Blah... blah... blah...: December Daily

or... It's the Little Things That Matter

I've had family visiting!!!

I'm blessed (~~now they've gone~~), I truly am.

I live on the caravan park my parents own and run (we've been here, in Wales for the past 30 years), I have my own two-bedroomed flat... well it's a one-bedroomed flat plus (chaotic) craft room. And even though we have beautiful spacious caravans available, my wonderful family always want to stay with me, in my flat! Why? I'm just that wonderful, I guess!

The thing is, that not only did my brother and his two children want to visit (mainly for the fab Halloween weekend), but also my amazing daughter (plus fiancée) had the week off work and came to stay as well. The sleeping arrangements, to say the least, got a little complicated! Remember... one bedroom and one queen sized bed!

So... Sunday saw Michelle (daughter) and Daniel (future son-in-law) arrive, they ended up sleeping in this configuration... Michelle in bed with her mum (I hope it doesn't scar her for life!), Daniel on the sofa (it's a very comfy sofa). They won't let me sleep on the sofa, and I quote... "my mum's not sleeping on a sofa", they're old fashioned that way (something to do with their up-bringing, I suspect!).

... Monday, the same configuration, although Michelle and I spread out a bit more and weren't quite so uptight about accidentally touching each other and invading each others personal space... either we just couldn't be bothered or (I suspect more to the point), we were both so knackered from the previous nights rest (or not) that we no longer cared who had the most space so long as it was 'ME'. I think we were both a little envious of Daniel and the comfy sofa by this point!

... Tuesday, ditto. Michelle and I now have bags under our eyes and Daniel is FAR too happy, so we've now designated him... our own personal slave for, any and all, things that we need doing! From emptying the bins, washing up and tea making to decorating the clubhouse for the Halloween weekend! (Well he has had the most sleep after all!).

...Wednesday, Michelle can no longer cope with sleeping with her mother (thank God) and decides to drag a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Daniel (B45T4RD) off to my mum's beach house (Yah... a night on my own!). Off they go.... bye.

A good night's sleep follows!

...Thursday, my brother arrives with two kids, my mums invites my other niece to stay (citing her need to spend quality time with her cousins, and dumps her on me as well)! The sleeping configuration for this lot? Kenny (brother) on the comfy sofa; Annabelle (niece #1) and Abbie (niece #2) on a blow up double bed next to me in the bedroom; Edward (nephew) in the bed with me. By 10.30 (already 30 minutes passed my bedtime), I make the kids turn off all ipads (they're playing mindcraft together, whatever that is), we settle down and off go the lights. Since Edward is only six and the smallest (a hell of a lot smaller than my last bedfellow any way), I'm thinking I'll be able to get a decent night's sleep! Oh, you fool! My lovely nephew spends the WHOLE night farting! At one point I swear there was green gasses coming from beneath the sheets and I was seriously worried about him poisoning the girls, I just thanked the lord (several times) that I was fairly close to (a now) open window and managed to inhale something other than the last few meals my delightful nephew was now trying to digest!

...Friday, Michelle and Daniel are back (oh goodie!), the sleeping arrangements are as follows... Kenny on the comfy sofa (have I mentioned that the sofa is comfortable? Well it was until it was used as a bed!). In the lounge with Kenny is now, not only the double blow up bed, but also a single blow up bed (hahaha Kenny gets the kids... #1 snores, #2 talks in her sleep and #3 stinks!), Michelle and Daniel are in my bed (I hope they appreciate all I do for them), and where am I? I've disappeared next-door to my mothers (mwhah!).

...Saturday, almost ditto except #2 niece has also had enough of the crowd (she IS an only child after all, its amazing that she's managed to put up with everyone up until now) and joined me next door, so once again I'm sharing! My mother wanders into the bedroom in the middle of the night (I don't know if its to check up on me or niece #2, but she very quietly and carefully makes sure we are both covered adequately with a duvet... it's the little things that matter, I have a small smile on my face as I drift back into the land of nod, thinking all the time that even at 51, I'm not too old to be tucked in!

