Merry Christmas, Season's Greetings, A Cool Yule...

Whatsoever takes your fancy!
Either way, just wishing you lovely readers the best of the season
And thanks for reading xx

Tell me what you want, what you really, really want...

What I really want for Christmas is this..... Sure Cuts A Lot. I have a Cricut (which I called my Cry Cut for soooo long), but the cartridges are so expensive and hold their value, so even on Ebay they're quite pricey. But, Sure Cuts A Lot (or SCAL to "those of us in the know") allows you to cut not any only any TrueType font or dingbat, but you can also do your own designs by using InkScape. I'm dying to have a go, it looks so cool, and would be like having 100s of cartridges for the price of one, but sadly the family budget will not stretch this month. Or next month if I'm being realistic.
But, counting my blessings, one of the nicest things that happened today is, the OH said (after tidying the bedroom!!), "I've given you another box for your stash under the bed." Not only that, but he'd put the stash in the box for me :) Well trained. Available for rent, £50 an hour :)
So what do you really really want this year? If the whole world was safe, well-fed and happy and you were allowed to be selfish, that is...

Surprise!

Well, the 500th new visitor has breezed past my blog, and as promised, I have drawn a winner from all my comments received so far... it's Debs14. I'll contact you through your blog/JYC and we'll sort out that certificate! If you're not up for digiscrap, we'll sort out something more appropriate :)

Deviation from the norm

Well, I'm all caught up with my JYC (though I haven't posted the last two pages here yet), so I thought I'd have a quick play with digi scrap. I've only really done one other layout all by myself as it were, the rest have been made with templates, so please forgive me if it's a little basic. As with all of my scrapping, I'm still playing :) This is a photo of my DD at her very first Christmas party. She stuffed this mince pie down her so fast, I barely had time to take the photo! She is looking a bit "pie-eyed" in it, if you know what I mean!

30 to go... blog candy time!

By some amazing fluke of cyberspace, I am nearing my 500th unique visitor. I seem to remember promising to have a giveaway in celebration of this number. Therefore, this weekend I will choose a winner from all my comments, and the winner will recieve a $10 gift certificate for the Shabby Shoppe, my FAVE digital scrapbooking site. I've gone for this prize because of Christmas deliveries, and also, I can't bear to go through my stash and decide what I don't need! So, take a look, leave a comment and cross your fingers :)
P.S. Shabby princess has loads of freebie digi kits here so if you fancy trying it out, it's a good place to start.

Gratitude and jam

I could get all preachy and say that there are many things we should be thankful for in this country in this day and age, but I won't. Oops. Seems I just have. However, I just wanted to make a nod to the things that I especially feel grateful for, in no particular order. For me, the words were more important than pretty paper (that's often the case), so no pretties here.
Sarah - the chipboard lettering on all my layouts is American Crafts Jewellery Box Thickers, I have a severe addiction to them. They're wonderful! All who have commented on my lovely papers - they are part of Shabby Princess's Christmas papers in their two FREE digital kits - here and here. I print them out as needed on presentation quality paper. I LOVE this site, the freebies are fab, and are pretty much all I use for my digital scrapping (I make calendars and albums for rellies...).
The LO for day 17 journals my love of handmade gifts. Yes I'm a cheapskate, but in actuality, most things I make aren't much cheaper than buying, though they're greatly appreciated. When I had the time, I used to make chutneys, jams, lemon curd, mince pies, all sorts (not licorice - I'm not that good, though I make excellent cinder toffee), and pile them in a hamper-type affair. I fully intend to start this up again in 2010... I'll have finished my degree by then and I'll have the time to spend!

"By the light of the silvery moon...

... I sit and croon"... well, journal, cut, stick and photograph anyway ;)

Days 14 and 15, great fun! I spent most of last night cutting and wrapping teeny tiny parcels to go under my tree. Then realised that the card that I'd inked for the tree trunk wasn't particularly amenable to having a rub-on rubbed on. There's a misnomer...

