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Saturday 15 December 2012

JYC Day 15

Im so proud of myself today because not only have I done my page but its the first one posted in Shimelle.com's Journal Your Christmas Forum - my entries usually appear on page 12 but today Im on the front page, which means Im scrapping faster and I like it! OK I have an 8 hour advantage over the English girls and a whopping 14 hours head start on the American girls - by virtue of the geography - but even that doesnt usually help me to get my entries completed and posted early! No today is a first and a happy one - keeping the theme simple and done rather than complex and never finished is working - I hope I can keep it up until the end of the class!!!!! Im just off to do a little happy dance down to the nearest mall - if it has stopped raining yet outside


JYC Day 14

I have always enjoyed large family gatherings and as a child Christmas was the time it happened most! I still love having a family Christmas - a houseful of my nearest and dearest make my Christmas dreams come true every year!!!! Im so pleased to be keeping up so well with my JYC at the moment - I think its because we have had really dreadful weather this week! Not the snow and ice I remember as a child - but tropical monsoon rain which you really dont want to get caught in either!!!!
 

Friday 14 December 2012

Journal Your Christmas Days 10 - 13

I have to admit Im feeling quite pleased with myself, not only am I keeping up with JYC this year, but Im actually liking a lot of what I am doing, and Im doing it faster than usual! As Ive said before the key to completion is simplicity, so a limited number of supplies that co-ordinate are a good start and a common theme to link the pages together is all it takes - for me thats my knockouts notebook punch (which I love) and a bag full of lovely stash from Papermarket in Vivo City Singapore! The staff in there are soooo friendly, they carry a good range of stock and they have great offers too - if you happen to be here - its worth popping in - just saying!

So here are my most recent four pages

My lists at the moment are very high level because I really havent thought enough about anything! I have started packing my case ready for the off, but I still have a ton of stuff to do to be ready - please can we put it back a week or two?

 
 
 You have to see the Christmas decorations here to believe how truly amazing they are, however when it comes to wrapping paper we have a problem! Singapore is not primarily a Christian nation, although all cultures celebrate parts of each others festivals! So present giving is not as widespread in most of the population as it would be in the UK for example. The only place you can buy Christmas wrapping paper is in chemists shops and even then not easily!



Pictured here is my Christmas role model - my Aunt who has shared every Christmas I have ever had with me in one form or another! She helped me to develop a love of the holiday and has often worked tirelessly too, to make our Christmas magical - she is baking for me this week as I wont have time when I return to the UK! She really is the best!


Christmas weather in the UK and Singapore - my mind sees Christmas as snowy and white, just like the photo of our garden here! However, in Singapore the only snowmen are made of concrete and they generate fake snow for the kids to run around in, wearing shorts, t-shirts and flip flops - how different would they need to dress if that was real snow?

Sunday 9 December 2012

JYC The Story So Far!

Life has once again got in the way of my blogging - but Im hoping to get back on track - OK its nearly Christmas (I cant believe I just typed that) Its still 30' outside and boiling hot! It cant really be Christmas can it?

I guess since I am 9 days into JYC it certainly is Christmas and I still have a ton of stuff to do!  I started my JYC album on 27th November as this was the British Association Ladies Christmas Lunch - but have decided only to post the entries that were initiated with one of Shimelle's prompts!

So to draw the line between that which went before and that which is true JYC I did the dividing page below - which I quite like!



The Christmas lights are stunning every year in Singapore, and on 1 December we walked the entire length of Orchard Road - in fact we walked from Little India - which is a very long way - but the lights were fabulous and it felt like all of Singapore had the same idea as us!  Once I get some prints - this page will be complete!



As a child I couldnt understand how the weather could be freezing in Yorkshire, England and boiling hot in places like Australia! Even having lived in the tropics for almost 4 years it still feels strange to have Christmas in the sunshine - although when I get back to England I will miss the warmth!


My Christmas plans this year are about travel in the main! We have about 40,000 miles of travelling to do before we have our family Christmas - so its probably time I started packing and making lists and checking them twice!!!!



The best bit of every Christmas for me is having all our family together and I still love having the kids over and watching them open their presents! Having everybody under one roof is the best Christmas present I could wish for!!!!


