Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is finally here and every one is getting very excited. Every thing is more of less done. Presents have all been wrapped with the exception of one which because of it's size and weight is going to have to be wrapped last thing tonight and put straight under the tree. I wonder which lucky boy or girl is going to received that???? Christopher and Lara made the mince pies yesterday and this morning I made the reindeer food. The bag toppers were free from Kate Hadfield (Thanks Jakey for the heads up about this). When it gets dark we will be scattering the food on the back lawn to make sure that Rudolf and Co know where to land. A glass of Santa's favourite tipple (this year wine!) plus a mince pie and a carrot will of course also be left by the fireplace.

Our Advent Candle will be burnt for the last time tonight although the doors on the children's advent calendars will continue to be opened until the New Year. I have just one gift left in my box of Advent Swap Presents. I opened more lovely presents this week and it won't be the same when I get up each morning when I have opened the last gift tomorrow and I have no more left to open.

No time for scrapping this week but I found this LO which I created earlier in the year but never uploaded so I'm uploading that now.

Anyway I'll sign off now and whatever you are doing this Christmas, I wish you a lovely time, and a healthy, happy and prosperous new year.

Karen x x

6 sleeps until Christmas

19th December and just 6 more sleeps until Christmas Day. The children have now finished school and it is all getting very excited.

Tuesday was Lara's actual birthday and was also the day of her school's Christmas performance. So, after scoffing far too much Chocolate birthday cake (yes we did have a second birthday cake!) we all assembled at the parish church. There were two performances - a traditional nativity play accompanied by some very uptempo singing from the children followed by a musical performance by the 'school band'. Lara had the honour of being Mary in the nativity play which included her singing a solo. Considering she was singing in front of 100+ parents plus all the school children and teachers she did really well.

Wednesday evening was Lara's last 'Rainbow' session before Christmas. They had a Christmas party and at the end of the party a number of the girls, including Lara, made their promises. It was so sweet to watch and considering their age they did really well at reciting their promises.

Since my last post I've opened loads more advent swap presents. All have been lovely and will be really useful especially since I have decided from January 1st to go an a stash diet. I have so much stash and really DO NOT need any thing else. So today I ordered a pack of BasicGrey Bittersweet papers and they will be the last I buy for some time apart from adhesive and the odd sheet of card stock which I will need. I just hope that BasicGrey, Scenic Route and Fancy Pants don't tempt me at Winter CHA!

Hopefully I will be back again before Christmas Day to show you the last few gifts I received in the advent swap.

So until then good luck with any last minute shopping, wrapping, partying, and preparing.

13 sleeps until Christmas

12th December - 13 sleeps until Christmas and I am actually feeling fairly festive. Letters to Santa have been written and posted and the Christmas tree and decorations went up yesterday . The majority of the cards have been written and posted (although I have a few still to make) and the presents have all been bought. The children have just one more week at school and then we will be on the final countdown to the big day. I can't wait. Since I last posted I have opened another 6 advent gifts. I was sad to learn just after my last post that this advent swap will be the last one on UKScrappers. I had said that I was unsure whether I would take part again and now the decision has been made for me. It won't be the same next year without my little gift each December morning, but it was good while it lasted.

Lara's birthday party last weekend was a huge success and the cake was a real hit. I'm glad I decided to make her cake - she was really pleased. I was disappointed with the photos I took at the party, but these two weren't too bad and hopefully with a little editing they will be better.



Yesterday I was looking through some LOs and came across some which I created back in April whilst away on a scrapping weekend with some friends. I loved making this one of Lara. It was pure luck that the photo captured the snowflakes on her eyelashes and I felt I had to scrap it. I've not had time to scrap this week so I'll leave you with this LO.

19 sleeps until Christmas.

6th December - 19 sleeps until Christmas. Not long until the 25th and the days seem to be flying by.

I have now opened 6 of the gifts in my UKScrappers Advent Swap box and have been thrilled with them all. (apologies for the awful photo) Every year some of the people who take part in the swap seem disappointed (to put it mildly) with what they received but I can honestly say that during the 4-5 years that I have taken part I have never once been unhappy with the gifts I have received. Judging by some of the comments people make, it seems I have been very lucky! OK, occasionally a gift isn't quite to my taste but it can usually be used in someway or another or altered to make it fit in more with my style. I've never had anyone say they haven't liked the gifts I have sent them either and I really look forward to the swap. But, that said I am beginning to wonder whether in view of all the negative comments that have been posted on forums this year about the swap whether I will join in next year.

