The after the before but before the after.....

So the chairs are coming on - I quite like them all sanded like this, but painted they must be!



Certainly true.

I saw this on the Brown button blog and thought it had a certain truth about it........

14 year olds - blimey!

So, if all goes as it should, I am going to be teaching 14 year olds in September - this rather panics me - is it a myth or are they really too cool for school? Me, I'm definitely too school for cool - Ivan (Mr Bicknell) still can't believe that he got landed with the ultimate square - what with him being so damn edgy and all......... HA! So, I have had to come up with some "groovy" new projects - I have been experimenting with one called "smash and grab" an idea I have pinched from the foundation course a bit - but given it a bit more of a textiley twist - well, that's the idea anyway! The pictures below are how I want the girls to start out with their cameras, once they have smashed something up - we smashed up an alarm clock - well, it is the holidays after all!!!



Up To Date.....

So now we are up to date - today is all about the before - the after? Well you will just have to be patient......



Green treasure

You all know that I like a good veggie patch - mine sadly is at a bit of an inbetween stage currently, thanks to no time and crap weather - but I got a good fix at the weekend at Thedden - this is Annie's haul (Ivan, Mr Bicknell's lovely sister), but we were also presented with freshly cut goodies too!

Judith and Annie - careful selection

Green treasure!

The big FOUR 0 (oh..........)

Ned did a very good job of turning 40 - I still hate being 40, but I suppose that  I'd rather be than not, if you see what I mean, and Ivan (Mr Bicknell) and I are hopefully about to embark on a bit of a life-changing adventure, so it's not all bad!

I am still waiting for Ned's marvellous pics, but here are a few that have become available, as well as Ivan's (Mr Bicknell's) lovely present to him, framing courtesy of the wonderful Roger - Gin and Tonic maker and part-time framer extraordinaire.....

Merryn

Thedden Grange - The venue

The beginnings of some shelter - but what do you know, we didn't even need it!

Provisions.....



More to come hopefully!

Printing, printing, printing.....

A lovely friend of mine has a birthday this week - so I thought I would make her something - she might have preferred something else - but well, she wasn't consulted!! She also happens to be the partner of Ivan's oldest and loveliest friend Ned, who sadly joined the forty club on Saturday! There was a brilliant, brilliant party at the wonderful Thedden Grange and Ivan (Mr Bicknell) pulled out all the stops and drew - yes he actually stopped climbing for long enough - a beautiful portrait of their daughter as a birthday surprise, but as all I am capable of is the textiley stuff, I made a cushion for Michelle - I totally forgot to take a pic of it, but her print is the first one up (see below) - the other prints I made whilst I was making hers will also get made into things at some point this summer, but here they are anyway - really into my summer holiday stride now, especially as it has forgotten to rain for two whole days now!! So I am currently multi-tasking - blogging away and sanding down some rather marvellous dump finds OUTSIDE!!!!

I was very lazy I'm afraid too though, and have no pics of the party, but, as soon as Ned gets himself together and recovered, I will steal the ones he will inevitably put on facebook for you! I will obviously weed out all the hideous ones he will have taken of me - he always does - especially the "I have just crawled out of my tent and am stuffing a bacon sarnie one" !!!!



This one looks very much like Michelle's doesn't it? Well that's because this was the first attempt but I misplaced the frame so that a whole load of it would have been hidden when I made the cushion - DOH! So you know, when at first you don't succeed.......



Bird brain...

I don't know what possessed me but I thought that I would make some more 3D birds form the wonderful pattern I borrowed from Nellies Needles - http://nelliedurand.blogspot.com/2008/04/bird-tutorial.html - I hope you like them Miss Needles!

Actually I have a few birthdays coming up, so I am hoping that they will be worthy enough for the recipients!!

BIRD ONE

BIRD TWO

BIRD THREE

BIRD FOUR

BIRD FIVE!

And then that was enough.......!

"HMMMM, what you got there?"

"Oh yes, mine all mine" Scratch - not as on the ball as he looks.....



So, Brooke made cakes and we had a party!

The end of term heralds cakes and parties and big sighs of relief when all that wretched planning is done! Actually I am getting really excited about the new projects I have written, as I will be trying them all out this summer, but today I have a date with an old stool and a couple of neglected chairs - AT LAST there is a prolonged dry spell!!! So here are the cakes and a little clip that you might like - but ahem, don't tell the art staff members who are having the dance off - ESPECIALLY Mr Bicknell........

Ha! Can you see that they are little beach scenes? Ahhhhh, if only I was heading off to a luxury island.... Oh, hang on, I am! More about that later......



Get your freak on........

So I have been a bit rubbish!!!

This really isn't like me is it - such a long gap between postings - and I honestly have no excuse aside from the fact that I was EXHAUSTED! It was such a long emotional term that I needed a break - I have done and recorded lots but needed to stay away from the computer for a bit - especially as I had spent WEEKS writing wretched project briefs and schemes of work that probably no one will read! But at least that side of things is all done and the new class (14 year olds - God help me) will have something interesting to do come September - how do you impress a 14 year old? Answers on a postcard please!!! So the end of term came and went, the lovely Sadie Amy Chesterman-Bailey (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sadie-Chesterman-Bailey-Jewellery/156191787764551came) and braved the year 10's at a local school to talk all things jewellery for me and I embarked upon my long-awaited and much needed summer break, and well, so far so good!!

So.... let's start with what the A and AS level students put up - really enjoying not teaching this at the moment and just being a spectator!! I have no idea who did what - sorry guys - but this is what I liked.......

Not too shabby for a bunch of part-timers huh?!

So many more posts to come tomorrow - nighty night! XX