Ahh picasa....

Sometimes you annoy me (mostly for highlighting how badly I've labelled my photos) but oh how I love your collage function. Sort of. The mosaic annoys me a bit. But mostly it's all yay.

Here's why -

First up, my December Daily so far - should have waited until the 9th was done really so it wouldn't have doubled up those 2 pics but oh well. So far, I'm loving it - though I think somethings missing from the second page of the 3rd I just can't think what...

Aaaand here's our Christmas dinner! I just wanted to snap a quick pic of our dinner (we normally have family round who don't like their photos taken/would question my sanity at taking a photo of food. Mum and dad understand how odd I am.) Mum grabbed the camera off me to take a photo - I swear it's just pineapple in that glass. And it was actually mums drink, I just felt like I needed a prop!

And on to boxing day! Taz in his cracker hat/tutu. My grandparents came around for dinner. I was tempted to ask for a photo but grandad's been so ill since his op I didn't think he'd like to (but would anyway as he's lovely and never seems to say no!). I think I got his ankles in a shot though...!

Aaaand on to today. Sale shopping. Spent my Accessorize vouchers and some points on my Boots card. Don't you just love buying without your actual cash going down?! Wheelchair got a good working out! So happy with my perfume set, I usually miss all the half price gift sets of the ones I'd like to get!

Most people moan about the fact that you can't try on during Christmas/New Year sales. I love it. I never have energy to try on in the shop so love the fact that I can take them home and try them on a bit later when I've rested up, then if they need to be taken back the shop assistants don't give you 'that look' - hurrah!

Also managed my Christmas starbucks (at last!) Mmm toffee nut latte....

Am completely done in now and shall be hibernating until New Year (at least!). Hope you're all having a wonderful time this season.

xxx

Seasons greetings!

I hope you and yours had a lovely time the past few days!
Me? I had a lovely time! And so did these two - Taz ended up losing his collar somewhere outside during one of his grand adventures and Pip ended up in a turkey induced coma under the tree for 10 hours today- he let me rub his tummy. And he purred! Clearly there was something very wrong!!! He's awake now though so it's all good.
I'll let you see some daft Christmas day pics when I get back on the laptop - aren't you excited!?
xxx

Holidays are coming...

Made a brief (and chilly!) stop down the town to see the lights and, of course

cola truck!!

It wasn't as impressive as I thought (we must have a smaller truck as I'm sure there's a giant one out there...). Had the best fake snow with it though. Best as in everyone walking up the hill/highstreet (including us) were starting to think it was actually snowing. Very cool. (no pun intended!) It was so packed down there though so I just snapped a few pics as we went back to car. I feel so exhausted now though!

Also had my hair cut - why is it so hard to take a self portrait?! Other people always look so lovely! Ah well...

Sent off some more pics for my DD - really hoping I finish this before Feb!

TFL! xxx

Ta-dah!

Finally I have done it, 100 layouts in 2011! Woohoo!
Honestly I didn't think I'd do it. I know I didn't manage my original goal - 100 layouts before buying any stash...whoops...but I'm still pretty happy! I mean at least if I've made 100 layouts (and 10 projects) I'm using up the stuff I already have!
I think I might do the same next year. 100 layouts for 2012. Hope I can do it! Esp as I won't be doing a doc. 2012. I've decided to just do an album of the year. I did the same for 2007 and I was looking through it the other day and decided I think I prefer the look of that. I might do a 'focal' page for each month though. Might be good to keep track of the 'highlights' & the daft little bits that don't really warrant a whole layout dedicated to it...
Okay, I'm rambling again...thanks for stopping by!!

Both layouts made using Studio Calicos November kit 'Handmade'. The 'magpies' layout is a lift of one made by Celine Navarro from the SC design team (I'll try to put a link to it when I'm back on my computer).

Oh Christmas tree...

It's done! Hurrah! It's feeling quite festive round here now which is nice.

Have managed days 1&2 of my DD, just need some decent light to take some pics.
After checking my 100 layouts for 2011 checklist yesterday I suddenly realised I'm at 98! But what should the last 2 be? I think 100 should be of something special...hmm...
(and yes, even though I failed in my '100 layouts before you buy anything' mission I kept it going just to see if I could do that many in a year. Now I'm thinking I'll do it again next year, it's always fun filling in a checklist...right?!...)

