LittleBirdyScraps

Scrap Whispers Game

More layouts from moi.   I've been such a busy bunny.  This morning I managed to get outside and do some gardening - it's unbelievable how much everything has grown.  I don't have a photo, although I might take some next time I'm out there, but I'm sure you can imagine the scene...

When I moved in here, twelve years ago now, the garden was knee-deep in grass, with a pond that we didn't realise was there until the children's dad stood in it whilst strimming.  There were some plants such as tulips and roses growing in the jungle, but the previous tenant had been alone since her husband died seven years earlier.  He was obviously a keen gardener but she couldn't manage much.

So we strimmed it and tidied it up, and over the years I've planted lots of stuff including various climbers to clothe the fences.  There's a huge honeysuckle and several clematis, a lovely virginia creeper, something called a Lisii wotsit, and a lovely Zepherine Drouhin rambling rose which this year put on a fantastic display.  I've planted hollyhocks and delphiniums and grown coral poppies from seed;  there are peonies and roses, several varieties of heuchera and about a dozen different geraniums.  Out the front I planted a big native hedge which has grown to huge proportions, and I erected a fence - properly, using cement for the posts, which is more than I can say for any of the fences others have put up around this property.  There is a brick path leading to the front door and a little terrace at the end of the back garden.  The pond has been redug about three times.

But.  For two or three years now I haven't made time to to out in the garden except in dire emergencies such as when the grass/weeds were threatening to take over the house.  Having planted a high-maintenance garden, my work and my studies have discouraged me from maintaining it! So I have a fantastic collection of native weeds.  The soil is very good because I have always gardened organically and added lots of stuff to it, and the wide border in the front garden is rich with leaf mould from the trees all around here.  Unfortunately this means that everything grows in abundance, and this year particularly, with all the rain and the early warmth, things are shooting skyward.  The roses I pruned back this morning had stems like tree trunks; some of them, and the late-flowering clematis in the front garden, are blooming so high up that I couldn't see them until I cut back the monster buddleia.

So this is my project for the next couple of months.  I'm going to keep at the weeds - which is mostly what needs doing - and pester the Housing Trust to fix the fences, and make quite a few trips to the dump to empty out my poor neglected greenhouse which has been used as a general dumping ground, until it is all lovely again.

Here are the layouts, by the way!

This is for the Scrap Whispers game that's just finishing, and I used my Handmade Hannah grab box for this one.  The photos are of Daughter opening her birthday present.  Check out the heart, I was quite pleased with that!  I think something else is needed, and I might add to the page later.  Or I might not, lol.

Another one made with the grab box:

The heart is cut from some Jenny Bowlin packaging - from the crepe paper ribbon I used the other day.  Needed a couple of passes through the machine but it was a great way of using up scraps, for the wings and background heart as well.

 

 

Brave Little Soldier

I spent all day yesterday in bed.  Oh yes I did.  It went like this:

Friday evening, out to BluesFest.  I've never been to this before, it takes place fairly locally and a band that we like to call chums were playing.  We took a brolly because it was supposed to rain, but - joy! - it didn't.  Sadly I was driving, so couldn't drink, but you can't have everything.

After the aforementioned band had finished playing we went to say hello to a couple of them and ended up spending the next hour or so round the back of the stage area (I pretended we were backstage but it wasn't anything of the sort) having a jolly sociable time.  This made me feel special, dear reader.  Another singer we know came to say hello and asked if we were going to his gig later in the evening.  Yes of course, I gushed.

Only problem was that, about fifteen minutes before his gig was due to start we realised that we had to pay for it because it was in the theatre rather than the outside bit.  And, quite apart from the fact that we didn't want to spend much money, we didn't actually have any left.

At this point we went home.  But it was a most enjoyable evening.

Fast forward to next morning (oh, and when I got home on Friday I had a couple of beers whilst messing about on here.  I really don't think that's important, tho....)

When I woke up I. Felt. Like. Cack.  At first I thought it was a hangover but soon realised that in fact I was Ill.  Unfortunately I had to get out of bed and drive to Esher (about ten miles away) to collect Daughter's camping equipment.

Oh dear, the back stories are piling up, aren't they.

