Wishing Everyone a Merry Christmas

To those of you I didn't get around to sending a card to (and there are a few on the list that for one reason or another, blame the computer crashing, that I don't have addresses for and due to the lateness of doing cards, no time to get addresses) please know that you are not forgotten, I am still thinking of you.

To those of you I did send a card to but you haven't received it yet, well, hold on, it will arrive, it will just be late. Which for those of you who truly know me, this won't come as such a huge surprise.

MERRY CHRISTMAS ONE AND ALL. And remember, forget all the hype, forget all the commercialism (hard, I know) and just enjoy the opportunity to spend time with your family and perhaps amongst that time spend a little time thinking about the real meaning of Christmas?

Santa's Little Helper

This is a little boy who is just a 'little' excited at the prospect of Father Christmas coming in just 5 sleeps!  Last year he was only 3 and while he got caught up in the excitement of his sisters he just didn't really understand. This year he gets it.
He still has no idea of what he'd like to get from the man in red, which on the one hand is a great thing. He's obviously not got caught up in the whole consumerism side of things, nor is he greedy, wanting this and that. Katarina has sat down with him and made a Christmas list but I think more of the input has come from her. Katarina: "Noah, do you want this for Christmas?" Noah: "Yes" Katarina: "What about this?" Noah: "Yes, OK". On the other hand it doesn't help Father Christmas (or Mother Christmas) on the ideas front either. Oh well, I'm sure he'll be more than content with whatever he gets.

Christmas Has Finally Arrived

In our home. Late, I know, but better late than never (this should be my motto).

I'm struggling with the inevitable battle that most 'working from home' people go through, at least in the beginning, of getting the home/work life balance right. It's too easy when your email 'pings' to, kindly, let you know that you have mail not to just want to take a quick look. I mean it could be urgent. Couldn't it? The answer is almost invariably that it's NOT urgent, but hey, one day it could be! Add to that the fact that the phone can and does ring at any time of the day or week and you can probably well understand that I, at times, feel I am living and breathing work 24/7. It's easy to forget that I am only working 15 hours a week.

It is further complicated because Noah is still only at school for half days so I am having to get everything done in the few hours of each morning when he is at school (I can forget even attempting to get any of my tasks done during the afternoon hours when he is at home, suffice it to say he is a little trying in the afternoons!). And by everything, I do mean everything. Cleaning, laundry, tidying, food shopping, work, Christmas shopping... the list goes on... and no time for 'me time' anywhere amongst it.

The upshot of this is that whilst I have done the Christmas 'Thank You' cards for our church I haven't managed to write a single one of my own. In effort to get them out in the post before Christmas I am trying to cut a few corners by completing address labels on the computer (this way I'll have them all ready for next year too) and I'm leaving out the whole 'To' stuff and just signing them from us. Phew! I may just about manage it.

I've also had our Christmas tree (keeping cold outside) for over a week now but, after a couple of false starts, I finally finished decorating it yesterday. This isn't as late as you think as we traditionally put our tree up the weekend before Christmas, so just a couple of days late.

I love a nice Christmas tree. It has to be real. I have to decorate it as it has to look 'just right', LOL. Poor children, although they do get to put a decoration on themselves at the end, a sort of crowning glory. Aren't I kind?

Now it feels like Christmas. We have our tree (and beautiful it is smelling too), we have all our special German decorations, like our Weihnachts Karussel (Christmas Carousel) but all those of you who know me will notice one glaring omission, especially on the tree.

There are no candles! I can't find them. I know I bought a load whilst we were in Canada. I know exactly where they were stored (in the drawer of the dining room side unit) but can I find them? I managed to find some small candles on line yesterday, ordered them and am hoping they turn up in time for Christmas Eve, which is traditionally when we light them for the first time. I know. Real candles on a tree=danger. But we've had real candles on
our trees for years and as long as you are sensible it really is OK. Honest. And it looks FAB to boot!

If I don't get to post again before Christmas, which with my current track record isn't looking good, then a MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL.

Journal Your Christmas

"Manifesto: Noun. A declaration of one's intentions.

Starting December
first, I will keep a Christmas journal. In it, I will write something every

day to reflect on the holidays of my past, enjoy the holidays of the present
and dream
about the holidays of my future. To some, this will be a stack of
papers and trivial
scribbles, but not to me. I am taking back my Christmas,
I am letting it be something I
relish and, most importantly, I am giving at
least fifteen minutes every day to myself no
matter how crazy this season
becomes. I hope you will share, encourage and understand
as I make something
with my own hands, my own words and my own memories.

I may post some or
all of my entries here. Other artists are doing this with me, and you
can
see there work here. Or
you may join
us.

Above all: enjoy the season. I will."

Now, I was supposed to post this on the first December obviously so you can imagine how well I'm managing to keep up with the whole 'giving at
least fifteen minutes every day to myself' side of things. The fact that it is now the 8th December and I am only now just posting the manifesto stating that I'm doing this will give you some small indication of what I've done so far. Yup, nothing. I hang my head in shame. I have got a book to journal in to and I have written up some notes from the daily prompts but have done nothing else. I am therefore taking it with me to do tonight at the PaperArts crop in the hope that I might be able to do something towards catching up.

