Journal Your Christmas

Have to confess that this doesn't really link to any particular JYC prompt and I'm somewhat behind on those, but never mind! I just scrapped pictures that I liked that were Christmassy instead. Anyway, these pictures are of my family chillin' in Covent Garden when they came to visit me just before Christmas. We had a fab time in London and then all went back up North for Christmas.

You might be able to tell that I LOVE these curly black days-of-the-week word stickers. They're so lovely!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all - lots of ambitions for 2011 but I'll say those for, well, 2011.

Journal Your Christmas: 16th December

This one is a bit bittersweet.

Yesterday, I woke up after a lie in, still nursing a cold with a sore throat and very little voice. However, I had ticket to see the English National Ballet perform the Nutcracker in London for the afternoon and with no school for a fortnight, things were looking good.

And to cap it all, it started to snow! I was totally jazzed.

But then it kept snowing and we had three or four inches and the airports closed, traffic came to a standstill and tube lines were dropping like flies and it was looking less and less likely that I'd be able to get to the ballet.

I did set out to have a go at making it, but after being outside for 30 seconds, I was completely coated in snow and after a minute, it was trickling inside my scarf. After a few minutes of indecision when I trekked back and forth towards the tube station and back, and forwards and back, I gave it up as a bad job and kissed goodbye to my ticket. It turns out I would probably have been late anyway due to delays on the line.

I was really looking forward to going - have been for a month and I was looking forward to the chance to do something really Christmassy and wonderful to celebrate the end of term. I've not seen the Nutcracker before.

So after a sympathy phone call home, I settled down on my sofa to look out of my window and watch the world turn out, the people coming and going, children wrapped up spherically, the odd snowball... And standing at the window, I could see people in windows across the way, standing in their flats looking at the snow. And it felt nice to be all cosy inside, knowing I don't have to do anything and being able to share the lovely weather with people up and down the country as we all hope for a white Christmas.

And there's still lots to look forward to. My family are coming down tomorrow (I'm waving at you family!) and we've got lots of wonderful things planned, I'm going to the cinema this afternoon, I'm going home to Yorkshire in a few days, and I can always go the ballet next year. Weather permitting.

So here's my page from my window.

Kisses xxx

P.S.The sassafras embellishments - entwined blooms - and paper are so beautiful - it's a lovely colour palette and I shall look out for more of them.

P.P.S. Another thing to look forward to is getting a new paper paper trimmer. I dropped mine and it broke about a month ago so all these JYC pages are being made without proper straight-line-cutting abilities. I have to wedge some of the pieces together and hope they hold long enough for me to cut a line. Often they don't!

Journal Your Christmas: 13th December

And, warping backwards through time, I come to my Christmas carols page! This is a picture of my grandma and I at a service where carols were definitely a feature! My family and I all love to sing perhaps more than is strictly necessary, especially if it means we can put in alto, tenor and bass parts and a descant over the top (yours truly). When we don't know them, we make them up. Same goes for the words. Fortunately, we know the carols pretty well and there's no need to ad lib. Much.

School finished today. It was nice - it even snowed! - and I got some fab presents from the kids but I was totally glad to end the year as I still feel pretty rubbish. Hope that everyone is also looking forward to some lovely, relaxing holiday time!

Kisses xxx

P.S. When you're ill, the sensible thing to do is stay in and rest. So I went to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader with a friend which was definitely more fun! Plus I got to keep the 3D specs. This is only cool if you happen to be a member of my form. Which, if you're reading this, I sincerely hope you aren't. You should be...doing your homework?

Journal Your Christmas: 15th December

Housewarming pics! Scrapped a few of the portraits and documented a few giggles - nice stuff to remember. I know this doesn't seem Christmassy but hey, there are decorations in the photos and I had to tidy up the flat for company so never mind. Mix and Mend love!

Still ill which is annoying as it was the carol service this evening and my throat seriously impaired my singing. Still, went out for Japanese food with colleague beforehand so yum! I've also been chain swallowing throat sweets - I NEED my voice to teach (except in my silent mime lessons but that's a story for another time - and so I've been eating Nin Jioms all day. Given to me by aforementioned colleague. They are lemon and herbs flavour. The box is unspecific about the herbs. I accidently started a small drugs ring in my form as we all swapped throat sweets and tried them out. Italian sugar free ones = yuck.