Daughter camped out at Sandown Race Track on Friday night so that she could be right in front of the stage when McFly played yesterday afternoon during the Something Summer Thing Festival (can't be bothered to remember what it's called, teenybop stuff).

Anyway, I felt bloody awful, thought I was going to keel over in the driving seat and crash the car, so when I got home I went straight back to bed.  Three hours later I woke up, not feeling much better, and realised that I might have died and no-one would be any the wiser.  Next door I could hear  Visible Teenager and Youngest blipping and beeping and crashing away on the Xbox and the Other Laptop.  I called Youngest in and asked, weakly, for a cup of nettle tea.  He said: 'Can't you make it?'  Well, durr.  Obviously not, look at how ill I appear to be.  'You can't be that bad,' he said, 'if you can use the laptop'.

Eventually I did get a cup of tea.  I had to ring my my man, however, and subtly direct him to my Facebook page wherein I had written the above comment about dying.  Weakly (I'm good at weakly) I mentioned that we didn't have any food in the house either, which was almost true.  So later he appeared on my doorstep with an enormous Tesco's paella which was extremely yummy.

Then - THEN, dear reader, at half past bloody eleven that evening, I had to rouse myself from my sick bed once more, and collect Daughter and her two friends from the aforementioned teenyboppers' gushfest.

But today I felt better.  Which was just as well because Visible Teenager lumbered into my room at 9am and grunted something about taking him and Youngest to the station.  He did give me the option of a station three miles away, or one five miles away.  I opted for the three-miles-away one, on the basis that yesterday when I was ill I might have been dead etc etc etc.

Obviously I ended up taking him to the five-miles-away one.  Parenthood=guilt; they were Already A Bit Late and were going to be Really Late if I took them to the three-miles-away one.  So late, in fact, that it would be Hardly Worth Going.

Anyway.  On to the point of this post.  Haha.  I have done another couple of AC LOs.  Getting the hang of it now. 

 

I printed these out specially to use with the Travel papers.

 

This one has come out a bit blurry round the middle (like me) because of that felt flower.

I'm pleased with the felt flower, which I made after reading a tutorial in Creating Keepsakes.  It's a strip of felt folded in half and fringed with a pair of scissors.  In the mag they made two strips for two layers, but I just curled one round.  Looks a bit uneven in the photo cos it's squashed against the scanner glass.

This is going to be a good way to use up lots of felt, as I have some brightly coloured stuff and would like to get rid of some before I buy more neutral shades.  I might try it with paper as well, it's an excellent idea and it does look very nice in felt.

So - what have I learned about using American Crafts papers?  Well, first of all you need to have a plain paper, or a toned-down one like the yellow background I've used above, for each patterned paper.  Second, you need to use some black/white as a foil for those bright colours.  And third, it works best if you gather together all the supplies you have from one collection.  Since I got all my AC stuff in my prize pack, I do have lots of rub-ons and some flair badges and some of the Details which are the felt/vinyl layered stickers.  Also a set of Travel ribbons.

I'm really pleased I made the effort to improve my AC scrapping now!  I thought I'd made quite a hole in my papers but then I realised that I still have two or three collections which I'd separated from the rest, including Craft Fair which I really like.

Stuff I Done

Okay, as threatened here are some LOs I have made.

I seem to be stuck in a bit of a rut at the moment, trying to scramble up the paper mountain before it engulfs me.  Haven't done any cards or stampy stuff for a while, but then I do have loooooads of photos to scrap and like I said, looooooads of paper.  Entirely my fault as I was making quite a hole in it and then I just HAD to go and buy some more, didn't I....

Anyway, first up is a page including the photo I showed you earlier.

I'm not so sure what my mojo's doing at the moment, and I think I need to reorganise my scrap space.  I've got to that point where I'm not entirely sure what I've done with certain things, and it's too much trouble to get stuff out/clear a space on my desk.  This afternoon I started making a list of different types of supplies and it's very long.  I thought if I had this list somewhere it might act as a prompt to use, say, metal embellies, or tape, or buttons, whatever wasn't at the forefront of my tiny mind.

I still think it's a good idea but a list is a bit boring; I was thinking I could make a sort of mini prompt-book....leave it with me, lol!

