Birthday Wishes xxx

First up, very special Birthday Wishes for yesterday to my Aunty Jean! Hope you had a wonderful day!!
Next, a quick catch up of the latest HSMS prompts:
Shadow: A dark area created by lack of light. Find a shadow in your space today
I didn't think I was going to be able to do this prompt today as it's been rainy and windy and generally a mangy old day here, with not enough light to cast any shadows. But we had a blast of sun for about twenty seconds - just enough tome for me to run out of my back door and catch this!
Treat: A little something to brighten up your day, week or year! Show us a treat in your space today I'm not all that keen on this shot - I was in a total rush. I'd bought the cat treats to stage a pic for the prompt, but it seems that one of the minxy little scamps was a little impatient and decided to help themselves. By the time I came to take the pictures - this was all that was left!!
And finally.....................hurrah!!!!!!! Great news! I contacted the uni yesterday regarding the latest palaver with my NVQ, and they have changed my offer to Unconditional!!!!! This means that I have a secure place on the course and I no longer have to obtain any further qualifications before commencing the degree in September!! To say I'm over joyed and that it is a relief is an understatement!!! I'm so glad I'll definitely be on the course, and that I can forget all about the pointless NVQ!!! It's my annual appraisal tomorrow in work, and I have decided to tell them now so that, hopefully, I will not have to continue with the course. I spoke to my NVQ assesor this afternoon to advise her of the update to my offer - she was not really very helpful, advised there was no chance I'd have it finished in time for September anyway, that her manager had said I would have to have stayed on level 2 anyway, and even told me not to be surprised if my employers charge me!!! I really don't care right now, and to say I can put all that nonsense behind me is all that matters to me!! The university staff, on the other hand, could not have been more helpful!!! I could not thank them enough for all their assistance and they were generally excited and pleased for the change in my situation :)
Have a lovely evening everyone!!!!!!!!

Spanner

You would easily be forgiven for thinking that this is the latest HS:MS photo prompt, but it is not. It is in fact a creative illustration of the latest frustration I have come up against in my quest to become a teacher. Yes, another spanner has made it’s twisted little way into the works.

At this point I feel I should point out my ignorance and hope that the picture is indeed of a spanner!! Being a gal, all things tool-like are somewhat foreign to me, and I had no member of the male species around when I took the photo to confirm that I did have the right tool for the job, so to speak!
Anyway – I digress.

The rocky road to higher education.
First of all, I was a little late in applying. Then there was the nightmare interview with Cranky-Pants-Witch-Face. Then there was the “conditional offer” which, whilst of course I was overjoyed at, there was the nightmarish prospect of managing to fit in my entire NVQ by September!

This is where the plot thickens, my blogeroonies. My NVQ assessor phoned me at work on Friday night to say she’s been discussing my case with her manager, and they think that, due to the limited/scarce observations she is going to be able to make as I am a night worker they would like to approach my company’s personnel manager and discuss transferring me to a level 2 (equivalent of a GCSE), rather than a level 3 (equivalent of an A level). She assured me that this was no reflection of my ability, but purely due to the constraints of my shifts/role and the high volume of observations required to sign off the units. I then explained about my uni offer, and I have to say, the poor woman was as bummed about it all as I was! She advised she’d go back to her manger to discuss ways to work around the issues so I can complete the level 3, although she did also say that my file would be away for two months to be verified – which means I’d need to have completed it and everything to be signed off by the start of July at the very latest in order to have my results in time to gain a place on the course. Which then essentially means I have, as of today, 34 days to complete the written work for a further 5 units, and for the observations and work products for all 8 units to be sought and completed.

In her own words, it’s unlikely for this to happen.

Bummeration.
My only hope is to contact the university and discuss the situation and see what they think about it all. I only put the darn blasted stupid NVQ on my application form anyway as I thought may as well…………..wish I hadn’t bothered now………..but then would I have had any offer at all without it, as prior to this my last study/qualification was gained outside of their recommended time frame of three years?

What a to-do, once again.
xxx

Spoon

Spoon: An implement used for eating. Find a spoon in your space today. I was really torn between these two - so you get double for your money today lol!!

I was back to work last night after a fortnight annual leave - yuck, it's horrible going back after a lovely break! Ah well......at least I'm counting down the days to handing in my notice!!!
xxx

Pics & Thanks

Today's photo prompt: Toe: A digit at the end of a foot
And one I've caught up on from the past prompts:
Wood:
A natural product that is all around us


I received the most wonderful present last week! It really warmed my heart and surprised me so much that I can’t really put how touched and darn well pleased I was into words! At the retreat I met lots of lovely, scrummy people that I’ll look forward to meeting again in the future. But one person stuck out more than most. As soon as I entered the crop room, this fabby woman recognised me from my UKS avatar and came over to say hello. She was so warm and funny and welcoming throughout the retreat and I enjoyed every moment I got to spend with her. And I wasn’t the only person she had this effect on, after all, she was voted “Super Scrapper” by all the delegates at the end of the weekend – the title reserved for the most friendly, fun and all round wonderful person at each retreat :)

