Photos of Sheffield...

I decided that I really need to push myself to get out. Having spent a number of days without leaving the flat, I needed some motivation to get past that pain barrier! (Also, having gained 2 1/2 stone, some exercise would be good).

So, with the adrenaline from a good friend of mine winning £1000 on an on-line Pepsi competition, I looked for one for me to join! I found a competition run by The Times asking for photos that best represent Summer in our UK cities. Admittedly, in Sheffield, I thought that the only acceptable entry would be of overflowing rivers, ruined houses, and sewage on the roads from the awful floods. I'm very thankful that I wasn't directly affected, although I know of plenty that were. Instead, today, the sun was shining, and I got myself out and about, and took these. Please bear in mind that this competition is for amateur photographers, and as I haven't yet got my head round my "new" ancient (and I now discover "faulty") SLR camera, these are taken with my trusty "handbag digital"!!

Summer flowers surrounding The Peace Gardens, with the Sheffield Town Hall, Macdonald Hotel, Winter Gardens and the Millennium galleries behind.

City folk eating their lunch in The Peace Gardens with children playing in the fountain. Sheffield Town Hall and The Winter Gardens in the background.

Sheffield's children having fun playing in the water fountain in front of The Town Hall.

A Wedding takes place in front of the Winter Gardens in Sheffield, while city-goers picnic on the grass in The Peace Gardens.

Sheffield's children having fun playing in the water fountain in front of The Town Hall.

Ok, I know they aren't great, and they are all very much the same, but you are asked to enter 5 photos, and I didn't have the energy to go looking for other places to take photos, so just changed what I saw, to take different picks, if that makes sense?! Anyway, the prize is a two day photography course in London, suitable for beginners, so I'd be delighted (if not flabbergasted!!) if I won...although the dates for the course would have be long enough after my op that I'd actually be able to go!...hmmmm....!!!! All very unlikely, but I've enjoyed it :)

Floods and photos...

Well, small disaster in the world of Jenny (ok, very small in the big scale of things, but still very frustrating).

My lovely friend was over to stay last night, and we were a bit puzzled as to why the kitchen tiles were so wet. We teased each other about being messy washer-upers, and cleaned it up. 10 or 15 mins later, I went to put the kettle on, and there was even more water, and it had reached the carpet this time...argh, panic! Worked out how to isolate the water supply to the kitchen/living room, and turned it off. We searched to find the source of the water, and could only figure that it was coming up through the tiles...very odd. In only that short while, it had cracked all the grouting in the tiles and made quite a mess.




You can see on the grouting between the tiles where it is all wet, the water went from the backpipe of the washing machine, all under the unit, under the tiles, towards the carpet. There has been a slow leak for a while, as there is loads of mould under the kitchen unit, but it looks like it turned into a much faster leak last night.

My friend and I went to the cinema yesterday eve, and saw "Hairspray". It was a completely ridiculous film, with not enough story line, so felt quite long, but I really enjoyed it. Also, I really rather fancied Elijah Kelley...he has a stunning smile, and his character in the film was sweet.

Other news is that I was given something last week, that I'm really chuffed with, and very excited about. In my description on my blog, i mentioned something that i would really like to get; do you know what it is?....


Ok, so its really old (at least 18 years I think), and even in its time, apparently was not that great, but I'm chuffed to bits. Got to be a good starting point?! It obviously takes film, and doesn't come with any instruction book or anything, and I've never used an SLR camera in my life, so I think I have lots of learning to do. Thought about buying a book, but they all seem to be for digital SLR's. I think the best place to find one will be in a good ol' charity shop. I think I might be embarking on a new hobby!!

My wonderful, amazing Granny...

Just wanted to add this pic. My granny is one of the most important people in my life, and I love her to bits. She came along to Seans b'day for about 20mins, and I thought she looked so well, so wanted to share this!

I've been away...

