One Photo & Twenty Words

A spontaneous last minute Christmas gift. One thousand pieces. Many hours of patient puzzling with family. Jigsaws never get old.

*****

Today I am joining in with Abi's lovely meme 'One Photo and Twenty Words' - pop over and say hi to her, she's the best!

xxx

Looking Back and Looking Forward

Happy new year! I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas season and had fun welcoming in 2014 last night! I really enjoyed the festivities, we had lots of family time and relaxation and indulgence and catching up with friends...the best.

I've been looking back over 2013 and all that happened this year - from finishing in one school and starting in another, summer travels to Italy and London, spending time with lots of lovely friends old and new, crafty endeavours, lots of laughs and a few tears, thousands of photos, one wedding, turning twenty one in July - what a year! Choosing photos to make these collages proved very difficult :D

Here's to a fantastic 2014! I'm still deliberating over maybe starting Project Life, and at the moment am finishing up my Christmas Journal, so watch out for posts over the next few days!
xxx

Christmas Eve Eve

I cannot believe that it's December 23rd. It seems like only yesterday that it was the end of November and we were gently trundling towards the festivities, but things have just snowballed in the last few weeks. School was very busy but very exciting in the run up to the holidays - seeing the children's excited faces as they spoke animatedly about what Santa was going to bring them, decorating our classroom with fairy lights and baubles, singing Christmas carols, making clay Christmas decorations and counting down the days on our Advent chalkboard were just some of the highlights. We also went to see two different Christmas shows, 'Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer' with the little ones, and an 'Aladdin' pantomime with the older children, both of which I enjoyed just as much (if not more!) than the intended audience!

Most of our time, however, was dedicated to preparations for our Christmas nativity, which was held in the local church last Thursday night. It was a modern musical twist on the nativity called 'A Midwife Crisis', featuring singing sheep, dazzling angels, a frenzied midwife and her gormless donkey and of course, a very special baby boy. We practised and practised and practised the weeks beforehand. On the night, all went to plan (well, mostly!). One boy sadly got a case of stage fright just beforehand and decided that he wouldn't be making his acting debut after all! The adorable little boy who was cast as the star above the stable decided to take a stroll down to say hello to his parents mid-play! There were a few mixed up lines and giggles, but overall, the children did us proud. All things considered, the children and teachers were well ready for the break when our holidays began on Friday afternoon!

The last couple of days have been swallowed up with glorious preparations for December 25th. Last minute presents have been bought and wrapped, the Christmas cake has been iced and dug into, mince pies have been baked, some gifts have been exchanged, friends have been met, chocolates have been devoured, Christmas carols have been sung in our choir, cards have been sent and received, candles have been lit and memories have been recorded. Speaking of memories, I am very far behind on my JYC, however I have managed to write some journalling into a little copybook every day, so am planning a crafty catch up today. Also planned for today is making Mary Berry's gingerbread house with my sister. I've never made one before but was won over watching Mary and Paul construct their masterpiece on the Great British Bake Off Christmas special on last Tuesday night. I'll keep you updated on the progress! What have you been up to for the last few days?

Anyway, I'm off to get crafty with a cup of tea in one hand and a journalling pen in the other! Wishing you and yours a very merry run-up to Christmas - enjoy these few days of joyful anticipation, they always go by far too quickly!

xxx

P.S. My lovely friend Jenny has recently started her own blog over here. She is such a sweetheart and a brilliant writer and storyteller too - do pop by and say hello!

Journalling Christmas 2012...

Is is still too early to talk about Christmas?! I don't think so... I'm a huge Christmas fan, I love everything about the festive season - the preparations, the family time, the joy, the food, the giving, the hustle and bustle, the shopping, the traditions, the church-going, the prayers, the smells and sights and sounds. I could go on! For the last two years, Shimelle's annual Journal Your Christmas class has been an important part of my seasonal celebration. In 2011, thanks to lovely long holidays from university, coupled with being very organised, I was able to complete a daily entry in my journal, and LOVED the result. You can see my 2011 journal here, here and here.

