Faith hope and charity swap parcel!

Very exciting!!! I have been thinking about trying to get my parcel completed for my partner in Lakota's Faith hope and charity swap life has been incredibly busy with no weekends...

I came home after being the ONLY Key Stage 2 teacher in my building to be at school during the strike yesterday (different teaching union), a little despondent, to find a parcel from the lovely Gem at Dreams of Life in the country waiting for me!!! No more despondency!

Lovely! It was like there was a pair of ruby slippers there to whisk me to Kansas!!!

Too excited to photograph before I opened - the hastily opened pressies came beautifully wrapped in pink polka dot paper!!!! (I tried to upload the picture of the remnants but instead it keeps uploading a picture of me looking into the sky!)

A lovely card from Gem with my favourite flower on, daisies, greeting me and a very kind message!

One of the first pink-spotty delights I opened turned out to be this great dragon fly bookmark- perfect for bookworm moi! Lovely pastels and ribbon!!

My Mum was visiting and she and I were really impressed by this amazing handmade (decoupaged I think???) heart box- beautiful rose design. Excellent for earrings I think!

A really delicious smelling candle accompanied the bookmark- it reminds me of the smell of the seaside!

This funky bangle was the next enigmatic shaped package! Amazing bright orange- it really reminds me of Balinese batik! Very pretty and I can't wait to wear it!

Finally, some beautiful soaps in lovely floral packaging which I already have plans for recycling into card backing!!!

I absolutely loved my parcel and it was a really lovely surprise even though I knew it would be coming at some point! I really enjoyed my first blog-swap being the recipient! Thank you soo much Gemma for your thoughtfulness and great item buying!

Last night, aware I needed to get my parcel to Gem together for my only possible visit to the post office at the weekend, I spent last night crafting... photos to follow when I've sent it!!!

Thanks to Lakota for organising this!

Let them eat hats part 9- lazy florals- could try harder!

Long lazy afternoons in the arboretum trying to get cool whilst camping! Hmmm, what do I need? A straw floral hat? Woefully inadequate for the scorching sun! Back to the disproportionately large, floppy hats!

Indulgence! Food of heaven!

I had an amazing weekend playing THIS- whilst camping. I love Brahms- good fun!
There was a little disaster in terms of tent- I bought a bargainous £8.97 Tescos value 2-man tent which I could carry along with everything else on the train to get there and it didn't seem to like rain- which was pouring down torrentially ALL night. After chopping red onions at midnight to help prepare the marinade for Saturday night's dinner, I returned to a soggy tent. So at 1ish, I traipse inside and slept in the barn on Friday- Saturday was fine though so I was conTENT!

However, the food was absolutely exquisite! We ate organic all weekend! S, who is an amazing person all round (musician, organiser etc) was head cook and she made some amazing concoctions!

Friday night- amazing veggie stew followed by a late night cheese fest courtesy of Neal's yard (plus amazing hand made Picalilli- I ADORED it) and lime drizzle cake! Sadly no photos as camera was stowed in suitcase but sufficed to say there were 3 ENORMOUS blocks enough for 70+ people!

Saturday breakfast- amazing sausages and tomatoes. Porridge and tea of course.

Saturday elevenses- amazing homemade biscuits straight from the oven!
Saturday lunch- filo feta and spinach parcels plus garlicky vegetable mixture, lettuce,

Artisan bread and olive oil PRESSED by the organisers themselves! Banoffee tart/cheesecake/heaven Saturday tea time- Victoria sponge with cream and strawberries (still hot!) Saturday night- Lebanese Sumak chicken, blanched green veg with orange and nuts, butternut squash. (veggies ate lots of the latter)There was an amazing summer fruit fool with yoghurt. Photos?

Sunday- porridge , bacon, scrambled eggs.

Sunday elevenses- amazing homemade biscuits straight from the oven, dipped into hot melted choccie!

Sunday lunch- roast pork belly with crackling, lemony mash, fennel, fresh dill (forgot to take photo before beginning to devour...)

Some sort of pear tart with I forewent in order to go and laze in the arboretum- a beautiful glade where I lay in the grass and cooled down!

The performance was great except it was roastingly hot! Flute plus sweaty chin is the equivalent of an ice-rink without skates!

Sunday tea time post performance -There were delectable fruit filled meringues and all the leftovers at the end.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm? Have you ever gone somewhere and been just totally and utterly overwhelmed by the amazing cooking skills of people? All that for £28 total!

Let them eat hats - part 8: think pink!

