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. 

Or maybe that should be "Slower but Slower..."

Ever get the feeling you are swimming up stream, against the current and just as you pull a bit ahead, the water washes you back downstream? Boy, salmon have it hard!

Just as I clear stuff off my list, the things adding on to the top of the list make it ever longer! Guess it's that time of year. This is always silly season for us with loads of birthdays, celebrations, dinners, Christmas decorations, Advent, St Nikolaus, wedding anniversary, more bithdays, more dinners, Christmas parties, presents, Christmas Market, visits from home and then the grand finale of two Christmas dinners followed by...... peace!

I am not complaining (well maybe a little! ;-) - this is ME after all!) - it all gets done in the end even if Christmas cards arrive a little late and one or two presents are bought at the last minute! Or the last few years I hardly baked ANY Christmas Plätzchen (biscuits) - not EVEN my *world* famous Black Pepper Chocolate Cookies and let me tell you, these are a real winner! But it's a bit frantic and sometimes I wonder about moving some of those events to empty months at other times of the year. Why not celebrate my birthday in May for example, rather than November? Well, maybe not! And I must admit to always enjoying the family visits around this time of year when everyone wants to come over to visit the Christmas Markets. I rarely take the time to just enjoy the Christmas decorations or the markets around here - well you often don't if you see it every day do you? And it is great to just wander around Recklinghausen market which is so sweet and small or over to Essen which is huge in comparison and my top choice for photos

And while I am at it, I just want to say right here and now that I have HUGE admiration for all of those of you out there who have jobs, families, school activities and houses to run - HOW DO YOU MANAGE IT ALL???? I think you all do a fantastic job and I would love to know how you mange to keep on top of it all - suggestions welcome!

But let's get back to the main thing I wanted to write here. I just wanted to post a few projects that I have done recently to prove that I really DO sometimes sit down and scrap, even if the output is a little slow from time to time

First off, what about the Bellaboo Christmas kit, "Festive Funk". I was not quite as productive as usual even though the kit was adorable and fun and everything Liberty had planned it to be. I totally loved using it and hope to make at least another two or three projects using it over the next days so watch this space. But in the meantime, here are my contributions. And if youi love the kit as much as I do, (and let's face it, how could you NOT?) you can find it here.

More to follow later but the shower is calling and then I have to brave the wet grey day outside to go to work.

Slowly but surely

It's a bit painful at the moment, but I am VERY slowly trying to work through outstanding stuff. My October 12 on 12 was missing as pointed out in the comments on my last entry by Meredith (:-)) and I really wanted to catch up so that I am on track with this. Maybe I am just making it too difficult?

Anyway, I decided to sit down during some dead time at work and create two simple sketches and then I just got on with it over the last couple of days. But you know, this is much harder for me than sitting with a blank piece of paper and just throwing stuff down on the page!

I decided to go all graphic and simple á la Cathy Z (I'm doing her Design Your Life right now over at BPS and am trying to "internalise" some of this simpler stuff.) and I created a grid as the base to the layout. But as you can see, my measurements were somewhat "off", my common margins are not all that common and I have odd spaces here and there which I had to fill with ribbons and paper!!!! Best intentions! I guess there is always next time!

The main thing in that the day is recorded!

November was a bit more successful - and I used the new font recommended by Cathy Z which I adore.

And onto the next projects - the Christmas kit work for Bellaboo - another fantastic combinations that will blow your mind! Looking forward to sitting down tonight and getting down to it.

PS. Don't you hate the fact that it is so difficult to catch that 30 seconds of decent daylight now that winter is definitely here - taking photos on the floor with electric light and flash.... not a good combination! The layouts are much *nicer* IRL!

PPS. Isn't that Fancy Pants floral gorgeous? All the PP I used here (in both layouts) is from Bellaboo - I adore this range of Botanicals though. It was lovely to use something so pretty. It did not need much embellishment at all. Thanks Lib!

History in the making

Even in my relatively short life, there have been a few occasions where you just have to sit and realise you are watching history in the making. What has happened in the last 48 hours has most definitely been one of those times. Life is good. Appreciate it.

Hey! It's November...

I know it is unfashionable to say that you like November - I mean, who really likes this cold, grey, damp, dark month? Well, after so many years of agreeing with all the moaning and groaning that happens at this time of the year, I have decided to try a new tack - part of my "new improved" POSITIVE attitude!

You know, November really is not so bad!

