Before and After

Hallelujah .... my scrap room or rather scrap space is finished . It's felt like a bit of an epic task - totally overwhelming at times. How daft that I could have let my craft supplies build up like that . What was supposed to have been my oasis of creativity and calm had become a no-go ghetto.

So, armed with an Ikea catalogue, one dozen cardboard boxes and a picture in my head , I set out to halve the space I'd originally squandered and turn it into a multi purpose room - half craft room , half spare bedroom . I would be left with a much smaller area - 2m x 3m to be precise. Now I can craft in peace in one half of the room without the mess and we can have guests to stay in the other half ( not to mention the added bonus of being able to banish a snoring husband to what we've now dubbed ' The Snoratorium '  when the decibels levels exceed acceptable levels ).

It wasn't easy and I turned into a de-clutter bore in the process. It wasn't cheap either . What started out as a shoe-string budget soon had to expand to cover the cost of someone to paint the walls as I couldn't manage the step-ladder with dodgy knees , husband always too busy ... watching sport and I wasn't brave enough to let my teenagers anywhere near a can of paint ) . I'd planned to buy some budget carpet but this soon went out the window ( not literally ) . All of the really cheap stuff felt like ... well cheap stuff so I opted for a mid price range in a lovely slate grey. Don't even start me on the cost of storage solutions. With 32 cubby holes between 2 Expedit units to fill, you can do the maths.

I invested in the Expedit door fronts because I didn't want lairy purple and green craft tools exposing themselves in all their gaudy glory. Then came the white rattan baskets at £10 a pop, not to mention the rather lovely slate grey boxes that filled the remaining spaces to perfection. Thank goodness I didn't have to buy a stick of new furniture apart from a new bed. The 2 existing Expedit units , the desk, my chair and the 3 shelving units were all re-purposed but thankfully fitted in with the scheme as did the rather tatty lamps which only needed a couple of new shades to bring them back up to date.

Every room in the house felt as though it were filled to the brim with the contents of my stash as I moved it out when the painting started. I had to climb over crates of clutter to get into bed . I felt like one of those 'hoarders next door' from the TV show where they live amongst a decade of old newspapers ( replace 'newspaper' with 'patterned paper' and you see what I mean ). Did I ever think I would use all of this stuff ?

I started with the de-clutterers golden rule of creating 3 piles - keep / throw / donate. Stuff that . It soon turned into a donate/bin dilemma which quickly simplified to just donate. The Shooting Star Children's Hospice were delighted to receive enough crafting materials to keep their art therapist stocked for a while. A sale of the remainder at my local crop raised nearly £100 which will also be donated to the hospice. I can't tell you how liberating that felt and all for a good cause too.

So , enough drivel ( I did warn you I'd become a de-cluttering bore )  here's the only evidence you need - the before and after photos.

Could barely get through the door ...

... let alone find anything on my desk

 Mountains of junk ... but not any more ....

Cream and grey ... not a lime green Cuttlebug in sight.
The bed is on the other side of this Expedit which acts as the room divider.

Vinyl decals from Ikea on the back of the Expedit which is acting as a room divider

Vinyl door labels cut on my Cameo using a lovely font called Swenson - a bit of a faff but at least I know what's behind every door.

Cardstock and Patterned paper are the mainstays in my stash but are now neatly ordered and filed. The cream Curver rattan style boxes are brilliant and only a fiver from The Range and I covered the fronts of Kraft brown file holders from Muji with some cream ledger patterned paper to give them a uniformity .

My new mantra which reads " We don't need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it " 

Now all I have to do is put that into practice.

Fell in love with this embroidered cushion from John Lewis. I'm known to have a bit of a thing for birds as the lamp will also testify.

Of course Jenny had to help

... and now I really do feel as if I can finally create something lovely in my new room.

Love a bit of Flair ...

... although I refuse to call it Flair - they're badges . It's bad enough having to call trousers pants without having to call a badge a flair !

Anyway , these little lovelies arrived from Oz today . Now I know it's an atrocious waste of aviation fuel to fly them all the way from down under but I reckoned they were so tiny and so light and the flight would probably be going anyway so ...

