10 on the 10th

Shameless theft from Shimelles' 10 on the tenth last month :). 10 fave JYC pages of mine.

If you want to see other festive 10 on the 10ths go to Shimelles blog.

First three are from 2008, my first journal, and I used 8x8 size.

Love Harry's letter to Santa on this page.

On this LO it's the photo that says it all.

And here is my favourite decoration I have had since childhood with a LO all to herself.

Now for 2009, when I was unemployed (note the increased level of work in these pages) and went with 6x12" portrait.

This one for the photo.

and this page for the amount of effort it took!

This one for the snow!!!

and this page for the journalling, it's the last in the journal.

And now 2010, 6x12" again, but landscape this time.

This one for the unbelievable cold we had that December

and this one for the handmade decoration that goes on the tree when it's up

and finally this page from 2009 is my favourite of all my JYC pages ever, and it's the story of something that happened to my eldest daughter on the 23rd of December that year.

and this is why i love journalling my Christmas.

JYC completed.

Just a quick post today (too cold in the study), i've put all my JYC pages together into a slideshow on the right, it's funny, i loved my journal last year, but i like this years even better.... more journalling i think. Despite me thinking i would never be able to close it, with the help of a couple of ribbons it does stay closed, and will stand even with the bells i added to a page early on in the journal.

Kevs first OFSTED day today, DD2 has a GCSE, Mum is in hospital, cold and snowy...... I'll be glad when this week's over.

Wot... more snow?

Although i posted last thing yesterday about there being no sign of snow it sneaked up on us over night, and as there has been so much fuss about schools closing they nearly all opened despite the hideous roads, so it took me 2 hours to get the kids to school this morning.

But enough of that... finally we've got there, this is my last JYC page for this year, and considering my love of journalling, and my news from Monday it seems very appropriate. I made the page at the weekend before i had my interview, just hoping things would turn out well.

I used the dual use of the word Epiphany to lead me into the journalling, as it was the feast of the Epiphany the page celebrated.... and some stitching and distressing seemed to be called for too.

On UKS scrapbookers have been encouraged to come up with a word that sums up the year ahead for them. I think for me it is going to have to be HOPE. Positive, forward looking, with a bit of a spiritual edge... perfect for me this year i think.

Have a great day, and stay wrapped up :)

How busy?......

how can it be that a day can be so crowded with activities, while the one after it has nothing pending?

I worked a full day today which involved a 35 mile round trip, we had a family visit to the dentist, then a preparation service at church for Harry's upcoming confirmation, then choir practice, so about 10 minutes ago i finally sat down with a cup of coffee to relax about 14 hours after i started this morning... i don't know how i had the stamina to keep this up full time :D

And the calendar for tomorrow is empty. But alas not for Kevin this week, his school had the dreaded call, and OFSTED are in on Thursday and Friday. Not sure how late he'll be up tonight and tomorrow, but i do find myself asking (and have done every time a school I've worked in is inspected)

Do the inspections work?

Do they tell schools/LAs anything they didn't already know?

Are they worth all the cash spent on them?

Are they worth all the stress they cause?

I know what i think, just wish the gov't would knock them on the head, the country does need to save a few quid after all!

Today's page ... we are getting to the end now... features photos i took in the heavy snowfall last week, and talks about how late i always am taking down my decorations.

I made my own background papers with die cut snowflakes and swirls loosely stuck to the page, then sprayed with cosmic shimmer mist in blue (a Christmas pressie) then silver. The die cut masks are removed and hey presto a bespoke paper. Messy, but worth it for the unique look it gives.

I added some bling gemstones to make the swirls, and a lot of glitter glue... well how often do we get proper snow like this! Talking of which snow is forecast here tonight... no sign of it yet though :)

Pizza Hut...

It has become a bit of a tradition in our family that we visit Pizza Hut (which sadly for my waist line is less than a mile from where we live) for any family celebrations. Good school report, exam results, promotion and yes.... new jobs.

