Peace

It's hard to even believe that the events of the last week have even happened. Can we really be in a time when - after/during (because it's not over) a global pandemic, an awful take-over by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the amount of floods, fires, starving people, the energy crises, the devastating realisation that our Earth is in complete jeopardy over the climate crises - that we have a full-scale, unprovoked war on Ukraine?  And  one led by a very ruthless, unpredictable leader who threatens anyone who stands in their way.  One with many weapons of Mass Destruction.  I'm not very good at writing about this type of thing. I am not, as a rule, one who reads or watches the news much, or feels like I have much wisdom or ability to be articulate about such things.  But, I keep looking at pictures of Volodymyr Zelensky and wanting to cry and keep crying.  He has shown such courage and determination.  He has shown what a leader he is.  The Ukranian people are being so brave. I hope and pray that they will succeed and keep control of their country. I pray that Putin will stop what he is doing and that this will not I pray that he will not seek retribution for involvement and start using worse things. I pray that this can all be resolved peacefully and there will not be more bloodshed.  Every spare moment, I pray. I don't know exactly what to pray apart from  for peace and a peaceful resolution, that Ukraine will be free and that there will be no further issues  which does not lead to further conflict, that there will be no further danger.  Sometimes when I pray, I pray, "Please God," where I can't articulate exactly but hope and trust that he knows (there is a Bible quote about praying that expresses what I feel well- "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." (Romans 8:26).  ) I said to my friend, I wish that Putin had some sort of illness that had led him to do this (e.g. he wanted one last ditch attempt to do something) and that he had only done this because he knew his time was limited. Maybe that is naïve and stupid, and I know it's just a babyish thought but the thought went through my head. I told you I'm not very good at writing about this type of thing.

In my Singing assemblies for KS2,we have been doing a Russian theme this term- learning Russian folksongs and learning about Russian composers like Shostakovich (a composer who lived with a suitcase by his front door because he expected to be arrested by the KGB most days).   As I approached by Friday singing assembly with Year 6 & 4, I was planning to teach 'Minka', the next folk song and listen to Shostakovitch's much-loved Second Jazz Waltz.  I wasn't sure what to do...I wanted to carry on with my theme because, what we don't want is the vilification of all Russians and Russian culture or history because that's definitely a bad thing- we have children who are Russian in my school,we know that there are many,many Russians who do not agree with what is going on, and what we have been learning has been very much enjoyed and loved by the children. But at the same time, I didn't want them to think that I wasn't caring about what is going on. So I told the children that we mustn't ever vilify normal people for the actions of their government or leaders  (especially as Shostakovitch was one who suffered because of his leaders) and that we were going to continue with our theme but think about what was going on. Do you think I was wrong? 

Anyway, I wanted to say that I do want to write about my holiday and outfits and things but I haven't been able to bring myself to just yet without mentioning this. It just seems wrong.  I hope I can look back at this post in the future and think that this was the point that things changed. That goodness prevailed. 

Keep praying for peace. Even if you don't pray, even if you don't believe- I think we all need to pray for a miracle, pray for a peaceful outcome to this, to pray that things can change. And do what we are able to do to help. And ultimately, be kind, be loving and be peaceful in those circumstances we can control.

Forgive my rambling.

Much love and hugs to you.

May you sleep soundly.

TARDIS Tuesday- A second go at Yaz Khan's outfit from Ascension of the Cybermen

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Today's outfit is one I fairly recently featured on the blog- around 10 months ago in April 2021. 

It was worn by Yasmin Khan in the penultimate episode of Series 12 of Doctor Who, alongside Jodie Whittaker.  The frustrating thing about Yaz's outfits is she seems to firmly keep her ubiquitous leather jacket (literally only 4 occasions I can think of where she ISN'T wearing one!) on and you can't really see all the details of her jumpers and tops which makes them really hard to identify from a small gap between sides of the jacket.  Case in point, this top.  We could tell it was floral, sort of pinky, black and white in colour, had some sort of ruffle but beyond that, not much to go on.  What length sleeves? Was it sheer? What material? What exactly was that pattern? What exactly were the colours?  Last time I put togthis outfit, I wore a short-sleeved, wll almost sleeveless blous from Dorothy [erkins with had a triple layer of ruffles.

Anyway, recently, my instagram friend Anna, from Russia, posted a picture of her weaering THE blouse!  In her search for antoher Yaz blouse (which someone else managed to recently identify, IT having a slightly less ambiguous pattern and shape especially since promo trailers had her WITHOUT her wretched jacket on), she somehow found THIS blouse in her search as it was from the samebrand- the ridiculously over-priced All Saints (beloved of Clara AND Yaz for jackets as well as Amy AND River Song!).  She happened to have snagged two at a very reasonable price (not the RRP of £120) and offered to send me one.  And so here it is!

