Simply Me

Cards, OU and moving house

2008-09-13T07:21:00.000-07:00

As per usual there's loads going on here at the moment. The most exciting is probably that our house is up for sale. We've found a house we really like, but we need to sell ours before the owner will accept an offer on it. So, fingers crossed we can sell ours sooner rather than later.

I am currently working on my End of Course Assignment (ECA) for my OU course, which is fairly complicated and requires a lot of though. It needs to be posted off by the end of next week. I've registered for two level 1 courses, 'Introduction to Health Sciences' and 'Understanding Cancers'. I'm hoping to do 'Practising Science' in the the summer and may do another 10-point course after Chrsitmas, when I will hopefully have some more money! That will either be 'Human Genetics and Health Issues', 'Understanding Human Nutrition', or 'Challenging Obesity'. My course materials have arrived for Intro to Health Sciences so it's hard at the moment to finish my ECA instead of delving into the new coursework.

I have had to miss a couple of card making classes due to me now doing late shifts at work, but have managed to find time to make some at home. Here are two i've done, the first for Aunty Kate, and the second for Grandma. Both were done using stickers, so were cheating a bit, but I was pretty chuffed with them both!

Vapour Trail

2008-06-26T04:32:00.000-07:00

How cool is this vapour trail?! Unfortunately I missed the plane making it. Enjoy.......

And also photographic evidence that you do get blue skies in the Far North of Scotland!

Creativity

2008-06-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

I have a desire at the moment to make stuff. There is even a small desire to draw, which I haven't had in ages!

However, the current thing taking my fancy is jewellery. In fact, i've fancied jewellery making since I started peering at the beads in the craft shop. I've bought a couple of books, but they are aimed more at metalwork, which would be great to do but seems to involve massive amounts of tools! I bought a couple of bead work magazines which the projects involve little more than a couple of pairs of pliers and some wire cutters so I think I can stretch to that. They also have space at the craft shop on a jewellery making class. It's on Thursdays so I have to decide whether to do card-making and jewellery making, or just the jewellery making. Think I will do both for a while.

I also really want to be card making and scrap booking, so when the in-laws go home I'm planning on spending some of my free time, at least once a week, on making cards and having a play at the scrap booking. I think I may try and sell a couple of cards on ebay and see how that goes.

It's quite strange, it's like there is a goal - I feel as if i'm looking forward to something but i'm not sure what - like something's about to happen. I can see time in my days to be making cards and jewellery and I can see designs, especially for the cards, forming in my head all the time! It's great and of course I will show anything i['m up to on here.

Feeling intelligent

2008-06-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

Feeling rather pleased with myself at the moment. Passed the TMA for book 4 (chemistry) of the OU course with 97% and just completed my latest iCMA with a mark of 100% and all correct on the first go (you get three trys).

Current book is on biology which i'm also really enjoying but finding it hard to get on top of time wise as we have several activities that we needed to put on the forum which we've only just had instructions regarding, so i've had to back track a bit. But I will have a bit more time to myself soon when the in-laws go home and will be able to catch up.

Have spent a large amount of time deciding what to do next and can't decide between social science, life sciences / health sciences or possibly environment or even computers! Arghh decisions decisions. Think I will probably do a 30 point course in September and a few 10-point 'taster' courses in a range of subjects to get a better idea.

It's been a month...

2008-04-28T08:41:00.000-07:00

I am so bad at keeping this updated aren't I?

So, what have I been doing? Well, i've been back home to Wiltshire to visit my family for 8 days, i've spoken to the area manager about the assistant manager job, I'm working on book four on my OU course and i'm still working on three pet portraits.

My trip back to Wiltshire simply confirmed what i already knew - I don't want to go back. I want to be able to look out my window and see fields not the neighbours and drive 20 miles without getting in a traffic jam (driving half a mile in my home town without a jam would be a miracle!). Even sleepy little Warminster felt busy and over-crowded. Needless to say I was glad to be back, though of course it was great to see the family again.

