Hello June

This is practically a June blog considering it's the day before and it's a fairly late blog...  I start my June challenge tomorrow and so I miss the day where I can tell you about the month I have ahead of me and so I thought I would do it a day early so that I can still keep you updated with my life (for once!) ♡ This month I am doing the June challenge that I hope I complete. I'm really excited about it so I think I have a fairly good shot at being able to blog everyday with it- that's the key to success: being excited enough about something that may be hard to follow through to the end! Check out the plan here if you haven't already: http://nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/first-challenge.html ♡ Throughout the month, I'm also continuing with my driving lessons- let's just say I am not the worst learner in the world but I definitely would not say that I am the most natural. I have a driving lesson tomorrow and I hope that I can relax enough to properly enjoy driving without thinking too much or over complicating things. ♡13th June: It's my birthday and I will be 23... Whenever I think about this, the song 'noone likes you when you're 23' always pops into my head and I hope that's not true :( - 11th June: I'm going out for my birthday with the girls from my high school and I love them to bits- our friendship has survived throughout the whole of high school and beyond and I know that we'll be friends forever! :) - 21st June: I'm going out for dinner with the girls that I made friends with on my PGCE year- we find it hard to find time to get together so birthday celebrations are always a must do to make sure that we have a life outside school! - This isn't planned yet but I will also be going out for dinner and/or a drink with the girls from work. This is the time when I like to think I'm so popular when actual fact, I'm not!! ♡ 20th June: It is my cousin's 18th birthday and so all my family are going to his birthday party, which should be good. I haven't seen some of my cousins for a while so it will be nice to go out and have some fun! That's all I have planned for the month of June- I don't think I have anything else coming up but if I do, I'm sure that it'll appear in a blog at some point! What is your month of June looking like? Packed? OR a nice relaxing month? Let me know in the comments below!

First Challenge

I'm going to put this out on the Interwebs and then run away and hide for a little bit from nerves. This is my potential challenge for the month of June and I may regret even suggesting this because the last challenge took it out of me that I might not even finish this one, which would make me a big fat failure.
Here you are:

Your thoughts - comments below NOW!

Youtubers I Enjoy

Now, usually I don't share who I like to listen to or watch because I'm one of those people that doesn't like being judged. I don't like the judgement that comes with admitting you like something that someone else thinks is lame but I have to say that since I've gotten older, I'm less conscious of this- if people think it's lame, that isn't my problem. I am one of these people that doesn't really keep up to date with regular shows unless I really like them (or they're on early) and the majority of my time is spent on the Internet, mainly watching Youtube videos. I thought I would let you know who I enjoy watching and what types of shows I like to watch on the Internet!
1. Zoella - https://www.youtube.com/user/zoella280390

This is a beauty guru on Youtube and although you wouldn't have guessed it, I really enjoy watching clothing hauls and make up looks even if I don't try them out myself. She's a really own to Earth, cute and fun Youtuber and I just like to watch to get some tips and because she's English, whenever she shows some clothes in her haul, I go out and see if I can find it myself to buy.
2. Joe Sugg - https://www.youtube.com/user/thatcherjoe

This is Zoe's brother and I really enjoy him as much as Zoe, if not more. I love his videos which are a more Youtube pranks/fun challenges. He is so funny in an effortless way and I find myself laughing out loud at him, which is always a winner if you ask me!
Side note: What an attractive brother and sister- I am not jealous....
3. Jenna Marbles - https://www.youtube.com/user/JennaMarbles

Jenna is hilarious- she's such a classic Youtuber that puts out original and unique videos of her take on life. I love how real and confident she is and she has really cute dogs. For me, she has so many qualities that I wish I had- confidence, hilarity and intelligence. I love her and she really does make me giggle.
4. Nerdy Nummies - https://www.youtube.com/user/rosannapansino