This hat was one of the ridiculous 5 that I bought in the 2 days before my Mum's wedding! Looking for a hat to go with my cream beribboned dress, somehow I thought maybe a pale pink one might go (I thought wrong). I adored this one- especially the pink roses because I didn't have a hat of this shape! I think this is a shade of pink I am much more comfortable with because it is less 'in yer face' and subtle although of course, it doesn't get worn so much because it doesn't go with lots of my clothes! Still-it makes me think- summer in the garden, long balmy afternoon walks amongst trees!

Birthday crafting! Recycle, reuse!

It was my Dad and sister's birthday at the weekend so I spent a little anguished time trying to concoct cards for them! I have to try and maintain a high standard for that side of my family because my sisters (both) and step-mum all make beautiful cards and they (though they wont say of course) are obviously real expert critics!

So I decided to go with themes that they like. My sister likes sweet things to eat, girly and particularly cupcakes. So I decided to use these 3 ice-cream stickers that had come free with a craft magazine some years ago. The lilac card was actually the back of an export license for a musical instrument from when I worked at the RAM (I like recycling). The pink gingham was actually a disposable card food container I bought in Indonesia purely because it had a pretty pattern and a set of them cost around 10p (cheaper than buying expensive craft card!) The pink flowers were there to cover up the logo from the container


My dad was a harder contender. It's really hard to make cards for men! You can do so many girly designs but men are limited. I tend to go with geometric patterns quite often. Here, I decided to go with a gardening theme. I originally saw an idea in a craft magazine where you actually BOUGHT a mini-garden spade and stuck it onto a card with some stencilled leaves which I thought was a big cheat AND waste of money!
So, I decided to craft the shovel myself by rolling up a strip of old brown envelope (graduated at one end from 0.5 cm, to 2cm at the other end) which made a suitable handle. I then cut a shovel shape out of mirror card- stuck it on the front and then made a label from scrap card tied on with pretty string.
The brown scalloped squares are cracker inards punched into those shapes. The shed is some corrugated packaging. The carrots from some scraps of orange paper, rolled at an angle with a quilling tool and the green tops were scrap (and other green bits).
The plant pot was made from a terracotta ready meal exterior and the tomatoes quilled from some newsletter which was on red paper. A tiny corner of funky foam in yellow and green for the daffs was the only additional cost (which is 0.00005p or something!) I was really pleased with it in the end (hope the critics liked it!)


Oh and there was a bit of export license and gingham food container left over, so I found some metallic pink card from a Champney's cosmetics gift set I'd squirreled away, some scraps of mirror card, together with another flower and a peel off butterfly! Mustn't waste any bits!

Do you like recycling or reusing elements on making cards? Even though I have TONS of lovely new crafting resources, I still end up using all these tiny recycled elements!

L2B- the journey back to the car!

CBC just sent me an elevation chart for the journey back to the car (i.e. how high and steep hills were. Click on to make it big enough to read). The one on the left is the one he usually takes (read the journey left to right ending at the pink line). The one on the right is the one that N's bike computer sent us along!(read right to left, ending at the pink line) Crazy!!! Those weren't hills, they were MOUNTAINS! In fact, Brighton seems to be a series of mountains!!!

I am so excited! I have arranged for a special day for some of our GAT (gifted, able and talented) music children to work with an opera director/artiste and composer tomorrow to create their own opera/musical/singing musical theatre piece with another school based on A Midsummer night's dream! Can't wait- it's going to be soooo fun! I also love the fact that most of the pupils, particularly the year 4s were sooooo giddy with excitement when I told them that I'd chosen them to do this! I love it when they are enthusiastic! Really hope it goes well!

It's a long way to Tipperary

.... or Brighton!

Somehow, I am here to tell the tale!

Had an amazing time on Saturday at my Dad's 60th birthday- they had a marquee and lots of scrummy food. It meant we were fed nicely although very tired for Sunday morning's excesses!

We awoke at 6.00 to get the train into Brixton where we cycled a mile to Clapham common ensuring we had suncream on, water filled up, everything was tickety boo!

We started slightly later than our start of 8.30- it was more like 9.00am
We set off in a massive jam of people- hundreds- along the route from Clapham common! It was surprisingly quite exhausting at the start because we could barely progress a couple of metres before being stopped for traffic lights and obviously being surrounded by stacks of people, it was harder to weave around etc, especially as my balance is not that great! Still there was a great sense of commaradery amongst the masses. I absolutely fell in love with this guy's tiger costume- he was our 'moving landmark' throughout the course of the ride- we kept looking out for him and it was always a reassurance if we were ahead of the tiger!

