• Journal Your Christmas – Week 3

    Week 3 of our Christmas adventure

    Dec 15 – I love Christmas but I’m not a huge fan of too many decorations, in our house anyway. In other people’s houses it looks great – in ours it make it look too cluttered. One of your favourite decorations that’s not on the tree is our little nativity set. You love playing with the little people & animals and the ‘fairy’

    Dec 16 – Our Christmas tunes have changed so much over the years. There were Christmas records & tapes when I was young and now it’s CDs and digital tunes for you. Our playlist has changed quiet a bit too from when I was little to now. From Handel’s Messiah to some rocking tunes by Tran Siberian Orchestra and Spiritual Plague. I also throw in a bit of Enya & Medieval Baebes for good measure.

    Dec 17 – Things still to do:
    * wrap presents
    * Pick up laybys
    * buy a few last minute gifts
    * Organise vegies for Xmas day

    Dec 18 – We’re hosting Christmas at home this year but we’ve asked everyone to bring along some food to help out. We’re all looking forward to tucking into the spit roasted pork.

    Dec 19 – The Christmas elves have been a big part of Christmas for you this year. We bought an advent calendar (albeit a little late) and each evening, if you’ve been good (& gone to sleep quickly), the elves bring you a little present. They have brought you Freddo frogs, lollipops, some jewellery and some art supplies.

    Dec 20 – Things you are giving this year:

    Dec 21 – Our home right now is a total disaster area. Presents, wrapping paper, old toys and cooking mess.

  • Journal Your Christmas–Week 2

    Onto week 2 ….. (posting a tad late but you know, Christmas)

    Dec 8 – We’re simplifying our tree this year. The colour scheme of silver and purple. Simple baubles plus a few special select pieces. My silver ornaments. your number pieces. Your dad’s sci fi pieces. I think I may have got your dad to agree to a smaller tree for his ornaments too but we’ll see how that goes.

    Dec 9 – Over the year’s I have tried and tried to make your great grandma’s tablet (tablet is a Scottish fudge) with no success. Recently I made Aggie’s lemon slice and needed to do something with the leftover condensed milk. I searched the internet and found a recipe for microwave (!) Russian fudge. It looked so similar to tablet I thought I’d try it. Pa thinks it’s pretty close to Great Grandma’s so I think it’s our new sweet treat for the Christmas period!

    Dec 10 – This year all you’ve been asking Santa for is a watch. You can’t tell the time yet but you still want one.  When the catalogues come you look at them and say “Santa will bring me that” You’ve also been asking for a swing and a slide.

    Dec 11 – I’ve wrapped our presents in kraft paper again this year & our tags are free printables from the internet. Santa has his own wrapping paper this year.

    Dec 12 – Keep calm. It’s only Christmas

    Dec 13 – Not a White Christmas in sight. This year is looking to be a wet but warm Christmas. The prediction at this stage is rain and high teens to low 20s.

    Dec 14 – After going to other peoples places for Christmas lunch every year, this year we are staying home all day. Well not entirely. We’ll go to Aggie & Pa’s for breakfast after you check out your stocking here then we’ll be back for the insane prep of getting everything ready for the family arriving at lunch time. We’ll hopefully get most of the set up done the day before (if it doesn’t rain) so it will just be cooking the food and last minute setup on the day.

  • Journal Your Christmas 2012–week 1

    This year I’m planning on doing something a little different for my Journal Your Christmas project. I’m still going to be adding pages to my album as I can (I’m still working on my 2011 pages!) but I’ll be blogging the daily prompts and the photography prompts in a weekly post. I thought this also gives me an online record of what I want to add to my album.

    Each post will contain my journaling from the previous week. So here’s week 1.

    Dec 1 – December 1. Your third Christmas. This year will be a little different as we’re busy organising Christmas at home. You seem so much more aware of the atmosphere and more interested in everything that is going on. You want your presents now and I have Santa on speed dial for when you’ve been naughty.

    Dec 2 – Christmas seems to come quicker and quicker every year. No sooner than the Halloween stuff is gone from the shops do we have Christmas things appearing.

    Dec 3 – So much planning to do this year. We’re holding Christmas at home for the first time and I’m not really looking forward to it but in a way I am. At least you will be at home to play with all your toys. There’s no travelling anywhere

    Dec 4 – I hope in years to come you’ll look back and remember some of your favourite toys from Christmas. Some of my favourite toys I got at Christmas came from Pa (my dad). One year he made me a trolley full of building blocks, another year it was a dolls house (which still lives at Aggie & Pa’s house – I’m hoping to do it up for you to play with out there)

    Dec 5 – Our Christmas card this year is another photo card. We got some professional photos done in November and one of the options was to have some Christmas photo cards done.

