Friday 23 April 2010

Report Eve

I have to start reports tomorrow. It is the most time consuming and tedious part of my job. If I had to do a few it would be fine, as I actually quite enjoy writing this kind of thing. I like to make them really personal, with little examples and quotes from the child. I think that is what I would like if I was a parent. I normally have to do about 20 at this time of year, which take me quite some time. This year, due to changes in the intake of children in the year, I have to do 40! I cannot spend as much time on each as I normally do because of the doubling in numbers, but I am not sure if I can write them in any other way. I shall see. At least if I start tomorrow I will feel better! I have been pottering this evening and doing boring old tasks such as washing, in between reading blogs and playing with Cassie. I have also been making journal pages using things I did last night at a great class I went to with Clare. We went to The Make Lounge in Islington, to a class on making your own rubber stamps.
We were taught by Louise, who is a printmaker and book artist. Here is her blog. She was lovely, and squeezed a lot into one evening. I loved using the carveable rubber-so much easier than lino! We had the time to make two or three stamps, to mount them and to try them out. I learnt a number of interesting things-my favourites being how to transfer my design onto the rubber, how to clean your inked stamps-babywipes! and how to use them in interesting ways, using part of your image, or using masks. The whole experience was very relaxing and pleasant. Wine, tea, coffee and snacks were available, and there is a lovely shop where you can buy the materials you have used. I was very excited to be able to buy some of the rubber, as I have not seen it anywhere else yet (though I have seen it online) Lovely examples of it being used here, and here.
This is a snapshot of how my desk looks tonight-glass of wine included-it has been a long week!
I made a face, a tulip and a tree.
Below are a couple of things from today. It has been beautiful weather this week and the insects are out in full force in the nursery garden. Today we had a lot of hover flies-fascinating little beings that remind me of aliens, the way they hover just in front of you as if they are observing our ways. I think I have successfully explained to about two children what they are and what hover means. Only 83 to go then! No-they are not wasps, no, they are not bees, no, they do not sting. Please stop screaming, they are not going to hurt you. etc, etc.
We also found a dead bee, which led to a good speculative discussion on the cause of death, as well as a sharing of opinions on bees-like, dislike, scared or not. Demi told me that she does not like bees, but adults do. When I asked her why she replied "Because they are big" (adults and bees)
This one obliged me by posing on a bright green leaf.
This is Halimah's amazing drawing of one of the centipedes we found yesterday.
Blackbirds on the tree. There are now tiny buds on it. It is a bit of an unruly tree which our neighbour is always asking us to have trimmed. We are having a tree person round for a quote tomorrow. I hope it is not too pricey. The blackbirds are from yesterday. I was waiting until they had gone to let Lily out. Today Cassie had her second exciting excursion into the garden. I saw a green parrot fly over while we were out there. You always hear them first. They have a very distinctive squeaky squawk.

6 comments:

Janine said...

Halimah has a wonderful imagination!

The flies...well I was going to say mayber they were Fae until you showed me the picture!

Did you make that stamp? I love what you did with it!

I signed up for that class that you sent me a link to (thank you very much, btw). I have corel photoshop upstairs and adobe elements downstairs so between the two I should be able to figure something out. It will be a fun challenge!

BonnyBadger said...

STAMPS LOOK GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!! I had such a great evening - really enjoyed it -am definitely going to more there. I have a similar place - wait for it - about 50 yards from my front door when i move!!!! I am going to experiment with my rubber today.

→lisa said...

(Hey Sarah, I've been a blog slacker for the past couple weeks, so I'm just now catching up with people)

Your creative output always amazes me! I'm salivating especially over your hexagons - the mix of fabrics and colors is incredible! -- and your face stamp. It reminds me of a jack from an antique block-printed deck of cards.

Also, did you ever accidentally dip your paintbrush in your wine? I *always* do that when I have a beverage on the same table where I'm using paints! Always.

I really like your dolly ghosts Photoshop picture. They look like they're waiting for a bus! A ghost bus. I don't have Photoshop, but I use GIMP (it's free!), and it has a number of features that you can use to alter photos. It's so great that you're learning about Photoshop. There are so many cool things you can do with photo software programs, if you can figure out how to actually use them!

Good luck with your reports - having your usual workload doubled sounds like no fun at all! I hope you have more wine on hand ;)

frayed at the edge said...

Another entertaining and informative post!! I like the idea of making stamps. I did a lino cut when I was at primary school (and I'm not going to say how long ago that was!!)

http;//frayedattheedge.typepad.co.uk

Relyn Lawson said...

I love the way you continually pursue your passions.

Mary S. Hunt said...

great stamps!!!!
i would want personalized reports too..40 is a lot to have to make personal!!