Spring is springing….

Well my pretties, how are we all today? All fooled out and ready for spring? Isn’t it nice that the weather’s starting to get warmer and the plants are starting to peek their little shooty heads up out of the soil? I have officially broken up for Spring break and things would be looking wonderful about now except that we have an OFSTED inspection the second week that we return. *Sigh* There’s always something isn’t there? If you live in another country and aren’t familiar with OFSTED Inspections, they are the absolutely super jolly people who visit educational institutions here in Britain, can you tell I’m being extremely ironic and sarcastic here? There is one word guaranteed to strike terror in to the hearts and souls of anyone involved in the education of young minds and that word is OFSTED. They are meant to govern educational facilities and monitor the standards of said institutions. Most OFSTED inspectors appear to be failed teachers, so the mere suggestion that the can sit in my class and observe my techniques, and pour over my lesson plans and schemes of work is ironic to the extreme. Nobody likes being observed. No-one ever gets used to it. The kids hate it. It changes the whole dynamics of the classroom. The inspectors never introduce themselves. I just hate it. I currently teach in an independent school and an FE college. The school was OFTED’d last year and the college is being OFSTED’d this year. Wonderful. I understand the theory behind inspection and I’m okay with that. I think education should be the highest quality possible. I just could have done with it at another time. I have assignments to write and lessons to plan and I really don’t need the stress of an inspection and all the paperwork involved at this moment in time.

So okay, grumble over. I’m sure I’ll get it all done. We have longer days now, and the promise of spring has put a new, well, a new spring in my step. Corny? Yep, I’m completely up for it all. And I have a whole two weeks off! Two weeks people! Word has got round though, my diary is booking up fast. I have a haircut booked for tomorrow morning followed by an observation (fun fun eh?), a stitch ‘n’ bitch meeting Saturday lunchtime, then a visit from my childhood buddy and her other half and sprogs, for cake and Wii bowling. Sunday brings an early morning shopping trip with Mum, then I get an evening to myself whilst M goes to see his footie team play in Manchester! Monday the girls and I are having lunch out at a local pub, that’s bound to be an outrageous outing, Wednesday brings the dreaded blood test and Good  Friday my friends are coming round for fun and games. Okay, yeah, we’re busting the Wii out again. Hell, that’s the best money we ever spent, it gets fired up maybe three times a week! And then I’m going to see  la Cage au Follies (the Birdcage) at the West End in London on Easter Saturday, Graham Norton’s starring. I’m really looking forward to that! Although I have to admit that Graham Norton looks kinda scary in this photo.

The rest of the week is going to have to be filled with study. Okay yeah, there will also be crafts. Hee hee! Remember the granny squares that I’ve been doodling with? Here’s what I’ve done so far. It’s all scrap yarn so far. I’m wondering about joining my squares as I go and after reading Lucy’s tut I’m definitely going to give it a go.

And then I got distracted again. Yep, so sorry about that. I know you want me to finish my BPT hoodie or my Go for Baroque, but I needed instant gratification and decided to do a little reconstruction on a boring cardigan that I never wore. Why did I never wear it? Well just look at it. Not me at all.

It has long ribbed sleeves and a long ribbed waist and a massive ribbed collar. And it zipped all the way up the collar and then it was supposed to fold over. Hmmm. So in these credit crunch times I decided to make something wearable from it and I chopped off the collar and the sleeves and the waist, and took my trusty crochet hook to it. I’m not quite finished yet but lets’  have an in progress photo…

I’m really liking it so far and can’t wait to finish and wear it!

And something I just threw together is this long beaded necklace. I used some thin purple cord and some beads from my stash, and the charms are from little pendants that people gave me growing up and I didn’t wear anymore because they were too small, but I didn’t want to get rid of them. They all have memories attached to them. 

Right, I’m off to see if I can finish my cardigan. What are you all up to?