Having fun...

Have just had a great afternoon watching old slides from when we were little. I remember when we were younger we used to dread it when mum and dad said "let's watch some slides", but now we really, really enjoyed it! I guess you appreciate it a lot more when you're a bit older.

Hope to continue to watch some more tomorrow as we have quite a few and it was a bit too many to watch in one go. Still, it was lots and lots of fun. I guess the scrapbooker in me made me enjoy it even more.

This is a LO that I made for the ATDML design team. Photo is taken in Sweden and the LO is made mainly using the kit I was sent.

Looking forward to tonight...

...as me and Ross have been invited over to my sister and her boyfriend for food in the evening. It will be extra fun as we have not seen the apartment since they moved in together. I just need to remember to bring my camera with me.

These are a set of 3 cards which I made for the ATDML design team (where I was guest DT member for December). At first I was a bit unsure what to do with the papers, but then I quickly got some ideas. The round (well, oval really) card was perfect for the paper. Unfortunately I don't have the papers here and I can't remember what range it is - sorry!

It's feeling very strange not working on my Christmas journal at the moment when I have done it for so many days in a row, but I am keeping up with my notes so I should get back on track quickly...or at least that's the plan...

Where has it gone...

...I'm guessing some of you visiting my blog is starting to wonder if I have given up on my Christmas journal. The answer is no. Only for the next few days I have no access to my stash so I can't make my pages. I am however keeping notes and making little sketches in a notebook so I can continue where I stopped. I have no intention of giving up, so if you don't see it back, please nag at me in the comments section! LOL! I don't want to give up just because I am behind.

These are the final things I made for the ATDML Christmas design team gallery. Again using Basic Grey Dasher. First a set of 3 ATCs. I have also used the Merry Grinchmas stamp set by Rusty Pickle and lots of Tim Holtz distress inks.

Then I made a different version of the card we have sent to people for Christmas this year. A tree template and then lots of strips of patterned paper, some ribbon and glitter glue. Pretty easy but also a bit fun with it being a different shape card.

Christmas card...

Another Christmas card which I made for the ATDML Christmas design team gallery. Using Basic Grey Dasher, a big flower and lots of Stickles glitter glue! I love using my sewing machine to make cards and for scrapbooking!

In about an hour we're off to my aunt, uncle and cousins. It's become a yearly Christmas tradition that they invite us all over for food on Boxing Day afternoon since many years back. Quite nice tradition to have because it's really the only time of year when we ALL meet in one place.

What a great day...

We had such a nice day yesterday! Got some great presents, ate some great Christmas food (though due to my intolerances it was a bit limiting this year) and most of all - spent some nice time with the family!

Even though everything else was very Christmassy yesterday, the weather wasn't. About 9 degrees and sun! How crazy is that?!? Must be the warmest Christmas Eve ever I think. Or certainly that I can remember. This morning we woke up to the lawn and the cars being white with frost. Slightly more Christmassy.

I think most of you reading this will be celebrating Christmas today, so ---> I hope you have a really nice day, eat some nice food, maybe get some nice presents and get to spend the day with the people you love.

Before I go for today I will share some items which I did for the ATDML Christmas gallery. I felt very honoured when I was asked to be their guest DT member for the month of December and not only that, but they also sent me a Christmas kit and asked if I could do something towards their Christmas gallery if I had time. This is just one (well 3 really!) of the items I did. Made with Basic Grey Dasher collection.

Wishing you all...

...a very

MERRY CHRISTMAS

and a

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Almost there...

Yesterday's prompt was all about what you have got left to do before Christmas. Not that much for us really. Today we're spending tidying and cleaning, ready for the decorating the house and taking in/decorating the tree this afternoon when my sister and brother arrives.

My page is rather simple. I wasn't happy with it but I felt so stuck on how to change it. Maybe it was just one of those days when you can get nothing right when you scrap.


And tomorrow it's Christmas!! Yes the 24th is the day in Sweden when everything is celebrated. You have your special Christmas food, open the presents etc. So today is lots and lots of preparations for it. Later this afternoon mum will make the Christmas ham and we have one lot of Christmas candy to get done still.

I hope you all also feel like you are starting to get Christmas under control now and that you get a stress free and enjoyable holiday!

The next prompt was about taking your camera, just picking it up without doing anything to your house and taking some photos of the state of tidiness, Christmas mess or decorating it was in RIGHT now. So that's what I did.