    Dec 6 – What is truly important this Christmas? Spending time with family & friends

    Dec 7 – I sense it’s Christmas time.
    Seeing… trees and lights and Christmas decorations. Pinterest is an amazing source of all things Christmas
    Hearing… Trans Siberian Orchestra. Our Christmas tunes are a little different from the usual.
    Smelling… BBQs and bushfires. It’s slowly warming up and getting to be bbq weather. Sadly it’s also bushfire season and there are a few going already
    Tasting… chocolate, after dinner mints
    Feeling… warm then cold. we’ve had such a strange start to summer this year.

  • Christmas 2012 – Scrapbooking your Christmas

    It’s no secret I LOVE Christmas scrapbook paper. Apart from my Project Life stuff and the stuff for Miss K’s album, this is my biggest stash of scrapbooking goodies. Most of this stash goes into my Journal Your Christmas album.

    I thought this year I’d check out some of the scrapbooking classes around the net that are Christmas related.

    Obviously the big two (that I know of and hear most people talk about anyways) are December Daily and Journal Your Christmas.

    December Daily is the brain child of Ali Edwards and is an album project that documents the 25 days leading up to Christmas. I’ve never done DD but have seen some sensational albums. You only have to look to Pinterest for some awesome inspiration.

    Journal Your Christmas (updated to the 2012 link) is another amazing class from Shimelle. I am such a huge fan of Shimelle’s classes and I love the fact when you buy one of her classes you get forever access. “Journal your Christmas is an online scrapbooking class to celebrate the holiday season. It starts on the first of December and finishes on the sixth of January, with thirty-seven daily prompts sent by email. “

    Big Picture Classes have a few Christmas classes – 12 Days of Christmas, Creating Christmas and Holiday Recipes. I’ll be checking out Creating Christmas and Holiday Recipes this year (yeah I know, like I need another couple of projects over Christmas)

    My Creative Classroom is offering Holiday layouts and a few others AND if you register Register for any class starting in November and you will automatically be enrolled in It’s Ornamental at no additional charge.

    What classes are you taking this Christmas season?

    Linking up with Tina’s Christmas linky

  • Memory Keeping in 2013

    One of my favourite memory keeping products has just announced their line up for 2013. I’ve been buying the Log Your Memory Log Books since they first started and I’ve found they have been great for daily memory keeping/journaling. You can see my reviews of the 2010 log book here.

    This year’s line includes several different editions to help memory keepers find the best tool for them, including:

    Page-A-Day Edition – Created especially for memory keepers who want lots of room to record daily life.

    Photo-A-Day Edition – Created especially for those who utilize a photo-a-day (Project 365) approach to memory keeping.

    Project Life Compatible Edition – Created especially for those who utilize a Project Life approach to memory keeping.

    • All-In-One Edition – Created especially for those who prefer a customized approach to memory keeping, with bonus CD containing over 300 MB of files. I’m hoping hubby buys me the All-In-One edition for Xmas (hint, hint lol)
    • This product isn’t just designed for scrapbookers but for anyone who wants to journal everyday. I’ve got a coupon code for $3US off any of the 2013 Memory Logbook orders
      Coupon Code: 2013MEM3OFF
      Expires: Sunday, November 4, 2012
      One use per customer. Disclaimer – all links are affiliate links

  • Getting my craft on

    October onwards is usually a busy time for me with scrapbooking classes.

    This year I’m playing catch up and trying to get my 2011 Journal Your Christmas album finished before this Christmas. I finally got my 2010 album finished last month *sigh*

    I’ve signed up for a few classes between now and Christmas

    The first (which has already started) is Becky Higgins Project Real Life at Big Picture Classes

    “This idea is at the heart of everything Becky Higgins does with her blog, her products and in her real life. Come and join her for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend some time with her during the last quarter of 2012. As Becky goes about preparing for the holidays, organizing around her home and documenting her family’s story along the way, she’ll be sharing ideas to inspire you, tips to motivate you, and real-life suggestions on how to cultivate the life you want.”
    I’m loving this class so far. I haven’t scrapped anything yet but I’ve been reading along and planning 😉

    Next on the list is {Mo}tography at Jessica Sprague.

