Serious Play

December 23

So, today I am missing my girls. They have gone to the farm to be with my parents for Christmas Eve. They took with them their gingerbread house kits to make at Gramma's. Ashley sent me pictures of her finished house so that I could include them in my album.

Here is a close-up of this page. Because of the busy patterned paper, I backed the photos with a cream piece of paper. I used a paper edger to mimic the icing edges of the rooftop. The rectangular piece with the ribbon is a tag from clothing purchased at Superstore (the Joe line). It has an embossed snowflake on it, which doesn't show up in the photo.

I sat and wrapped last minute gifts today, in between blowing my nose! It is one of those things that I always think will take about a half hour and ends up taking 3 hours! However, I love it. Sean is working tonight, so I am enjoying the quiet in my house, which is a rare occasion for me.

December 22

So, I am back from a little hiatus from blogging. It felt good to take a break and it feels good to resume. Here is Day 22 from my December Daily album.

This layout is all about my tree. I learned how to take the above shot of the lights here. I practiced and practiced and had so much fun with it. And the idea for the multiple words on the photo come from Ali.

Here I took daytime and nighttime shots of my tree. I wanted to remember both looks as I often found myself this holiday just sitting and contemplating life while staring at my tree.

I really love the little snow globe sticker at the bottom of this page (again from last year's stash...K&Company). It says Trimming the Tree. The glitter inside shakes and sparkles just like a snow globe.

 

December 21

So, today is an exciting day...my parents have purchased a new house and they acquire the keys today! 

Since Sean is working Christmas Eve, we are not able to be at my parents' house to celebrate with them, but will go bright and early on Christmas morning when Sean comes home from work. Not wanting to miss out, my girls decided that they would like to go home with my parents so that they could be there for Christmas Eve. Before leaving, my girls each picked out their gifts on the World Vision website. It was interesting to see what each one chose and why. I love that they are willing to give up their own gift to give to others.

The coloring did not turn out great on these shots, so I converted them to B&W and adhered them to patterned paper.

Earlier this month, the girls had also put together boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Usually they do all the picking out of items and I do all the buying. But this year, they split the bill with me. They decided how much they would like to contribute and I matched it. Once again, I love that they are building a heart for giving.

And of course, as soon as they drove away with the girls I wished I had kept them home with me!

December 20

So, we stayed in the Blackstone Mountain Lodge for the weekend. It was quite cozy. The nice part was that we had a little kitchenette, so we were able to mostly eat in. Now, don't get me wrong, I love eating out, but when it is 9am, freezing cold and I am starving, it is nice to cook eggs in your own room!

There was a postcard sitting on our bed when we arrived, so I added that to my album, along with notecards that our daughter sent with us. I simply adhered the notecards to some patterned paper, one on the front and...

...one on the back.

My parents had come to our house on Sat after we had left the house, so it was nice to see them when we arrived home. My mom and the girls were just heading out the door to go Christmas shopping. Now that they are finished school, they have some time to go buy their gifts and they were so excited. Also, they have been helping out with the after-school care program at school and had both made a little money that they were dying to spend! I was not feeling well at all, so the ladies went off to shop without me. In hindsight, I am glad that it worked out that way. Listening to the girls chatter about the experience when they got home makes me think that it would have been different if I had been there. With Grandma, there was a certain freedom that they seemed to experience. I was happy for them.

December 19

So, Sunday we had big plans, but most were abandoned for tow reasons...it was stinking cold, and I was being hit by a terrible head cold! Sean made me breakfast and then we did venture out to do a little shopping. Later that evening we challenged each other in some Sudoku and watched more Christmas shows on TV. All in all, it was a wonderful day!

These adorable reindeer and tree came in the mail on some holiday advertising so I decided to use them here. I simply adhered them to a ticket-shaped acrylic page that had been part of an album from Close to My Heart. The fun part about this is that the images are double-sided, so even when you turn the page, you see the back of the reindeer! Unfortunately, the acrylic piece is too short to meet the holes of my binding rings, so I attached a patterned piece of paper in order to provide the second hole.


One of the shops we visited today was a little antique shop. While browsing, I came across a quaint collection of old cameras. For some time now, I have been looking for a dual lens camera in order to try some TtV shooting. They are quite difficult to come by, although I did not try eBay simply due to the shipping charges up here to Canada! I just felt that one day I would come across the right camera, and today was the day! Of course I spent the rest of the evening playing with my new toy.

