Wedding Invites

Yes, i'm back again, after 6 months of not adding anything to the blog!! So what's been going on? well, loads actually......

I got my results for my Open University course, Discovering Science, so have also got myself a Certificate in Natural Sciences. I've finished Understanding Cancers, should get results in June I think. I'm more than halfway through my other course Introducing Health Sciences and am doing pretty well with it so far.

I'm getting married in June so am in the middle of organising all that. We moved house back in January.

I have recently changed the title of the blog and will use it to showcase my craft work. I have plans to begin selling some cards this year, so will use the blog to keep everyone informed of what's happening. I haven't been making a lot of cards as I don't have a lot of space here to spread my stuff about but I have a lot of plans for my art and card making. I have also subscribed to a new jewellery magazine that's very good, so there will be jewellery soon as well.

I just looked back at my resolutions for the beginning of 2008 and have to admit to failing dismally with all of them, so 2009 has the same ones! The dog grooming one failed to the point they have recently been to a professional groomer and look absoloutely beautiful. I am getting a bit better at getting up on the mornings though, and just love the feeling of looking back at the day and feeling i've achieved something.

Anyway, the current crafty project is my wedding invites. They are cards with a pocket to hold the evening invite, menu and RSVP card. The photograph is just the one I made to make sure it all worked correctly, so its not printed. Today I have cut out the card I need so I can get started putting them together at the weekend. Here is the sample:

Invite all tied up

Showing the pockets containing the inserts

And showing the individual inserts.

Cards, OU and moving house

As per usual there's loads going on here at the moment. The most exciting is probably that our house is up for sale. We've found a house we really like, but we need to sell ours before the owner will accept an offer on it. So, fingers crossed we can sell ours sooner rather than later.

I am currently working on my End of Course Assignment (ECA) for my OU course, which is fairly complicated and requires a lot of though. It needs to be posted off by the end of next week. I've registered for two level 1 courses, 'Introduction to Health Sciences' and 'Understanding Cancers'. I'm hoping to do 'Practising Science' in the the summer and may do another 10-point course after Chrsitmas, when I will hopefully have some more money! That will either be 'Human Genetics and Health Issues', 'Understanding Human Nutrition', or 'Challenging Obesity'. My course materials have arrived for Intro to Health Sciences so it's hard at the moment to finish my ECA instead of delving into the new coursework.

I have had to miss a couple of card making classes due to me now doing late shifts at work, but have managed to find time to make some at home. Here are two i've done, the first for Aunty Kate, and the second for Grandma. Both were done using stickers, so were cheating a bit, but I was pretty chuffed with them both!

Feeling intelligent

Feeling rather pleased with myself at the moment. Passed the TMA for book 4 (chemistry) of the OU course with 97% and just completed my latest iCMA with a mark of 100% and all correct on the first go (you get three trys).

Current book is on biology which i'm also really enjoying but finding it hard to get on top of time wise as we have several activities that we needed to put on the forum which we've only just had instructions regarding, so i've had to back track a bit. But I will have a bit more time to myself soon when the in-laws go home and will be able to catch up.

Have spent a large amount of time deciding what to do next and can't decide between social science, life sciences / health sciences or possibly environment or even computers! Arghh decisions decisions. Think I will probably do a 30 point course in September and a few 10-point 'taster' courses in a range of subjects to get a better idea.

It's been a month...

I am so bad at keeping this updated aren't I?

So, what have I been doing? Well, i've been back home to Wiltshire to visit my family for 8 days, i've spoken to the area manager about the assistant manager job, I'm working on book four on my OU course and i'm still working on three pet portraits.

My trip back to Wiltshire simply confirmed what i already knew - I don't want to go back. I want to be able to look out my window and see fields not the neighbours and drive 20 miles without getting in a traffic jam (driving half a mile in my home town without a jam would be a miracle!). Even sleepy little Warminster felt busy and over-crowded. Needless to say I was glad to be back, though of course it was great to see the family again.

I have to finish my Step 3 training at work then it's likely I will be promoted to part-time Assistant manager. I'm really pleased about the part time bit. I now have to get motivated about completing the training which is really not exciting and to be honest the more time i've had to think about being a manager the more i've been thinking perhaps I don't want to be! Oh well, the money will be nice and I don't have to do it forever. I also think it will look good on my CV if I ever attempt to get a job relating to whatever OU stuff I end up doing.

