Aaaannnddd I'mmm baccckkk!!!!

Hello all!

A hearty New year to you all!
I realise I'm a little behind the times with this post, mainly because I spent my Christmas holidays revising for mock exams, the first of which I had at 9am on the first day back - how cruel is that?!

How I looked

How I felt

Anyway, I had my final mock yesterday and I thought it was a breeze, although that probably means I completely fluffed up!
So I thought I'd try and squeeze a post in between my psychology homework and my biology homework.
On the subject of school, I'm really enjoying my lessons this year, much more so than in year 12 at AS, I'm finding biology much easier, although I'm glad we finally finished Unit 4 last week - no more photosynthesis! I'm telling you, I've studied photosynthesis every year since year 4 - I'm extremely bored of it! Anyway, Unit 5 of AQA Biology is really cool - there's DNA technology and genes and the nervous system, and all the cool human stuff, much better than plants IMO!

As for psychology, there were four options for OCR, of which two must be studied: Forensic, Health, Education, Sport.
My school does Forensic (as we offer law at GCSE) and Sport (because we're a sports and technology thingy - apparently). Personally I'd prefer education over Sport, but we don't start that section until next week so I'm not going to make my mind up yet! The other unit comprises of approaches and perspectives and evaluation, but we also have a section in the exam where we have to plan our own practical study based on the criteria we're given - I really enjoy this bit, hence why I liked yesterday's exam!

And finally, OCR B History (I dropped geography - I don't like the human side and that was all A2 consisted of). This year we study British imperialism with one teacher, 3 lessons a week, and have a controlled assessment in May (a really nice exam as long as you are properly prepared!) and with the other teacher we are doing coursework 1 lesson a week - "personal study" on the significance of a topic of our own choosing. I was originally going to do Pioneering Palaeontologists, but my research told me that would be extremely difficult in the time-frame, so I chose something I am even more passionate about - Scouts. My question is: "How significant was the birth of Scouting?" I've completed my first full-draft and am now changing bits as necessary, although I am over the 3000 word limit so I need to do some cutting down. There are 6 other students in my class and their topics are: The Aztecs, Leni Riefenstahl, The French Renaissance, Something to do with Poland, and Karl Marx.

I am also doing an EPQ (Extended project qualification) for AQA, as you will know if you have read my blog before. I was originally going to do it on settlement structures and build models, but I was advised against this and have instead decided to ask "Have human needs changed, and how has this affected our lifestyle?"
I'm actually quite enjoying this, but I am panicking about getting it completed to an A grade standard, I know that I'm well ahead of my classmates as we have just been told to begin writing and to have 3000 words by the 29th January - I'm curently on 2,700 while most haven't yet begun, however, I have a tendency to write what's in my head and am then unable to work out what order I should place it in. I follow the principle of "Don't get it right, get it writ", however, I often lose motivation to then get it "right" after its been "writ". I am getting better though and I'm going to spend Saturday on my EPQ and Sunday on the bits of homework that I should be doing as I write this post.

I think that'll do for school, I spend enough time with school work as it is, without writing about it endlessly!
I'll tell you what I'm looking forward to in 2014, perhaps that will help motivate me to finish this homework...

1. Turning 18 and going to the Warner Bros studio tour with my best friend - I will buy EVERYTHING!
2.Getting my EPQ done and dusted by March 26th - more free time!
3.Having my History coursework done by Easter - more revision time!
4.Having my history exam done by the second week of May - Only two subjects left!
6. Super long summer holiday!
5. Spending a long weekend with my oldest friend camping while everyone else is at prom - my logic was this - £35 for one night I won't enjoy with a bunch of people I don't like and also have to get a dress Vs £19 for 3 days with my oldest friend doing something we both love, camping by a beautiful lake before I leave for Uni......It was a pretty easy decision really. This is also instead of spending a fortune going to Marbella or somewhere with my friends who will spend the whole week in the hotel pool. I like adventure.

6.Results day - This may seem weird because it could make or break my future, but my thinking is, my fate is decided on the day of my last exam, that means I can't change my results and the atmosphere on results day is pretty electric!
7. Moving to Uni - hopefully! I'm really looking forward to packing, is that weird?

I finally watched Toy story this Christmas and it made me want to take all my toys with me to Uni! Of course, anyone that has ever seen my room will understand that that will be impossible, so I don't doubt there will be many moments like this:

I told you earlier I spent the whole of the holidays revising - that wasn't strictly true - for the days before Christmas, up until Christmas eve, I was doing homework and sorting out my stuff in the attic - having a proper clear out, I'm not yet finished though so I'm continuing with that on Sunday if I get all my work done.
I also tried my hand at some new Jewellery, and I'm really happy with how it all turned out!
I'm so proud of the snowman earrings, but they took aaaages to make, I had to have a massage after each completion because I was in agony!

