Happy New Year!!!

Well that's over for another year!

Everything is at last returning to normal in the Hooker / Williams household and I have already been hard at work on the program of courses for 2009. I have also been toying with advertising on 'Etsy'. For those of you who don't know, Etsy.com is a site where you can buy great quality handmade items direct from the artist. I haven't got round to listing anything yet but why not take a look, just click the link below!

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to everybody!

Phew!

Well my final session at college was on Wednesday evening, so all I have to do is wait. Hopefully my certificate will arrive in the next few weeks. Then I will have to seriously start looking for halls to hold the day classes that I am planning to start in the New Year.

Ebay has been horrendously busy over the last couple of weeks with orders coming in thick and fast....Credit Crunch??????

I think it is the run up to Christmas and perhaps people are starting to think about making gifts this year. I seem to have sold an even number of ready made gifts and Craft materials. I hope so, it would be nice to see a return to a more traditional Christmas rather than the over spending on gifts that we have all been doing in the last few years.

Actually, I'm interested to see if this is the case. Why not vote in the poll?

Well, what a busy few weeks!

Since I last posted I have done my first ever 'microteach' session, received my Decree Absolute (at last!) and welcomed a new addition to the household in the form of Poppy a very 'springy' Springer Spaniel pup!

The Microteach.................

The 'microteach' was part of my Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector course. It took the form of a 30 minute 'lesson' for the 11 other students in the class (most of whom have no interest or experience in textiles). So the challenge was on to find something that was quick enough to fit into a tight time frame, easy enough to teach to beginners and interesting to even the most reluctant of students!

In the end I chose 'Experiments with a Tyvek Envelope' as a subject hoping that this would work. Sample packs were made with pre-coloured samples, equipment was amassed and a PowerPoint presentation was prepared (My first attempt). I then prayed that all would go well, that the other students would be interested, and that I could squeeze the subject in to 30 minutes!

Thankfully, all went to plan. The scientists amongst the group were amazed, the artistic ones were in there element and all had a great time. The only problem was getting them all to stop experimenting at the end - I think they all would have carried on all night!

On to Poppy.....................

Poppy is now 17 weeks old and is a gorgeous liver and white Springer pup. So far she has stolen numerous items of clothing (mainly dirty socks from the Kid's rooms), Dug a huge hole in the lawn and almost demolished the fence. Something tells me that she is going to be a handful!

Yellow Backgrounds, Comic Sans and NO GREEN!!!

Well, I never thought going back to learning would be so interesting or such hard work!

This week we covered some of the things that can act as a barrier to learning to some students. These ranged between external pressures such as caring for elderly relatives or children, and learning difficulties.

The information about learning difficulties was particularly useful. The tutor taught us some strategies that may help people with Dyslexia to learn more easily. Some of which were quite surprising such as avoiding green writing and backgrounds, using comic sans or ariel fonts and using a yellow paper for handouts (this takes the glare away so it is easier to read).

It was a very long evening but well worth it. I'm now really looking forward to next week - just as long as I've managed to do my homework!!!!!!!

Back To School!

Well, the kids are back at school (thank goodness!), the house has just about recovered and I have bitten the bullet and will be going back to school myself.

I have been accepted on to a teaching course at Alton college which I start on the 17th of September.

Hopefully, I will soon be in a position to offer textile day classes which i am really looking forward to. Wish me luck!

Fame at last!

I returned home today to a lovely letter from Grosvenor Exhibitions with a free copy of issue 55 of Fabrications magazine. It's not very often that I get nice post like this, usually all I get are bills! My Tropical gloves are featured in the Quilt Gallery - The National Quilt Championships, Sandown 2008 section (I'm on page 9 if anyone is interested).

I wish I had gone to the hairdressers now!

Seriously, The article is well worth a look as it is a concise run down of the show if you missed it and a great reminder if you were there. Some of my personal favorites from the show are featured, Particularly Silent Echoes by Lee Brown who was deservedly awarded overall champion, 1st in the Large Wall hanging category, award for Hand Dyeing and a Judge's Choice Certificate.

Another of my favorite quilts was Perttu By Ferret which is just breath taking and very clever. It depicts Perttu Kivilaskso of the Finnish band Apocalyptical with his cello.