The OU stuff is back on track. It hit a low somewhere in the middle of the Physics module as I felt I was banging my head against a brick wall. There was so much Maths and equations and symbols and I could do the Math but found it soooo hard to work out what equation I was meant to be using!! I managed to get a TMA result of 89% though which is my best so far. I'm not sure how I managed that seeing as I bluffed my way through the last question without having done the relevant course work! The current book is Chemistry which makes sense and i'm on track for the study timetable and i'm really enjoying the work and understanding it!

So, there's a quick update. There is other stuff to talk about but I will come back to that at another time.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Especially to those lucky people who have a long weekend off work! I'm not that lucky, but never mind.

I've been fairly tired most of the time over the last two weeks, i've just been doing so many extra hours at work - my pay packet should be nice though.

I made the decision to stop taking commissions and am really pleased, have already had one person email me about one though - why can't people read? I feel like it's a weight off my mind and am really looking forward to not having any more to do - i've got four to finish at the moment.

I am feeling good about mu OU course too. I got 88% in my first TMA and did a second iCMA two nights ago and got all the questions right, only one took two go's, so that is so much better than my first iCMA score of 43%! I'm also on track with the studying too and actually looking forward to starting book 3 - which is a physics subject and i'm not good at physics. I've been spending hours on the OU website deciding what to do next and still don't know.....

I have also been making Easter cards using the iris folding technique. Will take some photos and put them up soon.

Changes on the horizon

I have my fingers crossed that life will be changing shortly. Our Area Manager has been discussing the possibility of creating a Deputy Manager post at out store, which will mean one of our Assistant Managers will be promoted, meaning an AM post becoming empty. Neil, one of our current AM's asked me if I was interested so I said I was and he's passed my name on to the Area mnager. Another good thing is Pets at Home only employ AM's from current staff, so I just have to cross my fingers that no-one from another store fancies it.

If I do get promoted it will likely mean going back to full time hours, which means something has to give - which will be the piccies. I may well give them up, at least temporarily if this doesn't happen. I am finding it hard to fit everything in and it would be nice to come in from work and do what I want, rather than draw other people's pets. As I have been so busy with them, it's become a bit tedious over the last few months, so some time spent drawing what i want would be good. The more I think about it, the more it seems a good idea....

Just means I have to control my finances better - as the piccies are a valuable source of extra income.

The OU stuff needs more time too though and I do feel that is very important - possibly another future changing thing at a later date. I've submitted two assesements, both at the last minute and I'm about a week behind on the study, so less time drawing means more time studying. I'm enjoying the study and not finding the science concepts too difficult but still struggling on the Maths.

My budget hasn't been going well at all - it's only February and i've already failed. This month I must try harder, though it's going to be tough due to the state I got in last month!!

Not enough hours in the day

Oh my god, my life is manic! I do like being busy but at the moment it is a little too busy. I went ahead and signed up for an Open University course, S104: Exploring Science. It's only just started, the first book is on Global warming which is reasonably interesting but I was nearly floored at the first hurdle by Maths. I had to buy a Scientific calculator which was fine until I had to use it. I was there working out the mean average of a list of temperatures and it kept giving me the answers in fractions! Arrrgh. Eventually, after reading the instructions about 5 times and pressing all the buttons I found one that changed fractions to decimal places so that's ok now. I have also had to re-learn 'significant figures', 'units with prefixes' and 'numbers to the power of 10'. I haven't done any of this since GCSE's which I did the exams for 10 years ago this Summer. And realising that made me feel ancient as well. Oh, woe is me, lol.

I also have been working all day 3 out of 5 days at work for the last few weeks when my standard hours are only 2 out of 5. I could say no to the extras but I know what will happen - I'll say no, then when I do need the money they won't give me any extras. Normally this would be ok, but the pet portraits have gone mental and I am now booked up till the end of March which is unheard of for me in January.

All of this plus card-making, shopping, eating, cooking, dog walking, playing with & cleaning out rats and sleeping are keeping me very busy. When I'm very busy I write lists. I love lists. Well, actually, I love crossing items off of lists. I find I feel less panicky about getting everything done if I write a list then cross off what i've done - I then feel like I'm getting somewhere. I've not got to the writing lists stage yet though, so I'm still just about in control.