Tina attended a Scrappers Unlimited seminar a couple of weeks ago and made one of the classes, being taught by S.U. team member Julia, entitled “Star”, for me! What an absolute lovely surprise and the most beautiful and welcome addition to my scrapbook album. I’ve never been scrapped by anyone else (as far as I know!!) and it was so lovely to think that someone would spend the time and effort on such a page, let alone then giving it to me as a gift. Thank you Tina, for such a wonderful surprise :) Sorry my pic does not do it justice xxx

Path & Polish!

More pics inspired by Her Space: my Space, hope you enjoy!

Path: A track laid down to walk upon
I was pretty uninspired by my first pic of my grey, concrete flagstone path after seeing the gorgeous shots that everyone came up with yesteday. However, I love the way these prompts really make you look at the details in the world around you, and I found this great subject for my second shot! Part of me wondered whether it was cheating, as the path then became the backdrop for the picture rather than the subject, but then what the heck?! Post it anyway I thought - after all the blog is designed to inspire rather than dictate :)





















Polish - Something to add, to decorate or protect.
Here it is - I needed the tripod for this one!!
Thanks for looking blogeroonies xxx

Catch Up!!

Here's just a quick catch up of a couple of recent Her Space:My Space photo prompts I (quite literally) took a shot at :)

Mysteries of Life

I spent approximately 10 minutes watching daytime tv today - which was enough time to arouse some very deep and meaningful questions which I hope someone out there may be able to answer for me!!

Number 1 - Why does Jackie, of Cleaner Close (of course!), happen to have a supply of Daz washing powder to hand IN HER ATTIC?!!

Number 2 - Why does the girl in the (I think) Garnier advert for their self-tanning moisturiser think we would want a tan like hers?! She seriously looks like someone has dipped her face in orange poster paint and coloured her eyes in blue highlighter pen.

Number 3 is not related to my daytime TV viewing, however still remains one of those unsolved, soul searching mysteries that defy time and space:

Number 3 - Why is it that, when I finally decide that I am definitely going to get my boring, predictable long hair (the same style I've had for around ten years) cut into a nice layered, mid length bob next week, I wake up and find that my hair looks great, possibly the nicest it's looked in ages?!

Answers on a postcard please! Alternatively - let me know what your mysteries of life are!!!

xxxx

Hi ho, hi ho........

....it's off to uni I go!!

As of September I will be a teacher in training!!

(on the condition I pass that blasted and rather crappy and tedious NVQ I'm doing at work - better get my skates on then!)
(Not my best attempt at photo editing admittedly, but I haven't exactly got the same face shape as Doris Day!!)
xxxxx

Random Happy Pics #5

Haven't done this for a while............so thought I'd celebrate the unexpected sunshine we've had today (despite the BBC weather site telling me it should be raining all week - we've missed out on a camping break now because of that :( ) by sharing some photos that make me happy and snuggly inside :)

The first ones are inspired by the Her Space:My Space photo blog; I always take a peep but this is the first time I've actually got up and actually used one of their prompts to take some pics. I'd been meaning to take some shots of my famous Scrapping Slippers for a while, so Anita and Kirsty's "Shoe" prompt seemed like the ideal occassion! These two are just some fun pics I took a couple of weeks ago down the Marina- there's loads of funky scupltures dotted about down there so plenty of photo opportunities!
Love ya xxx

Relocation, relocation, relocation

Hello :)

First piece of "news" – I’m coming to you from a new location! How exciting I hear you cry! I’ve relocated my PC from my craft room/study to the corner of the Lounge. This was something that I wasn’t initially all that keen on as I think the Lounge should be for just that – lounging about and relaxing, and that the PC should be in a work-conducing environment. However, I spend quite a biiiiiiiit of time on both the machine and the internet, and was getting fed up of Lee’s constant complaints from downstairs of “are you coming down?,” “you said only five minutes,” “tea is ready” (when it’s not!), “you never spend any time with me,” and “are you married to that computer or what?” – so, I felt the move was necessary! And so far it’s working very well, Percy PC and I are quite happy in our new corner, he’s not as imposing in the Lounge as I thought he’d be, and I can busy away online while Lee watches the football. All because We wanna be togeeeevvvvvva!!!!

My lil sis and that adorable niece of mine came over for the day yesterday, and we busied ourselves with some scrapbooking! It was fab as I haven’t done anything since the retreat.First of all, I reworked the “Blossom” layout I completed in Brecon for the £5 challenge that we were set; I couldn’t put my finger on it but something had been bugging me about that page. An extra handmade flower embellishment, a couple of extra scraps of the reverse side of the patterned paper, chipboard title replacing the old hand-cut one, a little BG rub-on and a pearly brad in the little birdies’ hair, and hey presto! I’m much happier with it now.The original can be found in this post.