Anyway, first up is a page including the photo I showed you earlier.

 

Looks a bit forlorn doesn't he, lol.

As you can see, I got the Mama Razzi out and used one pathetic strip on this page!

Next is my camping LO.  I have been dying to use the Mr Campy and because these photos are small I wanted a fairly unfussy page.  I think I've achieved it but I'm still not happy.  Sigh.....At least I used the Jolees eagle sticker that's been lurking for a couple of years in my drawer!

And these are two LOs I made using the Papermania summer papers I mentioned earlier.  I think they're gorgeous, and because I'm always a bit sparing with the embellishments I've got loads left over.  Not much paper, but enough to make a mini book and use all the chipboard, stickers and die cuts.

 

I'm thinking that maybe I should keep a black journaling pen on my desk upstairs, as I can see some doodling that wants doing on one of these pages.  I've got a white one that I just used on the last page.

Yummy stamps

Omigod my man is on his way to pick me up and I am unshowered.  Ooer.  Okay, quickie.

Here are the gorgeous stamps I received today, bought on an impulse yesterday because they were reduced lots.

 

They're the Prima Build-a-frame stamps, and having swotted up yesterday via youtube on how to use them, I made myself a mask thingy for mitring the corners with and managed to do this to a sheet of 12x12

 

I was dead chuffed with that, I've got big plans for these stamps now, lol.

So I made this layout for one of Shimelle's challenges, which was to journal round the edges.  I'm sorry about the lack of links, I will edit this tomorrow and add some, but for now I don't want to get caught in front of the laptop in my pyjamas when we're supposed to be going out!

 

I made the flower using the spiral-cut circle method that I've been seeing everywhere, and then I squashed it before something else did.

Okay, now have time to edit!  I want to say that I'm really pleased I bought these stamps - I did click on 'buy now' and 'checkout' and 'confirm payment' with my eyes squeezed tight shut, because I don't have enough money to buy stash at the moment.  Strangely, this hasn't stopped me, although I can ignore most of the sales quite easily

Anyway, this LO shows Daughter fixing the car door.  Whilst we were leaving Tesco's, in a tearing hurry because tomorrow it was time to drive to Cornwall, I slammed my door shut and the window, which has to be manually encouraged to go down and up, dropped right inside the door.  I did poke about as much as possible and came up with a strip of rusty metal which wasn't letting go of whatever it was attached to.

Now, this made me think that we were going to have problems using the car to go on holiday.  However, there was a part of me that was convinced it could be fixed, and I'm delighted to say that Daughter appears to have inherited whatever gene created this conviction.  When we got home she barged past me where I stood waving the Haynes manual around and bleating about my screwdriver collection, and started fixing things.

(My screwdriver collection is sad, and has been brought to its knees by Youngest, whose enthusiastic adventures in the back garden usually involve poking, slashing and flaying various objects with the help of the contents of my tool box, which then get abandoned in the grass.  I have: Three eNORmous screwdrivers which are obviously for building suspension bridges with; a brilliant extending screwdriver which unfortunately incorporates a crappy storage system for the bits, all of which are gradually disappearing; an RAC kit which has lost not only some of its bits, but the tiny magnet which makes said bits stay in the top of the screwdriver;  one remaining Philips screwdriver on which the hollow plastic handle is broken so that when I use it, skin is removed from the palm of my hand.  Mmmmm.....)

So - Daughter fixed the door.  I say 'fixed' because the window is now back where it should be.  Anyone who has taken bits off cars, however, will be aware that the phrase 'carefully prise cover off' translates as 'spend ten minutes attempting to remove plastic bit with screwdriver before becoming impatient and applying a tiny bit more pressure, thus causing every lug or flange or whatever the damn things are called, to snap off and fly across the road, so that when it is time to replace the plastic bit/entire inside of the car door, there is nothing left with which to attach it'.

But apart from that it was fine...

We were also challenged by Shimelle (this may link to a random challenge, but you can find the home page can'cha???) to use four or more patterned papers in a LO.  Here's mine:

 

I could do a load more in this vein - lots of scraps.

Still have a long list of challenges from Shimelle, including the photo ones that I haven't uploaded yet.  There's an entirely reasonable deadline of Tuesday morning, so do yourself a favour and join in with a few challenges over the next couple of days...

