A picture of the future

It was Miss C's 3rd year Parents' Evening last night. I'd had the interim report a few weeks ago, which indicated that she was doing well. I know her attitude and I know she works hard so I had expected positive updates from all her teachers. What I did not expect was to be almost moved to tears by one teacher.

We did indeed get great reports from all her teachers - she is diligent, mature, doing well in all her classes, and it makes me happy. But one teacher, her Art teacher, actually gushed. About what a wonderful kid she is. About how super-talented she is. About how she works hard and has an amazing future in art ahead of her. And about how she isn't arrogant and how she helps others in the class and is a role model. I sat there and listened to this woman show just how much she cares and how much she thinks of my daughter, and it was one of the proudest moments of my life.

I'll be the first to say it; as an ex-teacher I value academic studies very highly, and it makes me happy that Chloe works hard and does well in her academic subjects. In fact, when Chloe was little, I probably imagined her with a future in a very academic driven subject and career. That was what I saw as success, because it was what I was good at. I wasn't looking at the whole picture.

For all Chloe is very much a mini-me, she is also most definitely her own person, and her talent has opened my eyes. She 'gets it' and sees her way of contributing to the world in a way I didn't until I was much older. She understands that her rules of life are her own. I never dreamed that I would have a daughter who was so amazingly talented artistically; and who would discover her gift and passion quite so early in life.

Chloe doesn't know exactly what career she wants to do yet, but she does know it will be something in art. I know that's not the easiest field to get into, and that it will take hard work from Chloe, and support from me to get her into this career that will make her happy. Even though I don't know much about that world, my support is what she'll get. Because my daughter is amazing. She is already an artist. And I'm her biggest fan.

Project Life: April part 3

As always, linking up to The Mom Creative's weekly PL link party . If you're visiting my blog from there - thanks, it's lovely to see you; and if you haven't been there yet, do take the opportunity to hop on over.

A super-quick page this week, with five of the pockets devoted to cinema-related activity. So here's the usual overview of the whole page:

One huge highlight from last week (in fact, from her whole life, if you listen to Chloe) was Adam Irigoyen replying to one of her tweets. This event called for unparalleled levels of excitement, marked by those high pitched squeals only teenagers can produce. To document the event, I took a screenshot of Adam's Twitter page with the RT comment from Chloe showing. I also put together a simple little journal card to tell the story. NB Since I made this page Chloe has now also had a reply and other RTs from Adam, but she'll be documenting them in her own PL album.

After years of being terrified by the prospect of scary movies following an accidental viewing of The Grudge, Chloe really really wanted to go see Cabin in the Woods. As Joss Whedon had been involved in the film, I was keen to go too. I love almost everything JW does - I was the hugest Buffy and Angel fan. I also knew this meant it wouldn't be typical slasher horror. And it really wasn't. It was a little odd. But still an enjoyable movie. Chloe said it WAS scary, and throughout most of the movie, she gripped onto my arm with what shall hereafter be referred to as the CabinInTheWoods Clutch* hold (*patent pending). The movie also inspired us to do a mini photo shoot parodying all the typical horror movie characters. I particularly like her helpless girlie victim scream, so I did some PSE tinkering to blur it a little. I like how it turned out. So the whole middle row is our Cabin in the Woods story (along with the tickets in the row above).

The bottom row are some quick notes I put together about my life right now.
The first documents my daily routine for the moment:

followed by a shot of one of my current favourite treats (I found this amazing version which is gelatin-free, and is beautifully delicately flavoured):

then my go-to hairstyle for most weekdays, and lastly a quote that sums up how I feel about my life now:

I hope you're still enjoying this PL journey as much as I am. Not only am I loving the creative outlet that the process is allowing, but just as important, I love how this reminds me of the small joys every day, things that I may otherwise overlook or take for granted. Especially just now, when the search for a new job could get me down, this project is keeping me focussed on the right side of happy. Gotta love that! Have to say though, I am a little disappointed at how uploading the photos to blogger really seems to lessen their quality - they look great on my pc and on any other sites I share them on, but the process of uploading really seems to lessen their res, and they lose their sharpness and colour. It's maybe time to think about moving.

I'm off now to look at the blogs of some of my favourite PLers now. I love Project Life Tuesday :)

Project Life 2012: April part 2

As always, linking up to The Mom Creative's weekly PL link party . If you're visiting my blog from there - thanks, it's lovely to see you; and if you haven't been there yet, do take the opportunity to hop on over.

This week's page is all about the second week of Miss C's spring break. Even though the sun didn't shine, we decided to get out and about anyway!

First up, here's the overview of the page. The Love from the Bottom of your Heart and The Greatest Day cards are from a freebie printables set from Miss Tina - so cute!A bit of a yellow-orange theme going on here...

So when it's rainy, and you're tired of being indoors, what better place for some mother-daughter bonding than the shopping mall? Chloe and I took a trip to one of the local malls on the bus, and I captured a couple of pics in her favourite shop, and used a CZ photo template to also add in the journaling. I also saved the bus tickets and some tags from the clothes we bought.

I got a lovely surprise this week when a postcard arrived in the mail from Chloe's school. I just knew this was going in my PL album! I yellow blocked out our address (for Internet security purposes, ha) and added a pic of the front of the card. I am so proud of my daughter because she works so hard at school. I quickly wrote my thoughts on getting the postcard on that Miss Tina printable card.

Lastly, having invested in new swim caps during that trip to the mall, we decided to venture out to one of the leisure pools closeby. There is no photography allowed in the pool, so I added in a photo of our new swim caps, a reduced size version of the pool flyer with a yellow journal block on top and the entry tickets. We were in there for hours, so it was great value. It'll be interesting to look back and see how much the entry fee increases in future years!

A short but sweet week! Have a good week ahead!