Hello,

Very sorry for my long absence. I went away last week to see some family, and to "help" at my nephews 6th birthday party. I have been feeling really grotty, in a lot of pain, and very very tired, so found getting back to Sheffield a real challenge. Anyway, back at long last, here are a couple of pics;
This is the cake that I made for Seans' (my nephews) birthday. He turned 6 on the 16th of August. In the end, I decided to make the base of the cake before I left Sheffield, and then iced it the following morning, on the day of his party...and yes, it is the infamous "malteser cake". It's a Nigella Lawson recipe, but I took the recipe from someone else's blog as its the only place I could find it without buying the book. It's a nice blog...well worth a look.


Aww, here he is as we sang "Happy Birthday". He had a great day with about 10 of his 6 year old friends over, playing games inside as it rained, and on the bouncy castle in the garden when it was dry. The cake went down really well, and amazingly, it was all finished by the end of the day. The only accident was when he did an over ambitious jump on the bouncy castle, and fell off, and knocked his already loose front tooth. You can see on the pic above where his tooth is sticking out the front! It was really horrible, half in, half out, sticking out. poor thing, but he coped very well with it, and still is, as it still hasn't come out.

Hoping to make some cards over the next few days, so will post again. Also have a friend staying over tomorrow night, which will be fab. See ya! jx

An update on my Uni situation...

Well, this afternoon I had a meeting with my lovely tutor. She is such a star. I was all ready to go in and tell her that I was leaving university, I'd had enough and couldn't manage any longer. I was really very upset about this, as I've been at uni for 4 years now, and have overcome many big hurdles in this time. In these four years, I have completed one and 3/4 actual academic years of my course (does that make sense?). To try and cut a very very long story short, I went back into uni in February, and am currently trying to do the assignments for those modules that I have been studying since then. However, I'm waiting for surgery for my endo, which is happening end of September, and in the meantime am on medication that has made me brain turn to go-slow. Studying is very very hard, and in fact, no longer possible at the moment...

So, the end of the story is that I'm not leaving...horray!! (my tutor is great, and has made everything sound so much more straight forward)

I was really worried about the financial implications, but I'm going to register as an external student this year, which means I won't go in for lectures, but I can submit work for assessment. This has the added bonus that it doesn't matter how much I might have missed post-surgery, and I can just get on with finishing bits off, and will in effect study two modules from home. phew.

...that also means that I can now relax, and get up as late as I need, not force myself to sit staring at my computer, and be crafty, by sitting back in my very comfy desk chair making some more cards; woohoo!

I have entered my first card making challenge!

So, I have made a few cards today! I wasn't on top form, and so decided that it was a good idea to occupy myself for a little while when I got out of bed for the second time today.

I'm not pretending to be a pro at this, but I have enjoyed spending a little bit of time playing with some new papers and stamps. I wanted to use up some of the papers so as not to have lots of half used bits left over at the end, so made a few cards with the same papers etc.

I decided that I would like to enter this caardvarks challenge, but struggled to get to grips with what would be counted as the "one embellishment". The challenge asked to keep it simple, and to include one embellishment (the ribbon), two patterned papers, and three flowers. Anyway, this is the card that I eventually finished with;



It's for my friends little girl, who is called Elsa. I enjoyed making this, and so made three more cards;



I think at this point, I'm supposed to say which papers and stamps I have used, but I'm afraid I can't do that right now, as I don't have them with me to look at! I will aim to include all that info later.

Let me indroduce you...

...to myself.

Well, my name is Jenny.

This is the first time that I have finally got round to writing a blog. I have a friend or two that have blogs, and one in particular has been badgering me to do this for ages! I'm planning to use this to post about arty things that I get up to, like making cards etc, and also, to write about things that I get up to.

I will also use it a little bit to talk about endometriosis and try to raise a bit of additional awareness for those of you who are unsure as to what this is. I have pretty bad endo, and it affects my life in a really negative way, making it very difficult to function on any sort of normal level.

At the moment, I'm studying at university in Sheffield. I've been studying for the last four years, but still have a way to go. I've struggled at uni, with my dyslexia and health problems making it very slow progress! I really do want to get to the end of my course, but I'm not sure at the moment whether it will happen due to awaiting surgery...watch this space!

Arty crafts, endo info, and other interesting (?!) bits and bobs to follow.