And since that was the subject of the day, I thought I might as well do it properly and make the whole page being covered by my photos. LOL! The chipboard is Queen & Co and some Making Memories Wordfetti finishes the page off.

Got all our presents wrapped yesterday so that feels good. Today is a rather wet and grey day so I think apart from a walk we'll stay inside. Will help mum make her special Christmas toffee and we also need to get some Christmas candy made this afternoon.

Tomorrow the Christmas tree gets taken in and decorated! Can't wait!! Also my sister and brother will turn up tomorrow so it's going to be a great day...

Christmas candy...

Today's being spent making Christmas candy. A tradition we keep to every year. Mum makes her special Christmas toffee (a kinda chocolatey one which is just sooo nice) and I make the rest. Over the years we have varied the types a bit but there are a few that we have stuck with.

My Christmas journal page (sorry!) has been made in Swedish for this specific subject (which I by the way wanted to have in my book so I didn't follow the prompt). The reason is that most of the ingredients are Swedish anyway and there would be no point in translating them as there might not be an English equivalent.

I find there's something so cosy with making your own Christmas candy. It's one of those days when you really feel that "Christmas is coming".


...and now I'm off to wrap all the presents!!

My letter to Santa...

A letter to Santa. That was what we were supposed to write according to the prompt. Even though most of us probably hadn't done it for years and years. At first I was a little stuck with this page. But then I had an idea.


And the creative challenge of the day was to include something with a picture of Santa. I'm keeping my letter to Santa secret though...

Sorry for short blogging - it's not ideal when you have a headache.

Christmas Dinner...

Really enjoyed doing my page about Christmas Dinner for my Christmas journal. I wanted to capture the cosy feeling of the table. So I opted for one very large photo with lots of journaling underneath the photo.


I think (hope?) some of you might find it rather interesting to read about the Christmas food. Being Swedish, this is quite different to what's being served in most UK (or indeed US) homes so that should make a bit of a change to read about.

I think just like the Christmas tree and the presents make up a large amount of "what is Christmas", so does the special food. So I was very happy to see the subject being brought up to write about. I can see that the text in the close-up photo is still rather on the small side. So here's the journaling:

We of course have the traditional Swedish “julbord” (“Christmas table”) on Christmas Eve. In old times people could have hundreds of dishes on their Christmas table. Making their own sausages and cheeses etc. In modern days, each family has narrowed it down to their own favourites. We always have a few different types of marinated herring (yuck!), hardboiled egg halves, smoked salmon, Christmas meatballs, baby sausages (“prinskorv”), Christmas cheese, special cabbage called “brunkål”, Christmas bread (“vörtbröd”) and of course the Christmas ham! Everything is served with Christmas beer or Christmas drink called julmust and some spirit that dad adds the “malört” herb to, to create his special drink (“besk”).

Dad usually does the food shopping for Christmas and mum makes the ham on the 23rd. The rest of the food is prepared just before we eat and everyone helps making it ready. We usually end up eating quite late because the opening of the presents take so long. We also sit at the table for quite a long time enjoying the food and playing “games”... going around the table, taking turns to answer questions like “what was your best present and why?” and “what’s your favourite dish on the Christmas.

One of those days...

What a morning! Wanted to add some more things to my iPod. It all worked fine until I noticed that iTunes had DELETED everything else that was already on my iPod!!! Grrr! Not sure why this happened. I have added things before, and what was already there stayed there. But today is was obviously not going to behave. It took me over 3 (!!) hours this morning to get it back to a similar state to before. Not exactly what I wanted to wake up to when I had a million things to do today anyway.

And it's not like the weather gets you in a better mood either. It's been soooo foggy and dark here all day that I have had to have the lights on inside to be able to see enough to do things. In fact, the way the sky looks right now you could almost think that it would snow. Though the temperature wouldn't agree with that of course.

...and another day from my Christmas journal. I knew straight away what to do this page about when I read it should be about "that special present". I've started knitting a bit and I decided to make a scarf for my mum for Christmas.

It turned out to be an even better present that I could have hoped for (and I'm saying that even before she's got it and knows what it is!! LOL!) Just read the journaling.

Oh and I hope the spelling mistake wasn't too obvious. Only noticed it myself after putting the page together. Typical...

The cake...

