Cars and things

I suppose next in that story you would expect photos of the Christmas meal. Well, the truth is that I was feeling absolutely horrid on Christmas Day and by the time it was evening and I should have cooked the meal I couldn't face it - not even the smell of it. As a result, we just had some quick sausages, mash and peas (very traditional English meal - just not for Christmas!) and the big roast was postponed to Thursday after... I wasn't in the mood for anything much later on either, so we settled down to watch a film. We don't have a television - on purpose! - but we do occasionally get DVDs or downloads to watch on the computer, and so we did then: Disney's latest - Cars! Great fun! After that, I had an early night while Sophie and Sean settled down for their favourite computer game: Star Wars...

Credits: based on template by Jenny with kit "Cars" by digiscrap.ch

Christmas Presents

And a bit more Christmas... After the stockings came the presents under the tree. Sophie had the honours of distributing them, and I was chuffed with the amount of well-thought out presents I received. Most unusual for me, seeing that we don't normally celebrate that way... I think the text is just about readable in the LO, and you can see the presents in the bottom picture (no, the thing in the front is not a discman - it's a sandwich toaster! - I also got an electric knife and a German type cake tin for baking; plus woolly socks and lovely German pralines).

Credits: based on quickpage by Janette Padley with goodies from Club Scrap "Ivory Elegance" kit

The Stocking Story

I'm finally going through some more of those Christmas photos - I think I'll be scrapping and showing our Christmas until the middle of summer: there is just so many, because it was so unusual for us to do all these things. At least you can rest assured: it won't be the same again next year!
These are all photos/pages of our unpacking the stockings - they were the main attraction, particularly for Sophie and myself, because we don't have stockings in Germany - we only get the one lot of presents: the ones under the Christmas tree...

Credits: based on quickpage in Club Scrap "Ivory Elegance" kit; brad by Valery Foster; stocking by Michelle Coleman

Credits for 2-page spread: based on sketch by Alexis; paper from charity kit by Sara Carling; ribbon+tag by Amy Watson

Credits: edge by Tina Chambers; tag by Jessica Gorny; brad by Helena Monteiro; stocking by Michelle Colemanl alphas by Holly Ann

PT Notification - Heritage LOs

Just a quick note to let you know that I've uploaded another album into my picturetrail: these are all "Heritage" pages, about my parents and their families - some are really sweet I think.
I've also added more pages into the Pets album, towards the bottom in the horseriding section.

Deck the Halls

A bit more Christmas stuff: just another LO of our decorations - I know they were not really so special but I was quite excited about them because as I said, I haven't had ANY for so long...

Credits: based on quickpage by Roseli Padoveze; furry alphas by Toni Berman; ribbon by Jen White; font: CRATE.

Latest Project

I'm quite excited about the latest project I've finished. Most of my scrapbooks are kind of open-ended, so to get one complete is something special. This one was a present for a friend who got married last autumn. We were invited but unfortunately, weren't able to make the trip at that weekend - still, I'd started a medium size scrapbook (8x8") for her already and really thought it would be a nice present, so I asked her for photos (which of course originally I'd expected to take myself but well...) and now, the album is complete and on its way to Germany. Below is the cover page (album front) and if you want to see the pages you can visit my picturetrail . This was my first ever small scrapbooking project - I normally always do 12x12" albums/pages - so it was special and quite an experience in that sense as well. It worked out cute I think, although for my own personal scrapbooking that size mostly wouldn't offer enough room... So I think it'll be the odd exception for gift books.

Credits: papers and album kit from Club Scrap ("Key to my Heart" and "Retro")

Finally: Winter

Yes, at long last, winter has arrived here! It's been stiff cold for a few days now - and of course I'm complaining, that I'm always cold, but I do realise that we need the cold to get rid of some vermin... Also, I have to admit that the frozen world outside is rather beautiful, and couldn't resist taking the camera to it... Here are some results:

Credits: based on quickpage by Selena with "On a cold winter's day" kit; lace snowflake by Robin Ackler;
thermometre by Rebecca Ferraioli; ice alphas by Lauren Bavin

Credits: template by Jen Maceyunas; kit "Snowy" by Renee Peters

The Holly and the Ivy

At long last, the next instalment of the 2006 Christmas story... Once the tree was set up, we went about the mantlepiece decoration. It was my first time ever to do such a thing, because as mentioned before Sean doesn't really like celebrating Christmas at home, and before I came to England I was not familiar with the tradition of swags and arrangements around fireplaces, and mostly didn't have a fireplace anyway!
It is very convenient that we have loads of ivy very prolific on the fences, the female type that makes flowers, and also a berry-bearing holly tree in the neighbour's garden that vastly overhangs the fence. So I only had to buy some oasis to hold the arrangement in the basket, add a candle and tie some ribbon into a big bow, and voila - the mantlepiece in style (well, it wasn't quite so easy, but I was happy with the final effect and it lasted for a good 2 weeks...).

Credits: based on quickpage by Club Scrap ("Ivory Elegance" digi kit); with swag by Tricia Oliver;
corner swag by Vickie Fernandez; and bows and holly by Jen White

PT Notification - Pets LOs

Just a quick note to say that I've uploaded another album onto my picturetrail (link on the right). I've chosen my pet LOs because I thought you might find them interesting - it's not conclusive as there are many photos to be scrapped yet, but it gives you an idea of what four-legged or winged companions I've had: cats, dogs, horses and birds! I'll be adding to this album whenever I'll make another pet LO.