I have to finish my Step 3 training at work then it's likely I will be promoted to part-time Assistant manager. I'm really pleased about the part time bit. I now have to get motivated about completing the training which is really not exciting and to be honest the more time i've had to think about being a manager the more i've been thinking perhaps I don't want to be! Oh well, the money will be nice and I don't have to do it forever. I also think it will look good on my CV if I ever attempt to get a job relating to whatever OU stuff I end up doing.

The OU stuff is back on track. It hit a low somewhere in the middle of the Physics module as I felt I was banging my head against a brick wall. There was so much Maths and equations and symbols and I could do the Math but found it soooo hard to work out what equation I was meant to be using!! I managed to get a TMA result of 89% though which is my best so far. I'm not sure how I managed that seeing as I bluffed my way through the last question without having done the relevant course work! The current book is Chemistry which makes sense and i'm on track for the study timetable and i'm really enjoying the work and understanding it!

So, there's a quick update. There is other stuff to talk about but I will come back to that at another time.

Easter Cards

2008-03-22T04:31:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos of the Easter cards I made:

All 5 of them together

And individual photographs. The first two were made using iris folding, using a pattern we were given in card making class and changing the colour ways:

This one is based on a card in a book I have. The purple flowers are brads and it is ribbon wrapped around the Easter egg.

These two are obviously more iris folding. The first one is the one I made in class, hence why it has Happy Easter stamped on it.

I really like iris folding, it's so simple to do and all it requires is paper, sellotape, cardstock and a pattern to follow. It's also fairly quick. These cards took me about half an hour each to make.

Happy Easter

2008-03-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter! Especially to those lucky people who have a long weekend off work! I'm not that lucky, but never mind.

I've been fairly tired most of the time over the last two weeks, i've just been doing so many extra hours at work - my pay packet should be nice though.

I made the decision to stop taking commissions and am really pleased, have already had one person email me about one though - why can't people read? I feel like it's a weight off my mind and am really looking forward to not having any more to do - i've got four to finish at the moment.

I am feeling good about mu OU course too. I got 88% in my first TMA and did a second iCMA two nights ago and got all the questions right, only one took two go's, so that is so much better than my first iCMA score of 43%! I'm also on track with the studying too and actually looking forward to starting book 3 - which is a physics subject and i'm not good at physics. I've been spending hours on the OU website deciding what to do next and still don't know.....

I have also been making Easter cards using the iris folding technique. Will take some photos and put them up soon.

Changes on the horizon

2008-02-29T08:57:00.000-08:00

I have my fingers crossed that life will be changing shortly. Our Area Manager has been discussing the possibility of creating a Deputy Manager post at out store, which will mean one of our Assistant Managers will be promoted, meaning an AM post becoming empty. Neil, one of our current AM's asked me if I was interested so I said I was and he's passed my name on to the Area mnager. Another good thing is Pets at Home only employ AM's from current staff, so I just have to cross my fingers that no-one from another store fancies it.

If I do get promoted it will likely mean going back to full time hours, which means something has to give - which will be the piccies. I may well give them up, at least temporarily if this doesn't happen. I am finding it hard to fit everything in and it would be nice to come in from work and do what I want, rather than draw other people's pets. As I have been so busy with them, it's become a bit tedious over the last few months, so some time spent drawing what i want would be good. The more I think about it, the more it seems a good idea....

Just means I have to control my finances better - as the piccies are a valuable source of extra income.

The OU stuff needs more time too though and I do feel that is very important - possibly another future changing thing at a later date. I've submitted two assesements, both at the last minute and I'm about a week behind on the study, so less time drawing means more time studying. I'm enjoying the study and not finding the science concepts too difficult but still struggling on the Maths.

My budget hasn't been going well at all - it's only February and i've already failed. This month I must try harder, though it's going to be tough due to the state I got in last month!!

Not enough hours in the day

2008-02-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

Oh my god, my life is manic! I do like being busy but at the moment it is a little too busy. I went ahead and signed up for an Open University course, S104: Exploring Science. It's only just started, the first book is on Global warming which is reasonably interesting but I was nearly floored at the first hurdle by Maths. I had to buy a Scientific calculator which was fine until I had to use it. I was there working out the mean average of a list of temperatures and it kept giving me the answers in fractions! Arrrgh. Eventually, after reading the instructions about 5 times and pressing all the buttons I found one that changed fractions to decimal places so that's ok now. I have also had to re-learn 'significant figures', 'units with prefixes' and 'numbers to the power of 10'. I haven't done any of this since GCSE's which I did the exams for 10 years ago this Summer. And realising that made me feel ancient as well. Oh, woe is me, lol.

