It's big and it's all bang

You might know that I love crap American T.V. all of it, no matter what, and I am still very bitter about the Sky theft of Glee - but my current guilty (who am I kidding - no guilt is involved here) pleasure is The Big Bang Theory - especially because of the Sheldon factor - so I was really chuffed when Ivan (Mr Bicknell) sent me this little link.....

Time to get organised

So I couldn't avoid it any longer - our art staff meal (on Thursday) generally means it's time to make our Christmas card - Ivan (Mr Bicknell) has been in charge in the past, and he makes a mean card, but I find it far too stressful nagging him into it, so I generally take on the task - I like this years - of course now all our usual recipients won't be surprised, but hey ho, ho, ho.......!

So without further ado (of which I am capable of much), here is the Bicknell 2011 Christmas card.



All the latest from the rubbish blogger!

So, rubbish as usual then, life is again mad in my neck of the woods, and as much as I LOVE Christmas and all that it entails, for me it marks one of the busiest times of my calendar year, and that is way before the Christmas shopping, wrapping and card making even enters the equation.... Craft fairs galore as you know, but folio development is what really consumes me whole, and  all the tears and tantrums (Evie and Pip mainly) that accompany the whole process can seriously wear a girl down. Honestly the song and dance that most of my lovelies have made this time around about what is essentially sticking a few photocopies down onto large sheets of paper, is, on the whole, a wee bit unnecessary, and if they just did as they were told and didn't waste a great deal of energy being overly precious about things, life would be much calmer. But hang on.... what am I talking about? They are TEENAGERS aren't they? So of course it was going to be a nightmare! Oh I can  hear the "whatevers" already!

So what else has been going down in my life? Well not  much really aside from folios and craft fairs, but here are some pics for you to look at anyway - or of course you could just go and do something a little more constructive with your time and have a glass of wine and watch a bit of crap T.V...........

From left to right - Holly, Jazzy and Lauren joined Georgie, Paul, Deborah and I in having a bit of a sale at "school" - by all accounts it was a bit of a hit all round with lots of cash being handed over!

Delicious in a bit of hot milk - by Lauren

Felted trees by Deborah

Jars stuffed full of buttons also by Deborah

Felted robins also by Deborah - busy girl I think!

Our wondrous new edition Paul - smiley and lovely in every way and he prints a mean T too!

Evie - carefully taking final pics of final folio page layouts before permanently sticking it all down...

 Ivan (Mr Bicknell) having a bit of a nose at Hannah's lovely folio

But sadly it was all too much for Maddie!

Evie in a spin

closely followed by Rachel

Rach getting all waspy - seems like an age ago that we did this project...

Last show of the season - Petersfield - run by Wanda Grosvenor who happens to be the mother of a n ex-student of mine - Shawana, this was definitely the most high calibre of shows - lots of good stuff here and I ended up spending a small fortune!

last of my old tat!

Eeeeewwwww.

Paul's first years shared this with me this morning - WHY? I ask you, WHY?!!! if you ask me he was quite nice to look at originally.......!

And the craft fairs keep on coming......

So this weekend it was Selborne - I love this one, my neighbour and I do it every year and we basically just sit behind our tables and drink tea and gossip, which is exactly as it should be! friends drop in and out and  we sometimes even sell stuff! This year it was a blinder for both of us - smart Hampshire villages are yet to feel the recession it would seem - thank God!!! I have a sale left at college with George and my gorgeous girls which will probably amount to nothing given we find out who is going to be made redundant this year tomorrow - I should imagine that not much Christmas spirit will be filling our hallways this week..... Then it is one last one in Petersfield and I am done for the year, phew,, it has been really full on this term what with me leading this double life, writing hundreds of personal statements (err, I mean correcting hundreds of personal statements!), references and marking shed loads of stuff as well as get my head around the whole adoption process...... but it's nearly Christmas and what will be, will well, be I suppose! I knocked out some new birds and canvases this week, I forgot to take some pics of the birds which is a bugger because they sold, but here are the canvases.....

I also received a very nice cheque from the fabulous Jenny and Handmade Happiness on Saturday which was fab and if you haven't been to her wonderful shop on Dragon street in Petersfield then you must - it is full of gorgeous things - I will be popping in next Saturday after the fair to do a bit of Christmas shopping! Keep tabs on her blog too you never know what she might be putting on there........!



http://jenny-handmadehappiness.blogspot.com/

I saw this on my student's blog this week too - I don't know who posted it, but I really loved it.

 

And don't these brollies look great - well done to Jazzy, Hannah T, Georgia and Holly respectively.

 

 

 

 

 

We have also been allocated our social worker this week - I spoke to her this evening, she sounds brilliant and her name is Happiness - isn't that amazing? I hope that that is what she brings us.....although I nearly fell off my chair when she told me that we go to panel in 5 months time instead of the usual 10 - OMG!!!!

 

In the meantime Ivan has been doing a jigsaw puzzle, he is so proud of himself because it has only taken him 2 days to do it, when on the box it said 2 - 4 years...........

 

Night XX!

New grating pic

Arrrggghhh, I keep forgetting to check out the grating - but I did make an effort on Saturday on my way to Costa (late) to meet a lovely ex-student of mine called Chloe......

I'll huff and I'll puff.....

An early Christmas in Farringdon..

So last Friday my lovely Mum and I went to sell my stuff - well that was the idea anyway! The event was in the most gorgeous cottage in a village close to us, and strangely it was set for a few hours in the morning and a couple in the evening, fortunately it was a non-teaching day on Friday and our meetings weren't scheduled until a little later in the morning, so I got to go and set the stall up first, thus avoiding having to really put upon Mum by not only conning her into stall sitting for 3 hours but having the stress of making it all look nice too! I was really pleased with how it turned out and as a result I sold enough stuff to pay for quite a chunk Christmas - yay! Next week Selborne - it's all go for the Christmas crafter!

Aren't Mums the best?!

All in all, not a bad day!

Whilst listening to Mark drone on in our departmental meeting I noticed these lovely things around his studio - never one to ignore the inspirational, and it just so happens that I love birds (obviously) and text, err, now all I have to do is find out what he was actually talking about.... Caroline? Oh, she wasn't listening either.....!