Emily falconbridge 52 week card challenge

WOOHOO! I have finished all 52 of my cards! I can't believe I have been doing this for 1 year, and am so pleased to have stuck with it! Thanks to all on the UKScrappers thread, who have inspired me, reminded and given me a gentle nudge to get this completed! Here they are all together! I think they look fab all together like this.






Weeks 1 - 12.


















Weeks 13 - 24


















weeks 24 - 36

















Weeks 37 - 52.

On the back of each playing card I have stuck a piece of brightly coloured plain paper, and journalled my thoughts on that particular weeks inspiration. They will be great to look back on in a few years time! A real snapshot of where I am right now!

I have used different techniques: photos, stickers, paint, inks, stamping, alcohol inks, doodling, blossoms, brads, patterned paper, die cuts, embossing, rub-ons, ribbons, lace, etc!









And here they are in a little box I had already covered. They fit just right! You can see the back of card no 52 here - my thoughts on ART.


Wonder which challenge I should do this year? There are several around. two I quite fancy are 'The A-Z of Everyday Things' and 'The Little Things we overlook'. I am definately into taking photogrpahs of and scrapping everyday things this year!

Doggone tired!

Look at this! I was changing the bed, and left our duvet on the floor. Merlin was lying on it, so Lucy covered him up! He just carried on lying there, all luxuriously - loving every minute! LOL

New Year's resolutions

Goals for the year.

Physical
Keep my weight stable, having lost weight in 2007.
Keep attending weightwatchers at least once per month
Tone up, either through an exercise class, or at home with DVDs

Career
Devise new challenges at the family centre. There is a possibility of becoming a 'volunteer coordinator' need to look into that.

Academic
Learn more about photography. Take Cheryls' next course. Read up on famous photogrpahers work - borrow books from the library, internet etc.
Reading. Continue to read a diverse selelction of books, join in the BPS reading room, and check in on The Book Forum again.

Financial
Do not spend money on scrapbooking for a few months! Use up waht stash I have first.
I would like to save a bit of my monthly earnings. Look into opening a regular savings account.

Family
May need to spend more time with Mum and Dad this year, helping them out. Might need to free up 2 afternoons per week for them.
Continue to be patient with DD!!! Continue to have a meal out per month with DD and DS.
Have days out with DH, quality time! Have meals out, just the 2 of us.

Hobbies
Photography. Take 1 photo per day when HSMS blog comes back on.
Limit time spent chatting on forums.
Scrapbooking. Do more! Get regular time slots each week, and do not spend them on the computer! Learn new techniques, especially paint (doing Emily Falconbridge's Got Paint course atm) and stamping. Join in more cardmaking and ATCs on tanda stamps. Do an A-Z book, probably of Everday things. Do not spend on new stash (see above)

Sheffield Park 'Enchanted Garden'

WOW! What a fantastic evening we had. This was on Saturday 29th Dec. We decided to go and see the 'Enchanted Garden' at Sheffield Park, a NT garden in East Sussex. The whole garden was lit up by coloured lights, and we walked round a predetermined path. It was truly magical and enchanted! We took the tripod and I took as many photos as my battery held out(LOL) Glad we did take the tripod because my hand held shots are very blurry!!

Here's some of the best photos.

On the way home, we stopped at a fabulous country pub in Chailey for a meal. Definately a NY resolution, more meals just us 2, and more country pubs!

27th December

Shhh! Don't tell anyone that I have put this photo up! It is Nicholas's birthday today, and he is 19! It is a tradition that we open presents in our bed, and that's Nicholas playing with his new PDA mobile phone! that's Maurice with a cup of tea (sitting on my side of the bed!), and Lucy asleep! She woke up to come and see Nicholas open his presents and then promptly fell asleep, and stayed in our bed most of the morning!

A quiet day really - nice after all the visitors we have had. Nicholas came with me to get Mum and take her into hospital so that Mum and Dad could see Nicholas on his birthday. It was amazing how much better Dad was! He took a real interest in Nicholas's phone, and had seen some photos from Christmas Day. Nicholas invited James and Fliss round and they watched 'Hot Fuzz' in the evening.

Boxing day

We had Maurice's brother and sons and girlfriends for lunch on Boxing day. I had bought some fabulous crakcers from lakelland which had whistles in them. Each one played a different note, and here's Mark (DN) conducting us all playing 'Jingle Bells'! His girlfriend Angela is next to him.

We had a great time catching up with all the news, lunch was a little bit hit and miss, because I had to take Mum into hospitla to see Dad just as they all arrived, and left DH in charge!!! He forgot to do the potatoes!! So it was a very meaty lunch! The cherry glazed gammon was really good though.