Last night was MojoHolder night. I wasn't able to join in this week. Tomorrow is Lara's 6th birthday party and I have been so busy preparing for that that scrapping has had to take a back seat. 24 little guests are coming to the party and yesterday and today I made the cake. After the stress last year of making the cake I vowed never to make another, but I relented and this year I made a 'Spongebob Square Pants' cake. Considering how difficult it was last year to make the cake this year seemed a dream. Last year I used a bag of catering cake mix, struggled with the quantities and when it was made it tasted foul! This year I just used a tried and tested recipe for a Victoria Sandwich , doubled up the quantity I would use for a standard 7" cake and the 'trimmings' which I tasted were really yummy. Spongebob has now been iced, looks fab and is ready in his box to take to the party tomorrow. I'll report back hopefully next week on how the party went and hope to have some photos too.

It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas.

Tomorrow is December 1st and it's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas. I have started my Christmas Shopping and earlier this week a gorgeous box of goodies arrived from the UKScrappers Advent Swap. 25 presents all wrapped up in black papers with gold tags each bearing a clue to the contents of the presents. My Secret Santa hasn't revealed their identity yet but the postmark on the box was a clue (I think) and I therefore have my suspicions. I've been comparing the writing on the tags to the handwritten journaling on LOs posted in my suspects UKScrappers gallery and I think they are a close match. Time will tell is I have the right person.


I hope the person I have sent gifts to hasn't guessed my identity yet - it's nice to keep them guessing.


Friday night was Mojo Holder Challenge Night and challenge #92 was to scrap lift the awesome Betsy Veldman. I loved Betsy's LO - so bright and cheerful. I scrapped a photo of Lara and used BasicGrey Euphoria and Scenic Route papers.

Not much time for scrapping

I've not had much time lately for scrapping and have only managed to complete my weekly Mojo Holder LOs.

On November 14th (which also happened to be my brother's birthday as well as that of HRH Prince Charles) challenge #90 was to scraplift a LO by Norwegian scrapper Ingvild Bolme. Her LO had a real romantic/vintage feel - mine didn't! I used some of that really challenging kraft patterned paper from the Sonoma line by Scenic Route and some photos of the children taken last year of them hiding amongst the plants at the Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, Dorset. Here are the two LOs.

On November 21st, Challenge #91 was a lift of a LO by Nichol Magourik. Nichol's LO inspired me to scrap some photos of Lara taken when she was just 10mths old. Here are the two LOs.

Apart from those two LOs and some bits and pieces I've made for the advent swap on UKScrappers, I've not done any other crafting and with Christmas fast approaching I doubt the situation will improve much until the New Year.

Oh one last thing. Do you remember my exploits last year whilst making a doggy shaped birthday cake for Lara's birthday? Well ..... I know I said 'never again', but ..... I have bought another shaped cake tin and this year I will be attempting a cake in the shape of ..... Sponge Bob Square Pants!!! Am I mad?? We will see!

Last week on Mojoholder we scraplifted the fantastic Molly Peckham (another scrapper whose work I had not come across before). Her LO was beautiful - lovely colours, lovely composition, lovely photos. It was a pleasure to scraplift. I used photos taken just last month on Halloween, of Steven carving his pumpkin. The concentration on his face was priceless.

Here are the LOs:



Tonight we're lifting an extremely talented Norwegian scrapbooker. Make sure you check it out.

Half Term Holiday

Last week was the school half term holiday so we took our usual autumn trip to the coast. For the last few years we've gone to Norfolk but this year we had a change and went over the border into Suffolk. The weather wasn't great but we had a good time and came back refreshed and relaxed.

We went out and about a lot whilst we were away. We visited three English Heritage properties - Leiston Abbey, Framlingham Castle and Orford Castle. Believe me, we aren't on a mission to try and visit every English Heritage property in the UK, nor are we on a mission to bore the children (LOL), but as they were all fairly close to where we were stying we thought we may as well take advantage of our membership.

We also had some long but chilly walks on the beach, a shopping trip to Ipswich and a day at Jimmy's Farm. We had followed the goings on at Jimmy's Farm on TV so it was nice to go and see the place for real. It wasn't as big as we thought it would be but the children enjoyed seeing all the animals as well as exploring the Woodland Walk (with den building) and the adventure playground.

Whilst we were away it was Halloween. The children were initially quite disappointed to find that they wouldn't be at home for Halloween and wouldn't be able to go trick or treating with their friends, but we promised them that we would have our own little Halloween party while we were away. So we took Halloween costumes with us and on Friday night we carved pumpkins, bobbed for apples, watched 'Winnie The Pooh - Pooh's Heffalump Halloween' DVD ( LOL - as scary as we dare go for Lara! ) and gave the children bags of halloween novelties and sweets. They were more than happy. The apple bobbing went down particularly well!