I bought this lovely baubles stamp in Houston, made my cards in Singapore and most of them are on their way to England - now that has to be a global effort surely?

 
 
I love having all the neighbours kids over to help me with the Christmas baking - funny how quickly they disappear though - when it comes to clearing up!!!! 
 



The lights and decorations down Orchard Road are amazing - I took these photos last year of the ION tree and this little boy outside Tanglin Mall who could hardly contain his excitement at seeing real concrete snowmen!!!!


Putting up our Christmas tree is something I used to love doing as a family. Although the decorations didnt match many of them had been passed through the generations and had memories attached to them - maybe I should put them on my tree again this year when I get back to England!


Then there are special things we only eat at Christmas - including sprouts stir fried with garlic and bacon and red cabbage with orange and honey, I love warm mulled wine after a cold bracing walk and no buffet would be complete without a chocolate log and Andrew's Mexican King Prawn thing....... you'll need to wait until Christmas itself for photos of that one! However here is a glimpse of Christmas Dinner last year - look away if you are feeling peckish!!!!

 
 

Saturday 1 December 2012

Journal Your Christmas 2012

OMG Where did 2012 go whilst I was scrapping and napping? Its that time of year again and this year its come around really fast - dont you think? In November I attended my first Christmas lunch - that feels a bit early even to a Christmas lover like me!

Our Christmas lights are on and they are (as always amazing) so I'll be out with my camera to capture the magic because we are (as the song says) going West! 12,000 miles west to Houston Texas - next year! And this time of year brings me to Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas class - being the Shimelle groupie that I am, it wont come as a big surprise to anybody that this is my fourth year doing the class and until today - I hadnt really given it much thought - Well maybe a little thought because I got one of Shimelle's kits delivered to a relation in the UK - kinda thinking I was going home early as my DH is away to the USA next week - he is now coming home early so I wont be in the UK until 22nd December! On that basis I headed into my Local Scrapbooking Store - and they were having a 50% off Chrismtas items if you bought a minimum of 5 items promotion - you just know what's coming dont you?

Ok so having had a look at all of the Christmas Collections - and most of the rest of their inventory! I have decided to go vintage this year! I have an American Crafts Modern Album 8 x 8 - Im doing some 8 x 8 pages and some 6 x 4 / 6 x 4 / 2 x 8 divided pages - because I have never done them before and I like to try something new each year!
So what did I buy .......... Well the Christmas stuff .......
 

Fancy Pants - Home for Christmas Collection Pack - its yummy!
I have Bo Bunny Noteworthy Christmas Numbers Tags and Embellies!
Websters Pages Calendar and Journalling Tags - These are gorgeous too - so I bought 2 packs of these!
And a Kaisercraft 6 1/2 " Paper Pad - Turtle Dove Collection which is also really lovely!
My page bases are going to be a pale Kraft dotted swiss cardstock ..............

and Ive finally got my hands on black and brown American Crafts Precision Pens for journalling!

There didnt look to be much in the basket in the craft shop - but it looks like a lot more than I thought I had bought now its sitting on my desk!!!! What do you reckon?



So this evening I turned up the aircon - and got into the Journal Your Christmas Mood by making my album cover and this is the finished article - I just have to fill it now - and that fun starts tomorrow!!!!!  - I used and American Crafts Modern 8 x 8 album, but the red was too bright for the vintage look I was after! I toned it down with some Pumice Stone Distress Stain - Love that stuff! Which I used on the red binding and on the red and white check adhesive fabric tape that I used to cover the join between the cover and the PP (or cardstock on the back and inside covers) which I have also done! The PP is from the Fancy Pants 'Home for Christmas Collection' - Merry Tree! The white painted wooden Snowflake was from the local Chinese Bead Shop and I'm still waiting (not very patiently for my stickles to dry)



For anybody who needs to get into the Christmas Scrapbooking mood - you can listen to May Flaum, Noel Hyman and our Very Own Scrapgoddess Shimelle on this weeks paperclipping round table podcast too - just sayin!
http://www.paperclipping.com/category/roundtable/

Finally - if you want to join the class and you havent yet done so (is there anybody who hasnt joined?) you can check it out by clicking on the blinkie