Before Christmas I used up loads of wool scraps by crocheting little tiny hearts.  I used them to make bunting to hang on our fireplace and as little decorations on all my Christmas gift wrapping. After Christmas I still had loads left so I decided to use them up on some cards.  I then remembered I had a whole load of brooch pins lying around so I thought I'd turn the little hearts into little brooches making the cards into gifts!  Here they are.....

Now I need to make sure I don't give them to anyone who reads my blog!! xxxx

Specsy

Wow, it feels like ages since I just found time/inspiration to sit down a do a layout just because.  Not for doc 2011 or for the wedding album, just because!  I loved all these photos of me and my friends at a wedding and at the moment am loving multi photo layouts so I decided to trim them down and use them all!

Hope you like it! xx

Beware....This is VERY Cute!!!!

I just had to share a little crochet project that I've just finished.  It's for my best friend's baby, or maybe I should say it's for my best friend to dress her baby in and take photos to embarrass him when he's 18!!!

Cute huh???

Once again thanks to Pinterest for the inspiration!

xxxx

Inspire...The Layout!

So after finding my 'one little word' I wanted to document it in some way, so the other evening I found half an hour to fiddle about at my desk and this is what I came up with.......

This also coincided with a challenge on the Sarah's Cards blog to scrap your creative intentions for 2012 and as my one little word covers my crafting plans I thought I'd enter it.

TFL xxx

Festive Treats!!

Sorry, I know you've all just got over Christmas but I just wanted to share something I did for Christmas Eve.  Once again, Pinterest has a lot to answer for!! For ages I'd been pinning lots of ideas for different Christmas themed baked goods and sweet treats, so I decided my contribution to our family Christmas Eve party would be a dessert table.

The photos are terrible I'm afraid but Christmas lights don't make for the best conditions!!

 Marshmallow reindeer pops!

 Oreo pops which were yummy!

 Mini Christmas tree cupcakes.

 My personal favourite, white chocolate dipped pretzels.

 Homemade iced gems.

 Mini santa hat cupcakes.

There were also chocolate drizzled tree marshmallows, chocolate buttons, christmas shaped biscuits, chocolate buttons, oreo truffles and chocolate dipped candy canes.

Needless to say it went down very well!

xxx

Have You Seen This??

Every month I love to read Julie's Month in Numbers posts.  I have even had a go myself once, but as I have a few OCD tendencies, I couldn't bring myself to fully get involved as I much prefer to start in January and work through the year (I know, I'm weird, I annoy myself with this but I can't help it!!) I once only made it a few weeks with Project 365 because I just couldn't cope with the fact that I started on january the 3rd!! So anyway, I plan to join in properly this year, especially as my Document project isn't going to be so in depth, I thought this would be a good way of recording several aspects of day to day life in one post and maybe a layout.  With this in mind I have spent a few minutes today, after being reminded by this post, making a dedicated notes file on my phone and recording a few numbers so that I am not scrabbling round at the end of the month and get into a good habit for the whole year!

Looking forward to starting this and seeing everyone else's 'Month in Numbers.'  Make sure you let Julie know if you're going to join in too!

xxxxx

More Wedding Pages

So the album is now with it's rightful owners, who I might add were very pleased with it, so time to share a few more pages with you.....

Once again, apologies for any repeats but it's easier to double up then to dig back into the archives to find out what I've already shown you!!

xxxx

Inspiration

After my 'one little word' post the other day, this post on Lucy's blog caught my eye.  That's all xxx

Something New

A few months ago, I was faffing around on Pinterest, as I so often do, and I suddenly became drawn in by several art journal pages.  It has always been something I never quite 'got' but I just suddenly was inspired by the experimental, messy, paintiness of it all!  I didn't want to get too carried away, after all I might not get on with it, so I bought a £4 journal type book from Paperchase and a pot of Gesso and decided to use whatever else I had in my craft room already.

I had also started pinning loads of different quotes that had struck a chord with me so I thought combining the two would be a great thing to do.  Anyway, enough waffle, here are the two pages I've done....

I know they are amateurish up to most peoples work but they are my style and I am pretty happy with them.  I have found them really therapeutic to do and can't wait to do more.

TFL xxxx

2012

I promised I'd be back with my plans for 2012 so here I am!

With this promising to be such a big year for me, rather than setting 'resolutions' as it were, I felt that my hopes for this year were better expressed in a different way.  I have always liked the way SJ, and various other bloggers that I follow, choose a word of the year.  I'd never really been able to think of one before but in the last few weeks of 2011 one just kept springing to mind and ever since it's just felt more and more appropriate.  So my word for 2012 is.......

This is a word which just seems to cover lots of different aspects of my life and how I hope it will develop in the coming year.  I hope to.....

I hope to be inspired by the people I work with on placement and fingers crossed, my first job.  On that note I also hope to inspire someone to employ me!! I hope to be inspiring to the children I work with and also be inspired by their constant enthusiasm.