Aren't these snowman earrings adorable! I made a pair for myself to wear on Xmas day! £4 a pair 

My new rubber band bracelets - £3 for top two, £2 for third one, £1 for bottom.

£1 each

How did I forget this - who saw the new series of Sherlock?! I loved it! The second episode had me in stitches, and the final one was brilliant! I do think Benedict Cumberbatch is excellent in the role, and the way he can pretend to show emotion and then immediately be nonchalant is brilliant! I'm halfway through reading Arthur Conan Doyle's Hound of The Baskervilles and I'm really enjoying it! I even managed to quote it in my History mock (something about free trade), which was pretty cool.

Anyhoo, I think that's a pretty good round-up of everything since my last post, and I should probably get on with this biology homework - I seem to have "inherited" procrastination from my Dad. See what I did there? eh?!

Alons-Y!

So much to do, so little money!

Well, here we are, November the 17th, 5 weeks and 3 days until christmas and I have bought a total of 2 christmas presents! I just don't know what to get anyone this year, and I spent most of my money on a school trip last week, trains to London are soooo expensive, and that's with a 16-25 railcard discount!
And it's not just christmas, there's so many books i'd like for my history coursework and my EPQ, but I can't get them from any libraries and it's just so expensive to buy them all, plus, I'm still hoping to go to Australia with BOLD EARTH this summer before going to university, that's certainly going to set me back a bit!
I have used Swagbucks for a while now and bought my dad's christmas presents using an amazon giftcard I earned last year, unfortunately I forgot about the site until recently and am now aiming to get another 800SB in time to get some presents! It'd be great if you guys would sign up using my referral link: swagbucks.com/refer/Jodz
Swagbucks is a site where you conduct searches (like google - it uses goggle results), complete surveys, polls, watch videos, play games etc. to gain points "Swagbucks", these points can then be redeemed for items, only giftcards in the UK but there's a wide selection, and I think other items as well as giftcards can be redeemed in the USA. It's a great way of getting Xmas presents and no doubt i'll be using it to partially fund my university life!

Now, before anyone starts saying "get a job", I spent the whole of year 12 looking for a job, and when it looked like I had one, the job was given to an incompetent girl in the year below me, obviously because they were cheaper to employ, but I was a bit miffed.
Anyway, I've been working hard with my business this year and I can't really do that and have a job as I use my weekends for it.
Also, I struggled a lot with school last year, and this year I'm barely keeping above the water in biology, I don't want to compromise my university place for a bit of extra cash, especially now that I've heard back from all 5 choices in the space of 4 weeks (record time!).

Anyway, moving away from money, I've been considering going geocaching with a friend sometime soon, we had a brilliant adventure once just going into town, and I think geocaching would be even more fun! I've only done it once with explorers, and we never found anything (Well, it was pitch black at 10pm) so I'd love to have another go!
I think i'll see what my homework's like next week and maybe go next saturday, it looks so much fun!

A typical geocache full of swaps

Anyway, I've been homework-ing all day and now i'm finally done, I'm going to have some quality Primeval time, and then Doctor who at 7:30!

Alons-y!

Starfish Crafts

Well, I've finally got my website up and running (it's a work in progress though so is a little bare!)

http://www.hazart.co.uk/jody.html

Facebook page is also up and running: https://www.facebook.com/starfishcraft

and I set up my twitter page today: https://twitter.com/StarfishCrafts

I'll post some examples of my work here, and if you like what you see - head over to one of the links above!

Pendant necklaces - £4 each

Pendant necklaces - £4 each

Friendship bracelets - £2 each

Pendant necklaces - £4 each

Beaded bracelets - £4 each

Personalised bracelets - £3 each

Earrings - £3 a pair

Earrings - £3 a pair

Starfish crafts at Braintree jewellery village

If you're in the area, why not come along?

NEW! clip on earrings - £2.50 a pair

Caged stone necklaces - £4 each

ANDREW LEE POTTS!!!!

Warning: This post may contain a little fangirling....

Ok, so, a while back I mentioned that I was putting together an outfit to dress up as Abby from Primeval, and my friend was going as Connor.
Well, yesterday was the day, I got up at 05:30 (after oversleeping) And got my stuff together, I then attached some elastic to a dinosaur so I could keep it on my shoulder, in true Abby style.

