Linda's blog

I haved finally moved - come and join me over here.

I am still here and things are looking up a little and I will update soon. 

Thanks to everyone who has sent kind thoughts and good wishes, they have been very much appreciated.

I have decided to move to Blogger and will post a link here as soon as I can find the time to get things finalised.

Take care x x x

Vox has been causing me no end of problems recently.  I cannot seem to get a post to save although i can upload pics and bits well enough.  I have been investigating a more reliable blog host so a move may be in order but things have been so manic recently that I simply have not had time to do much about it.

Work has been fine, in fact my boss has been so pleasant and nice it's almost worse than when she was unbearable!  At least 2 other teachers have complained to the local authority now and another two are giving it serious thought.  Maybe something will get done at last, for the sake of the children and the sanity of the staff!

As for home - things are stressful as usual.  My oldest moved into his new home on Saturday - well he attempted to.  The place is a disaster!  It is a 2 bedroomed flat but only one room is actually water free.  He has the domestic equivalent of Niagra falls running from the ceiling of his kitchen and lounge, through the light fitting and any other gaps.  the plaster is falling off the walls with damp except for the bits that are stuck down with mould.  When he tried to refuse it as uninhabitable he was told he would be on the streets as he was making himself homeless.  We had to pile all his stuff up in one room and he has slept on a friends sofa until he could get time off work today to contact the local area housing manager.  The property was immediately declared unsafe and they took the keys off him.  They will contact him tomorrow to let him know where he has to go and he has to have a two person escort when he ants to collect his things from that house, in case of the roof falling in on him.  As soon as he has somewhere to live I will be making a very strong complaint to anyone who will listen.  Stray animals are treated better.

As for Michelle, she is now in a woman's aid safe house with my two youngest grandchildren.  Her partner is suffering from severe post traumatic stress disorder and depsite his local GP telling him everyhting was fine, it patently isn't.  Her partner hasn't been violent towards the children but his rages are terrifying and the unpredictability is too much for all of them.  He desperately needs help, for his own sanity, if not his relationship with Michelle and the children.  Leaving the army was something he had to do, his last tour of Iraq left way too many scars, but the help that is so necessary is simply not available.

As for me - I am off to bed with some headache pills in the hope I manage to stop worrying long enough to sleep.  Tomorrow is another day, I just hope it brings some better news.  Take care x x x

I have decided to change the focus of this blog a bit and lessen up on the doom and gloom!  As I am trying my best to keep up with the 365 challenge I am going to use this blog to record my response to some of the prompts.

I haven't been at work this week so I have no idea how my boss has reacted to the action I was forced to take.  I have had an awful bug which left me very weak and dehydrated.  I am now eating, but not easily.  There is a meeting in school tomorrow afternoon so I have taken the decision to attend which will hopefully lessen the anxiety I will feel on Monday morning.  I have taken the time to do a lot of thinking about how I am going to deal with things and have made a few resolutions.  I just want to be able to do my job well without constant interferance and harrassment.

Today's prompt is - "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."

I consider myself to be lucky today because I have a great family that I love very much, and who also love me.  I have a caring and considerate partner, a job I enjoy (when I get the chance), some amazing friends who are supportive and encouraging, some great hobbies and a level of health that allows me to do most of things I need to do when I need to do them.  Yes life could be better, but it could also be a heck of a lot worse, and has been on many an occasion.

This weekend my oldest son moves into a house of his own, his first in almost 3 years!  He has an uphill journey for the next few months but considering how far he has come, he has the strength to get to the end.  I can see him maturing and growing up before my eyes these days, something I often had cause to doubt would happen. 

This is just one of the things that make me feel a lucky person.  I will leave you with this photo I took at the caravan in October 2007.  One reason why we should all be greateful for the wonderful world we live in.  Take care x x x

Loch Rannoch

I can hardly believe it's been a whole week.  In some ways it has gone by so quickly and in others it feels more like a year than a week!  I have not created anything this week, not even a mess!  What's worse is, I have no notion to create at the moment but I really could do with the calmness that creativity brings.

