A bit more sunshine

Coursework is still taking over my life so progress on this is slow.

But here it is.... for what it's worth :(

Pop over to Handmade Monday to see what others have been up to.

... And Relax...... (almost)...

I've been trying to write this post for over a week now but I've been super busy.

School broke up on Friday so I should be enjoying a nice relaxing summer holiday, chilling out in the sun, taking advantage of endless lie-ins..... But if you've been here before you've probably heard me moaning about my coursework. The deadline is August the 10th so I've been working my socks off trying to get it all finished. It hasn't been going too badly but it has kept me away from Blog world.

Anyway, enough about that. I had wanted to post about how lucky I am. I received some lovely presents from my children at the end of term. Technically I'm a job share now so the presents you get aren't the same as when you're the sole teacher but we were both really lucky. Our class was super generous. I dont mean to sound really greedy, honest I'm not. And I was only saying to someone the other day that I dont expect presents from the children but that is so nice to get a card with a personal message from the children about how much they've loved being in your class or how awesome you are -whether they've been told to write it by their parents or not. And there are only so many boxes of chocolate you can get before you start re-gifting them - I'm not a massive chocolate fan.

So imagine how chuffed I was when I brought my bag of gifts home and unwrapped them to find all these cards:

and some amazing presents.......
a tray with a cow on it. I LOVE cows and the girl who gave me this had obviously remembered and told her mum,

a jar full of sweets and some homemade elderflower cordial

a box of handmade gluten free glittery goodness

a Cath Kidston sewing kit

a beautiful notebook (it's too dark to take the photo without the flash and the shimmery surface went a bit funny in the light but it's pretty honest!)

and this amazing handmade bag which also has a cow on it.

It is now the home of my yellow ripple blanket. 

I'm so lucky. What an amazing selections of gifts and this isnt even the end of the list.  So many of the gifts were homemade too. The kids knew I knit (remember me saying how I was going to take my pink ripple away with us? they were fascinated by it) so must have mentioned it to their parents.They were a lovely group of kids who I taught in year 4 and year 6 so we knew each other quite well. We had some tough moments (they kept me sane through a pretty rough year 2 years ago) and there were some real characters in there but they were all ready to leave by the end of term (you know, big fish in a little pool kind of thing). I'll miss them but am looking forward to hearing how they're getting on at secondary school and really didnt deserve to receive so many generous, thoughtful presents

I hope you all had a good end of term, which ever side of the school gate you're on and that you're getting a little respite now.  I'll keep you updated as to how the coursework is going (you cant wait can you!?!?!)  but tomorrow I'm off to London to watch the Ladies Road Race go by so there may be a few photos of that if they dont pass too fast to get any decent pictures.

Enjoy the Olympics.
xxx

I found it!!!

Look, here it is.

It's been hiding behind those clouds all the time.

I think it was feeling a bit shy at first but within a few minutes it was almost back to it's full July glory.

Sorry about all the smears. I guess they're just showing up my inability to keep my house clean.
I'll try again in a mo as the sun is beaming through  those horrid clouds now.



And I've been crocheting up my own little ray of sunshine.

It's a ripple blanket for my gorgeous Goddaughter who I babysat on Friday. It was the first time we'd been left on our own so I was half expecting her to scream the house down but she was an absolute angel and fell asleep just after mummy and daddy had gone out. Bless her. Left me in peace and quiet to get some work done on her blanket.

I've made it a lot wider than my pink one and am only using 6 different shade sso I'm not sure how far I'll get as I only have 1 ball of each at the moment. Now, I could just order more of each but..........

Last weekend I learnt the hard way not to leave your crocheting on the floor near a glass of wine. Luckily it was white not red but the labels got soggy when I tried to rinse off the yarn and all fell off so I havent got a clue which label applies to which ball. Oh well. Will just have to see how I get on. (and hope that I can work it out from the website I used if I need to re-order!)

Thank you all for your positive vibes last week. Glad I wasnt the only one wallowing.

In other news -

• The baby that blanket 3 was for FINALLY arrived yesterday, 2 weeks late and after a LONG labour. Poor mummy.
• Hubby is back on Tuesday and
• School finishes on Friday (which basically means I have 3 weeks left to get my essays done :( but at least there are no more 6am alarm calls. )

So this week has has definitely been a lot better than the last.


Hopefully I'll be able to post more regularly once the holidays arrive.

I'm linking up with Handmade Mondays again. Pop over for a sneeky peek.

Grey and miserable.

I'm not having a good week.

Hubby has gone to Hong Kong on business again, I've not been feeling too well all week- headachy and nauseous (no, I'm not pregnant) and I really didnt have a good week at work (long story that I'd rather forget about so dont really want to chronicle it all here so that I can be reminded about it forever - do you see what I mean?)

So all in all I'm feeling rather gratuitously sorry for myself. :(

I know in the grand scheme of things I really have NOTHING to moan about, that my life really isnt all that bad, but that doesnt stop a little moping does it? And lets not even go there about the weather in England right now!!!

I really should be trying to get my coursework finished off, the final deadline of August 10th is rapidly approaching but I'm burying my head in the sand about it and am trying to convince myself that when school breaks up next Friday I'll manage to get it all done. Just like that. I'm not sure what kind of enthusiasm/motivation/efficiency miracle I'm expecting but needless to say, that's what I'm pinning my hopes on. I have been slowly chipping away at it over the last few weeks but it's one of those things where the more you do, the more you realise there is left to tackle.

But hey, my Wingspan is coming along well. Well, it was until I noticed a dropped stitch and had to rip about 20 rows out. Infact, it's getting really long and I'm going to have to order a longer cable for my Knit Pro Interchangables. I dont really know how long to make it so I think I'll just carry on til the end of the yarn.

Have a look:

What do you think?

It's alittle smaller than it was before I ripped lots out still but it's getting there.

And this is what I've been up to this evening........

I must admit that I've not been at all interested in the Olympics but seeing this all going on was pretty cool.

It was raining - shocker! - Really grey and miserable

but there was a really good atmosphere. Was quite exciting really!

I hope you have a good week.

I'm hooking up with Handmade Monday from Handmade Harbour again. Pop over and have a look.