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Sunday, 31 December 2006
Hogmanay!
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Saturday, 30 December 2006
Reflections of a year
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Title page
Boxing Day, new pjs and all my weaknesses exposed
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The day itself!
Sunday, 24 December 2006
Twas the night before Christmas
And this year it has been quiet, and not too hurried, making things, wrapping pressies, getting ready for tomorrow and watching the weather reports!
I love the bright lights of Christmas, coloura in the darkness, colours of joy and happiness and peace, red and gold and green.
I wonder what will tomorrow will bring...I hope it all goes well...Merry Christmas everyone. x
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Saturday, 23 December 2006
23 Stockings!
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Friday, 22 December 2006
22 - things still to do!
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Thursday, 21 December 2006
Shortest day (and most to do!)
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Tales of the unexpected...
Tales of the unexpected ... 'cept they haven't happened yet, so I'll come back and journal as they happen, removing the temporary to be continued sign!!
I used a postage stamp on my cards page so I didn't want to repeat myself here. Of course the real unexpected event is that I'm still up to date.......
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Wednesday, 20 December 2006
4 in a row - days 16-19
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Tuesday, 12 December 2006
Catching up in advance!
Well, I may be being naughty, or superorganised, or just sad, but I'm going away tommorrow for several days and won't be able to take my scrapping stuff with me so I decided to catch up in advance and do the next couple of days from the text prompts that are already up ... so here are 13, 14 and 15...
This one is about our "Present Places". Everyone who stays over in our house at Christmas has a present place in the morning - instead of a disorganised heap under the tree everyone's pressies are laid out on a chair or part of the sofa, and everyone has their own place, of course the only problem is we all have to sit on the floor as all the seats are covered in presents! Then we all watch the kids open theirs and do their stockings and then we get to open ours too. These are my nephews on Christmas morning - you can see their pressie piles on the chairs behind them, along with stockings on the fireplace and a tray that was left out for Santa and Rudolph!
14- Sing a song of Christmas.
I love Christmas carols, and was hard pressed to think of just one special one, so I put in bits of a few ...
15 - This one was quick as I followed Shimelle's instructions pretty closely, and only wrote in the people I'll see over Christmas.
So that's me for now, but I'll be behind again when I get back!
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12 Christmases -then and now- and us
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Monday, 11 December 2006
9 and 11 Traditions and a tree
Here is my no 9 Traditions - my sister delivered on the photo front (thanks!) so here is the family house, now almost 30 years old. I've told the story behind the little paper flaps, of making the house in art class when I was about 12, then making it into a Christmas snow scene, and Mum got the Santa sleigh and reindeer out of Dad's shop to add to it. So it came out every year, even after I'd left home to go to uni, Mum kept doing it. Now Dad's no longer with us, and Mum lives with my sister's family, and so my elder nephew did it, and this year the younger one did it. So it's our family tradition. And they are great things. To be cherished. And enjoyed.
And for me, a new tradition has begun, for this year I put up a Christmas tree for the first time ever! I remember one year I put tinsel round a rubber plant, and I've been hanging tree decs all over the flat for the past few years, but this year it seemed that the time had come. So this entry was an easy one to do, and I have to say, I love my tree!
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Sunday, 10 December 2006
7,8 and er, 10
Catching up here, feels good!
Christmas shopping was a fun one to do. I love shopping for pressies, especially when I'm abroad, and I love buying things for Christmas. But I do hate busy crowded shops, traffic jams and having to make decisions when I don't know what to buy!
So here it is:
Visions of Christmas had me a little bit stumped til I read the 'use something small' direction, and decided to play with a punch and just jot down all the things that tell me Christmas is on the way!
I've kind of skipped no 9 just now - it's Traditions - and I know what I'm going to do, but need to get my sister to take a piccie for me. I made a model house in an art class about 30 years ago and every year it's brought out, covered in 'snow', and decorated with a santa and sleigh that Mum got for it many years ago too. I used to do this, then my mum did it for a while after I'd left home, then my elder nephew took over and now my younger one does it... so after 30 years it's a family tradition!
No 10 was a quickie as Shimelle said - useful when you need to catch up! - tells my wrapping present plans.
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Tree's up!
You know I was kind of shocked to realise I've never put up a Christmas tree before... I remember one year I put some tinsel round the rubber plant in my student bedsit but that doesn't really count, and of course there was always a tree at my parents house. But I'd never put my own up - til last night!
Only a wee one, and a fantastic bargain at Tesco's - tree and lights for under a fiver! But I'm very happy with it!
Now all the decorations I've brought back from all over the place now have a proper home. Like the Russian dome, the Irish angel, the Danish couple, the German stars etc
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No Negative Thoughts!
