Off to Uni

Hi all,

I know I've been incredibly quiet over the summer, well, since the beginning of June, so for ages really!! I've been busy having trips of a lifetime and enjoying a full summer before heading off to university.

I'm just writing this quick blog post to let you know that I got the A*AA I really hoped for at A level and am going off to Bath university tomorrow to study Psychology :-) I'm excited, but also a little daunted by the massive new experience. I have some scrapbooking stash with me, it's a tiny box that has added to the many that have completely filled our boot to bursting point! I hope to get a little bit done whilst I am away, although maybe not this first term! I kept a travel journey from both of my trips this year, I may get around to posting photos at some point. :-)

My summer has included two trips abroad, one to Poland with school friends, on a trip to help teach English in a Polish summer school, and the other, a trip of a lifetime, an expedition to New Zealand on my own.
I spent 2 and a half weeks in Poland, relaxing after exams, spending the mornings helping with a gorgeous group of young Polish children, and the afternoons enjoying the freedom of being away without parents :-)

 Gdansk

 Lake and beach at the end of a hot day

Gdansk

Then at the end of August I flew on my own over to New Zealand for 2 amazing weeks in the beautiful country. I spent the first week exploring Christchurch and Wellington with family members who live out there, then traveled up to Auckland for a week with the gorgeous Kirsty and her family from 365 days of Pinterest creations. The scenery out there is truly incredible, and I visited some great places. Here's a few of the 200+ photos I have :-)

 Kaikoura sunset

 New Zealand Fur Seal having a nice relax

 Albatross, I got to see an Albatross!!

 Sperm Whale

 Dusky Dolphins, these were swimming along with the boat and really showing off

 The gorgeous snow capped mountains

 Castle Hill

 Wellington

 Gannet colony at Muriwai

 Rotorua Geyser

 Hobbiton, the film set from Lord of the Rings

Outside Bill Bo Baggins house :)

Sorry for all the pictures, I couldn't choose!

I am sorry I haven't been able to visit any of your blogs this summer, I'm sure you've all been doing some incredible work that I haven't got to see. I have missed my scrapbooking, I just haven't had spare time it seems, eventhough I've been off school for so long, don't really know where it's gone, all I know is it's been great :)

Bye for now,

Hannah :-)

Blog award and holiday pics :)

Hi, I don't have anything crafty to show you today I'm afraid, but I thought I'd pop by to blog a lovely blog award and some holiday pictures.

A few weeks ago, actually, just over a month ago (sorry Becky), I received a blog award from the lovely Becky Brombley at the Craft Jar. She has a lovely little blog, and creates a gorgeous mixture of things, from cakes to cards and many things in between, I only wish I had more time to go over there and comment a lot more often than I do. So, please do pop over and see her and her lovely work.

Now, as a recipient of this award, I need to tell you 7 things about myself. Arghhh..... right ok then, here goes,

1. My oldest proper memory (I think!!) is visiting my Brother in hospital when I was 4 and buying him a packet of the magic stars chocolate sweets from the hospital shop. I think it's an accurate memory, although no-one can definitely say that it is accurate, but I like to think it is.
2. Marmite. You either love it or you hate it. My opinion, I HATE IT!! :)
3. I also don't like rice pudding (which is odd as I used to eat it a lot when I was younger) or baked beans (which isn't helpful when you are trying to do a really simple meal when camping).
4. I love notebooks and pens, when I was younger (well until relatively recently actually) I would buy a notebook and pen from anywhere I went with a gift shop. I wasn't interested in toys, take me to a zoo or somewhere and I'd come away from the gift shop with a pen and notebook, and sit scribbling.
5. I hate being told off or shouted at. Luckily it doesn't happen often, but when it does I hate it.
6. I want to travel, and I hope I will in the future. There are so many places I'd like to visit, in the UK as well as abroad. When I get the opportunity to travel, I know I will, I just keep thinking of all of the photos, scrapbook pages and memories, oh it'd be great :)
7. I don't have a lucky number, colour, object, anything, and I'm not particularly superstitious. I count magpies if I see them and work out their meaning from the rhyme, but then just turn around and forget about it, I don't believe in it all.

