Enabling

My job title – Curriculum Lead – doesn’t really offer any clue about what I actually do.  So when asked to elaborate, I often rely on a short phrase: Enthuse, Encourage and Enable.  I am frequently accused of that last one (with a wink) because I really do like to share any interesting discoveries with my like minded friends and one in particular (you know who you are…) is very easily tempted.  I make no excuses because everything I do is legal, honest and more often than not, just jolly good fun.  But yes, now and again, I have heard the words “Oh, you are such an enabler!” in that tone of voice, for sure.

This morning, I was on the receiving end, though.  I was mooching through some Pinterest pages I’d stumbled upon last night, and one particular pin caught my eye.

Folded paper bracelets?  How neat are those?  With a cup of tea in hand and having decided that I’ve earned a morning to myself today, I followed the link to a very interesting page, right up my street and with a very tempting sidebar full of links to follow up, too!

Scrolling down to the folded bracelets, I found the link to Fiber Lab and found all kinds of very clever paper manipulation there.  I am in awe of people who can think their way through such designs and who can create beautiful three dimensional objects from a two dimensional piece of paper and this particular one is so clever!

Don’t take my word for it, download the pdf here and have a go yourself!

What impressed me most was the marvellous presentation of a fairly complicated technique on a single sheet of ordinary paper.  The information is all there, shown in such a way that anyone could follow and create a paper bracelet from scratch in less than half an hour.

See?

Sadly, it’s just a little on the small side for me, so I need to enlarge it in some way.  But isn’t it clever? 

Thank you, Justine, for sharing your work!  I love it.

How much?

Whole Foods opened its doors in Cheltenham yesterday, so I dropped in at the same time as the whole population of the area it seemed, for a quick look around.  I’m a fan already and am delighted to have a branch so close to me.  Though I’m not a regular buyer of organic produce I  fully support their local foods initiative and always look enviously at the huge range of goods on offer when I’m in the USA – or in London for that matter.

I stopped by in between two work commitments and was feeling peckish.  A slice of delicious mushroom and ricotta pizza hit the spot and if I could have made my way through the crowds to one of the other fresh food counters, I might have washed it down with some juice or other.  I sat at one of the picnic tables, warmed by the logfire adding a pretty nice touch to the outdoor area to the side of the store and enjoyed a fine bit of people watching.  But time was pressing and I had to do my “real” shopping at Sainsbury’s next door – which was as quiet as the grave.  The young woman on the checkout asked if I’d been “over there” yet, because she was looking forward to finishing her shift and seeing what the fuss was about.  Earlier customers had told her all about it, she said, but had found it “a bit expensive”.

It will be interesting to see if Cheltenham can support the £12 apple pie.

Bah humbug

It’s the third of November.  We’ve been shopping for a couple of colourful  cushions and a throw for our redecorated bedroom, which is about as nearly finished as it was a couple of weeks ago but now has posh new curtains hanging at the window.  But what did we find?

It appears to be Christmas in Bristol.  After a couple of hours in the company of every man woman and screaming child in the county, we’d had enough.  We didn’t find the cushions we had in mind and the throw we bought doesn’t really fit with our ideas either, so we’ll probably take it back.

We stopped off a the pub on the way home for lunch.  It’s Christmas there too.

A heap of post waited on the doormat – gift ideas to indulge loved ones (at Lakeland?  Really?)

Well, maybe here?  Ok.  Perhaps I’ll be tempted to take a look ;-)

This is our recycling basket, already brimming over with offerings from here and there and I suspect there will be a few more on the pile before the day is out.

We will console ourselves with one new arrival at our local Lidl which resolves any feeling of bah humbug and goes rather nicely with a lebkuchen biscuit (thank you, Karin!) 

After all, it is the third of November.