Oh my

Wow it's windy today! And it's quite tame down here compared to the rest of the country - I can't even imagine what it must be like.
Mum put the tree lights on today and both sets have blown a bulb, of course. Do you think we can find the spare bulbs? Can we 'eck!
The photo I'm adding for today ended up with a story attached when Santa blew away! Well, not away away. He stayed in the garden. But he did take off, twice! I tried putting him back but after the second time he's now having a snooze in the shed, poor bloke!
Anyhoo, I hope you're safe, well and have both feet on the ground where you are xxx

Mini catch up

Wonderful interweb decided to give up yesterday, but I didn't really do much (or photograph much!) so there isn't really much of a catch up to do.
Maybe my title should read microscopic catch up...
Still trying to make my way through my SC kits - still on Aprils kit & add-on. Wow it's so much easier to get through when you don't order any add-ons! Might come unstuck with this months kit though as I've got 3 add-ons coming my way!!! This is why I *must* use up as much as possible!!!
Still haven't decorated the tree, there's a serious lack of energy in this house! Pip's taken up residence under there again, apparently he doesn't mind the lack of sparkle! What he does mind though is Taz's attempt at an invasion of space...should be interesting!

Blogging through an iPad?

So this could be interesting...
I got my shiny new Christmas present yesterday and just discovered that there's a blogger app which is good to know as I thought I'd be photoless if I posted through safari.
I tell you though this tiny little keypad leaves a lot to be desired!
Been having fun looking through all the apps, particularly the free ones lol! I'm loving the instagram and pop booth! Not sure the files are big enough to print off full size but I'm going to try to collage them on my laptop, fingers crossed!
Christmas/ dec daily wise, tree is up, just needs to be decorated. Hoping to get some photos sent off this week so I can get cracking on my DD pages and catch up with Doc 2011 - gotta get my magpies scrapped!
Anyhoo, fingers crossed this works!
xx

Secret Santa

Another lovely year to do Secret Santa. So far I've had some yummy bits - including these lovely die-cut flowers that Taz liked so much when he found them he started try to eat them. Wonderful. I wonder if cat drool is acid free for my scrapbooking?!

Lights lights everywhere

So today was a day of pretty lights-

possibly some of the worst conditions for taking a photo in - moving cat. moving black cat you can't really focus on anyway, cos he's black. Yet, I still kind of like it.

Why is it only acceptable to put pretty fairy lights up at this time of year?...

Dad's happy, we beat next door to put them up! It's a weird little unspoken contest they have going on. The only year we didn't 'win' was when next door actually put them up in the rain. Seriously. I mean, it's all well and good but blimmin' heck! Luckily dad's not quite that obsessive!

Hope you're having a magical, twinkly weekend too.

xxx

Present shopping and flying fur

Dec Daily December 2nd-

Today was a day of desperately needed lie-ins (after no sleep. Thank you cats.)

Body guarding - We though last nights fight was a one off. Turns out Pip's finally snapped and we've now had 2 bouts of flying fur. Sigh. I hope this is just his reaction to the rain and not a sign of things to come. Taz does seem to be giving as good as he gets though - good boy! ;o)

It was also a day of present buying. Dad's was bought yesterday, Mums today...mine tomorrow?! Who knows!?

Was nice to drive to the shops tonight though, even though I had a pounding headache, as some people have put up their lights - twinkly prettiness!

xx

Wahoo!

2 kits down...8 to go...but still, yay! As it was mostly strips it was quite simple to layer them up-

I didn't put a title on this one as it sort of goes with the one next to it and it looks a lot better in life than it does in this pic...odd...

As you can see I used up all my chunky strips and was left with nothing but a few narrow strips so...

Tadaa! A million strips of papers on the left with one all the way up the right. The layout is about he soundtrack to out loft conversion - I hid in my bedroom on the comp and scrapping the whole time (it was November and freezing in the lounge!) and if I didn't have any music on *all* I could hear was them singing (not that well...) to the radio. Which, in itself wasn't that bad but I'm not kidding you every 10 songs they repeated Leona Lewis Bleeding Love and Plain White Ts Hey there Delilah. I kind of liked them before that fortnight. Never again. Argh!

Now onto the next kit -

Umm, this one could take a bit longer...

In other news - It's December First! So what's to be included in my DD?

