School's out for ever!!

Well compulsory school is anyway.

It was my last day yesterday, it was an amazing day, the atmosphere in our final leavers assembly was electric, everyone was hyper, screaming and as far as I know no tears were shed. My autograph book is full and I have some great memories to treasure. I am planning on adding a few touches to the book, a few pics and some of my own comments.

I only have to go into school now for my remaining 7 exams. All of my exams so far I feel have gone really well and I've been happy with them, I'm about half way through them all now. :D

The farm visit wasn't quite what I was expecting! My famous last words 'hopefully James will behave'. I shouldn't have said that!! He was obstinate and disobedient, he enjoyed the farm tour but when it came to the barbeque he spent the time annoying their dog and getting in people's faces. He is very very friendly, but sometimes too friendly, he doesn't stop talking and gets very close to people. We travelled round the farm in the back of a land rover for part which was quite cool but didn't get much chance for photos, I managed to quickly snap these.

I spent yesterday afternoon and today celebrating the break up of school by doing scrapbooking. I'm very pleased with my finished page, I am planning on sending it in to Scrapbook Inspirations so unfortunately I cannot show you all.

I thought I'd show you my work area. Yes that is my bed under all my stash in the first photo, it's a good surface to dump and move things off of my desk too. I use my desk in my bedroom to work on, mum uses the craft room desk and at the moment it has her projects on it. This is the state my room was in this afternoon after crafting all day, and then I have to tidy it all away.

It's half term now and I plan to enjoy it. I have another scrapbook page planned to do and some prom dress shopping to do.

Thanks for looking, bye for now.

Hannah :)

English literature

Just a quick post today.

I have this afternoon off for study leave for my Chemistry exam tomorrow morning. I just thought I'd let you know that I did my 2 and a half hour English Literature exam this morning and the hours of revision yesterday and at the weekend were well worth it. The exam went really quickly and I remembered so many of the quotes, I feel I did well, the best I could've done. So I'm happy :D

I'd better go, get some good revision done before James comes home from school. We're off on a farm tour this evening through my Dad's work, should be lots of nice little baby animals, my camera may have to come with me!! Hopefully James will behave and enjoy the trip, he should do, he likes animal's.

I'll let you know how it goes, hopefully I'll have some piccies to show, bye for now.

Hannah :)

What a lovely weekend!

I've had a great few days since my last post.

I had my PE exam on Friday, it was really easy, all the questions were multiple choice and the half an hour of revision for it seemed perfectly adequate. I had the morning at home for study leave, it was amazing, I felt all grown up!! It did however feel really weird changing into school uniform half way through the day.

Wow what lovely weather it has been, I hope everyone has been enjoying it but not getting burnt! I've been to a local nature reserve a few times in the last couple of days and it's been lovely. There's so much nature around at the moment, it's been a nice break from revision to get outside and enjoy the wildlife. The shorts and white jeans have come out of my wardrobe, so summer must be nearly here!

This is my last official week at school. Wow, 11 years of schooling and this is the last week were I actually have to go in (well apart from exams after half term). That's such a weird thought!! Even this week will be disrupted with study leave, so really Thursday of last week was my last full day at school in lessons. After failing to find an autograph book which I liked, i decided in the week to make my own. This way I could decorate it, assemble it and ensure it is just how I wished. Here are the blank pages I ready to hopefully be filled during this week. They have patterned paper on 1 side, maybe for photos or me to write on later, and are blank on the other side.

They are the only remotely crafty thing I have managed to fit in this week, although I have been planning a page in my head which I am hoping to do in the half term holidays, if I can find time. It's the first time I have taken a photo to go with a paper, it's always been the other way round for me. I can't wait to actually make the page.

One thing I am definitely setting time aside for in the half term is shopping. I am turning 16 in July and am having a party planned for me all for £20. I'm afraid I can't tell you where you can get the amazing deal, because there isn't an amazing deal. I am just very fortunate to have my birthday the same day as my year 11 prom!! It's brilliant, all of my friends will be there, everything will be organised for us, and I can treat it like my birthday party. So I'll be dress shopping in the holidays, a day shopping and trying on lots of dresses, I'm looking forward to it :D

I'm sure there was something else I wanted to say, but I've forgotten it, all I have going through my head is quotes from my English Literature revision!

