It may have come to your attention that all of a sudden I am becoming slightly more prolific with my posts than I have been previously. The reason for this is that I am suddenly at a loose end and need something to do to fill my spare time other than housework - when my children are at home I spend my time with them.

I finished my college course last week and it wasn't until the day after I handed my last couple of assignments in and got everything signed off that I realised just how intense it has been since September. In that time I have written 42 assignments which looking back I can't quite believe. And I've achieved the equivalent of As and Bs at A-level which isn't bad for a girl who left school 25 years ago with just one grade C at GCSE (maths in case you're wondering).

If you're reading this and are considering doing an Access course then I would say go for it. I've loved it, yes it's been hard at times, especially when I've ended up falling behind - I was really ill for a few weeks and couldn't do any work and then just as I caught up from that one of my friends was involved in a car accident and I was visiting her in hospital most days which meant I fell behind again but got myself caught up.

One of my tutors told us we would get bored very quickly once the course was over and I didn't believe her. I've got far too much to do to be getting bored....  Yep, she was right! I'm even going in next week to talk to the potential new students for this September which I'm quite looking forward to.

I'm quite sad to have left, I loved the history classes and the random discussions with the tutor (the one who said I'd get bored) about all sorts of strange things and we had a really good laugh as we both have the same sense of humour (which is a good job really as I finished one of my presentations off with a very bizarre and amazingly well photoshopped picture of a topless Hitler which she thought was hilarious).

I'm also going to miss the friends I've made as a lot of them are going off to various different universities around the country, but a few are going to Lincoln, albeit on different courses, so hopefully I will get to catch up with them occasionally.

My favourite little pens

The title is slightly misleading as I have a few favourite pens but at the moment I am seriously loving these Inkjoy mini pens from PaperMate. I love them so much I have bought several packs of them, partly because I don't want to run out of them and partly because my children have taken a shine to them too (and yes, I have bought some of them their very own too).

I bought my first pack of them because I thought they were cute but it wasn't until a study skills class at college that I really started using them. The class was on note-taking and one of the tips was to use different coloured pens. Now it sounds like a really obvious thing to do but I hadn't thought of it and once I tried it I haven't gone back to using a black pen. I find having my notes in different colours makes finding the info I'm looking for so much easier than trawling through pages of black writing.

Now, I know this sounds weird but although these pens also come in regular size I don't think they're the same and I will only buy the mini ones. They're really handy to have around and I love using them. They're smooth to write with which is yet another bonus. My only complaint is I used one of the black ones for an exam and after all that writing it went a bit 'blobby' and made a mess everywhere.

You can get them on Amazon cheaper than in the shops although they do tend to be an add-on item but that just gives you an excuse to order other stuff. My local WHSmiths had a load in their bargain bin the other week and the only reason I can see is because it was different packaging to the ones they had at full price in the pen section (yeah, I took advantage of the half price offer....)

Anyone who knows me knows that I have an immense love of stationery. Even as a child my favourite time of year was at the end of August when it was time to go and buy new pens, pencils and pencil cases in time for going back to school. Even now, many, many years later I love that time of year when all the shops have got their stationery ready for that first Tuesday in September.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology and the internet the options have widened beyond the limited range in WHSmiths or Woolworths and I am discovering that the world of stationery is huuuuuuuge!!! I recently discovered a website called Typo thanks to a blogger who is also crazy about stationery and I had to place an order.

First of all, who are they? They're an Australian gift, stationery and lifestyle brand that have become available over here in the UK. If you like quirky fun stuff then you'll love them (and if you don't, and you prefer boring stuff then you'll probably find them far too frivolous for your liking!!!)

Now, admittedly it wasn’t a big order that I placed, I still have several things saved on my wishlist, but I couldn’t afford to buy everything I wanted in one go. I also just wanted to test out the quality of their stuff first too (and having received it I am disappointed that I didn’t buy everything I wanted lol).

I wish I had taken a photo of the box the order arrived in, it was brilliant, and everything was well packaged inside.

I got the A2 mat for my ‘new’ desk (another post for another day), a lovely rose gold pen holder and a box of fab map pens (maps are another big love of mine, so maps and stationery in one are even more exciting than either on their own!!!)

So, would I recommend Typo? Hell yeah!! When you sign up for their newsletter you get a 20% discount code as well which is fab. I will definitely be back there for more goodies sometime in the future.