pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

I am not, and never have been, a water person. I can swim well enough to not drown but not well enough to engage in anything that can be marked by laps. Luckily, this was not much of a problem growing up rather far away from any coast line.

I moved to England more than ten years ago now, and we do not need to start discussing just how old that may make me. In terms of geography, the big shift was less about mileage and more about living just a short walk from the beach (as well as my sudden discovery of hills, but that is a tale for another day). You have to understand that if I call Brighton Beach the beach, I cannot really be a water person, because swimming in the channel is not really something that many people do past a quick wade in. And that may have been on a dare.

There have been times when I’ve thought of myself as completely fearful of large bodies of water like swimming pools and oceans. I will do anything possible to take the tunnel rather than the ferry to cross the channel. And yet, there has been something intriguing there, like the rhythm of the waves hitting the rocks were water’s way of laughing ever so slightly and saying ‘Really, you’re making a big fuss of nothing.’ So on our trip to Hawaii, I talked myself out of this conflict and figured it was about time I discovered for real if I really should be terrified of the sea, or just respect it.

I want to record this honestly: kayaking in the open water pretty much freaked me out and there’s no way to put that feeling in pretty terms. But I did not fall out, panic or cause a big problem (other than being slightly useless at paddling but hey – one thing at a time). There were occasions in which I chickened out of things. But there were occasions in which I was swimming along and realised there just happened to be sea turtles on either side of me. I’m also pretty sure that one of my snorkeling scrapes is going to be at least a semi-permanent reminder that the current is certainly stronger than I am.

But sometimes there are little things we do in life that feel like really big personal victories. For me, this was one of them.

What you may find more interesting is the photography challenge I’m hosting at Two Peas this week — it’s all about photographing water.

Personal victories not required.

But seriously: do you have a little thing that gets the better of you? I’d love to hear about the sorts of things we go about beating from day to day. Just something on the brain recently, I think.

xlovesx

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Today was a day with a little something old, a little something new. Back to a traditional classroom, just for a while.

Without a doubt, the most difficult thing about leaving full-time teaching was the terrible feeling that I would be abandoning my students. I had two classes that I had taught for several years, so of course I was a little attached to them. I lost a great deal of sleep over those two classes, but by the time my last day arrived it looked like they were all set and things were in place and everything would be fine.

Long story short: everything didn’t go quite so well as I had hoped.

Not long ago I got a call with the conundrum that my class was short a teacher for the few weeks before their national exams. So today I went back and returned to whiteboards and exercise books and a group of students who I swear are much taller than I remember.

When I was teaching, I could never sleep the night before a new term. Even if we only had a week off, I would be convinced that I would go back on Monday morning and not remember how to teach a lesson. If I had that fear then, you can only imagine what I felt like this morning. But sure enough, class started, they picked up their pens and we actually accomplished what I had planned.

Thirteen lessons to go until their big exam. Still hoping I can remember how to do this.

xlovesx

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This week I have been feeling the need for inspiration for the brain. Scrapbooking for the sake of scrapbooking made me want to revisit things that inspired me when I first started crafting and seek out a few new things that have been on my ‘meaning to do’ list for far too long. I’ve been reading a lot. Catching up on course materials for classes I’m taking in the background. Reading my new camera manual, bit by bit. Learning a little something every day. I think it is that same thing that makes us want to spring clean (I am feeling that too) — little signs of life around that urge us to be a slightly better version of ourselves.

Today I was able to split my work load into morning and evening and spent the middle of the day walking around the V&A museum with a friend. I love that you’re allowed to take pictures inside, although the collection at the V&A is so overwhelming at times that it can be hard to know what to photograph. I tried to just pick a few things so I could focus a bit more than coming home with hundreds of shots. It is very much a museum of texture more so than colour (although one particularly amazing example of colour is lit so there is so much light reflecting I couldn’t find a way to catch the colour in an image…so it is resonating in my head a bit instead). Colour is normally what strikes me first in any type of design – be it crafting supplies, photography, advertising or cinema – so to largely take that away and be left with shape and texture seemed to make me think in a different way. I’m totally blabbering now and this is making no sense, right? Forgive me.

Several times we would turn a corner to find ourselves alone in a long, echoing corridor and C would comment ‘This so isn’t a place to visit on your own’. And she was right not only because it is at times a bit too creaky for my liking but also because wandering there with someone else means she will see different things and point out things I would never think about twice.

Also, I think having coffee and catching up on a Wednesday can be quite inspiring in itself.

Can we have a happy chatty, commenty day today (or tomorrow or whenever)? I would love to see or hear about something that is inspiring you lately and making you feel alive. Pardon my ‘spring has sprung and the world is right’ feeling today, but I figure that doesn’t happen every day and I better embrace it when it does. So what have you been reading/watching/listening to/talking about/looking at/eating/otherwise thinking about that is making you feel like there really could be a slightly better version of yourself? Go on, tell us. Pretty please.

xlovesx

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