Maurice was especially interested in Simon's BMW motorbike. Watching him and his girlfriend putting on their gear really reminded us of when we were younger and used to go everywhere at any time of year on the motorbike!

Dad still really poorly today. His temperature is still high.

Christmas

Our Christmas was tinged with sadness and a lot of stress because Dad was taken into hospital on Christmas eve with a very nasty chest infection. His immune system is really low because of the chemotherapy and it really hit him hard. Writing this now on 30th Dec, he is still poorly, but the antibiotics are doing their job, albeit with horrible side effects (sickness). Poor Dad! We missed him terribly at our Christmas dinner, but have been going in every day, taking it in turns with my brother Andrew to drive Mum in and out of the hospital. Poor Mum! She is beside herself with worry.

Anyway, we still managed to have a good time, and here are a few pics. Here's Nicholas opening a pressie!



Here's Lucy in her shower cap! I made up a little box of girly things for Lucy, and silly things for Nicholas. They loved all their presents.















I have included this one - not the greatest photo, but it shows how our lounge looks right now! Merlin had a fab time shredding all the paper!











I have cropped this one a bit, but this is Christmas Dinner. My brother and his wife are to the left of Maurice, then Izzy, my Mum is to the right of Maurice and then it's Michelle. We had lunch a bit earlier so that we could take Mum in to see Dad. He was really poorly today. We left Mum with him for a bit, then went back to get her, and bought her back here for a present opening fest! Michelle did all the driving so that A & L could have a little drink! Bless her, she has been absolutely wonderful, supporting Andrew, and has been to the hospital with him every time he has visited, because Lynda has a cold and can't go to see dad.

And here are some of the presents I received!


Now I must put my new CDs (Hoosiers and Bruce Springeteen) on my MP3 player!

I also had the book for the TV series 'Tribe'.

More Christmas journal

I am so loving this journal! And managing to keep up. It is amazing what you can do when you put it as a priority!

Things I am grateful for this Christmas. I have kept this page as Christmas things, but I am grateful to have my Dad still here. He is not too well at the moment - and having known 2 people die recently..... (My friend Janp on UKS died from cancer, aged 60 - what an inspirational woman she was!) (Sandra at weightwatchers died on the same day, but suddenly from a brain haemorrhage aged 49, how unfair!)






I did have a 'I saw this and thought of you' moment this year! It was a fireside basket full of scented pinecones, and firelighters, and things that burn bright colours! I immediately thought of Mum and Dad, they love their fire! The present is a falp, I'll put a photo of them opening it under neath.













And here is our Christmas Dinner menu. We have 10 for Christmas this year, MUm and Dad, Andrew and Lynda and their girls, and us 4. DD has a nasty cold at the moment, so I am prayng like mad that noone else gets it, becasue Dad cannot afford to be near anyone with a cold as his white blood cell count is very low. I will be really upset if our dinner can't happen.

I have been keeping up with the journal, I promise! I just haven't had time to upload them. So here are days 7 - 15, all in one go! Oops, I have missed off day 10! Off to have alook for it!

Christmas Tree Festival

One of our local churches, St Marys in Goring, has a Christmas Tree Festival. Not sure whether this is the first year, but it is the first time I have been. It was absolutely magical! The church was filled with 60 Christmas trees, all decorated by local businesses and groups. They were collecting money for the local children's hospice, I bet they made loads of money! What a wonderful idea!

day 6 already!

day 6 already, and I am still keeping up! Not so sure about how I will do next week, as I am back at work. Have to remember next year though to get all Christmas cards stuff done before December! You really need to clear the decks to do this project properly. I love the forum that shimelle has set up - all the pages are on one thread, so it is really easy to immerse yourself in the journal and keep with everyone else! I love it!

I am trying to do different aspects this year so that this journal is different from the one I did in 2005. Hence 2 different memories this time.

Blogger won't let me upload the picture just yet, so will have another go later

Christmas journal

Days 4 and 5. I'm keeping up so far!

Day 4 is scraplifted from Shimelle's page. They are pics from a magazine depicting aspects of my perfect Christmas!

Day 5 is the countdown to Christmas, or advent calendars. Paper is 4bugsinarug. Letters from Lakeland! (They don't show up very well in this photo)

Christmas Journal Day 3

Here's my December 3rd page, all about Christmas cards! I have taken photos of my cards that I made with the Anna Griffin kit from QVC, and used papers and embellies left over from the kit. There are 2 tags with more pics and journalling, one for giving, one for receiving.

I love getting Christmas cards!







Got DD off school sick today. Bit worried about her avernight cos hse had a really bad headache and was sick. Kept checking her for a rash after my friends DS had meningitis recently! She seems a bit better this morning and is sleeping at the moment. Maybe we will get to watch a film together this afternoon.

