Thursday, January 25, 2007

Well I was there

Oh what a fun afternoon we had, we went to the library nice and early even tho' it was snowing out there. Sat and waited for well over an hour - cause last year the lovely lady was an hour late - then decided to make the 2 minute walk to the Civic Centre and the Education department. Waited there just over half an hour only to find that the man had been there waiting for us at 11am. Funny that when we had made the appointment for 2pm, cause I really don't like mornings well unless it's for something fun, does meeting the LA bods count as fun, oh I surely think so. So in between our phonecall before christmas and there letter reaching us to confirm, the time for the meeting changed from 2pm to 11am. Silly me, I knew I should have read that confirmation letter from them, but again silly me, I thought they would keep the appointment time to that which we had arranged. Will know better next time.

So apart from the fact that Robynne managed to pick up a few more manga books, we had a fairly wasted afternoon. Oh and the lovely walk in the snow, which I enjoyed so much, really must do that again. Mmmmmm maybe I over did it on the sarcasm there lol.

tHE Sound

Our new local H.E. magazine was finally finished yesterday all ready to for distribution. Unfortunately we had no luck turning it into a pdf as for some reason, it wouldn't recognize the format we are using and when we saved it into a recognized format it screwed up all the pages. So am pretty glad we didn't buy that package then. Now am trying to workout how to link to it on here so that any of you lovely people that read my blog may take a look to, but, only if you want to of course.

Robynne has been fairly busy putting the mag together for me along with her friend Dee they managed to do quite alot on Monday. Tho' she did drag the last few bits and pieces out for as long as possible lol.

We are off to our meeting with the LA bod this afternoon, would rather be going swimming - even tho' I don't swim - personally, but when I rearranged the appointment I hadn't yet filled my diary in for the year and forgot about swimming. I did give Robynne the option of going swimming instead of the meeting, but, she seems to want to come and meet this new man, mmmmm wonder if she'll be as polite to him as she was to the last person we met.

Things on the business front are ploding along slowly, we should have the domain name and web hosting sorted out in a few days - maybe one day I'll get a credit card, apparently they make life easier lol - so it will be time for more learning with Robynne as she teaches me how to build a website lol. In the meantime we have been sorting my new sewing area out, we built the carcass of my new sewing table the other day. The next step is to make it safe and to cut out a hole for my light box to sit in. Ooh my favourite bit is next week when we go fabric shopping, for the material to make some animal hot water bottles. I really like the designs I made, but I think my fav at the moment is the horse one, with the saddle on it's back.

Oh and we now have slow leak on a water pipe leading to the main radiator in our living room, while I've been typing this, I have been on the phone to the repairs team and get this we have an appointment for someone to come fix this on Tues. Apparantly while it's contained its no danger, I guess as I've only gone through two towels, a cushion and only a corner of the sofa has gotten a little damp it's contained. Ah well at least it's not gushing like the last pipe. But, still Tues I can see I shall be checking it every 5 minutes now, just to see if it's safe. Thankfully there's no carpet under that bit of the pipe.

On another note we are planning trips to various London Museums this year with our group so if anyone wants to meet up with us that would be great. It would be nice to meet up with other H.Ers from other areas. I first visit is on the 7th Feb and were doing the Science Museum were meeting their at 11am. We've never been there before so were really looking forward to it.

*will pop a link for the mag in later as Robynne says we need to upload it somewhere or other lol, and I have no idea what she's means, so she's going to show me then I can share. I am teaching her at home honest......

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Fingers Crossed and off We Go...

So have made the decsion I'm going for it, I'm going to start my business lol. I have received a load of lovely patterns from a lovely lady on freecycle, spoke to my mum and she's going to let me have all her patterns that she no longer uses - which means I'll have hundred's lol - and then after rearranging the living room for optimum space, all I need to do is get the website set up, sort out some example type things. Oh and make up some of the lovely cushions and hot water bottle covers that I designed last night. Oh and keep fingers crossed tightly, tho' that may hinder sewing slightly. Oh yeah and I need to think of a name for this venture too. Something catchy and says what I do, urge tis hard ah well something will spring to mind I'm sure. So look out for my little logo in the sidebar, and if you need anything made let me know.

