Journal Your Christmas

I have participated in JYC for some years, over at www.shimelle.com, and also December daily over at www.aliedwards.com.  It’s really lovely to look back on them, and I put the finished mini books in a basket on my coffee table at this time of year.

This year I decide to try an art journal style JYC.  Here are some of my favourite pages so far:

I’ve used distress inks, twinkling H20 paints, mists, paint sprays, stamps and punches, gems and stickles, and had a ball!  I’ve prepared several backgrounds – enough up until Christmas day, and am intending on making up a little kit so that I can keep up once I tidy away and reclaim my dining room!

I used the same technique to make 2 special cards for both mothers:

After I created the background I heat embossed the trees, and stamped Father Christmas on his sleigh.  The churches are cut and layered using my Cricut machine and the Winter Wonderland cartridge.  Finally I added a peel off ‘Happy Christmas’ star and circles.  I am really pleased with the results!

10 on the 10th (1 day late!)

Here’s 10 photos I’ve already taken this Christmas:

Christmas preparation

1. cards all made and written, just waiting to be posted. 
2. Christmas shopping at Bolney vineyard!  (We bought bottles of English red wine for the parents of those babies who the quilts are for!  Of course, we had to taste it first!)
3. Christmas puddings (and cake) made and waiting in the pantry.

Evening out with the ‘lads’, a group of old motorcycling friends

And my ‘small one’ turned 21 last Saturday!!!  Here she is blowing out her candles on Friday, and at the restaurant with Mum and Maurice

All dressed up and ready to go to a posh dinner dance at the Amex Stadium in Brighton

And here I am at the party with my Friday morning coffee friends, Angela and Sarah:

Hope you enjoyed a little peek into my wonderful December – still more to come!! Bring it on!!

Baby Quilts

I’ve been frantically sewing to get these baby quilts in time for for Christmas!

One for a boy….

and one for a girl..

I bought the pattern from Etsy from sweetjane.  The first one is made from 2 Moda Bungle Jungle charm packs, and the second one is made from various 1930s style fabrics, so pretty!

 

Finally for today, I joined in a bunting swap on UKScrappers, and here’s the result.  (Mine is the ‘T’, I made 14 of them!)

 

Craft Cabin

Once a month on a Monday Tash and I meet Burn in her craft cabin in her back garden in Brighton.  As last night was the last meeting before Christmas, we had to do something Christmassy didn’t we?

So we exchanged presents, here’s what they gave me:

Aren’t they fab?  You’ll be seeing some crotchet snowflakes around here soon, and I’m sure that luscious purple cake stand will be centre stage in a few Christmassy photos!

This is what I made to give to them:

Thanks to Lucy at Attic24 for the inspiration (and a few patterns!) The flower patterns that didn’t come from Lucy came from this book:

And here’s what we attempted to make last night:

The trouble was that they turned out too small, and our paper strips wouldn’t stay glued in a loop!  We did have a good laugh though!  You can’t beat’em all can you?  And after all isn’t having a good laugh what it’s all about?

Rough times….

I have been feeling pretty rough all week with a nasty cold.  It’s really floored me over the last few days!  The weather is pretty rough too!  We were woken in the night by the noise of the wind.  Luckily we haven’t had it too bad here, not so much rain, but the poor people down in the West Country have been well and truly battered and flooded.  Hope none of you have been affected.

I ventured out this morning to take Merlin for a sunny but windy walk by the sea, hoping to blow away those cobwebs!  I took my camera with me:

 

Hope you are keeping snug and warm.

I’m back! With ‘Simply a Moment’

Sorry about being missing for so long – nearly 1 month!  Not sure why exactly, although I have been busy with Christmas preparations, of which more about later in the week.  I love to get organised in November so that I can just enjoy the Christmas spirit in December and have time for some crafting of my own.

Alexa over at ‘Trimming the sails’ suggested that we take ‘Just a Moment’ each month and write about it.  You know me, I can’t resist documenting the everyday – photos, writing, scrapbooking, – so here’s my contribution for November:

It is 7.20am.  I am woken by Maurice’s bright, jolly voice, ‘cup of tea for you’.  It’s something he does every morning – and I love him for it!

I struggle to open my eyes and wake up.  Too many times I have fallen back to sleep and woken half an hour later to cold tea. It’s quite dark, the gold curtains glow faintly with the light outside.  I look at the shadows amongst the folds as they hang.  It must be quite dull outside.

My bed is big, warm and comfortable. We’ve thrown off the blanket during the night – too hot- and it lies in a heap at the bottom of the bed.  I move my legs tentatively testing for how sore they feel after my exercise at the gym last night.

I am thinking about the day ahead, coffee with friends later on this morning, always a joy!  First though I must get out of bed, dress in dog walking clothes and take Merlin out.

The radio has been on since 7am but I haven’t heard it up until now.  Chris Evans is shouting excitedly.  It’s ‘Children in Need’ day and people are ringing in with pledges of money for the worthy cause.  In the background, I hear the rest of the family moving about and getting up.

But, I’m staying here, sipping my warm tea – comfortable and warm in my big bed.

 

Back later in the week with some crafting!  See you then

Garden Photography

Yesterday we went on a photography course at Nyman’s Gardens, a National Trust property about 45 minutes drive away.  Our tutor was David Dixon, a National Trust photographer, and fungi enthusiast.  The day was misty and gloomy, which we didn’t think boded well for photography, but it turns out that the weather was perfect for the type of close up garden photography we were going to do.  We were instructed to bring along tripods.  Now I don’t use my tripod very much and never know which knob to turn to change which angle!  I also have trouble getting my camera level.  Maurice had Dad’s old tripod, which David suggested he should throw away when we got home!  It was very flimsy and did look like it might blow over in a breath of wind.  (Christmas present ideas, new tripod and spirit level!)

After a little talk and a slide show (do look at David’s website, especially his fungi photos) we went out into the garden to find fungi.  I know very little about fungi, but the spot we found had 4 or 5 different species all growing under one tree.  With our cameras attached to tripods, we were able to shoot at f8/f16 despite the gloomy conditions.  David urged us to take our time over each shot, better to have 20 or 30 good shots than 100s of ‘average’ snaps (tell me about it David!)  We all enjoyed getting down low to really look at these fungi, and notice the colours, texture and shapes. 

I am quite pleased with these 3 taken of the lime walk:

Next we all clustered round this yellow maple tree.  Love the contrast between the leaves and the trunks.

David was very keen to show us this little Star fungus, which is quite rare.  He couldn’t wait for us to go so he could sneak back and photograph it himself!