Mirror, mirror on the wall...

Hi guys!

So I'm back (briefly), and I just thought I'd update you all on what I've been up to. Nothing very exciting if I'm completely honest, but I felt bad for not blogging. Saying that though, it's felt so good not to be under pressure to write a blog post, or to use social media or to write in general. And because I haven't been under pressure, I now feel more ready to write than I did last week - I'm not saying I'll get to right right away, but I'm definitely more in the mood than I was ;).

So what have I been up to? Well, I've attempted to tidy the house, I've been playing the sims and reading a book or two,  I've sorted out my garden a bit more (although I got so mad yesterday - my sunflower that I've been growing for the past six weeks got eaten by ants, right before it was about to flower - I'm telling you, I have the least green thumb ever) and yesterday I also bought a new car - I've been wanting to change my car for about a year now, and I thought that since it's finally summer and I'm not driving everyday, now was the perfect time to do it :).

I've also been up-cycling some of our furniture. We're in the process of doing some building work to the house, and we've been living off hand-me-downs for a while, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to do something different and try my hand at painting furniture. Here's a mirror that my mum gave me last year, that I finally got round to painting:

This is the original gold colour - personally, I found it a bit dated, which is why I decided to paint it. I put masking tape around the edges:

Then I put on the dark grey undercoat:

Before I painted the whole thing white:

The next day once the paint was dry, I sanded off some of the paint to give it more of a distressed look. I quite like how the grey and gold now shines through the white. Finally, I got the Engineer to wax the whole thing for me, because I couldn't be bothered. And ta da! A brand new mirror!

I know these photos aren't the best for picking out the detail, but hopefully you can see some of the grey and gold coming through in the light. I might take a few more close-ups and post them up later.

My current project is painting a dresser that my mum gave us last year too - we sanded it down the Easter before last, so that give you some idea how long it's taken me to get round to doing it! I'll post some photos up later on this week, once it's finished.

Also, I just wanted to say thank you for all your well wishes when I had my ear operation. I still can't hear very well out of it, but then again, I never could. But at least it no longer sounds like everyone is underwater :). I'm going back for a check up at the end of summer, so fingers crossed it stays like this!

So that's it from me! I'll probably be off for a few more days now, but I'll be back again soon. Have a great day, everyone :)!

What have you been up to so far this summer? Have you ever painted furniture? How's your writing going?

We're all going on a summer holiday...

It's finally here - after waiting for so long, having to drag myself through two days of school filled with super hyper children and getting up an hour earlier today for training today - IT'S FINALLY THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS!!

I'm so so relieved. I feel like these last few days have really dragged. But now I've deleted all my alarms, and I'm looking forward to a good long lie-in tomorrow (mainly because I didn't sleep much last night and had to be up earlier than normal - on the last day too, hmph) - no more getting up early for me for the next six weeks! Yippee!

I'm going to be taking a short break from blogging for the next few days. I might write and schedule some posts tomorrow, but to be honest, these last few days have been hard and I'm looking forward to simply getting back to being 'me' again. I'm tired, I'm cranky and all I want to do tomorrow and Friday (and all weekend if I'm honest) is sleep, read, tidy up and maybe potter about in the garden. Oh, and buy a hoover. I must remember to do that.

I'm hoping to start blogging regularly again from Monday, but we'll see how it goes. I'm also very aware that now that it's the holidays, I can't put off doing all the writing work I'm hoping to get done. But I'm not going to beat myself up about starting it straight away - I have time after all. Either way, I'll definitely be back blogging at some point next week :).

So all that's left is for me to wish you a happy rest of your week/weekend. If you've emailed me/commented on my blog over the past few days, I'll try and get back to you as soon as I can. If you're also off for the summer holidays, I hope you have a lovely time whatever you have planned :). If you've got a normal job and you're not off, well, at least the weather should be getting better so you can enjoy the lovely British summer we're bound to have ;).

Happy holidays/summer, everyone!

What have you got planned for the summer? Do you have any writing goals you'd like to accomplish? Are you going away anywhere for the summer?

It's finally time...

After waiting and waiting for weeks, it's finally here....the summer holidays! *cries in relief*

Now, I know most people will be grumbling and saying that no one needs as much time off as teachers/TA's do, but let me tell you something - when you look after over sixty 4-5 year olds every day for weeks on end, as well as dealing with their parents - you need a break. Otherwise you'll just burst into tears and have a nervous breakdown. I love my job, I really do, but when you've had to put up with kids arguing with you (yes, even at that age), parents shouting at you, children getting hyper because it's approaching the end of term, as well as dealing with the 101 things you have to do as part of your daily job anyway....trust me, you're glad for the break.

On another positive note, we finally have internet in our house - hooray! Although the slight downside is that I'm now away for the next four weeks...but I have constant internet access where I am anyway, so there's really no excuse now for me NOT to blog regularly (apart from y'know, sheer laziness).

Anyway, the real point of this blog was this....

I think I'm finally ready for a Critique Partner.

I'm at that stage in my novel where I've edited (most of) it, I know what I want it to sound like...I now need someone to tell me how to whip it into shape, and to call me out on some of the dreadful writing I know is in there, but I just can't see it. And of course, I will reciprocate in kind :).

I guess I'd just love someone to read though it and let me know as someone who; A) isn't related to me and B) has no obligation to be nice to me because of point A, whether or not my story works and what I can do to improve it.

This is a big thing for me - for years my work has been private and I've shied away from sharing it with anyone because I'm just simply too terrified that people would hate it. Now, I think (and I honestly don't mean to sound arrogant here) I finally have a novel that I'm willing to share with the world.

So if you're a YA author and you're at all interested in becoming my CP, please just let me know :). I'd love to send you a couple of chapters for you to check out (don't worry, I won't bombard you with the whole thing at once!). The email address you can contact me on is: rachelsramblingsblog@gmail.com.

Or alternatively, feel free to leave me a comment in the comments section of this post :).

Like I said, it's a two way thing, so I'm more than happy to critique your work in kind. And just so you know folks, now is probably the best time for me to review your work as I have a long loooong summer ahead of me ;).

Happy writing!