Heritage LOs

Someone on UKS has asked for people to show her examples of their heritage layouts.  I can't be faffed trying to shrink my pages small enough to go in the gallery on there, so I'm just going to post some on here in case they are of interest.

Not sure if this one qualifies, as the photo's only 40 years old, but it's black and white so what the hell!

Colour photo but older, lol!

 

This one's a bit more lacy...

 

The page above is one of my faves - a bit more traditional, I guess.

Lots of my 'heritage' pages are quite brightly coloured...

 

Although there's nothing quite like the vintage look.....

 

I'm going to just post the more vintage-y ones now!

 

 

 

 

 

Just one more...

Just one more....

 

Just one more.....

I've stopped now......;D

Scrap Whispers Challenge and Pencil Lines sketches

Today on Scrap Whispers we have a nice gentle challenge to ease you back into the weekly routine!  We have all created a card for all occasions.  This is mine:

 

I used one of the few Nestabilities sets I have, and the last few stickers from a butterflies sheet. Both the little flower stamp and the greeting are from a sheet of stamps that came free with a magazine - I've used the flower a lot, it's a good size and you can stamp on the back of a piece of paper that's been sprayed or inked, then cut the flowers out.  I did these flowers a while ago and they've been stamped onto pink paper before the centres were coloured with a green (?) souffle pen.

Take a look at the other cards the DT (those of us who haven't gone on holiday, lol!) have come up with, and while you're at it maybe you'd like to try joining in with our next game of Scrap Whispers, which is signing up now!

I've also done a couple of pages for two of the past month's Pencil Lines sketches.  Quite coincidentally they're both school brother-and-sister photos!  This one is of our Scottish cousins, quite a few years ago now

I've had to edit it a bit because the scan'n'stitch program actually cut off half of two edges and although I normally just crop it down, I wanted to get the stitching in for once! 

Particularly pleased with this because I used loads of scraps - all the strips are more or less as they came out of the drawer!

And here are my two:

 

See how it's gone all super-girlie, lol, and it's got a boy in it!  It just sort of happened, honest!  I'm pleased with the flowers, although once again the edges are missing and you can't see my sewing, boo hoo!

In case I forget to bore you with it tomorrow, on Sunday we are going camping.  Oh yes.  Having completely not bothered to try and book a cottage, it completely serves me right that I am going to be sleeping on a lilo for nights on end.  Only not as many nights as I intended.

It all started out promisingly when we went into my mum's garage last week and dragged out the tent my friend gave me about mmfm years ago.  Amazingly, we managed to erect it without anyone being punched, although there was a hairy moment about half way through when my  mother was discovered peering at the gazebo poles she'd used as plant supports (thus rendering them utterly unusable for their intended purpose) and wondering if they went with the tent.  They didn't.

We couldn't work out how the extra awning bit went up, we might take it to amuse ourselves while we're down there.

Down there is Cornwall.  We thought we would go on Monday or something, but when I mentioned this to Invisible Teenager, he looked disappointed because he actually wants to keep to the arrangement we made to go out on Thursday night.  Well that's okay, I said, flattered that he was prepared to be seen with me in public, we'll go on Friday and come back Thursday morning.

Home we went, and Daughter spent the next half hour or so rearranging her week's plans.  All ticketty-boo.  Until Youngest came in and started waffling on about his evening at the local nightclub on Saturday.  Oops. 

Well, of course he doesn't want to cancel it, and of course Daughter called him all sorts of names and flounced and pranced and wailed and burst into tears.  Don't know where she gets it from.

The upshot is that we are going on Sunday and coming back on Thursday, and God help me.  The reason they want to go where they want to go, is that there is a bar on the beach.  An akshul pub, with live music sometimes.  So I will have no other adult to keep me company, and any attempt to have a sneaky fag with my pint of beer will result in Youngest giving me a pigging lecture.  And Daughter talks in her sleep, and the last time I camped with her she threw up all over the bedchamber in the midst of the night.  Bleugh.