While we were away 2 challenges went live on Mojo Holder. Challenge #87 on October 24th was to lift a LO by the wonderful Janna Wilson. Her LO was gorgeous! I scrapped photos of Wayne on his Driving Day in June.

October 31st, Challenge #88 was a scraplift of Teresa Collins.

There are some lovely scrap lifts coming up in November so do make sure to stop by Mojo Holder.

One last thing, while I was away I bought this book. It's by Robert Llewellyn of Red Dwarf and Scrapheap Challenge fame. I had seen him plugging the book on TV and thought it sounded interesting. I'm half way through reading it and it certainly is very thought provoking and also at times funny. It is about how after a long and painful Christmas shopping expedition, Robert Llewellyn had a revelation. He realised he had enough stuff; he'd had enough of rampant consumerism; he would simply stop shopping for a whole year. Hmmm, now I wonder if I could manage that ??? .......... Nah, but it's a good read anyway.

Autumn

Autumn - au·tumn n. 1. The
season of the year between
summer and winter, lasting from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice and from September to December in the Northern Hemisphere; fall. 2. A period of maturity verging on decline.

Don't you just love Autumn? I do. Maybe it's the colours. Maybe it's the light. Maybe it's the crisp, chill in the air. Maybe it's because I was born in the autumn but what ever it is I love it. After summer it has to be my favourite season. The only thing I don't like is the damp weather. But that I can put up with.

We went out at the weekend to Wrest Park. I was hoping to get some nice photos of the children playing in the leaves but they weren't obliging and the photos I took were nothing to write home about. But whilst we were out we did collect some autumn leaves (like you do) and when I got home I decided to take some photos of them. i was really pleased how they came out and may just blow some up to put on the walls.

Remember me telling you Mojo Holder challenges were going to be on a Thursday in future? Well ......... they aren't LOL. We have decided to stick with Fridays so check out Mojo Holder every FRIDAY for a new challenge.

Last week we lifted the amazing Michelle Lanning. Her LO was stunning - so bright and it used four photos. I love multi-photo LOs. Here's Michelle's Lo and my version which shows photos of Lara at Easter.



Don't forget to check out Mojo Holder this Friday. We will be lifting yet another utterly fab scrapper.

Forgot to say - I have a new blog header courtesy of digitalscrapbookpages.com. Let me know what you think.

Woods, Wheels and Wellies

I know the title is very tenuous but hey ........ it is Friday!

Have you been over to Mojo Holder today? Last night challenge #85 went live and our NEW design team was also revealed. We have said goodbye to Candy, Nicki and Sandie who because of other commitments have decided to leave the design team but joining us are Jamie, Maria (who some of you will know as Ria979902), Paula and Sheena. I'm really pleased to welcome the new girls on board and look forward to working alongside them in future.

Last nights challenge was to lift a LO by Martha Bonneau. Martha is a designer for Sassafras Lass and Sistv. Martha's LO featured a chipboard house. Mine didn't! I tried (honestly) to incorporate a chipboard house but the LO but it just wasn't working so the chipboard went in the bin and I used another photo in it's place. LOL.

My LO used photos taken at BeWILDerwood in Norfolk. They describe it as "A curious tree house adventure park" and is based around the fantasy book 'A Boggle at BeWILDerwood' by Tom Blofeld. Tom Blofeld is the land owner of the 50-acre which has a natural,healthy and back-to-basics ethos to natural play. The 'Theme Park' has amazing tree houses, a sky high broken bridge, zip wires and slippery slides plus opportunities to build dens in the wood and a maze. It's great for children and my three really enjoyed it when we visited last October.

Whilst sorting out yesterday I came across some LOs I did earlier in the year but never uploaded. they were really simple LOs but used some really challenging papers from CherryArte. I bought the papers on a bit of an impulse and took ages to use them! Don't tell me I'm the only one who does that? Because the Los were of my boys and to prove to everyone that I do scrap my boys I'm uploading them.

Today, was Harvest Festival at Lara's school. As well as taking in produce which would go to a local mother and baby home, they had a visit from a chap from the Fisherman's Mission to talk about the 'harvest of the sea' and he organised a competition to decorate a welly boot! So earlier this week out came my retro flower punch and a circle punch and a sheet of dotty stickers and Lara set to work decorating her welly. She didn't win but she was happy with her entry.

Have a great day. Be back soon.