Dolly's Dreamings

Family time

Very late blogging today because we have been away for our annual family gathering in the Midlands.

We went up to Pauline's (my surrogate Mom ... always has been since I was a very very little girl) to see her and Sam her daughter  (my wonderful goddaughter) Chris and the girls.

They are not family, but they are so my family and they each mean so much to me - and to Nij - and I can't imagine my life without the. 

 This is Sam and Pauline after dinner. They look so alike - and the girls do too.

 
We had a wonderful roast beef dinner (Pauline knows the way to my vegetarian heart is her roast beef .... I never eat beef other than hers) and chatted and just had a lovely fun time.

Nigel played with Carley - who is a big girl now and took him down completely and had him pinned on the floor for more tickles.

 

The girls had some face paints but had a lot of fun painting our hands instead.

 

 

it was - apparently - a snowman

 

It tickled me watching Emily painting Elinor - the look on her face was priceless.

 

 

 

 

 

It was just a lovely day.

This is the final post of 2010 which has been a great year. We have much to be thankful for, as a nation, as a family, as a couple and personally.

Today I am thankful for a wonderful year, for Nigel and the fur family, for my family and friends, for health and happiness and lots of love and laughter. And that is my wish for all of you next year. I hope 2011 is a good year for all of you

Almost the end of the year

I love this time of year - not just because it is holiday time, but because it affords us the chance to reflect on the past year. I am so happy and count myself blessed that I can look back on 2010 and think it was a good year. there is so much to be thankful for. We have both been happy and healthy; Nij is getting good steady work but still has time to enjoy semi-retirement; the cats are all well; I have had many new opportunities; we have had a terrific holiday and enjoyed some once in a lifetime events; we are financially solvent (that one gets ever harder) and we have much to be grateful for.

I used Chicken Soup again for the inspiration for my JYC page - taking the idea of both the stars and the music this time. It is about the frangrance that fills our home.

 

Dawn Inskip has a wonderful kit out today at her Scrapbookgraphics store called A New Start and I made a page about how proud I was of my 5210 year using it.

 

I took some cute pictures of the boy last night. I had a wonderful set of hangers as one of my Christmas presents. I have to tell you, these super slim hangers that are velvet and strong are lush. They take up much less room than regular hangers and hold the clothes beautifully. Nothing slips off and I am totally sold on them. More boxes are on their way. Anyway - I had a box of 50 as one of my Christmas presents and Fiki wanted the box so badly. He really did. Eventually, yesterday, I used the hangers and he had such fun with the box. He went in it, he put his sister in it, he put his toys on it, he tore it a bit, he had a lovely time.

 

 

 

 

and here is a picture of the foggy heath I just liked

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• A year of thankfulness
• Cowshed Cowpat hand cream (Mmmmm - the smell fo holidays and so luxurious)

 

Foggy but lovely

Who cares what the weather is like? I am off on holiday, I am warm and toasty, i have a very tidy and full scrap room, I have a hubby at home with me, I have all manner of Christmas treats to snack on. The weather doesn't matter at all!

Had a lovely day just pottering. Perfect.

I have made my JYC page for today (good job there are only two days left as I am running out of ideas and once again I have used Chicken Soup as the inspiration today - their baubles inspired me to scrap about my latest Christmas decoration - the new parcel lights)

 
I also want to share a book I made for my friend Gina. She is selling up and going off to far flung places as a missionary. I so admire her spirit and her faith. i wanted to make her soemthing small enough to take with her but which I hoped would encourage her and be a reminder of us. I made the book with photos from around the world that we have taken and used some special bible verses for each page.

She loved it.

 
I have to say I was really pleased with it. It was very simple - but effective.

Today I am thankful for

• Lazy days
• School holidays

 

 
 

 

Ethereal Heath

The heath has looked awesome today. It has been very misty and foggy and it looked magical. If I could have been bothered to get dressed properly and go out I bet the photos would have looked lovely! sadly I couldn't be bothered LOL.

I have been scrapping today but haven't scanned what I have made (yes I have been paper scrapping!)

I have also made my JYC page for today.