Last year was a different story. I had just started in my first proper teaching job, and had applied to complete my teaching diploma (involving mountains of paperwork and planning, along with an impending inspector visit). I had no album, few festive supplies and extremely limited time. But I still wanted to journal my Christmas, so I decided on a whim to chop up some old Christmas and non-Christmas papers into 4x6 inch rectangles, and gather some assorted supplies into a pizza box for my own little kit.

Completing the album turned out to be an even bigger challenge than I'd anticipated, given the time constraints and pressures of a new job. Even during the holidays, I didn't dedicate the hours I'd hoped to catch up. The cards I did complete though, I popped into an old photo album in the expectation that sometime, I would get the chance to pull together my 2012 album.

And so, a couple of weeks ago, when I began to get excited about journalling Christmas 2013, I rooted out those cards. I found a little 4x6 photo album for €3 in a photo shop, pulled out photos from last December and made a simple cover. At last, almost a year later, it was finished!

Honestly, even though it's simple, even though I didn't respond to many of the prompts, even though it's short, I love how it turned out and I'm so glad I finished it. I like that it reflects and captures the unique little details of my Christmas last year, from preparing for a Christmas musical to working Christmas eve in the butchers, to visiting the famous English markets in Cork with the hanging plucked turkeys. I love that I have a record of these moments, and looking at my 2012 album, I already so excited for this year!

I am hoping to be more organised this December and January. I ordered my album at the weekend, along with treating myself to some new Christmas supplies (excitement!). After much deliberation, I went with a 6x8 album with divided page protectors. I like the idea that I can do some quick entries and pop in photos on the busy days, but I'll have more space for journalling on the 6x8 pages (I tend to write A LOT once I get started, and fitting in my sprawling memories and journalling was the one thing I didn't like about the small size last year). Now I'm just so excited for my parcel to arrive so I can get preparing and cutting and assembling my own little kit of supplies with things I have in my stash mixed in with a few new bits and pieces. December 1st 2013... Bring it on! :D

xxx

P.S. I have put the entries in collages rather than showing you single photos of each page, because it would take FOREVER to upload them at decent quality without compressing too much! Plus you'd probably be totally bored of scrolling down! :D

Tea, Pumpkins and Crafting

So I've had a little bit of a (spontaneous and unintentional) blog break. My time has been swallowed up by my new job, lots of baking, a little scrapbooking, some TV watching, pumpkin carving, face-painting and socialising with friends... not necessarily in that order! Things have been busy, but I'm now in the middle of the glorious week off school for half-term (mid-term, as we call it here in Ireland) and I thought it was high time I invited you for tea and a catch up on the goings on in my very exciting life! It's also a chance to join in with Abi's monthly tea party... Better late than never :D So come on in, grab a slice of spiced apple cake with rum buttercream and a mug, and get yourself comfy by the roaring fire...

How is everything with you? My new job is going well, I'm slowly getting used to the insanity and chaos of a classroom with four classes and children ranging in age from four to eight! It's noisy and exhausting, and a bit mad at times, but I'm really enjoying the challenge. In the past five weeks, I've carved pumpkins, read 'Room on the Broom' several times, painted autumn trees and hedgehogs, woven spiderwebs, recited rhymes, sung songs, led a maths trail, pretended to be a banana (!), painted lots of little faces, mopped up a few tears, laughed out loud and stressed a lot! What have you been up to at work recently?

The new job has, however, been sucking up all my time, so crafting has suffered a little bit. The half-term has helped me redress that balance! I've almost finished that crochet blanket I showed you last time  we chatted, and thanks to a lovely day with a friend yesterday, I finished a double page layout that has been on my desk for far too long. I also carved another pumpkin and got the DSLR out for the first time in ages. Good times! Have you been crafting recently?