The children (and me) are beginning to flag a little by now, they've had a late night playing bingo; they've (and me) have had a thoroughly unpleasant gas experience; we've all had disturbed nights without our usual compliment of restful bliss in order to recharge, we are probably not at our best as we face another day of energy sapping delights. Next the kids face another full day of Halloween fun and we all have an even later night of disco dancing, drinking games (not the kids although I swear those 'fruit shoots' make the kids far more 'hyper' than the two alcoholic shots I got caught with!) and raffle excitement (if I hear... "but I didn't win" one more time, I'm gonna ban any of the kids from participating in the bloody raffle!) and our oldest child, who is at present on the cusp of hormonal puberty is... only now able to communicate in a series of grunts! The other two are crying at the drop of a hat... but of course when I have the audacity to suggest that perhaps they may be "a little tired" I'm told in no uncertain terms that "NO, WE ARE NOT!!!" then one (or both) burst into more tears. Oh what fun!

...Sunday... THEY'VE ALL GONE and do you know what?

I'm missing the bloody lot of them! And all the fun and chaos they always bring with them! I decide ~ I must be some kind of masochist.

Crafting? not a lot (I've been kinda busy,) so I'm showing off the December Daily kit that will soon be up for grabs from LIKE FOR EVER... not cheap, but great value and I'm definitely going to get it...

DECEMBER DAILY 2015 KIT

£60.95 (Coming soon)

WRMK 4x6" Album in Classic Red with 10 page protectors | One pack WRMK 4x6" Page Protectors | One pack Project Life 4x4" Page Protectors | One pack Project Life 4x4" Divided Page Protectors | One Christmas Wishes 6x6" Pad | One Christmas Wishes 4x6" Stamp Set | One pack Christmas Wishes Puffy Alphas | One pack Christmas Wishes Acetate Squares | One pack Christmas Wishes Studio Puffs | One pack Christmas Wishes Rubber Charms | One pack Christmas Wishes Acrylic Shapes | One pack Christmas Wishes Gold Foil Words/Alphas | One pack Christmas Wishes Die Cuts | One pack Evalicious Oh What Fun Wood Veneer | Three assorted Evalicious Oh What Fun Flair Badges (may differ from those shown in photograph) | One pack Pretty Pink Posh 8mm Sparkling Clear Sequins | One Freckled Fawn Gold Dot Washi Tape.

Kit Subscribers receive a free journaling pack with each kit purchase.

COMBNED RRP OF £82.75 REPRESTENTING A SAVING OF £21.80!

I'm off for a rest now... happy crafting x

Blah... blah... blah...

Ok... so like those poor unfortunate drug addicts, I've given in and found some 'stuff' to give me a little 'fix' until I can get to the really good stuff (back home in my craftroom). Since my 'habit' is causing me all kinds of withdraw (I'm away from home and didn't pack my most essential item, namely my LIKE FOR EVER kit) ~ and as my willpower is at an all time low, I've searched my laptop in the hopes of finding something to give me a bit of a lift.

My desperation has reminded me of when you haven't quite got the right money in your purse in change, but don't want to break into a note! What do we do? We search the bottom of our handbags hoping that it was more than 1p that we dropped in there last week when we were in a hurry and couldn't be bothered to go to the extreme lengths of placing said change tidily in the right place, namely the afore mentioned purse!

Anyway my desperate 'handbag' search yielded a few pictures of last year's December Daily attempt...

December Daily^® is a December mini-album project that documents the 25 days leading up to Christmas. The simple goal is to capture the spirit of December via one story per day.

2014 was my first attempt at 'December Daily', in order to help me along I found some 'prompts' and decided to do a 'photo-a-day' challenge.

Instead of doing a separate album, I decided to include it in my current project life album and to do the whole of December, from the first to the thirty-first. My title page ...

I used a different pocket page layout than usual, that of design E (4 6x6 pockets), by using this design style I felt I was maximising my 12x12 Christmas patterned papers. I used any appropriate papers I found in my stash! My title page included the photo challenge prompts (top right).

I made my page numbers (1-31) by punching two different sized circles and layering them, I added a swirl (cut on my cricut, from gold cardstock) and a wood veneer decoration. For some days I used one full page and some pages had two days on them.

My first page told the story of 'Your View Today' (prompt) which was a picture from my bedroom window, also on this page I included a picture of my mother opening the first window of the candle advent calendar I gave her and a close up of my mother's recovering face from her recent fall ~ isn't she colourful!

I will be attempting DD again this year... but I will be using Pinkfresh Studio's Christmas Wishes collection that is contained in the LIKE FOR EVER December Daily kit.