JYC 2009: 11th December

11th December, in my book, is far too early for putting up Christmas Tree's and decorations, so that's exactly what I've made my page about.

JYC 2009: 10th December

Oh how I love to gift wrap! I find present buying painful at times, but get over that pain when I start buying the gift wrap and ribbons.

More hours please...

I really could do with more hours in the day at the moment. Not because I have lots to do but because I'm putting off doing it ("it" mainly being the housework). You know it's bad when you pop to get a pair of scissors from your desk and end up spending half an hour finishing off a LO. I'm just far too easily distracted at the moment, but that will change tomorrow as I've got a list of things to get done by the end of the day and I don't intend to spend the rest of the week running round like something headless.

Anyway - after that ramble - the LO I allowed myself to get distracted by. It's from Shimelle's class at the October GoGoGetaway. Now that feels like a very long time ago now.

A little treat...

I had the urge earlier to make some earrings, so I did. Well, sometimes you just have satisfy your urges don't you. I've made a few different pairs, but as it's dark outside most of them haven't taken to being photographed under artificial light - even a daylight lamp. This photograph is passable though I suppose. Let me know what you think of them!

Snow!!!!

Ahh, not what you were expecting hey! We have snow, real snow, outside, but I thought I'd share these with you. My altered Maya Road mini chipboard snowflakes. I've used some as embellishments on my JYC pages (or one page so far anyway).

I've painted them with either white or cranberry acrylic paint. Once that's dried I have stippled on some stickles, allowed to dry and then applied a good layer of glossy accents. I'm finding them too nice to use now. LOL Not the idea really is it.

What a day....

...and it's only just begun.

I'm behind on my JYC pages, but last night I managed to get a couple more done so I am now up to prompt 13. Now all I need is some decent light to be able to take photo's of them so I can share them with you.

Yesterday I went into York to pick up some Christmas presents. It was surprisingly quiet, but as I had to rush back as we have two, yes two editions, of the school play to attend and ferry back and forth to.

Whilst in town I did manage a quick pop into Paperchase. Yay!!! York has a Paperchase store now. If you ask me it's just another in the long list of reasons to visit it. So, here I share with you a couple of cards I picked up while there. They seem to sum up my week so far perfectly!

First up Banksy. Oh how I love this guys work.

A perfect fit to my morning!

Here's hoping the day improves. I'm off out Christmas shopping again now! I must be mad....

JYC 2009: 9th December

Yep, I've skipped the 8th. The page is ready for photo's, I just have to select some and print them off. It's on the list to do and once done I will post the finished page.

So, on to the 9th. If we ever have traditions, we have them at Christmas, this years journal for this page looks at how we break up our presents for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Sorry the picture isn't the best. I'm experimenting with scanning them. So far I'm not convinced.

How cute is this....

A very quick post from me, but have you seen these over on Martha Stewart? Made from the very versatile loo roll! Yep, a loo roll. Oh how we can transform such humble items.

JYC 2009: 7th December

Day 7 - Lists. Who doesn't turn into a listaholic this time of year? I'm a self confessed listaholic anyway, but at Christmas it seems to take over! Happily though when I sat down to do the journalling on this one I realised that I haven't got much to do at all. I think that along with my journal I'm keeping it simple - or maybe, just maybe, I'm getting the hang of it and not letting it get to me.

JYC 2009: 6th December

I've strayed away slightly from the prompt for today's page. The prompt was to look at two different Christmas's, but I decided that I'd look forward to new memories and the excitement of that thought.

JYC 2009: 4th & 5th

I'm fairly up to date with completing my pages this year. Getting photo's of them and uploading them however - not so up to date.

4th December: Perfection.

This year, in line with my simple is best approach, I decided to list the things that make Christmas Day perfect for me.

5th December: Countdown

As last year was the first time I had ever done an advent anything I've used this years page to mark the children having playmobil advent calendars. Oh how they love them! Oh how I love them - advent without the sugar rush. I feel this could become a new tradition, especially if they get a say in it.

JYC 2009 : 1st - 3rd December

Last year was my first JYC and I loved it. I've never been a very festive person but doing the journal helped to change that by making me think more about and become more involved. As a result I have joined in again this year, and as you know my supplies have been ready in a box for a couple of weeks now.

I decided to keep it bright and simple this year, using white cardstock as the base for my pages. I'm finding it hard not to stitch, stamp and distress the pages, but I am loving the simplicity. It's given my journal a completely different feel from last year which is what I wanted to achieve. I've also kept up for the first three days....

