* * Getting ready for JYC * *

So once again I am going to play along with the "Journal your Christmas" girlies with Shimelle and as there is football on the telly tonight I have been more than happy to spend the evening alone sorting out my stash!

This will be the third year that I have taken part in "Journal Your Christmas" and I love both of my old albums and I can't wait to get started on this years. I am being more ambitious than I have been in previous years and will be attempting a 8.5x11 sized album. There has been too much Christmas stash that I have loved this year so I figured I would need a good sized album to use it all up.

Due to much reckless stash purchasing my album will have no continued theme, no block colour scheme and no ryhme or reason! It will just be a random collection of Christmas papers that I love! Each year I try to co-ordinate my albums but I get easily distrasted and bored, so my lame attempts at a continued theme always fail and to be honest this never seems to matter in the end, I love the end result and never seem to notice that the whole album is not co-ordinated.

So I have cut my background pages, all ready to go. I have realised that I need another 10 page protectors, so they are not actually in my album yet but they are stacked and ready to go. So I have a baggie of pre-cute background pages and a baggie of the remaining scraps.

And then I have a box of goodies to be ready to grab and go! Some bling, journalling cards, ribbons, some Love Elsie stash that survived from last year.

Whoop! Ready to go....just need to wait for December 1st now!

* * Crafty times * *

This week I am enjoying displacement activity. I am not doing any of my University work but am convincing myself that scrapbooking is a perfectly responsible alternative.

I have been trying to use up some of my older stash, of course it has already been replaced with newer bits that I love more, but I felt sorry for this stuff, sitting pittifully on my desk being unused and unloved....

This is an old photo too, me taking a photo of him taking a photo in Amsterdam. I love those Basic Grey alphas, so tempted by the pink Eskimo kisses ones.

And sorry for the duplicate polka dot background pages, I think I have a slight obsession at the moment, polka dot backgrounds are really calling out to me. I had better not do too many of them out of fear that people might start to think my albums are some sort of bizarre 'magic eye' scrapbooks.

This page is celebrating the fact that I "Guide with Pride" as in Girlguiding UK. I run a Ranger unit and I love it so much. We have such a brilliant time together and I am so proud of everything that we achieve as a group. We are off to Edinburgh next weekend for a centenary city adventure. I am taking 16 teenagers on a flight there and back, a big and scary challenge, I am looking forward to it so much, but am also nervous as it is a completely new experience for me. Fingers crossed it will go well and be good experience for our planned international adventure in 2011.
And lastly, I thought I would share a little new baby gift that I made this week.
My sister in law is expecting her second baby in the next couple of weeks, so I made this cute baby bib for her. Her surname is Bullett, hence the "baby Bullett" embroidery, they didn't find out the baby's sex hence the neutral yellow! . I think I will try and make a Christmas version too for baby's stocking.

* * November Scrapagogo Designs * *

You are really in for a treat if you are waiting for your November Scrapagogo kit. This month it is just packed full of bright funkies to help us through this grey and miserable weather.

These are my designs with the vibrant and colour kit. Firstly a photo of our recent scrappy weekend away, not a photo of the girls but a photo of photos of the girls! ; )

The Sassafras paper whimsies are so perfect for layering up all over your pages and with 30 pieces in each package, you can afford to be generous with them!

Over the summer, London South Bank was adorned with lines of polka dot trees, a perfect scrappy opportunity!
Sometimes you just have the urge to add a realllllyyy long title and this kit was perfect for that! I used the sassafras alphabet sheet and cut all the letters out that I needed. As we are in the middle of planning our wedding I have been doing a lot of research in to wedding invites and I love the way that so many of them write the date out in words, the whole date, year and everything. We don't tend to do that normally, but I love the way it looks and that was my inspiration for this long title, stating that we are waiting for one date in particular!

This layout features a very old picture of me in my very first year, so 1982. I don't have many pics of me as a baby but I did go to great lengths last year of grabbing any family pics and scanning them into my computer to create a digital copy. Perfect for these sorts of layouts. Behind the photo I have included some hidden journalling that talks about my achievements in life so far and what I still have yet to achieve.

I loved the November Greetings kit, so easy to whip a couple of cute cards together...

And finally the November Mini Kit.

I adore the Cosmo Cricket boyfriend range, especially the randomness contained within the elements sheet. I wanted to embrace the rather odd nature of these elements and this quote from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory seemed quite perfect.

I hope you have fun creating with your kit this month, I love looking out for layouts on blogs and over at the clubhouse.

* * I'm going to miss this magazine * *

Issue 60 arrived on my doormat yesterday and it was a bit of a bittersweet moment. Its a fabulous issue but it's also the last issue. I think it is such a shame that the magazine has folded, I think that it has really improved over the last few months and this was a top issue.