 
Today I recorded the way our tree has changed this year.

I also have two more walk pages to share. I am now up to date and unless I do another walk before the end of the year, the album is complete.

 

That was the visit to Paradise Wildlife Park with Dawn and Calry and Paul in half term.

 
This was our visit to the Christmas Market in Winchester.

and finally

 
a walk round the heath the day school closed because of the snow at the start of December.

I will share the final pages tomorrow.

Meanwhile this is a page I made for day 12 of the 12 days of Christmas over at Chicken Soup. I am afraid I had to take it very literally as when i was 6 all I really wanted for Christmas were 2 front teeth. I had my two baby front teeth knocked out with a cricket bat!

 

Today I am thankful for

• Lazy days

 
 

Family travel

We have been up to newbury today -the half way point for Nij and his brother to meet - to swap presents and collect Nigel's Mom who has been in Coventry for Christmas this year. It was nice to see them and we all managed the journey safely which had looked dubious this time last week with 6 inches of fresh snow on the ground.

For the first time in over a week we have green on our lawn again. It is only today that the snow has started to disappear. Our drive and the road is still a little white and icy, but it is so much better.

I want to share my final page for the 5210 project.

This is what I came up with

 
The photo was taken at the half way point through the year - Jakki's birthday. I am not seen with a glass of wine on my hands much these days.

Thank you for allt he nice comments about the course. If anyone wants to donate to my local hospice they can still do so at my Just Giving page (I don't get the money - the course was and will remain free - but it goes straight to the hospice)

Here is my JYC page today - all about our trolley teas we enjoy over the holiday period.

 
I was inspired to make today's page by one of the challenges over at Chicken Soup - I just loved their gingerbread men for day 11.

Today I am thankful for

• Safe travel
• sale bargains
• Trolley Tea

 

Happy Boxing Day

OK - I am aware that Boxing day is quite a UK only concept, but it is one of my favourite days of the year.

Nij and I keep at least half of our presents to open together and we have a champagne breakfast, present openinga nd then a PJ day where we chill out, eat left overs and relax together. I totally love it.

We have had a wonderful couple of days and have both been spoilt. (I guess not having kids we do tend to spoil each other a lot) I have had so many wonderful presents - books and clothes and games and music and DVDs and jewellery and probably most exciting of all a new Willow Tree Angel (I will share that another day) and the most amazing Fairy Door (I so wanted one after our visit to Furzey) and some garden fairies for outside. It really is magical and I will share a post about it later.

We had a wonderful day yesterday at Gina's. Gina and I have been such close friends since were 12 years old and have grown up together in so many ways - not just in age but in spiritual and personal journeys we have been on too. we have shared some very special moments. She stayed with me the night before I got married, I helped deliver her first child, our wonderful godson and so on. We have spent Christmas day tigether, with 2 exceptions, for the last 20 years. We take it is turns to host the day and there have been anything from 4 of us (our smallest ever Christmas 2 years ago) to 12 of us - one of the largest. This year there were only 5 of us - Gina, her parents, Nigel and I, but it was a very special day, made all the more poignant because it is likely to be our last together for quite a while. Gina is selling up and heading off on an incresible journey. She is called to do missionary work - no idea where yet - and is unlikely to be here next year.

I made her a special spiritual book to take with her and this was her opening it yesterday morning.

 
I used a couple of other pictures (the less daft ones as we really did have a day filled with LOTS of laughter) for my JYC page for 25th.

 

We have both turned 50 now, and whilst we don't see each other that often, we are as close as ever. It is a very special relationship.

My page for today was 2 pictures taken yesterday actually.

Dawn (she of the awesome digital kits) sent the fur babies such a wonderful present. It was a fur tunnel made of leapard print fur (just like them) with one of their all time squeaky mice attached imside. They absolutely loved it and have played with it so much.

 
Fiki played so much he ended up zonked on Daddy!

 
Today I am thankful for

• All the blessings of the season. The wonderful filling of light, the sharing of time with family and friends, the generous and thoughtful gifts, the wonderful food and the chance to relax and really enjoy.

