Today I Love....

Item of the Day

from Hello Giggles!

I had to share this item....it's awesome!

October is nearly here....

Time to start practising my baking for Christmas. I'm thinking Chocolate Roulade or a Swiss Role. The latter might be a better idea as all I would have to buy would be the raspberry jam. I might also try a Genoise sponge cake maybe with raspberries and cream....depending on how easily it would be to get hold of some raspberries.

BBC News - October's weather predicted to break temperature record:

'via Blog this'

Apparently it's going to be hotter here than in Ibiza this weekend and I am planning on getting some last minute sun tomorrow. I'm thinking park, book and maybe my netbook too for some outdoor study. Tomorrow I officially start my course study topics, the first being "Teaching Assistants Today". I have had a quick read on ahead and I will be learning about how teaching assistants fit into the teaching industry and some history of the role and its predicted future. Exciting stuff (no that is not meant to sound sarcastic!)

The only thing bad about this weather is that I cannot get in the mood to knit anything remotely wintery or Christmassy at all! I should really be getting started on some scarves for the family but buying wool is the farthest thing from my mind in this heat.

Hot hot hot....

It is hot outside, so hot it's hard to sleep and yet it is nearly October! 

There was a beautiful hazy sunshine around lunchtime today that reminded me of a spring morning...I guess it's because the sun is lower in the sky at this time of year but morning seemed to last until mid-afternoon. I wish I had taken a photo but there wasn't really time as, once again, I was in a bit of a hurry! Anyway, here are a few photos taken this afternoon on my way back from the gym. See it really is autumn!

There are parts of Salisbury that are so peaceful. It's so nice walking around after a long day at work. Especially when the weather is this good. Bring on the weekend and lazing in the sunshine.

Something new...

I have made another discovery in my adventures on the internet. Pinterest is a way of  'pinning' things you love and keeping them in one place. It's great. So far I have pinned some Xmas gift ideas together and some knitting pattern pictures I have found. You can keep track of the costs of things too

Here's a link to my page. Jessica Waters (daisymoo82) on Pinterest:

I am all sorts of tired now and staring at a computer screen isn't helping at all. Suffice to say I am knackered today and I am writing this in the comfort of my bed. The window is open as it is unseasonably warm. Not that I'm complaining. It was lovely walking home from the supermarket tonight yet strangely bizarre. 7.30 and dark and the leaves have started to fall but it is almost like a summers night outside. The weather man has predicted temperatures of 25 degrees by Friday and Saturday so I may well take my reading outside this weekend.

I always think of autumn nights as being scary. Full moons, howling winds and scary woods. A bit like this....

Goodnight xx

My Monday Mood - 26th Sept

My first Polyvore mood board. I discovered this by accident and thought it was a cool way to express myself. You can make fashion boards too, expressing your style. So cool!

The theme of this was pushing through the shite and emerging through to the other side. xx

My Monday Mood - 26th Sept by jesslaura on Polyvore.com

Rockett St George Kiss Wall Sticker – Red
$50 - coggles.com

Let the Sun Shine Wall Art - 20x24 - Red Multi - One Size
$59 - urbanoutfitters.com

Keep Calm And Carry On Rug
$498 - anthropologie.com

Couldn't help myself....

Yes I know, I changed my page again! I found a fab website through Twitter called Colour Lovers and I have been designing my own patterns. The pattern I picked for my page isn't one of mine but I found it when looking for designs for my Twitter page and thought I'd carry on the trend.

This is one of mine :)
Perfect for the autumn season but a little dark for my page. 

Today I Love....

Hello Giggles. I love love love this website!

Laugh It Out

I tweeted this link too...It's so true. We should laugh at the things we do, let our guard down and just go with it. I can't count the number of times my mouth has said things before my brain has engaged or I have done something so cringe-worthy that I just wanted the ground to open up and swallow me whole! It's all part of being human and the sooner we all realise that none of us are perfect and we are all secretly slightly stumbling through life the better. :-)

Today I Love.....

Cath Kidston. Her designs are so simple and stunning.

Her sew book has gone to the top of my Christmas wish list this year. I see an interest in sewing brewing! That will be another craft to add to my list despite that fact that I am scared to use a sewing machine...

I could so get in to the whole sewing thing and be a real craft lover; baking, sewing and knitting; especially with fabrics like this:

Giving it a go....

