Dolly's Dreamings

Christmas Journal

I am planning on doing Shimelle's Christmas Journal class again this year.

It will be my third year and I just love doing them.

My first year I used all of Shimelle's prompts.

Last year I did it as an A - Z album in an 8 x 8 book and I loved it.

This year I have made myself a journal and am planning on doing each as a scrapbook page of what happened that day. Some will be doible pages and some will be single.

This is the first time I have made a journal and bound it ahead of time and am worried to death I will hate it. I guess if I do I can take it apart again.

Bind it all and I do not get along well so this is also one of the few times I have used it.

I will thread the ribbons through the comb when i have finished it as they just irritate me and get in the way when I am woking.

I am looking forward to having this as a focus of each day in December though I am planning on the first page being today as we are having our thanksgiving dinner tonight.

I am also looking forward to it being non square.

My other 2 christmas albums were square and I am right off square scrapping at the moment.

The journal is filled with a mix of green, cream and red cardstock pages.

Merriest

I was thrilled to get notification of the new kit - Wishing you the merriest - by Patricia Christensen yesterday.

All of Pat's kits are awesome and this one was no exception. It is on sale now at Weeds and Wildflowers - and they have great deals this weekend too.

I have made a couple of projects with the kit but this was one I made last night. The picture is little Emmy Lou of course, looking seasonally cute a couple of Christmases ago.

I have had a very busy day scrapping today as I had a lot of assignments I had to complete but, as the end is in sight, I am going to make my Christmas journal tomorrow. I am doing Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas again, though as this is my third year I plan on mixing it up a bit. Howver, I do love Christmas and everything about it so will enjoy doing another journal. I think I am going to make it more like a month in my life project, but it will still be very Christmassy.

The Music Room

I thought I would ahare one of my most outrageous rooms in my dolls' house this week for Show and Tell Friday.

If you want to know more about the wonderful Show and Tell Friday hosted on Kelli's blog follow the link. It truly is something great to be part of.

I had my doll house for my 40th birthday and for three years I worked really hard on it. It is a big big house and I loved decorating it.

I discovered scrapping in 2003 so the dolls house sort of got put on hold. It is a work in progress and I WILL finish it one day. I just can't finance both addictions at the same time.

The Music Room was my fantasy room. The house is late Georgian  and I imagined that the family who lived there were great entertainers and they liked to host parties and musical soirees for their wealthy friends.

They had the luxury of having more rooms than they needed to live in and so had turned one of them over to a lavish music room where they could play music and be entertained by others playing music too.

Everything about the room is over the top and it took me hours and hours of painstaking work to complete it.

There is a faux marble floor and the walls are actually painted a wedgewood blue - I have been unable to capture the colour well in any photo. It either looks too garish or too ornage.

The feiezes around the room are plaster casts and then painted with liquid gold paint, as was the fireplace and the niches ceiling and columns.

That was the work that was really fiddly to complete but so worth the effort.

The house is all wired throughout and each light works independently from a remote control unit. I wanted lavish lights for the music room and couldn't find anything that was quite right, so I bought lights from a fabulous man called Ray Storey and then turned them into chadelliers with plastic thread and crystal beads. It was great fun to do.

The Louis XV furniture was a special find when on holiday in America. We bought it from a doll house shop in Falls Church Virginia and I still feel quite faint when I think about how much I paid for it.

The art deco lamp is not not in the right style but I fell in love with it and so it had to be there.

There are cats in every room and the music room is no exception.

The instruments came from various places at different times.

I had such fun creating the music room and collecting the pieces for it. Over the top it may be, but I love it. I promise the rest of the house is quite sane and plain by comparisson.

I look forward to sharing more rooms in future show and tells.

Happy Thanksgiving - counting my blessings

I know there are a lot of American visitors here, not least of whom  our American family and friends.

I would like to wish you all a really happy thanksgiving. Nigel and I will, as usual, have our Thanksgiving dinner at the weekend but will toast you all tonight.

We have so many blessings to be grateful for this year.

I am thankful that I am married to my best friend and that our love grows stronger and deeper with every passing day.

I am thankful that Nigel's health scare in February was just that - a scare and nothing more serious.

I am thankful that I had the all clear with all my cardiac tests and that, whilst often in pain, I CAN walk and the knee and ankle problems are inconvenient but not dangerous. 

I am thankful that Kira has had a much better year healthwise and is continuing to do well.

I am thankful that we are blessed with three cats who mean the world to us

I am thankful that we have a home which is safe and warm, plenty of food on our table and that we are not in want or need.

I am thankful that we both have hobbies which are fulfilling and bring us joy.

I am thankful we are blessed with some wonderful friends and family

Happy Thanksgiving everyone

Wedding joy

I thought before I get too carried away with uploading my latest DT projects I should finish uploading those from ages ago.

This was another page made with the gorgeous Blue Awnings papers and embelishments that Karen at Charmed Cards and Crafts sent for the last selection.

I made such a lot of pages with it and I think it remains my very favourite collection ever or any papers.

I had scrapped this picture digitally but wanted to scrap a paper version too and so here it is.

