Snap...snap...snap...

I've had a WONDERFUL day off today! I took some photos of the pages I have made to date as the light has been steadily getting poorer so I have not snapped during the evenings.

This post is going to be photo heavy I'm afraid as I want to get these pages uploaded:

Its all about setting yourself targets and stocking to them - isn't it........

When I started the Journal You Christmas sessions (this being my first year), I made a secret pact with myself (well, its obviously not secret now as I'm theoretically telling the world!!)
The pact was to keep up to date with each and every prompt. To religiously complete each page on the day it was set.  "This isn't a big ask" I told myself.  This is your hobby, its what you LOVE to do. Enjoy it!
But over the last few days I've been feeling exhausted after work and completing the pages was becoming difficult. I sat on the sofa last night with 3 pages half completed- which is stupid as I had done all the hard work and only had to crop and stick a few photos.  As I sat there trying to force myself to get up I realised that my pact with myself was utter stupidity!  Yes, this is my hobby, so I should do it when I want to do it! The realisation was the kick up the bum I needed to actually get off the sofa, heat a mulled wine in the microwave and crack on! All pages now present and complete in my journal and I have re-kindled my creative spark! Wooooo hoooooo!

Soooooo much to do... ... ...but still plenty of time ;0)

I still have so many presents to buy - in fact I still have ALL of the presents to buy!! I'm not too worried about it though. I found yesterdays JyC page really useful! Not only did I get some therapeutic ME time but I also managed to make lists of all the gifts I want to get for people. I made sure a blank tag was showing in the photo though to keep prying eyes wondering!!!

Catching up with crafts

All my well laid plans kind of went out of the window this weekend. Working on Saturday (although I do it every other weekend) was a COMPLETE inconveniance when all I wanted to do was be at home in my Retreat scrapping and creating!!!
Then today plans went haywire after a few seasonal stresses caused unrest in the home!! I still managed to complete yesterdays page though.

I hate it when I feel all sorry for myself and can't seem to snap out of it.  Thats how I felt this afternoon, VERY frustrating! Still a visit to my best friend and her four beautiful children was food for my soul.
I felt so wonderful after spending time with them and having snuggles with the newest members of the family really made me feel complete again!
I came home and completed my page for the day! Finally up to date again!! Today's page is all about that great British tradition - Christmas arguments!! We ALWAYS argue when we put the lights on the christmas tree.  It is something that we can't change and I dread it every year. BUT we always make up when we put the baubles on the tree and it always looks so pretty at the end of it!!

Dreams of a perfect Christmas

I've been daydreaming about my perfect Christmas as part of the Journal Your Christmas class. As I sat and let my imagination run wild I realised that, actually, Christmases for the past few years have been fairly perfect! Well as perfect as I want them to be! I'm not that keen on perfection to be honest. If something is perfect then where do you go from there? Would that perfection make everything else, every other Christmas a little bit imperfect and disappointing? You could think on that one for hours and argue with yourself!!
Anyway, here is what my page looks like:

JYC Day 3

I was shocked at how long it took me to actually create todays page! I love the design on the card I wanted to feature so much that I really didn't want the page to be overly decorative and take away from the beauty of the card. I hope I've done the amazing artwork justice! Hannah Willow is an amazing artist!Some more of Hannah's work can be seen here.

JYC Day 2

Yay!! Here is my page!! See the read more link below to see why I did it like this. I am really happy that despite being at work late I still managed to spend some quality time with my lovely man AND scrap todays page!!

JYC Page 1

This needs embellishing but I have to go shopping for some first!

JYC 2009 Album Cover

I'm planning on adding to it later in the month as I think it is a bit too simple

Journaling My Christmas - Preparation

I've signed up for Shimelle's Christmas scrapbooking class and am really looking forward to it. I tried to do something similar myself last year but I did it all by myself and it really turned into a chore rather than a delight as I had no prompts at all and that was a hassle on most days!
I'm hoping that the daily prompts I'll receive will make this years album much more fun to complete!!
I've typed myself a little action plan (how organised am I!!!!) of things to prepare before December the 1st to make things even easier!
I think I may used this blog quite alot as the prompts will be in my inbox in the morning and then I can write any ideas here during the day as I have them (may be even add sketches) and then create the page each evening.
Yippie!!