It's official, I am now on Twitter!

Apparently....

Kenco says knitters are on the rise! - Simply Knitting

They certainly are! I have been trawling through the internet today in search of more Christmas gift ideas. I want to make some nice little gifts for family and friends so I really need to get started. I don't really want to spend lots of money on knitting books (unless a particularly nice one catches my eye!) as that would defeat the whole point of a frugal Christmas. I have found some cute little patterns on the Let's Knit Magazine website (see the link in My Favourite Places).

In other crafty news, my new book is on it's way! Happy face! Since I started baking I have wanted a single baking book that has all types of cakes, bread and pastry recipes from the classic to the unique and I found it.

Step-By-Step Baking (image from Amazon) is that book. I can't wait to get my hands on it and start making some cakes and bread! I already am pretty good at cupcakes (albeit low-faff all in one jobs...they are pretty awesome though if I do say so myself) but I need to practice bigger cakes, victoria sponges, fruit cakes, etc. I also have this urge to practice a bit of cake decorating too.

This is on the assumption that I will have time in my busy schedule for baking! I confirmed my volunteer teaching assistant job today and I start on the 6th October. My weeks from the 3rd October will be as follows:

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be work from 7am to 5pm, Thursday I will be in school from around 8.30am to 3.30pm and Friday I will be back at work from 8am to 5pm. Wednesdays I have rainbow meetings from 6pm until 7pm. I need to fit in 16 hours of study a week (mostly on the weekends) and 5 days a week I need to fit in an hour of exercise at the gym.....whew! I am exhausted just typing that. At least I won't be bored.....bring it on!

Life long learning

"and let thy feet milleniums hence
be set in midst of knowledge"

I took this photo in the British Museum in London.

I shall be starting my course in the next week so this phrase seems quite relevant now. Especially as it is a Teaching Assistant course so I will be learning how to help impart knowledge on the young.

I love learning. Teaching seems to be a great way to continue learning too. If I am interested in a topic or fact, I feel a need to learn as much as possible about it by reading books or looking up things on the internet; a fact that my family love to tease me about. My shelves are full of books I have picked up about one topic or other. Most of them I have kept up and some I have got bored with but they are all still there as a testament to my thirst for knowledge. That sounded quite deep.... ;-)

A long day...

What a day! I love being busy at work because it makes the day go more quickly but days like this are just so draining. I work for a pensions administration company...not hugely exciting but it can be challenging at times. There are many parts to my job so I'm not always doing the same type of thing. Sometimes it's manual data entry, other times it's investigations. Today was a day of too many challenges all coming at once!

We've been going through a period of change at the company too which is often the source of many moans and gripes. We have recently had confirmation of new pay grades and a new position has been created for senior administrators (of which I am one :-) ). Although we have been waiting for this for a while now, as with anything, the final decision never satisfies everyone. Offices are like schools in so many ways and the people never grow up. Don't get me wrong though, it can be fun. There are a lot of great people in my office so it's not all work no play.

Anyway, the day is over now. I am chilling out with my netbook and catch-up TV and I shall be having an early night. I fear I have rambled on too much again! I must start replacing words with pictures....so much more interesting. And yes I know I said yesterday that I would get some pictures of town tonight but my feet were killing me and I didn't fancy walking around town. Pics will come soon, I promise.

My epiphany....not really but nevermind

It's amazing what you can get done in such a small amount of time. Quite often, I get home from the gym, cook dinner, wash up, sit down and don't get up until it is time for bed. Then, I get irritated because I feel like I have no time to get anything done of an evening. No bloody wonder if I spend most of the time on my backside watching TV! Last night I made myself get off my arse and do something, I did my food shopping and put on a load of washing, tidied up and sorted my gym bag. Yes, I didn't eat until 8 but I was in bed at the same time and I felt like I had actually accomplished something. Laugh all you like....I know it's not the most shocking revelation but I am quite proud of myself!

This is certainly going to be helpful when I officially start my coursework in the next few weeks. I will have my weekends but it would be good to be able to get some reading done in the evenings after work. My days are going to be long....7am til 5pm at work 4 days a week, an hour at the gym 5 days a week (four of them straight after work), one day of school from 8.30am til 3pm and coursework for a few hours a day. On top of that I have a flat to look after (I am damned if I am going to let it get into a state) and a bunny rabbit to care for. I will fit it all in!!