Here they are then, my first three pages.

1st December: Manifesto

2nd December: Weather

3rd December: Cards

At first I was going to buy my cards this year, then make them, but when this prompt came out it made me realise it wasn't worth the stress of trying to find the time to make cards this year, so off Rosie and I went yesterday to the local Oxfam and got all my cards. They are now written and waiting to be posted, with the exception of one of the cards which I have used on the page.

Thanks for stopping by to look at my pages. I'm off for a think about today's prompt now.

Santa's little helper and some prep

Ah, the school Christmas Fayre. This week the school is having a "Santa's Little Helper" Day where the children can go into school in their own clothes in exchange for a little something for the Christmas Fayre. Now what sort of a Mother would I be if I let my kid potentially be the only one in uniform all for the sake of a tombola prize? Is this the ultimate guilt trip? Cunning, very cunning. I've given in and made these earrings rather than see my little lad walk dejectedly through the school gates because his Mum was mean. I hope whoever wins them likes them. Maybe I should go and get myself a ticket and see if I can win them back. Then again, I may just make up a second pair for myself as I rather like them.

This is the other crafty thing I have done today. Lovingly and patiently, whilst Rosie was making me "cups of tea" I sat and cut up a sheet of American Crafts paper to make some embellishments for my JYC album. I can't wait to get started this year, less than 24 hours to go!

Lists....

Oh heck, where did the time go!

I have been striving to be more organised, but the last few weeks it all feels as though it's gone very pear shaped on that front. December is about to kick in and I really need to pull my Christmas socks up (I don't have any actual Christmas socks though should you be wondering)

Right, first up I've just submitted my first set of DT work to Steph over at Indigo Mill. I was lucky enough to have the Snowy White Snow kit to work with. Here's a little sneak peek where I have also used some Prima Sultan centres. You'll find another one over on the Mill Pond and more will come over the next few weeks.

Next up - JYC 2009!!! Are you ready? We start tomorrow. I have a box ready to go, my extra page protectors have arrived so I just need to slice up that cardstock. I can't pre-plan much more than that as I discovered last year.

What else - oh yes, my crafty Advent box. A group of us on UKS are doing a swap this year, and I think just about everyone has their box of goodies ready to start opening. I found myself settling into a little routine last year around this. This years will go something like this....school run finished, print off the JYC prompt, make a coffee, open my present for the day and read the prompt. How does that sound for a nice start to the day?

I'm off into York tomorrow - assuming the weather is kind to us, to get some more Christmas shopping done and spend the evening wrapping the kids presents. I think I'm going to need more Christmas wrap though!

Phwoar.......

I know my 365 has gone somewhat pear shaped recently - but look what I got for my birthday from Chris! A Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM. I nearly fell off the bed whilst being a little tearful. I was so shocked. I have admired this lens since buying my 450D, and didn't think I'd get one for quite a while yet. How lucky do I feel? Extraordinarily lucky!! Just need time and daylight to have a proper play. Maybe December could be a 365 macro month!

What's your favourite gadget?

I'm having a tidy up in my craft room today, well, I call it my craft room, it's our spare bedroom and I am spreading around it - hence the tidy up, and I started thinking about some favourite things, one being gadget.

As crafters we have hundreds of gadgets available to us, most of which we buy, use twice and stick in a cupboard. But it came to me that my favourite gadget isn't a crafty tool, but my pasta maker.

This little baby is the one thing I love to use. Jamie more often than not like to help cut the pasta once it's all rolled out. It also means a scrummy meal is on it's way, usually with a rich homemade tomato sauce. It's serious comfort food and we rarely eat dried pasta now.

So, come on, share, what's your favourite gadget?

Thankful for....

Look what I just came across.... These little journaling cards are from Elle's Studio and they are FREE! Pop across to the blog and you can download the pdf for yourself!

Never let it be said I don't share! (That's just chocolate...)

A little treat....

Just thought I'd quickly share this little beaut with you. It's my birthday next week and I always like to buy myself a little something. This year it's a dolly bead from A String of Beads. It came on Saturday and I have snaffled the photo from the website to show you. It is just stunning in real life.

A new circle....

Where does the time go? Firstly I can't believe I last posted 12 days ago, and secondly - last minute Annie here (no offence to those Annie's amongst you) has just finished putting together the pages of her new circle journal. Phew...it's due to be posted today.