Didn't update yesterday and feel almost guilty for it! LOL! Haven't missed many days at all since I started my blog. Spent most of the day celebrating Ross' birthday and had lots of fun. One of the things he got was the new Buzz quiz game for the PS2, which we had lots of fun playing! And the cake I made on Friday turned out really yummy!

I have two pages from my Christmas journal to share with you today. First the subject for the 15th was to write about which people you spend Christmas with and who you see over the Christmas holidays. That was quite easy for me as we have a rather small family and always basically see the same people over Christmas.

We see about half of our family over the Christmas Days. We always have the tradition to go and visit my mum's sister's family on Boxing Day as she always invites us over for food. The rest of our relatives live a few hours away so we see them at other times instead.

Then it was the prompt for the 16th (yesterday). This was to write about what things you're grateful for. Quite easy really if you just sit down for a few minutes and have a think. Was a bit unsure what photo to use for my page so I just ended up with a bit of a close-up of the cosy tree.

Birthday preparations...

It's Ross' birthday tomorrow so I have been busy preparing for that. I wrapped the presents yesterday afternoon and wrote the card (made it a few weeks ago when I tested out a new idea for a design). I was VERY lucky with one of the presents. Have been waiting for it to be delivered now for about 2 weeks! Finally got a delivery date yesterday of the 18th (yes Monday and two days too late!!!). But guess what turned up here about an hour ago desipte that info? I'm very happy!!

Also I have baked a birthday cake today! Making a cake is a H-U-G-E problem. Well not the baking, but to make something that I can eat. Unfortunately I have some major intolerances to some very common ingredients (gluten, wheat, dairy products, eggs, almonds etc). Stop and think for a second about ingredients lists on packets and jars and how many foods contain these! It's not easy. Fortunately I can eat oats.

I have not been able to find a SINGLE cake recipe that I can eat and not get ill from afterwards. (I challenge anyone who can, to please - PLEASE - post in in the comments section!!) So it's taken me months to come up with the idea and invent a cake which is wheat, gluten (not counting oats), dairy and egg free. But I have done it - and not only that, but it's really, really nice too!!

Before I go, here's yesterday's page from my Christmas journal. Yet again I have ended up taking a very uneven photo - sorry. The subject of the day was Christmas music. Do you like it? Don't you like it? Any favourites? etc

And a little close-up of my journaling too...

Lucia...

Still not feeling very well today. But at least a little bit better than yesterday. So maybe it will just take me a little while to recover. Anyway...

I said for the 13th I would not follow the prompt for the Christmas journal class. Instead I would pick my own subject which is very appropriate for the 13th if you're Swedish. I wrote all about Lucia which is celebrated on the 13th of December every year.

I tried to take a close-up photo of the journaling, but it wasn't very easy to read. So instead I will copy the text from the page here:

"Lucia is celebrated on the 13th of December in Sweden and is a very, very old tradition. Going back hundreds of years. It was considered the year’s longest night and each farm or village would dress a woman in white clothes with candles in her hair to brighten the dark night. They would have lots of celebrations including food and drink. The modern celebration sees the start of the Luciatrain (“Luciatåg“). A train of white dressed women (“tärnor”) holding a candle in their hand and the first woman (the “Lucia“) would have candles in her hair. You sing special Lucia songs and bring coffee and lussekatter (special saffron Lucia buns with raisins). Children would dress up and do this for their parents in the morning of the 13th of December. Every town vote for “their” official Lucia and has a Luciatrain. The same is done in schools and workplaces all over the country. Even the Swedish TV has their own official Lucia and a Lucia program which the Luciatrain showed early in the morning and in the evening of the 13th every year."

Not well...

Feeling very ill with an evil stomach bug yesterday and today so this won't be much of an update I'm afraid. Just want to curl up on the sofa at the moment.


Still, here's yesterday's page:


...and yes the page is even in real life - must have taken the photo at a funny angle. LOL! The subject was to write about past and recent Christmases and reflect on what's different between them.



And here's a close-up of the journaling:


And the second part:


Hoping I'll feel a bit more like blogging again tomorrow...

Christmas is soon here...

Can't believe we're halfway to Christmas already - counted from 1st of December! As I type this, today in 12 days, we'll be watching "obligatory" Donald Duck on TV (see 4th of Dec post LOL!) on Christmas Eve as it will be just past 15:00 Swedish time...then it's time for the presents and the Christmas food (yes Christmas Eve is THE celebration day in Sweden). Even though I'm in a rather Christmassy mood, this still feels rather unreal right now. Still, I can't wait!!