The reason for this ...... ?  This is not easy for me to write, but I need to so I can keep a record of events somewhere that is readily accessible if I need it.  The past 2 weeks I have worked an extra day to write up some very long reports of meetings that took place while I was absent from work before Christmas.  My boss was involved in the meetings and she wrote up the changes that I need to type.  In the last week before the holidays I managed to produce 1 (out of a total of 12) that she was happy with.  I am being asked to change things 4 or 5 times and take out things she recently wanted added and vice versa.  It is not something I look forward to doing but it is part of my job.

Unfortunately this week she decided to give me back the one that had been completed previously, and which had already been sent out to parents etc, with 10 pages of changes!  I made it clear, in a polite way, that I was not happy.  Her reaction was such that I ended up in tears of anger and frustration.  What's worse is that all of this took place in front of other people.  I left the building shortly after, but I haven't quit, yet!

I did contact my HR department and have been advised to instigate an unfair treatment at work action against my Head teacher through my union rep.  I will contact the rep tomorrow after school to start the process.  In the meantime I have to continue working for my HT.  I don't want to be off but the stress I feel at the moment is awful, I feel constantly sick. 

To make matters worse, I will be the second person to have done something like this since school started back in August.  The other girl was lucky enough to be off ill during her action and was eventually transferred to another school.  I doubt I will be that lucky but I have to see this through.  I have lost all my confidence as a teacher from being constantly undermined and told that everything I do is wrong.  I am not the person I was.  I think what is making me so angry is thinking of all the sacrifices that I and my children made while I was training to be a teacher.  5 years of being skint and juggling being a single parent with all the medical and emotional difficulties of raising a child with Aspergers syndrome, and his 2 very understanding siblings.  I will not be driven out by this woman.

If I can get through the week ahead then hopefully I can get through the rest.  What the future holds I don't know, I feel as though my whole life is in limbo at the moment.  Gordon is away on a training course all this week, which in some ways may help.  All I have to think about is getting through each day.  Roll on the next holiday!  Take care and wish me luck! x x x

I can't believe it's Monday again already!  I am amazed at how short my 'weekend' seemed with working on Thursday.  Sadly I will have to work Thursdays for at least another 2 weeks, which I am not looking forward to.  It wasn't helped by the fact that I was just so busy most of the weekend, but I don't really know what I was doing!  I suppose just fitting in time to see my children and grandchildren takes a fair amount of time.  Poor Beth was finally back at school today and it looks like some of her spots may scar.  She has had a really rough time with the chickenpox.  I did find the time to make a quick digi page, my first for ages.

No more spots

1 comment

I used a kit called Holly Jolly by Nancie Rowe Janitz of ScrapArtist.com.  I also made a quick page for Logan's album.  I have been working on a paper version since Saturday but I just haven't had the time to finish it yet!

First snow

 This used a kit from Anastasia Folmon at digiscrapboutique, and a freebie snowman from Ellie Lash.  I also managed 2 paper layouts over the weekend.  Both were part of the 365 challenge.  One used the page prompt from week 1 which was to record your goals for the year.  I decided to go for something a bit different for me and made a page with quite a girly feel to it.  I had bought some Prima Crystals from an American scraps store and sort of based the whole colour scheme round them, sad I know!  I used BG paper, American Crafts Thickers for the title and fab flowers from Imaginisce.  Totally not my usual style.

Goals

I also scrapped the pic I took of my hands, but one things my hands couldn't do was make it straight!  It wasn't until I had finished it I realised how squint it was.  Not good.  For this one I used Creative Imaginations lettering and epoxy stickers along with some chipboard and rub ons.  I like the overall feel of this page but again it was different to what I would normally do.

These hands

I really wanted to get some more scrapping done but I simply ran out of time.  Hoefully this weekend will be a bit more productive but somehow I can't see it.  It seems to be filling up with other stuff already.  Anyway, I am now off to bed with a book because the alarm will sound all too soon in the morning.  Take care x x x

Actually I felt like sleeping most of the day too, but I couldn't!  It's funny, when I first began working part time I felt as though I had so much time on my hands.  Then I got used to it and adjusted and now, with having only worked 4 days in a row, I am suddenly exhausted!

