16 loves {December 2016}

Welcome to the next in the series {16 loves} for 2016.

For the last few years, I've been sharing my loves each month - a little bit of everything that has caught my eye or been enjoyed over the last month. So, a new year and new inspiration. I hope you will come back each month to see if there is anything in my list to inspire you. 

To see what's inspired me in the past, click to find all my {13 loves}, my {14 loves}, my {15 loves} and my {16 loves}.

I hope there's something in here to inspire you or maybe just make you smile.

Obviously, this is late for the last {16 loves} of the year. But I thought it would be great to finish off the 2016 series so that tomorrow, I can kick off the new list for the new year!

one

 We had daily posts up at The Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog during December on the theme of A Counterfeit Kit Challenge Christmas Carol. I loved having a variety of ideas on the blog written by the wonderful Master Forger team. I'm behind on checking out all those yummy ideas but with the amount of Christmas paper and products I have, I'm determined to use some of that inspiration over the next few months.

two

Being a part of the Scrapabilly Advent Swap always puts me under pressure to up my game and produce pretty packages for everyone including elements that they can use for their December albums if they wanted. Overall, I was pleased with the outcome.

three

And this was my bounty that I took home with me at the end of the evening when we swapped all our gifts. It was so lovely to have a gorgeous little gift to open each day. Everything features on a scrapbook page that I made for Simple Scrapper for February so I'll be sharing that soon.

four

We enjoyed a Feuerzangenbowle (flaming mulled wine) with friends which is always cosy, delicious and a great sign of cooler days and longer nights.

five

I woke up on my birthday to blue skies. It certainly doesn't happen every year, but more often than in the past. My spirits were instantly lifted and I set out for an adventure filled day with a smile on my face.

six

I headed down to Cologne for some much-deserved me time which included a gazillion calories at Törtchen Törtchen - a wonderful patisserie. We'd seen it featured on TV and a birthday which was going to be spent alone seemed a perfect excuse to go and check it out. It tasted even better than it looks here.

seven

I wandered around the Christmas market outside the Cologne Cathedral at the end of the day and, as always, marvelled at the beauty of this incredible place. I take photos every time I go and never get bored of this view.

eight

Then started a period where we had three different visitors over the next three weekends - Christmas Markets were visited, I went back to Cologne twice, we ate a lot, chatted all the time and laughed till we cried. First up was my camera-shy mum but we wandered around Cologne and went on a mission to track down the Love Lock that the Chances had left on the Hohenzollernbrücke. And we found it which was such a thrill. 

nine

I created an Advent candle decoration which ended up being my only Christmas decoration and enjoyed lighting the candles each weekend.

ten

Another weekend, another trip over to Cologne to show my delightful scrappy friend Kathy the sights of the city and all of the pretty Christmas Markets. It was such lovely day and as the lights went down it just got prettier and prettier.

eleven

I took Kathy over to meet Sylvia and marvel at the Scrapabilly shop. I love being able to bring different corners of my life together. 

  

twelve

Having Kathy for a long weekend was a good excuse to check out some other markets which I've heard a lot about but never made it to. Raesfeld moated castle market was a success and I'm just so happy that we got the chance to hang out together and that I had the chance to show off my adopted homeland.

thirteen

Somewhere just a few kilometres down the road, but where I'd never actually been, seemed the ideal place to just spend a few minutes watching the sun go down. A perfect end to a perfect day.

fourteen

And then my bestie came along and we just enjoyed hanging out. We didn't really do much except catch up and even though we planned to get some photos, managed a big fail on that. We have a handful but as you can see, not the best. It doesn't matter, this sums up our friendship!

fifteen

Love that Google had this beautiful Arctic banner on this day - it was animated and simply gorgeous. This made me smile.

sixteen

And a favourite layout I made with the December Scrapabilly Kit des Monats featuring a birthday selfie. Always a good time for a little self-reflection. And, excuse me? Constellation paper??? It had my name all over it. I loved making this page. You might still be able to get your hands on one of these kits featuring Pink Paislee "Moonstruck" collection here. But if not, then you can get papers and embellishments in the collection at Scrapabilly here. I'm late sharing my December makes so I'll try to catch up on that soon

I’d love you to share your own {16 loves} lists with me. Why not link up in the comments below?

{16 loves} is a series that will feature on my blog each 16th of the month