On the plus side, I discovered that the gas canister for the camping stove - which works! - is full up.  This slightly makes up for the £100 I had to spend on getting the boot lock fixed so that we can load and unload the camping equipment without having to send a chimney sweep's boy through the back seats to fiddle about with the hook that unlocks the door from the inside....

Wish me luck, do.

Another Collection Bites the Dust...

Well, no.  (I have just tried to type the word 'well' six times.  I haven't even had a drink, not for about a fortnight.  So what's the point - hang on a mo while I got and get myself some wine.)

Okay, sbetter.  Now, I have yet again been stash-busting (I'm serious about this,you know!) and have made this out of some Crate Paper and some flowers, and flowers are things I don't often use.  However, I do like spraying them with Cosmic Shimmer mists, and really I don't know how I managed without these little bottles for so long.

 

So, as you can see, it is not a whole collection at all.  I do in fact have several more sheets of the MME Laundry Line collection in my stash, but they are the glittered and varnished ones which I am saving for minibook covers as they are far too gorgeous to be hidden away anywhere.

Then I made this one using some of the vast array of American Crafts stuff I received in my Scrapbooker of the Year prize.  I do struggle a little with the papers, as they don't have the depth and distressing/grunge that I go for.  However, they do use lovely bright colours which I like, and I've got loads of Flair and Remarks and various other bits and pieces.

 

This is a picture I really like, of Invisible Teenager sitting on the doorstep of our old home.  We actually lived in the attic flat at the top, it had one bedroom and by the time we moved out we had three children.  Last week I was talking to one of the guys who turns up for the jam session on a Monday night.  I've seen him singing there, and at a couple of other venues, many times.  After I'd been chatting to him for a few minutes (having greeted him by name), he said 'So where do you know me from, then?'  I'll forgive him because he is knocking on a bit.  Anyway, the point is that when I asked him about where he lives, it turns out that he lives in the very same street that we lived in, in Lambeth.  About three doors down from the one in the photo!

Use It Up....Wear It Out....

Well, use it up, anyway.  I can't see me actually wearing any of my stash out anywhere.  Speaking of which, we had a bit of a debacle at school yesterday.  Lemme show you the LO I just finished, first:

 

I have used up the rest of the Vintage Yummy sheet with all the frames on it, including what was left of the die-cut strip.  Also one of my favourite stroking papers, the Cosmo Cricket Early Bird of which I have two sheets.  I had a brainwave and cut up a chipboard border to make the little file tabs - I was particularly pleased with that one!  And the rub-ons are from a brand new Bo Bunny pack.  I'm not great at opening packs of rub-ons but hopefully now I will continue to use this one.  Not only that, but I chopped the biggest rub-on about a bit and used it in a couple of places on the page.

As for the school debacle, I am sooooooo glad I have a day off today.  Those of you who work in a school will know how a supply teacher can make children's behaviour take a nose-dive, and how rubbish their behaviour is at this end of the school year anyway.  If you work with, or possess, Year  6 children then you will be aware that they are particularly up themselves just before they are launched into Year 7.

So yesterday they all came in wearing specially made hoodies, in a variety of colours, with 'Leavers '10' on them.  They were very nice hoodies, with the school logo on the front and the number 10 made up of lines of text containing all their names.

As soon as I saw them, I thought: 'Oh.'  Somebody did ask me later what exactly was wrong with them wearing the hoodies to school, and I appreciate that views on this may be mixed.  I think the biggest problem with the hoodies, for me, was that in my opinion - and having had four Y6 children myself, remember - I think they are quite full enough of themselves, and possessed of a sufficiently inflated ego, to make the wearing of special garments a bit superfluous.

 Also, not all the children had them.  Nearly all the children had them, but some clearly couldn't afford them.  I'm already a bit fed up with the annual hug-fest that accompanies the offer of a place at a 'posh' school.  This year a number of teachers from various secondary schools came in to talk to the kids who were going to their particular schools in September.  Only two girls are going to the local selective girls' school, yet the class teacher spent about half an hour in deep conversation with the teacher from this school, leaving the class with me.  The inference was that these girls were far more important than anyone else because they had got into a 'better' school.

All this from a hoodie!