When we reached the outskirts of London, the traffic became much better, less cars to contend with too! I was determined to keep going!

We had a couple of truly horrid moments involving hills! Unsurprisingly, there were some accidents, poor people, and that meant there were times where we literally had to stop- on usually steepish uphills or downhills which were impossible to sustain! I didn't manage to stay with the rest of 'Team Hutton', we got seperated on most occasions. I had an embarassing time on one downhill where an accident had happened where I physically couldn't get back onto my seat because of the angle of the downhill which was too high, so I had to walk down until we reached a flat!

The first truly evil hill was Turner's hill in Crawley I believe. It felt really steep! I was crying by the time I reached the top in the sheer effort of reaching the top. I find that when I go up hills I need a clear path so I can bomb up it as fast as possible and the slow speed that people were going in front of me, it felt crippling (as well as the balance problem!) but I made it in one go, breathing like a whistling kettle! There was a lovely brass band to greet me on top and hugs from my team-mates (inc B who also had cried at the bottom!)
I was so tired I literally collapsed onto the green (see below) A banana and a piece of quiche was most welcome- I felt dismayed that this was only around 30 miles or so! CBC took amusing shots of my nostrils from taking a photo putting his tripod on me! The tiger arrived a while later. As we continued, somehow, soon after the stop here, I became seperated from CBC and the other 3 and was on my own for around 45 minutes. For some crazy reason I became really over-emotional over hills, and people suddenly stopping in front me and hugely embarassingly and mortifyingly, I starting blubbing and pretty much didn't stop for most of that time- I just couldn't seem to control it! In my mind, I kept thinking, "Ditchley beacon is Mount Everest" and feeling pretty lonely- the rain didn't help! But I persevered and eventually met up with CBC and co (except for WKWTTG who had skipped on ahead and was already in Brighton!) at the pub at the bottom of Ditchling beacon. After a hot-dog and some lucozade sweets, I felt much improved, and we set off up Mount Everest

At the bottom of Ditchling, some people had already decided they were going to walk and people were going slowly so I struggled immediately at the start at the 'Death speed' (the slow speed I just can't move at)- I managed to drag myself up the steepest part onto the main angle, managing to overtake the people but the hill seemed so steep and I was very tired so I decided to stop and join the myriad others making the silent trudge of at least a km up the beacon. It was weird how silent everyone was!

CBC and co were waiting up the top for me, 2 of them managed to do it all in one go (amazing!!!!) and they greeted me as I reached the top just as the tiger sped past! Look how many people walked!

The view was beautiful up the top! It was highly windy!

The final 7 miles into Brighton was largely downhill! It was raining a lot and highly windy. At first it was a gentle slope but all of a sudden I encountered some MASSIVE long downhill down to the Brighton ring road. It was horrid as the marshalls were telling us to go slow because there had been 2 horrid accidents on the hill down. I am cautious so I obeyed, but at one point half way down, there was a guy speeding behind me and all of a sudden I heard a sickening crunch, heard a bloodcurdling cry of "AAAAAAAAH" and heard a thud as a guy was thrown over his handlebars. It was pretty scary, particularly as I just couldn't stop without the risk of someone going into me and going so fast and at that angle. I really hope he was ok. It shook those of us riders up as we descended to the main road, not sure what had happened.

We rode along the ring road, my new landmark was a guy who had been behind me on that hill who was sporting a rainbow 80's print skirt with lurid turquoise leggings! The sun seemed to know the exhaustion was soon to be over and shone upon our weary backs- a welcome friend! CBC and I somehow made it back together for the last 400 metres or so and we passed over the finish line together around 5.30pm! The tiger arrived some 5 minutes later!

It was amazing to have cycled the 54 miles of the ride (new personal best)! Can't quite believe I managed it!

(I wont go into detail on the 2.5 miles of steep hills we had to get back up to get back to the car on main roads! Sufficed to say B and I were NOT impressed!)

Somehow, after delivering WKWTTG back to his house and grabbing our stuff from my Dad's, I made it home at around 11.40pm absolutely cream-crackered!!!!!

It was a great day and I am glad I did it! The bodily pains are not too bad, so I am relieved, nothing I can't cope with! Hand is interesting!

Hurrah!

Loving it! Vintage style Cath!

Oh Cath Kidston, you are my love! I do so love your patterns! If only CBC would permit a Cath paradise! (CBC mentally shakes his head at the screen saying, "You do not need any more Cath Kidston!")