Wow, so there are my 7 things. Quite random, I've just sat here trying to think of vaguely interesting things and that's what has come up, really very random, but hey ho :)

Now to pass it on to 7 people. There are so many blogs I follow, and I really do love scooting around everyones blogs as they're all so interesting and unique. One thing I would really love is more time, so I could actually get around and comment on people's work, I've really struggled recently, you're all just producing too much great work for me to keep up!! :D :D So, here's my 7, I love looking at these peoples inspirational work.

1. Miss Smith of Curiouser and Curiouser.
2. Lisa of Artfull Scrapbooking.
3. Anne of hobby d'un jour.
4. Georgia of Starting to Scrap
5. Tessa of Perfectly Precocious
6. Anthea of Our Life Story
7. Leah of A Musing to Create

Take a look over at their work for yourself, such amazing talent from them all :) Thanks again Becky, it meant a lot to know you enjoy reading my little old blog :)


So, now for some pics of our weekend break camping in Norfolk.

It was the first time we had used our new tent, and we really appreciated the large living area and the fact we could stand up, even James could stand up in it!!

Cooking - It was such good fun cooking for ourselves, it was the first time we have really cooked whilst camping

Some lovely group shots from the hol, we all thoroughly enjoyed it and I think it shows in these pics (maybe except some where James just wouldn't smile nicely :D

James especially enjoyed playing on the beach, as you can see, we all had our feet buried at some point :)

I love this photo mum took, that jumping pillow was such great fun and it was great for posing action shots :)

These are a selection of the many photos I took of the beautiful sunsets. It was World Photography day on Friday, so I had to get the camera out and snap away. All of these were taken at varying times on Friday evening :) It was brilliant to finally get a chance to try the slow shutter speed effect on water :) I was quite pleased with the result.

One of the best bits was being allowed to have camp fires on the camp site.We had a camp fire on 2 of the 3 nights and it was such good fun, although I can still smell it in my hair!! :)

I hope you liked the pics, and I'm so sorry it's been such a great big long post. Well done if you got this far :D

Bye for now,

My little brother has just got bigger

For quite a while now James hasn't really been my 'little' brother, he's at least a couple of inches taller than me! He's instructed me before to call him my 'big little brother'. Today he really was my big, grown up, little brother, if that makes sense! He started at the upper school today that I am at in the special needs inclusion class. He looked so smart, grown up and ready for the big world.

He loved having to wear a tie as he has been so interested in helping dad get ready for work over the past few years, and it was finally him who needed to wear a tie.
He had a great first day at school, enjoying being back with his friends and in a routine.

We had a great weekend this past weekend. We decided to have a little getaway to the sea for a night, Nan, Mum, James and I. We left on Friday, arriving Friday night at our travel lodge destination, ready to wake and spend a morning at the sea. We used to have a caravan on the Norfolk coast, and I really wish we still did, but on Saturday morning we returned to the site and played on the beach. It was a good nostalgia trip for me as I can remember many days at that beach, playing and exploring. The weather was really lovely, I had my shorts on, which is unusual for me in Norfolk, and the sea was quite warm. Rolo loves the sea, as soon as we get close his nose goes mad and he pulls right the way to the sea. He loves playing with stones, most dogs like sticks or balls, but not Rolo. He finds a stone on the beach and digs it into the sand. Here's Rolo carefully selecting a stone.

James also loves the sea, so we were playing together, building sand castles and running through the water for a good couple of hours.

I am starting sixth form on Thursday back at the same school. I'm looking forward to getting back into school and excited to start my subjects which are Double Maths, English Literature and Language combined and Biology. I'm not taking art onto the next level, it was so much work, and even though it was rewarding, it would compromise my other subjects and doesn't offer as many options in my future.
I have been enjoying some retail therapy today, stocking up my sixth form wardrobe with charity shop bargains and some autumn warmth. Charity shops are great places, they have so much stigma amongst children, but you can get some great, brand knew clothes that are great quality. We've spent a lot today, but the money's gone to a good cause and I have enough clothes to last a couple of years. Here's a new hand bag I found in the charity shop, I love it, so retro and colourful, a good inspiration source for pattern and colours.

