Happy New Year

Hi all,

Happy New Year to you all. I for one am really looking forward to welcoming in the new year tonight. I am staying at a friends and shall be up to see 2012 in, watching the fireworks in London on the TV. Next year will be a big year for me, with many exciting and daunting times ahead. It will be a year of decisions, travelling, finding my feet on my own and continuing to work my socks off. Bring it on, I'm looking forward to it.

I've just been having a look back, looking at this blog and everything I've made and shared with you over the last year. Wow, it's flown by, I can't believe I made some of those things nearly a year ago. I've made a little compilation, with a project from every month of this last year :)

There's been scrapbooking, mini books (which I still haven't finished!!), cakes, photography, digital scrapbooking, jewellery making, cards and canvases. It's been a busy old year :)

I apologise in advance for periods of absence this coming year. I have modules in January which I am already having to get revising for and panicking about. I shall fit a little crafting in where I can and pop by every so often.

Just thought I'd mention to you, if anyone is looking for a way to kick start their crafting in 2012, Miss Smith is running a little class in January called Just One Sketch. It's only £5 to join, and the money is going to help Kirsty fund her trip with GirlGuiding. Visit here for more details and to sign up :)

I hope you all have a great start to the coming year, and enjoy any celebrations you have tonight or tomorrow :)

Thanks for your continued support and delightful comments, you're all lovely.

I'll be back next year :)
Hannah :) x

Christmas presents, biscuits and an Oxford update

Hi all,

I'll start off today by sharing with you the gifts I made for my girl friends. I decided to create a She Art girl for each, on an 8x10" canvas, with the girl based on them. I created an outfit that resembled an outfit I know they have or the style of outfit that I associate with them, and a saying that sums up their best quality. So here goes. I shall show you the canvases on here, and then shall post close ups of each on my Flickr page.

I hope you like them, and I hope my friends like them. Some have already opened them, but not all :)

I decided that whilst I had a little time and wanted a bit of a break, I would do some Christmas baking. So the other day I found a great recipe and set about baking some Christmas Spice Biscuits. I must say that actually they are really nice, even if I say so myself.
It was great fun to spend some time just baking, listening to carols and Christmas songs on the radio and smelling the gorgeous Christmas spices and the biscuits cooking. I had to take a photo of them ready to scrapbook, and took quite a few during the baking process, as I never seem to take many photos at Christmas, so am taking a lot this year as I have a Christmas pad that I am desperate to use :) I also really wanted to fetch out our 50mm lens and crank the aperture to f1.7, I love this shallow depth of field and don't seem to use it enough.
Here are a few of the biscuits :)

The recipe is here

So onto my Oxford news. Well I'm afraid to say that it isn't good news. I had my reply letter today and I have not been given an offer to Oxford. I say it's not good news, obviously I'd have been very proud to have received an offer and it would have been nice, but I'm not upset or bothered by the news, so it's not bad news. I am incredibly proud to have got as far down the Oxford application route as I have, and the interview experience was so brilliant. You may remember me writing shortly after visiting Bath university earlier in the year how much I absolutely loved it. Well it hasn't changed, and Bath and Oxford are both up there joint top of my university list. I haven't yet heard back from Bath, so my hopes now rest on there, and would be equally overjoyed getting to Bath as the course is amazing. Thank you very much for all of your support and encouragement throughout the university application process, I haven't given up hope yet and shall keep you updates with the further twist and turns of my application. :)

Ok, think that's it from me now.
If I do not get back on here before Christmas, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, I hope you all have a great time.
Bye for now,
Hannah :)

Update

Hi all,

I've finally found time to just sit in front of the computer and type!! So here goes, a bit of an update on my hectic life.

We've now broken up from school. Yipee, I'm looking forward to the slight break I'll get over this Christmas. I have scrapbooking I want to do, a driving theory test to prepare for, Christmas decorating to do and lots of school work ready for January exams.

So, I'll start by telling you about Oxford. I went down to Oxford last Sunday afternoon and arrived at my college, Lady Margaret Hall, in time for the evening dinner. Straight away the college felt so friendly, everyone would speak to you and it was easy to make friends. I then spent the first evening settling into my room and chatting away to people in the JCR (junior common room). I was first up for interview for our subject, with my interview at 10am no the Monday. The interviews are very strange. The tutors are all lovely, and I didn't feel too nervous which was good. As expected the questions were tough, and it's incredibly hard to possibly say whether I think it went well or not, because no one knows specifically what they're looking for, and you don't know if you're what they want. It didn't go horrendously bad though, and I did my best. I then went into Oxford in the afternoon to shop a little and enjoy the gorgeous city and Christmas feel. I had another interview on Tuesday, everyone applying for Experimental Psychology gets 2 interviews, and my second was at Somerville. This one didn't feel too bad either, it was very different from the first as the tutors had obviously conversed and the second was a lot more about the subject and not about me. Again, I tried my best, an whatever happens now, I know I tried my best, showed them the real me and I'm proud enough to have got to interview.
We shall hear back from them in the next few days, they said that reply letters shall be sent by the 20th, so I'll know by Christmas. I made so many great friends whilst I was there, thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and shall be happy either way, whatever the outcome, as it's been a great journey and I am proud to have got this far.

Here's a few pics from the trip

My mock exam went ok on Thursday, it was a Biology mock. I am finding Biology quite hard at the moment, there is just sooo much to know and to apply to strange situations. I'll definitely be doing a lot of Biology work over Christmas to try and pack my brain with the facts.
We also had our sixth form Christmas social event on Thursday, which was great fun :)
I have finished and given out my friends Christmas presents. I haven't yet sorted the photos I took of them, so I shall show you their presents another day :)
I managed to fit in a bit of Christmas baking yesterday, it's ages since I've baked. I've made some Christmas spice biscuits, and they are really quite yummy even if I do say so myself. Hoping to make some peppermint creams later today, I LOVE peppermint creams, soooo gorgeous, yum yum :D

Ok then, I think I'll leave it at that.
Bye for now,
I'll be back another day.
Thanks for looking and for all of your support.
Hannah :)

Last TPV DT work :(

Hi all,
I have had a busy time these last few weeks and especially days. I arrived home yesterday after my Oxford interview, it was a great experience. I shall visit back here another day and tell you all about it, but for now I am here with my very last TPV project to share with you :(

It's so sad that this is my last, but I am also looking forward to handing the post over and seeing what the new DT creates with Abby and Suzanne's great challenges.
So, here we are, my last project

This weeks challenge is..

Anything goes

..so we'd like to see any of your projects that you make this week. We know that everyone is incredibly busy at this time of year, so please just join the challenge with whatever creative paper projects you make. The prize this week is..

.. this great Dots and Stripes Christmas collection from Echo Park. These pads are gorgeous, we have a couple and the colours and patterns are great.

To win this prize, link up any paper project to the TPV website here and you shall be entered into the random draw :) Good luck.

Here's a close up of my project this week, a card made for my form tutor at Sixth Form.

I have used a paper from the absolutely gorgeous My Mind's Eye O'Christmas Tree pad. This pad is divine, I wish I had some better Christmas photos to use these papers with. I selected the poinsettia paper, cut a panel, then carefully cut out 3 of the glittered poinsettia's, layering and shaping them to create the flower. The only thing that annoys me about this card is the sentiment. It's not straight, which really annoys me. It's not too obvious, but it's obvious enough for me!!

Right, I had better go and get some revision done for my mock exam tomorrow.
Bye for now, I shall be back another day to tell you about Oxford :)

Hannah