Still, I persevered and I quite like the effect.

Day 15 was fairly straightforward by comparison, and I'm beginning to realise that I actually quite like not having pictures on each page. I wasn't sure how I'd cope with the whole concept of journaling when I started this class, but that's sort of why I did it - to get used to putting my thoughts down on paper! So it's doing the trick then, which is a relief.

Ooh my first "award"

What a lovely way to start the day... Colleen has (virtually) handed me an award for my blog (I promise I didn't bribe her...). I'm very flattered to recieve it, and would like to thank a number of people who made this possible :) hehe.

This means that I get to pick my fave 7 blogs and pass it on to them. So here goes (in alphabetical order):


Alison, Anso, Casii, Natty, Smarty, Tinkersdamn, Trees,

I thank you :)

Falalalala la la la laaaaaaa

Well, I'm definitely feeling more Christmassy, I've done pretty much all the food shopping apart from the perishables, my turkey is reserved and veg boxes due on the Sunday before. All bar one present bought and I'm up to date with my prompts! Woohoo!

(I don't mean to sound smug, so apologies if you've still got stacks to do... )

The LO on the left has a photo to go with it, but it's a really bad one of me at age 11, and is definitely not for public perusal (it's AWFUL), it'll be tucked behind the journaling on the red paper. The journaling is about that particular Christmas, the whole family stayed in a hotel in Torquay that was owned by JRR Tolkien's niece. Father Christmas visited (assisted by my uncle) and managed to climb up to the balcony!

The LO on the right details just how much I LOVE Christmas music. Carols, cheese, general good quality tunes, the lost. And my favourite? Take a look at the title, it might give you a little clue...

Trees and gifts galore

Well I have a couple of pages to share - again fairly simplistic, but I like them for that. The first is about my tree last year. It's an artificial one, for eco/financial/practical reasons. I've had it for 7 years and it's still looking good! I take my time each year teasing out the "needles" to ensure it looks as real as possible, and then throw a mountain of tinsel, lights, bells, snowflakes and whatever else looks pretty at it. I would of course prefer a real one, but it's just not feasible.The second layout is about presents. Now, I LOVE giving presents. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't like getting them, but that's not the best thing about Christmas. I really enjoy choosing presents for people, and the best bit is watching their faces when they open them (I've never had a bad idea yet, so maybe that's why!). I'm especially looking forward to seeing my daughter's face this year - the first year she's been aware of what's going on! Now obviously, the wrapping paper that's on the mini-present isn't what I'm using, but I'm not good at using clashing paper in my layouts, so I've had to compromise and wrap it in some of the patterned paper I've been using in my journal. I've flipped the tag up so that you can see the journaling, but this is not a gift tag either. Hey, it's my journal and I'll cry if I want to ;)

Finally I'm up to date!

It's been a tricky few days, I've had too much Uni stuff to be getting along with and I haven't had much time to myself. I've been keeping up with the journaling (more or less)and was determined to get some pages made. So I made one page last night, and three tonight! Got to be a personal record... though they are very simplistic out of necessity. I shall embellish further when I have more time!

Tatting, gingerbread and JYC

Today was a lovely day, visiting a local museum for their Victorian Christmas fair. I saw some extremely talented ladies making lace (another future hobby I reckon), and managed to get a tatting demo from a lovely lady who has been tatting for 30 years. This in itself was a good reason to have gone. I also managed to pick up a rather lovely salt dough gingerbread man decoration for the tree, which I think I'll replicate next year (again, when I've got more time!).

