Mrs Birks Blogs

A few weeks ago, just before Halloween, I was invited to a craft evening with the theme of biscuit decorating.  My lovely friend Kirsten had previously read my post about Princess Biscuits (see here) and, being a maker of fantastic cookies herself, suggested I have a look at the blog of the amazing Sugarbelle .  It was from this blog that our craft evening was inspired.  With some ghost shaped and circular biscuits fresh from the oven, I popped over to Kirsten's ready for a night of outlining, flooding and, of course, biscuit sampling. Using Sugarbelle's recipe, Kirsten had made up some icing - in a huge quantity! - ready for us to water down a little into the consistency desired.  This is where I picked up my first tip of the evening which was to use a water spray bottle for adding water.  This allows a bit more control and you are less likely to add too much.  I, of course, did add too much, so ended up with flood icing when I'...

Back in July, I signed up for Crafty Creatives , a craft box scheme which, for £10.95 a month (plus p&p), sends you a little box of delights full of crafty fun.  Each month the box has a particular theme and the items included will somehow be linked.  So far I have had: July:  Flowers (this was the CC birthday box) August:  The Wild West September:  Monochrome October:  Circus   I loved the first box, which, with 5 kits had plenty to make without me having to think up lots of different ideas.  The kits ranged from a simple paper flower hair slide to a more complicated beaded flower.  I tried all of the kits but have to admit that some of the more time consuming ones still aren't finished.  I have promised to make the crepe paper flower ball (see below for the Crafty Creatives tutorial) for my daughter but I find making the flowers a bit boring and really don't know how long it will take me to finish this! ...

As soon as the school holiday arrived, we jetted off for sunny Spain - just as the UK was experiencing a heat wave!  Nevermind, we had an air conditioned apartment and a pool at hand, so it made the heat very enjoyable rather than a little bit torturous if we'd still been a home. Unfortunately, we forgot to ask anyone to water our garden, but that is another story... Whilst on holiday, I love to read.  I love reading at anytime but with two children, there never seems enough hours in the day and I'm always too shattered by bed time to even contemplate opening a book.  I used to read loads of books on holiday, in fact my husband and I would always try and out-do each other with who could read the most books the quickest (I've always been the slower reader but I maintain that this is because I get so engrossed in the plot).  This year I managed to read three books, although one I had started months ago so perhaps doesn't count.  Anyway, I'm goin...

Further to my previous post about Scandi-Drama (read it here ) I have had a chance to catch up with The Killing 2 over the last couple of weeks (again box set borrowed from the in-laws - thank you very much).  I'm not going to say much about it here but how good was it to see Birgitte's dishy husband from Borgen in a rather more sinister role?  Fantastic!  However, moody crime drama with subtitles was as high culture as it got this summer and for me, it was all about kids films at the cinema which is what this post is about. I appreciate we had some great weather and that you wouldn't want to spend too much time at the flicks when it's blazing outside - which is why we haven't seen all the blockbusters - but sometimes you want something different to do and being able to take advantage of Cineworld's Movies for Juniors has meant that we've had a few trips out that haven't been completely extortionate.  Now if they can just subsidise the Magnum Classic...

It's been a while since I blogged and the reason for that is because I've been on my summer holidays.  I know I should rave on about the vocational joys of being a teacher and inspiring young minds and all that but one of the best things about being a teacher is the holidays.  This last holiday has been the best.  I have love, love, loved it and I'm going to tell you all about it! But not in this post. Someone told me recently that they don't read blog posts that are too long, so I'm going to break it up into several blogs on different themes - I'm thinking something crafty, something book related and something film based.  So watch this space for a proper update soon x

So the time of year is upon us when exams are just about over and the wait for results begins.  Alongside that, is the wait for the inevitable slating of exam results and comments about Media Studies being a Mickey Mouse subject.  We all know it's coming...and most of us know it's pretty unfair.  After years of studying and revision, then weeks of exams, A Level students won't be congratulated on their results but told that exams are getting easier and that subject content is being dumbed down.  You'd think as a nation we'd be pleased when our children do well... I know many of the people reading this blog will be students who have either studied Media at A Level or are currently at University studying a related subject (hello to you!).  These students know it is not easy to get an A grade in any A Level regardless of the subject.   Media Studies is no exception.  If it were easy, everyone would be...

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