I couldn't resist a bargain . The Australian dollar / pound conversion is so much better than the US dollar exchange rate right now . These worked out at a mere 50p each including postage and they are SO my style. I can do without 3 or 4 designer coffees this month just to justify them.

They're made by a company called A Piece of Cake Designs  www.apieceofcakedesigns.com.au  and arrived wrapped in a delightful brown paper bag fastened with some cupcake washi tape. All in all a lovely way to brighten my day. Thank you Raquel.

One for my maths students ... and my fellow hoarders...

I was pondering about the theory of exponential growth ... like you do of a Tuesday morning.

As a phenomena it can be amazing . Say you bought 3 bunnies and within 2 months you had 18 bunnies. Assuming the growth pattern continues along those lines how many would you end up with a year from now ? ( or for my scrapping followers, say you bought 2 items of stash and within 2 months that had grown to 18 )

Starting with the formula

y(t) = a x ekt   ( where kt is the index ... can't work out how to shift the text up )

where:

y(t) = the amount at time t
a = the amount at the start
k = rate of growth
t = time


If a = 3 bunnies and t = 2 months and today y(2) = 18 bunnies

18 = 3 x e2t

Solving for k :

6 = e2k

Natural logarithm for both sides:

In(6) = In (e2k)

In (ex) = x so:  In (6) =2k

Rearrange

 k = In (6) / 2


So in 2 more months time ( at t = 4 months ) and 1 year from today ( t = 14  months )

y (4) = 3e (in (6)/2 ) x 4 = 108

y(14) = 3e (In(6)/2) x 14 = 839,808

.... which may just explain why the 3 pizza boxes of stash I've acquired in the last 2 months will have grown substantially within a year , assuming they're multiplying like rabbits and more to the point , why it's taken me the best part of 2 months to sort out my hoard of 10 years !

Boy Free Zone

I have the house to myself for 48 hours - not for any particular good reason ... I have to work they get to play but hey .

Here's how I plan to de-boy the house .

1. Remove all man / teen / boy piles from every available surface

2. Collect up dropped clothes from all floors in all rooms in the house and throw into laundry basket - close door firmly.

3. Remove all signs of last weeks exam carnage . I do not want to see another textbook on electrical circuits or rock formations.

4. Reclaim the remote controls

5. Stock fridge with chilled rose and chocolate

6. Gather up 20 pairs of trainers from tripping zones in hallway and throw into cupboard

7. Put flowers in vase on kitchen table in the safe knowledge that the water will remain in the vase for the duration of the flowers

8 collect all mug / glass / cereal bowl debris from bedside tables and chuck into dishwasher

9 Bin sports / car sections from weekend newspapers on arrival

10 Play Michael Buble album on repeat ... and sing along

Loving my Vinyl

Hoping that title doesn't attract the wrong sort of reader !

I'm talking ( of course ) about the vinyl you use with a Silhouette Cameo machine . Having unearthed the transfer paper from my silhouette supplies ( in fact I think I'm using low tack sticky backed plastic that I bought to cover the boys school books - cheaper by far ) and deliberated about which colour to use ( black of course ) , I set about finding the perfect font to cut some labels for my Expedit .  A search for the Holy Grail or for a needle in a haystack might have been easier but hey , what fun to spend ages browsing through the free fonts available online. Time well spent in my book.

I settled on a font called Swenson available for free from www.abstrctfonts.com. It had the right sort of cursive script I was looking for and can be welded in the silhouette software so that it peels off in one easy piece. After a couple of duff attempts , because I"m not the most patient person in the world and tend to ' eyeball ' positioning so I didn't take much care over lining up the label on the transfer paper grid ( doh ) I managed to come up with this...

BEFORE

AFTER

This is my practice attempt . I reckon it needs to go further in from the left hand side by about 1cm . So, 1 down ... 31 to go but delighted with how it looks .

Sweet things ...