I also have been working all day 3 out of 5 days at work for the last few weeks when my standard hours are only 2 out of 5. I could say no to the extras but I know what will happen - I'll say no, then when I do need the money they won't give me any extras. Normally this would be ok, but the pet portraits have gone mental and I am now booked up till the end of March which is unheard of for me in January.

All of this plus card-making, shopping, eating, cooking, dog walking, playing with & cleaning out rats and sleeping are keeping me very busy. When I'm very busy I write lists. I love lists. Well, actually, I love crossing items off of lists. I find I feel less panicky about getting everything done if I write a list then cross off what i've done - I then feel like I'm getting somewhere. I've not got to the writing lists stage yet though, so I'm still just about in control.

This is me!

2008-01-17T04:01:00.000-08:00

I had great fun yesterday. I followed a link on a forum and took a Jung Typology Test and discovered my type is Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging (INTJ). There were two descriptions linked to from the test result and both sounded really quite like me! Here's one: The portrait of the Mastermind which just sounds impressive doesn't it! and the other is here: INTJ profile.

There were a couple of specific things that really yelled at me that they were significant:

When it comes to their own areas of expertise -- and INTJs can have several
-- they will be able to tell you almost immediately whether or not they can help
you, and if so, how. INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more
importantly, they know what they don't know. INTJs are perfectionists, with a seemingly endless capacity for improving upon anything that takes their interest.

I am obsessed about knowing everything about a certain subject - if it takes my fancy I will read and read all sorts of stuff and I am always willing (probably too willing some may say!!) to share what I've found.

Whatever system an INTJ happens to be working on is for them the equivalent of a
moral cause to an INFJ; both perfectionism and disregard for authority may come
into play, as INTJs can be unsparing of both themselves and the others on the
project. Anyone considered to be "slacking," including superiors, will lose
their respect -- and will generally be made aware of this; INTJs have also been
known to take it upon themselves to implement critical decisions without
consulting their supervisors or co-workers.

Natural leaders, Masterminds are not at all eager to take command of projects or
groups, preferring to stay in the background until others demonstrate their
inability to lead. Once in charge, however, Masterminds are the supreme
pragmatists, seeing reality as a crucible for refining their strategies for
goal-directed action

This is me too! My way of dealing with things I've been told to do is simply ignore what I've been told and do my own thing anyway. I'm really quite bad for taking over a situation and getting quite bossy. Often if i'm in a small group and someone asks a question, I will jump in and answer before anyone else gets the chance!

Personal relationships, particularly romantic ones, can be the INTJ's Achilles
heel. While they are capable of caring deeply for others (usually a select few),
and are willing to spend a great deal of time and effort on a relationship, the
knowledge and self-confidence that make them so successful in other areas can
suddenly abandon or mislead them in interpersonal situations.
This happens in part because many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals; for
instance, they tend to have little patience and less understanding of such
things as small talk and flirtation (which most types consider half the fun of a
relationship). To complicate matters, INTJs are usually extremely private
people, and can often be naturally impassive as well, which makes them easy to
misread and misunderstand. Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is
that INTJs really want people to make sense.

This bit really struck home too. I have very few friends but those i have are very good ones that I would do anything for. My OH will talk to anyone and everyone, being friendly with people he doesn't even particularly like but I just can't be bothered. Why waste my precious time on people who don't appreciate it! And I am definitely private and impassive. I like that word - impassive. It's me, down to a T! I always say I have a lazy personality, I find it really hard to get enthusiastic about something that I couldn't care less about and I am very laid back - I really, genuinely don't mind what I eat, where we go when we go out, what time we walk the dogs! I know my OH thought that I was just saying 'I don't mind' when we first got together, but most of the time I really don't!

