How many times can I kid myself that I am "catching up"?

Yep, more time goes by, more projects left unfinished or not even done although I always have the very best of intentions!

So, new leaf, new start and all that.

Here is my 12 on 12 for December (way late) and January (at least it's still this month!) with much respect for my fellow 12 of 12'ers who always manage to get their projects done within a day or two!

A change of plan for me this year though. Since April last year, I have been making life difficult for myself my making each month a different (and not always successful) design. Well as of January, I have decided to make life easy by choosing one or two of last year's designs and just repeating it each month which hopefully will make it simpler and quicker. I am also considering using just one range of paper although I am not sure about that right now.

Anyhow, I loved the easy and pretty design I came up with in November and decided to start with that. I am also considering the July design or even the October design. I thought two might be nice so that I can alternate them.

So December was all about signs of Christmas all around and January was my first real day back at work with plenty of cold snow still on the ground. Both themed to some degree.

I love flipping through my 12 on 12 album and seeing how my days have changed from month to month. This is such a great project to be a part of - thanks Susan!

And I will be so pleased when we get more daylight and I can take half decent photos of my stuff. (yes, I know I could use my scanner but one thing at a time!)

The kit seemed to go on and on forever!

I decided to continue working with my Bellaboo "Virtuous" kit (now sold out but check out the site for other scrummy kits here!) because it was just so lovely and so ME!

So, after completing the projects previously posted, I decided to put together some Thank You notes for Christmas (adding only some cardstock for the Cricut cut words and the base of the cards) and then using Rachel's mini book (check it out here) as inspiration, I cut up the pizza box and made a small mini book for some of my favourite piccies from Dubai. I added a few letters to the front cover but that is really IT.

Everything else came from the kit. I have a few tiny weeny scraps of paper and a handful of cardstock offcuts - no doubt I could still manage to come up with something else there too!

This kit was adorable and I loved every minute of it. I really should have bought another one - the colours were perfect and the embellishments were great to use.

What do you think?

One year later

I did this set of questions that I found on somebody's blog last January (see post here if you are interested!). Thought it would be interesting to do it again. Off the top of my head, 2008 was a pretty unspectacular year - many people tell me it was downright bad. I have higher expectations for 2009. (*edited to add: I have been adding to this entry for a few days now - more than a week - and events have overtaken me. Libby's small, local community experienced a terrible tragedy last Friday that has left us all feeling sad and disillusioned. I still have hopes for a better 2009 but the awful events of last week are a terrible start to the year. My thoughts are with the village residents at this time.)

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
Visited Dubai

Had a scrapbooking layout published in a UK magazine

Attended a crop

Learned to play golf

2. What are your New Years Resolutions?
Mostly the usual: Organise, save, lose weight, make more time for the things I love, keep in touch better with friends, to get to grips with my camera and photo editing

One additional one is connected with "One Little Word" from Ali Edwards - to be *calm* 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth in 2008?

A quiet birth year! No one new in the family

4. Did anyone close to you die.
Thank goodness no, again.

5. What countries did you visit?
The UK

France

Austria

The Netherlands

United Arab Emirates

(not bad for a year that was supposed to have no holidays!)

6 What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Peace of mind, more time, a clearer mind or failing that, a lottery win would also go down nicely! 

7. What date(s) in 2008 will remain etched in your memory and why?

November 4th - US presidential election


8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Passing my golf test in August (all very German!)

My scrapbooking output - too many to count

Getting published in a magazine - cool!


9. What was your biggest failure?
Hard word - lack of weight loss, losing the dream flat we wanted to buy

10. Did you suffer any illness or injury?
No, another healthy year for me

11. What was the best thing someone bought you?
Huge quantities of Cadbury's chocolate

An iMac

USB connected record player - so cool!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Ralph - as ever for putting up with me

Maddie - turning into a super little girl!

13. Whose behavior appalled and depressed you?
Less said the better - they know who they are

14. Where did most of your money go?
Just living (a full life!)

15. What did you get really, really excited about?
Our trip to Austria

Getting my handicap for golf

It was a quiet year!

16. What song(s) reminds you of 2008?
Wham Rap - we bought a whole load of 80's CDs for our long drive to Austria and listened and sang along to them the whole week. Ralph was very impressed at my lyric recollection! I could even remember the moves to this one (yes, SO sad!)

17. Compared to last year are you...
a.) Happier or Sadder? happier
b.) Thinner or Fatter? fatter
c.) Richer or Poorer? the usual

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Relax

Scrapped

Kept in touch with people

Ironing (the pile just grows!)

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Moaning. Struggling with hormone roller coasters. Eating (although I enjoyed it at the time!)

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Early with English family at ours - could become a tradition

At Christmas with German family - traditional

New Year in Dubai - totally nontraditional

21. Did you fall in love in 2008.
Again: every day

22. What was your favorite TV program?
The West Wing (discovered it again on FoxTV which is English language satellite channel)

Moonlight - like a bit of vampire love!