I love baking cakes and decorating them is becoming one of my real wants in life- I want to be able to decorate cakes beautifully with minimal effort. This show is so cute because it combines cake making/decorating with some of the best nerdy games and although I hardly know any of them that she does, I love seeing how she creates all of her designs. I'm still trying to perfect to perfect cake pop and when I do, I will be trying out some of her cute designs!
5. xUrbanSimsx - https://www.youtube.com/user/XUrbanSimsX

This channel is my guilty pleasure. If you know me, you know I love playing The Sims (I have enjoyed all of the versions of The Sims and currently really enjoy Get to Work from Sims 4) and what I also really like doing is watching other people play The Sims 4. The thing that I love is being able to watch the stories that they people create and the situations they put on their families. When you're playing the Sims just for yourself, it can get a little boring, especially if you play the same way each time so it's nice to get some inspiration and stories from other people. I love it!
These are just a few of the Youtubers that I enjoy watching and without going into depth, here are a few more names that I enjoy: REACT, cutepolish, Shaytards and Grace Helbig.
Have you heard of any of these Youtubes? Do you enjoy them as well or dislike them? Let me know if you have found a new Youtuber to watch from this or if you want to share what Youtubers you like or the ones you think I should check out. Please do let me know!!

Goodbye May!

This is a little bit premature but I missed my Hello May blog (and lots of other blogs in between that) and I wanted to update everyone on what my month has been like...
♡ This month started off with such high hopes of an easy month with the bank holiday meaning that I avoided the dreaded Monday feeling for one of the weeks and I knew that there was only a little amount of time left until half term but it did become one of the most stressful months!
♡ I had the deadlines of reports throughout the whole month and although they aren't very long, managing to write 30 as well as doing my other duties at school, it can be quite a big thing! 

♡ I had my graduation, which was a lovely day! The other NQT in my school was graduating the same day and so we got to spend our graduation together, which was pretty special. I loved being able to share my success with her!

♡ During the middle of the month we got the dreaded call, the call that meant Ofsted was coming and my hair would prematurely turn grey with stress. Those 3 days of my life were horrible. I spent around 4 hours asleep and more than 30 hours at school in those 2 days. It was completely crazy to be in school til 10:30PM and in school at 6AM! It was fine but I am so glad that it is over!! I cried multiple times from exhaustion! 
♡ I started my driving lessons! That was very exciting because I've been meaning to start them for ages but because I've been so busy and it has got dark so quickly, it meant I didn't feel I could start. I took the plunge and I am loving it- I have another driving lesson tomorrow so I might let you know how it goes!

♡ One of the most surprising things about this month is that I've managed to have a little bit of a social life outside of school and work. I struggle a lot finding a work life balance, which means that I spend all my time working or recovering from working through sleeping. I've been making sure that I say yes to more things recently and actually doing things for myself, which is making me happier. It's the direction that I want my life to go in.

♡ This half term came at the right time because I really need time to be able to sleep- I was able to catch up with my old placement teacher for lunch today, which was really lovely She helped me so much  and it was nice to see her again. I also was able to see my nephews and spend some precious time with them, which I love!
Now, I'm looking forward to starting the last half term of this school year so that I can say I have officially finished my first year of teaching- I can not wait to be able to say that I am no longer an NQT! It will be scary to not have that as your back up but I am so ready to not have it lingering over my head anymore.
That's enough chitchat from me for now, I'm still trying to find a little challenge/tag that will bring me back to blogging so if you have any ideas or thoughts, please let me know!
I will see you soon. Cheerio!

Perfectionist!