Anyway, went to pick up two boxes from the post office yesterday and they cheered me up LOADS as they were both kits full of stash. And you know what? Both kits are absolutely brilliant. One was my first Scrapagogo design team kit and the other my Studio Calico. Only two more days of school and I can curl up with 18 cups of tea and my new deliciousness.

Apologies for lack of coherency.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Carol service went very well, felt v. proud of students and love that we have 2 large choirs in a boys school. Singing rules! So do carols.

Journal Your Christmas: 10th December

So I'm a little behind on JYC - busy weekend! I had a housewarming with a few friends and we had a great time. We also went into London the next day. Obviously I took lots of photos! This page uses a few of those and I documented the fact that I do most of my Christmas shopping in October Half Term. That way, when December rolls round, I can enjoy the festive delights of London, the twinkly lights, the trees, the hot drinks and the bustle.... and I don't have to join any of the queues!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Am ill. Blurgh.

Journal Your Christmas: 12th December

Tales of Christmas past include many photos from the Trinity Church nativity. Once year we realised there weren't really enough children or any who were old enough to do the nativity. So we opened it up to the whole congregation to sign up. And lots of people did! So now we always rehearse on the Sunday before and once before the service (and by rehearse I mean walk through) and we sort of wing it.

It's always funny and we give over the whole service to it, mixing in carols and things. And we bring our own costumes. This year featured the above as angels including yours truly, but also a chap as Gabriel who'd made his own light-up wings, some prophets and scholars in mortar boards and gowns and some Yorkshire wise men in flat caps. The wise men costumes are always the most unpredictable. There are also shepherds in the traditional dressing gown and tea-towel ensemble (less convincing when said dressing gown is pink and fluffy) and the children wear sheep ears and woolly jumpers and bleat throughout.

Eee, it's grand.

Kisses xxx

P.S. This is the first year in quite a few that I won't get to be in it - sad face! Good luck to the cast who are probably performing as I type!

Journal Your Christmas: 9th December

Well, making a page based on one Christmas tradition is an impossible task. So my pick wasn't really a Christmas tradition so much as a December tradition - it's a little early still for the proper ones. Anyway, once the weather turns, out comes my red beret! I love wearing it out and about and it always feels more festive in December than at other times of the year.

Heart!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Photostrip love!

P.P.S. Really looking forward to a bit of weekend scrapping time. It's a bit (or a lot!) or a squash to make my page some days. Tomorrow it probably won't happen so look out for more come the weekend!

Journal Your Christmas: 8th December

Thankyou Hipstamatic for quick Christmas pics!

And that's all I have to say tonight as busy!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Concert went well!

Journal Your Christmas: 6th December

For my Christmas memory, I picked something that actually isn't technically from Christmas. The photo is from a big snowfall we had in Oxford when I was a student. We woke up one morning and everything was covered. I did totter dutifully to my lectures in the morning but the rest of the day was spent blissfully playing in the snow. Oxford colleges have zillions of lawns and normally you're not allowed to go on them expect at very specific time. Like croquet season.

But it seemed like normal college rules were suspended and we had a huge snowball fight (which got broken up by the bursar when one snowball went through is window - who has their windows open when it snows?) and slid down a big snow slide on one lawn and snowman sprang up all through the grounds.

This one was in St John's quad, which is the one the tourists have to enter. It turned out the porters had gone out really early and built him from the snow they cleared from the paths. Where they found the mortar board and gown they weren't saying but he looked terribly academic, dont-you-know. And I think he was responsible for lots of the tourists that day as he was the first thing that they could see through the porters' lodge gate.

Just need to add the date! I wanted to include this picture for my memory today, partly because I love it and partly because it makes a nice contrast with my page from the 2nd. Just not enough snow!!!!

Had a fab evening having fish and chips with the Guiders in the Hut. Sounds weird I know, but it was so lovely. A story for another time!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Got my Christmas Radio Times. Massive fun to be had with a long sit down, a cuppa and a biro for circling the all-important Christmas vegging out time. Now all I need is the time. Big Christmas tradition and makes up for all the telly I don't get to see during the year!

P.P.S. School concert tomorrow so might be a little while before that page happens.

Journal Your Christmas: 5th December

I don't have an advent calendar this year. Note to self, make one for next time. I am however, doing a Countdown to Christmas with my church from back home, where each day you get something to think and pray about and also donate a little bit of money as a way of counting your blessings. I think this is a lovely idea although expensive as on the 1st, you had to donate 10p for every cookbook you own. And I suppose as I light candles each night during advent, and do JYC, I am counting down in my own way.