I managed to get a second page done too, that’s a complete roll for me! Ellie loves spending hours rolling about on her floor mat and playing with her Baby Gym, and one day completely by chance I managed to grab a snap of her playing just as she looked up at me and gave me a massive cheeky grin! It had to be scrapped of course! I’ve got some cute pics of Lee and I that we took last week during a walk around Swansea Marina, that I’m desperate to scrap. I had a play with the exposure and saturation in my photo editing software and was really pleased with how they came out. The only thing holding me back is that I really wanted to scrap them in 8.5”x11” but I’m having a trouble fitting all three pics on in the way I envisaged, so I’m going to have a play around and see what I can do, or else scrap them in 12x12 after all. Decisions decisions!!

Catch up with you soon xxx

To be or not be - a university place, is the question

Lol! Sorry about the delay for the goss about the uni interview!!! I’ve had gastric flu (yuck) and now have tonsillitis and a chest infection so I’ve not had a chance to get to the PC really. Yuck! I really am a manky old thing :) Mustn’t grumble though!

Yes…so the uni interview. I think the word I’d use to sum it up would be surreal. It got off to a great start, there was about ten of us and we had an informal group discussion with the admissions tutor about the course in general and I felt I had a good rapport with him. One of the other candidates asked how many places were let on the course, and he told us that basically we all looked academically sound on paper, that we were the last handful of potential students they were interested in, and that the interviews were just to check that we are who we say we are and that there’d be no risks regarding us working with kids. So that put all my nerves to bed and I felt quite confident. We had to partake in a small written exercise, and then we each had a one-to-one interview.

That’s where things got a bit strange. To put it nicely, I think the lady who interviewed me was depriving a village somewhere of an idiot. She struggled to work out what qualifications I had from the UCAS printout she had been provided with, and even once she’d worked it out she was still getting them wrong throughout the interview, for instance telling me I would have a problem as I’d not taken any core subjects as A level (on which I had to polite remind her that, as we’d just discussed, I’d done English lang & lit *rolls eyes*). I feel she’d already judged me before I’d walked in there; she was rather rude and condescending for most of the interview (even seriously calling me a “silly girl” for not having taken up higher education before now, despite explaining in great details my circumstances and how I’ve come to the decision that the time is right now). She did tell me that she would recommend me for the course, but that the ultimate decision would be up to the admissions office, and as I haven’t studied for a few years I would most probably receive a conditional offer depending on the results of the NVQ I’ve just taken up at work. How that’s going to work I just don’t know – it’s not like I’m in college or school and the course will finish on one set date and I’ll receive the results on another. I guess I’m just going to have to wait and see how that works if and when I get an offer. When Mrs Village Idiot told me my interview was over I asked if I should leave my written exercise with her, she replied “Uh………….yeah……..I was supposed to discuss that with you at the start of the interview” and snatched it from me without a second glance.

So all in all I’m pretty bummed out about the whole thing after all my hard work and research I’d done, and haven’t got a clue what to expect on whether I’ll get in or not. And worse still, she did tell me that this may well be the last year they take on students for the course due to lack of teaching jobs in Wales and the government wishing to withdraw funding for that reason. So if I don’t get on this year I won’t be able to employ my Plan B, which was simply to try again for September 2008.

Bummer!
Anyway, on a lighter note! We’ve been busying away in our garden whilst we had all that lovely sunshine! We’ve planted loads of pretty glazed pots around our balcony, including two gorgeous palm trees, training clematis around the kitchen door, and are even having a go at growing our own fruit and veg!! It’s keeping us out of mischief anyway!!! We’ve also planted a few fruit trees and I’m still surprised every time a new seedling rears its little head out of the seed trays – everything seems to be going very well, but how long that will last until either a) we got bored or b) we manage to kill everything I don’t know!!! Here are some little pics:

I grew all these from seeds! How exciting is that!! (don't worry - I can hear you yawning from here!!). this little fella is a Corgette plant! yum!!
These Daddas are cucumber plants! cool!
And when this little mite grows up he will be a tomato plant!!
Mmmmmmm and this little lady needs noo introduction!!! these pics were taken a couple of weeks ago (as you can tell form the sunshine lol!), but I checked yesterday and this little strawb is starting to go red! Yippee! Wimbledon here we come!!
Made a card this week for the first time in yonks – our friends have just bought their first house and I was invited around for the grand tour and an afternoon of vino, so made this little token of warm wishes for them :)

Speak soon blogeroonies xxx

All that glitters.........

I've reloaded my Lariat pictures, hopefully you can now see it in all its' glittery and shiny glory!!!

Will be back later tonight (from work!) with a post all about how The Uni Interview went............................................cue horror film style music please!

Catch you all later xxx