1) Our first Christmas card arrived - hmm...

2) Bundle in the lounge - Taz wanted to play. Pip wanted to clean himself. Taz wanted to play. Pip was in a mood because of the rain. Taz wanted to play. Pip wanted to knock his block off. Full on death roll, claws out, cat hiss, chunks of fur...noooooo!!!! They ended up under hiding under mums bed, together, which was odd. Taz gave as good as he got so that's good to know...I think...they ended up calling a truce over a bowl of milk. Sigh.

(I wanted to get some fur to stick in the album but mum cleared it up before I had the chance...is this odd?!)

3)Dad had his hosp. appointment to hopefully finally fix his neck (15 years later) but it didn't work properly. The doctor swore!

4) Mum and Dad brought their Christmas presents at Tescos - a Sat Nav for Dad, a Kindle for Mum. What about Meee?! (ooh, I'm going to have fun playing with their gadgets lol)

I'm sure there was something else...I hope I remember when I come to write this in my DD!

xxx

Santa Paws fail No.1 (and the kit killer strikes again!)

He was fast asleep on a pair of glasses and looked so adorable I thought I'd give it a try as he's much more agreeable than Pip (read - no claws). Problem I forgot, when I tried this on Pip he half woke up and it took a while for him to realise and eat the hat, with Taz - he wakes up and boom, he's awake and wants to play/eat. Ah well, we have a few weeks to try again...!

Here's my start on killing kit #2. This one will take a little more work as I had 2 add-ons so a bit more to use up! So far I've made 2 layouts for my 2007 album (...err...yeah...). Fairy cakes are really just a picture so I didn't bother with any journalling, just lots and lots of layers. That you can't really see. I really should wait until the morning to take the pics in a better light!

Here's number 2. This one has some journalling as there was actually a story behind the banana bread - I had been saying to mum how I would love to find a nice, easy recipe for it as all the ones I'd found were quite complicated. Then, talk about meant to be, the next day the M.E. association mag came and had a easy banana bread recipe! Hence 'Perfect Timing'. I can't even remember how many layers are at the bottom of this one, and still so many scraps left over! Hopefully I'll be finishing this kit soon - I think the next kit is being posted tomorrow...from U.S...holiday season so a slower post...so, minimum of 2 weeks to use up as many kits as possible...*need to make space*need to make space*

Kit Killer

That's really not as bad as it may sound. Over on the Studio Calico forum people regularly talk about 'killing kits'. As in - use up as much as humanly possible. I take it to mean use up all the paper/card, as many alphas as possible and preferably all the embellies, but no major worries if not (embellies are always my hoarding weakness, kits encourage me to actually put them on layouts - yay!)

So last night, out of the blue, I had a desire to start killing my kits. Scrapping hits me like that on occasion. (plus, the amount of add-ons and extras I just ordered for Dec. SC kit I think it would be wise to get some old ones out of the way!!)

It was also a good excuse to get some of my photos that are sitting on my desk waiting to be scrapped, scrapped! So here we go -

This used up the bulk of the scraps - lots of layers in there. Also that 12x12 sheet, upside down, as the background. I added thickers that weren't in the kit as the 2 that came with it (the tiny yellow ones here and some glitter MM ones) are lovely but too small for a title - I love my titles nice and chunky! Now, the title of this one ended up getting a song stuck in my head which worked quite nicely for...

This one! One of Marcus Fosters songs from his new album - worked nicely for a couple of photos I took when I went to London in 2008. (seriously need to sort out my photo pile!) The chunk of BG paper in the middle was from the kit, I added the alphas (oh my goodness, why didn't I order 5 of these?! Love them!), & the border sticker and journal spot from another SC kit. See how I mounted the photos? This is in tribute to 2 of my teamies (Debbie and Patty) who were singing the delights of a good mounted photo on a layout on the retreat the other week. I realised I haven't mounted a photo in years, so here we are - just for you 2!xx

And last, but not least, this guy! The last remaining chunk of paper, and a bit more layering with the last scraps. Also used the last Sassa flower embellie from the kit, plus thickers, gems, a brad from a diff kit and the border stickers that were cut down from another kit.

And that's it! 3 layouts, one evening, Metropolitan is killed! All I've got left is some washi tape, some tickets (which would have been used by now but I've lost them!!) and I think there's a star pin out there somewhere too...that would be nice for my DD now I think about it...I'll start the hunt today!