 

December 18

So, today is our anniversary! It is hard to believe that we have been married for 17 years. For the past few years, we have taken a trip into the mountains to celebrate our anniversary and this year was no different. I just love the mountains and as we approach them, my heart races a little.

Here, I did my journaling mixed with a few letter stickers for words to add a little flair.

In the evening, we attended a dinner theatre which featured one man performing all the various parts of A Christmas Carol. It was entertaining to say the least watching this one man transform into 33 different characters. The meal was lovely as well...beef and chicken, roasted root vegetables, mashed sweet potatoes and soup and salad. Dessert was a Buche de Noel. Mmmm.

I had adhered two pictures of the mountains on the front of the program from the dinner theatre, allowed the center page to open...

...and then adhered the front page of the program here to face the two shots that I had taken inside the theatre.

Following the show, we head back to our lodge to sit in front of the fireplace and watch Christmas shows on TV. Happy anniversary, Honey! Here's to 17 more!

Dec 17

So, the last day of school for the year finally arrived! Us three girls welcomed it with open arms.

After a full day, no one felt like cooking, so we ordered Chinese Food! Love it when we do that! Here I did a 9x6 photo and added some snowflake stickers and word stickers left from last year.

In the center of my layout today is a 5x7 page on which I printed two pictures from sfgirlbybay. They just struck me as so simple and yet so stunning.

On the back of that page, I adhered the take-out pamphlet from our supper.

I wrote out the story of our day and finished with some simple embellishments (embossed snowflake stickers, a skate and a strip of patterned paper).

Another day closer to Christmas!

Dec 16

So, we are back from a lovely weekend and now I am working like mad to catch up on my December Daily pages! Here is the spread for Dec 16.

Today, I documented the tea that I have been enjoying since the beginning of the month, given to me by a friend who knows me well!

For the RH side of the layout, I had cut down the box that the tea came in, attached the envelope from a tea bag (which brings a minty smell to my album!) and then added an embellishment from last year's stash (from K&Company).

December 15

So, I love moments with my husband. We have a few 'things' now that are special to us. One of them is going to Starbucks. This is where we reconnect after Sean has been doing a few night shifts. The other is competition! Usually we race at Sudoku, but tonight it was a good 'ole game of Scrabble!

Another simple page. The 'NOEL' at the bottom is cut from a transparency from Teresa Collins.

This page features a few dark pictures (one in Starbucks with our drinks and the other playing Scrabble). The words here were also cut from the same transparency.

And now that I am relatively caught up with my pages again, we are heading out of town for the weekend! Life is like that. The good news is that we are finished school now until the New Year, so I should be able to find a little more time to do some scrapping. See you sometime next week!

December 14

So, can you believe it is already December 14!? I have so much yet to do, but I love the build-up towards Christmas, and even more, I love the peace afterwards.

Today, my story is about music. I picked up the Annie Lennox album (A Christmas Cornucopia) on a whim at the Starbucks counter last week and have listened to it every day since. It is melodious, passionate, an unexpected mix of familiar and unfamiliar songs, and has a different feel to it than my other Christmas music. I am loving the sound of this music seeping through my home.

The only thing that I am kicking myself for, is the fact that I paid $15 for the CD and when I got home, I looked on iTunes and the album was only $10!! Like I said, it was on a whim.

I have added a transparency in the center of this layout, but honestly, I have no inspiration for what to do with it at this point!

Since I was documenting my new Christmas album, I thought it pertinent to also document the other music that we listen to each year. I simply went upstairs to where we keep the CDs (yes, the majority of my music is still on CDs) and jotted down the list of albums that are and will be (only a 5 disc changer) in my player this holiday season.

I like the simplicity of this page, but it does feel empty. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I am working on my catch-up pages at 10pm! Often, I put the page together, and then let it sit before more inspiration comes to me about the finished look. I guess, in Ali's opinion, I have what is important anyway, a picture + a story...the rest is all peripheral.

For this page, I typed up my list with a font called Times and Times Again. I also added a little berry twig from Katie Pertiet in a kit called Holiday Foliage No.3. After printing out my list, I ripped the paper down the sides to give it an unfinished look. The bottom seems empty to me. It needs something, but I don't know what just yet!

December 15 is on it's way...