... come in little packages. Not talking about chocolates , but skincare products. I don't use a lot , but being the age I am ( no clues ) I feel entitled to a decent moisturiser and because most eye-make up removers cause my eyes to weep, I like to buy a good hypoallergenic product. ... oh and because it's summer and I'm not supposed to get a tan I like to indulge in a good quality bronzer around this time of year.

So, my brand of choice is Clarins , always has been - love their stuff and it takes the guesswork out of having to choose from the myriad options out there. On Monday I ordered those 3 products. Today , a whole bundle of loveliness arrived on my doorstep.

These 3 for starters .... the items I ordered 

... plus 7 samples to try

... plus one very glam bag ... to hold .....

5 more ( very decent sized ) as a bonus !

Way to go Clarins , not 3 but 17 fabulous little beauty packages and no delivery charges and all landing on my doorstep within 48 hours. Now that's what I call service. The samples are perfect for travelling . Now all I have to do is book a holiday to take them with me ... if only Clarins had some exotic little spa tucked away in the Seychelles ... maybe they do ?

Books For Sale

The 'simplifying' as I'm now calling it continues.

I have the following books for sale if anyone is interested:

RAK'd !

 

SOLD

SOLD

If there are any here you fancy leave a comment or drop me an email and I'll let you know what postage will cost - if anyone fancies the lot , I'm happy to courier which will probably be cheaper than Royal Mail.

Fabric

Velvet, voile, canvas, calico, felt, silk, organza, denim, cotton, wool, silk ... you name it I have it ... in various sizes, widths and colours. Quite what I ever thought I might make with all this stuff, heaven only knows. I've now whittled it down to one medium sized basket.

I may never use any of it but it's comforting to know it's there , just in case. That's the problem - this 'Just in Case' scenario. When the end of the world is nigh and the apocalyptic whatever finally happens, is it really comforting to know that I will have nothing to eat or clean water to drink but I will have enough quilting squares to make myself a curtain which will stretch from one end of the country to the other ? I doubt it . I will also be able to embellish it with every conceivable size of pompom thanks to my collection of ( unused) pompom makers . Mind you , just the very mention of the word pompom cheers me up so aren't they worth keeping for that reason alone ?

I will leave you with the cheery sound of the word POMPOM ringing in your ears.

There is another way ...

... to simplify your life which takes seconds. It's called Unsubscribe.

Every morning I"m bombarded by a dozen or so tempting emails from sites I may or may not have ordered from before. by 6am this morning I could have ordered a cordless screwdriver , a 2 foot high Morroccan lantern reduced by 20% , a holiday to Aruba( 2 weeks for the price of three), a half price fish tank foot de-tox and an Indian silk printed cushion - none of which I need or want. However the temptation was there to nab me during a weak moment. One click later and I was free from temptation. I'd still like the holiday but at least now I won't feel as if I'm missing out.

Oh -  I did order the cordless screw driver though , but then it is for a very good reason , as my visit to Ikea last night will testify.

Out with the old ...

... and in with the new. I felt vaguely embarrassed by the pile of make-up gathering dust in my bedroom. All the more so as I only ever really wear mascara. Some of it went back years, other items were bought in a mad rush of blood to the head and I'll admit to some purchases as being nothing more than desperate attempts to re-capture my youth ( Mac - where all the make-up assistants look lie extras from the set of Twilight ).

There were enough eye-brow pencil to draw a line twice round the earth and back again, every shade of brown imaginable ( looked more like the shade card from a Farrow and Ball paint chart ) and a multitude of dodgy past the sell by date mascara.

So , what to do ? Throw it all out ( apart from the Mac which went to some of my very grateful students ) .

I'm now the proud owner of a minimalist set of essentials - mascara , brow liner, eye shadow, lip gloss , face powder something or other and a decent set of brushes. They fit nicely inside a squishy metallic gold make-up bag and I LOVE it. I have Hayley-Jo to thank at the Laura Mercier counter of John Lewis for making me look half decent .