So I journalled about getting advent calendars from Nanny when I was younger. They always had Christian themes - you'd get a picture from the Nativity story and a Bible verse that would unroll as the days passed. But she also used to give me a packet of milky way Magic Stars so that I wouldn't miss out on having a chocolate each morning! I really think she was onto a winner there as a packet of Magic Stars often had 30+ stars which meant you got loads of extras as opposed to the measly 25 in commercial calendars!

I've been playing with photography for this picture and also acrylic painted the edge of my page. Instant snow effect!

Kisses xxx

P.S. This brings me up to date with JYC. Loving this project!

Journal Your Christmas: 4th December

A bit behind as I popped to Oxford for the weekend, but after a lovely Sunday afternoon scrapping with Lou, a fellow JYC-er, I've caught up both of this weekend's pages. Yay!

So what's my perfect Christmas? Well, I don't require anything other than my family and being at home. That is was makes Christmas for me. Anything else just wouldn't be right. I'm happy to consign designer Christmases to festive films and glossy magazines. They might be pretty, but they're not Christmas to me.

So here they are, my family Christmas.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Yes, I am doing 12x12. I found I didn't have enough space to journal last year. Small pages take me just as long as big ones as it takes ages for me to decide what fits on. For me, it's easier just to go bigger and not worry.

P.P.S. Made the flower using a technique learned from one of the ScrapaGoGo team in a fab class. Yay!

Journal Your Christmas: 3rd December

Well, I mentioned the Rocky Road went down a storm! I started off with Nigella's recipe but substituted ginger biscuits and added nutmeg, cinnamon, a little vanilla and some sugar stars. To make it Christmassy!

I will be making it again before long for the simple reason that I am terrible at Christmas cards but I love baking so I usually give edible Christmas cards. I bake a batch of something, make it more festive and hand them out with Seasonal Greetings! The staff (and even the odd curious sixth former) made short work of these. The next batch will be for friends.

So why don't I give cards? Well I do give some in a conventional way. I always buy a box - they must be Christian in message and from a charity - but I dislike how impersonal they are. Everyone gets the same card. But I don't enjoy making cards like I do pages. If I bake, I still get to make something, it's still personal and hand-delivered and it's also delicious!

Kisses xxx

P.S. I told you I'd bring back the stitched circles. Although this time I drew them on!

Journal Your Christmas: 2nd December

Well the weather outside is merely frightful ish. Some places have had bucketloads of snow and we have had doodle squat. It barely even covers the ground. I took a picture of some out of the maths office window (Hipstamatic - eep!) to prove that we'd had some but mainly I'm jealous of the proper snow others have had. I quite fancy a day off!

Anyway, the boys are convinced that there's far too much snow to be in school. This is because they are wussy and from London so they don't know that 2cm doth a real snowfall constitute.

On the bright side, I got to use the lovely Jillibean Soup snowy paper that I've been saving for ages, specially!

Kisses xxx

P.S. The rocky road worked fantastically and went down really well. Will add it to the "make frequently" list.

P.P.S. Guess who's one of the new members of the Scrapagogo design team! Check it out!

Journal Your Christmas: 1st December

Well, it's finally here! December, all things Christmas and JYC! And Classic fm played their first carol this morning. Lovely! In the Bleak Midwinter.

So on my first page just sets out the things I'm looking forward to and planning for this December. Definitely including Project JYC 12x12 for 2010. I really enjoyed making this page, and a big shout out to Abi who sent me the metal tags! Yay! I think they may be a regular feature...

I'm going to focus on journalling this year, particularly as that's what frustrated me last year. Oh, and better photos. I'm pleased with this one documenting the things I like to don to keep cosy while I look out at the Earth quietly freezing. However, to get the photo involved me propping up the camera and using my boots as props to accurately focus, then pressing the self timer, performing a death defying leap over said camera, flinging the boots out the way and making sure I stand in the right place and then smoothing the wrinkles out of the socks. Click!

Looking forward to looking at other JYCs - so exciting!

Kisses xxx

P.S. I made these socks one summer in uni. They're really long and I was mocked mercilessly by my fellow employees. They have to be worn with a suspender belt to hold them. That casued comment too.

P.P.S. Feeling uber domestic as I made rocky road crunch bars for the staff meeting tomorrow. Pretty sugar stars on top! Hope they turn out OK though as the texture is weird...