December Daily - Day 6

I was planning on decorating the tree yesterday but my husband is home sick and wasn't able to get the tree up... so that will be a great story for another day ;)
The day was pretty gloomy up until we made some gingerbread people with my 2yo: highlight of the day + good story for my December Daily page!

page1:
Journaling: I fell in love with this Gingerbread people kit last Wednesday at WHSmith: on the one hand, I found the shape cutter really cute; on the other I was curious to see how they tasted. They are yummy, have a good texture, lack some sugar... and they're just so cute!

page2:
Supplies: Making Memories Xmas paper (2009), Uniball brown pen, Quickutz clear stamps, Purple Onion stamp (little swirl), Old paper distress ink.

December 6:
[I forgot to write down this daily diary yesterday and now I can't remember what we did! Sigh...]
Jérôme was sick (coughing + high temp) so stayed home and booked an appointment with the GP at 4pm. Gaëtan was home with me and we played and read some books in the morning. We then went to the postoffice to send THE letter (to Jérôme's parents, telling them about the twins) and a parcel (to Italy, containing our gift for Chloé's birth). A quick detour to Monoprix for some grocery shopping, then it was back home for lunch. Huge success at lunchtime: Gaëtan ate almost all his meal + yoghurt and had a piece of chocolate chip brioche. Nap for Gaëtan, craft/internet time for me and computer time for Jérôme.
I couldn't decorate the tree because it still wasn't up and installed in the living room (Jérôme wasn't feeling well enough to take care of that... and I can't blame him) so when Gaëtan woke up (it was a looooong nap), I decided to bake some cookies with him: I love baking and I love that I can do it with him! Added bonus: great opportunity to take some pics of the two of us baking, so that I could finally feature in my December daily ;)
In the evening, we chatted with my brother and sister-in-law on Skype, watched Vale nursing little Chloé and told them the good news! Can't wait to see them at Christmas!! And finally, I spent some time chatting online with Marie, which was fun.

December Daily - Day 5

The weather yesterday was dreadful (rainy and grey) so I didn't take many pictures and they were all horrible... Not a great start for my December Daily page!
So I kept things even more simpler than usual: a photo collage with a few words (things we bought/didn't buy/did at each store) + some memorabilia from both stores (bag + cloth tag).

page1:

page2:
Supplies: Love Elsie stickers (2007), Scenic Route stickers (2008), Ikea shopping bag, fleece tag.


December 5:
We had a good night sleep... bless the sweet child ;) It looks like my belly is getting bigger by the day... weirdest feeling... We had some home-baked (not home-made though!) croissants for breakfast, then drove to IKEA Thiais to get our tree and buy a small table + chair for Gaëtan's room. We managed not to buy TOO many things other than the couple of items on our list: quite a feast! We then ate lunch at IKEA: Gaëtan and I had Swedish meatballs (Jérôme took some smoked salmon + the chicken special) and he ate them all. He's a meat-lover this one! Jérôme is still coughing like an old man with pneumonia and isn't feeling great. I hope it gets better soon...
Gaëtan fell asleep in the car although it was still fairly early (hardly 1pm), woke up when we arrived home and couldn't get back to sleep in his bed. So we got him up around 3.30pm and went to Decathlon [sporting goods store] to find some winter gear for Gaëtan (we're spending Christmas in the mountains, then are going again in March). Before leaving we decided to have Gaëtan try the snowpants from last year to see if they still fitted (it will do for now but will be too small really soon) and he didn't want to take them off when we left! Once there we didn't find much, except a fleece for the boys and I felt exhausted when we got home. I had to lay down for a while and went to bed around 9.30pm which is VERY unsual for me!

December Daily - Day 4

Saturday was busy and I hardly got a chance to work on my page in the evening. Add an annoying computer that was refusing to download my Day3 pages + my Day4 pictures and I was getting really frustrated.
But I prevailed, the computer yielded and I managed to post my Day3 pages and start working on my Day4 pages. The good thing was that I knew which pictures I would use for the front and for the back page + which stories I would tell. The bad thing was that by 10pm I was feeling really tired (somebody said twins?) and it was hard to concentrate on my modest Photoshop skills!

Anyway, here is what I came up with (sorry about the quality of the pics but the light is just terrible with this grey light):

page1:Journaling: Some falling snow and a small fire in the fireplace... could there be a more perfect setting to tell my parents and sister that we're expecting babies in June? They were delighted and excited by the news, although my mother already suspected as much!

page2:
Journaling: I love watching snow fall: it isn't that common around Paris... I am therefore delighted by all the small snowfalls we've had since the end of November and I hope I'll be able to enjoy it with Gaëtan soon!