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't this time last year?
I have strong feelings about many people but I am not sure I hate anyone. 

24. What was the best book you read?
Don't think I read all that much. Did I actually pick up a book? I will go and have a look at my bookshelf but I think not - *hangs head in shame*.

25. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
Family brunch. Dinner at a local Greek restaurant. nice and quiet.

26. What was your best musical discovery?
Discovered Adrienne Pierce who has a very distinctive voice which appeals greatly and Sarah McLachlan too.

Rediscovered Reef (reminds me of 1997)

27. What did you want and get?
A record player

LOADS of stash

An iMac

28. What was your favorite film of the year?
SATC - what else?

29. What did you want and not get?
More than 24 hours in the day

To be lighter

To be younger


30. What one thing would've made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
You mean apart from the three things listed above?

More quality time with R


31. How would you describe your fashion concept for 2008?
Like I said last year, I think anyone who knows me would agree that I have no fashion concept. I would probably say - cheap. I made a decision to buy nothing new all year - apart from a couple of t-shirts and a pair of boots in the sale in the spring, and a couple of cheap items just before Christmas, I kept to this.

32. What kept you sane?
Ralph

Scrapbooking

Reading other people's blogs

Chocolate and champagne

33. Which celebrity or public figure did you admire most?

Obama

34. What political issue stirred you most?
Same as last year plus the US election and the crisis in the middle east.

35. Who do you miss?
Still Grandad

Jacqui

36. Who was the best new person you met? 
Libby's crop friends - great people - can't wait to get the chance to meet up again

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned.
That you make time for the things you want the most, most of the time

Willpower takes more energy than I have right now

38. Quote a song line that defines your year.
"Wham bam, I am a man, job or no job you can't tell me that I'm not

Do, you, enjoy what you do? If not, just stop, don't stay there and rot."

From Wham Rap - see song entry above!!!! (very much tongue in cheek! I am after all a girl of the 80s)

Once again, I find myself to be Billy-No-Mates - so I tag Libby and Amber.

2009 - Welcome...

It's that time of year again. Can you believe it? Can you believe that it is here already? 

Of course, I mean the beginning! Another year. I know that time goes much faster the older we get, but it really seems to be vanishing in the blink of an eye!

I remember when I was a small child at primary school and we used to imagine how it would be to be "older". How did adults know what to talk about all the time? How come they understood everything? Would we ever be like that? And I distinctly remember imaging how old we would be in "2000"! We all looked at each other with wide eyes and said, "In the year 2000, we will be 33!!!!! Can you ever imagine being THAT old???" 

And now here we are almost at the end of the first decade of the 21st century.  

Scary stuff huh?

Anyway, our new year started really well. We went to Dubai to visit Jacqui who moved over there in September. We had a crazy, fabulous time and it was lovely to see her and Darren in their new home. Thanks for the hospitality Jac! We really enjoyed ourselves and I love the fact that we have seen somewhere that we would never have visited otherwise! Watch out for scrap pages on various aspects of the trip over the next few months.

So what else? Of course, the Bellaboo January kit "Virtuous" was another hit. I loved it - all dark moody colours which was right up my street and i loved using it to make layouts, a resolution box and a small desk calendar which I will use to record a few things for each month as well as having something nice to look at each month with photos from 2008. Want a kit? Check it out here but hurry as it's almost sold out!

Here is my resolution box (although I have heard the phrase "intention" a lot in the blogging world recently which is somewhat better than resolution - don't you think?)

There is space to write out each goal on the front of each page of the mini book and then on the back of each page I can write a few lines throughout the year to mark progress or thoughts. The box is also a bit bigger than needed which means I can add to it or maybe include some mementos etc. I just thought I would keep my options open. I now need to sit down and complete it - I will share my goals when I have firmed them up.

And here is the little calendar which stands in a CD case. Again room on the back for a few lines of text regarding each month and maybe even a few tiny photos of each month. Then at the end of the year, I can bind them together and I have a record of the year! I used monthly photos from last year too which will make my smile when I look at it - loving the trees in January and just wait for June (yum yum!).

I did four layouts in total (one's a double) and the one I like the most is my "One Little Word" one. If you do not know about this you can check out my post from January 2007 (here) and also the Ali Edwards site where it originates. I loved this so much from the first moment I read about it and my word for 2007 was Positive, 2008 was Consolidate and now for 2009 is Calm. This is most certainly something I need to work on LOL! Anyone who knows me will agree to this! 

Other layouts were two inspired by the fact it was full moon yesterday night (prompted by the BPS class Red Letter Days which takes a new look at the calendar for inspiration in our scrapping!), and one about a great evening we had out in the dessert.