All of this loveliness put me in the mood for reminiscing about previous Christmases. I thought of last year, the first year of Christmas with my new family. My daughter was only 4 months old, and still at that stage where she slept for an hour, was up for a couple, slept for a couple.... Al and I each had our own traditions from our respective families, but also wanted to make this OUR Christmas. We managed very well - I asked him what Christmas means to him (food, drink, music, films etc) and combined it with my expectations. We ended up having three types of stuffing (my mum's, his dad's and good old sage-and-onion), four side dishes, and a massive turkey crown, but we ate like royalty for a week on the leftovers! It helped that I love cooking, and that we have two freezers, but I shall be doing the same again this year (though without the sage-and-onion).

What I won't be doing this year is eating a cold Christmas dinner - in 2007, Iz woke up just as we were tucking in, and so I had to feed and amuse her whilst Al got to have tasty hot grub. This year, she will be tucking in at the same time as us!

The mojo is back!

Two pages today! I sorted myself out and managed to produce a satisfactory page for the card debacle. And also managed to journal today for the perfect Christmas. I started thinking about all the things that make the perfect Christmas for me: the tree, carols, nice food, roaring fire, glass of baileys/red wine (separate, not together!), good food, my Mum's stuffing and giblet gravy... Pause for breath and further thought... Then I realised that once you take all the trappings and fripperies away, what is left is family, and that is what is essential for my Christmas to be perfect.

The photo is of my new family, obviously there is a whole lot more of my family, but I can only fit so much on a 6 x 12 page! DD was only 4 months old last year, and this year we are looking forward to seeing her enjoying all the celebrations.

I look forward to seeing everyone else's perfect Christmases...

Third-day slump

Today I realised how much I really don't like the christmas cards that I made this year. I made them way back in September, as I knew I wasn't going to have much time these last few weeks. No pics, suffice to say they're dull. And in no way up to my usual standard.

But I don't have time to make a whole new set - and this realisation actually made me feel quite down. Which is ridiculous, I know, there's far worse things going on in the world and in normal, everyday lives but perhaps it's the lack of daylight, or too much college work, or not enough sleep or something.

So I have thought long and hard about this, and I have come to a compromise. I will make (re-make) no more than 5, and send these to my favourite people (my mum, my partner, my daughter, my M- and F-IL and my best buddy). The rest are good-enough. I just have to keep telling myself that. Just because they aren't what I thought, doesn't mean they're not ok. Just.

Ok, so to cheer myself up, I'm going to post a pic of my darling daughter at her first christmas party today. She was a little confused as to whether to sing "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" or "Y.M.C.A"...

She also met Father Christmas for the first time: and yes, she did cry!

It's beginning to look a lot like winter!

Today it snowed! And then snowed some more. It all melted away by this afternoon though. Luckily I managed to get some photos taken, and one went on my JYC day 2.
Journaling says: Winter for me will always bring to mind snow, ice, clear blue skies and crisp mornings. Your breath fogging fingers freezing, toes numb, but then... Then you get inside and warm up, and that feeling of bliss is wonderful. Couple it with a log fire and a glass of Bailey's and I'm in absolute heaven!

And so it begins...

It's a short post today, I'm a wee bit poorly and have expended all my energy doing the very first page for my Christmas Journal.

And here is my first JYC page - my dedication as it were. It's a small promise to myself that I will take 15 minutes MINIMUM per day to Journal my Christmas.

My manifesto reads - "I promise: every day from the first of December to the 6th of January, I will take 15 minutes to reflect and document my thoughts for the day. This Christmas, I will make something true to my heart, with my hands, my mind, my memories, my scissors, some pretty paper and lots of glue!"

We have a winner!

Well, it's the first of December, it's fricken freezing, and we have a blog candy winner. She's been with me from the start, she was one of my first few visitors.... it's Trees! She's a very funny, talented lady, and I look forward to seeing what she does with her prize!

Want to bring back the Christmas you used to know?

Remember that feeling of excitement that you used to get in the build-up to Christmas, when you were a kid? Well, this is what I'm doing for the whole of next month - bringing back that feeling. Journalling My Christmas. It's a scrapbook/art journal class over at Shimelle.com (my fave site), and I'm so excited. Come join me and people from all over the world, and start to enjoy Christmas again :) The bonus is, once you're signed up, you get to participate every year if you like, for no extra cost. What's not to like?