You know, I think I quite liked this approach to scrapping. Now to apply it to the rest of my kits! I wonder how many I can kill before the Dec. kit arrives?...hmm...

TFL!xxx

I think I now know

why I never made Dec. Daily until after the month - I want to finish it now!!

*must learn patience...must learn patience...*

Anyhoo, as I want to use 2 pages per day I was left with a spare front page so I put this together -

I *love* this CP woodgrain. I've ended up with 3 sheets of it thanks to SC & ES but I kind of want to get more...so pretty...

Anyhoo, it's just a simple page with my wish for the season (health, happiness & a little snow please!). I finally managed to use the ttv pic I took of the tree in Jan '09. I love this pic but for some reason I never scrapped it...ah well, worked nicely here so all worked out in the end!

...oh fudge...it was Dec '09...*sigh*...I've already muffed up the 'happy' in my journalling...urgh...

Yeah, ok...super...so, there's my first page! *rolleyes*

Bring on the first

My beautiful kits from Elle's Studio arrived so I was free to make my cover (I knew there were '2011' tags in there that I need to use up this year - of course - so thought I should wait for them. Amazingly it arrived from US a lot quicker than I expected, even more so for this time of year!).

Well, if all else fails, this is the earliest my covers have been completed. Now just to see if the insides get completed before the end of Jan...(yes I know, end of Jan not Dec, but let's be realistic here).

The only thing I wonder is how long will that tag on foam dots last?...Ah well, it won't be a huge repair job for future me.

Should I give a run down of products?

Lily Bee dotted paper,

Elles Studio exclusive kit tag 'Dec 2011' (it had red stars that I covered with kraft ones as they were a bit bright with the rest of the colours),

Echo Park Chipboard Santa, stickers & newspaper print PP,

Crate Paper Stickers.

Studio Calico Mr Huey Mist 'Shine' (this came in the Jack Frost kit and I am *loving* it! It gives a sort of pearly/shimmery effect...so pretty - I predict this will be used on every page!)

Can't wait to start putting this one together! Really hope we have a little snow for at least one day. I think I've been spoiled after last year. Stupid warmest November for years. I keep waiting for this supposed cold snap! Sigh...

Anyhoo - there's the start of my Dec. Daily! Tfl!xxx

WOYWDW

What's on your workdesk weekend edition -

I've been hibernating in the craft room the past few days to keep my mind of other things. First I made this (sorry, last) weeks challenge on UKS - different size pics to normal (I can't remember what I cut them down to!), glitter (on alphas), autumn colours/photo, paint. I think that was it...

Another one done for my Isle of Wight album.

Next up - you may or may not remember me taking part in Ali Edwards 'A week in the life' during the last week of July. I took all the photos, got them developed, sorted them out into PPs (wrmk ones - 6x12 with 8 3x3 squares round the top and bottom) and they've been sitting there ever since. I was looking through my 2011 album and decided they just weren't going to fit - I'm almost out of space and I've still got Nov & Dec to do! So...what to do...then I remembered - back in May I put together an album ready for our holiday in June which we weren't able to go on. I'd made a few pages for each day so I could journal while we were away and add photos when we got back. Holiday was for a week, a week in the life - ah-ha! Don't you just love how these things end up working out?

I *love* how my front page turned out (I'm not being ego filled - it's the font/sc stamps, not what I did!)

I need to find a way to include similar in my Dec. Daily this year.

All the different coloured card 'first' pages also gave me an excuse to use my new rainbow of chalk inks that I picked up from Studio Calico last month. So pretty, and the pale grey stamps really well onto dark card. Just need to add in the journalling and any bits of embellie I can fit in - fun!

After that my brain was too tired to think of the journalling but I wanted to do something more so yesterday afternoon was spent trying to get a handle on what this years Dec. Daily will look like while watching Carry On Sergeant - Phwoar Nora! (you need to have watched it to get that quote...trust me, it's hilarious)

My 'little' collection of Christmas papers/embellies. I've got Elle's studio Christmas and Winter collections winging their way to me so I can't do too much prep without them. I have figured out my size though - finally! After looking through countless DDs I decided to do this years pages at 6x8 - I quite like the idea of having the odd photo as a page and it's also a good size to cut a sheet of 12x12 into without too much waste (I could use the 4x12 strips to decorate other pages).

