* Journal your Christmas Day 6 *

Supplies: Lauren gier a month to be merry, Jenn Barrette & Sahlin Studio Kitchy Christmas & Jenn Barrette & Shawna Clingerman Very Merry and Bright.

This one is about a memory of a Christmas past and present. I enjoyed looking back to my older photographs of christmas. All those memories come back when seeing photo's. Isn't this the greatest hobby?

* Journal your christmas Day 7 *

Supplies: Lauren gier a month to be merry, Jenn Barrette & Sahlin Studio Kitchy Christmas & Jenn Barrette & Shawna Clingerman Very Merry and Bright.

Day 7's subject is about everything that is still on your to do list. I had to think back what had I done around that time and what needed still to be done. We are not just a few days away from Christmas. Days are going really quick.

* Journal your christmas Day 5 *

Supplies: Lauren gier a month to be merry, Jenn Barrette & Sahlin Studio Kitchy Christmas &  Jenn Barrette & Shawna Clingerman Very Merry and Bright.

I worked on some layouts this weekend to try to catch up, that didn't quite work out because I am not feeling so good recently. I hope I will not come down with the flue.. Happened to me last year around this time of year as well.
Anyway the subject was Advent calander, I am using a december kraslot since few years to count down :) No big win so far...

* Journal your Christmas Day 4 *

Supplies: Very Merry & Bright from Shawna Clingerman & Jenn Barrette and Kitschy Christmas from Jenn Barrette & Sahlin Studio, journaling tag from Kristin Cronin Barrow.

I am running a little behind in my Journaling pages, you might have noticed that ;)

However, I am taking a break this weekend from all things Chrismassy in order to try to catch up. Notice the word TRY. Today I finished day 4 wish was about christmas dreams. I am hoping for a white christmas, but it certainly doesn't look like it will happen. It's now the 16th and this morning we had some wet snow which only stayed a few hours in the garden and than again the rain whiped it all away again. However for even a brief moment it was lovely sight.

Journal your christmas Day 3

This time the subject was Christmas Cards. Some years now I have been handcrafting my cards. I like it and think it gives something special. I already bought some paper earlier this year, but never came around to start it. Until now, when it's only 3 weeks or so before christmas. So I decided to make som digi cards this year. I printed them out this weekend. I have searched for printing matt, but without luck. So I am printing glossy/shiny now. I think  can collect them some days later. I  am really curious how they will turn out.

Journal Your Christmas Day 2

The second day was about the weather; until now there is no snow, in fact it really looks a lot like autumn,  with rain and wind. It doesn't feel like the season at all.

I read the new forcast, after the second half of december it looks like it will be a lot colder and there will be snow and freezing. We will wait and see...

Journal your Christmas day 1

I have started not one christmas project but 2! And that in one of the busiest times of the year. But I am looking forward to it and hoping I can keep up. I wanted to take shimelles class already last year, but instead did a december daily with Ali Edwards as inspiration. This year I entered the class.

I am already a bit behind :) but I know most work will be done in the weekend, so expect layouts on those days.

I bought Kitscy Christmas by Jenn Barrette & a Month to be Merry by Lauren Grier & Holly Berry font by Darcy Baldwin available at Sweet Shoppe Designs. These kits are not the style I usually scrap with but I love the items in the 2 kits, so I am challenging myself to use them and without templatest to step out of my comfort zone as well.

Day 1 is about Christmas Manifesto. I used Shimelle's text and added some words of my own.

* Golden days of autumn *

It was high time I used once more one of my favorite autumn kits I have bought over at SSD. This one is Autumn Essence from Julie Billingsley. I love the patterned papers and the great colors. They fit so well with my photos of the woods.

Today it wasn't so sunny as the last few days, but still it was 17 degrees! unbelievable for this time of year. While on the other hand I just read a piece on the internet that in Holland we are facing a very extreme winter. And winter will arrive here half way november! The last few years we have somewhat of a winter. But I don't recall such winters in general. It will be tough going to work on the bike again....