Hoping to catch up on crafting big time this week, but I keep spending too long on here! Not sure how much I can keep up with my photoblog and Shimelle's CJ forum for the rest of December!

Christmas Journal

OK I am having another go at Shimelle's Christmas Journal. (www.shimelle.com) I actually completed it in 2005, and absolutley loved the process! I got it out recently, and love some pages, hate others! Last year I started but didn't get past page 2 LOL! Here are the cover, page 1 and page 2. I intend to keep it fairly coordinated this year, so BG Blitzen, (forgotten the name of last year's papersLOL) and BG figgy pudding! (I have only bought a 6 x 6 in figgy becasue I am on a stash diet LOLOLOLOLOL

some crafty stuff

Here's a CJ entry I did for Jenny's CJ 'Childhood Holidays'. It's me as a 2 year old!! LOL on my very first holiday in Cornwall. I think the photos are cute! I know however, that the holiday wasn't a great success for Mum and dad. They went with some close friends (that's their son in the photo with me), but at the last minute another couple came too, and Mum and dad gave up thier room for them for some reason. I don't think they all got on very well.

We went down to Cornwall on motorbikes. My dad and his friend had big motorbikes and sidecars! I don't know if the weather was good all the time, but it looks Ok in these photos!


Papers are BG Blush, I think they go very well with the b&w photos. Stamps from Tandastamps. I knew I would get loads of use out of these!












Here's my 2 ATCs for the Tandastamps ATC swap for November. Theme, Snow and Snowmen. The cut out snowmen on the first ATC are from a pack of ATC sized Christmas papers from lakeland. The big snowflakes on the 2nd one are die cuts from a Christmas embellie swap ages ago! Just proves you should never throw anything away!




Feeling much better today. Still not sure how much I want to do, but am going tokepp my lunch date with some friends (only 5 mins drive away) and if I can have anap this afternoon, I will be able to make tonight! Our anuual Christmas Dinner with our old motorcycling friends. We have knwh each other for 30+ years, but only get together once per year now. So it would be a shame to miss it. Dare I take my camera? (I always feel a bit embarrassed taking people shots!)

recovering

Well, the op went well, but boy have I been knocked for six by the after effects of the anaesthetic! Whenever I have had an op before I have felt absolutely fine straight away. Not this time! Maybe I was out for longer? Who knows? Anyway, I spent Tues pm in bed dozing, and yesterday on the settee watching awful daytime tv and dozing. Tried to watch my Sense and Sensibility DVD but feel asleep half way through! Today I really don't feel any better, very woolly headed and a bit wobbly, in fact, worse than last night!!

One frustration is that my book has got the wrong pages in it! It's Jodi Picoult's Plain Truth - just got to the best bit when it jumped back from p 232 to p 195! Then 195-232 are repeated, and the proper pages are missing! Just sent DD into town with somw money to buy me another one! The book has been in my reading pile for ages, so I don't know where I got it from to take it back! It's a fab book, really enjoying the juxtaposition of the modern world on the Amish community in Pensylvannia.

Just waiting for Mum and Dad to come and cheer me up!

findng colour in the garden in November

I went out in the garden yesterday and took these surprisingly colourful plants! There si colour in my garden in November!

























































One thing is on mind today! That is the operation I am having tomorrow. I am sooo nervous! Silly really cos I have never had aproblem with anaesthetic before, so not likely to now. It is day surgery, and only a minor op. (Gynaecological - endometrial ablation, which means they burn away the lining of the womb. It is to get rid of fibroids)
I am hoping to have a couple of days on the sofa watching day time telly! LOLOLOLOL

November

It's been a bit wet lately! This is the car park at Ferring beach where I like to walk with Merlin! I love the reflections!










Decided I would enter the photo competition on UKS this month! The problem is, the subject is 'What I love about November'! Not sure there is anything I love about Nov, except that December comes next! Anyway, here's a couple of photos I have entered because of the dramatic skies.



























Sad time atm. I keep hearing bad news.

My best friend's 18 year old son has had meningitis! He has been really poorly in hospital for 2 weeks. I don't have all the details cos we've only texted each other, but hope to meet up tomorrow (although he is coming out of hospital tomorrow). They have lived through a nightmare!

A friend on UKS is very very poorly. Big HUGS to her.

Several people on forums have recently lost parents and prents-in-law. It reminds me that Dad is not too good. He has very very low white blood cell count, and this doesn't seem to be improving. He is not doing too well on the chemo this month. Bit worried about him really.

Some good news!!! Some friends of ours have just become grandparents! (They seem too young to us!!) Congratulations to Bob and Jan, and love to Laura and partner and their new daughter!

Well, the sun is shining now, I am waiting for my shopping to be delivered, and am going to do a bit more on my book of Rolo!