And as we have just returned from the hut you can be assured that at last i did manage to get a new job today. The stash diet is over (well it will be in April when i start work!)

It is full time, covering a maternity leave for a Year 4 class, but it is work, and with this experience behind me i can start to look at where i am going in teaching again.

Todays page...is about a memory from the Christmas period. I chose this one of my sister dancing like a loon on the stage at a local hotel, she was called up by the band to shake her tail feather, and shake it she did!!!!

Another page from JYC

This page records the last celebration of the season, as we had family visitors, and made dinner for 11 of us! I took lots of photos, it was a lovely day, the last one before John and Kathleen left us for the frozen north. Happily they used a window in the weather and returned safely to Ireland at the end of last week.

It never fails to surprise me how like his brothers Kevin looks, and i love the photo of him and Ian at the bottom of the page.... I can see me re-using this one for a 12x12 page later on this year.
The snow seems to be on its way now, which makes for a nice slushy start to the week for us. I have another interview tomorrow, so fingers crossed (again)!

It's all done

Hooray, my JYC is done!!!!!

Now i can get back to doing 12x12 size again, I've printed off some bigger photos, there are some challenges appearing on UKS, so off we go again!

Today's page is from the 2nd Jan, and is about innocence. I went with the idea of innocent fun, these silly glasses were bought as fun presents for the boys of the family this year, and most of us tried them on over Christmas, they gave us a fly's-eye view of the world!!

It snowed a little again overnight, Hannah was out at her first dinner party!!!! A friend of hers celebrated her 19th birthday by having a Murder Mystery meal. Hannah had to go dressed in evening wear and 'diamonds' (her friend said that she found it hard to decide between this character and a lap dancer for Hannah!!!) Obviously i sent her with a camera as I think a good scrapbook page will follow!

As all the shopping is done we are all in for the day, I have to admit not even bothering to get dressed. Just chatted to Mum, and she seems a little better, thanks for all the best wishes for her.

Stay snug!

New Years page

As promised, my New Years page, no resolutions, just wishes for this year. I've been frugal with my Thickers altering some Qs to make zeros for the date, and used a small scalloped Nestability to cut out the circles for my wishes.

Am worried about my Mum who is quite unwell at the moment, the worst thing is that we don't know what is causing it, hopefully the extra tests she has had over the past few days might give us some answers.

Wrap up warm, this weekend is going to be a chilly one.

Snow at Last!

As i type the snow is falling fast outside the window, and it looks as if we are going to have a decent snowfall, hope we can get the toboggan out later on!

The big downside is that it is so cold, and i'm having to keep the heating on, which seems a tad wasteful when there is only me in the house most of the day.

Todays page is about New Years Eve, and as we had such a quiet one this year I decided to take a look back in time to the Millennium which was ten years ago. The children were all still small and believed in Santa, we threw a fantastic party, I just remember it being a brilliant evening... and as i was not scrapbooking back then i hadn't recorded it in any way.

In the time it's taken me to type this the road outside the house is getting slushy, Hannah is supposed to be at school this afternoon, but I don't fancy getting the car out, so i think we will both stay in by the fire. I do want to take a photo of the house covered in snow though, as my tree is still up, just because :)

And Hannah is now jumping about with glee as the secondary school is sending the kids home.

The Last Hurrah...

We had visitors today, (Kevs brother and family) so we ended up with 11 for dinner, including us and Kevs Mum and Dad, although we only had roast chicken it felt like an extension to Christmas, as we had a lovely day together. My SIL had a read through my journal and was staggered by the Christmas Eve page, we think that the baby was probably returned to her mother, or at least social services would be looking after her, no news in the papers, but according to the police it is not so uncommon these days for babies to be abandoned.

Todays page is a summary end of the year LO, and i think it has more pictures on it than i thought physically possible!!!