* Currently reading *

I picked up this book from the library today. It's from a Dutch writer, I am a fan of her thriller novels and can hardly wait to start reading. But first I am off to do some household chores - sigh.

* Happy Halloween *

Today I made a small decoration in the garden for Halloween. I am not too pleased with the photo's on some of them I also got the nasty lens flare because it was a sunny autumn day today (in general very enjoyable :) We have very warm weather over here, in fact it's 15 to 17 degrees which is too hot for this time of year)
But when scrapped I am quite please with the end result, even when the photo's cannot meet my standards. I used a template from Yin Designs, stitches are from Traci Reed and the kit is from Dani Mogstad: That old black magic. (great kit! I am sure I will use it again and again.)
One more day and than it's weekend again. Looking forward to that.

* Another Christmas Layout *

Already another Christmas Layout for Project Life. This time I used Jenn Barrette's kit Counting down to christmas bought last year. I liked how the green in this kit matched perferctly to my photo's.Although I used some red for some interest & contrast.
Again template from Yin Designs.

* Scrapping plans for 2012 *

This year my biggest Scrapproject is Project Life. It has consumed me wholey (it that a word?) and completely. I wanted to do more projects and even though they have started, they are still on my hard disk waiting to be finished. Project Life is a great project to undertake, but it has given me a lot of stress and headaches as well. I know that this is partly because I am a perfectionist who doesn't what to use the same kind of photo's each time, and it kept me stressing on what to shoot because of that, for every-single-day! I am happy to say, I am still keeping up for the weekly pages, except for some extra pages of summer I am still hoping to finish. I am also too stubborn to quite, specially since it's only 10 more weeks to the final week of 2011.
You might be guessing already that this project will never be on my to do list again. NOT-EVER!
That is not in this form. Last year I made an album 2 pages for each month so 1 spread a month and that is something I might be doing for next year. But that got me thinking about projects I love to do for next year.
so this is my list of scrapprojects for 2012:

• Scrapproject, see the shabbyprinces blog for this idea as well. Every month I have been faithfully downloading the templates. I am planning to use these for next years project life 12 months.
• Learn Something New Every Day. This year I still have to finish. I am planning to make an album for next year again. Go check out Shimelles site (also for more great classes)
• Just as I want to do for this year, I want to do a December Daily for next year. Inspiration can be found at Ali Edwards blog here (Maybe I will take Shimelle's course Journal your Christmas than, I am not sure yet.)
• I also want to see if I can do another Week in the Life projects (See also ali's site) I am almost up to finishing the one of this year (4 months after documenting the week the album will be ready YEAH!)
• I plan to do a Log your memory album as well. I first read about it at Leontine's blog. More info's can be found here. I bougth the digi album for this year, but guess it will work for next year as well.
• I also want to do a monthy page about the faves I have in that moment of my life. It's a great idea from Nettio Designs. I think I will put this in the project life 12 months album.
• One more thing: I want to make an album with my favorite recipes.

Guess these will keep me busy for the year to come :)

* Christmas shopping *

An stunningly beautiful kit is on sale today at Sweet Shoppe Designs. Candy Cane Kisses by Melissa Bennet. I didn't buy much since I am trying to keep my budget but this is the first Christmas kit of this year and it's already released in October! But I loved it and wanted to use it for the christmas decorations I just bought some this week. This layout is on this shopping at Action, which is a budget store in the Netherlands. They have lost of beautiful christmas decorations for much lower prices, so that's great. (In fact I also bought some new candles, some sweets and some cleaning stuff. I had a bag full of items for only 13 euros.)

The template I used is from Yin Designs.

Enjoy the weekend. It will be great weather. Next week half way through it will probably rain again. :(

* Halloween! *

I just love halloween, and am very sad it isn't celebrated in the Netherlands like it is in America. Even though I don't get to dress up, I make a small corner in the garden and decorate it in Halloween style. Did the same last year, and bought some stuff non pumpkin related to give it a more Halloweenish look. Of course I had to go to the store and buy a few things more.