Anyway, the children had been told by their class teacher that they could wear the hoodies to school.  Sadly she hadn't actually checked this with the head, who also thought it a bad idea and told them they could wear them at break, before and after school, but not during lesson time as they are not school uniform.  It didn't really matter what he said, because unless they were getting totally their own way a small group of girls did nothing but pout and fold their arms and wag their heads and hands, whilst ATTITUDE poured from them like rainwater from my faulty guttering (can't get out the door when it's raining).

Unfortunately, it was the same group of mouthy girls who then discovered that some mirror tiles they had decorated for sale on Open Evening, had been confiscated from the spare classroom when the class teacher found what a horrendous mess they had made of the carpet.  More folded arms, pouting, wagging, backchat.  How outrageous that someone should hold them accountable for their own actions!  And of course, while this was going on and I was trying to deal with it (only TA in the classroom), another child who hadn't taken her medication, clouted her friend for no apparent reason.  Other than lack of medication, obviously.

By the afternoon I was ready to make a big pile of the hoodies and set a match to them.  By this point the children had been asked to write a poem for their teacher, who is retiring at the end of the term.  You won't catch me shedding any tears over her departure.  She is a great big spoilt drama queen, who shouts at the children, particularly the child I support who has Aspergers and cries every day after school because the day is so hard for him.  She speaks to her colleagues like dirt and creates a huge fuss when anything happens that might inconvenience her.  The heating not working, for example, or a long-standing after-school club using the hall when she wants it.  Everything is aimed personally at her,  you understand. 

She doesn't make drinks, pull her weight in the staff kitchen,  or do anything without at least 2 TAs running around after her.  The parents think she is jolly super because whenever they are about she puts on a horrible false smile, oozing saccharine, and talks in a very bright jolly hocky sticks voice about how wonderful the children are, what little scamps, but aren't I just a natural teacher and so universally loved for my loveliness.

You can imagine, therefore, how enthusiastic the child I support, and I, felt about staying in the classroom a moment longer listening to the poems about what a wonderful teacher she is, better than all the rest, and how people were obviously going to need counselling or at least copious quantities of tissues, in order to cope with her leaving.  Later in the day I wrote my own poem, but it is a little coarse and I will not be repeating it here.

In order to avoid vomiting, we decamped to the library where I drank coffee and read Jacqueline  Wilson while he looked at a book about space.  Mostly he asked me questions about religion and black holes and the Super Mario Brothers, and we both learnt much more than we would have done had we stayed in the classroom.

I can barely wait for the end of term.  Tomorrow I fear I will have to assist in the French Cafe at Open Evening where we have berets on our heads and a moustache (I chose to have a moustache last year in an effort to make the experience more fun) and listen to the children trying to speak French as they wait on their parents.

I have a large list of things to do today, of which this isn't even one.  However, tomorrow's Blog Hop is.  Check out Scrap Whispers later tomorrow, where you should see Kelly's tutorial for making a brilliant mini-album, and our interpretations of the technique.

Hope to see you then!

Something Completely...

Completed!  (I do like these half-and-half titles, don't I.)

I haven't bought any paper for aaaaaaaaaaaaages, and it's so bad that I'm actually fresh out of pizza boxes.  Despite the fact that I generally get about half the ones I send off, back.  It's like when you haven't done any food shopping and there are no carrier bags for the wastepaper bins.

However, I really and trooooooly cannot buy any more paper until I use at least half of what I've got.  I seem to have made quite a large hole in the Basic Grey, and today I made this

 

which uses quite a bit of Sugared.  See how I have layered!  I even used the back of a long-stashed piece of sei, which I attacked with my Martha Stewart punch, the new doily lace one!  (Well, a second hand doily lace one.)  Underneath the flower stickers you can see the Paper Artsy Hot Picks flower from the plate I bought last month.  Yum.  There does seem to be something missing from this LO when I look at it on here, altho in real life I thought it was nicer than the following one

 

...which is now looking better when I see it on here.  But let us not become introspective about what we have done with our paper.  We have used some of it up.  Emboldened by this, I expect to spend a few days ripping sheets of paper from my Costco Paper Cart with enthusiasm, and layering them so thick on the pages that I can't fit the damn things into the page protectors.

