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.

...the end is nigh....

of my JYC that is! Here's the last page, and an additional one as I had a spare blank page and some bits leftover. Will I do one next year? I know I said to myself I'd have a year off this year, but am so glad I did the journal again as every year is so different. (and I have to admit picking up some WRMK papers in the QVC sale just in case!!)
The last page stimulated the question "What is fin?" from Harry... I think he thought it had something to do with fish!

Long post alert...

..as I have a few things to share today.Firstly here's the next page in my Christmas journal. The theme for today is about putting the decorations away, this is one thing that stays out all year round. One more page to share!!

Next, I went to my local crop today and made a LO that used up bits and pieces of a kit I received in early December. I have already used these photos in my JYC, but I liked them so much they've made it to a 12x12 page for Hannah's album too. The challenge was to bust some stash (ie use it up!) so this LO does that exactly, very little of the kit is left as I've thrown it all at the page!!! The journalling is about a song Hannah learned at school when she was very small, and we still sing it today (to the tune of Jingle Bells) every Christmas Eve. The holly border is doodled by hand.

And last but not least a happy birthday to my Mum, I won't say how old she is :) Her card is made using some lovely free papers with The Scrapbook Magazine, and a die cut title using my Eclipse.

At last..

the journal is done!!!I finished it off last night, and the pages are now on my hard drive so I can share it over the next few days. I'll try to make a slideshow too, although my PC is playing up, so not sure yet if this will be possible.The page for the 4th Jan records our Christmas Eve visit to the cinema, I went off topic as this was a part of the season that I hadn't got round to adding to my journal yet.

Have been shopping with Katie today, spending her christmas vouchers (and a bit of my cash too!!)

Just like a bus....

No posts for a while, then two come along at once!Thought i would post the last page (so far) I've made of my journal. The prompt for this page is about the strongest memories of this Christmas, and for me it had to be the cold we had in December. It seems odd writing this as the temperature is back up into double figures again, and I felt positively warm at school today (I even opened my window!)

One morning the milk froze in the bottle and expanded up and out, I'd not seen that since I was a child, and frost so thick it looked like snow!! Seems ages ago now. The odd thing was that we had so much snow and ice the children didn't bother to get the toboggan out, so I have no pictures of them playing in the snow this time.

Sorry, sorry, sorry...

.. to not have posted for a while, not too well at the weekend, getting over it now, and as I have thrown Katie off this computer for a while I can update you. I still haven't finished my JYC.... that was a job for the weekend, so it will have to wait for the upcoming one ( I have a crop in Nuneaton on Sunday), but I do only have 3 pages left to do (and ideas for the subject of 2 of the pages), so it's not a mighty task.

Here's my page for the 2nd of Jan. The theme is innocence, but I chose to include these candid photos of my daughters having a quiet little chat at the table over Christmas. The embellishments are all cut from the patterned paper with a little added glitter.

I had a look through the 12x12 LOs that I have yet to upload (I keep them in the kitchen so I don't forget them, and then they go into scrapbooks) and I am so behind with my blog!! JYC has taken all my posts for the past month or so, there are 10 12x12 pages to get on here once I have finished it (Mostly from crops and the retreat back in November and December) !!

Ah well, at least I won't feel under too much pressure to create!

New Years Resolutions

Quick page tonight from my JYC. I don't usually make resolutions, but I thought I might try this year, just to see how they turn out at the end of the year. I'm not bothering with weight loss, exercise or anything like that (as I am unlikely to achieve those) but I have set myself some little goals!

Glad tomorrow is Friday, feeling a bit rough... and only 4 days into term :(

New Years Eve page.

We had a night in with curry and chinese food again, so the page is about the opening of the fortune cookies. Title and streamers are cut with my new Eclipse (Santa brought it!!) The background block is cut using a chipboard shape I have been using for this job for ages.I added lots of glitter glue to alter the colour for the prompt.

Back to work today, is never as bad as I think it will be. :)

A Review of 2010

This is one of my favourite pages to make in the JYC, and it's always easy as I take so many photos during the year!!I used a simple grid with 12 photos , one for each month of the year. The only difficult thing was choosing which photos to use!

First Post

After spending a really funny New Years Eve with my sister and her family, and a very lazy New Years Day in my PJs I thought I ought to update some more of the blog today with my JYC pages.

The first page is about Hannah heading off to work on Christmas Eve, dressed festively with Christmas tree earrings, a red dress and plenty of glitter spray in her hair! Her manager liked the look so much that she nipped out to Claires Accessories to pick up glitter hairspray for herself!

The next page is about the lego building that has gone on here since Christmas day, even the girls have joined in. Harry received lots of Harry Potter lego this year, and some lego board games, so they have all been played with. The nice thing about this is that he has gone into his huge lego box of bits and pieces (much of which was donated by friends with older children) and has been building random other models to go with the kits. I think lego is one of those toys that I won't be giving to a charity shop, and it will go in the loft when the children outgrow it... ready for another generation perhaps?

