JYC - Day 13

Yes, I have missed out Day 12! It was about Christmas past and I want to think a little more about exactly what I want to document for that - my mum has some great photos but they are all in a box in the loft, not scanned in or anything!

So, Day 13 is about Christmas songs- an easy subject for me. As a member of RaTS Revellers I know a whole host of traditional, alongside extremely unusual, Christmas songs! However, since becoming a teacher I am not able to devote the time to the Christmas season of concerts (especially not with panto rehearsals at the same time).

Every year, one of my scrapping friends sends a group of us (the Sinners) a Christmas parcel. Inside is a Christmas card, some form of confectionary, and a CD, especially chosen for the season. In the past we have had Alan Titchmarsh, Harry Potter inspired wizardry, and this year it was a Star Wars Christmas. But it all began with The Hoff. It is so cheesey and, at times, cringeworthy, that it's a must-listen for me every Christmas. Unfortunately, my husband isn't quite such a big fan. He didn't remind me that it wasn't playing as we put up our decorations this year - shock, horror! So today, I must rectify this, by listening to at least part of it. We wish you.......a merry Christmas...

JYC - Day 11

Today's prompt was about our Christmas tree. I included a photo of the tree this year, as well as 4 additional photos of special ornaments. If you look closely, you can see that the last little picture shows one of our cats, Terk, in the tree! Luckily his brother, J.D., is a little better behaved.
The journalling about the meaning of each ornament is on the tag behind the main picture.

JYC - Day 10

This is day 10 and it was about wrapping paper. I followed the basic structure of the quick guide today but then decided to put my journalling on the back of the tag:

JYC - Day 9

Today's prompt was all about traditions. I wrote about our breakfast tradition on the main part of the page but have included hidden journalling about other traditions from the past and present.

JYC - Day 8 - complete

This is the page I made using the photos I took on December 8th.

JYC Day 6 - complete

This is the completed page with journalling :-)

JYC - Day 8 part 2

A couple more photos taken on the 8th:

JYC - Day 8

Dayy 8 was all about photographing the things around that I can see that suggest Christmas. I live very near to our High Street, so I took my camera for a walk when I got home from work. Something I have noticed this year is that there are very few Christmas displays. Many shops have been replaced by pawn shops, and others are empty. Interestingly, they used to leave the lights on overnight, so they were still lit on my drive to work (also in the dark at this time of year!) but sadly this year they are off in the mornings. I guess it must be an economy drive. To compensate for the lack of Christmas atmosphere outside, I took some photographs in our flat as well!

JYC - Day 7

I love this page - it came together really easily! I added a To Do list in the pocket, along with a recipe for a dessert we're making for Boxing Day - one of the things on my list is to buy the ingredients! The journaling on the front of the pocket explains that this year all the Christmas presents were bought for other people by the end of November :)

JYC - Day 6

I haven't totally completed this page - I printed my journalling at work, so need to attach it and add a little more embellishment - the basics are there, though!

JYC - Day 5

So, this is my entry for December 5th - it was about advent calendars and countdowns. I don't have an advent calendar this year, so I decided to journal about the way the Coca Cola advert is always the first thing that makes me feel truly Christmassy - it makes me realise that Christmas is nearly here!

JYC - day 4

I'm playing a little catch up today - this is my entry on a perfect Christmas - this year I don't think will be perfectly organised, as I am being so forgetful! I didn't realise until Friday morning that it was our staff Christmas party, which I thought was the following Firday - oops!

Luckily I was feeling a lot better, although I had nearly no voice. In the end I had a really good time, sticking to the Cokes and J2Os, watching everyone else getting merry, lol.

Today we have put our decorations up, and I managed to get a few good pictures, including this one of JD in the Christmas tree box - he's doing what Sasha always used to do, bless him:



I have to say, part of me wanted to put aside doing the decorations until next week - I'm glad we didn't, now, as I'm finally starting to feel a bit more Christmassy.

Other pictures from today:

JYC - Day 3

So this is the LHS of my double page. The journalling is about how I usually manage to get my Christmas cards written but never quite manage to send/hand all of them out! I also mentioned how I've written my Thank You cards for the wedding recently, so I'm looking forward to writing Christmas cards even less.

I chose to write a letter to my husbnad, as well, writing it on one of the spare aforementioned Thank You cards - I'm going to post it to him then, if he wants, he can keep it inside the journal. I also included a Christmas tree from a card that I have kept from a few years ago, and the envelope from a wedding card which I kept because of the "Fairytale" sticker.

JYC - Day 2

OK, I've kept things fairly simple today- I cut a file folder using my Big Shot and used a couple of pre-made embellishments and ribbon to decorate. I saw the idea for the tin foil snowflake on one of the links but found it was harder in practise than it sounded! Still, I made it, so it has gone in.

This is the inside view of the file folder, with my journalling:


Journalling reads:
In theory I <3 snow...It looks beutiful like a painting. In reality I'm turning into my mum - I hate falling over and driving in it. There's not even anywhere I can easily get to to see lovely views!
But when compared to the typical grey, grizzly day we usually end up with...Well, I suppose I'm dreaming of a white christmas along with the best of 'em!
Today's weather: 10 degrees C, scattered showers.

Manifesto - the page!

This is my manifesto translated into an actual page. I also completed my numbers for the pages this afternoon, although my nose is still a bit yucky! I decided on red circles with drawn on 'stitching', topped with a 'present' made of white paper squares and ribbon. The numbers were die cut using my Sizzix.

Journal Your Christmas - Front page

So, this is the front page of my Journal - I mainly used acrylic paint and chipboard but I also added decorative snow which I've had in my stash for ages lol!

Journal Your Christmas - my manifesto

Wow....September 2008....I didn't realise it had been that long!

So, in my last post I mentioned how we had booked our Disney wedding- and here we are, December 1st 2009, and we've been married for 3 and a half months.

I have joined Journal Your Christmas at http://www.shimelle.com/



- this is something that I've wanted to do for a couple of years but have never got round to signing up for. Our first prompt is to write our manifesto. As I am currently typing in bed on my work laptop, having sent in my cover work, feeling sorry formyself, I figured I would state it on my blog:


We'll start at the very beginning...it's a very good place to start! So why am I doing this? Because I'm mad? Because I finally have my mojo back? Because I want to make this Christmas special? To be honest, it's probably a combination of all these things. Over the last few years, December blurs into a tiring mess of work and social life, with very little "me" time inbetween. So this year, I promise myself at least 20 mintues a day to concentrate on my project. I also want to document my first Christmas as a married woman - how many more Christmasses will we spend as just the two of us before kids come along? But that's a question for another day. For now...on with the show!