Bye for now,
Hannah :)

Big News :D

Hi everyone, I'm home.

I'm back from my amazing trip to Ireland and bearing some fantastic news.

To start with I'll tell you about my trip. I had a brilliant trip to Ireland, such a good time.

The plane journey was amazing, it was nothing like I imagined, so smooth and enjoyable, I couldn't even tell when we left the ground! Working our way through all the checks and security in the airport was quite an experience, I couldn't have managed without others who had done it before. I didn't feel as nervous whilst sat at the airport as I believed I would, and boarding the plane I felt excited more than anxious.

Up in the sky, the view was fabulous. I've seen pictures that people have taken out of the window of planes before, but it's not the same as when you are up there yourself.

The campsite was lovely, we were the only group on the entire site. We were a group of 8, so we had two in a tent.

On the first night, after setting up camp, we did archery. It was great fun, it's so long since I've done archery.

In the right hand corner of the camp image above you can see a metal structure. This was 'The Cube'. As it was a girl guiding site there were many activities on site that we took part in, including 'The Cube' high rope course and crate stacking. Here's us just about to start crate stacking.

After crate stacking, we went on to the high ropes course. This is me after conquering the ropes and stood rather high on a plinth.

The following day we went on a 'Paddywagon' tour around the main attractions in Northern Ireland. Our first stop was the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge which connects the land to an Island and used to be used by fishermen. This is the view down as you cross the bridge.
From the bridge we moved around the coast to the Giant's Causeway. For those of you who haven't been, it's well worth a visit, it's a beautiful place.

The final destination on our trip was Londonderry (Derry) where we were taken around some of the historic areas and shown some of the murals. This was my favourite, painted on the end of a terrace block, the detail and painting skill was incredible.

On the Tuesday we walked a 7 mile walk along the coast to Bangor, a seaside town. It was a really lovely walk, looking across the bay the whole walk and seeing all the green, rugged scenery.

That afternoon we had another activity on site, the 'Slippery Slide', which consisted of a giant piece of tarpaulin with water and washing up liquid on it!! It was good fun, some of us went faster than others, but I was happy with the speed that I went. We were all giggling away as we went sailing down and skidded off a few times onto the grass at the bottom.
As you can see, we all got soaked!

We had to get up really early on the Wednesday, pack up the site and headed off with our incredibly heavy bags (mine weighed 15.4kg on the return journey)! We did a Open bus site-seeing tour of Belfast, then enjoyed a meal in a lovely pub and some free shopping time. The flight home was just as fine as the outward journey, although returning home through thick cloud and good old English rain wasn't as pleasant.

One thing that did make the return journey special was the knowledge that I would return home to my GCSE results. I was devastated to find out that they had decided to move the GCSE results day this year, the one year that I was on holiday. It would have been brilliant to be there on the day, although our own mini results day was nearly as good. 3 of us went on the Ireland trip that were due to receive our results, so we agreed to have them bought to us at the airport and have a mini results day.

I am extremely proud to tell you my results. I received 8 A*'s, 5 A's and a C. All of my hard work payed off and I received grades better than my highest dreams. The C was in PE, which, if you can remember my write up following my exam, I don't care a bit about. I am also incredibly proud to tell you that one of my A*'s was for Art. Our school has never had an A* in art before as it requires 97% to achieve it. I have asked a few other fellow art students and believe it is me and only one other who achieved it in my year group, making us the first two to ever get an A* in the history of the school!!! When I saw the A* in art I nearly cried, it was the one that touched me the most. I plan to meet up with friends over the weekend as I haven't yet seen them or heard most of their results.

Bye for now,

Hannah xx :D