Supplies: Webster's Page Xmas paper (2009), Hero Arts alpha stamp, black Versafine ink, orange Kesi'art ink, black border sticker ? (2008), Ali Edwards Freebie Capture the moments brush, Ali Edwards Holiday WordArt Vol2, Scenic Route sticker (2008), Making Memories Mistletoe glitter paper (2009).


December 4:
It was a rough night. Gaëtan woke up several times between 1.30 and 3am and we couldn't understand what was wrong: was it a bad dream, was he too cold, was it his clogged nose preventing him from breathing easily, was it hunger (he didn't eat anything at diner)...?? We were feeling pretty exhausted this morning but I was wide awake by 7.30am (sweet insomnia). I got up and decided to work peacefully (ie without a 2yo trying to get on my lap) on my December Daily. It started snowing pretty heavily by the time we all had breakfast so we left fairly early to go to my parents for lunch. The urban and forest landscape on our way there were beautiful. Jérôme fell down on my parents' driveway but I didn't although I was carrying Gaëtan and wasn't feeling very safe. We told my parents and sister the good news and they were really happy and excited! We watched some of their Mexico vacations pictures, had lunch, chatted while Gaëtan was napping, then left after he had his afternoon snack. The snow had stopped falling but we were afraid the roads would become icy after dark. We luckily had a smooth drive home. Gaëtan took his shower, then ate all his Bledina soup with pasta: hooray, such a relief since he only ate 2 cherry tomatoes and a piece of cheese at lunch. It was homemade croque-monsieurs for the grown-ups!
Tomorrow we're planning to go to IKEA to get our tree + buy a small table and chair for Gaëtan's room.

December Daily - Day 3

Day 3 and I'm still doing this! So proud of myself and of all the others who are on board this great adventure ;)

page 1:
Journaling: writing down the birthdays, parties, holidays and future births; reflecting on a full year and imaging the next one full of surprises and possibilities for our family...

page 2:
Journaling: I'm so proud of you little boy! Standing on a chair you follow with great concentration what I'm doing and you want to help. You're getting better with pouring the sugar and you're doing less of a mess when stirring. On the other hand you're still asking regularly for little pieces of apple!

Supplies: JillyBeanSoup Xmas paper (2009), Pink Paislee Misletoe die cut (2009), Making Memories chipboard button (2009), AdornIt alpha rubons, Artemio stamp, Bazzill kraft cardstock.

December 3rd:
Jérôme woke me up at 9am: panic on board! Gaëtan was supposed to be at daycare and Jérôme at work but we didn't hear the alarm clock and Gaëtan was unusually still asleep. Well, at least we were rested ;)
Gaëtan spent the rest of the morning + lunch at daycare while I wrote my DD Day2 blog post. We stopped at Monoprix on the way back from Grenadine to buy a couple of items, incl. diapers (we are running seriously low). He took a fairly short nap (compared to yesterday) and woke up around 3pm. I managed to call the mason contractor (it turns out they sent the final quotation to the house in Auvergne!). After his afternoon snack, we baked an apple cake for tomorrow's lunch at my parents. He's getting quite good with the sugar, but is still a bit too enthusiastic when mixing!
Can't wait to tell my parents and sister the good news tomorrow... and see their surprise!! Hopefully only squeals of delight and no heart attack ;)

December Daily - Day 2

I worked on my second page for Day1 yesterday, then on Day2 and made 2 pages as well... I'm on a roll!

I've updated my previous post to include the second page for Day1 and here is Day2.

page1:

page2:Journaling: installing the nativity set; building the Advent village; finding a place for the NOEL decorated letters; putting up the big Xmas balls in Gaëtan's room; putting the little Xmas magnets on the fridge.

Supplies: Hero Arts alpha stamps, black Versafine ink, Peeled paint Distress Ink, Lipstick Red Colorbox ink, American Crafts foil chipboard, old Scrapworks patterned paper (2007), Purple Onion stamp, Making Memories button flower (2009).


Even though I am trying to focus on one story/one activity per day for my December Daily pages (as Ali suggests), I would like to include a brief summary of what we did that day... but I still haven't found how I'm going to do that. In the meantime, I'm going to include it here on the blog!