*On a slightly scary note, am sitting here with the wind howling outside and suddenly had this sick feeling, the reason the building is swaying, literally swaying. I live six floors up - there's 15 in the building am so glad I'm not higher up - and I'm feeling seasick, I've never noticed the building sway before and I hope it stops soon, cause this is a little freaky.

Ok am gonna try not to think about that for now, may go wrap myself up in a duvet till it stops, but first need to find some puzzles for the new mag tHE Sound, pick a photo for our caption contest and make sure the list of everything to go in is all ready for the girls to sort out, originally we were going to have it A5 size, but, it's now A4, well it means we won't have to shrink the lovely artwork etc. that the kids have sent to be included. Plus Robynne is happy as she can make her comic strip a little bigger now. She has been working so hard on that, Monday she was in Chelmsford at the Deep Readers group, Tuesday was spent working on her comic strip and today she's in Chelmsford at the monthly H.E. meeting that she likes to go to every so often.

Right must get on now as this wind is really making me feel quite ill and I won't be able to sit here much longer.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Business or not?

Ok have now added a shiny new Flickr badge - it only took me two hours to finally work out how to do it lol - that has my dressmaking photo's on.

So who thinks I'm dreaming and who thinks I should go for it.....

Shall hide my head till the shouting has stopped lol. No really I've had a few people say I should go for it, but, well there my friends and they like me so their biased........

Well is that so....

Your Life Path Number is 11

Your purpose in life is to inspire others

Your amazing energy draws people to you, and you give them great insight in return.
You hold a great amount of power over others, without even trying.
You have the makings of an inventor, artist, religious leader, or prophet.

In love, you are sensitive and passionate. You connect with your partner on a very deep level.

You have great abilities, but you are often way too critical of yourself.
You don't fit in - and instead of celebrating your differences, you dwell on them.
You have high expectations of yourself. But sometimes you set them too high and don't achieve anything.


Well thanks for that one Shirley not sure whether to agree or not lol.

Our little H.E mag should be ready fingers crossed for distribution by the 1st Feb, I've got the layout sorted in my head it's just now left to Robynne and Dee to put it all together for us. So will have to work out a day when they can get together and do that. Also have lots of trips/visits on the cards, some that will need a bit of organising and some not so much. It's all more or less down to the phone calls now and hoping that people can fit us in oh and that people will want to come lol.

My diary is looking extremely well organized lol, with coloured dots for all the different activities. All I need to do now is try not to have any major clashes other than the one I noticed earlier lol. I some how managed to schedule our next LA meeting the same time as our visit to the swimming pool, mmmmm wether to cancel or just get darn thing out of the way decsions, decsions.....

All in all this week has been rather productive, fingers crossed next week will go as well. Well once I've got that back to work interview over with on Monday, have been mulling over the past month or two trying to make a decsion about starting a business making clothes. I think my main worry is that at the moment it's something I enjoy and I'm scared/worried that turning my hobby into a job may just take the fun out of it, that and all the dreaded paperwork involved.

Mmmm well was going to post up a couple of pics of things that I made last year, just to see if anyone out there thought I should give up the idea or go for it, but obviously blogger disagree's with me so may try again tomorrow - as I'm darned if I'm taking the computer's word for it......

Saturday, January 13, 2007

You have a ......

You Have a Melancholic Temperament

Introspective and reflective, you think about everything and anything.
You are a soft-hearted daydreamer. You long for your ideal life.
You love silence and solitude. Everyday life is usually too chaotic for you.

Given enough time alone, it's easy for you to find inner peace.
You tend to be spiritual, having found your own meaning of life.
Wise and patient, you can help people through difficult times.

At your worst, you brood and sulk. Your negative thoughts can trap you.
You are reserved and withdrawn. This makes it hard to connect to others.
You tend to over think small things, making decisions difficult.



Ok where was this test 16yrs ago it would have saved so much time and energy lol. I can't believe how true it is especially the last paragraph.

All hail blogthings so wise if slightly illiterate...... HAHAHA

Monday, January 08, 2007

Six weird things about me.

Yay I think. Just when I thought I was safe Debs caught me and now I'm tagged lol. So anyway first the important stuff:-

Six weird things about me: THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

Now then to think of only 6 weird things about me, mmmm tough call lol.

