More 12 days of Christmas Layouts

I promised to post my 12 Days of Christmas layouts as I completed them, so here they are as promised:

Day 4 focused on Christmas Decor - I took photos of some of the special ornaments and decorations that Have found their way onto my tree and around my various homes for as long as 30 years! ( Yes, that makes me feel very old!!)

My Day 5 task was to create a layout based on seasonal song lyrics.  I was so happy to be able to find a cool way to scrap my fave photos from last Christmas - Joshua as the miserable shepherd in the Christmas Eve Nativity play.  After fighting with the other shepherds over the crooks, jockeying for position around the baby Jesus, and pretending to smoke hay from the manger ( a crowd favourite), Josh finally settled for looking completely bored!  This year he was NOT a shepherd.

It is really great to have the kits all ready to go ( we prepped them in the days before Christmas) - makes completing layouts relatively painless - and I am only 4 days behind!

Happy day, everyone!

Hello 2012!

Happy New Year!  Can you believe we are officially in 2012?  I can't.  Time is zipping away - even more reason to make the very best of each and every day.

Resolutions anyone?  I always have a few, and this year I am ready to make some significant changes to my lifestyle - including Moving More and Eating Well!  You'll notice I didn't say lose weight or diet. So done with that.  We are talking lifestyle changes here - in the interests of my health and general outlook on life!  That is the focus of my resolutions - especially since I was  keener and quit biting my nails before Christmas! ( They look fabulous, by the way)

I am always nervous about putting it out there - that I want to make some changes  - because what if  I, you know, fail?  But the reality is that this is not a quick fix or a short trip - it is a journey of tiny steps and a million choices good or bad.  I am getting some help from Cathy Zielske - and a class called Move More, Eat Well from Big Picture Scrapbooking.  And I am pretty damn excited about the whole thing.

So hopefully I won't bore you too much with posts of my journey, which I will of course be documenting.  I figure most of us are making changes of one kind or another pretty much all the time, so maybe we can learn from one another. And don't worry - I will still be posting layouts and tips and photos and all the other mundane details of my wonderful life - so be prepared to be amazed, or somewhat interested.

Oh - I have one more resolution - to allow more pics of myself to be taken - so her is one from today - went for a lovely walk with the family - and Em took my first picture of 2012!

So here is to resolutions, and change and companions on the journey - feel free to share your resolutions here and join me in a Happy New Start 2012.

12 Layouts of Christmas

I know, I know, I have been MIA, but I have good reasons!  Health and life got int he way once again and so I haven't been near my blog for a while!  However, I have been doing a bit of scrapping (thank you Big Picture Scrapbooking for the 12 days of Christmas Class!).  Just wanted to share a few layouts of the sights and sounds of Christmas at my house!  Please note - I shopped my stash for all of these - nothing was purchased - love using up the older stuff I have kicking around!

Here is my Day One Layout!  (  I finally got a half decent family photo for Christmas! At least everyone is mostly looking and smiling!!)

Now for Day 2:  ( Still trying for that perfect night shot of the tree - I need a tripod!)

And finally, Day 3:  (Time for the annual gingerbread house making extravaganza!)

Stay tuned for the next layouts in my 12 Layouts of Christmas!  I hope you all had a very Happy Holiday and are ready to ring in 2012!

Happy day!

Jacquelin

My First Art Journal Page

I am absolutely LOVING Art Journaling 101 over at Get It Scrapped. The instructor, Dina Wakley, is fabulous - you should definitely check out her blog HERE!!!

Below is my very first art journal page - I have to say that it is allowing me to reflect more deeply on my daily life and the emotions that usually live below the surface. I am slowly learning not to care so much - just to create and engage with the process, no matter what the "finished product" looks like! Very liberating, I have to say!

This one is called {fear of change}

I am still working on the collage development and adding more written text is next. I love the various media that can be used - anything from magazine pictures or words, to vintage images to fabric and little bits of ephemera that find there way into the corners of my craft drawers. Not to mention all the paints, inks, gel medium and texture medium and fabric and and and. . . !!!

Finally my many years of saving absolutely everything has a purpose!!!

Happy Day everyone!