Forget Journal Your Christmas - Scrap your Day instead!

Well, seeing as Christmas is well and truly over, I'm trying to stick to my resolution of crafting more regularly. I've had a lovely day making an album for Shimelle's free class "Scrap your day". I'm documenting the 25th of each month in photos and journaling. Her class actually started early last year, but I'm starting from the beginning. The compulsive in me won't let me start a 12-month project half-way through a year!
So here's the album I made last night (I'm definitely making use of my Bind-it-all).


The first day of the project was Sunday, and the pictures mostly show the disaster that was our kitchen. Apparently, a radiator had been leaking and soaked a wall in our kitchen. We discovered this happy event at 0:31, when the kitchen cupboards fell off the said wall, completely emptying their contents all over the kitchen!

The homesweethome title is said with tongue in cheek. The house we live in at the moment has provided us with many many horrors, due to the previous owner's pathetic attempts at home maintenance.

A happy time was had all that morning and afternoon, spent cleaning up the mess, and thanking our lucky stars that nobody had been in the kitchen at the time, and that the cat had managed to get out of the catflap in time.

I'm still doing my 52Q (years 2009 and 2007), but that's tonight's project!

3Q of 52Q

New week, new question - Do you believe in fairies?

I always used to write a letter to the tooth fairy, and to Father Christmas (I was a very polite child :) ). And the tooth fairy ALWAYS used to write back! Father Christmas did on occasion, and bizarrely they both had the same handwriting. Must have gone to the same school :) Anyhow, I am trying to use different techniques on at least every other card: first two weeks were mostly stamping, this week I used a rub-on and some rather funky felt ribbon from Queen & Co. I am really enjoying this challenge, and have had to start ones from 2007 just to stop me from blog-stalking each Sunday!

Have you got any challenges you're enjoying this year? Or, do you believe in Fairies?

Shimelle is the bee's knees!

Now anyone who reads this blog knows how many times I've sung Shimelle's praises in the past, but know I'm giving you a head's up for a free online class she's running that starts RIGHT NOW! You can take it at your own pace, the downloads come in bits and bobs for the next week-and-a-bit, but the best thing is that she's also giving away actual physical stash :) Go check it out - you won't be sorry!

52Q - Q1 and Q2 - Who knew?

Well, the new year brings in new projects, and this one has tickled my fancy. 52Q. A year-long art journal challenge, but just one entry per week. I like the look of a weekly craft challenge, and I'm keeping this one small but sweet. ATCs.

I like these since they're dinky, can easily be completed in an hour or so, and allows me to try out new techniques/ideas without using masses of stash. Not like I haven't got masses of stash to spare, but still. I also decided that ATCs would mean I could use up some of that stash that I've been hoarding for some unknown reason. I mean, we all do it (mostly), but why? Wouldn't it look better on a page or a bit of altered art?
I also like the fact that it's focused on me. My scrapbooking tends to be about everyone else so far, so this is for me.

So here goes.

Q1 - What do I wish for this year? Q2 - Am I scared of change?

The joy of Thickers

Oh me oh my. They are delightful. And I've just spent a happy half hour browsing and purchasing at Make The Moment Last, which has a New Year Sale on at the mo. I've bought a few different sorts, some colours that I don't usually go for, just because they're cheaper than usual.
And I stuck to my resolution of "no patterned paper". Hoorah!

But now, I really want a Cuttlebug and some Nestabilities. Oh, and a desk to scrap at, and someone else to write my assignment so that I can start some of the projects that are circling my brain at the moment (I've just read the latest Scrapbook Inspirations, and have loads of ideas, but no time!).

I just keep telling myself that this time next year, I'll have lots of time to craft. How do you make time to craft? And where do you craft? Do tell!

I've got a memory like a string vest

No, not dirty and full of Rab C. Nesbitt. Just a bit patchy.


I was kindly presented with this lovely Christmas Spirit award last year (ooh, that'll be all of two weeks ago then) by Trees. The idea was (oops sorry Trees) that you must be a true Christmas lover to receive this award. The person to whom you give the award must also be in love with Christmas. You must link back to the person who gave you the award. You must list 5 things that you love about Christmas. If you can't limit it to 5 things, then keep going till you run out of space! Pass the award along to as many people as you like.That can be 1 or 45; it's up to you. But, you must pass it on to at least one person in order to keep the Christmas cheer going! Let your recipients know that you have tagged them by leaving them a comment.

So my 5 things:

1 The feeling of general goodwill that I get throughout the whole of December.
2 That I get to SPEND MONEY on nice things for other people without getting told off.
3 I can sing carols as I walk round the supermarket and not be thought too strange, though this only applies if it's not too loudly, and only if carol music is playing at the same time.
4 The food. I need say nothing else.
5 The prettiness that is a well-decorated tree.

And I nominate Shimelle as a person who is filled to the brim with Christmas Spirit. She's made my Christmas more fun (which I didn't think was possible) by running her Journal your Christmas scrapbook class. And the extra special bit is I get to do it again next year for free! And the year after... ad infinitum.

So, thanks to Trees, thanks to Shimelle, and I'm now off to display my virtual award in my virtual display cabinet :)

2009 already?

Blimey. We got back from Wales and relative-visiting yesterday to find little piles of cat-vomit (fur-balls), and a large pile of cat on our bed. In our haste to leave, we (I) had left the stair gate unlocked, and the kitchen door open, and the cat had made full use of the facilities. I am guessing that all the furballs are his, and that he has not had a party and invited his mates round for a booze-up. But then who really knows what they get up to whilst our backs are turned...

And then apparently it was New Years Eve last night! I was asleep on the sofa at eleven, from sheer exhaustion of packing, unpacking, setting up the travel cot, being sociable and smiley, packing, driving, unpacking, setting up the... etc etc. Not that we were planning to do much, what with a small child upstairs asleep, but more than a glass of wine would have been good!

So... Happy New Year! I wish you all the best for 2009, and I hope it is a happy, healthy and fun one for all of us :)