Making Things (Mostly A Mess)

Unemployment is horrible. That is a fact. It is soul destroying and misery inducing and above all, BORING. Whilst I am doing my utmost(ish) to get a job, I have had to find some way to fill my time. I could tidy my room, but that is uninspiring. I could teach myself a new language, but I am still not quite ready to get back on the learning bandwagon. So instead, I have become something of a craftaholic. It's like I can't stop. It is a lot of fun, so long may it continue!

I made a "Get Well" card for my Grandad after his second hip replacement. The combination of origami and hydrangeas brought back happy memories of going to Japan.

 I made a case to keep my needles safe, because keeping them in here is infinitely better than finding them on the floor on a semi-regular basis.

 I made a drawstring bag to keep my ribbons in. Because everyone needs one of these, right?

 I made a drawstring bag from two old dresses and an old shirt (mostly just to practise on my new toy, to which I will devote a whole post one of these days!)

 I made a wreath of autumn leaves because I am obsessed with autumnal colours at the moment.

 I embellished a top for the same reason.

 I made some earrings because I couldn't remember the last time I made any jewellery

I made some hair slides because it's always nice to have flowers in your hair.

 And last but not least, I have made loads of soup (this one is butternut squash and toasted sweetcorn) because all that crafting is hungry work!

A Little Family Jaunt

Uh oh, bad blogging times of late. I am not sure why, but I haven't written anything! This is from a LONG TIME AGO, well I started it ages ago anyway. Here we go...

It has been a long time since the whole family have been in the same country for long enough to do anything together, let alone go on holiday! So, when we were reunited for a whole five days, we jumped at the chance to go away to Norfolk, for old time's sake.

Yes, that's right. I went CAMPING. And enjoyed it!

In my youth (because I am sooooo old) I was not a fan. Actually, I think it was more caravans that I didn't like. Now I have grown up a bit I am more accepting of things like deflated airbeds, chirping birds and waking up at 3am with cold feet, despite wearing three pairs of socks. It was officially BLISS.

First stop was Thornam. It is gorgeous. I can no longer compete with the latest addition to the Coates Family Camera Collection, but I am still happy with what mine can do:

We passed several pleasant evenings of good, wholesome, family fun:

I love sunflowers. A lot. Partly because they are happy and lovely, but mostly because they remind me of this. A happy, lovely childhood memory.

Norfolk is beautiful.

Mr Boring and I had an excellent time scavenging. We picked (and ate) many berries.

There is nothing quite like a pint of delicious cider outside a country pub.

Cley is a gorgeous village, but some parts are a little weird:

I don't know why, but the sky in Norfolk is much bigger than everywhere else. It is just so massive. Everywhere you look, there are tiny things surrounded by a huge expanse of (if you're lucky) blue.

Burnham Overy Staithe is a family favourite. Mum and Dad like it because it is beautiful. Mr Boring likes it for its photographic potential. Me? I like the little boy with crabs.

You are never too old to indulge in a bit of a silly photoshoot:

And that was it, our delightful, if a little brief family holiday!

Changing Times

It is no secret that I am something of a Luddite. My laptop is practically an antique and runs about as slowly as I do. Our family computer used dial-up internet until very recently. My phone was state of the art. When I bought it about four years ago. And I was happy with it. In fact I looked upon "smart phones" quite disdainfully. After the iPhone exploded onto the scene a couple of years ago, I realised that they seemed only to make already annoying people even more annoying. Whilst not being sucked into the Apple vortex, Boyo did, however, feel the need for a "smart phone". Having seen the number of replacements he has had and the number of times he's had to reset the system over the past year, I saw no reason for me to get one. I didn't want my conversations to be dominated by apps and updates and Androids, and was quite happy living in my own little world with texts and phone calls being the height of sophistication. Until about three weeks ago, when my faithful pink friend decided to give up the ghost.

After a relatively painless trip to the phone shop, I ended up with this baby:

 I was instantly converted. Without sounding like one of "those" people, I love it. I do not claim to know much about it, nor do I use it to its full capacity, but I do know it is rather brilliant and is the phone that Apple are having a paddy about because it's too similar to their beloved iPhone. Looks like I went phone shopping at just the right time!
The first task was to make a nice case:

Clearly I have my priorities sorted. Then I came to the trivial things like making the actual phone work.