1. Before going to bed at night (or when ever lol) I have to check that all the light switches are turned off in the same direction.

2. I really don't like it when people leave the pick'n'mix lids up, I have to go round and shut them.

3. I can't eat before 11am, not sure when this started but, if I dare eat before 11am I end up feeling really sick all day.

4. I gave up smoking in one day, ok thats probably not so weird, but, when I know people who struggled for years to give up it feels weird.

5. I would rather suffer than take pain killers/ medication of any kind.

6. My youngest brother by 10yrs lives with my daughter and me. Well some of my family find it weird. I most of the time actually like having him around.

Lets see people to tag:-

Shirley
Carol
BJanecarp
Noogie
EmilyRoseanna
Robynne

Sunday, January 07, 2007

I Love it when a plan comes together.

I have had dozens of ideas whirling round in my head for weeks of things that I want to aim for this year, one of which is to get Robynne - along with my brother Andrew - into an adult learning centre so she can do her GCSE's in English, Maths and Science. Hopefully we'll find a centre that will take her on, if so she'll probably start with doing just one and see how that goes. I know she wants to do Art and Drama too, but much as she hates the idea I think she may have to go to college for those, tho' we are on the look out for another Drama group for her to try.

Plus I have also spent the better part of the day sitting here at my desk working through other ideas for the coming year and even tho' I say so myself I think that this next year is looking to be very interesting. Especially once we meet up with Shirley and we get the last few bits ironed out. We should be well on the way to getting things sorted. So fingers crossed not only will we get the H.E'd magazine that we have been talking about doing for ages sorted by the end of the month. Were going to start nipping up to London for some highly educational museum visits. The first of which is going to be The Science Museum. Which is one place that I have been wanting to go to for years along with quite a few others so this year is going to be the year for at least some of the list.

Another major item that we really want to do this year is HesFes and fingers crossed we will get there this time round.

The OTHENA meetings are also taking on a new turn as from this January we have joined our monthly meeting in with Freya as working in a hall gives a little more scope, plus joining together makes alot of logistical sense. But, having said that we are going to hopefully make a monthly visit to the cinema as a group. The book group are reading Carpe Jugulum by Terry Prachett and should be meeting up sometime near the end of the month to discuss it.

Oh and we start back with our weekly visits to the swimming pool on Thursday and then next month we shall be getting back into the swing of things with the guitar group.

Plus am determined to try and get Robynne to work on some other subjects this year, yes she loves doing her Art and writing her fanfic stories, but it would be nice to have her make a cake lol. Now I'm pretty sure she won't turn into a domestic Goddess lol, and her art and writing are very important to her. She has great fun with her music too, not just the guitar, but her own compositions as well. We have all these CGP books which she reads fairly regularly and even does some of the work from, but she doesn't write much down. I suppose I get a little concerned sometimes that she does all this work and there doesn't seem much to show for it, not that we would be showing it. Which reminds me we have a visit with the LA bod on the 25th of this month, which should be interesting. Not that I'm that bothered really, well ok maybe a little bit have never really liked authority figures much and even tho' technically this would be Robynne's last year at school. I still don't want to see them try and force her back, she's so much more confident now and high school was such a nightmare. I just hope that she's a little more select with what she tells this guy as I get the impression that this visit may not go as well as the last. I'm not sure why but, my gut tells me he's not going to be an easy man to get on with.

Oh and you may have noticed a lime green box on my blog now. I decided to join the Home Ed blogring, I was always envious of those with the nice box for the early years blogring lol and even tho' she may act it sometimes we don't quite fit that age group. Anyway I think I'll get off to bed now, before my butt molds itself anymore to this chair lol.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Happy New Year....

..... to each and everyone, I hope that the year brings what we need and maybe a few things that we want lol.....

...and because it's funny here is my new title lol...

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Milady the Most Honourable Michelle the Indecisive of Dicken St Charles
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title


oh and well here's the rest of the family ... well just because...

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Her Most Noble Lady Robynne the Perplexed of Chalmondley St Peasoup
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title


My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
The Very Reverend Andrew the Mystical of Old Yarkhillshire
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title