I cannot describe the joy of getting up in the morning and knowing that the whole shebang only takes 2 minutes to locate, choose ( no choice involved ) and apply. Just think - that must have saved me at least 5 minus a day , 35 minutes a week , 1825 minutes per year or just over 31 hours of saved time ... in which to find something to wear that actually fits. That's a whole other story.

P.S  The only non Laura Mercier item in the photo is Gimme Brow by Benefit - cannot recommend it highly enough . For an old nobby no-brows like me , it actually fills in the gaps, from years of over-plucking, with fibres but doesn't make you look like Groucho Marx.

I think I may have turned into a de-cluttering bore ...

... in fact I know I have . It's my last thought at night as the lights go out and my first waking thought . I'm heartily bored of it all myself and I keep asking myself HOW on earth did I let all my clutter build up like this  as if I didn't know the answer.

There's a timeline to de-cluttering . It starts with the desire to make space in your life , followed by a surge of energy at having broached the subject . This is quickly followed by a trip to a DIY store to get  the latest Dulux brochure. You start lusting after shelving systems, cupboards and storage boxes online into the wee small hours of the night .

There's then a bit of a delay whilst you summon up the energy ., a spot of procrastination perhaps about how it's not quite the right time. The first day is promising , the second is singularly unpromising and sometimes you don't get past the third day . There then comes a plateau followed by renewed vigour and then an all time slump into miserable depression by the end of the first week , assuming yo get that far.

If you manage to choose a paint colour , some new carpet and a curtain or blind this is called progress. At some stage of the proceedings you will become excessively grumpy and then whoa .... a flash of ruthlessness. The bin bags start piling up and you realise you could keep Oxfam in used goods for at least a decade. At some point you'll realise you need more extra strong bin bags - you're on a roll, literally.

When the furniture gets moved out into every available nook and cranny in the house in the days leading up to the painting you can pat yourself on the back at getting this far. The fact that you have to catapult yourself into bed from the other side of the room because there's a wall a boxes by your bedside , is a small price to pay ( although the novelty wears off quickly when you get up in the middle of the night to pee and can't get to the door before your pelvic floor goes. )

So we're 2 days and counting before the lid gets prised off the tin of Farrow and Ball Off White . The carpet is ordered ( acid test - if you can crush a handful of Digestives and watch the crumbs disappear into the pile it's a goer ) ,  I've splurged on those American shutters and may even stretch to a couple of new lamps.

Now the only problem is this. Lovely neutral shades of decorative gorgeousness on the walls, luscious slate grey on the floor , calming decorative accessories , natural baskets etc but then all the stash will go back in and it'll look as if the Dulux paint mixing machine has exploded in there. It's going to look like a technicolour acid trip on every shelf unless I discretely hide it behind closed doors in which case I'll never use the half of it as I'll never know what's there.

When you browse on Pinterest for Craft-room inspiration , they seem to fall into two camps :

Camp One - Boudoir style, over-frilly, pink nonsense where no crafting whatsoever goes on but the walls are awash with jokey quotes like " If in doubt just add glitter "

Camp Two - A mad assortment of every Rubber-Maid plastic storage option ever manufactured in various shades of purple and lime green.

I'm not sure I fall into either camp , so I'll have to make it up as I go along... but I won't be adding glitter.

Well ....

... the 3 shelves are out of my scrap room and squiggled into my bedroom but the Expedits are still there although not for long as the painting is being done next weekend. I've ordered the carpet and,  rather rashly, some of those American shutters for the window - a mad moment of impulse but I'm pleased I did it . Now I just have to wait 12 weeks for them to arrive.

All of my stash is now piled up on the shelves in my bedroom which means that every morning when I wake up, I find myself staring at it . This is good because I'm able to remind myself that there is simply too much of it . In scrapping , trends come and go so it's unsurprising that the brads and eyelets I used a decade ago will have gone out of fashion now. Lord only knows what we'll be thinking of washi tape in ten years time = probably marvelling that we all bought so much of it .

So would I wear some of the hideous clothes I bought a decade ago -? No. So why would I need a brad in every colour, size and shape ?