I did get 2 pages done yesterday, but am still 2 days behind. Am babysitting my sisters son tomorrow (along with my own!) for a teacher day so i can't see me catching up then!

An icy day

I have been really lazy over the past few days, i have got dressed (but only because my in laws are staying with us!!) but hadn't stepped outside the house for days. As Hannah needed a lift to work it gave me the push to get up and dressed, and Katie and I went out for a walk in the local country park. For the first time ever the pools were completely frozen over, hard enough for Katie to walk on... she didn't go out far (too dangerous) but i got some fabulous shots of her on the ice.

Today's page is about the film Nativity we went to see on Christmas Eve. It was going to be my 24th December page, but when Hannah found the baby I had to use that for my page, so this is a catch up. I remembered to keep the tickets too, they go in a little pocket behind the photo.

Must do some scrapping today, I'm 3 days behind again!

Happy New Year

Well as i was not at all hungover this morning, you can tell we had a fairly quiet night in (much to Hannahs disgust) last night... although she did choose to spend the night with us. One glass of beer and a Cava saw the new year in for me, i must be getting old.

The day here is cold but beautiful, frost is still on the rooves and the coal fire is blazing away in the lounge. The Christmas tree is still up, i'm one of those who waits until 12th night to take it down, for the real tree it always seems a shame to ditch it before it's time is really up.

Todays page is from the 28th Dec, my FILs birthday, so I chose this to record in my journal, especially as they live in Ireland now, so a Christmas with them has been rare over the past few years.

What ever you decide to do this year, have a wonderful one, and i am cheering myself with the thought that 2010 has got to be better than 2009!

New Years Eve

Happy New Year to you all (if i am in no fit state to blog tomorrow!!) although we are having a quiet night in with an Indian Takeaway. My in laws are here with us, but my Dad is in bed nursing a cold, so he and Mum will stay at home tonight.

My page for the 27th December is about sleeping habits over the Christmas holiday, so as i took photos of my nephews in their very cute pyjamas i decided to make a page around these.

i braved the sales for the first time today with DD1, she spent her christmas money on a ridiculously high pair of shoe boots, and I was very naughty and bought myself a lovely pair of brown leather boots for £40. Kev wasn't quite as convinced about the need for these..... but he's got over the shock now!

Lets hope the interview i have in just over a weeks time is a success :)

Boxing Day

We all meet up as an extended family on boxing day, so my page reflects this and is very photo heavy.

Had a mammoth crafting session tonight and have caught up all my pages up to and including today... i think i might not have time to craft now until the new year.

And looking at all my new pages i don't think there is one where i haven't used my new punch!!!!

And finally some interesting weather news, we have a little bit of snow (well OK, it might be slush!) on top of the cars as i type.... it would be nice to get the toboggan out tomorrow!

A busy day...

...but i managed to get 2 pages done for my journal. I'll post a quick one now, and might catch the others up tomorrow.

Firstly i have to apologise for the dreadful photo, i don't know why it's so bad, as i took it in daylight, but by the time i realised how blurred it was it was too dark to take an improvement. This year for Christmas Day i just focused on the kids fave game, the Rockband for the Wii, fab idea really, as they all got to play on it, and it has appealed to all ages within the family. You may also notice my lovely new Martha Stewart Pine needle punch has been used on the page, I had very little this year from Santa (not been good you see!) but this was the one thing on my very short list i was delighted to receive. And you know, i'm not so bothered that I didn't have a huge Christmas list, i think i just valued the small pile of gifts i had all the more because of it. (But don't tell Kevin that... he'll think he doesn't have to buy me anything next year!!)

Long time no see....

Well it has been 3 days since i posted!
We have had a lovely Christmas, Rockband has proved to be the most popular game, the think i love about it is that everyone has been able to have a go, and it has encouraged Hary to have a go at singing, so sweet!
Kevs Mum and Dad arrived yesterday after a marathon 6 hour journey from the Northwest (love the M6)and as it is Johns birthday today we are havinbg a small family get together.
No crafting for me for a few days, so only a Christmas day photo to share with you today of the kids playing in their pyjamas!