Day 4 was all about your perfect Christmas but I felt a bit weird just writing down lots of nice things so I decided to strip it back to basics - and this is an important one for me!
Day 5 covered Advent. I don't use advent calendars now though I did when I was a kid so I just used a couple of basic memories - making my own one year during a power cut, and the year we got 3D ones with bits that moved. They were fab!
Day 6 was meant to be a contrast between a good and a bad memory, but I felt uncomfortable dwelling on anything bad so I wrote any bad things beneath the box and glued the lid shut, so my very own Pandora's box layout here!
Other journalling reads:
I remember arriving home to a house full of decorations, many of which I'd brought back from lots of different countries. The tree would be up, pressies underneath, everything red and gold and bright and colourful. I loved going home at Christmas. Time with Mum and Dad, time to chill, to play, to just enjoy. I will find new ways to that sense of peace and enjoyment. I will take control.
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Journal Your Christmas
Here it is then - page 1, more of a statement of intent than my usual photo based scrapping pages.
Journaling reads:
This is my CHRISTMAS BOOK, a journal, a diary,a collage of Christmases. Memories of past years. often blurring together and kind of hazy at the edges, along with hopes and dreams, crazy plans, fears and anxieties, make up the sum of a season that I have had to struggle with to call my own.
This is my way through, a period of reflection in creativity, a little piece of art each day, the colours of Christmas, riches for all the senses, words to linger over and ideas to play with, something to bring joy to the darkness and comfort to the winds of winter.
With this, I will win back my Christmas, and let it be SOMETHING THAT I RELISH.
Day 2 was fun - the topic was weather - so of course all thoughts turned to snow!
This time the journalling had two different angles, the going out to play one that you can see and the less pleasant side to snow:
New fallen snow is beautiful and quiet, but when it gets old and brown and slushy it's horrid and depressing. And if it freezes over it's scarey and unsafe.
BUT when you're not at home, the winter weather is DANGEROUS and terrifying. I was caught out in a blizzard on the Glen Garry road this time last year. Sheer terror in a swirlingly white and frightening world, when it was hard enough to breathe let alone drive, but you knew you had to get over the pass to safety or risk freezing to death. The relief when I saw the lights at the Cluanie Inn was immense. A warm and safe haven, shelter from the storm. I will never understimate a Highland winter again.
Day 3, a simple take on Christmas cards.
Journalling is inside the card, but mainly just states that I don't usually get them out when I should...
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Friday, 8 December 2006
First Scrapagogo Kit!
I'd heard lots of really good things about these kits and was lucky enough to manage to get one that was going spare in October. Lovely Scenic Route papers and lots of matching bits and bobs. So here are my first couple of layouts from that kit (and there's plenty papers left!)
Fiona at 40!
Photos from my big sister's 40th birthday - a lovely colourful and smiley day.
Fun on the Stairs!
Misbehaving with the nephews....
And now I'm eagerly awaiting the postie as December's kit has just been posted out ...
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Book of Me
Well I'm one of those scrappers that doesn't have kids, and (even worse?) didn't have a working camera for many of my 2 lovely nephews' earlier years, so I kind of scrap myself a lot... But I still decided to follow Roz and Kirsty's Book of Me prompts on UKS, and have done the first three, and am intrigued and excited about what the next one will be!
I Am
This was hard, to begin with all I could think of was 'I am me' which wasn't very helpful really. I didn't want to do the lots of individual words thing cos in all honesty I'd then have had to say things like 'fat', 'disorganised', 'late' etc but once I had decided on the piccie the journalling came quite easily and reads:
I am a traveller, in life, in time, in music, in love, in wonder, in art, in me, myself, I ... I will always go forward, I will always look back, I will always be what I am, what I have been, what I will become...
One Day
This one actually started me off in the BOM. It was a challenge for the Harry Potter cybercrop on UKS and was done really quickly, but gave me my black theme which I'll keep to throughout the album. And one day, I'll really do it!
If I Didn't
And I guess it's true though some folk might think it's too late, it's already happened!
So, until the next prompt (next month)...
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Harry Potter Cybercrop
I had great fun with this, my first cybercrop, on UKS at the end of November. I got to try new techniques and got forced into experimenting with different styles. And I got a few layouts as well that I really like! Such as:
Shimelle's Class Magic in the Middle
Herbology
Nat's Notions and Potions Class
Bewitched - a sketch class
So, wonder when the next one is?
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New blog, new blogger!
Inspired by getting to see everyone else's work on Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas class, I decided to get a blog too, and save some space on my UKS gallery! So this is a first post, and hopefully I'll get some piccies uploaded soon.
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