Apart from that I've been very busy. Not much scrapping getting done but I have got a class in the pipeline to prepare for and a couple of CJs to complete, oh, and I have started on writing out my Christmas cards so who knows? I may actually get to send some this year (a whole other story for another day).

Anyway, that's all for me at the present as I have to go now and buy some presents!
   

A Couple of Layouts

It's quite amazing. It really is. I actually managed to do a couple of LOs at the ScrapManic weekend. I really didn't think I'd have the energy but more than that, I didn't think I'd have the inclination to scrap anything.

I'd been so busy with the run up to the weekend, putting together my 'I Can See Clearly Now' class and creating sample LOs for my 'Mad About Ads' class that one of the last things I said to Richard before I set off for Barnett Hill was, and I quote, "I don't want to even think about scrapbooking for ages, at least not this side of Christmas!".

LOL. That didn't last long. Not only did I scrap 1 double and 1 single LO but I also got half way through another double (it just needs some finishing touches). There's something about spending time with so many talented scrapbookers that just rubs off on you. Walking around and seeing the fabulous stuff being created really inspires one. I was even inspired by a few things that people did with my classes.

I've been scrapbooking in such a way lately that I've just forgotten
that it's supposed to be fun! Yes, it is. Anyone else forget this
sometimes? I promised myself this weekend that I was just going to
relax and enjoy my hobby. Every time I found myself
deliberating too long over something (and boy do I do this ALOT) I just
asked my fab scrapping friends around me a simple question and then
just did it. No deliberating, no agonising over this embellishment or
that. Nothing. Just threw stuff together. It was very freeing. Not
every LO has to be fantabulous and I think we all at times can get a
little precious over our scrapbooking. They're just photos and memories
and we don't have to create 'WOW' LOs all the time.

I did this LO, Country Life, on Saturday morning whilst everyone was off taking their first class (I didn't have to teach until Saturday afternoon) and decided to do another ad inspired LO. Love this photo of Richard and our niece, Billie-Ray, which was taken a couple of weekends ago when my sister and her horde came for a visit (she knows we love her coming to stay really). You can't tell from this LO but it is based on an ad for steak - honest (if I remember I'll try and find the ad to upload for comparison). At one point I found myself pondering over whether to use squares or circles, a quick question later and 'circles' was the answer. LO done. Supplies were all from my recent Jenni Bowlin kit and I just LOVE those Thicker stickers. Didn't think too much of them in the packet but once I used them ...

The only downside to scrapping 'in public' is that I find it hard. I don't know why, my mind seems to just dry up and all creativity goes out the window. I've learnt that if I want to be productive whilst cropping with friends that I need to use sketches (or ads!) and do a little bit of prep work first - it's probably got a lot to do with spending too much time gossipping chatting and my brain finds it hard to do 2 things at once?

This next LO used a Becky Fleck sketch and even though I didn't follow it to the letter you can see the basic structure is there. I've got soooo many gorgeous photos from our trip to Bermuda that I just feel I want to scrap them all and so I am. LOL. I usually have my albums by year not themes but I think I might have to make an exception for Bermuda. The only problem is that I don't really have much to say, journalling-wise, as how much can you say about going to the beach?

I'll get the other double LO finished which is a similar LO to the one above but this time Harriet on the beach as opposed to Katarina and no doubt I will do another similar one for Noah.

Manic at ScrapManic

Just me though. I was the manic one.

I can't believe how nervous I was at the thought of teaching this weekend. Must be something to do with knowing the calibre of the scrapbookers attending and just feeling totally not worthy of standing up and teaching them - it should have been the other way around! LOL.

I did have a great time, as usual, though. And once I'd calmed down I 'think' my classes went down well. I'm certainly looking forward to seeing the results of what everyone else has done/created with them. I will get around to scanning and posting my 'I Can See Clearly Now' class as requested but for today I'm going to sit back, relax and drink lots of latte macchiatos using my fab new coffee machine.

It was absolutely brilliant to be able to spend some quality scrapping time with my best scrapping buds, Cherry and Carole, and also having the opportunity to get to know some other on line friends better too, especially Jackie, Cherry's sister. I had a blast, once I'd got my first class out the way.

Oh, got to go, just had a call from school to say Katarina has been sick... I need to go pick her up. The joys of being a mother. ScrapManic seems so long ago now...

I Am Alive

Honest.

Just surfacing long enough to apprise you all of this and then it's back to my nose against the grindstone.

The fab ScrapManic 6 is happening in, oh, just over a week now and I am very, very busy getting stuff ready. Not for cropping though. No, I'm teaching a couple of classes - I haven't even begun to get my head around organising anything myself to actually take to scrap. I feel like I'm running around like a headless chicken at the moment but I'm really pleased with how my 'I Can See Clearly Now' class is coming along. Maybe I'll post a sneak peek sometime. And then again, maybe I won't!

The other class, 'Mad About Ads', is coming along as well.

Oh, and in the middle of all this the children were off school for 10 days with half-term, I had to get 2 LOs done (in a relatively short space of time) for Scrapbook Inspirations magazine and I started work.

Yes, work. Not that what I normally do (cooking, cleaning, laundry) isn't work, but this is more the 'I'll-actually-get-paid-for-this-work' type of thing.

OK, got to go, people to see, places to go, stuff to do...