Having had to change my e-mail I am sad at missing out on the update e-mails from Cath that would have informed me about their clothing sale- all these were half price! Mind you, it would have been lethal for my bank balance! And I probably wouldn't have bought any of them because it would be bad to buy anymore dresses.

But check out these gorgeous dresses that were half price in the sale that sadly I missed out on before the instock symbol became an unhappy cross!



Here's the lovely Edith top with Peter pan collar- love the red detailing

Love this sailor ruffle dress- I really love red! Great length and the type of shape that flatters me being pear-shaped.

Love the collar on this- very 1940's style!

Hazel dress in Paisley! I particularly love the ostentatious blue buttons! V striking!

In the same dress style, I absolutely love this blue pattern- it's really cheerful with a naval edge, and the red detailing works perfectly against it! Great combination!

I love this Erin shirt dress. It's in the same pattern as the previous, again great red detailing! I could imagine wearing this for school with trousers underneath, feeling quite comfy (I have actually bought the paisley pattern version of this- shhhh, don't tell!)

This has that same classic collar as the floral Sandy one above. Love the buckle! So pretty- I love this royal shade- I had a great lace shift dress in this colour as a teenager which I loved wearing for special parties!

I love the collar on this! Red again. They also had it in black and yellow! So pretty and a great length

Technically not in the sale, and still available on Cath- these were one of the shoes that CBC had to drag me away from in Cath Kidston on Portobello road. I LOVE star patterns and I would LOVE to buy these except that they DON'T make them for large-footed people! Yep, they stop at size 40/Size 7! So, they belong to the same category as all these dress- gorgeous and elusive!


Making this post was cathartic. Acknowledging my love for these dresses makes it feel like I owned them or something! Just looking at pictures of these beautiful dresses makes me feel like I've almost managed to wear them! Sigh!

What do you think? Has anyone seen something too late, when it is sold out but still on the website!

Images from www.cathkidston.co.uk

1 day.... Lions and tigers and bears OH MY!

So London to Brighton is on Sunday!
In inimitable KezzieAG style, I am completely unprepared!

Lists lists, that's the way forward!

What do I need:

• Celeste x 1


• Helmet x 1


• Comedy padded shorts x1


• comfy socks


• Converse trainers x 1


• Suncream SPF 100 (if such things are possible!)


• sunglasses


• Hand sanitizer


• Cycling gloves


• Hoodie/cardie of some sort


• Leggings,


• Shorts/skirt


• Sleeved top!


• Vest top!


• Rain mac


• Some sort of MULE bars- energy bars


• Bananas!

How I am feeling:

Apprehensive: I haven't cycled for 2 weeks because we were busy trying to do work last weekend) and I have still only done 43 miles maximum. The hand is testimony to the power of prayer- it was getting worse and I asked church home group to pray for it on Wednesday night and it started to feel better on Thursday morning. I just hope it doesn't flare up again!

Disorganised: most of the above items are at CBC's house- so I will need him to bring them all for me, which I hope he remembers. I hate to be a pest esp when he has so much of his own to do, what with MA coursework. In addition, reports are due next week, maths plans need to be done, music plans to be prepared, oh and Dad's birthday card to be made by tomorrow! And Father's day card!

Nervous/terrified: 2 words: Ditchling Beacon

Sleepy: zzzzzzzzz

Positive: I am never one to give up! I will see things through to fruition (except evil Northumbrian hills- must conquer) I can do it!

Grateful: to all the wonderful people at school who have sponsored me. So generous,especially when there have been various other people doing the Moonwalk/Star trek etc.

Excited: I've been anticipating this event since February! It's a real challenge, but a great one. I am grateful every day that CBC taught me to cycle last year and how he has instilled me with his passion and enthusiasm for cycling. I always wanted to cycle, since I was young!

Please pray for no rain!!!!!

Can ya tell what it is yeht?

Papiermache. What were we making?

No hats- Rain plus ennui from taking photos of moi!!

10 to be thankful for

Gorgeous house I loved in Aldburgh

So many things!

1. For a wonderful Sunday in Aldburgh with CBC! The type of dreamy, lovely, crazy, restful, unpressurized day that sets everything to rights with yourself! The beauty of the place! The loveliness of CBC!