Just had a bit of a nasty shock when I read on Daughter's Facebook page that she only has two more days of school this term.  It's bad enough that Visible Teenager has finished college and is bumming around in his tight little boxers, breaking wind and taking up entire sofas.  He has every right to walk around in his boxers, to be fair, as he works out about twenty times a week and is very buff.  He would literally kill me if he read this, so no telling. 

Sadly his temperament gets no such attention and he is surly to the point of self-endangerment.  I have told him about the time when his father wound me up soooooooooo badly that I actually grabbed him by the ears and propelled him across the kitchen causing his head to make contact with the wall-mounted bread bin.  Reader, rarely have I felt such satisfaction; it stays with me to this day.  This is, of course, not a model of violent behaviour but a warning to very irritating men to tone down the irritation factor when dealing with hormonal women, such as those who have just given birth to baby number three whilst living with a shiftless ne'er-do-well in a one bedroom attic flat.

I'm not like that now.  Although I did once square up to Visible Teenager on the (narrow) landing, when his bullying of Youngest reached unacceptable levels.  'Bloody hell', he squeaked, 'you nearly knocked me over the banisters.'  Yep.  Remember that feeling.

This morning I had an email from Youngest's form tutor.  I suspect that someone has told him it is okay to get in touch with me as I will actually back up the school in their dealings with my children, which is true.  You make a rod for your own back, dear reader, if you start scuttling in to educational establishments every time they decide to give your child a detention for being a little herbert.   It's hard at first, but just bear in mind that the teacher is right, your child is a herbert, their excuse for not doing their homework was rubbish, and whatever said child told you in relation to any incident whatsoever, is as much of a lie as they feel they can get away with.

I do feel, however, that it is reasonable for them to listen to my opinion on these matters.  Never let it be said that I don't value my own opinion, bwahahaha.  In this particular instance, Youngest's form tutor told me that Youngest is being kept on Report for a bit longer.  Being On Report involves the victim carrying round a piece of paper (or 'book' as it is known in the case of Youngest) with a grid for each day's lessons on which the teacher gives the victim a mark for his or her behaviour.  The victim has to reach a certain standard of behaviour in a certain number of sessions, in order to come off  Report.  Youngest has rather a high target, of 41 out of 45 sessions.

So.  This email said that Youngest is remaining on Report, for a bit longer, for the following reasons: 1.  He has not reached his Report target.  2) he is not very organised and keeps mislaying his Report.

Now, maybe it's just me, but as I said to Form Tutor, would both these problems not be solved in one fell swoop, were you to remove Youngest from being on Report?

I am reminded of that sign that says 'please do not park in front of this sign'.  Think about it.

I won't tell any of this to Youngest, tho.  As far as he's concerned, his teachers have my permission to string him from the nearest tree should his pencil be less than sharp.

I am now going to do something chilled, since my friend gave me a few bottles of  Pear Drax in exchange for some tins of Winalot (I have fab griends) and the first one went down very nicely.  I will therefore have another one and pretend I'm sitting by the river on a sunny evening.

(Haha, I said griends, this cider ish shtronger than I thought....)

Scrap Whispers Challenge 61

Thank you, Marit, for pointing out that I had forgotten to blog!  I am doing it now, and I will be over to yours immediately afterwards should I manage to stay awake that long!

This evening I have been cybercropping, which is an entirely new experience for me.  To tell you the truth, I'm knackered, having completed two LOs.  I didn't do them as quickly as many other people, mind you.  But my excuse is that I had nothing prepared, despite having printed out the supply lists a week ago!  I'll show you one now:

 

We were supposed to use a mini bingo card but I only had a big one so I cut it in half.  Actually,  you can see the other one too

 

This one was a bit wrong because I failed to properly understand the directions for cutting the larger frame, durr!  I was tired, tho!

Anyway, Challenge 61 at Scrap Whispers is a fun one, the last before our big relaunch next week, of which more in a future post.  We used the lyrics from 'Can't Smile Without You' by the lovely Barry Manilow (don't laugh, I used to have an album by him!) and I came up with this

 

This is my fave cousin Malcolm, again.

Okay, I have blogged, I have cropped, I have commented, I am very tired.....good night gentle reader, I'm sure I'll have more for you in the morning, including maybe some of my lovely stamps wot I bought recently!