RhianCaroline

5 blogs of Christmas: Trim the tree

In my mind bunting should be used for all and any holiday/celebration/event. So it was obvious I would need it for my tree this year.
What with the crazy PGCE I am doing I have only just put [one of] my trees up this last weekend. I have a feeling I will not finish decorating my house by Christmas, but as long as my tree is pretty, everything is fine.

 

Here's a handy how-to for making your own miniature Christmas tree bunting :) You can click on the image to see if full size.

 
Happy bunting!

the leaves have fallen at an alarming rate

 

There's a forest growing in my front room <3

a year later

 
 
 

It's funny looking back at what you were doing a year ago. Maybe i'll do a 'this week' blog entry next weekend.
If I have time to get the camera out amidst all the lesson plans, starters, and plenaries I will be buried under.

First day of teaching tomorrow!
XO

autumn breeze

 
my etsy faves have been mirroring the whole feel of this season, so i made my first treasurey.

this month i have mostly gone to bed early, and woke up earlier to a simulation sunrise; wore wolf jumpers and eaten home cooked food made by the boy. i have been listening to emmy the great, reading sylvia plath; wondering if i will actually be able to do this thing they call teaching. i have taken notes, posted doily clad packages and drank peppermint and fennel tea. i have dreamed about an army of brave hearts, created pages of words, accepted a seasons end. i have become acquainted with the meaning of the semicolon, been baffled by inappropriate behaviour, missed my zoe bloom. i have had my breath taken away by reminders of the depth of my loss, avoided rice puddings, and longed for more energy.  

mondaymonday... again

soon i'll have words, lots of words, of my weeks full of work and triedness and schedules and assignments and small children asking what my favorite colour is.
but this is the happiest box of invites since my last lot. brown paper and blackbrids and doilies. all the good things. 
 
 
 

thank you, readers, for bearing with me through this transition period. my days are filled with so many blog worthy things, but my energy and brain can not quite work them all out yet. i may get very picture heavy the next months. 

lovely things

*This lovely video le frost made of us in Paris. I didn't even know she was shooting this. She's a sly one.

*These ATC's.

My first month as an ArTCee for the first ever challenge over on simplyatc's and the theme is Alice in Wonderland. Lovely.
I'm using the prompts as visual inspiration, but treating my cards as teeny tiny art journals. Come play, because you will immediately be put in for a chance to swap for this set.

*Very nearly completing a custom order, with the prospect of another very soon.

*Tom Hardy.

*Michio Yamauchi's street photography.

*Multi coloured finger nails. (But not wardrobes on the middle floor.)
 

No.28*

*See the wildflowers of Texas. Done and done. And love and love.
They are some of my favorite things now. I can't wait to go back in different seasons to see all the different ones. Especially the bluebonnets.

I decided a while ago I am just going to post the whole book at the end of the year. Because I've been journaling the things I'm ticking off my list too.

As well as trying to make pretty videos of wildflowers. Sigh.

30 things you should know about the boy on the 30th

1. He buys me flowers regularly.
2. He warms my always cold feet up at night.
3. He spent the first few years of his life in Singapore and developed a speech impediment. Even now, when he gets very tired or very excited, he will say his r's like w's. It's cute.
4. He hates DIY, he will do it, but hates it, and therefore isn't the greatest at it.
5. One year he lost a whole year of his life. He was adamant he was going to turn 27 that year, when I insisted he was going to be 28. He disagreed and argued with me, until he came back a few days later and told me he had realised he was going to be 28.
6. He reads comics over books.
7. He's a drummer. A mighty fine drummer. And his online nickname used to be animal.
8. He bought me my first acrylic paints and canvasses to encourage me to paint.
9. He doesn't like any Revels other than the toffee. They are my least favourite.
10. He is infinitely more patient than me.
11. I have never known him to dislike anyone, or for anyone to dislike him.
12. He is definitely the nicer of the two of us.
13. I used to describe him as Eeyore from Winnie The Pooh, whereas I am his Tigger.
14. It doesn't matter how horrendous I look he will always tell me I look beautiful.
15. I even think he believes it.

16. He spends more time brushing the dogs hair and telling her how cute she is than I do.
17. I'm pretty sure he will be (if we have children) one of those dads that braids his daughters hair.
18. He is one of the funniest people I know. (Along with my brother.)
19. He looks and sounds freakily similar to his brothers. Like, seriously, you would freak out.
20. He is definitely the hottest :)
21. He has been known to go out late at night just to get me earplugs from the store.
22. He makes a mean pancake.
23. He gladly watches me skate around a carpark a couple of evenings a week. Without complaining.
24. I have never known anyone to fall asleep so quickly. He can be talking, and then he's gone.
25. When he doesn't fall unconscious immediately, he will tickle my back till he thinks I am asleep.
26. He cleans the bathrooms.
27. I have only seen him really angry once. He threw his phone against the wall and it broke. I told him he was stupid.
28. You see how he is much nicer than me?
29. He's got smarts. And he doesn't make me feel stupid for not having the smarts.
30. He always offers me the last sweeties in a bag :)

I know you all want a Dan Frank now :) 

It’s just a life story, so there’s no climax...

Sunshine hotter than the depths of hell, Mumford and Sons, hundreds of cheap straw hats, disposable and instant photos, new friends, old friends, good friends, laughter, cider, chips and pizza, forts made out of picnic blankets and bags, Seasick Steve, 'there's no tea or coffee left', WHAT, crowds and crowds of people laughing and smiling and singing, clouds floating by,

'Um, no you can't fit in that space', queues longer than a piece of string, water, sunblock, sherbert lemon, coral, and pink nail varnish, a dinosaur on a bicycle, rob lives in a box, sigh no more, burnin' up, hands lifted high, and spirits soaring wide.

Hop Farm on a Saturday was a good Saturday :)
 

the horizon is a beltway that we may never cross

    

 

 

 

 

 

It is official. I love Austin, Texas. I would live there in a hot minute.
It is also official that dan is a bearded fiend with the hipstamatic iphone app. And that I commandeered it quite a lot over the last two weeks also.
It is more than official I am highly jet lagged, and picked up a lovely cough/cold combo up on the plane coming over.
It is secretly (not so secretly if we are facebook friends) official we missed out flight back and had to spend a night in Houston whilst we waiting for one the next day!

We roller derbyed, ate Mexican, sat in the sun, the shade, walked and drove in the rain, never felt cold, fell in love with snow cones, spent a lot of time discussing what type of house we would live in (ANY for the brother, a nice one level bungalow for me and dan ;) ), learnt all about Texas, probably got pretty fat, got a little harassed by some crazy down and outs, spent one brilliant last night watching Mumford and Sons with good friends, and hung out listening to jazz afterwards.

The beard is back, hurrah!

We're already figuring out when we can go back <3
And I am figuring out how I can carry on living in this weather when I was made for that one.
 

(The last hipster shot, taken after missing our flight.)