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You may have noticed that I've been missing from blogland for sometime. I'm sorry. I've been playing with a new toy, my iPhone and have become somewhat obsessed and addicted to it. I love all the things it can do, it's amazing.
And one of my favourite things is Instagram, a place where you can upload and share your iPhone photos with the addition of cool filters and frames. I am in love with it...
So tell me, what's your latest obsession / addiction?
Whilst technically this is not a good photo, it does pretty much sum up our December - fun, but going past in a blur.
As always I start each December with the best of intentions...make Christmas cards early and post them early, wrap the presents before Christmas Eve, keep on track and up to date with my December Daily (see Ali Edwards' blog), take the time to take it all in, relax and enjoy the festivities. AND yet again I have failed to do any of these with the exception of just one... for the first year EVER I have already wrapped the presents. Now in my book that comes as actually quite a major tick off the list. For I shall now be able to relax and enjoy Christmas Eve and not still be up at 1 o'clock in the morning wrapping presents - hooray!
Here is a quick look at what we've been getting up to this December...
World War 2 Day at school for Matthew. Jeff and I escaping to Costa whilst kids at school.
Another Saturday morning watching the boys at football training.
An evening spent in the cosy glow of candles and fairy lights.
Early mornings spent opening the Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar.
Christmas Movies - Elf being the favourite. Playing Minecraft on my laptop.
Playing football at the boys training. Parents V Kids. I even scored a goal against Callum's Under 7 side and Jeff gave the kids a good run around at Matthew's Under 9's training.
Card making finally under way. Watching Strictly Come Dancing and my favourite winning.
Going on the Ringo's at the ski centre.
Celebrating my niece and nephews 1st Birthday.
Goodness, and with that it is no longer the 23rd December, but indeed Christmas Eve, best get off to bed!
Have yourselves a very Merry Christmas!
Callum
On friday the boys went to see Santa. This year they saw him at their School Christmas Fair, a special treat as Mummy had been roped in offered to take the photos of the children visiting Santa. When Santa asked the boys if they were going to leave him something to eat on the fireplace Callum quickly replied "But you might slide down the chimney and sit on it!". Couldn't help but laugh, the best reply all night and trust me I heard lots of replies to that question during the evening!
Matthew
On saturday Matthew said "You know, Hull - where bad people go when they die", to which I replied "Oh you mean Hell, Hull is a city up north!". Hee hee, bless him!
My evening with Santa was really quite cool, it was so interesting hearing the childrens different replies to the same questions, like...
"What would you like for Christmas?" Answers ranged from the expensive ...laptop and Xbox to the ridiculously inexpensive...a toothbrush, yep and not even an electric one! (felt a bit sad about that answer)
"Will you leave Rudolph anything to eat?" Carrots was by far the most popular answer, but one child said "cashew nuts" and another pair of brothers had done some research and said they were going to leave him "moss and lichen, although it might only be moss because they might not be able to find lichen!"
What funny things have you heard recently?
I LOVE December, it's my favourite time of year. I love the build-up to Christmas, the decorating of the house, the anticipation of Santa's arrival, the excitement of little children (and bigger ones too), the smells of cinnamon candles and cookies baking, the tastes of turkey and stuffing, the cosiness of coming in from the cold, the fairy lights and flickering candles, the presents both giving and receiving, the traditions, the Christmas movies, the Christmas songs, the making of the christmas cards and other crafts. AND to top it all off there's my birthday at the end of the month too. What's not to love about December? OK, the obligatory sickness bug that always seems to invite itself home from school isn't so great, maybe this will be the year that it passes our house. Please?
This year like the last few years I will be participating in December Daily, a photo / journaling / scrapbook project that records our life in the lead up to Christmas. You can find more details at Ali Edwards' blog and my previous December Daily Projects here and here.
It was a typical October day with persistant drizzle. We spent it on the sidelines watching Matthews football match. We watched their persistance pay off. They worked hard and played well together to achieve their first win of the season. Rossgarth 2 - 1 Ringwood Town.
Matthew had been chosen to be Captain for the match, not that this had anything to do with their win, but a happy coincidence. He played really well, winning tackles and getting into space. And bless him, his efforts hadn't gone unnoticed by his coach as he was awarded Man of the Match.
So proud of him!
It has been a very busy half term, what with my new job, Matthew starting a new football team (training on Saturdays and matches on Sundays), plus all the usual. My work involves lots of early mornings (not so nice) and lots of travelling. I get to see some beautiful villages and countryside on my travels and sometimes a chance to take a walk and explore, like in the photo above at Charmouth.
Callum has been looking at Robots for his topic this half-term and thankfully was happy to wear the C3PO costume I had made Matthew 2 years ago. I definitely wouldn't have had the time to make something new this time round.
Callum was very taken with those gold trousers and kept them on all day...jumping on the trampoline...playing lego...and pretending to be a 'rockstar'...
...he got a belt out of the dressing up box and a blow-up guitar and Matthew used the Harry Potter wands as drumsticks and the Mr Potato Head tub for a drum, the stage was Callum's bed. I then got out my old bass guitar from nearly 20 years ago...it was very heavy for them.