Not helped by the fact that my beloved son phoned me the other night at 2.30am.  He didn't mean to but somehow managed to do it while he was working so was oblivious to my polite request for him to switch his phone off.  I never swore, not even a little bit, well, not out loud anyway!  I ended up phoning my other so, luckily they work together, to tell him exactly what I was going to do to his brother if he didn't disconnect his phone.  Somehow my phone wouldn't sever the connection and all you could hear was very loud noise, I think it was pretending it was music, and lots of very real, very loud, swearing.  Eventually it stopped and after what seemed like many hours later I got some more sleep.  Don't you just love children - as my mother used to say "I couldn't eat a whole one!"

Apart from that things have been quiet here.  I am managing to keep a form of journal for the 365 day prompt and I am really enjoying taking loads of daft pics.  I would go nuts if anyone else tried to take similar pics of me, but as a female, I reserve the right to be contrary now and again.

For the prompt - Take time every day to do something ridiculous. Philipa Walker - I took this pic -

365 challenge

Today's prompt was - The eyes are the window of the soul - English Proverb - I took this one. 

365 challenge eyes

 I have played about with them in photoshop and Lightroom.  I still have so much to learn about both packages though.  Roll on the next holiday! 

I also love seeing what everyone else has taken as it is very inspiring.  If you fancy a peek have a look here.  It's worth a laugh if nothing else.  Tomorrow I have so many jobs round the house I need to catch up on and I want to go and see my beloved grandchildren too before I have to go back to school for a course.  I wonder how I ever found the time to work full time, lol.  Take care x x x

Today was back to school - and I wasn't looking forward to it.  Normally waking up to snow on the ground would make me happy but not today as I knew the children were unlikely to be able to go out and play in it.  As it turned out I was right and they were inside all day, it's a wonder the roof didn't come up with the effort of trying to keep all their excitement in!

My last week of school before the holidays hadn't been my most positive week and I had concerns about how this week would go.  However once I was back in the classes with the children all was well.  Tomorrow I have a meeting with my boss after school so I may not feel as positive then, but I'll try not to lose any sleep over it in the meantime.

I managed a few more pages, still Halloween ones.  I have 3 years of pics to scrap for 2 grandchildren and one year for the other so I am not quite finished yet.  My Christmas pics arrived today though so I may have to make a few Christmas pages before finishing the Halloween ones.  I have now completed 10 pages since Ne'er Day and am feeling quite pleased with myself. 

Logan and Nana

This one of Logan with Steven's mum is based on a January Page Map and used papers from Junkitz, Rhona Farrer and Rusty Pickle with Heidi Swapp rub ons.  The following one is not one of my best ever pages but I am not changing it now.  It is all Doodlebug bits because for some reason I have masses of it and I am trying to use it all up!

Some of the people who love Katy very much

I managed to get some time with Katy and Logan in the snow before it disappeared but I didn't get a chance to see Beth.  Katy helped grandma make a snowman and Logan just liked to eat the snow!  Luckily it was as clean as it gets as it was in their garden and definately virgin snow.

Logan

Katy and the snowman

I am still enjoying the 365 day challenge and have even managed to take some pretty good pics of myself.  The prompy from yesterday was -  

"Hold out your hands to feel the luxury of the sunbeams."

Helen Keller

- and I took this pic as a result. It's not the greatest photo technically but I really like it.  It was abit of a shock to realise my hands looked just like I remember my gran's looking though.

My hands reflect who I am and what I have done.

I have been playing about with Lightroom and photoshop on my pics in a way that wouldn't suit the pics of the kids.  The next step is to scrap them but that may be a week or so away yet as I am likely to be working all this week and possibly next on the mountain of paperwork that accumulated while I was off ill, but I'll know more tomorrow.

For now, take care x x x

Last year Ali Edwards suggested choosing a word for the year as a personal mantra - something that summed up what you hoped to achieve.  My word was 'Learn' and it was something I did a lot of over the year in different ways and in different areas of my life.

