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 ;)