Whilst Father Dear might beg to differ, my life has not been taken over by apps. In fact the only ones I am interested in are the photography related ones. I have never been very impressed by phone cameras before, but this one has changed my mind. 

Not too shabby, eh?

Now, I have got some apps but am not entirely sure how legal they are so I won't mention the names. I have got a couple so far, and they allow you to add different effects to your photographs. 

these are just a couple of my attempts so far, I have not experimented too much but am looking forward to seeing what I can create. Who knows, maybe I will stop using my camera and rely on my phone. Ha, no that is a joke, I will never become that obsessed.
This said, I am pleased with myself for joining the Real World and am in need of only a minimal amount of technical support next time I see either Mr Boring or Boyo. Now all I need is a job so I can afford to pay the contract on it!

Come Dine With Mum

I am sorry to say that earlier this year I failed as a daughter. Whilst I didn't forget it completely, I didn't remember Mother Dear's birthday in time to send a present. So, I wrote her an I O U for a home-cooked 3 course meal upon my return to the country. Her birthday was in May. Last week, we finally managed to find an evening which was suitable to the three of us (unfortunately Mr Boring was busy milking cows in the Netherlands) and the meal finally went ahead. Without blowing my own trumpet, it was a resounding success! The menu went a little something like this:

pear, stilton and caramelised walnut salad

spinach and ricotta canneloni

 lemon and white chocolate pavlova

I really enjoyed cooking it actually and would definitely be inclined to do it again. Any requests on a postcard please.

Benenden Is Fun!

And so to the reason for my prolonged absence... Benenden. For anyone out there that isn't a close friend or family (as I think they are the only people who read this!), it was a three week English summer school run by Austrians, for Austrian children. Despite knowing that I definitely do not ever want to be a proper teacher, I jumped at the chance to do it, and I am really glad I did. I was teaching the 13 year olds and it was a real challenge, but it was a lot of fun. I had a class of 10- The Incredible Sausage Rolls (their choice, not mine!)- and we were part of a larger group of 40. Out of 18 days, 10 of them comprised of lessons so it wasn't exactly intensive teaching and I was relieved to find that I was not too out of my depth. I could bore you for hours with the details, but I don't think it would be that interesting for anyone who wasn't there. Not only was I paid to be there, I also got to do lots of things I would never have done by myself. It was like a holiday! We went to Rye:

 Apparently Sir Paul McCartney lives there. I didn't see him, but I did have a lovely cream tea:

 Unfortunately I did not have a lot of time, and thus did not take many photos of the actual school. This is a tremendous shame, as it is actually beautiful. Look:

 The school was in the middle of the Kentish countryside. It was lovely, and I would like to go back and see it all without being surrounded by 40 Austrian children.

 It was quintessentially British, which made it the perfect place for Pimms O Clock on several occasions.

 One day I even went to CHURCH. Yes, you did read that right.

 Like I said, the village was simply spiffing and was ever so pretty and quite la di dah.

 One of the other day trips we did was to Hever Castle. This is where Anne Boleyn lived. We saw some jousting:

 and a lovely castle, but sadly (if unsurprisingly!) the teenagers were not interested. It seems that the thing they remembered most from the day was the ice cream!

 One of the most memorable trips was to London. In fact it was the only day we made it to the capital. One trip was cancelled owing to the peasants revolting, the other because the children were deemed too young to cope with shopping there so we went to Tunbridge Wells (adequate substitute? What do YOU think?!) Anyway, while it was stressful, it was a nice day. I felt it would have destroyed some boundaries if I had joined in with this:

 I was hard pushed to take a photo without it being invaded by a swarm of blue t shirts:

 Madame Tussauds was... an experience. We queued for longer than we were inside. It costs the earth and is so packed you can't get close to anything. I was not impressed. It was nice to see Bond though. And M, of course.

 The Queen and her (slightly racist) "butler" were there.

 And of course, my BFF. What a legend.

 Another trip was to Brighton. The Pavillion is gawwwwww-jus.

Sadly I have run out of steam a bit and can't really think of much else to say. A rather sorry excuse for a blogpost spanning three weeks. I can only apologise and hang my head in shame.