I gave my blog a little bit of a much needed make over yesterday and I have to say that I spent ages on it- literally hours and I'm still not happy. I don't know how people who have great style do it but they manage to make something like a blog look so professional and beautiful and probably spend a quarter of the time I spent on it yesterday... Ridiculous- I am not a trend setter nor am I in any way stylish- you should see some of my outfit choices. OH dear!
The trouble is that I'm such a perfectionist that I will probably keep playing around with it for another week until I either give up and don't blog for a while or until I have made it into something I like. Let me know what you think of the new blog look or if you can give me any advice/themes I could try to make it look beautiful! Cheers love!
I gotta say that yesterday I did manage to get myself a fancy dancy signature instead of my usual cheerio, Nicole crap that I always put on the end of my blog and I really like it! It's so blog'ish that I almost feel like a professional blogger! Ooh la la!

So, it is half term and people assume that because it's half term, you get a complete week off of work without needing to think about it or do anything for it. I'll let you into a little teaching secret. That is complete lies- I spent the whole day today at school planning for next half term. The only positive was that I got to do it with my year group partner and because we worked so hard, we treated ourselves to an ice cream in the park, in the sunshine- oooh la di da!
I also have reports to write, pieces of work to mark and level as well as assessment grids to update with their new levels... Oh well! I'm so happy that my time as an NQT is almost over and at the end of these 7 weeks, I can say that I survived my first year with Ofsted. Isn't that an insane and rewarding thing to say?!
I sent this picture to my teacher best friend and she loved it but it completely sums up my life at the moment

Also, you can always tell when it is half term because Nicole starts blogging again. It makes me laugh. I'm looking for a new challenge that I can do that motivates me to blog again regularly. Let me know if you know of any challenges or tags that you would like to see :)

DIY Fairy Doors

Ever since I became a primary school teacher, I have been constantly looking at things on Pinterest trying to find some cute ideas for how I can create things that will excite my children. I love looking at all these ideas! This half term, my topic is called Enchanted Woodlands and we decided that instead of creating a topic solely around trees, we would add in a little bit of magic and fairies (because let's be honest, trees only excite children of 6 years old to an extent!) I saw online lots and lots of professionally made fairy doors that were beautiful! They were so gorgeous but I couldn't bring myself to buy them. So I took the ideas and thought I'd create my own.

I am so impressed with the outcome because I personally think they are beyond adorable and even better than anything I could have bought because I know I made them by myself! Now, I thought I would show you the process I took and the resources I used to create them!

First, I bought lots of different items from Hobby Craft. Now unlike other great bloggers, I forgot to take a fancy, artistic photo of the resources I used before I started making them- so I found them online and will link you what each of the things I got were!

1. Lolly pop sticks- you can literally get these from anywhere!

2. Any colour paint that you would like. I got this set: http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/ready-mix-paint-pastel-150ml/606451-1002

3. Varying sets of insect/butterfly/toadstool stickers: http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/hobbycraft-small-puffy-foam-stickers-butterfly-bugs/603199-1014

http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/hobbycraft-small-puffy-foam-stickers-bugs/603199-1005

4. Pearl like gems: http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/hobbycraft-adhesive-gem-stones-round-white-56-pieces/566610-1006

5. Any PVA glue

6. Some cute buttons that you have lying around- these buttons were ones that my Nan had collected over the years and they were all so beautiful so it took a while to pick the best ones!

So, you lay out your lolly pop sticks in any formation that you like- I decided to cut the tops to round the edge like a door and then glued some extra stickers across to keep the doors together. Then I painted them different colours. At first, I painted the runners of the door the same colour but thought they would look better white to make them stand out a little more. For the dark brown wood one, I got some wood stain from your local hardware store and painted it on in layers!

After I had painted the lots of layers of paint on the doors, I let it dry completely before decorating. I just went with what looked the best and chose different stickers from each pack. I also have plans to dangle a cute bell from the bottom of the door with string as a way of the fairies knocking on each other's doors. If I get round to doing them, I shall show you an updated picture.

These doors didn't really take long at all and I think they look beautiful. I can't wait to see my children's reactions at school and hope that it sparks a little bit of excitement and magic in their hearts!

Have a lovely rest of your bank holiday Monday. I love you all!

Cheerio,