At least it ended on a high. :)

So although it's still November this is the December magazine and thus featured Christmassey layouts. I am always really really rubbish at taking Christmas photos, but I do love this one of our tree from last year.
Nothing beats a real tree and I do love the randomness of the tree decorations that we have collected over the years. There is no theme, no rules, if they are pretty and I like them then they end up on the tree.

Though our collection is nothing like my parents, they win the electic tree award, some of my favourites on their tree are Harry Potter, the Little Mermaid, a lego snowman, Dumbledore, photos of us kids in tiny frames, a Christmas barbie as the fairy, a poker chip from Vegas and a fake ice cube from New York. I kid you not.

It really is most random, maybe this year i will photograph all these beauties and add them to my Journal Your Christmas

Also in the magazine...

This was actually this February when we all enjoyed an unexpected "snow day" as London slid to a halt in the snow.

* * Getting into the Spirit of Christmas * *

I am really getting excited about Christmas this year and am thrilled to have so much of my Christmas shopping under my belt already. I have been trying to get bits and pieces throughout the course of the year to save myself the normal trauma of a pennyless January due to Christmas overspending.

Today I spent the day up at the Spirit of Christmas show at London Olympia and it really helped to get me in the Christmas spirit. The show was huge and amazing and full of the best gift shops and Christmas shops and cheese shops, which are generally my three favourite kinds of shops.

As I was lucky enough to get a free ticket and skip the ridiculous £15 admission charge, I was quids in before I had even started. Meaning that, alongside various Christmas presents, I could afford a couple of treats for us.

A new addition to our photo wall....

The show was full of people selling monograms in one form or another. Letters like these or Christmas decorations, or cushions in various initials, they were all over the place. But resisting the temptation to have L & W in every font possible, I just went with these beautiful white letters. They are so light as well which is handy as all I had were glue dots to attach them to the wall with!
And this cute wire frame wall hanging thingy, which I must try to only add pretty things to, not "to-do" lists or bills that must be paid.

But my favourite shop was this one...

Alphabet Photography

It was amazing, they have taken tons and tons of photograhs of buildings, flowers, lamposts, benches, railings and windows that all resemble different letters of the alphabet.

Check out their website as you can enter the name/word that you want to have created and it will randomly select the letters for you, keep clicking "create" until you find a set that you love. Or you can pick each letter one by one.

I love them so much.

I want HARRISON as a wedding present, super cute right? In fact I might just treat myself to a wedding present, brides can do that right?

So all I need know is to know if there is a way that I can set up a wedding list that I create myself that features loads of different shops? So I can add things like this to it? And other bits and pieces from lots of different websites.

There are so many different unique bits and pieces that I would like to add to a list, and a generic John Lewis set up just isn't going to cut it.

Any ideas anyone?

* * Lol cats and letterbox make my life more exciting * *

Ohhh I spy new scrapbooking stash that I love... The new American Crafts range "Letterbox" has finally hit our shores, so my order is going in right this second! I love those scripty fabric thickers.
And I don't tend to be tempted by the AC chipboard normally but these look super cute, so they fell into my basket too.

The papers are so pretty, though it does feel like more of a spring range to be honest...I might use it to scrap some of my left over summery pics though.

In response to Shimelle's lastest blogging prompt...lol cats make my life more interesting and as so many of you commented that you love them for keeps, I thought I would add another two of my favourites.

If you have an iphone FYI there is a lol cat application that you can download so you never miss a second of lol cat fun.

In other news....I am late for work...so I must go. I always walk the exact same way, cross the roads in the exact same places and see the exact same people sitting in the three cafes that I pass on route. I like the routine and I like the constants. Sometimes I feel like I am in 'The Truman Show'

* * My 5 favourite things * *

For anyone who knows me, none of these will be any surprise for you, but for everyone else...these are my five favourite things...

1. Donkeys. I support this this charity because of this advert. They do good things and help both donkeys and their owners, which is great. I loved the donkeys before the ad but now it's official and I have a donkey teatowel and everything.

2. Cheese. Especially when it's brie and especially when it's baked.

3. Mushrooms. Of the non-deadly variety please. I could literally eat them for every meal. In fact at the GogoGetaway last weekend I think I actually did.

4. Llamas. Should I be concerned that out of my five favourite things, two are food items and two are slightly odd looking creatures with big ears? I think part of me feels sorry for the odd looking animals. They are never anyone's favourites. At school all the kids would be like "oh my favourite animal is a lion" Or a killer whale, or a elephant. No one ever picks the llama. So I do!

It might also have to do with the fact that I have big ears and paranoia about them, so I seek affinity with other large eared creatures.

5. Lol cats - If the cat of the lol is a new concept for you, please look here for them. It is no more complicated than funny photos of cats with even funnier captions added.

And this is my all time favourite one.

Busy night for me, so defintely no scrapbooking tonight.