I left the house at 06:50 with my Dad and we picked up my friend, Stephen we then headed to the ExCel centre in London, with me navigating, We got there pretty easily and much sooner than I'd anticipated, we parked up and were told we were in the wrong car park (oops!) but we didn't have to go far to get to the right one and there were very few cars at this time (07:45) so it was easy to park.
Then I headed to the entrance with my friend and my Dad headed for Stratford for the day.
We got through the ticket hall in about 2 minutes, which was amazing, but also meant we had about an hour to kill before Comic con actually opened. I connected to the free wifi and posted our arrival on facebook, after scrolling through other people's posts I found that some of my friends were already there so I took out my phone to text Ellie and ask where they were, It was at this moment that she phoned to ask me the same thing! We waited outside Costa Coffee while they came to meet us, then we headed back to where they had come from and found a place to sit and wait.

By some miracle, we had chosen to sit directly in front of the door that was to let us into comic con, so when opening time came, we were the first in!
We wandered round for a bit and played Mario on the Wii U, then we went to see Tomska, got hugs and photos and then went to his panel at 11:30. We came out at 12:00 to be greeted with a HUGE increase in numbers, all the general entry people had finally arrived and now the centre was heaving.
At this point we went in search of toilets as we had half an hour before Project Library which one of my friends wanted to see. Little did we know that the queue for the womens was 20 minutes long, while men had no queue at all!

After the (very long) toilet break, we headed back towards project library, but I decided to wander round with Emma and Stephen as the Andrew Lee Potts photoshoot was at 13:15, and the project library talk started at 12:30 and ended at 13:15.
We decided to get my tickets for the photoshoot and the signing and then explore, as we were next to the photo area.
After exploring many of the stalls (but by no means all), we headed for the photo area. As I was the only one having a photo, the others left me to wait while they went to explore some more. I was waiting quite a long time as the Lost Girls shoot had overrun, this meant that the By any means shoot couldn't start queuing until 13:25. But queue we did, first were the people who wanted photos with all the actors in one photo, there were about 10 people in this line. Next was the queue for Andrew Lee Potts, which was by far the longest, it had to form an "L" Shape of about 40 people, Next was the line for Shelley Conn - 2 people, Warren Brown - 5 people and Elliot Knight had noone! I felt so bad, If only I'd had more money I'd have had a photo with each of them, but at 20 quid a pop, that was never gonna happen.

Anyway, I queued up in the Andrew Lee Potts line, excited and nervous at the same time, I had no idea what to say to him, or even if I'd have time to say anything.
We went through the curtain in groups of about 10, I was in the second group.  In we went, put our bags down, and waited our turn, I barely had time to fix my dinosaur in place before it was my turn, so, up I went, heart racing, and on my way Andrew said "And who's this then?" With a knowing grin on his face, I replied with a grin and a "Rex", next thing I knew, Andrew had his arm round me and I had about 3 nanoseconds to prepare for the photo. I was terrified that I'd have a terrible expression because I really can't smile on cue, I had no need to worry though, because I was so happy to have my arm round Andrew that I was naturally grinning like the Cheshire cat anyway.

After the photo, I collected my bags and stepped out of the booth, just as my partener in crime was heading towards me, that was some pretty epic timing there, Stephen!
We then went in search of the By any means panel, but after 20 minutes, we still couldn't find it and had to give up the search, I was pretty depressed for a while and we continued to explore ExCel and three buddies left to head home, leaving just me and the Connor Look alike.

At 15:15, another friend phoned me to see if we were nearby, we weren't, we were at the opposite end of the centre, and by now, the only mode of transport was shuffling, and the signing was at 15:30, so we decided to pass on the meet up and headed over towards the signing area.
I was a little disheartened that there was already quite a bit of a queue, but this was soon overshadowed by excitement, and the queue got much longer behind us!
The signing didn't actually begin until 15:50, and we shuffled closer and closer to Andrew and I got more and more excited. I made Stephen go in front so he could take a photo on my phone (being the genius I am, I forgot to take my camera!). When we got close, we chatted to Warren Brown while we waited, seeing as Andrew seemed to be getting all the attention, he told us they wouldn't know if there would be a second series for a couple of weeks and I was surprised by the strength of his accent.
Our time came though, and up we went to Andrew, we picked the photo's we wanted signing and Stephen handed his over with a post-it note with his name on, Andrew signed it while Stephen joked that Elliot was having such an easy time that he'd run off.
I handed Stephen my phone and Andrew my photo, which he promptly signed.