I'm really looking forward to putting this together.

I'm hoping this year I'l be able to keep up to date day to day (or at least a catch up at the end of the week). The one thing that's missing from my other 2 DDs, thanks to me making them 6 months/almost a year later, is journalling. That's another reason I'm going 6x8, plenty of room for me to ramble on! It's nice making pretty books to look at but without words they're only really worth anything to me as I have the memories, for anyone else they may as well just be looking at a photo album.

I've cut up a few sheets of paper and card but can't do much else now until Dec/Elle's kit arrives so I need to find a new project to occupy my mind for the next...week and a bit...hang on, week and a bit?! What?! Blimey this year's gone faaaaar too quick!

Now I'm off to find some winter/Christmas type low energy activities that I can do this Dec to make my album a bit more interesting to look at lol

xxx

Progress!

They've been chasing each other round every day since the weekend, but the past 2 days they've also curled up on the bed together.

Before Pip would run off (or run Taz off!) if Taz so much as looked on the bed. Now he lets (!) him on the bed with him.

Progress!

xxx

A million photos later...

Actually, I didn't take as many photos as I thought I would. In fact most of the ones I took are in this post...

But where did I go to take these photos? Magpie retreat of course! Woo!

Dad drove me all the way to fellow magpie Stacey's house (and also picked me up in Cambridge on Fri - isn't he wonderful?! His necks hurting him again though - wish I could have found a way to get there without him doing hours of driving :(

On our way! There was fog & mist all the way, but it's so hard to photograph! Loved this bridge - not only was it a lovely brick one (fed up of all the metal all over the place!) someone had added 'Give Peas a Chance' on the side :) Should give my uncle a shout out for lending us his sat nav - fabulous things!

A beautiful vase of irises were waiting on the table - such pretty colours!

Debbie and Patty on a log run on Sat morning - such strength!

The house - it seems to fit autumn so well I can't imagine visiting at another time of year!

The ground was covered in beautiful red leaves - I snapped a shot on my way to photograph a giant mushroom that Vanessa had spotted on our way off to CTM in the morning.

Check this one out! I was about to photo the one I was looking for when I spotted this next to a patch of little mushrooms (that didn't upload...hmm...) Anyway, it was so surreal I had to prod it to make sure it was actually a mushroom. It was. Very cool!

And here's the giant one. When I say giant, I mean tall. Very tall. Tallest mushroom I'd ever seen - about a foot tall? Maybe taller actually...not great with height guesstimations! Bit wary about the fact that all the grassy bits underneath it had turned black...oo err! Didn't prod this one!!

I brought a stack of papers that I didn't ever see myself get round to using to see if any magpies would like them - thankfully they did! They were all perfectly nice, from kits etc...just not my style. Only brought a few back home with me - yay for some space!

Here's Stacey, our baker extraordinaire! She made our birthday cake (4 years old! We'll be off to school next year!) and, quite frankly, the most delicious chocolate brownies ever. Seriously. We took a poll and we all agreed. Yum.

Check out the ahm-be-harnce - woo!

Yum yum yum - our Christmas dinner was delish! Thank you to all the wonderful chefs this weekend, I think I gained a stone in weight lol

Oh, and something very cool - just as we sat down to tuck in the Coca Cola holiday advert played, this being the signal of Christmas starting of course! How cool was that!? Almost as if they knew...

I hope the other photo isn't as blurry as mine!

We did our page kit, secret santa and an advent swap after dinner. Here's Karen & Emma opening theirs.

Before we left on Sunday we checked out our mojo and twitterings layouts - well...most of us...!!!

*finally* managed to herd everyone together to get the group shot!!! (dad was waiting in the fully loaded car at this point!) Then I was off! Sob! Times like this I *really* wish we lived a fraction closer!!

A couple of shots on the way home. Their were some lovely views but dads windows were showing the brunt of 2 days of long driving and weren't that clear to see through - eww! This tunnel was cool - it was actually tunnel shaped!

And we came out the other end to this view - plane trails, blue skies and a very cool bridge.

The final bit before home - the sun was a lovely colour but oh was it blinding!

Today I feel like hell but oh it was worth it! Such a lovely weekend with such lovely people - crossing all my fingers & toes I can find a way to go next year too!

xxx