 
And so to the final prompt of this year long project.

I feel quite sad to be posting the last ever prompt. It has been an incredible journey. I have had to think hard about the structure of the project, planning 52 prompts which I hoped would inspire me and others to record a year in our lives.

 
It started as a way of getting through a year I wasn't looking forward to, and ended such a pleasure. I have had a great year in so many ways and doing this project and having so many of you along to play with it has been incredible. I feel I have made a lot of new friends (and one of my friends said I needed to check my Flickr mail and I can't seem to access it - sorry) and some of you have become such regular visitors and commenters. I hope you still come and visit when the project is done.

 

I am looking forward to seeing finished albums. I will post mine tomorrow. the last page is now done and in the album - just not photographed yet.

If any of you feel that the course was good and you would like to make a donation to say thank you then this is the link for my JUST GIVING PAGE. None of the money comes to me - it all goes straight to my local hospice - just a way of giving back to people far less fortunate

Enjoy and please, do take the time to let me know what you thought of the prompt, the whole project, the concept.

 

I hope to be running other classes - shorter of course - duringt he coming year and hope you will join me for those too.

Happy Scrapping xxx

Merry Christmas Everyone

And I share these words with you

the first from Love Actually

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around

 

 

-- Frank Borman, Apollo 8 space mission, 1968

Give us, O God, the vision which can see Your love in the world in spite of human failure.
Give us the faith to trust Your goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness.
Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts.
And show us what each one of us can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace.

Christmas by John Betjeman

The bells of waiting Advent ring,
The Tortoise stove is lit again
And lamp-oil light across the night
Has caught the streaks of winter rain
In many a stained-glass window sheen
From Crimson Lake to Hookers Green.

The holly in the windy hedge
And round the Manor House the yew
Will soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
The altar, font and arch and pew,
So that the villagers can say
'The church looks nice' on Christmas Day.

Provincial Public Houses blaze,
Corporation tramcars clang,
On lighted tenements I gaze,
Where paper decorations hang,
And bunting in the red Town Hall
Says 'Merry Christmas to you all'.

And London shops on Christmas Eve
Are strung with silver bells and flowers
As hurrying clerks the City leave
To pigeon-haunted classic towers,
And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.

And girls in slacks remember Dad,
And oafish louts remember Mum,
And sleepless children's hearts are glad.
And Christmas-morning bells say 'Come!'
Even to shining ones who dwell
Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.

And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A Baby in an ox's stall ?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me ?

And is it true ? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant,

No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare -
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.

 

Twas the night before Christmas

Well Ok technically it is the day before Christmas but what the heck - it is close enough.

It is always such a special day for us and we have lots of traditions that we follow on this day.

This morning we were up early and in westbourne by 9 am. We bought the wreath for Mommy and Daddy and also the lights I had been coveting for weeks. There are some gorgeous little boutiques in Westbourne that have real special things and the lights fell into that category.

They match the decor of our lounge perfectly and each little parcel has several white fairy lights inside. I can't wait to see it at night. I had waited and waited for it and they reduced it by £6 and so I knew it was meant to be. We spent the £6 and a couple more on a set of gorgeous silver napkin rings with dragonflies on. A gift from my Mommy and Daddy this Christmas.

These are the new lights.

 

After collecting a Starbucks we headed off to the cemetery. I really have no idea why i have to go every Christmas but i do. I don't go the rest of the year. They aren't there. they are here with me, but I just feelt eh need to take a wreath at Christmas. I think it stems from doing it with Daddy for so many years as a way of bringing Mommy something for Christmas. Now they are both there it seems even more important to go and lay a wreath. I didn't take the camera this year - and I was sorry as it was a beautiful wreath this year with lots of gold ribbons and baubles on. The grave was all covered in snow too. This is last years just because a picture should be here.

 

We came home and I set the new lights up. They had been set up for less than half an hour when I wlked past the lounge and saw some of the green ribbons in the middle of the lounge floor. I couldn't believe it. Half an hour and the BBs had had it. They had pulled five of the bows off and it was hard trying to fix them. No glue held - not even diamond glaze, so they are now fixed with pearl headed pins and I swear if they touch it again there will be NO CHRISTMAS FOR CATS! They are bad bad bad, and it wasn't just a boy - a girlie did it too. So both Fiki and Kira are on the naughty step until further notice.

