Project fail

It's that time of year again, where I think how much I would love to do project life, then realise I have no money to buy anything.

Christmas

I had to do it. I had to share my Christmas with you. I worked the nights of Christmas eve and Day, so my festivities were a little fragmented. But the important thing was that little lady got a Thomas from santa.
Lots of food was eaten,  tummies were full and laughs were had.

i slipped up..

so i totally slipped up and bought a Finsbury personal. it was a total bargain at £20, its a beautiful tan leather, no marks. I set straight to setting her up for next year. I bought paperchase week on two inserts, some month to view, some finance pages and ordered custom dividers. I have two 4 colour pens which DONT FIT IN THE PEN LOOP!! argh!!

so im currently carrying around two planners in my weeny bag. my plan was to take a mini out for notes and basic planning but we'll see what happens!

Wiltshire Roller Derby Christmas party!!

Last night was my team's Christmas party! We hired a pub basement, there was food,  secret santa, Live  music and party games!! We even found a guy who looked a bit like a ZZ Top santa!

Too much looking, not enough scrapping.

Does anyone else find that? I spend so long looking and longing at other artists projects and products  that I find I don't have time for my own! And they never live up to my expectations! I keep meaning to try project life but never get around to it. I keep meaning to try and make a December Daily album but never get around to it...can you see a pattern?

Don't procrastinate, do!

Meeting santa

Yesterday we went to a big localish farm centre and we visited Santa. We made reindeer food, saw reindeer,  had mince pies and finally met a real Santa. We even came away with a really lovely gift.
The centre also had a restored carousel,  which we went on. Not a good idea when you get travel sick...

Missing Darwin

I wanted to  scrap something for Darwin,  and found the perfect layout on the October Afternoon blog by Shanna Noel  http://octoberafternoon.typepad.com/october_afternoon/2014/11/tuesday-inspiration-head-in-the-clouds.html. I loved the simplicity of the layout but also wanted to include journalling,  so I added the journalling to the back.

Please excuse the poor lighting.

Wedding

My sister's wedding was Friday. Yes, Friday October 31! Poor E had had a temperature the day before so wasn't feeling her best, and didn't really want to play bridesmaid (as it happens,  she was icky the next day too). Poor mite even ended up falling asleep at the dinner table.

paper time

Reshuffling the filo family

After thinking (reasonably) long and hard, I decided to take the mini plunge. I didn't want to pay full price in case we didn't get along and I didn't want black or pink. So back to ebay. I decided how much i was willing to pay and scoured the listings. It seems like most minis are pink or black, but finally i found one, a mini Rio. This is also the time of year that Tkmaxx has their stock of filofaxes too, and at the same time the listing was due to end, I was in said shop eyeing up a lavender Metropol. But *bing* i won the Rio. 

I was so excited to see this as I had been after a Rio for a long time. 

But this little lady has been through a lot...theres a lot damage, some of it worse than i was expecting. The front cover appears to have cat scratches..

..The back looks like someone has used it to lean on and write on it...

And the strap looks cracked and worn.

But im giving her a chance. Ive ordered some notepaper as this will be a note filo. We'll see how it goes.

Grandad turns 90

Here's a quick layout I made with some quirky kit bits. The tags are project life style cards cut down to size. I also found my Glitz Designs roller number stamp.

Crochet therapy

We're still feeling sad about Darwin's passing, so I've been filling my time with crochet.
I finally finished E's dress but it wouldn't go over her.head, so I unpicked the shoulders and added buttons
I've also been adding to my scrappy blanket. Love the open effect of the 4ply.

Goodbye

Our poorly boy has gone to the cat basket in the sky.
Following discussions with the vets, we decided the kindest thing was for Darwin to go to sleep.
We're pretty convinced he was poisoned.

Getting Quirky

I finally managed to sit down with my Quirky Kit Lite this week. As well as this card and layout there's another layout I haven't photographed.

Little pumpkin

I recently started a new crochet project from a recent issue of Inside Crochet. It's a dress for E designed by Frank and Olive.  The pattern called for Rico Creative Cotton Aran, which I happened to have a selection if. I decided on two oranges and to do a stripey top...but it was only after starting that I realised I may have ended up dressing E like a pumpkin!

Home at last

Darwin is home. We have discovered he has small, abnormally shaped kidneys so his condition is long term and we have to manage him with special food. We don't have a life expectancy for him but until them, we'll enjoy him.

Poorly kitty

This week I had to take our cat into vet hospital,  as his kidneys weren't working properly. He's been on a drip for 36 hours now and his bloods are slowly returning to normal. But we really miss him! Even though he's a pain there's something missing right now.
Hoping he can come home soon.

Ikat Mini Review

This weekend i decided the time was right to take my bargain beauty out for a ride. I needed to take a smart bag which unfortunately didnt have the space for my full pocket planner, so I moved, briefly, into my compact.

I liked the fact that my phone fitted into the pocket..that was a good point.

I didnt like that the card pockets are SERIOUSLY deep. So deep infact, that i found a card belonging to the previous owner, hidden at the bottom!

Novelty pens are a no no. I have never owned a zipped planner before, so i dont know if this is normal, but the zip does not like the fun bits. No. 

Being a compact, the rings are very small. I had barely enough room for notepaper, let alone diary pages.

I do really like my darling bargain Ikat. But she's only for special occasions. Maybe a bit of notepaper and not a lot else.

So sorry pretty lady, Im still after that special personal.

doing the double

i picked up my most recent quirky kit lite and a few holiday snaps and decided they were worthy of a double spread ! i havent done one of these in a long time so this was fun. I had to try to remember how to make the layout flow across the pages but i loved seeing double spreads with differing background papers. In order that they 'matched', i used identical background papers across both pages, and clustered elements on opposite corners. I also had a rummage through my box of bits, and with exception of a PL card and a couple of cut outs from Hobbycraft, all the elements come from various quirky kits.

Cornwall

Just a few photos from our mini break. Filled with fudge, ice cream, walks and beaches.