JYC-Not forgotten

Also I meant to put on the below post that I haven't forgotten or given up on JYC. I am having problems with the USB connections on the laptop so I'm unable to get my photos off my camera, and I took hundreds over the festive season. I really need the photos before I attempt my pages. Hopefully I will get it fixed over the weekend.

Sarah
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New Year's Eve!

Where have the days gone? Here we are at New Year's Eve already! I hope you had a fantastic Christmas and you enjoy the last evening of 2008 however you plan to celebrate, out partying or quietly at home with a glass of bubbly! I'm doing the 2nd option!!

2008 has been a good one for me and I have lots of plans and things I want to do and see in 2009. I'm not really one for making New Year's resolutions as I'm likely to have broken it by the 10th January, if not before. However, I do want to do more scrapbooking and also spend more time with friends, especially those who live some distance away from me, both of which are easily acheivable with a little effort and time.

Whatever your hopes and dreams for the New Year I wish you a happy, healthy 2009!!!

Sarah
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A Winter's Walk

Yesterday we went for a lovely walk on Alum Chine Beach. It was a gorgeous day, cold but no rain or wind at all.

Hannah had a quick play in the play park!

Then we walked along the beach, with dolly too! You can just see Bournemouth Pier in the background of this pic. The beach was fairly quiet, everyone must have been Christmas shopping!

I took these few photos, looking out across Bournemouth Bay towards Studland. The sky was beautiful, with the sun going down behind the Studland hills.

And here is my gorgeous hubby, he rarely lets me take photos like this of him, so I really love this one!

And then Hannah decided to collect pebbles and throw them into the sea, until Daddy found an "extra large" pebble to throw in!!! Lots of fun!

It was a great afternoon and a welcome break from the Christmas preparations! I can't wait to scrap these photos.

Today is Hannah's first day off school, and we are still in our PJs having a lazy morning. Not much planned, have a few pressies to wrap and deliver but that's about it. I just can't believe how organised I am for Christmas this year, everything is going far too well!!

Happy Monday one and all!

Sarah

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School Holidays!

The school Christmas holidays are here at last!! A sure sign its not long to go now until Xmas Day. I was really stuck for teachers presents this year, so last Thursday, we made white chocolate and cranberry cookies and Hannah helped to make little tags to put on the presentation bags. Hannah took them in on Friday for her teacher & classroom assistant. I hope they liked them.

I have had a bit of a housework blitz this morning and given the house a good clean ready for Xmas and then Hannah's Godmother and her children came to visit and we exchanged pressies for the kids. The pile under our tree is gradually getting bigger!

Unfortunately JYC has taken a bit of a back seat the last few days, everyday "life" is getting in the way, although I am still reading each day's prompts and taking photos but I do have a few days journalling to catch up on. The actual creating the layout will now have to be after Christmas, I think, will be easier then as I will have the photos printed as well.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.
Sarah
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JYC-6th & 7th December

Here are my pages for 6th and 7th December. I found the Memories page for 6th difficult. The journalling on the front is about my "Good Christmas" and is about how Hannah took her first, independent steps on Christmas Eve and walked across the lounge to put her stocking under the tree. The tag pulls out with more journalling on the reverse about my "not so good Christmas" in 1999, my first without Mum, having lost her very suddenly a few weeks before Xmas.


My page for 7th December-To Do is one of my favourites. I love making lists and have lists for everything from presents to buy, food to buy, things to do....
Still playing catch up, hope to get another page or 2 done tonight.

Sarah
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10 days to go!

Its Monday morning and I realised today its only 10 more days until Christmas Day! I'm fairly organised, just the last couple of pressies to get and the mammoth food shop to do. I did a good bit of the wrapping last night so feel better that I've made a start on that, still loads more pressies waiting to be wrapped though. I'm suffering today with this awful cold so have arranged for cover at the shop and I'm staying home to dose myself up and try to get well again. Going to try and get some more of my Christmas journal done.

Just been sorting out some of my photos and thought I'd share these few with you. The first 2 are of Hannah helping me to "trim" our Christmas tree. I love the 2nd one, where you can just see her through the branches with a look of such concentration as she carefully puts the decoration on. The 3rd one is the finished tree. As you can see it's a mish mash of decorations but I much prefer it like that. The last pic is Hannah just before she left to go to to her school Christmas disco, with her gorgeous silver shoes on, bought by Granny when we were over visiting in October.

Thanks for looking, I'm off now to make a cuppa and settle down to my JYC!

Have a great day

Sarah

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JYC 5th December

5th December was all about Advent and how we count down to Christmas Day. As a child I always had a chocolate advent calendar each year so I have carried on the tradition and get Hannah a calendar each year. She loves it and its the first thing she has to do each morning. Here is my page for 5th December

I am really struggling to keep up with my journal and do a page a day but I am making time to take photos and journal which is the important bit. I have had a madly busy week with Hannah's Xmas disco at school, their Xmas play and the school Xmas Fair all on this week. I've also got a stinking cold which is really bad timing as this week has been so full. Hopefully I'll catch up with JYC next week when things are a bit calmer.

Today we took Hannah to see Santa, despite my cold, we had promised her and she was looking forward to it. Here she is on the train which takes the children to Santa's grotto. The train goes through "Santa's toy factory and shop" and is beautifully decorated with toys, disney characters and light, really captivates all the children!

And meeting Santa where she told him she would like "a new doll's pram and some books please"!

And the final photo is outside the grotto with the present he gave her. We had a lovely lunch in the cafe next door in the garden centre where she opened her present, which was a lovely doll and house set (similar to the polly pocket type dolls)

JYC- Day 2 and Day3

I got a few days behind with JYC and ended up doing Day 2 and 3 on the same day. As I had bought my Christmas cards on 2 Dec I thought it would be more appropriate to swap the days about.

So this is my Day 2-Cards

And this one is Day 3-Winter Weather.

Just need to get on now with 4th, 5th and 6th and I'll be up to date. I am having to wait until I've got photos printed until I can do my pages, but I am making notes each day.

We put up our Christmas tree this afternoon, it has lights on but that's it-we will decorate it tomorrow as Dave is out tonight on his work's Christmas Dinner and I want to wait until we can all do it together. We did get some good photos of me trying to untangle the lights and put them on the tree though. Previous years I would never have bothered with such photos but doing JYC this year has made me look for different photo opportunities! And I'm sure there's a prompt coming up soon for "Trimming the Tree"!!

Have a good weekend everyone
Sarah
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Manifesto

As promised here is the first page of my Christmas Journal.

I absolutely loved doing this. I kept it quite simple but it still took me ages. I think I will need to do my pages quicker if I'm to keep up with this.

Onto Day 2.......!

Countdown to Christmas

1st December is here!!! Which means only one thing...the countdown to Christmas Day!

When I first woke this morning, my 1st thought was "1st december today-Hannah can open her 1st door on her advent calender!" closely followed by "Journal your Christmas begins...its the first prompt today!" I was so excited as I went downstairs and switched on the laptop.

The first prompt from Shimelle is about the manifesto, where I write about why I'm doing the journal and what it means to me. So I've put down some words on paper and now I am going to take my 30 mins (that I have promised myself each day) to make my first page. Will be back to show you later!

Happy December everyone!
Sarah
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