And this is the best bit:

They are rather rare, comprising no more than, say, one percent of the
population

I always knew I was a bit weird - now it's official! It is nice to be different though :)

The Budget begins...

2008-01-03T09:48:00.000-08:00

Not sure if going shopping in the New Look sale was good for it though! But I did get a cardigan, pair of jeans and a top for £16! I bought a new mobile yesterday too. A Sony Erricson Walkman phone - was £80 in the Tesco sale. My Christmas money is paying for that though.

I thought of two new resolutions:

Groom my dogs more often: I have two Springer Spaniels which have long hair and like to swim in the sea and crash about in the undergrowth and generally get filthy. I gave them both a brush on Tuesday and ended up having to trim Jerry's ears - they looked such a mess after i'd cut all the knots out. I am ashamed of myself.

Get to work on time: I start work at 7am and live 5 minutes away. I also hate getting out of bed - I am bad! I have been bad lately for getting to work either bang on 7 or a minute or two after and I just really feel that I should make the effort to get their a little bit early. I used to manage it, i've just got lazy recently.

I've already broke the second one - got to work at 7:02am this morning. Must try harder!

Happy New Year!

2007-12-30T02:25:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know it's a bit early, but who cares! I've been fairly busy of late hence why I haven't been updating this regularly but now my life is my own again I can start 2008 the way I mean to go on!

I could write a list of resolutions as long as my arm (involving doing more housework and boring rubbish like that!) but I know I won't keep them so I'm going to stick to a few that are either

really important, or
things I want to do

So... in the really important category we have:

Sort out my Finances (*shudder*). I am fairly bad at managing my money and have managed to have a rather large overdraft and a largeish credit card bill. None of it's really horrendous compared to the debts you hear about on the telly, but it's a lot when you work part time for not much more than the minimum wage!!

So, to overcome this I have made a budget. Every 4 weeks when I get paid I'm going to take out my money for the month in cash so I can see the actual money going down and how much i'm spending, rather than randomly using my debit card for everything. I am going to stop ordering books I don't need from the book club and Amazon (*sob*) and make lunch rather than buy it on the days I work all day. I have also applied for a new Credit Card with 6 months 0% interest on balance transfers so I won't have to pay interest for a while on the the credit card balance.

The Big Plan is, if I can pay all my outgoings out of my wages (which I should be able to) any extra I get from the pet portraits can go in the Savings account, which is looking Very Sad at the moment. Wish me luck!!

And now on to the fun ones:

Learn to knit. I have been wanting to do this for several months now but haven't had the time. I have been inspired by several blogs and websites and have decided I would love to be able to knit some things for myself and other people. As of yet, there is no definite plan on how i'm giong to do this but it is likely going to be self taught from books. (I love books.)

Make more cards. I'm not really sure if this counts as a resolution but I'll add it anyway. I've really been enjoying the card making and am planning on making all my cards from now on. I am also planning on making some for sale using my own dog drawings. I need to get some more money coming in from the drawing front and this seems like a good way to do it - handmade cards, but totally original as they'll have my own artwork. And i've seen some great paper with doggy paw prints down the craft shop!

Do more crafty stuff. How marvelously vague that is! I spend a lot of time wasting time on the internet. This year I'm going to put my time to good use and make some stuff. When my card making course has finished, I'm planning on doing something else - either scrap-booking or jewellery making probably. By next Christmas I want to be able to make all of my Christmas presents!

So, there you have it - my plans for next year. I also have a training course for work to do and would love to find the finances to do an Open University course, but that's definitely only a maybe - depending on time and money. Hope you all have a fantastic start to 2008 and long may it continue!

Cards

2007-11-27T08:17:00.000-08:00

As it's card making day today, I thought i'd better get on and show you what I did last week. We made oriental style cards, which aren't really my 'thing' but they were good fun to make and didn't look too bad!

Card #1

This was made with a metal stencil. We used black ink on a little finger stamp pad to do the black bits. We then drew around the clothing and cut it out, then used another stamp to create the pattern. This was then glued on the card. The gold bits are stickers.

Card #2

This card was made using the same techniques as the other one, except the clothing is patterned paper. The purple colour is chalk as I made a mess with the ink and smudged it everywhere! The little rivets holding the card on are great!