This is the page I made yesterday for my Christmas journal. I have not taken a close-up photo of the journaling because I figured it might be large enough to read anyway. The subject was all about Christmas trees and decorations, if you have a real tree etc.

I have already done today's page (you'll see it tomorrow) and I have THE perfect thing to write about on the 13th. I won't be following the prompt for that day (I just KNOW it can't be what I want to write about), but what I'm going to write about is the perfect thing for that day, so I have decided to go with that no matter what the prompt of the day is...

Your questions answered...

More from my Christmas Journal. This entry was all about wrapping presents etc. We were given a suggestion for how to do the page in the prompt, but I wanted to do something a bit different that was my "own" design. Took me ages until I had an idea which I really liked. But this is the final result.

And I have made some of the presents so they fold down and reveal the journaling underneath. This page - it might not look like it - took me ages and ages to do because the little bows etc were very fiddly to make.

During the last few days I have received some questions in the "comments" section, so I thought I would try and answer them today. Here they are:

From Kat: Where do you store your inkpads? Well it might not be the best of things to use, but I like it. I have some of those little wooden drawers from IKEA which I have painted both with coloured acrylics and then with glitter acrylics (though this doesn't show very well in the photo).

They fit inkpads very nicely. Something like Staz'On etc fit perfectly width wise in the boxes. Also I love them for my Tim Holtz inks. Each drawer holds 12 inkpads - 3 piles of 4 - which is prefect since my complete set (24 inkpads in total) takes up exactly two of the little drawers.

From Heather: What is the little animal on the 3rd row of your Dec 8 Christmas journal entry? In Sweden it's very common to have straw goats (with red ribbon wrapped around them) for Christmas. They are called "julbock" and are a very old fashioned. I'm not quite sure where the tradition comes from but it's a very, very old tradition. Anyway, recently they have started making them in other shapes and dad got a straw pig for father's day once. Which has now become our "Christmas pig" and he lives under the tree at Christmas (the pig that is, not dad!! LOL!) This is a typical julbock:

From Lythan: What are the stamps used on the Dec 8 Christmas journal entry? I assume you mean the snowflakes. It's a "retro snowflake" set by Banana Frog. Hope that helps.

Wiiiiiii...

An entry about a Christmas tradition in my journal... Knew straight away what I was going to write about and came up with a design pretty soon. Well, let's face it, it's not so much to "come up" with is it? Basically a few tags in a pocket with some stamping etc LOL!


I wrote all about the tradition our family has had since many, many years back of opening the presents. Again I have taken a close up of the journaling so I hope you can read it in the photos.


I also included a photo from last year of just some of the presents under the tree.


I have finished today's page too (think lots of presents made from paper and ribbon) but it's far too dark now to get a decent photo so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Wow this weekend has gone fast!!! Though I guess it might have something to do with playing lots of games... Ross pre-ordered the new Nintendo console (Nintendo Wii) several weeks ago and picked it up on Friday morning when it was launched. I believe, because of pre-orders, it was pretty much sold out even before it went on sale.

Anyway, I have to say I'm really impressed with it. The controllers look like TV remotes and are totally wireless (sooo nice not to have cables dragged half across the room). You need to have lots of free space around you so you don't hit something or someone (!) but it's SO realistic. Imagine playing a tennis game where you "serve" and play forehand and backhand with your remote just like in real life!! The game that really had us giggling was one where you race some cows that look knitted! Sounds weird?! It was, but also lots and lots of fun!! I'm turning out to be a bit of a billiard professional...

Oh it hurts...

Where did today go? I feel like it's been busy, busy, busy...yet we haven't really done that much. Must have something to do with trying out a new recipe which we spent nearly all afternoon (!!) cooking. Saw a re-run of "Nigella Bites" the other day and got really tempted to try her ham in coca-cola (!!). So off to the shops we went this morning and bought a ham. Nearly £11!! Didn't think ham was that expensive LOL! Anyway, boiled it this afternoon and glazed it in the oven.

The result? It was actually really nice (she says who was rather skeptical at first!). And that even comes from a person who are not especially ham crazy. Got lots left over too so we'll have some for lunch tomorrow and then some more left over after that too. So I think it was worth the long cooking after all.