I then asked if I could have a photo with him holding a sign I'd made for a friend that couldn't be there, he said "sure" and got up, took the sign and put his arm round me for the second time that day. :D
This is what ensued:

Me: "Could I have a photo with you, please? And could you hold this sign for a friend, she couldn't come."
Andrew: "Sure, how come she couldn't come?"
Me: "She's in Reading"
Andrew: "What's she doing in Reading?"
             "Oh, you don't want that on there there anymore, here, I'll take it off for you."
              *Takes off the post-it and puts it on his desk*
Me: "Thanks, she's looking round the University. Oh no, my dinosaur has fallen off my       shoulder!"
                      *Sound of camera shot*
Andrew: "Aww no! Here, let me put him back for you."
Me: *Giggling* "Thanks, Stephen, do you need to take another?"
Andrew: "There you go." *Smiles*
              *Sound of camera shot*
Me: "Thank you! By the way, my friend Charlotte said she loves you!"
Andrew: "Well, thaank yooou Chaarrlottteee!"

Then I headed out and back home with Stephen. Nedless to say, I dreamed of Andrew last night :P

Rex being replace - I genuinely LOVE this photo, even if I look really awkward >.<

The second photo, after Rex was put in his place by Andrew - must have thought it was Connor and obeyed orders :P

Just a quick update

Hello all,

This will only be a short post as I need to do a practice run of my Sally Ragdoll makeup ready for school tomorrow - every year, sixth form have to dress up for haloween and this year we happen to be doing the deed on the 23rd of October, as we are not at school on Friday, I originally had the idea of going as Alice in Wonderland but decided I couldn't turn my favourite ever story into a halloween costume, I have loved the nightmare before christmas my whole life and decided I can kinda mix up some clothes and do some fairly simple makeup to be Sally!

On the university front...UCAS IS DONE AND DUSTED!
I sent my application to school on thursday evening, and school tried to send it off on Friday but UCAS was down, so it was sent first thing on Monday morning.
All I can do now is wait, hope for offers and work my socks off!


Better go - Makeup time!

Alons-y!

Are we protecting our children too much?

Personally, I'd say yes, unequivocally yes.

I was 13 before my parents let me go to the park without an adult, I lived NEXT TO the park.
When I spent weekends with my nan however, I'd go out with my friends from the age of about 10/11 and we spent months building ourselves a brilliant den. It was in the trees and on a really steep, dusty slope so we all kept slipping and got scratched to pieces from the brambles. It was this that led to me and my 13 year old friend having the idea of digging out a flat path so we wouldn't slide down, so off we hopped, climbed out of the den, onto the garages and then jumped off the garage roof, ran to get a spade and a broom then clambered back and made the path.The act of getting injured, helped us to develop problem solving skills so we could prevent ourselves getting hurt later on.

I've noticed a similar "nanny state" while helping out at cubs, every week we have a couple of parents help on a rotation basis. This week we went for a walk and there was one helper and one leader in charge of each 6 (I was in charge of blue six with a parent helper), I noticed however, that that helper I was with kept straying from the six to go and check on her son, she was a CLASSIC example of a helicopter parent, and was technically leaving a child in charge of 6 other children, completely disregarding their safety and having no trust in the leaders in charge of her son's six.
The boy in question happens to be mildly autistic, however, I was completely unaware of this until this week because it is impossible to tell at meetings without his mother tailing him, it was not until this week that he displayed social withdrawal from the rest of the group, and I fully believe that this was because his mother was holding him back, she was causing a problem rather than preventing one, which she was obviously trying to do. This boy is fascinated by fire, as became apparent when we had a campfire later in the evening, but he observed the line drawn on the ground that cubs were not allowed to cross and sat contently on his log, that is until his mother came along and started telling him to stand further back because he could get hurt, this poor boy could not understand why he had to stand further back than everyone else, it wasn't fair and he thought his mother was punishing him for something. If his mother had not been there, there would have been no problems and everyone would have gone home happy, but instead this boy went home upset because his mother hadn't allowed him to toast his own marshmallow, because she did not trust that he understood when his hand was too hot.

This is NOT what scouting is about - clingy

This is - Independence

Another issue is all these adverts for "antibacterial products" that kill 99.9% of all bacteria - surely this will just result in useless immunity and therefore, in later life, death could result from something as simple as the common cold because the immune system just can't produce antibodies to fight infection because it's never been exposed to infection before, in essence, trying to protect children from getting ill could lead to premature death, and it would be the fault of the parents.
This is pretty basic biology, so why are we falling for the claims that we will be healthier if we use antibacterial soap, we're quite clearly going to be exceptionally UNhealthy.