The end of autumn with all those fabulous leaves still falling from the trees and misty mornings where the air is magical and hiding many secrets. OK, so it rains a bit and the sky really is often grey but you need this transition phase to take you into the winter. I love it when the mornings start to get colder and you really need a coat! The last mornings have been a little too warm for my liking because the winter coat is needed just in case, but as soon as you walk a little faster, you start burning up! So those mornings when you can really feel the cold on your cheeks and you breathe small clouds of light white condensation make me feel good. (Alright, ten minutes on the station platform can kill those feel good feelings for me but you know what I am saying here!)

And there are signs of Christmas starting to appear and I believe that you can really start to think about it all once November hits. The lights are up in Essen and yesterday I saw the large Christmas tree being erected outside the station - one of my favourites every year. And then, lo and behold, Christmas has hit Starbucks with the Christmas merchandise filling the shelves and toffee nut latte filling my stomach this morning! Do I love that drink or not? I am not really sure you know. It is SO sweet that sometimes, I can't drink anymore but there again, it is really part of my festive traditions and this morning kicked off the season well and truly for me!

Add into the mix, the Christmas markets opening in a few short weeks, my birthday and Ralph's too and you have a nice happy month full of things to look forward to. Go on, look around and see if I am not right! Let's hear it for November!!!!

On the scrapping front, Bellaboo has kept me smiling once again with its November "Fairytale in New York" kit. A dream. Really. Fantastic. Did not want it to end. Might have to get another kit. You might want to check it out here!

And I pulled out some of my favourite cold photos from the last years: our sugarmoon in Canada for a mini album, some town photos from last December when it appeared to have snowed but it was in fact just frozen fog (weird but gorgeous) and my favourite Christmas cookies.

I think I could have gone on and on with this kit - up there as one of my favourites (or do I say that every month?)

Here are my projects so far (still working on one last thing and I still need to come up with an inspiration card). But do go and check out the gallery for Libby's and Sarah's stuff - we all made such different things. And sorry to hear that Sarah is leaving us - enjoy your time with your family Sarah - all the very best...

Love this...

Want your own Flickr word? Check here

Über-productive!

Yes, another project bites the dust (off my list - not literally!)!!!

Another Cleo project from the Bellaboo Birthday Bash all day crop.

It's all layering and stitching and girlie! Featuring Baby Sister... I love it! - ok so it took me HOURS but it was quite therapeutic for me. Lots going on over here and nice to switch off for a while!

I think I might be a stitching convert - I tried to do some in the Bellaboo October kit and found that I really enjoyed it and really like the texture and dimension it gives to the layouts. And the stitching round the ribbon at the bottom? Love that effect - expect to see that again!

Of course, it would not be MY layout if there was not a mistake - can you see? Yes, the journalling card should of course be coming out of the left hand side of the left hand photo and not peeking out in the middle of the layout - mmm, got to get to grips with my reverse gluing!

My only question... where do you store such bulky layouts? This will surely not fit in any page protector I have. Any suggestions?

Working my way through outstanding projects!

When Libby came over to Germany in the Summer, she brought one of Cleo's wonderful kit projects. She had bought one for herself too and thought it would be fun for us to have a go at the same kit - Nostalgia. She even got mum to sort out some photos of the two of us when we were little. That gave us a giggle I can tell you! All those "fashionable" 70's brown knit jumpers, long socks and sandals and rather dubioius haircuts to name just a few! Of course, we did not have enough time to get them finished while she was here but we started them and then went our separate ways. Libby managed to finish hers weeks ago (blog entry here), and I kept thinking about it but no action!

Well, on Saturday I made myself a list of just those projects that I can remember that need to be finished off or made. I was quite shocked at coming up with 12 items which does even not include those ideas that I have that I would like to do but haven't got around to yet. No, that is just half-completed projects or outstanding class projects that I can think about (am sure the list is really double as long!) So, I sat down and got going again with the Nostalgia kit!

It's lovely of course. A great folded mini-book that opens out to reveal all sorts of treasures! and space for hournalling too which is always a bonus. I did not look at Libby's finished book so I do not know how similar mine is to hers which will be interesting when we really check each other's out. I had such fun doing it, even if I ended up with craft knife injuries on both index fingers and my leg (don't ask!), paint and glue everywhere and chaos in my workroom. It's all done and another thing off the list - check!

OMG - I just checked out Libby's blog to get the link to her project and she called hers Childhood too!!!!! I swear, after the first time I looked at this entry, I did not sneak another peek! I must have had it in my subconscious! Too weird! And just goes to show, I am not as original as I thought! But I still love it! (Oh yes, I actually did copy Libby's button stacking that I heard her talking about when I was over - also not original of me!!! )