LSNED Day 26

Today our lesson was to be learnt from our environment. This afternoon I took groups of children out into the school field to collect natural things to create an Andy Goldsworthy inspired piece of art work. At the bottom of the field one of the children found these mushrooms. They were growing under a tree where the bare soil was sun-baked as hard as concrete and yet somehow these fragile looking things had managed to force their way through the crust. How can they be so strong? Earlier we also had a prompt about putting in a photo that was particularly good so even though I snapped these by putting my camera on the floorand just hitting the button, and supervising 6 children at the same time, I am rather pleased with how they came out.

LSNED Day 25

Today's lesson was to think about something we are greatful for. I have always known how to knit and sew, I don't remember ever being taught but I know that obviously I did have to learn sometime! My Grandad was a tailor; he had the biggest hands, and he taught me to sew with a machine when I was about 7 using an old hand machine. Mum taught me to hand sew and my Nana taught me to knit with Mum helping me when I got stuck and Nana wasn't there. I have recently re-discovered sewing and am just so thankful that I know what to do when lots of my friends are just learning. I also learnt how to increase in a purl stitch today! It is something I just never knew and today Mum told me "you purl into the BACK first, then the front". So simple and now learnt I won't forget it.

LSNED Day 24

Once again I can't remember the prompt for today but I went to Ally Pally to the papercraft and scrapbooking show. Well I learned a new technique or two so that was what had to go in! Simple!

LSNED Day 23

Todays lesson was that lesson you never learn! I am getting better at delegating. My hubby is very good at doing housey things for me and shares in running the children hither and thither but this is still a list of the main jobs that I had to do this week. Added to this are making lunches, going to work and cooking and tidying every day! At last I have delegated the making of packed lunches to the children! As you can see any form of housework is completely absent....

LSNED Day 22

The 22nd was Jasper and Eliza's 13th birthday so once again I went off track to document it. Well we cheated a bit as they didn't want their cakes until the day after their birthday because we were just too busy on the day. All in all Eliza's cake was a complete flop; despite me testing it, it was still raw in the middle! So we scraped out all the uncooked bit and ate the rest! Luckily Jaspers was ok! I think that is my first total failure cake.

Ally Pally.

I went to Ally Pally yesterday. I have never been before so wasn't really sure what to expect. As you can see I bought a few bits but I was focused and restrained in my shopping. I was pleased to get the album and paper ready to do Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas class for the 4th year. I also got some lovely wooden shapes (that are going to be shared with friends) a brick stamp, some metal birds, a few charms, some Pinflair bookbinding glue which I have been trying to get for aaaages and some more UTEE. My splurge was the Dylusions stamps. With 3 girls I will use this loads.

I went with a group of friends and we have just made a joint order of Smash bits and pieces from the States. We ordered on Saturday and they arrived on Thursday so I was also able to collect my little pile of Smash goodies! Again we decided to share the mini post-its and pages from the pads. I am starting to "smash" stuff in but I don't know yet whether I will show or keep it to myself! Smash is something I never had really thought about but unknown to me a friend bought me one for my birthday at the same time as a completely separate group of friends were ordering theirs! And although poor Helly is still waiting for hers to arrive they have been the topic of much conversation. Whether they will be re-branded so they can be sold in the UK again I don't know but I think this little lot will keep me going for a while!

And finally at the end of a very long post, this was the fabbiest thing we saw yesterday! It was done with shaving foam and cosmic shimmers! Guess what's on my shopping list for next week...

LSNED Day 21

Todays prompt was about regrets. Do I have any regrets? Well yes maybe I should have married a rich man; or maybe I should have had less children; or maybe I should have chosen to be trained as a teacher so I wouldn't be "just" a teaching assisstant now. But actually if I HAD done any of those things I may now be wealthy but would I be still happily married after 21 years? Think of the madcap, hectic fun we have as a family of 6 that I would have missed out on and all the stress, worry, paperwork and work at home I would have had as a teacher. So on balance I am happy with my lot....and little texts from my class teacher make me realise just how valued I am.

LSNED Day 20

Yes I missed a few days but I have been busy! I had Guides on Tuesday night, wednesday I was baking birthday cakes and last night it was my twins birthday. Ok excuses over her is Day 20 which was all about thinking about what you leanrt about you. I have lots of roles and for once I thought I would include pictures of me. Quite pleased with this page which took all of 10 mins!

LSNED Day 19

Once again I can't remember what we were meant to be thinking about today but I am afraid I had a big, tough ol' lesson rather on my mind today! Today is the day I took my oldest baby to live in Bournemouth. It's between 4-5 hours drive away (depending on traffic) and she has never lived away before. Day to day I am ok about it.....it's when I think about the big things; her place not being laid at the table; not knowing wht she has done in her day; the fact we will never again be that tight little family unit coming together each day at breakfast and tea; that's when I wobble.
Still I hope that it is everything she hopes it is and wish her all the best luck in the world. xx

LSNED Day 18

Today we were thinking about random phrases. Those ones where you had to be there. Today we had a final meal for Jess before she went off toUni and we had Granny and Grandad over too. We used these paper napkins I had for my birthday. Eliza announced that she had cleared the hair out of the plug-hole! Spontaneously everyone applauded and this continued every time she opened her mouth to speak! She couldn't stop laughing and had to leave the room. So then we applauded every time she tried to re-enter the room! At the time it was really funny and we all laughed until our faces hurt......but like I said.......you had to be there!