I created a layout for my Project life album for this. For this lo I used Goosebumbs by Shabby Princess and a template from Yin Designs (Don't tell, but I bought some Halloween kits more, even though I will hardly use it, because I don't have much to scrap, but I lost my controle on some occassions.... sigh)

But I plan to do some pumpkin carving and decorating so at least 2 more layouts will be made.

enjoy the rainfree day of today!

* LSNED Days 4 & 5 & 7*

I used today to scrap some more for the LSNED course. I am way behind, but still enjoying it. So trying to keep up.

I used for Day 4, Kristin Cronin Barrow - raindrops keep falling, a template from Cindy Schneider, Darcys font again and date stamp from Traci Reed.

Day 5: 10080 min's kit from Traci Reed, Cindy Schneider template, cardboard chunk alpha from Shawna Clingerman, Darcy Balwin's font Tara.

Day 6, will follow later. On to day 7

Today I won a kit from Meghan Mullens, can you believe it? N is for.... Can be used for almost anything, I can also imagine using it for autumn related pages, I love it. Thank you Meghan, I am very happy with it :)
Of course I had to use it immediately. I created day 7 for LSNED with it and love the outcome. Also I used again Darcys font and of course a template from Cindy Schneider. (everything can be bought at SSD)



Enjoy the rest of the weekend, it's windy autumn weather over here.

* how to be dangerous *

Check out this post:

http://jenlemen.com/blog/?p=820

It will turn your views upside down.

* LSNED Day 2 & Day 3 *

My internet went down for a couple of days, man am I addicted! It wasn't easy at all, couldn't check mail, couldn't make payments, couldn't search for information I needed. Guess internet made it's way into my life fully and completely.
On the other side, I managed to get a little more scrapping done than usual, as being not distracted in my work by surfing the 'net :)

I managed some layouts for Project life and LSNED, but still need to finish WITL though.
Above is the LSNED layout for day 2. I used a template from Cindy Schneider & a digi kit from Meghan Mullens - Best days of my life & a Darcy Baldwin font (simply love those)

And here is Day 3, again a Cindy Schneider template (couldn't scrap without them any more :) I love those templates, unfortunately there aren't much with only 1 photo which I need for this projectt)
The kit is from Fee Jardin - happy days, bought in the sale recently and of course the same Darcy Baldwin font.

* Learn something new every day *

I have joined another class over at Shimelle.com. I also tried to finish explore, but that didn't work. But I am dertermined to finish this class this time; Learn something new every day. It runs in the whole month september.It's about what you can learn during every day life. It is doable for me, or at least the way I chose to do it.
Every day I write my lesson of that day down. I cannot always make a picture, but I will try to take them in the weekend to fit the subject or I will use an older photograph or if I took a photo that day which fits, I will use it. But it's also fine if I don't have a photo, though that page will be difficult to scrap for me. I never scrap without at least 1 photo!
Anyway, it's day 6 now and until now I am keeping up with the notes, not with the scrapping because that will be done mostly in the weekends when I have time. It is not possible for me to do it daily and to keep up. But that's fine as well.
I know what I have on my plate with all projects running at the same time, makes me wonder why I wanted to take this class anyway :) so it's ok with me, as long as I finish the job.

The first page says; it's very important to spend quality time with family, like making flower decorations with my mom.

She makes them and I just enjoy watching and chatting together :)
For the page I used the great kit of SSD - As summer fades by Melissa Bennet & Julie Billingsley. I am totally in love with it. I will use it for a lot of my autumn layouts this year.
Template from Cindy Schneider, alpha from Meghan Mullens, date stamp from Traci Reed.