A Christmas tale

I won't say much about this story, except that it happened to Hannah on Wednesday evening, and i had to include it in my journal as it made me think about the very first Christmas and the desperate straits Mary and Joseph were in, that we often take for granted.
For some, that desperation is still with us.

Have a happy and peaceful Christmas.

Christmas Eve is here....

That is the first line of a verse sung to Jingle Bells by Hannah when she was in reception, and still we remember it, and sing it every Christmas Eve!

Well all the jobs are done, lists ticked (i've forgotten crackers for Boxing day, but we'll live without them !) and we are ready to go. Every Christmas Eve we go to my Mum and Dads and have pork and stuffing batches (bread rolls to you non-Coventrians out there) and we'll be heading off there in about half an hour.

We also make a trip to the pictures, and today the film of choice was Nativity! Well as it was set in Coventry, and actually filmed in our Primary school, we couldn't choose any other. Such a lovely feel good British film, perfect for today, and all the kids enjoyed it, even my teenage girls. Well worth watching :)

To todays page; the prompt is about stockings, well we don't really use them in our house, so i went with a new tradition about displaying Christmas cards i have employed this year (and plan to use in future years). Putting up the Christmas cards was always the last job i did, and when i mentioned this at a local crop another crafter said she puts her cards into a decorated basket, easy to do, and you can look throught the cards over the season. What a great idea! So you can see a photo of my decorated basket, with all my cards.

Merry Christmas to you all, I hope to post tomorrow as i have a very unusual tale to tell, and have included this on my Christmas Eve page.

Jobs to do, and a workdesk post

Saw Julias blog today, and was reminded to play along again with WOYWW. The photo today was taken from a different angle to last weeks, and shows the dual nature of my workdesk (come kitchen table) as OH was just serving up homemade soup for lunch as i took these. No idea why DS has his hat on, even we are not so poor we can't afford the heating on in this cold weather :), no, i think it's the fact that we bought it yesterday, and he likes it so much he even insisted on putting it on before we left the shop!

So, what can you see?

My Journal on top of 2 boxes of stash (like last week) but that journal is getting thicker by the day!!! Will I be able to close it by twelfth night?

RUB of finished cards, with lovely jewel cardstock on top, in use for the journal.

A box of tool, alas without my piercing tool, which has rolled off somewhere. I'm hoping that tidying the craft space tomorrow (has to be done sadly, as we will need all of the kitchen table for the next few days) will reveal it's whereabouts.

And finally the tablecloth has been changes for a festive one.

So that's the workdesk, what about the lists? Yesterdays prompt was about the things still to do before Christmas. I found this one of the most useful prompts last year, as i stamped my lists using a journalling stamp (I have a few !), one for the next 3 days. They get stuck to the fridge, until all jobs are ticked off, then i just put them into the folder i've stitched onto my page. It's very daunting to write the lists, but pleasing to tick things off as we go, and as the kids have got older, it has become much more of a family affair, getting the house ready for Christmas.

And the "set fire" on the last list doesn't involve anything sinister, just arranging wood, paper, coal and firelighers in the grate in the lounge, so we can light the fire with ease!!!!

Must go, things to do!!!!

Winter Solstice

Yesterdays page was about recording that moment in time, so i went with the theme of the winter solstice, and took a photo of the garden to show the lamentable amount of snow we have had here. If i hear another newscaster complaining about the snow again i think i'll just have to switch off :(

I took a little departure in terms of my journal and switched papers for the lovely Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly range, which seemed to suit yesterdays theme perfectly.

Went into town with OH early today for the first time in ages, got much of the final few bits, and Katie spent her cash from her Grandparents.. in Hobbycraft! A girl after my own heart!!

3 weeks into my journal and i'm still up to date :D