My journal this time is titled " A Day In The life". I love the idea of Ali Edwards 'Week in the Life' project (one I intend to do around February time - I'm assuming I'll have chance by then although I'm really not sure what will have changed between now and then), so given my desire to do that project thought it would be fun to do a day in the life.

I think we all assume our lives are, in the main, mundane and routine. My day is generally get up, battle with the kids, get ready, battle with the kids, get the kids ready, school run battle, coffee, housework*, lunch, guilt chores**, school run, main battle with the kids....and so on. I think you get the drift.

The day I chose to do my page turned out a little differently, became a reflective day where I mostly sat, drank coffee and thought about things. After that I decided that I would stick to that day to journal and ended up creating a page without considering the journaling which is now tucked away as a little book in the envelope.

You may notice I have gone the collage route again. I loved the last one I did so much I wanted to do something similar in my own so I have one to keep.

I'm really looking forward to reading about everyone's day when it comes home again, although that's a long way away yet.

by way of explanation

* reading blogs, blogging, facebook games and paper stroking

** actual cleaning of the home

Funny face day

Rosie has a thing about pulling funny faces, except it's not really faces but face. She shouts "funny face" and promptly pulls her mouth wide with her fingers. This she finds wildly amusing, and so do I and anyone else around at the time. Today she asked me to take pictures of her doing a funny face, who am I to say no.

I know it's not the sharpest shot in the world, but I think that that is partly down to me laughing at her and to her inability to keep still as she was trying to pull the widest mouth she could manage. When she's old enough to understand I will be telling her the wind will change and she'll stick like that! LOL.

All good things....

....must come to an end. Today I share with you a sneak peek of the final journal that I am taking part in on UKS. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by for this. Sadly mine is amongst a couple of journals taking there time to come home again. It's not been the smoothest of CJ's but I have enjoyed working on all the journals and seeing how everyone has interpreted the themes.

The theme for Tracy's journal is "Quotes" and I have chosen two to share with her and I hope she is happy with them. I'd better go and wrap it up ready for posting.

Thanks for looking!

The Twilight Zone

If I had to say which was my favourite class from GoGoGetaway, I would probably say this one - The Twilight Zone with Nicola Kerridge. I had such a sweet photo of Jamie to use on this and wasn't sure how he's take to me making him into a full blown Monster, so a subtle Devil seemed in order. I loved this technique and could run and run with it. It's in need of a little more paint but I really wanted to share it with you.

Wow, what a weekend!

What a fabulous weekend with so many amazing classes. It was really hard to chose which one's to do, but I made the right decision as I loved them. Just wished I could have taken some of the others as well. Perhaps I need one of this time thingies from Harry Potter. Note the technical term there - thingies. Oh yeah, I know what I'm on about.

I'll do a few posts to cover off each of the LO's I did in the classes, but first up - stash shopping! I was extremely good when you consider how many gorgeous goodies there were in the shop. An extra treat as I only ever shop online.

Some beautiful glazed cardstock.

Ooh, I just loved this one from Prima!

Some KI Memories embellishments. yep, one is missing and has found it's was onto the LO from Shimelle's class.

These Maya Road stamps were just too cute to leave behind.

More of those Melissa Frances frames...

Some amazing lace

(remember that blog candy I'm planning - some of this may find it's way in to it)

One of the challenges from the weekend (of which I only managed two) was to travel light, so all I took with me was my tool kit in a table top tote, and an empty box to bring everything home again in. As you can see...the box was a little..full shall we say.

That's it for now. I will return shortly with more gogogetaway goodness.

GoGo Getting away....

Preparations are now underway, starting with me being up at seven this morning to raid the kids "make it" cupboard for some yellow paint. By half past eight I had the beginnings of my name badge for GoGoGetaway which starts tomorrow evening. I may add a couple of bits to it yet though.

In the meantime my desk tote is almost packed. Oh boy there was a lot of stuff in it (now all over Chris' desk - soz love!) but I am making us a special dinner to make up for being away.

I'm travelling light and not taking any page kits with me. I'm just going to relax and finish what I start in the classes. My goLITE is charging up and the camera is charged. So, the next thing to do is sort my overnight bag out and decide what I'm going to wear for my photo shoot with CJ!

Hope you all have a fab weekend and I'll share what I've done when I get back!

I'm soooo excited!

365 #300

At last, a 365 photo! Beads again though - sorry. I'm a tad obsessed with them at the moment. Some of this little lot are destined to be turned into a bracelet. I'm itching to get on with it, but all the household duties and a retreat this weekend come first. Or do they...?