Start December with some free stash!

It's been great fun the last week watching the number of visitors from around the world who have peeked at my little blog, I suspect mostly via Shimelle's JYC forum.

In honour of the fact that the 100th visitor will soon be landing, I've decided to go for it and send some blog candy to someone. So I'll draw a name randomly over the weekend from all you lovely commenteers.

Ok so here’s the low-down on the freebie stash... (comment anywhere on my blog to be in with a chance – all countries welcome, though if you’re outside the UK, then postal costs will mean that I’ll leave out the 12 x 12 cardstock/patterned papers – I’ll throw in some eyelets and brads instead)

2 sheets Bazzil basic forest green card, daisyd’s “Garden Green Gingham”, Sassafras Lass double sided “My dearest”, Scenic Route double sided “Grafton Laxton Ave”, Sassafras Lass 64 pc “my dearest” cardstock alphabet (‘c’ already used), Scenic Route Grafton Boy Cardstock stickers (1 used), 2 sheets S.E.I. Simply Savoury alphabets (some smaller font letters used, still plenty left!), Some October afternoon Rub-ons, 2 acrylic stamps from Papermania Secret Garden collection, 12” Queen & Co Felt Fusion green vine (self-adhesive), 6” Queen & Co Felt Fusion Pumpkins (self-adhesive), A chipboard swirl, frame and flower from American Crafts Thickers Accents, and last but not least, 12” rust ricrac.

Phew. Now go leave a comment!

Experimentally speaking...

I quite like my latest layout. Simple. Like me :)

Seriously though, this is only my 15th layout, so I'm still trying to get a grip on what makes a good page. No journaling on this one as yet. Haven't decided how to fit it in.

I have just made one change though - I swapped the tiny owl sitting on the 's' with the dot of the 'i'. Cute :)

I did make another layout the other day that I like more, but it's for a page for Scrapbook Inspirations as part of my BoBS 2008 prize, so can't publish it here yet. Boo.

Deprived of stash.

Well, Shimelle's kits for her Journal Your Christmas class have gone live, and they're GORGEOUS! I really fancied this one, but unfortunately my dishwasher has gone kaput. Will not fix with percussive maintenance, and my SO will be taking off the front panel within the hour, so we'll definitely need another one. Gutted.

The "love elsie" stuff in the kit is lovely. And I could always use it next year.

Oh, I could just put it on my CC. Shhh don't tell anyone :)

Sucker. I know I'm not the only one who gets sucked into these things.

Anyone want to buy a brand new Canon Selphy ES20 Photo Printer? Seriously.
Unused, still boxed, with 1 pack of 50 colour photo paper/ink thingies. RRP £150. £100 including postage, UK only :)

Roll on 1st December

Now I've finally worked out how to add photos to my blog posts, I thought I'd add a few of my preparations for the Journal Your Christmas class that I'm taking (http://www.shimelle.com/).

Here's the cover - it's a 6 x 12 American Crafts album, and I love it!

Here is my numbering system - I've been doing about ten each night, as they're quite labour-intensive, but I am definitely happier with these than the others I tried! I can't wait for the class to get started and to see what others are doing.

I chose 6x12 as a happy compromise between size (and therefore amount of space to fill) and the amount of time I'm likely to have. What's your favourite scrapping size? Anyone tried 8.5 x 11? This seems to be fairly popular in the States...

Finally I can blow my own trumpet!

For those of you who get Scrapbook Inspirations, have a look on page 21... I'm so proud :)

And the centrepiece is my favourite layout - the black and white layout called daisydaisy.

Free Christmas workshops at Badgirls

Bad Girls are hosting 22 FREE classes from the 14th November right through to the 23rd November. Get yourself over there for some serious pre-yule scrapping :)

And so it goes...