Something that hasn't suffered in the last few weeks is my obsession with the Great British Bake Off! I'm SO sad that it's over now, but am consoling myself with the masterclasses with Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood this week, and doing lots of baking myself :D Thankfully, the Great Irish Bake Off will be on for another couple of weeks to fill the GBBO shaped hole in my TV schedule!

My goodness, time flies when we get together for tea! Thank you for joining me today :) And thanks Abi for the inspiration, as always. Until next month...

xxx

P.S. Happy Halloween!

At the Moment...

They say times flies when you're having fun... I think it should read, 'time flies when you're hectic-crazy-manic-exhausting busy!' The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind, with the main news being that I have succeeded in getting a job, a maternity leave cover until mid March. I have just started into my third week now (whew!) and am very gradually adjusting to the massive change in pace and workload and trying to get used to a new workplace and routine. It's a positive kind of busy though, as I appreciate that I'm so lucky to have employment when so many others are out of work. Anyway, as a kind of ease-myself-back-into-blogging exercise, I thought it was high time for a 'right now' kind of post. So here goes...

Currently I am:
Reading primary school textbooks and fairytales to my class (with dramatic voices, obviously!) :D
Cooking lots of Jamie Oliver's meals from his most recent cookbook, the latest being a chicken and chorizo paella (which was divine, if I may say so myself!)
Drinking loads of tea with some coffee thrown in there too, as well as trying to sip more water
Typing school plans and PowerPoint presentations
Surfing crafty blogs, Pinterest and teaching resource sites
Watching Great British and Great Irish Bake Offs, Downton Abbey and Home and Away
Listening to OneRepublic and some radio
Celebrating my county winning the All-Ireland hurling final on September 28th - an EPIC weekend of celebrations!
Crafting a little bit of crochet every now and again (granny stripe blanket as seen above!)
Wanting to get more organised and fit in more time to scrapbook and bake
Chatting to friends on the phone a lot - the best way to de-stress is definitely to vent and rant a little :D
Worrying about getting everything I need done and gaining a work-life balance and mostly, succeeding in my new job
Wearing blazers, dark jeans, light knits and blouses - it's that in-between autumnal time when I don't know if I'm ready for winter woolies quite yet
Needing to buy some black comfy ankle boots for the winter that I can tuck my jeans into... impossible to find!
Thanking God for my friends and family who keep me sane (well, mostly!)

Hope to be back soon with a more substantial post :D
xxxxx

Thoughts on Instagram

I was a slow starter with Instagram. I blame this on my phone, which is an Android model that is a little dated and on which the camera is not brilliant to say the least. I am saving my pennies for an iPhone! But anyway, my phone camera was my excuse not to Instagram. I rarely used the camera on my phone at all... This is definitely because I am in love with my DSLR and bring it almost everywhere with me. I  adore the brilliant quality and creative control of changing the aperture and shutter speed. Why would I need to take phone pictures at all?

However, in recent months, my attitude has changed. I am beginning to embrace my phone camera. I like the fact that I can use it to capture the things I wouldn't usually take photos of, like a meal I've made from a new cookbook, or an ice-cream in the car, or a coffee while I work on my laptop. These photos of the little things document the normality and routine of everyday life, not just day trips or holidays or adventures. I love flicking back through my Instagram photos to see the changing seasons and the mix of the exciting and the mundane.

An Instagram collage... First row (L-R): autumnal blackberries; summer lemonade; birthday flowers from Australia; cupcakes in my county colours. Second row (L-R): share a coke with Sinéad; Jamie Oliver's new book; boiled egg tea; Havianas for my holidays. Third row (L-R): coffee and Macbook; sunny road trip; cross stitching; stripy pumps and turned up jeans. Fourth row (L-R): hurling match; aquarium visiting; peas from the garden; first '99 cone of the summer.

I also really enjoy the social aspect of Instagram and the immediacy of it. It's like a cheekier, more in-your-face version of blogging, and I love the fact that I get a window into the daily lives of friends, bloggers, famous people and everyone in between!

You can follow me @sineadkirby, if you're so inclined :D What are your thoughts on Instagram?
xxx