19:54 by my computer clock and it is dark outside. Gone are the lovely light evenings. No matter, Salisbury looks lovely at night, all lit up and sparkly! :) Tomorrow I will take some photos on my walk home.

Home-made Christmas ideas

Some Christmas ideas. As I'm making my gifts this year, it's never too early! These sites have been bookmarked....

BBC Good Food - Christmas gifts

Delicious Magazine Christmas Gift Recipes:

Food Channel Christmas Hamper Ideas

I like the idea of doing mini Christmas cakes and some kind of chutney with cheeses and home-made biscuits.

'via Blog this'

Autumn is on it's way

...if it isn't here already! The leaves are not yet falling but it won't be long now. It's certainly darker in the mornings and the nights are closing in. As beautiful as the autumn colours are, soon it will be dark when I go to work and dark when I go home especially when I change my hours to 7-5...how depressing!

That said, I do like the wintertime. I love wearing big jumpers and getting cosy in front of the fire with a hot cup of chocolate by candlelight. I only hope we have a nice crisp cold winter, not a damp and rainy one. There's nothing worse. I love setting up for Christmas too. I have decided to try and make my presents this year so I need to get started on that soon...lots to think about there but that's for another day.

Right now I am waiting on my parents to drop off Buster. He has been staying with them as I had a flat inspection last Friday. Strictly speaking I shouldn't have animals in my flat so better safe than sorry! I like to think of Buster as an autumn rabbit because of his biscuit colour. He goes well with the autumn colours. :)

Rainy sunday

My cable is out today. No internet or tv to entertain me on a rainy Sunday so I have been catching up with my book and watching dvds. I know, very lazy. I should've gone to the gym or done some baking or something constructive instead. I figure that the next few weekends are going to be busy enough as I start my course work so I might as well make the most of all the lazy days I can get.

My garden

My back garden - it's all mine :-)

I have lived in my flat for just over a year and a half and only just discovered that the courtyard garden at the back of the property is mine! This is not, as it sounds, like I was just being blissfully stupid and unaware that there was outdoor space but due to the lack of information from my letting agent.

Anyhow, the area is mine and I am going to do something with it. It would be lovely to grow some things in pots, maybe veg and flowers and have a nice seating area for when the weather is good. There is also a washing line and I so miss being able to hang out my washing! Line-dried clothes and bed-linen are just fabulous and fresh! I think I need to start by clearing out the weeds and growth that has come over from the yard next door. (I say next door but the garden on the right is not really owned by anybody but is just a fenced off space full of brambles).

The wall at the back has lots of possibilities too. Time to scour the bookshops and internet for ideas and how to's as I really do not know much at all about gardening!

Found this link Container Gardening - Container Gardening Design, Ideas, and Pictures: Has some good ideas to get me started.

Salisbury Cathedral - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some interesting facts about the Cathedral here in Salisbury:

Salisbury Cathedral - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

'via Blog this'

Re-dedication

I realised today that I have not been true to my first post back in January. I wanted to start an online journal, mostly for myself, chronicling my life and my experiences and I haven't done that. This week has been full of interesting revelations. I toyed with setting up a website instead of a blog but I am not really up for the challenge of the complexities of that with everything else I have to do so I have given my journal a new look and set myself some more realistic goals for my blog and for me which are:

• To try and make at least one entry per day to include a photograph and to make it as interesting as possible for me. This does mean making a concerted effort to find something interesting to do each day which might be difficult but I think it's worth a shot and will certainly be more rewarding in the long term.
• To not put a definite label on this blog and to not over-think everything. It's OK to leave the essence of my blog as yet unknown and always changing. There are lots of things I love in my life and maybe this blog will eventually lean more towards one thing or another but for now it is just my journal.
• To accept that my life is not going to be world-changing and extraordinary but that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy it to the full and try and do everything I set my mind to do. I may not have somebody to share my life with yet but I do have a wonderful family and friends around me. I just have to let them in. I seem to be blocking people out recently and that is not healthy at all.
• To not take things so personally. This is a big one. People come and go in your life. They also disagree occasionally. It's OK. The ones who are worth it will come back.

I am rambling a little now but essentially this is my re-dedication to my journal (I am not going to use the word 'blog' from now on!!) and myself. I will be the person I want to be and it starts now!!