I've also realised that you really have to be in the right mind set to de-clutter . Last weekend I sat on the sofa and sobbed at how overwhelming the task had become. Needless to say , as is so typical of me , I could't just de-clutter my scrap room . It had to be the whole shebang - clothes, jewellery, make-up , toiletries the lot . So no wonder it all felt a bit hopeless.

All the make up went last week and all my jewellery has been de-tangled and is hanging from pretty hooks. My nail varnishes are down to a couple of nice bottles and I've given away any perfume I haven't worn for a year. Today I'm in the right mood to tackle my clothes. They're piling up in charity bags and it feels good.

I've also listed some items on ebay and there are actually a few bids on them . As the listings end today , I'll see how much they've made which is exciting . Encouraged , I've listed a few more. Little and often.

... which just leaves my stash - still the hardest part but it must be done. So what did I do yesterday ? Bought a whole lot more . Mad .

Is this what happens ...

... when life gets out of control ? Trying to de-clutter . Failing miserable. One step forward , nine steps back . I have a theory . When my mother died and the Wicked Witch of the East moved in with my father , everything that I'd ever owned as a child - photos , memorabilia , sentimental knick-knacks and trinkets went straight in the skip . I didn't have any choice as to whether I might wish to hold on to a keepsake or two. She eradicated any trace of our life as a family before Mum died. As a consequence every item that comes through our front door , stays and is never thrown away . The result is a home choc full or what I can only describe as 'stuff'. Add to this the salve of retail therapy borne out of various unhappinesses along the way and the advancing of years and you get a situation that is out of control.

If you have ever visited our home , you will know that outwardly it has the appearance of an ordered and organised life. But delve a little deeper and open a few drawers and you will discover the full extent of my hoarding. I may be being  a little harsh on myself. I visit friends whose hoarding is like mine. A life full of sentimentality and decision making that is too difficult - keep or throw ? It happens to all of us .... I think. It's when it stifles you that you need to decide , enough is enough .

I once attempted to de-clutter for a friend whose mother had died some 10 years previously . Her kitchen drawers were full of half spent birthday candles from her children's birthday cakes , first aid plasters spilling unhygienically from their ancient yellowing wrappers and photo lab folders that had long since lost their photos. That was just the tip of the iceberg. Her mother's house contents jostled for position amongst their own family belongings . It was a battle destined to end in tears. We managed to empty one cupboard but our progress ground to a standstill as it all became overwhelming.

It's the decision -making I find so difficult . That's why you have to approach the task with an almost military-like mindset. Ruthlessness is the keyword. I've just sat on the sofa in tears , overwhelmed at the enormity of the project. I suspect that I may be exaggerating the task in my own head . As I said, for anyone that's been to our house , they're probably laughing now at my description of our over-cluttered house but I suppose everyone has different ideas of what clutter levels are acceptable and I suppose mine are low.

So, I've made a start . Last week I went out and bought a brand new minimal kit of make-up . Yesterday I tipped the remnants of a decade's worth of mascaras and eye-shadows into the bin. Today , I've discovered that I own 3 lash curlers, have never used one and frankly, life is too short to even think about curling your lashes. I have filled 2 charity bags with boxed sets of various fripperies and nonsense, emptied make-up bags, scarves , hair ornaments and jewellery that would look childish on a teenager. What was I thinking when I bought the outsized plastic gingerbread man brooch ?

I suppose I should have taken a 'before' photo but as I always rashly dive in head-first to these manic projects, I rarely pause long enough to think about doing that. And here I am , procrastinating by typing a blog post as an evasion tactic. Maybe the 'after' photo will suffice. Watch this ( newly cleared) space.

New Layouts

I haven't uploaded any layouts for ages so here are four of my latest.

First up is a daft photo from our crop retreat in 2012. I've used Scraptastic's March kit which I absolutely adore . Its a bit on the wild side for me but the colours really zing and suit the season so well. Who'd have thought I'd have ended up liking yellow ? I used yellow and pink Gelatos for the background and not a a lot else besides stamps and my beloved sequins.