"Fight germs, Stay healthy" Really...?!

"A baby must be exposed to germs during its first year in order to develop the antibodies needed to fight infection later in life" - Dr. Levy, who has long been active with the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA), spoke of an Italian study that found that exposure to bacteria is essential for development of an infant’s immune system. (http://www.naturalchildmagazine.com/news/case_against_antibacterial_soap.htm)


And here's and excellent post about knives and scouting: http://www.100yearknives.com/scout-knives/kids-love-knives/

Hello all

Hello all,
It's been a while, I've been trying to get ahead at school this year to improve my predicted grades for UCAS.
I thought I'd give you guys a couple more daily routine thingamy bobs - one for Wednesday's, as i dont usually go home till 10pm and one for Saturday's.

So Wednesday, I'll use today but I'll also add a bit in that usually happens but didn't today.

6:15 - 6:50 get up, eat, dressed etc.
6:50-8 - do homework/ surf the net.
8-8:20 - dad drives me to school.
8:20-8:45 - chill in study room/ work
8:45-9 - form
9-10 - wrote questionnaire and planned psychology answer for tomorrows assessment
10-11 - watch sea of souls & read history chapter 2
11-11:20 - break
11:20-1:20 - double history lesson
1:20-2 - lunch
2-2:25 - form/ assembly on open evening
2:25-3:25 - EPQ lesson - found some great websites
3:24-3:45 - walked back to nans
3:45-5 - made biology notes
5- 6 - was cool and watched Lizzie McGuire and my parents are aliens & had dinner.
6-7:45 (usually go to help out at cubs but it wasn't on tonight due to splash night at the weekend) dad picked me up and I did a lil bit of homework, at 7:45 we left for explorers.
8:15-10 - explorers, tonight was problem solving activities with the main aim of escaping prison (hence the activity name 'jailbreak) and winning chocolate. My team didn't win, but we did solve most of the problems. Dad picked me up at 10.
10:30 - 11 watched frasier and went to bed.






Typical Saturday (not this week as I'm working, I had Friday off school so I'll use that as an example):

9-9:30 - get up,dressed, eat
9:30- 10 - finish off homework - most is usually done by Friday evenings.
10-10:30 - type up history mind map we made in class.
10:30-11 - rewrite notes neatly from Friday.
11-11:15 - biology reading ahead notes
11:15-11:30 - psychology reading ahead notes
11:30-12 - history reading ahead notes
12-12:30 - EPQ research
12:30-1 - history coursework (the exam board found a potential problem with my proposal regarding balance, but I came up with a cunning plan, emailed my teacher and it's all sorted!)
1-5 - jewellery making
5-6 - surf net
6-6:30 - dinner
6:30-7 - shower
7-10:30 - tv


I'm sure that was thrilling reading, so I'll think of something else to write about :')

Actually, while I was "working" at the weekend (trying to sell my jewellery at a shopping village we hire a display stand from), I actually made £13 on saturday, and £8 on Sunday - 3 bracelets and 3 necklaces - that's the first time I've sold anything while I've been there! Pretty chuffed - that's enough for one fresher's event next year, now for the money to live on and Bob's your uncle!
I was also approached by a woman who has recently opened up a handcrafted jewellery village and is very eager for me to be the final seller, the footfall should be much larger there so hopefully I'll make at least a small profit (it's £5 a week for the space) and I'm going to try and get my website finished and then utilize social media and I might be pushing my products on here as well haha, I'll upload a few examples now actually, I have a lot more stock however, and some cool new stuff I haven't photographed yet. I also make keyrings that i'll be happy to upload if you wish. If you're interested in anything, or are looking for for something specific that I may be able to produce, comment below or email me at j.l-smith@outlook.com - i'll be happy to answer any questions or hear of any ideas/inspiration you internetters may be able to offer me!

Just a fraction of the earring collection

A small number of the necklaces

Personalised braceletes

I went to Liverpool's open day the other day - that was one loooong drive, and I was totally in love, the first accomodation I saw was brilliant, brand new, and so cheap! Then we wandered round the campus which I loved, then went to the subject talk, with no more than 4 others, the lecturer made me even more excited, I REALLY hope I get in! I should get my predicted grades soon so I really hope they're high enough and not based on AS results (my 2nd papers for each exam dragged my grades down cause I was sooo I'll, I don't know how I even passed, pretty sure I was writing gobbledygook.) I KNOW I could get straight A's if I worked as hard as I am now, although that may not be possible as the year progresses, but I do know I can get the offer grades, of only my teachers can see that too!

I'm off now to get sorted for school.

Alonz-y!