2. Despite my hand really causing me difficulty at the moment since cycling vast amounts- a friend suspects I have compressed my Ulnar nerve (Ahrgh, just seen this on Wiki! "Guyon's canal syndrome, sometimes called Guyon's tunnel syndrome, is a common nerve compression affecting the ulnar nerve as it passes through a tunnel in the wrist called Guyon's canal.[2] This problem is similar to carpal tunnel syndrome but involves a completely different nerve. Symptoms include a feeling of pins and needles in the ring and little fingers, and may progress to a burning pain in the wrist and hand followed by decreased sensation in the ring and little fingers. One common cause of this syndrome is from pressure of bicycle handlebars seen with avid cyclists. Another is from hard, repetitive compression against a desk surface while using a computer mouse." eeek) - it is a real blessing that we've had art week at school so I haven't had to do too much marking which is causing real pain when I have to do it. Great timing!
3. For a wonderful evening in which I enjoyed the company of dear, kind, genuine friends, praising and rejoicing!
4. For the skill of being able to prepare delicious food- I've really enjoyed people's cooking!
5. For my playground duty being a joy today. Children relaxed and getting on with each other, no injuries and lovely bright sunshine (plus little ones being cute!)
6. For my bed being so dreamy and soft- I am looking forward to sleep!
7. For a current respite from scrutiny, scrutiny, scrutiny at school, particularly this week!
8. For having a job in which I work with great, like-minded, humourous and kind individuals.
9. For Frank the year 3 hamster who makes me SMILE!
10. For lovely people who make me smile, including other lovely bloggers that make me look forward to turning my computer on!

Let them eat hats 7- white, floppy, slightly mangled.

Today was Colour Wednesday! Can you guess today's colour? Once again, a child guessed it! A different one this time!

Therefore, to fit in with today's colour scheme, I decided to accessorize my white floppy hat with a scarf of the appropriate colour!

This hat was one of the FIVE hats bought in the 2 day deadline to my Mum's wedding! It also didn't go with the ribbon dress when tested! I bought it from this wonderful shop that sadly has recently fallen foul of the recession/austerity times! It was called Hat-box in my local shopping centre and it used to have lovely hats of various sorts!

Over the years since being a hat-conscious 11 year old, I have bought hats from here, gloves, scarves and various accessories! They always had slightly cheaper but different hats! It got a bit mangled last Summer when I stuffed it into suitcases and carrier bags but is still lovely and versatile and I could never relegate a loyal hat to hat retirement home!

So funny tonight, I went to a bring and share dinner with my home group from church, so I made prawn vermicelli (see below!). Anyway, S. who I often see on my way to school was saying he lived near my school to someone else, at which point he turned to me and said, "I love your hats!" I hadn't noticed, but it turns out he's noticed my hat collection over the last couple of weeks! Hee hee!

Ahrgh! Today, chaos reigned supreme in the classroom. Painting and glueing papier mache models of famous London landmarks! Children + paint = AHRGH!

Let them eat hats part - 6 - the weird Balinese Burberry hat!

Thanks for the hat appreciation- lovely people, thank you for being so nice about my eccentric collection!

I keep making mistakes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays by wearing dresses or skirts, forgetting I have Nursery music lessons on these days, having to stand up, sit down, step around them, prance around in a generally manic fashion so today I remembered!

Therefore, the hat needed to go with the chilled out grey chinos that facilitated prancing and this hat fell out my hat box!

I bought it in Bali when I lived there from the Burberry shop in Kuta (location of the bomb) as a light hat I could wear walking around. I very much doubt it is real Burberry despite coming from the shop! I spent AGES in the Burberry store when I was there trying to choose a handbag for my sister who really wanted one (yuck I say- can't stand the beige Burberry pattern) and then saw this cute little hat. I must say it just looks WEIRD- it's sooooo close to my head- like something McDonalds employees wore in the 80's! Still, it serves its purpose! I'm so used to big hats that little ones seem perculiar

BTW what do you think of these- I bought these as a possible trouser to wear for cycling - I don't like fitted trousers usually (thigh fear), but I was standing by a girl at the traffic-lights the other day who wore a darling pair of coral trousers like this and I was inspired as they looked like they wouldn't get mangled in the pedals!

Of course I just managed to get mud and tomato-based pasta sauce over them in the space of 10 minutes this evening! Me + light trousers= disaster!

I had great fun getting nursery children to prance around with chiffon scarves dancing in time to Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag - it is a safe, ear-protecting way of helping them to feel the beat, engage with the emotions and musicality of classical (or any) music music which surprisingly engages even the reluctant ones including J, a child who usually sits there not joining in! (this in addition to glockenspiels, songs, games etc!)