For a sense of scale, each of these teardrop shaped beads are about the size as the tip of your little finger.

An old flame...

At last, the lurgy is finally feeling like my body is kicking it in to touch! Hurrah! These last few weeks have been a nightmare, just hoping half term is kind to me.

As a result I treated myself to a trip to the Bead Fair this weekend in Harrogate. At first I didn't think I was going to spend much... that didn't last long. Jewellery making is an old hobby of mine, one for which I used to get a lot of commissions from people. So, here are the first pair of earrings I have made in about, oooh, ten years! Eeek! Kept them nice and simple though and used my favourite metal for them - Stirling Silver.

Thanks for looking!

Questions, questions...

Having taken a break from trawling through photo's, I decided to do a little blog-hopping and stopped on I Speak Melsh. She's posted these questions, as always, discovered by a spot of blog hopping herself, so I thought I'd do them. Something I wouldn't normally do, but as the idea is one word answers I thought - why not?

1. Where is your cell/mobile phone? Desk
2. Your hair? Greying
3. Your mother? Hmmmm..... (lol)
4. Your father? Undeserving
5. Your favourite food? Homemade pasta
6. Your dream last night? Peaceful
7. Your favourite drink? Water
8. Your dream/goal? Less chaos
9. What room are you in? Study
10. Your hobby? Creating
11. Your fear? Loneliness
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home
13.Where were you last night? Home
14. Something that you aren’t? Sad
15. Muffins? No
16. Wish list item? Organisation
17. Where did you grow up? Midlands
18. Last thing you did? Blog-hopped
19. What are you wearing? Jeans
20. Your TV? Off
21. Your pet? Annoying
22. Friends? Few
23. Your life? Busy
24. Your mood? Exhausted
25. Missing someone? Yes
26. Vehicle? Car
27. Something you’re not wearing? Necklace
28. Your favourite store? Lakeland
29. Your favourite colour? Brown
30. When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday
31. Last time you cried? Tuesday
32. Your best friend? Chris
33. One place that you go to over and over? School
34. One person who emails you regularly? Junkmail fairy
35. Favourite place to eat? Piccolinos

If you answer them and share them on your blog, let me know, the nosey side of me would like to, well, take a nose!

An apology

Hello folks.

Just wanted to pop on and post to say sorry for not posting. Illness has hit this house like a dose of salts recently and although I've been around on the UKS and the Scrapagogo Clubhouse, I haven't had anything to post about.

I'm hoping to be able to share a few things with you next week, including the new GoGo Celebrate CJ that I've just finished making the covers for. Outside of doing the admin side of that, I'm also sorting out an Advent Swap and getting ready for GoGoGetaway which is in two weeks time. I'm currently in photo hell for that, trawling through literally thousands of photo's to find some suitable to scrap for the 7 classes I'll be taking while there. I haven't even started the pre-getaway challenges yet, but then again I have been in bed most of this week.

Between now and then Jamie is desperate for a train ride, I have a lunch in Birmingham with friends and a Bead Fair to go to. So, no rest for the wicked as they say, and lets face it - for those of you that read my blog and know me well, I've had some wicked moments in my life. Take that how you will.

I'll announce it now, but you'll have to wait a while.... It's my "blogiversary" on December 1st. Wow, a whole year since I started to talking to nobody in particular out there is cyber space! LOL. Well, not strictly true, I started blogging to share my Journal Your Christmas. So, to celebrate the enormous support I have received for my blog I'll be doing blog candy! It will be up in November and the winner drawn on the 1st of December, so keep your eyes out for details. Sorry, but it will only be of interest to those of you who are crafters, or want to start crafting.

Right, that's it for now. Coffee is required and a return to the photo mountain.

TTFN!!

Vicki xx

It's CJ time again....

Here we are nearly at the end of my first CJ on UKS. It's been an experience, and yes, one I will repeat. (I've signed up for one over on the scrapagogo clubhouse. We just need two more if you are interested...)

So, this time Tilda came to visit..... and now she's winging her way across Yorkshire to visit Tracy.

Don't you just love those cork alphas... I've broken into my pack especially for this one.
Right, Tracy's CJ is waiting for me to come up with something. It's the next on my HUGE crafting to do list. (That's after craft shopping of course)

As always, TFL!

365 2009

I've lost track of the days now, and the dates I took photo's, but here are a couple to share. Chris sent me flowers last week when I have having a particularly horrid day, so I took some close ups a few days later in an attempt to get the camera out again.

TFL!