This evening we are making Chrsitmas cards.

Cross stitch completed

2007-11-23T04:32:00.000-08:00

I have now finished my cat cross stitch. I've stitched as a Christmas present, but i'm not sure who to give it to yet. I've started another one in the same series, but i've only done two lines of white stitching, so there's not much to show off yet!!!

Here's the finished one:

Project details are in this cross stitch post.

Card making

2007-11-17T09:49:00.000-08:00

I chose a rather stupid time of year to start a blog - I have so much going on I don't have a lot of time to update it!

However, on Tuesday, i'm going to a card making class. I've been thinking about doing card making for a while - i've got a few ideas on incorporating my pet pics into handmade cards but I have to admit feeling a little bit lost when it comes to the huge array of paper and stencils and embossing tools that are available. It was on a whim that I went into the new craft shop in town last Thursday and got offered a cup of tea, so sat down with the cuppa and looked through some cross stitch catalogues and got chatting to the shop owner. She mentioned they were doing classes so I put down my name for a beginners card making one.

I'm really looking forward to it, not just for the card making but also the social side of things, other than work and our friends round the corner I don't really know many people so it will be great to meet some people who are in to crafty things like me. I will let you know how I get on!

Cross stitch

2007-11-08T14:37:00.000-08:00

Cross stitching has to be one of my most long-standing hobbies. I was taught by my Grandma when me and my sister were little, along with embroidery, quilting, knitting and crochet. Cross stitch is the only one I stuck at, though i'm planning on re-learning to knit in the new year.

I love cross-stitch, it's so easy and such stunning pictures can be created from just a blank piece of aida and some threads. I think it's brilliant that a series of crosses in varying colours, sometimes with a bit of backstitch for definition can create pictures of absoloutely anything. I tend to go for animal designs, generally enormous, complicated ones involving loads of colour changes so I have about four unfinished ones on the go at the same time then some smaller ones in between times as well!

Here is a work in progress photo of my current project:

Project Details:

Manufacturer: Heritage Stitchcraft
Designer: Margaret Sherry
Kit: Cattitudes: 'Get a Dog!' MSGD719. Available as a kit, containing either Zweigart 14 count Aida or 28 count Evenweave, with pre-sorted DMC threads, chart, needle and instructions.
Size: approx. 14cm x 14cm

Saturday....

2007-11-03T16:32:00.000-07:00

Weather - changeable (it pissed down really hard when the sun wasn't shining)

Today I spent the morning cleaning out the animals. After walking the dogs, I cleaned out the bunnies, then cleaned out all three rat cages whilst letting them out and spending at leat 15 minutes with each group. I had lunch about 3.30 (scrambled egg on toast) when i'd finished.

I am proud of myself today though - I built a chair this evening. No, not a wooden one - an office chair, flatpacked from Argos. And it works and hasn't fallen apart yet.......

I also watched the film 'Titanic' today. I got a DVD out of co-op for £7 that has 'Titanic', 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'The Beach' on it. As I really like both Titanic and Romeo and Juliet I thought it was a bargain. Anyway - Titanic still makes me cry, not quite as much as the first time I saw it (I think I cried solidly for about an hour that time) but I still blubbed at the end. I am a wuss when it comes to films but I don't care! It's the thought of all those people that died and just so needlessly. I find it's the kind of film I get really into and I think it shows what a human tragedy the disaster was.

It's stopped raning now - i've just been out to let the dogs out for a late-night pee and it's lovely out. Pitch black sky with a tiny sprinkling of stars and no noise except for the wind in the trees, a few geese and the distant murmur of a car on the road to John O' Groats. Even though it's cold and I don't stay out for long, it's a great time of day to just be still and just concentrate on being alive!

Welcome to my blog

2007-11-03T16:22:00.000-07:00

I already have three other blogs - one is for my pet portraits so is work related, I have one specifically aimed at pets and my other one is for my rats. However, I often feel like talking about other stuff - random things about stuff I hear on the radio or the weather or what i've been doing, so this is it - my 'random stuff' blog. Enjoy!!