These photos were taken as Storm Franklin was building himself up- my hair was going everywhere!

The most interesting part of this outfit is of course the floral blouse- the rest of it is the standard boring Yaz accompaniments- 

Leather jacket- check (usual Clara one which cost me £5)

Black jeans - check (usual ASOS black work trousers used for every Skinny jean reference ever in a cosplay outfit. There's no way I'm ever getting in skinny jeans)

Yaz's Dune Pacey flatform boots- check (in the alternate black colour from her burgundy ones)

And that's that!  A comfy outfit, good for a chilled day when you aren't doing too much running around or cycling!

First day back at school today was ok.  Nothing amazing but not the worst either.

You?

x

Half term happiness

 Hi All,

Greetings and hope you are well!  It's the last night of the half term holiday and I've finally made it here onto the blog to show my face!

I have to say, this holiday has been a really good one for a few reasons and has been a much needed antidote for me.

• We spent 6 days in Antwerp plus night at a hotel 5 minutes walk from St Pancras station. 6 nights away in a new place!
• Having a complete change of scene was just what we needed
• The weather blessed us for much of the time in Belgium there was sun and not too cold- made such a difference to mood.
• We had a really lovely apartment in a really nice and salubrious part of the city
• Really comfortable bed meant I had lots of sleep.
• Most nights we went to bed at a reasonable hour (e.g. before 11pm and slept through the night till 9am). I didn't have my waking up fretting at 5am for no apparent reason despite being exhausted and not being able to go back to sleep again.
• Eating lunch and dinner out for 6 days made such a difference in terms of energy and enthusiasm
• Antwerp is lovely!
• I got to meet one of my favourite blogging friends (more on that soon!) and feel so grateful and glad for our friendship.
• Bought a couple of nice things in Antwerp (see previous point!) 
• Feeling so refreshed, having got home on Thursday night around 9.30pm, the next morning, we awoke at a reasonable hour and because I felt so replenished, I was able to get right on with hoovering, some cleaning and tidying, putting washing in, putting washing away and getting on with the previously insurmountable pile of marking that had been building for a term and a half.  I am ashamed to say I had got completely behind on all that marking and had not been recording the results in my assessment sheets. Well, I worked my way through pretty much all of it and put the data on sheets. I was then able to do my 540 reports (fairly easy as only had to report an effort and progress grade but doing that for 540 pupils,checking against data takes a while) and get on with some of the planning that I had got behind on. I still have some work to do on that (but because I haven't got Mount Marking looming lugubriously behind me, I don't feel so worried and overwhelmed about it) and one or two other bits but I will get it done.
• Doing the marking, I was very proud of my Year 6's who nearly all did well in their Listening to Baroque cantatas and concerti and were able to name an impressive array of Baroque composers as part of one question.  This was work from that last day of the half term and the kids were really enthusiastic during their listening lesson.  I told the children about Bach's Coffee Cantata as an example, a secular cantata about a girl who was obsessed with Coffee which they found hilarious. At the end of the lesson, they begged to hear it (we'd been listening to a cantata about hunting) and when they listened, one of the 'cool' boys found it so entertaining and funny that the girl was singing, "Coffee! Coffee!" in an operatic voice, that he kept giggling!
• Read 3.5 good children's books which I look forward to sharing with kids at school.
• Had a nice lunch out on Saturday late afternoon- new cafe in town was empty and we had it to ourselves for a yummy lunch.  Whilst waiting for my food, I managed to nip to the library to get a book out (I think it was National Libraries day on Saturday or something?) and nipped into the Charity shop and picked up a cute lightweight top, a brilliant Jennie Maisels pop-up Grammar book and a Harry Potter for the school library.
• Put together some cute outfits- felt inspired to do this!

I'm going back tomorrow feeling lighter and long may that feeling last.

Hope you too are well and refreshed!

xx

From the archives: Hide Clara hide!

Since I am missing TARDIS Tuesday this week, I thought I'd share a post from the archives from June 2015 that never made it into the labelling stage of TARDIS Tuesday.  I like it because my hair looks great!

Hide Clara, Hide

TARDIS Tuesday comes round again!

I'm trying to alternate between TARDIS Blue and inspiration from Who characters so this week I'm returning to New Who and using my beloved Clara Oswald as inspiration.

When I saw this outfit in 'Hide' I knew it would be one I could made a nod to as I've had this starry blue Mango dress for a good few years- it made it onto the blog about 4 years ago!

Clara from Hide at Pinterest

I had a navy knitted blazer cardie but it wasn't until I thrifted this Next blue blazer with Hazel and Sophie that I thought I should finally try to 'cosplay' it.  Yes, I know, the dress isn't exact but if you google 'Clara Cosplay Hide', you'll see a lot of dresses like mine!