    ”Jessica Sprague & Heidi Swapp are teaming up to bring you a one-of-a-kind photo class! Using your cell phone, we’ll show you apps & techniques to let you take, edit, and share your pics like never before!”
    I’ve taken a few classes by Jessica & Heidi and had a great time. Looking forward to this and taking better photos with my iPhone.

    Shimelle has just announced her new class – Scrapbook Remix
    ”Scrapbook Remix is an online scrapbooking class that shares the secrets to mixing patterned papers of all kinds and then creating a range of pages with this combinations. We’ll talk colour, pattern, scale, size, technique and more.”
    No secret I’m a HUGE fan of Shimelle.

    and then December is all about Journal Your Christmas. This will be my third year doing JYC and this year I really hope to do more than just journal and make notes.

  • Planning my scrap space

    So this is the first month of the Scrapping Shoebox Organising challenge.

    I’m going to be journaling my notes as I go along.

    The first question is ‘What supplies do you have to have nearby when you scrap?

    For me it’s adhesive, scissors, obviously paper and photos. At the moment I like to have a selection of bling nearby too.

    Second ‘What do you use the most?’ Easy one – pattern paper. Embellishment wise, at the moment it’s bling.

    ‘what do you hate about where you scrap?’ Um having to pack everything up. I lost my dedicated space when Miss K was born so now I scrap at our kitchen table. Also everything is still out in what was my scrap room in boxes so if I want something I have to go look out there first.

    ‘How are your supplies currently stored?’ In boxes.

    ‘How would you like them stored?’ Out where I can get to them easily. More organised.

    My Dream Scraproom

    (This will happen when I win lotto LOL well hubby gets his gaming room so I  get a scrap room Open-mouthed smile)

    Lots of storage – out in the open so I can see what I have.

    A couple of tables with comfy chairs so I can have people over to scrap with me.

    A couple of benches so I can set up my tools like my Slice, my Sizzix etc and not have to pack them away because of lack of space.

    If you want to drool – check out Crafty Storage for some gorgeous craft rooms (& a few craft cubbies!)

    The last bit was optional but was something I was doing anyway. I’ve been keeping the big boxes Miss K’s nappies come in (they are big enough for 12×12 papers!) and using them to sort my stash. At the moment I have one box for my pattern paper & cards stock, one for my albums and one for embellishments, which I’m sorting as I go into type (so all my ribbon in one bag, rubons in another, stickers in another etc.)

    So that’s me for this month. Looking forward to March & tackling my paper stash.

  • Project Scrap 2011

    It’s a new challenge over at Shabby Princess’ site. The objective is to take 2 photos and make 2 layouts per month. Now I know I can do this.

    The original post about Project Scrap 2011 can be found here and the January post can be found here.

    I think I have enough pics from 2010 that I could create an album using this system.

  • Memory Keeping

    As you all know (if you are a regular reader of my blog), I love Log Your Memory. I bought the Memory logbook when it first came and I must say I was hooked right away. So when Kirsten announced the 2011 version I knew it had to be mine LOL.

    This year’s logbook is slightly different from the 2010 version. This year the calendars (monthly & weekly) are at the front then the questionaries & challenges are at the back. It comes in two sizes (yay) – 8.5×11 and A5. There’s also the full year or 2 half year options. And there’s now there’s the option to build-your-own logbook.

    What else can I rave about? Ohhh, the new Memory Minder subscription. Subscribe and receive the same Memory Minder weekly email service that all owners of the Memory Logbook 2011 products receive, even if you don’t own a qualifying product.

    At least once per week, you will receive an email via your inbox or mobile device with details about the current Memory Logbook Weekly Challenge, plus helpful tips, chat & event information, advance product news, sale notices, how-to articles and reminders – all designed to help you make the most of the Memory Logbook and capture your everyday, real life in 2011!

    Anywho, pop on over to the Log Your Memory store and check out the 2011 logbook – you’ll be glad you did

  • Journal Your Christmas

    I’ve picked out my album & size

    I’m going to go with the American Crafts Modern D-ring Cardinal in 8×8

    Not sure about the inside pages as yet. Guess I’ll do a combination of digital & paper. Picked up some cute digi supplies during iDSD so looking forward to using them.

    Also ordered some new Spica pens to go with my copics, should have ordered a couple of reds as well. Oh well, next pay.