Creatively I hope to be inspired, I am not anticipating as much time to craft this year as I have been lucky enough to have before so some help with ideas might mean I get more done!  Having said that, in some small way I still hope to inspire someone with my creativity, maybe just one of my blog readers!!  Part of the reason I chose this word was because someone said to me just before Christmas, that I had inspired her to pick up a pair of knitting needles for the first time in years, and just yesterday someone else told me that I had inspired her to learn to crochet.  I have to say that I found both comments hugely flattering and was really touched.

So hopefully, during the year, I hope to be able to update you with this.  I also have plans to document this word in a layout which I will share with you soon.

In 2012 I am also looking forward to......

Welcoming my best friend's baby into the world (and knitting/crocheting lots of gifts!!)

Seeing another best friend get married (so excited!!).

Finishing and hopefully passing my course (I've had a good start to this today with a fantastic start to my final placement!)

Graduating (again!!)

Getting a job.

Completing a 'document' style project, albeit a much simpler version.

And just generally having another fab year.

I hope 2012 is a good one for you too!!

xxxxx

(Images from Pinterest)

2011 A Round Up

So back at the beginning of January I shared this layout and my goals for the coming year.  I always go back to these at the end of the year and see how well I've done.  This year they were fairly simple but achievable.

 This was them.....

And on the whole I've done very well with them.

1. Get more DT work. This is one that I addressed almost immediately by joining the Banana Frog DT in January.  Unfortunately it ended a while back because my uni work had to come first but it was a great creative achievement.

2. To carry on doing well and enjoying my course.  Well I've managed that, I got through my first block placement and did very well, and I've just had a ball, this course is the best thing I've ever done.

3. Get through placements.  I think I covered that above!

4. Keep well.  Done....this year has definitely been my most well year since 2006, I've still had my moments but I'm definitely so much better.

5. Develop my scrapping style, scrap less but pay more attention to detail.  Developing my style is something I always strive to do as it keeps things fresh and interesting, this year as I have had so much less time to scrap I think I have tried to savour it more and have managed to pay much more attention to detail.

6.  Have fun and spend more time with my friends.  This one was more prominent in 2011 than I could have imagined. It has been an amazing year with my friends, with lots to celebrate, engagements, weddings, baby news.  New friendships were created that I know will last a lifetime.  Existing friendships have lead to new extended groups of friends who have provided some big laughs and really fun memories.  I have built friendships at uni that have proved to be so supportive and I know I wouldn't have got through the course without them.  Have also had so much fun with my family who continue to be as crazy as ever and certainly know how to have a good time!

So all in all I think I can safely say 2011 was a good one! 2012 promises to be such a huge year for me so I'll be back soon to share my plans for it xxxx

Document 2011: December

So one final installment of 2011 to share with you...here goes December...

The pocket page, I used one of the little hearts that I crocheted as they featured quite heavily this Christmas, but more on that in another post! The pocket is packed with lots of bits and pieces, gift tags, place settings and a few photos that I didn't have space for.

 My focus page is a non Christmassy one, my nephews 18th...

 The first section of this one had to be covered up because it is a photo of the school nativity play, then there was Jan's 80th birthday party which was probably more raucous than your average 80th birthday party!!

 My last day volunteering in school, staff night out, my Christmas craftiness!

 Because of not doing a Christmas journal this year and having too much to fit in I decided to do two divided pages this month.  Christmas eve, my dessert table that I slaved away at, Chewie's Christmas jumper...too cute, Christmas Day.

 More Christmas day, a party with the girls and New Years Eve.

So that's 2011 all done and documented.

Back soon with my plans for a 2012 project xxx

Document 2011:November

Happy New Year!!

Hope 2011 was a good year for you and 2012 is treating you well so far!!

Before I share my round up of 2011 and my plans for 2012 I though I should catch you up with my Document 2011 project.  It's finally finished, it felt like a bit of a drag towards the end but I'm so glad I did it otherwise I don't think I'd have scrapped much this year at all!!

So this is November...

Because of my birthday and wanting to save a few special cards, the pocket page became a pocket on a pocket page!! All the pocket pages are now home to the corresponding page from my 2011 calendar too, so I can see exactly what I did each month.

The focus page was my night out for Emily's birthday.  We went in a limo and everything!!

 Divided page number 1...I ran out of divided protectors this month and as I haven't enjoyed them much I didn't have any intention of buying a big pack when I only needed a couple so I improvised! Had to be creative with these as I spent most of November holed up writing my essay! Few more snapshots from the big night out, my birthday.....

 In my rush to get the album finished and my desperation to find something to fill November's pages I inadvertently managed to use the same photo twice...oooops! More birthday, a wine/takeaway night, and the sports awards.

Back tomorrow with December xxx