The shoes are for Sunday best! (CBC says my shoes are better than Clara's!)  Clarks and the tights are true blue, thank you F21 for finding me a replacement for my school tights!




You know the drill, if you are wearing something TARDIS blue or British blue or Doctor Whoish, do join in and link up.  Thank you to the lovelies who have already joined up!  Thanks to Kathrine and Denise who joined in last week!

TARDIS Tuesdays

Welcome to TARDIS Tuesdays. I hope you don't find the name of the linkup too daunting or obscure; I just like alliteration is all.

Because the parameters are really simple. Every Tuesday, wear something inspired by Doctor Who: the Doctor (fez, bowtie, cowboy hat, pinstripes), his adversaries (metallics, angels), his Companions (Clara has the best outfits; just do a Pinterest search).

Of course, you can take inspiration from the TARDIS itself, which means as long as you're sporting some sort of blue in your ensemble, you are eligible to join in!

Please include a link to :: My Closet Catalogue :: somewhere in your post so you can be an ambassador of fun.

Allons-y!

1. SpyGirl - TARDIS for CAFAM

2. Petite Silver Vixen: My Riviera Moment: Ivory Embr

3. KezzieAG: Hide Clara, Hide

4. 9 tips to save time when thrifting | High Latitude

5. Maricel @ My Closet Catalogue

6. Bed race in Knaresborough | Anca's Lifestyle

7. Denise's Planet | DenisesPlanet.com

8. 4 Ways To Style Henk

9. Linen Maternity Dres

10. Cactus Leggings

11. Fashion Friday... Gr

12. The Fashion Files Sp

13. Paisley Maternity Ma

14. Triple Pattern Mixin

The collection has closed. Let other people know about it through twitter.

Handmade Valentines card ideas

Here's a post from February 2017 where I shared ideas for eco-friendly or handmade cards. Should you feel like dabbling in a burst of creativity, then here's your chance to be inspired

Super easy, eco-friendly Valentines Cards ideas

Hi there,

Just in case you have left it too late to buy a card or you fancy making your own, I thought I'd link to a few previous posts of mine in which I have shared simple ways to make cards:

 6 easy peasy Valentines cards you can make yourself

This Dot to dot post card was one of the 6 ideas I suggested in the post above.  This one, as you can see, is ridiculously easy to make.

Dot to Dot

Envelope hearts

As part of a Heart swap back in 2012, I made a box of heart cards for Tracy, my partner and this is a design I have made numerous times for engagement cards which uses recycled envelope inards in contrasting patterns. It could work well for Valentines too!

Heart swap post

The card below was the card I made for Tracy to accompany the gift, but I don't see why this couldn't work as a simple Valentines card. I used the heart stickers I had used as masks to paint her a heart mug, as they were still sticky, rather than chucking them away.

Just add stickers...

Citrus hearts

These card are not Valentines cards as such but since they contain hearts, they could be a nice non-soppy idea for someone in your life!

Hearty drink 

A slice of my heart

Ribbon hearts idea

If you click the link in the caption, you can see how I made this card by utilising those annoying ribbons in clothing that are for hangers but stick out of jumpers and dresses annoyingly.

Ribbons from clothing card

Buttons:
 Buttons can act like Mosaic pieces and I love a good mosaic! All the below were a case of arranging and sticking with PVA glue or sticky tape! If you save those buttons from clothing but never seem to use them, now is your time!

Button heart idea

The wedding card that could be a Valentines.

Rainbow buttons

Yet another button card... The background blue is from a Tissue box!

Office Essentials holepunch card

I had sooo much traffic to this Valentines idea post a few years ago, I think it was because it said the phrase, Office Essentials in it! Anyway, this one is another very non-soppy idea and rather like the buttons is a form of mosaic but with hole-punched pieces from some paper that was going into the recycling.

Holepunch valentines

Origami hearts:
 If you look for a You tube tutorial, this is where I got this idea from for Origami hearts. These ones were made out of old envelopes! I am TERRIBLE at Origami but I found these super easy and I even managed to get one of the girls in the office to make one for her boyfriend by showing her how.

Origami hearts

Scrap card mosaic:

Most of the card in this mosaic for my husband came from tissue boxes, junk mail or other packaging except for the holographic one- have a look and see what packaging can be used!

And finally, here is yet another mosaic card idea,but this was the first Valentines my now-husband made for me back in 2010, so it's not just me who likes to give the crafty idea a go!!!! If I can find any of his other ones, I will post them..

Do you have any Valentines cards ideas? Do share if so and let me know if you use any of these!

Much love,

Kezzie xx

Linking up with Creative Mondays at Claire Justine's! So long since I last linked up!