ATCs galore!

Tonight I had a cool scrappy night with my mum :) she was working on decorating the box she keeps her paper in, and I finished off heaps of ATCs! I love scrapping with my mum, either we chatter away about things or we're both concentrating really hard! My nan didn't want to join in tonight so it was just us :)

Gavin made me a Winnie the Pooh tuna and cheese toasty for sustenance!

And here are my ATCs! They are going to be winging their way to California in the next week - I wish I was going with them; it's pretty cold here right now! This is the 'singer/band' category...

This is my favourite one! Favourite quote from Monty Python - always look on the bright side of life :) I had great fun doodling round the edge of this one.

And this is my favourite book, The Hobbit. I first read this book aged 7 and I've loved it ever since! I far prefer it to the Lord of The Rings, and always enjoyed going on adventures with Bilbo and the dwarves to get the treasure from the dragon Smaug!

Tomorrow I am hoping to go to the craft shop - Mum found a voucher and after I introduced her to the joys of double-sided tape to attach your ribbons she NEEDS some! I may be able to go tomorrow morning if the ice isn't too bad. Tonight is due to be a record-breaking cold night here in the UK, I think they said -20C which is colder than I have ever seen!

I got a Christmas parcel from Gav's sister this morning though - hat, scarf, gloves and socks, so I am well equipped!

Working hard...

Ok, so I finally got some scrapping done! Will share pics tomorrow night :) I have been off the internet ALL evening, not through choice but because the need of others to use the laptop was greater than mine! Needless to say, spending the WHOLE evening without internet connection needed some other occupation... so I scrapped! Got 16 ATCs done for the swap I am late for so I am feeling very productive! Plus, I got some doodling practice in - this we like!

So here's my photo for today - more scenery! Which I know will keep Michelle happy :)

This is on a street called 'Pont Aur', or in English 'Golden Bridge'. It's the remains of the old ironworks and is next to a street of houses and bungalows on the left of this picture, and also a sheltered housing block. When I dropped off a client this afternoon I couldn't resist taking a photo! This is just over a mile from my work, and has been preserved as a monument to the industrial times of the village.

Gavin's nan lives just down the road from this place, and his dad used to play here when he was little - lots of local history for us! Gav's dad and nan both have paintings of Pont Aur on their walls, one in Wales and one in Texas in the U.S.!

Snowy day!

Ok, it snowed like crazy for about two hours this morning, everyone went nuts and ran home apart from me, and by the time I finished up and was ready to go home the snow had cleared up! AND I forgot my camera so no scenery today - you'll be glad of the break :)

However! I did get a good pose from my cat, Kitty - it's rare to get a good photo of her because she often appears invisible to the camera lens because of her luscious black fur! She looks like she is adoring the attention :)

Tonight I am working on some LONG overdue ATC's - oh dear! I am also giving some thought to an inspiration prompt given to me by a scrappy friend... I am probably taking the inspiration in entirely the wrong direction but am loving the thought of giving it a go... will remain mysterious for now so as not to spoil the surprise! But I will say thank you Julie for the inspiration! ;)

I managed to fit in some sly doodling practice during the quiet afternoon in work (we probably lost about twenty people to the mad dash home from the snow that didn't stick!) which I am nervous about putting into practice on some of those journal backgrounds...

More scenery!

More scenery today! It's all looking so lovely at the moment, so pretty with the snow! When it melts it will all look brown again, and when it rains it will be GREY! This is the view further up the valley from where I live, it looked glorious this morning with the sun beating down (I am trying to make it sound warmer than it is!)

On my way home tonight the sky was a beautiful colour, not quite dark but beautiful shades of deep blue turning to oranges and yellows on the horizon. I just had to stop and take a photo. This photo doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea.

I have large amounts of scrapping to do! But tonight I coloured some journal page backgrounds for my first page for The Art Journal Caravan. I know what I want it to look like, but of course it won't! But you have to start somewhere, right? Although it is TERRIFYING looking at all the great pages out there!

I had a great find today - my mum was putting some hardcovered catalogues out for recycling and asked if I could use them :) I am thinking these covers will be a great place to start making an altered cover for a journal....

Next year...

It dawned on me on Friday morning that I am getting married next year.

For the longest time I have been telling people that no, I haven't made any wedding preparations because it's 2 years, 3 years, 4 years away! And now all of a sudden, with the passing of a day, it's next year.

Yikes. I have a lot to do.

But anyhoo! In the meantime, more scrapping than I can shake a stick at :) and still I want more! I have joined an art journalling course called The Art Journal Caravan so I am meeting my resolutions head on already :) I am excited about making pieces that are not just about documenting my photos but to indulge my fanciful ideas about doing something 'arty'! I have been slicing up magazines to get as much material as possible, but there are some great digital sheets that come with the Caravan materials so I have plenty to keep me going. It almost seemed like fate that the first week's theme is... journalling your word of the year! I have been giving a lot of thought to my theme over the past few days so I am looking forward to trying to approach it in a different way.

The snow still hasn't melted from trees at the back of the house; it looks like Narnia!

No more snow though so I think I will be fine for work tomorrow (is that a good thing or a bad thing??)

New Beginnings

The snow that fell last night left this pretty picture this morning. This is the view from the upstairs window at the back of the house; it really does look lovely with a sprinkling of snow!

I've also finished my first project of 2010, for The Scrappy Tree of course! This will be my 'bliss' book for the New Year. I can honestly say that looking back over the last year, I would have difficulty picking out something good from every month, so I want to make myself a book of happy things to look back on; find my bliss!
I probably had a little too much fun with the front cover of this! Went slightly overboard with the embellishing! :)

I want to start using more doodling and writing on the projects I do this year, so the front cover of my New Beginnings book seemed a good place to start!

Loving these vinyl stickers from Papermania! And the vintage metal from my Secret Santa Kellie! Love it love it love it!

I have spent today eating home made cookies all the way from Wisconsin! Thank you Michelle, they have been absolutely HEAVENLY! I think my favourites were the Rolo ones, the Andes Mint ones, the ginger cookies and the candy cane blossoms! You know what, I loved them all!! I would post a pic but most of them are missing now :D

Happy New Year's!

Well I had a great celebration of the New Year with my family :) I insisted they posed for a pic halfway through a Disney quiz on the Wii before things got too messy! We were all struggling to keep our eyes open at about 10pm after a long day, but we managed to perk ourselves up and stayed up til 2am!

We all went to see Avatar at the cinema today in 3D - wow! Absolutely amazing. I want to go see it again! I couldn't believe that 3 hours passed so quickly and was sad when it finished! It won't be the same on the small screen so I hope I get to see it again in the cinema before it goes.

It started snowing quite heavily this evening and even though the ground was wet the snow had no problem sticking! The four younger people in the house decided that we would go out and build a snowman.

My brother didn't quite understand that the head was supposed to be ROUND so I did my best with what was there and made a snow-clown instead!

The boys weren't exactly focused on making the snowman and it wasn't long before Gavin got snow down the back of his neck...

...but he soon got his revenge!

My brother has been working all over New Year's and so hasn't gotten to celebrate properly; hopefully we will make up for that tomorrow! All of us are pretty tired out tonight and need to recharge our batteries. My nan was due to go back to Essex today but hasn't been too well so stayed an extra day - she planned on going tomorrow but we are trying to convince her to stay longer until she really feels better and the roads are safer.

After a good night's sleep I am hoping to get back to something creative tomorrow :) Happy New Year's!