the rugby kit on a Wednesday was a BIG no-no. I have been conscripted to bake cakes for the Autumn Fair next weekend ( hurrah ) but have had to stump up a large wodge of cash for a French trip next Spring term ( boo ) .

School life has a momentum all of its own, punctuated by lesson-free half terms, peppered with the odd piano lesson or latest free-time whim and  sleep-in weekends. Talking of which, my new most hated newspaper article is the one where childless couples talk of Saturday Brunch at the Savoy and lazy Sunday lunches at Boutique hotels, followed by labrador walks and country pubs before heading home to London to park their Porsche in their Mayfair Mews. Don't these people realise what they're missing ? What self-respecting Sunday night would be complete without a search for the elusive PE kit that's festering in the bottom of a muddy sports bag , a row about undone homework and a scrabble for an empty shoebox and a green ( must be green ) pipe-cleaner required for Monday morning's art class ?

So my new acronym for SAHM could be ... Sunday Always Heralds Mayhem.

College Boy

Well , he started this morning . I'd like to say it went without a hitch . He diligently set his alarm last night for 8 O Clock  .... shame it was 8 pm instead of 8 am. I was tempted to let him find out the hard way but couldn't allow myself to let him sleep in and be late. So here he is , setting off to a whole new world. If he was nervous , he didn't show it . My big boy now . And the bonus is ... I didn't have to sew in a single name tape

This cake , in numbers ...

850 : Grams of sugar in recipe

8 :        Hours to make

3 :       Freshly laundered, white, school shirts smeared with chocolate accidentally whilst making, thereby requiring re-laundering

4:        Attempts to soften frosting to usable consistency after refrigerating

700 : Approximate calories per ( small ) slice

15 :    New swear words invented during preparation

3 :       Trips to supermarket to purchase forgotten ingredients

133 : Page number of Hummingbird Bakery " Cake Days" cookery book containing recipe      so that you can rip it from the book and discard forever

1 :      Layer dropped on kitchen floor whilst removing from oven

9 :      Minutes taken to devour

10 :     Reasons ( see above) to  never, ever, ever attempt to make this cake