December 2
Today was fairly quiet. Gaëtan stayed at home with me and we took the Xmas ornaments, decorations and the nativity set out of the cupboard. He was VERY interested in the big IKEA balls that he kept naming "ballon" (ie soccer ball). It was really cute so I decided to hang them in his room. Then he played with the Advent village I bought years ago on sale in London (best bargain buy ever!).
He then took a really big nap after lunch (allowing me time to work on my DD pages + answer a few emails + call the mason contractor in Auvergne), so the rest of the afternoon was spent reading some books and listening to some Christmas music (I bought a Christmas songs for children CD - in English - yesterday).

December Daily - Day 1 (updated)

Keeping it very simple for the moment, although I have plans (but will I find the time?) to add more pictures + words on the other side of this page (done on Day2 and updated).

Update page2:Journaling: I was a bit disappointed with the Xmas street decorations (or lack of) around the WHSmith shop in Paris (Rivoli/Concorde/Vendôme), apart from the Guerlain shop which was absolutely breathtaking!

Supplies: Hero Arts alpha stamps, black Versafine ink, red Colorbox ink, Cherry Arte rubon number, Scenic Route sticker (2008 - red circle border + Wish), Ranger Diamond Stickles (on the 1), Love Elsie Noël sticker (2007).

Yesterday was a busy and emotional day (in a good way). I was very tired at the end of the day but started working on this page because I knew what I wanted to show and tell.

And I am now working on Day2 (with this morning pics) while the little one (soon to be the big one) is napping... I can do this!


PS: so yes, this means I'm pregnant and expecting twins (due in June, but they will probably arrive sooner). And yes, it means I've been feeling pretty exhausted the past few weeks/months ;) But we are really happy (and a bit scared!).

December Daily 2010

I need to specify 2010 in my title because I've done a December Daily 2009 and a December Daily 2008... Well, when I say I've done them, I mean that I prepared the foundation for both of them but failed miserably to actually complete them...
I had tons of fun making them however. This is the reason why I have once again searched my paper scraps for Christmas-themed items this month and taken the plunge.


Previous projects:

- December Daily 2008 (cover + a few completed pages)

--> Soooooo... It all started fairly well up until the 5th. What happened then? My son Gaëtan was born a few days later so I guess I had my hands full and a lot less free time!!

- December Daily 2009 (cover + a few empty pages)

--> My biggest failure to date... and I have no good reason for it! I didn't even finish the cover NOR found a suitable binding for the minibook and I didn't complete a single page (although I kept pictures and notes in a dedicated folder!).
OK, moving on... it's embarrassing...


What I learned in the process:

My previous December Daily albums were fun to put together because I wanted to mix different page sizes, different textures, different formats, play with inks or my sewing machine... I really wanted every page to be unique! That was a lot of fun (and work!) to put together... but I realized when the actual documentation phase started that it made things WAY too complicated for me to complete: I just didn't know what to do with these strange page sizes... and trying to make every single page unique was just too much work (not to mention time-consuming) on a daily basis!


My December Daily 2010 book:

- Overview + a few pages

My December Daily 2010 album is - for all the aforementioned reasons - VERY simple at this point: 1 double-sided piece of pattern paper + 1 daily overlay printed on white Bazzill cardstock. Repeat from Day1 to Day25!

Ali's use of transparency pages appealed to me BUT I didn't want to spend ANY money on new supplies (considering this one may also end up empty... ahem...). So I used left-over Christmas papers from years past, only bought Ali's December Daily 6*8 overlays, repeated the same steps for each page and build my album fairly quickly.
It would have been even quicker, had I not (stupidly?) decided to slightly change the size of my pages: a bit more work now in order to save me lots come December (well, that's the plan...)! I slightly decreased the size of Ali's overlays so that one portrait-oriented 6*4 picture (printed on my home-printed) would fit in the upper section of the overlay (leaving a bit of room to the right to glue some pretty paper, add a title, a quote... you name it).


So basically, each page could now just be one 6*4 picture + a bit of pretty paper/a title/a quote to the right + some journaling at the bottom: I think even I can handle that at the end of a busy December day, even feeling exhausted and uninspired!!!
Moreover, if I DO feel a bit more creative, there is still room to add more pictures/create a photo collage, add more journaling or more pretty artsy things... PERFECT!

This is how it may look (in the simplest version, ie the laziest one!):



I didn't add any number on my patterned paper pages but am planning to do this each day. I just want that extra bit of flexibility, just in case!

As you may also have noticed, there is no binding at this point (I'm keeping my pages in a little kraft bag on my desk). I'm planning to bind it with my Bind it All when its finished (ha!) but may end up using book rings if it's easier... who knows?!


What else can I say: JUST WISH ME LUCK!!!! I may need all the good vibes you can send my way ;)