I loved so many of the pictures of the two of them together but this had to be my very favourite of all.

It also seemed to lend itself so well to the papers - I think because they had a romantic sort of flavour somehow.

Thanksgiving word art

I made this to send to American family and friends and so thought I would share the word art here

If it is of use to anyone you can download it HERE

Hanging decoration

Karen at Charmed Cards and Crafts send me such a lush DT pack to scrap with this month - it was the Basic Grey Wassail collection and was just gorgeous. Just go and look at the store and see what other people have scrapped with it too.

Karen's own work is awesome and Maddy Hill (GULP!) is the new addition to the design team and her work is totally awesome. I have a real 'I am not worthy' feeling.

However, I have to say I did like all of the projects I made with the gorgeous products and I wanted to share this one first as I really liked it.

I used a wooden heart that soemone had raked me two years ago and also cut some chipboard hearts.

I covered them with various papers from the collection and on one side I added pictures of the fur family.

I guess they would look cute with children on too - but my children are all fur covered!!!

I used various stamps and lots of bits from the Wassail sticker sheet and chipboard pack to finish off the catty side and to decorate the other side.

I joined them with red ribbon and I think it makes a really quick and simple cute decoration.

I am sooooooo not allowed to put anything Christmassy up yet - we never put anything Christmassy up till after Thanksgiving - but I can get away with this one as I have said it is a craft project and so needs to be out LOL.

I also have a piece of good news which probably won't impress anyone but me. I got a new winter coat today. I have been looking for the last three years and not found a single one I liked. We had out hair cut last night and our hairdresser had a coat on I fell in love with. It is a Barbour style, but softer and prettier and was only £39.99 so I got me one today and I love it. Waterproof, warm, hooded and just perfect.

Linked Lives

This was my creation for A True Friend pet blog this week.

The challenge was to scrap one of the stories of your pet. And I chose one about Boushka. She has two very active siblings and so Boo often gets fewer pages scrapped about her.

I am guessing you won't be able to read the journalling so here is her story.

Our first two fur babies were called Pebble and Cinders - two sisters - and we lost Cinders in June 2000 after a short battle against cancer. She was 14 years old and the first fur baby we ever lost so it hit us hard.

In December 2001 a colleague at work spoke to me as he said I 'knew stuff about cats'. He had found a stray cat they had called Muffin. He had reported it and tried to find the owner but had been unable to do so. Eventually they had taken her in but they couldn't keep her as they lived in a flat and were not really allowed pets. Did I know anyone who would like a cat? Silly question really.

I said that, as luck had it, I had a vacancy as I had room for three and now only had 2 cats. I said I would take her but had to wait for Nigel to come home as he was away on business in USA. The next day he brought in a photo he had taken of her and I was lost for words as it was my beloved little Cinders looking back at me from the photo.  It was quite uncanny. She was a different colour - Cinders was a Tortie and this cat was a tabby - but the face was pure Cinders.

Nigel came home 3 days later and I hadn't mentioned the likeness but had said I'd agreed to take her. He saw the picture and said, 'Oh My God, it's Cinders!'

We went to collect her that night and she actually didn't look like Cinders at all, apart from a certain expression she had - which was identical. We brought her home and as it was 6th December we re-named her Baboushka to give her a Christmassy name.

We took her to the vets the following day to check she was not microchopped and that she was spayed, vaccinated etc and to ask how old she was. It is hard to age cats accurately but Tom said he thought she was probably one of last year's kittens, born round July 2000! Spooky.

Maybe we should have just called her Cinders!!!

And if you have read right down to here - well done for sticking with it!

Free Holiday season title

I am toying with this for the cover of my holiday season journal this year.

I figured I would start with thanksgiving and end with new year so it seemed apt.

As I had made it I figured I should share it.

You can download it HERE

Fab weekend and christening book

  We had a wonderful weekend with Chris and Sam - it was so wonderful to see them.

Had a great birthday dinner at our favourite restaurant right ont he beach.

OK so I KNOW it is November and cold and dark but it is still magical and we loved it.

Then we came back and played Mario Kart on the Wii till the wee small hours. Rather too much wine was consumed actually and I have felt more than a little delicate all day.

I am absolute rubbish on the Wii at karting. I was last in almost every race - and there were a lot of races.

Mind you, I would like to point out that we only had three steering wheels and most of the time I was the one not using one. Well that's my excuse and I am sticking to it.

In this picture I clearly have a wheel - I promise it was rare.

This morning we all went out for breakfast - a very American thing to do - and lovely it was too.

Huge choice, loads of all you can eat food and just what I thought I needed.

Mmmmmm - maybe not - didn't help the yucky tummy much.
I was sorry to see them head home but it had beena  special weeknd.

I can now share the book I made for Sam as one of her presents. I made it for the design team at ATDML last month using the gorgeous artsylicious stuff and I couldn't post it before incase Sam saw it.

I was really pleased with it - it looks a lot nicer in real life with lots of foiled papers and lots of glitter.

The important thing is that she loved it and it will be a special keepsake of the day.

I also burnt her a CD with all the hundreds of photos on from our three visits up to Manchester this year.