Next up is another dash of yellow using the same kit . here's my eldest off on his Duke of Edinburgh expedition.

Now for one of my youngest . I adore this photo which was shot at dusk hence the silhouette effect of twilight . To emphasise this , I shaded the background with corresponding Pan Pastel colours over some grunge paste scraped through a hexagonal stencil  and added just a whisp of vellum and light papers and acetate overlays to keep it all magical.

And finally a photo from 1997 when my eldest was only 3 . I can't believe that was nearly 17 years ago. I kept the layout pretty old fashioned to match the style of the nineties - this was how I was scraping back then. I don't think my style has changed that much. It was taken in Nantucket , hence the little boat appliqué on his T shirt . My, I love that place . Good grief .... there's that yellow again ... what's going on ?

Downsizing

Not me ( I wish ) but my scrap room which is now a scrap space. Voluntarily I should add.  After much soul searching, I realised that I do not scrap at home any more now that I'm working full time. It seemed indulgent to take up so much space with materials that only get an outing once a month , if that . It also releases space in the room to accommodate a bed for snoring husband , friends to stay ... although not at the same time obviously.

So , prompted by the latest slew of 'hoarding' programmes on TV , appropriately scheduled now Spring has arrived - they never miss a trick, and the decibel level of snoring ( his not mine ) I have set about a radical re-think.

Youngest son is away this week and therefore the demands of transporting, homework - helping, laundry, rugby boot scraping and feeding have diminished considerably. I never thought I'd hear myself say this but I rather miss those piles of clothes on the bathroom floor and the call of "What's for tea Mum " as soon as he walks in the door. I'm going to be a hopeless empty nester.

I thought I'd therefore carpe the old diem and get cracking . I almost stalled at the first hurdle as it all seemed so daunting but , fuelled by a boozy Sunday roast lunch out ( another by-product of youngest son away ) , I set about rounding up the old man to help me shift the furniture to get a sense of what it would all look like if I crammed everything down one end of the room. The Ikea Expedit has been rotated 90 degrees and now sits perpendicular to the wall creating a room divide ( thanks for that suggestion Kate and Emma ). I now have a teensy square footage into which is crammed 2 Expedits, a desk , one chair and a wall of shelving.  The bonus is that I can swivel on my chair and reach just about everything - a bit like the working triangle eulogised by kitchen planners. The downside is that there are a number of stuffed laundry bags lined up on the landing awaiting their final resting place. That may be at the charity shop, the bin ( peel-offs only ) or neighbours children.

Phase two will be to empty the room completely, paint the grubby walls and re-floor with some snazzy vinyl. Only items that I know to be useful or believe to be beautiful according to William Morris will be re-housed. watch this space for photo updates.

Here's what it used to look like but you'll have to wait for the after photo. I only hope it doesn't take too long as I can feel the momentum ebbing out of me even as I write . I'm almost embarrassed to upload these photos as the room looks like an absolute tip . Still it's a good motivational incentive to remind myself of how messy it was.

Encouraging blogging ...

... in my students. What a great way to encourage my students to develop their writing skills. I am sitting next to one of my pupils right now and encouraging him to set up his own blog so that he can record his thoughts, beliefs and observations about the world. I haven't quite convinced him yet but I'm going to pass the keyboard over to him now to have a go ....

I shall call my pupil 'Tom' for the purposes of this article to preserve his anonymity.

Take it away Tom ...




Hi there it's a anonymous pupil here... just going to talk about reading and what to recommend. If you think that you don't like reading books because there to hard or you don't generally just think its boring i used to be exactly the same until i found graphic novels. They helped me in a such a way because i am a visual learner and I like to imagine things visually.



... so there you have it - Tom's first blog article. I'm hoping that he enjoyed that enough to want to start writing his own blog . What an amazing way to encourage young writers to find their voice.

Today ...

