Barbecue summer

Last year, the people in the weather dept said we were in for a scorcher of a summer. A real 'Barbecue Summer' they said. Get the patio furniture dusted, stock up on gas for the barbecue and don't forget to wear at least factor 15 at all times. What a cruel joke. On the May Bank holiday weekend we had friends over and we sat in the swing chair in the garden sipping chilled wine. Dinner sitting on the patio and then staying out there in the early evening watching the sun go down. 'Imagine' we said, 'a whole summer of this, won't it be lovely?' Well it's a good job we did have that lovely day because it was possibly the last nice weekend of the year!
So that is the photo I have used for prompt 2 of the Shimelle SFAN class.

I have used up some borders that I cut from scraps of paper at a crop I went to last year. The lady in charge of the crop had brought a large selection of Martha Stewart edge punches and I had fun experimenting with them all but ended up with lots of strips of random papers. So this prompt was perfect for using them up. I also used some smaller scraps of paper to make the little flowers. That was a technique I learnt at last week's crop and I think it is quite effective.

The more things change, the more they stay the same

I work in the school office of a secondary school. We have 800 girls in Years 7 -11 and a mix of 300 boys and girls in the 6th form. In Years 7 to 11 the girls have to wear uniform. It's not a particularly attractive uniform, brown pleated kilt, brown and white striped blouse and brown blazer with the school crest embroidered on it.

The other day at lunch time a group of us secretaries were in the staff rooom discussing how students' attitudes are changing and how they don't have the same respect for teachers, or adults as a whole, that we had when we were young. Even the uniform, honestly, it shouldn't be that hard to stick to the uniform, yet every day girls are sent to the office for uniform infringements. We harked back to our days when the threat of being sent to Miss Crook's office was enough to have you rolling down the waistband of your skirt so it was less revealing and buttoning up your blouse. WE were so much better behaved. WE wouldn't have dared flaunt the rules. Oh no we wouldn't. With sparkly halos shining, we went back to work.

By coincidence, that evening an old school friend sent me a photo of us in the 5th form wearing our regulation grey pleated skirt, white blouse and royal blue cardigan.

New class

So, the new class begins! I've made a title page, but scarily it would appear that no one has posted theirs on the forum yet and I don't want to go first so for the moment I'm just going to show it here. The prompt for today was to use up metal embellishments which was a bit of a challenge for me as I don't have many fancy brads or buckles but I found a cream metal buckle from a kit I had ordered a while ago and have made that my centre piece. As the theme is 'Celebrate Life' I thought it was kind of appropriate to lean the page up against a bottle of champagne ;-) I have bought this little half bottle of champers for a friend's birthday as it is so sweet in it's little sleeve, however, I strongly suspect I may be suffering from 'It's so cute I don't want to give it away' syndrome ...

On a more serious note I want to apologise for not commenting on people's blogs so regularly this week. The poorly shoulder I had last week has developed into full blown frozen shoulder and it is so painful to lift my left hand onto a keyboard to type. I can browse around to my heart's content with my right hand on the mouse, but typing has been agony. I have some high voltage painkillers now that have serious 'these can become addictive' warnings all over them and things seem a tiny bit better today so normal service will resume asap I promise. I hate typing one handed! The thing I am missing most is driving, I simply cannot change gear. How handy though, that I should be off work just as a new Shimelle class is starting ;-)

New Venues

Yesterday I went to a scrapbooking crop at a new destination. It was a first ever crop organised by the ladies at Eclectic Keepsakes. It was at Marks Tey in Essex which I had never been to before and had only previously known it as a village that we went through on our way to Frinton-on-Sea when we fancied a day at the seaside. It was a really enjoyable day and the two Karens had gone to so much trouble to ensure that we had an interesting and creative day. Which included home made cup cakes and a selection of white chocolate maltesers, minstrels and chocolate eclairs on every table. What more could a scapper ask for? Well, she might ask for a little shopping therapy, and that was made possible by the ladies from A Trip Down Memory Lane who had brought a vast selection of goodies.

The first part of the day was time to work on your own projects and after lunch we had a kit to make up. I am planning to stop using up to date 'now' photos when I do a crop day and use the opportunity to scrap some of the older photos in my collection from when the kids were younger so this was my first chance to do that. I just have a bit of journalling to add on blue cardstock to stick over the cloud in the corner which will probably just document it as being 'Lanzarote 1997'

As you will see, my Tilda stamp is getting lots of good use!

Spot the difference

March 1990

March 2010

I am officially ancient. Both my children are now in their 20's

Exotic goings on in deepest Hertfordshire

This is a little glimpse of something I will be wearing tonight. Can you guess where I am going?

Belly Dancing!

Yay! It's part of an extra class that my Rosemary Conley organiser is offering. Taster classes in various dancing styles. Last week was Salsa which was great fun, and the music (mostly Ricky Martin) was upbeat and fun. I've tried belly dancing before - once! It was hilarious, fun and painful in equal measures. Painful because keeping your hips moving for an hour becomes a little tiring after a while. Well, after about 5 minutes for me. I'm sure having little legs is a distinct disadvantage.

Last year my husband and I went to Tunisia for a week at Easter and I bought the skirt shown above on a whim whilst walking through the Mdina in Sousse, just in case a 2nd belly dance class should ever materialise. So when I saw the extra class I had to sign up for it. I'm really looking forward to tonight. I'm no good at it but what I lack in expertise I make up for in effort.

Next week? BOLLYWOOD! Watch this space ....

Happy St David's Day

OK, I'm not Welsh, and apart from an Aunt who moved to Bridgend back in the day, I have no connection with Wales whatsoever, but on this bright sunny March day, I wanted to mark the occasion with a photo of daffodils. This pic was taken on Easter Sunday 2008 and I loved the sight of daffs growing up through the snow. There's something cheery about the sight of daffodils and someone had left vases of them in the staff room this morning and they looked beautiful glowing in the bright sunshine that was streaming in through the window. Hey, maybe Spring IS just around the corner after all.

Happy March everyone!