As I type this Christmas dinner is cooking. we always have our own special Christmas dinner here on Christmas Eve. We always have - stemming from our first wedded Christmas. No matter wether we are out for Christmas day or hosting, we have our own just for the two of us on christmas eve before going to church and carols by candlelight or midnight mass. Yes - allt he trimmmings - everything. It is also the only day i drink sherry - whilst i am cooking. That is a tradition that goes back t my pre-marriage days. the hotel guests arrived on Christmas Eve and we had a sherry reception before dinner. When you host a sherry reception you pour more than you need to give people a choice of sweet, medium and dry. Mommy and I used to drink those not used during the serving of dinner. Oh boy did we used to get tiddled. Mommy never really used to drink, other than Christmas Eve. I toast her with my single glass of sherry every Christmas Eve.

Here is my JYC page today

 

 

I know there are many people who follow my blog and many more who check in for all sorts of reasons. I wish you all a very happy Christmas. I hope the blessings of the Christ Child touch you and your loved ones this season and that the spirit of Christmas fills your hearts.

Today I am thankful for

• Being at home for Christmas
• Happy memories and special times

And finally I want to share one of my favourite Christmas songs and videos.

 

Catch up day

I have been catching up on things today. My walks album is up to date, all printed off and bound and just waiting for a couple of final walks we may make before the end of the year.

I have a couple of things that I haven't posted yet that were from the summer walks.

The first was a 21,000 step walk round London.

 
The reason for the London trip was to do the elephant hunt and so there are two pages on that (we did take a LOT of pictures)

 

 

and finally one from Longleat that was never uploaded.

 

I have also made my JYC page for today using a picture I love to sum up the season of light.

 
The snow is disappearing a little and I can see a few patches of green on the lawn - though no sign of any tarmac on the road yet!

Today I am thankful for

• freinds popping in
• A school job finished
• Scrapping catch up time

I have another You Tube clip to share today which amused Nigel and I

 

 

 

Unexpected

Today's post is all about the unexpected.

Yesterday evening we had a very unexpected visit from two friends Lynz and Jay. They are girls I met through scrapbooking and Nigel and I have lived part of this summer, vicariously, through them. They went on a three month trip to America and we were thrilled to have been able to give them some tips before they went (though they will be the ones giving us tips for the future due to their considerable experience). They had a road trip blog which we follwed avidly - it was such fun to read about where they were and what they were doing and see the photos each day.

Last night they dropped round with the most unexpected and beautifully wrapped gift. It was so beautiful and such an unexpected treat that I had to make it the focus of my JYC today. It was such a thoughtful thing for them to do and made our day.

 

 We popped out for our last bit of Christmas shopping today and headed to Westbourne which had nothing what so ever to do with Starbucks LOL. Whilst there I saw an unexpected christmas gift for Nij. We also went into what has to be the most bizarre Tesco express ever as it is in a church - not many Tescos have stained glass windows, marble pillars and so on. And whilst we were there it would have been rude not to have a Starbucks wouldn't it.

There is a noticeable difference int he snow coverage in the area. as soon as you get near Bournemouth the snow has gone, the roads are clear. Poole is a little snowy, but Canford Heath, Broadstone and Wimborne are still under their blanket of snow. there is still no tarmac to be seen in our road, no grass visible on our lawn or on the verges here about.

We also had unexpected trips to work. Nij had to go intot he office brieflya nd I had to pop into school to download some things to pass on tomorrow. (Who said teachers don't work in the holidays obviously wasn't one)

Finally we had an unexpected visit with Christmas cake and hot chocolate with Jakki when we went round to drop off Christmas presents.

All in all a fab day.

Another unexpected was the fun I had with a new template by dawn (check out her store at Scrapbookgraphics because her templates are simply awesome)

 
Today I am thankful for

• Unexpected things that make me smile