school – Page 4 – Jennifer Michie

May 13, 2015 / 1 Comment

Only Wednesday

I can’t believe it is only Wednesday! Three late school nights in a row for both of us. Yesterday at school we worked to put up the senior exhibition. It was a one night only exhibit and today we spent the day taking it all down. Sigh.

I’m getting Mr. Michie’s cold. The sunshine is giving me spring fever, although tomorrow it is supposed to pour all day. This morning, a cup of coffee spilled all down my blazer, scarf and grey shirt. So, for the rest of the day I looked like I was wearing dirty clothes. Yep, it must be Wednesday.

Come on Friday, I’ve been waiting for you all week!

{Image FOUND}

April 20, 2015 / 0 Comments

Monday

{Found}

April 2, 2015 / 0 Comments

After The Rain

We had quite a storm last night. I listened to the rain hitting the windows like a snare drum being tapped, tapped, tapped. I stared at the ceiling and could see the reflection of the collected droplets as the headlights from a car flashed across our room.

This morning, it was grey when I left. There was a chill in the air and the rain had turned to a drizzle, slowly soaking you through.

The wind yesterday had beaten and whipped off the the camellias from many of the bushes near school. As I walked in, it was like parading down a carpet of petals. This one blossom remained, perfectly intact and beautiful on the wet ground.

March 31, 2015 / 1 Comment

A Mountain Range of Paint

As we moved into the Easter Break, one of the things on my To-Do list was to scrape back the oil paint from the palettes so we could re-use them once we return to school.

There is something satisfying about scraping all of the paint off, by this point it has become almost gooey, gummy even. As I smeared it across some newspaper to wipe my knife clean, I happened to look down and noticed all the little waves and crests and ridges that had formed. It was my own little ocean or mountain range of oil paint.

The way one color moved into the next, pattern but no pattern, rhythm and flow. It made me smile, it was almost a miniature work of art in itself.

February 1, 2015 / 1 Comment

The First of the Month

A pot roast is slowly cooking away in the crock pot this morning. Butter is softening for chocolate chip cookies. We had heart shaped crumpets and a strawberry and yellow plum fruit salad with vanilla sugar for breakfast. Laundry is whirring away in the machine and the wind is making the windows rattle. We are moving slowly, quietly. Snow was supposed to come in the wee hours of the morning, but it didn’t materialize. I don’t think I will ever get my snow day.

I can’t believe that today is the 1st of February! How did we get here? What happened to January? I still haven’t told you about Copenhagen, it’s still on my To-Do list, I’ll get there I promise! Work, just seems to be always in the way.

Today we are going to try and work on organising a few things, in between baking cookies and Mr. Michie grading papers and doing some school related jobs. There are piles everywhere it seems and I feel it is important for our home to be an oasis from the outside world. I don’t always feel I can relax with piles jumping out at me.

I’m also going to mentally prepare for the onslaught of the week. I’m tired of rude people on trains and tubes and platforms and streets. Why can’t everyone just be polite? Kindness is not a lot to ask for. Manners are not a lot to ask for. Manners will get you far in life, don’t ever think they won’t! Just be NICE!

I hope you are having a lovely Sunday, wherever you may be today.

{Image: Katie Daisy}

January 5, 2015 / 0 Comments

Back to School

I couldn’t sleep a wink last night, I just lay there thinking of all the things I needed to do first thing in the morning and then on my way to work and then my list for my first day back to work, once I got in school. At some point my head was going to start spinning and I was going to spew green. I finally took a deep breath and closed my eyes not long before 4am only to hear the alarm go off an hour later.

I don’t think I was ready to go back to work, but are you ever? I have been having too much fun with Mr. Michie while on Christmas Vacation. Well, onwards and upwards!

September 5, 2014 / 0 Comments

The First Week

Party Girls, 1983

Today, completes our first back to school week. It has been busy, hectic, I’ve had a lot of catching up to do with colleagues and students, a fair bit of running around and unpacking deliveries and prepping studio spaces for the new year with brand new materials. We’ve not slowly got back in to the swing of things, instead, we’ve dove right in. I kinda like it like that.

The 5am wake-up has made me very excited for tomorrow morning as I am turning the alarm OFF! Tonight we are getting gussied up and going on our first back to school date night of the year to see the Virginia Woolf exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. I love that they have late nights on Thursdays and Fridays, it is always a treat to visit on these evenings, especially in the winter, when it gets dark early, there is something magical about being in a museum at night.

After the exhibition, we are heading out somewhere for delicious food, I think Five Guys french fries might be calling my name, but we’ll see.

Here’s to the weekend, long may it last!

{1983 Party Girls found HERE}

September 1, 2014 / 0 Comments

Back to School

Today is the first day of school. I don’t think I’m ready! Nevertheless, here we go!!!!

{Image found via Flickr: 2nd grade class at Emerson School, May 12, 1957}

July 25, 2014 / 0 Comments

The Last Day

What could be a better way of celebrating the last day of school then an order of Five Guys french fries?

Here’s to Summer! Long may you last. And to the weekend, we are so happy that you have finally arrived!

July 10, 2014 / 0 Comments

Listening in the Quiet

I’ve done a lot of listening these past few days. School is over, no children about, so all is quiet. I have systematically been going through the studios, cleaning up, cleaning out and re-organizing. Through this process I have been plugged in, catching up on podcasts, listening to music, or simply working in silence, very aware of my surroundings.

I have also been using my cleaning time to meditate, focusing on some of my yogi practices. I am finding my quiet at work, now I am looking forward to being able to find it at home. The last few weeks of school always keep our house in a state of flux. It needs a thorough cleaning, more than the spit and polish it has been getting. As long as my kitchen is clean and my bathroom is clean, I can deal with anything else. But I am ready for everything to be in it’s place.

I shall have a few days to myself soon and I plan to work through the cottage, like I am working through the studios, systematically, carefully, with love and listening in the quiet.

{Image: Found}