New Years Eve

..and a few more pages to share!

I made these very quickly yesterday in an effort to catch up with my journal. I was going to stop at the 1st, but I still have a few more things to include, so I'll have to see how far I get after New Years Day.

My christmas day page includes a photo of us at dinner, with a snowy scene outside, the first white christmas I can recall since being a child.

Boxing day is another family blow out, so a picture of cracker pulling fit the bill nicely.

My brother made lots of cocktails on Christmas night, so the next page is about these. Am looking for a cocktail galss (in paper!) to add to the space on the page.

Happy New Year everyone.

And a week later.....

...we didn't get stuck in the snow (which has finally all melted here now), and had a lovely lunch out in the Warwickshire countryside. I had a lovely Christmas, and now need to catch up with my journal.

I've spent today catching up, and am ashamed to note that I have been so remiss uploading my pages

Here are the next few up to Christmas Eve. If I can keep the kids off the computer tomorrow, I'll try to upload some more!

On the 21st we were asked to take photos of the house as it was then, with a poorly teenager, and still lots to do there was plenty to record.

The theme for the 22nd was about making lists of things to do, but as I went out to lunch this day I chose to record this and I left the lists until Christmas Eve. The pub gave us each a Christmas card with a line drawing of the pub on it, so i chopped that up to add to my page!
On the 23rd my girls made a gingerbread train, out came the camera and into the journal it goes.

Finally for Christmas Eve I used my lists that had been stuck to the fridge door to record all the jobs done around the house in preparation for Christmas day.

In the meantime the heating conked out on Christmas Eve, but is now working again (note... must organise emergency boiler and heating insurance). Luckily we managed to keep it going until someone could look at it a day or so ago.

More tomorrow!

Out to lunch..

with the ladies of the family today, a Christmas tradition of at least 10 years standing, and a nice chance to catch up with everybody. Fortunately it has not snowed as hard as was predicted here, as we are going out to a country pub for lunch... didn't fancy digging us out later on :)

Page for today is about how cold it is!! It also meets the UKS challenge for the week of using festive colours, the computer (I printed off the BBC weather for the day) and 12 of something, I used 12 gems on the border. The photo is of our garden on Monday, it looks even snowier now!

Catch up

Spent yesterday catching up with my journal, made some very speedy pages, so here they are.

Not fantastic pages, but they fit the themes (apart from the baptism page, but as it was what we did on that day I included it)) and get my journal up to date.

Shortest day today; on the way to summer from here!

A Festive Christening

Spent most of today at a christening, lovely but freeeeezing!!!

Another page... and this is my most up to date so far (am behind again :( ) it's cold in the kitchen so I haven't bothered with the last 3 pages.

Theme was visitors, but I chose to journal about the 6 legged variety that can be found on children's heads at any time of year!!!

Am hoping to have a quiet day in tomorrow, so I can get caught up with my journal, and make a list of all the things I need to do before Christmas.

Christmas memories

I found this vintage photo of a snowy London taken in the 1960s, and it brought back a vivid memory from my childhood of a white Christmas in the capital. I'm not sure if it is the vintage photo, but I think this is may favourite page so far!

We had a bit of snow here this morning, and it took me over 2 hours to get home, in a journey that normally takes 10 minutes :(... and at last the tree is up, I don't ever recall putting up the tree with a lovely snowy scene outside!! Not sure if I will get my shopping finished tomorrow if the wintry weather continues, I would rather stay home in the warm than venture out again.

Another JYC page.

With only a day to go before the end of term, and Hannah home from University for the holidays I'm starting to feel like it's close now!

This was a very quick page as I needed to catch up, about music of the festive period. For the past 20 years we have listened to Maddy Prior singing carols accompanied by medieval instruments, and it just wouldn't be Christmas for us without that sound in the background.

Hope to put the tree up tomorrow... at last :)

A catch up

I've caught up 2 of the 5 pages I needed to this evening, so here they are.

This first one was done before the flu hit me, but I've only just got round to taking a photo of it.

The prompt for the 10th was about wrapping paper, so I chose my favourite and added it to the page, along with a photo of some gifts under the tree.

Next is the 11th, about the tree, although we did go and choose our tree and I took some photos when I got the receipt from Kev he gave me the idea of comparing the cost of the tree with other things so the journalling takes centre stage.

The tree is still in the garage BTW, that's the joy of living with The Grinch this time of year.

As you can see I didn't follow the prompt for the 12th, but after Hannah took a photo of me snoozing on the sofa I decided to use it for my page. It also fits this weeks UKS challenge of using white space, a big photo, some chipboard and no journalling. the title and photo say it all! As I'm rubbish at white space, mine is filled with the lovely patterned paper!