Hello December

December 1st means one thing to me as a memory-keeper - the start of December Daily/ Journal Your Christmas.  I have been journalling the stories of my December since 2010 when I first discovered Shimelle's wonderful Journal Your Christmas project and class.  If you have never heard of this and you are a Scrapbooker, I can really recommend it.  It is really reasonably priced and you can keep doing the project year after year with fresh prompts each December.  I discovered Ali Edward's December Daily project a few years later and since then I have combined the two approaches to document my December.  Ali focuses on one story per day and Shimelle uses prompts to inspire you to write about traditional Christmas things and Christmas memories.  I am going to heavily lean towards the one story per day approach this year BUT it wouldn't be December if I didn't look at the JYC prompts at all ... plus this year Shimelle is releasing a short video each day focussing on one 3x4 card...and I LOVE her videos!
As December starts I am aiming to create a day behind ie. to live the day and all it's stories and then to create in my album to remember one of those.
The stories of today include:

• A day spent at Birmingham Library for the Library Toolkit training course.  The library is new and beautiful! Described as a marmite library as you either love it or hate it! I loved it and want to go again to have a proposer look around.
• Spending time with Natalie travelling to and from the course - and also shopping in Birmingham together afterwards.  I have so few friends who live locally to me it was so nice to spend some social time with a kindred spirit!
• Twinkle lights ... I just love them! They are the best part of December for me!

Are you documenting your December? What methods will you be using to capture the stories and images if you are?

Family time

Today I have counted my blessings that I am part of the wonderful family of my Beloved.  When he and I had what we affectionately refer to as 'The Blip' in December, I thought I had lost all links to this extended family.

The forgiveness of my Dear One, and theirs, has been a gift I never thought I would receive.  In turn it lead to wonderful family afternoons like today...

Altar time

Effy blogged about witchcraft yesterday. It was a really good read, so anyone who hasn't read it and thinks they may be interested pop over to her blog (using the link above).  She used the blog as an opportunity to 'come out' and say she is a witch and not just a pagan.  For me it is the other way round, I have called myself Witch for many many years now but have only relatively recently been embracing the general pagan side of myself. A side I was 'schooled' to think was fluffy. What a school of thinking indeed! Nonsense! I love being a witch and I lvoe being a pagan. I love doing Crafty things and I love doing lighter pagan things.  My altars are a part of that.
There are people from my past who would hate by altars (strong word, but how I knwo they would feel.) They would think I have sold out, that they aren't witchy enough etc. Well, everyone is entitled to an opinion. I love my altars, they make my home feel special, Beloved. So today I cleansed them and tidied them up a bit.

Spring altar

The above is the main altar that I try to keep in tune with the seasons. Its right next to where I sit on the sofa and opposite where I sit at the table, so its very much in my vision, and in my mind.
Recently my Other Half has taken a keener interest in my Path and has decided he wants an altar to the Lord in our home too *swoon*! So here is his altar:

Altar to the Sacred Masculine

Recently we each pulled an Animal Oracle card.  Kei's was Boar. So when we were in Glastonbury at the weekend he stated he would like "something boar-ish" for his altar. I was expecting a little boar statue etc. and was quite surprised (and well proud, to be honest) when he came back with a boars tail from The Wild Hunt shop! You can just see it resting on top of the wooden square at the feet of Herne.

Well, that's a little glimpse into our pagan home. Yay to Effy for coming out and inspiring this post!
Bye all
x

Not feeling too great

I'm had a cold on-and -off for a few weeks now. Its nothing major, but still quite debilitating because it zaps my energy.
I feel like a bag of snot (nice!) and am sick of coughing all the time.
I had a shamanic healing when I was in Glastonbury at the weekend which seemed to help but I'm yuck again at the moment.
So not alot to say today other than that. Blah!
Sorry!
Byeeee

Waves from me and the fur baby x

Filter love

Glastonbury Abbey

I love taking photos with my iphone. In fact it is pretty much the only way I take photos now. I do have a DSLR which I love but have never really spent the time bonding with. What I love about iphonography is the filters! How you can take a simple photo and with a few clicks you can create a completely dramatic and different version of the same photo!
These photos were taken yesterday using the wonderful Hipstamatic app.  (ps I have an Oggl account if there are any Oggl users out there. My user name is @stryx .  I don't use this as much as I do Instagram (same user name on there guys if anyone Insta's :-) I think the reason I don't Oggl very much is the community thing again. Although there is a vibrant Oggl community, I don;t feel part of it, so I don't Oggl. Silly reason, I should enjoy my solitude and just post pics!

 

 Anyway, a quick question for you...

 

Which filter do you prefer fpr the ruins photos? The one above or this totally different one below.#

I have a preference but I'd like some opinions.

 

Have a great day.

Byeeeee

Day One of blogging along with Effy and the Glitterhood

Anyone who still actually reads this blog *waves* knows that I am a very erratic blogger! I was once a very faithful blogger, but not so now. Life kind of got in the way and ipads happened and all of a sudden the thought of getting the laptop out and set up to blog was just faaaaaaaar too much effort! Pathetic but true!!!
Several times over the past months (years?!) I have made a promise to blog again...but I haven't managed to do it.
So I'm trying again! This time I am joining in with a blog-along with the lovely Effy Wild and her followers.  I am hoping that this sense of community will inspire me to continue, and that the daily practice for 30 days will set me into a routine (because I do like routines!).
Hope you'll join  in with us.
Byeeeee

Project Life 2014 update

So far this year I have kept up with Project Life (yippppppie!!!) but I haven't posted any of my pages anywhere. The reason for this is that I found when I set myself a route of posts photos (on Instagram) of my pages, that I felt too pressured and actually ended up not creating and falling behind! Crazy I know!!
We'll this afternoon I took some pictures of all of my pages to date and am posting them here.
I was really unsure about my format this year. Learning from 2013 I knew that I found a double spread of the Becky Higgins Design A page protectors too much some weeks. I've been in a dark place for quite some time now and when I am I find that I don't really take a lot of photos, I don't notice a lot about life to document, but I didn't want to let this get in my way. Once I gave myself permission to be flexible, to do a double page one week, a single page the next (maybe even a 6x8 page when there really wasn't a lot to document) I felt so free! I've kept up to date ever since and I love the random-ness of my album! So her are the pages...enjoy...

Week One
This was a double pager as so many wonderful things happened!





Week Two
I added a small insert as I had too much for one page but wanted to let myself NOT feel pressured to do a full double page spread. Result!


Week Three
Using the other side of the insert wasn't a problem this week.


Week Four
A tricky one to create, to much for a single, too much for a small insert. This spread made me realise I could do with some more alternative insert sizes to keep things ve a free.






Week Five
This was a HUGE week for us! After all of our problems, all of the sorrow, we handfasted again. Such joy! As we went to Glastonbury to do this there were LOTS of photos and I used the square photos in one of my last square inserts. This week I also decided to use a different style for my weekly markers. Rather than a blank insert I decided to use a photo with text over it. I love the result!






Week Six
I was really poorly this week and fell a little behind, I didn't worry and the pressure I felt last year with a rigid album format was gone.


Week Seven
Still really poorly but this week included Valentines night away and Kei's birthday so I knew there would be a lot in here. Love the mix of sizes!








Week Eight
Feeling blue so not a lot of photos this week. That's ok though as I'm still documenting life!


Week Nine
Still low but starting to feel a bit more positive. Still loving Project Life, even in my dark moments.


Thanks for looking!