I hope everyone has a great week. Bye for now.

Hannah :)

1 down, 12 to go

My first exam has been and gone, only 12 more to go!! I had RE as my first exam, it was quite easy, not really one I'm worried about to be honest.

I spent my weekend revising mainly and enjoying the quite nice weather, however I did have chance to do a little bit of scrapbooking and take a few photos. Plus mum bought a quirky kits kit last week and it arrived on Saturday. I love it, so unique and lots of embellishments, looking forward to using it. Just managed to do another page of my brothers scrapbook, and added journalling to my previous page.
This page is all about his costume for world book day. Although it isn't exactly a book, James was obsessed with Toy Story at the time so nan made him a woody the cowboy outfit. It was a great costume and James loved wearing it, I think he won a prize for it. I love that photo of him, I'm not sure that cowboys would suck their thumb though! Since the world book day James' nickname has been woody and he has allocated our Grandad and Uncle character names as nicknames too.

We went to my Nan and Grandad's on Sunday. I took the camera, I've started taking it everywhere now!! They have a lovely garden full of colour and interesting things to photograph. Our garden is just grass as we have recently moved and the garden is just blank, which is great as we can make it how we want it to be, but not so good for practising with a camera. I took this photo of my Nan in her garden, all the blossom is falling off one of her trees so it created a lovely background. She's such a willing subject, even though she often doesn't like the pictures of herself she doesn't mind letting us practise with her. Whilst shooting my picture of Nan James came to join in, unfortunately the picture I caught wasn't very good but thanks to Photoshop I have managed to sort the exposure and it's OK now.

Mum and I only tried Photoshop Elements for the first time last week, we have downloaded the trial but will definitely go on to buy it as I have already fallen in love with it.

Another photo, I took this one over the weekend and once again using photoshop I have tweaked it a tiny bit and am very pleased with the result.Thank you to everyone who has given me good luck wishes for my exams, they are very much appreciated.

Hannah :D

By the way, so far so good with the diary, I've managed to keep it up to date so far!!

A few things to show

I hope everyone is keeping well, I'm busy doing revision ready for my first exam on Tuesday.

I have decided that I will keep a diary throughout my exams and for the rest of the year. Those of you that have read some of my past posts may remember that I am dreadful at keeping diaries, I have begun many but never stuck to them. This time I am determined, I want to be able to look back at my GCSE's in years to come as they are so important. Plus I wish to document my blissful summer holidays with no revision or work and then the beginning of sixth form. I asked mum to buy me a pretty notebook today whilst out as I want to be able to do a variation of entry sizes and may even want to include photos, so decided a notebook would be better than a specific diary. This is what she came home with.

I LOVE it!! Paperchase is such an amazing shop. It's so pretty, mum knows my taste so well. Mum and I love stationery, mainly because you can get so many good scrapbooking ideas from it. I think our love for stationery has been something we've always had, mum is well known in the family to make lists of everything in notebooks, and as a child I would buy a notebook and pencil as a souvenir of every place I've been! Mum only discovered the wonderful world of Paperchase today, but she already loves it. Another thing I asked mum to buy for me was an autograph book, ready for my last few proper weeks at school. This is the book she brought for me. It is a day trippers photo journal, which I'm sure is pretty self explanatory. Mum liked the book and brought it with the view that I could either use it as an autograph book or keep it for what it is for. The pages inside are brilliant, with a mixture of plain pages, watermarked images and then these fabulous plastic pocket pages.

Throughout the book there are a few of these pages, with a few different pocket designs, some small, some big. They're great, perfect for holiday and trip memorabilia. I'm going to save it, it's too good to use as an autograph book! I am going on a plane on holiday for the first time this summer to Ireland, and I can see this book as being perfect for the trip.

Just another thing I wanted to show you. I decorated this canvas a few years ago for my old bedroom. It looked great in my room, a perfect colour match and the design matched my duvet cover. Now we've moved, it no longer goes with the room, however, never mind, as it means I have chance to make a new one now. I'm looking forward to the freedom from homework so much in the forthcoming summer holidays that I've already begun my list of things to do, and decorating a new canvas is on it!