I thought I would share my Christmas journal page 8 with you also. This was all about what is typical for this time of year, what things you notice appearing, what things are changing etc. I didn't really follow this so much. Instead I did my own little thing using lots of squares.

Been suffering with a migraine the last few days so apologies for any spelling mistakes etc. I have to go back and change about every second word (and I'm not joking!!) as I type this because my brain just isn't functioning at all. Off to have a rest, this computer is not doing me any good...

Christmas Journal Day 7

And another day of my Christmas journal. Yesterday's prompt was all about Christmas shopping: what you're buying, if you are a person who love the busy shops at Christmas or if you hate all the hunting for carparking spaces, the queuing in the shops etc. If you have bought everything well in advance, or of you're there with panic in your eyes, hunting the shops the day before Christmas.


I definitely do not like the queues in the shops. It gets me very impatient. LOL! And compared to what I'm used to from Sweden, the shops are so much more busy (and so much earlier before Christmas) in England than they are in Sweden. So we try our very best to get our Christmas shopping done early.


We actually bought the first present in early September (!!) but that was only because we ran into something good for my brother just by pure chance. Normally we don't start until mid October or so. Really struggled with some presents for dad as I was determind NOT to "get something just because", but I wanted something that really was good and that he needed/wanted. However I'm pleased to say that after 2 months (!!) of thinking we have finally come up with some things for him and the last one (mail-order) arrived here on Tuesday.

Back to my journal page... I have included a list of the presents we're giving, which is tucked in beind the photo. Handy to have for next year, so it might be something I will start doing ---> making a note every year what we gave everyone.


I have actually *just* finished my page for today too. Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to take photos yet. So that will have to wait until tomorrow. But I can tell you that it was lots of fun to do and there are lots of little squares involved...

Where to store the stamps...

I struggled a bit with my idea for my Christmas journal yesterday. The theme was to write about two opposite Christmases. One very special and one not so special (maybe something went wrong etc). I'm not sure if I'm very lucky or not, but our Christmases are always good and very special. We love the family traditions that we have created and therefore they are very much the same. I'm sure there were years when I really, really wished for something and got a bit disappointed when I didn't receive it. But I can't remember anything in particular.

So therefore I changed the theme a bit to suit something that I could do. I wrote about something that really made us smile. When Santa returned! :)

Sticking with my same theme of Basic Grey Blitzen as my base card for the page. Lots of Making Memories rub-ons and my usual date stamp. I mounted the photo onto double-folded cardstock and the little ribbon tab is to pull the photo to one side to read the journaling hidden under the photo.

I have also nearly finished the page for today. But you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see that one...

I'm sitting here starring at a little pile of acrylic stamps (in their original packages) on my desk. You know, the Autumn Leaves clam shell packaged ones etc. Well my desk is so small that I just need to find a place for them. But a handy, easy to get to place, otherwise they won't be used. I've been thinking about this for over a week now (well I HAVE done other things too!! LOL!) and I'm really stuck for where/how to store them. I really like to keep them in their inividual packages. My little craft room is SO tiny, there really isn't much space...So please share with me in the "comments" section how you store yours. I need help please...

Advent...

I felt rather stuck with yesterday's page in my Christmas journal for most of the day. I guess I have discovered that I struggle a bit with fitting photos in nicely because of the format I picked. But that's easy to say now LOL! If I could change my mind I think I would have gone for something square and a bit bigger. Also I had planned to do a lot of hand journaling, but I find that most of the time I have so much to write that I need to use the computer and printer to be able to fit it on my pages.

Anyway I finally came up with an idea how I would fit my photos AND my journaling on yesterday's page.


I used the two photos as doors. Just like an advent calendar. Which was rather appropriate, since the subject for the day was about counting down to Christmas. So the photos made the doors and some jewelled Making Memories brads made perfect little "handles" on the doors with some embroidery thread to close them.


Inside is all my journaling. I wrote all about the advent calendar and the traditions from when I was little, the advent candle and the special Swedish 4 candle advent holder. I really enjoyed getting these traditions down on paper.

...and the visit to the Christmas market got postponed yesterday. The rain was pouring down like crazy all evening (and night too). So it was definitely the right decision. We said we'd go today instead. But after a whole morning of rain we have cancelled it for today too. Oh well! We can't go tomorrow, so we're hoping for Friday now...