For this year my word has to be 'balance' as it's something I need to achieve more of in my life in general.  I find it helpful to have a target word like this to focus on - it's more achievable than a resolution - although I have to say I agree with many of Cathy Zielske's resolutions.

I managed to scrap another Halloween page yesterday - that's 2 down and loads to go.  I wish you could buy halloween papers in colours other than orange, green and purple.  It's a bit like having Christmas papers only in red and green!  At least on the Christmas side things have changed a bit but Halloween still has a way to go.  Maybe by halloween this year I will have used up all my current stuff and there will be loads of new, different coloured paper available and I can treat myself, lol.

This first page uses up some pretty ancient stash.  Card is Bazzil, papers are Daisy D's and The Paper Company, the angel and the heart are cut from sheets of Prima paintables, the black ribbon is from a kit, flowers are Aunty Sarah and the brads are Dovecraft and Making memories, rub ons are Basic Grey, title is American Crafts and Provocraft.

Devil or angel

This second page is based on a page map - something I have only recently discovered but love.  Card - Bazzil, paper - Daisy D's and Rusty Pickle, stamps - Kelly Pannaci, rub ons - Heidi Swapp, title - American Crafts, the ribbons are both velvet to add a bit of texture but I cannot remember where I got them.

Trick or treat

I had thought about going out in the snow today to take some photos but I promised Katy I would come and take her and Logan out in the snow to play for a while so I might not have time to do both.  We did go out for a short while yesterday and, after some initial reluctance, she soon got into the hang of making snowballs.  This was the first time she had really seen the snow, the last time it snowed for more than 5 minutes she was only one and really didn't like it at all.  Maybe we will even get a snowman built in the garden.

Katy making snowballs

I used Gordon's compact as I didn't think I would have enough free hands for my camera and snowballs, whereas the compact fits in my pocket.  Katy took photos of me, mummy and daddy before we went out.  Not a bad job for a 3 year old.

Grandma - taken by Katy

On that happy note I am away to play while I still can.  Take care x x x

My god, I think the scrapping world has gone challenge mad!  Certainly over on UKS it has anyway.  I have joined in with 2 as that is all I will be able to seriously continue this year.

The first is to scrap a page a week, a yearly total of 52 pages which would be a huge improvement on last year, I think.  I haven't counted digi pages in my total for last year though.  I have made a great start with 6 completed over the past 2 days.  I got quite a shock when I finally got into to my craft room to scrap - I had forgotten where my photos were!  I couldn't think when I had last used them or where I had put them.  I did find them though and managed a scraplift from one of the magazines I had bought from Angela just before Christmas.  The original appeared in Scrapbook memories and was by a lady called Celeste Vermeend.  Mine isn't an exact replica but is pretty darned close and was a great kick start.  I used Dream Street papers and stamps from Heidi Swapp and Kelly Pannaci.  The flowers were also from Angela, thanks for the crochet ones hun, they were perfect for this.

Love you bruv

My second page is an original and used my lovely Bam Pop papers, cheap card I bought about 2 years ago, a button from an even older kit and some fabric from a long gone swap.  My aim is to use up my older stash to make way for more, if I ever have any money!

Miss cool

The second challenge is the 365 days challenge.  Now I know I won't be totally faithful with this as I simply don't have the time.  I will keep a journal and I will stick with the prompts that are relevant.  I will take more pics of me as a result, but | doubt it will be a pic a day.  In fact I didn't take any yesterday as my camera had annoyed me so much the day before, lol.  This was the result - and no, I am not actually swearing, but it was close!

Me swearing

The colour balance isn't quite right but by the time I got this I was beyond caring.  I will try to make my next effort a bit nicer to look at, but it will not have the 'laugh out loud' quality that this one has! 

I will share my other masterpieces (ha, ha!) later.  I have pulled out all my Halloween photos, papers and bits and once they are scrapped it will be the Christmas ones.  I need to do a Photobox order today to use up my print credits and get my December pics processed.

I will leave you with January's page from the calendar I made for my children this year.  I love my Bind it All, which makes these things possible.  Take care x x x

January