November already, and it's been almost a month since my last post. It's been pretty hectic the last few weeks - I'm in my last year of a degree, and with a 15-month-old daughter, it's been an interesting month. Juggling is not my best skill, but I think I'm going to have to get good at it quickly!

I've been cruising a few people's blogs, and loving what I've seen. The last week has also been my first week for visitors! Ones who have left their mark anyway :) It's nice to know that people have stopped by.

My all-consuming project at the moment is planning for the Journal Your Christmas class at my old fave Shimelle's site. It's been nice to plan it all - I have my bits and bobs in a basket, just waiting for the prompts to begin. I've never been one for journals, but Christmas journaling isn't going to be difficult, it being my favourite time of the year and all that!

Anyone else got scrapbook plans for Christmas?

Completing stuff is goood!

Last night I finally finished the book for my online class "you think you know me". It's taken me so long to accept that the photo's that I have are good enough! I've posted the pics on Flickr and I'm trying to post them here with very little success but I thoroughly enjoyed it :)

I have about 5 other classes just sitting on my computer, but I can guarantee it'll be a long while before they get done. I also just signed up for a "Journal your Christmas" class over at Shimelle.com (can you guess I'm a Shimelle groupie?) and I'm really looking forward to this. I know it's only October, but I think I'm allowed to be excited about my first proper family Christmas with my little girl.

I'm off to do a bit of present planning :)

Temptation

It is so hard to resist the crafting urge. I see all my lovely supplies and know I've got a couple of archived classes on my computer that I'm dying to get cracking on. Instead I have to make do with planning it all in my head when I get free moments.

I see pictures of people's craft rooms/spaces and really wish we lived in a bigger house. Our spare room is now my little daughter's bedroom (and I wouldn't change it for the world). All my stash is separated into boxes. One for paper, one for embellishments, one for tools, etc... I would love to have a dedicated workspace - I could get my sewing machine out and try the stitching that I keep seeing everywhere.

How do you cope with your lack of space? Hints and tips please :)

Success!

I finally managed to put a couple of blinkies on my blog! They're online classes that I have recently taken with Shimelle Laine, though "You think you know me" was an archived class.

The "Learn something new every day" class was my first ever scrapbook class, and took the whole of the month of September. It was really addictive, waiting for each day's prompt and sketch to pop into my inbox! Due to uni starting, I only managed to get to 14th September, but as the class is open to previous participants each year, I fully intend to try next year.

If you have a few spare mins, pop over to http://www.shimelle.com/, there's some lovely photos and she also has a small shop for stash. Gorgeous :)

Time flies

...when you're not having fun!

I keep meaning to post here each night, and put some more photos up, but with one thing or another I just haven't had the opportunity. I wouldn't mind if they were fun, enjoyable "things" like scrapbooking or knitting, but it's the minutae of everyday life that keep getting in the way.

Still waiting for that cloning advice :)

It's amazing...

...the scrapbooking talent that is out there. I have been cruising others' blogs, and thoroughly enjoying it. It is also quite frustrating.

Because I now have all these ideas running round in my head, and bags of stash that I should use soon before I feel guilty for buying it. However. I am also on my final year of my degree, with stacks of work, and I know that scrapping or crafting of any sort ought to take a back seat for the moment.

What is a girl to do? Any cloning advice? :)

New horizons

I never had a diary as a girl, and I'm a fairly private person. So what on earth possessed me to decide to create a web-log?

In a word, scrapbooking. In several words, http://www.shimelle.com/. One of Shimelle Laine's online classes encourages blogging, so I thought I'd give it a go.

There is also one major incentive, which I shall not reveal for the moment. But it's probably the same as most bloggers' reasons for doing it.

Suffice to say, it'll take me a while to get the hang of it, but I'm hoping I may learn a few things along the way, either about myself or my computer!