Matthew joined the local youth football team Rossgarth FC at the beginning of October and played his first match just a week later in the Dorset League under 9's. Rossgarth have about 20 different teams covering all different ages, there are 3 teams in the under 9 club. Matthew is LOVING it, he doesn't want to miss a single match.
He has played 3 matches since joining, including one this morning. They are yet to win a match, but the team members are all new and this is their first season playing together. They are definitely improving.
I had to break my scrapbooking draught for this event...
(Supplies - patterned paper and Stickers - Bella!, letter stickers - American Crafts, fabric tab - Ormolu)
The twins, my little niece and nephew are growing up fast, Louisa has 8 teeth already!
Jeff has been finding time to get out and play golf. I joined him on wednesday as I wasn't working. Jeff is a member at the same club my Dad belonged to when I was growing up, so it was nice to walk around the course with him and remember when I did that 25 years earlier with Dad. I hit a few balls but my main objective was to take some autumnal photos. Yes, my day off from photographing school children and I'm out with my camera photographing nature instead!
There are two courses at the club, the manor and the forest course. The forest course has New Forest ponies wandering over it, but typically on this day we didn't see any up close until the very last hole.
Those who know me, know that since Twilight I have read lots of books. I have been planning for over a year to make a mini-book like the one Ali Edwards made and shared in her book Sharing Your Story.
(Supplies - cardstock - Bazzill Basics, patterned paper - October Afternoon, letter stickers - Basic Grey, Library Cards - digital by Katie Pertiet, other - book ring, photo paper, corner rounder and Crop-a-dile. Images sourced from the internet)
I'm currently reading Stephenie Meyer's (author of Twilight) book The Host. What book are you reading right now? Which book would you suggest I read next?
AND I'll leave you with a photo from Callum's latest home learning - Robots. He made a lego robot do different jobs, I took photos of each one and he called the project 'Bob's Jobs'. This was his favourite one...
Yep - that would be 'Bob' cleaning the toilet! Now actually a robot that could do that would be very useful and welcome in my home!
Can I call it work when I get to travel through the most gorgeous little Dorset villages, that I wouldn't ever have discovered otherwise?
Milton Abbas
Can I call it work when I get to work in places like this? Can I call it work when the school I'm working in is right next to this beautiful old abbey?
Milton Abbey
Can I call it work when I get to take photographs?
Oh, hold on there was a really long traffic jam going to work...
Note to self. Remember to check out if there might be local fairs taking place and take a different route to work! Totally forgot that the Great Dorset Steam Fair was on...passed Gate A, Gate B, Gate C, Gate D...you get the picture - nightmare!
Have a lovely weekend. x
Nearly a month later it's finished, my Week in the Life album for 2011.
It's surprisingly quite full. I used a 8.5 x 11 American Craft album and different sized page dividers.
I didn't go all out on the scrapbook side, just used a few bits and pieces here and there. Like lovely 'flair buttons' and fabric tabs from Ormolu.
Some Hambly overlays, patterned paper from My Minds Eye, number stickers by October Afternoon, circle stickers by 7 Gypsies and digital twill by Ali Edwards. I also used 'WITL 2011 layered template' and 'share your story template' by Ali Edwards. On the opening page of each day I listed what happened on that day.
Here's the complete album...
Monday - I was a bit light on photos so I included reservations for the cinema and pizza hut, plus cinema tickets and a park and ride bus timetable in the divided page protector.
I cut the daily notes into two and stuck them onto cardstock and into a 6 x 12 page protector which I trimmed to 11". I adhered a fabric day tab from Ormolu onto the outside of this page protector.
On Monday I also included a cinema brochure and a print out of a blog post from that day.
Tuesday - Again another photo light day so included a reservation print out for Callum's new bike from Argos.
Wednesday - a day trip to Kingston Lacy, a National Trust property.
I added a Disney card (a spare from the ones the boys have been collecting this summer from Morrisons), a shopping receipt, Callum's list of prescriptions, an article about a local issue and a piece from the paper about the Harry Potter programme we watched that evening.
I included the questionaire the boys had filled out about the house and a leaflet of the property.
Thursday.
Ooh - just noticed a blank above - I'll fill that in with something!
Printed a contact sheet of photos taken at that practice shoot.
Friday.
I tucked into the divided page protector another shopping receipt.
Saturday - my Dad's birthday.
Again I printed out a contact sheet of the photos I'd taken at a photoshoot at my parents.
Sunday.
I tucked in an order confirmation from The Craft Emporium and a payment confirmation for the boys milk for next term at school.
And a final page detailing our ages and what this project is about. (Actually copied this from Ali Edwards - great idea).
And that is that for another year.
Today we watched the Red Arrows perform at The Bournemouth Air Festival.
Today like every other day we've seen them, we were in awe of their skill and courage.
Today we were shocked to heard that one of the red arrows had crashed near Bournemouth Airport after doing a final flypast display before coming into land.
Today we heard that the pilot of Red 4, Flight Lieutenant Jon Egging died in the crash.
Today our hearts go out to his wife (who had been watching the display), his family, his friends and his fellow pilots.