I'm off now to play a board game with James, and then I shall have to do my first diary entry in my new book! Take care and enjoy your weekend.

Hannah :D

Something to think about

In my English lesson today we were looking through an old fiction paper. It included the story 'The Last Night Of The World' by Ray Bradbury. For those of you that have not read the story, well I guess the title says it all, it is about a family who know the world is going to end that night. They spend the night in exactly the same way they spend any other night, even with the knowledge it will be their last.

It was quite a deep and meaningful English lesson in the end, after reading the short story as a class, everyone was subdued and quiet. We then started talking and discussing all the times where people have thought that the world would end, take the hadron collider for example, I remember people shouting down the school corridors that we would all be sucked into a big black hole, and people really were scared! We discussed what we would do if we knew the world was to end tonight. It was interesting to hear what people had to say, and me and a friend came to the conclusion that if you said you wouldn't spend it with your family and the people you love you'd most probably be lying.

It's quite a deep and thoughtful topic I know, but I thought I'd share it with you so you can think it over too. Have a good evening. Hannah :)

P.S. Sorry it's nothing crafty again, I haven't had time with all the revision.

It's been a while..

..and I have nothing crafty to show for the time either!!

The only slightly creative thing I have to show is this photo I took yesterday of our dog Rolo, a 6 year old lakeland terrier. I am still practising with my mum's old camera, taking any shots I see. I wanted to try a close up with a strange angle. He was quite obliging, although he did fidget.
I've been busy revising all week and weekend. My first exam is in 9 days and surprisingly I'm not stressed or worried. I'm rather calm and am just taking the revision as it comes.

The only problem is that me staying at home doing revision all the time is meaning so does the rest of my family. It's ok for my dad as it enables him to get on with the gardening and mum finds things to do, but my brother doesn't understand that I'm busy and cannot go outside and play. Plus the weather hasn't exactly been lovely either today, our garden is open to fields on one side so the wind just howls across. James doesn't get any homework so doesn't understand why I am doing school work at home.

On a plus side, it's only a few weeks until that's it, there will be no more revision or homework for 2 and a half months. I received my exam timetable a few days ago and my last exam is on the 18th June. Following this I'll be able to spare time to play with him (hopefully in the nice weather that this summer will bring) and do scrapbooking every day if I want to. Oh how lovely that sounds!! I've already begun a list of things I am going to do in the holidays, especially the few weeks where James will still be at school and I will be at home with mum. Due to James' autism, my mum and me hardly get any time together just us. So I'm going to make the most of the few weeks where James will be at school, me and mum can go shopping and do scrapbooking together and all the things we like to do. I'm looking forward to it. I'll also be at home for both my mum's and my own birthday, which I normally have to spend at school :D
I just wanted to include this photo, this is James a few weekends ago on our trampoline. We have only just got the trampoline, although it is something we have wanted for a long time. James loves it.

I hope everyone has a good week. Hannah xx

Bank holiday weekend

I hope everyone enjoyed their extra day off work or school. I spent my weekend revising which wasn't exciting but at least it was productive.

I've found a great way to get scrapbooking done whilst revising!! For English I have been studying 2 texts and recently brought audio recordings of both as I thought listening to them might help me remember bits better than just reading it. So this past weekend I finally got round to sit down and listen to them, and as I'm not the type of person to just sit and listen to a CD, I did some scrapbooking too. It worked well, or at least I think it did, I remember bits from the story and got a page of my scrapbook of my brother done too.

I have been mooching around other scrapbookers blogs and have noticed how many people seem to make a card straight after a scrapbook page to use up scraps and stop a pile accumulating. I haven't made a card for ages but decided I would give it a go and make one using the paper scraps from my page.

My aunt and uncle came to visit on Sunday and brought a lovely bunch of tulips with them. My mum brought a new camera a few weeks ago and so I am trying to get used to her old one. The tulips were a great focal point to try out all the things I had been reading from numerous photography books, and here and some of the results.

I tried to do some arty shots, making them overexposed and experimenting with the bright colours. I quite like some of them, but I still need to learn a lot and practise.