Amy Laurens's Blog, page 71

Rewrite The Stars – The Greatest Showman

My sister dragged me out to see The Greatest Showman the other week, and I am SO glad she did; I unashamedly adore it, and we even went back to see it again together a week later (by which time I’d practically memorised the soundtrack, which I actually went home and bought after the first viewing; I haven’t bought music since, like, 2003).

It’s a fairly superficial take on the importance of diversity and equity, and although it’s not unproblematic (it is, quintessentially, yet another film ab...

Unreasonable Expectations :P

You know you might have a bit of an issue with unrealistic expectations when you’re mildly disappointed that you only got ~108 of the ~112 lessons for the next 7 weeks planned, resourced, and handouts printed out in the pre-school prep week.

Thankfully, the disappointment is only mild, and most of me is just stoked about how organised I’ve managed to be. Should make for a much less stressful term. Fingers crossed. :3

2017 Wrap-Up

I don’t think I did one of these in December/January? Sorry if I did.

Anyway, just a super quick wrap of last year, mostly to keep my own head straight here.

2017 was a huge learning curve for me. For about 3/4 of the year, I didn’t really do much writing at all: it was all about the editing, formatting, and publishing. Inkprint Press released our first major titles, and WOW did we learn a lot from the process. Super cool. Thank you SO much to everyone who supported us in any way at all – and...

Back In Action! 2018 *PLANS*

So I’ve pretty much decided that January and July and no-blogging months. It’s just too hard when my brain’s in full holiday mode, and I prefer to dedicate my time to writing as much as possible while I can.

That said, work is back this week, and so is blogging! Generic stuff this week, then hopefully I’ll FINALLY finish that series on party hosting, and then I want to dive deep into a topic that seems to intimidate a lot of people: THEME. Yup, you heard it: I’m going to be spending a few wee...

Made It Monday: Fairytale Baby Shower :3

Welcome to #MadeItMonday, where I post something I’ve made in the previous week, and where you can join in and post something you made too! The rules are easy: post a pic somewhere of something you’ve made in the last week (ish; let’s say in the last month as the hard-and-fast) and tag it. Sit back and enjoy scrolling through all the beautiful things we’ve collectively created, and celebrate the fact that humans can be awesome!

Princess For A Night

Found this on Pinterest the other day:

I actually got to do this, true story. My husband worked together with my Mum to pull some strings and get us the top-level suite in the top hotel in the city for the price of a regular room. We arrived at like 10 o’clock at night, and to get to the suite you have to walk down this long-ish corridor walled by windows on both sides, you know the ones that are broken into smaller rectangles by dark frames the whole way through?

So anyway, it’s past 10 o’c...

Made It Monday: Yup, It’s Cake.

Welcome to #MadeItMonday, where I post something I’ve made in the previous week, and where you can join in and post something you made too! The rules are easy: post a pic somewhere of something you’ve made in the last week (ish; let’s say in the last month as the hard-and-fast) and tag it. Sit back and enjoy scrolling through all the beautiful things we’ve collectively created, and celebrate the fact that humans can be awesome!

Breathe In, Breathe Out: Be Inspired

Some glorious inspiration to kick off our year: Solli Raphael, the winner of last year’s Australian Poetry Slam, and, at age 12, the youngest ever winner. Kid knows his stuff, y’all.

How To Host A Pinterest-Worthy Party WITHOUT Going Insane (Part 1)

It can feel like there’s a lot of pressure sometimes to host ‘perfect’ events, what with the advent of Pinterest and Instagram and the like. My family is Big on Events, and we can Pinterest party like it’s… uh, 2018. I’ve been involved in plenty of events-coordination epics that took months and even years of planning, and my sisters, mother and I have collaborative Pinterest boards spawning out our ears.

But let’s face it: My life is packed. I don’t have TIME to hold Pinterest events. And ho...

How To Throw A Pinterest Party Without Going Insane – Update

It’s party-planning time again! Which means I pulled out the series I did last year to review my own handy-dandy process, and I realised that I never finished that series :\ So expect to see the updated version of the series over the next week.

But as part of that, today I made up a lil worksheet to fill out so I could go through the process I’d created easily – because, yes, I’d forgotten my own process having not done this for nearly a year, and I was in real danger of turning the planning...