* 5 min friday *

It's been awhile, guess life kept me busy, but here I go again:

Older.
Funny thing because my birthday was just a couple of weeks ago. 33 already. Time flies. But I guess I like being older. I am much comfortable in my own skin than I was 10 or 15 years ago. With time and age come wisdom, they say and that is true. I value myself more than back then.
The other side is, I can also notice at my body I am getting older. I have more grey in my hair (thank god it's not so visable yet, but those days will come as well) I have more wrinkles when I smile now. But those I treasure, because it tells me no matter what happened in my life, I still had fun and it gives strength to face what ever comes your way.
I have gained some pounds and those are there to stay i think because over time I have found it harder to loose some extra gained weight after holidays again.
That's all part of the plan of changing and evolving when time passes. Inside is to treasure, the outside will become of less importance.
But never under estimate a good cleaning routine, a good day and night creme for your age and lots of sleep :)

* Project life Week 35 extra page *

I finished my first page with the autumn kits just now. I love it :)

I used mostly meghan mullens flavors of fall, some embies from I heart fall. I used a template from Yin Designs which I modified to fit my needed numer of photo's for the layout.

The photo's I took are from today, and it's clearly visable that autumn is starting early this year. For some weeks now I am spotting muchrooms (because of all the rains we have had this summer they are early. Maybe I will take some shots more tomorrow and slightly modify the photo's used, or I will make another page.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

* Shopping at SSD *

Since last week Saturday there is a huge sale over at Sweet Shoppe Designs. Already last week too much disappeared in my shopping cart and again today, I bought 3 (just 3 :) I am proud of my self restrain) more kits from the sale. I was specifically looking for autumn themed kits.

I love autumn, it's my favorite time of the year. I started working on a 20x15 cm album filled with memories of autumn and halloween from 2007, I will post some layouts in a while. But it's fun to use several kits in the album instead of just one. So I searched for some in the sale. Last week I already got me some halloween themed kits. (love it, though in this part of holland, there is hardly anthing going on re. Halloween, sigh)

I found some awesome kits of Meghan Mullens.

Sale: I just love the hint of summer fading into autumn of the 2 above. It's great for photo's from early september & when autumn colors are not so vibrant.

New release from today. I love it, specially the purple, such an amazing kit & the owls are just too cute.

New release of this Saturday, love it totally, the colors, the embies. I know I will  use it a lot.

* Feeling sick *

Since yesterday afternoon I started having a terrible soar throat. Had a very bad night of sleep, almost none. Terrible day at work. Losing my voice more and more.

All day drinking tea, water and eating sweets for my throat. Let's see how tomorrow goes, because I am feeling more and more aweful. Think I will come down with the flue or something. Really, couldn't be at a worse moment than now. I have the weekend fully planned with fun stuff....

* Project life Week 31 *

Just finished the latest layout for project life. It was quite the busy week but I enjoyed it very much :)

I used Sisterhood by Julie Billingsley , date tags are from Penny Springham. Template from Yin designs, but I changed it around to fit for 7 photo's.

Monday back to work. It will be heavy rains and storms again tonight and tomorrow. It is not the average Summer weather we have over here. Today was good, though at 4 and at 8 pm there were heavy rains, just as it did yesterday evening. See how it goes tomorrow.

Enjoy the rest of your sunday!

* Clean & Simple layout *

I made a clean and simple layout of a photo I took today. It was a beautiful warm day (but enough wind to make it nice you know, not too stiffling or hot) and I used a mask and wordart from suddenly Artistic. I really love the outcome.

* Day out: Zwolle *

Yesterday I went to Zwolle. I had never been there and wanted to go to do some shopping and sightseeing. At first I saw only the market and though, is this it? Then I go home right away. But I did some strolling around and saw some nice shops, great old buildings, the remains of the city wall,  the Gaper, the church, ships and water. It was a lovely day.

Below a small impression of the almost 200 (!) photo's I took that day. Because I had to travel a long time by train, I didn't bring my Nikon, but only my point and shoot. I am quite pleased with how the photo's turned out. Even in the church with no flash, the results are quite acceptable.