LSNED Day 17

Yup, I did a Christmas LO!!! Katy will be sooo angry! Her birthday is Dec 12th so we aren't allowed to do anything Christmas until a week after her birthday, which is fair enough I think. Jess is off to Uni tomorrow and today's prompt was about dates to look forward to. So I think the next big date will be when she come home again. It will be so odd without her here day in, day out. Despite this and my writing, it is still a big fat 12 weeks away. Hopefully she will be back in between or I might just turn up and surprise her one day!

Art Journal Weeks 36 and 37

I bet you thought I had abandoned this art journal didn't you? Well I haven't and am still managing to squeeze it in alongside LSNED. Week 36 was about Risk. "Are you a risk-taker? What is the greatest risk you have/haven't taken? Use a technique that you rarely use". I chose to swipe alcohol inks on glossy card for my background leaving me with a slightly unmanageable surface to work with! I was completely uninspired by it so I just wrote lots instead.

Week 37 was about laughing. "When did you last laugh and what at? What makes you laugh? Do your friends think that you are funny? Use a smiley on your page"

So a page about laughing had to be pink with some stickers; stickers make me smile, and some very accidentally inappropriate ones made me REALLY laugh this week!

LSNED Day 16

Todays lesson was about learning from watching other people. Hmm, a slight slant on this as this really is a lesson I NEVER have learned AND one I think that my girls need to learn from me too! I have left my straighteners on twice now, all day, in an empty (apart from the dogs) house and come home to a melted window sill. I religiously check, even returning home to check and phoning my Mum to go and check, that my straighteners are turned off AND unplugged. I know how easily houses burn down from careless hair straightener usage and I nag my girls ad infinitum about it. Yet once again they got left on......Katy owned up that it was her and luckily Hubby found them and turned them off after about 2 hours but we have yet another scorch mark to add to the collection on my windowsill. Now I am just going to be EVEN more paranoid about them!

LSNED Day 15

Once again I can't quite remember what todays lesson was relating to but a few days ago I ordered some washi tape. I had never heard of it but a friend showed me a website....slippery slope! When I got in from work there was a parcel on top of a pile of letters. Excitedly I opened it and was all happy and delighted. Then I opened the other post to find a horrible one from the bank which resulted in phone calls and much angryness. Well that made me grumpy for the evening until I started to do my page and I remembered my little treat I had bought. So I re-thought my page so I could use some of the tape and felt much better afterwards! Maybe my lesson should have been "open the letters before the lovely exciting looking parcels!"

LSNED Day 14

This lesson was about revisiting those lessons that you NEVER seem to learn from! I am a shocker for a blue sky; I always assume a blue sky = a warm day! Maybe I am just eternally optimistic that we will be dealt a weather surprise. This particular day we DID have the blue skies AND sunshine but it was still rather nippy...

LSNED Day 13

I am just about keeping up. Day 13 was about the difference between weekdays and weekends. Well if you look in my diary there IS no difference!

LSNED Day 12

Still keeping up? Today's lesson was meant to be about learning from your mistakes. Well thankfully nothing terrible happened (apart from the above so I guess you could say I should have learnt to keep a better track on the dogs worming regime) so once again I went with this lesson. I really believed that at my ripe old age of 43 there really wasn't anything I could possibly still REALLY need my Mum for. Guess I was wrong!!

LSNED Day 11

Don't know why this is a bit blurred, might be because I was in a rush! But I had spent the day shopping for Jess for Uni and this was the rather sizeable heap of stuff we got! Hmmm pricey business this. Another off target page but I felt it needed documenting.

LSNED Day 10

Erm can't remember the prompt today but I spent a day crafting with friends. Well we crafted a bit but actually we spent the large majority of the day supporting each other with a host of little "life challenges" that we all seem to be having at the moment. I used to feel bad about wanting to be away from my family but now I enjoy my "me" time a great deal and couldn't live without my like-minded friends. Needless to say we aren't always sensible are we girls?

LSNED Day 9

Today our prompt was about gratitude; little things that we should maybe appreciate a bit more than we actually do. When I got home from work Ken had done ALL the washing, ALL the ironing and stacked it on the stairs ready to go away. As the weather forecast for the weekend is wet I am extremely grateful!

LSNED Day 8

Not sure what the prompt was for today but I was sooooooo enraged by a comment I over heard at the cinema I HAD to use it. Think of it as therapy, to get it off my chest! Those books are just two shelves of children's books; we have at least 6 more of just childrens books before we get started on the adult ones....

LSNED Day 7

Day 7 and we were encouraged to learn from observing those around us. (I think that was the one but I may have them muddled!) I had to go with this lesson as it was such a funny conversation and probably a lesson to us all about listening carefully and perhaps also speaking clearly! The brad box was todays embellie!

LSNED Day 6

We had a Circus Skills group into school today to teach the children new skills. With the usual arrogance of adulthood I thought it would be easy! But it wasn't! I was useless! Needless to say the children were fab at it!

LSNED Day 5

Hmmm not very inspired with this one! Had the lesson, couldn't design the page! I didn't take a photo so I found it tough to do. Oh well, I used up a fair few lilac and purple scraps and I'm movin' on to tomorrow!