... I have done school run, taught a lesson at 8am , been to school and taught for another 2 hours , including wiping child's ( not even mine ) bottom following unpleasant diarrhoea incident, done food shop for the week ( after having bleached hands several times ) , shovelled kitten and cat's poo ( this time both mine - cats that is not poo )  from litter tray ( more intensive hand bleaching ) , prepared labour intensive fruit salad and skewered chicken with coriander marinade ( involving retrieving under-used food processor from the top of the kitchen cupboard whilst teetering on step ladder ) for dinner tonight , cleared out 300 pizza / estate agent / taxi service junk mail leaflets from letter box, folded ( note not ironed ) laundry , replaced ( slightly less under-used ) food processor back on top of kitchen cupboard , read two units from 'World of Shakespeare' MOOC ( see earlier post ) , speed read Merry Wives of Windsor , prepared 3 lesson plans for this afternoon's lessons and booked youngest's sons parent teacher interviews for all 8 teachers . Just about to start the afternoon's lesson onslaught which will finish around 7.30pm.

If anyone's watched Outnumbered lately , you'll appreciate that I have won ( hands down ) the 'Who's More Tired " contest with DH who is going out ( again ) tonight having watched sport all weekend . And if he claims that he's even close to second place he knows what he can do with his skewer.

Phew, Got that off my chest.

A few layouts

It's been ages since I uploaded any layouts so hear are 4 that I managed to complete at yesterday's crop . Pretty prolific for me , I'm usually too busy chatting.

If I could remember where I saw the original layout on which I based the first layout I would credit the original but I can't remember for the life of me where I saw it . I used the sketch as our crop challenge yesterday - well done to Ali for winning with her version.

Apologies - all of the photos are looking a little blue. I haven't yet downloaded the latest version of Photoshop onto my Mac so I'm using the basic editing tools from iPhoto ... which are , well basic but adequate.

This next one was inspired by a tutorial on the Silhouette website for using sketch pens . I love this technique and when you combine it with cutting out shapes the end result is terrific. You can't really see any depth from the photo but the stars and hearts on the drawn circle lines are cut out and I've backed them with some woodgrain paper.

This next one uses a funny little photo of Jack taken close up giving a fish-eye lens effect which makes his legs seem tiny . He was trying to lick the camera lens when I took it . I"m loving the new Kaiserkraft stamp - fantastic value too. I've used the grungy borders around the edge of the card stock here.

And finally a favourite photo of youngest son which needed little embellishment other than a beautifully dreamy piece of patterned paper as background ( Allison Kreft for Webster's Pages ) , some stamping - more Kaiserkraft and a chalkboard label and woodgrain card from American Crafts' latest DIY Shop range.

Thanks for stopping by.

I've been MOOC'ed

I think I remember reading something about these online courses last year ... all the more reason to sign up for one as the memory seems to be flagging.

After listening to the Today programme this morning, I was intrigued by what they were talking about , especially one of the contributors who's writing a book called My Teacher is an App - great title. Hadn't got a clue what MOOC stood for until Google helped out - Massive Open Online Course - another great title - does what it says on the box -  they're Massive ( global ) they're Open to anyone , they're available Online and it's a Course .

So I"m now one module into Shakespeare and his World and loving it . In 10 weeks time I'll be wiser and 10 weeks older but happy in the knowledge that I can add something to how I teach English.




Professor Jonathan Bates , Biographer , Critic , Honorary Fellow of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and a Fellow in Creativity at Warwick Business School, presents the 10 week course in conjunction with the University of Warwick . Given that I wouldn't have the time to get to Warwick University once a week , let alone afford the fees , to be able to do it from the comfort of my sofa at 3 O clock in the morning is a real bonus ... and its free which, let's face it, is extraordinary.

My next foray will be into How to Read and Model Fictional Minds : Introducing cognitive poetics - the application of cognitive science to literary reading , in conjunction with the University of Nottingham . Thereafter it will be a quick canter through Getting a Grip on Mathematical Symbolism ( thank you Loughborough University) , followed by a spot of  Community Journalism ( Cardiff ) and then onto Causes of War a (Kings College, London ) . This is brilliant - how come I hadn't heard of it before ?

Go check out the course list at :

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses

Got a thing about foxes

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