No pain, no gain.

I realise I don’t really deserve sympathy here, but I’m at that stage of going away when I sit back and wonder, wouldn’t it be easier to stay at home?  I’m sure my friend Marg is thinking the same thing, because she too is packing to fly off and escape the joys of January in England.

 

Our fun started yesterday, when having changed beds and gathered up every bit of laundry I could find, our washing machine decided to spew water everywhere.  Thankfully, it stands on a tiled concrete floor and there was nowhere for the water to go – I just had to mop it up a few times.  Timing or what?

All day, I was starting to build small heaps of stuff to take with me.  Art kit, chargers, camera stuff.  That little gold bag was a £20 bargain found in JL on Saturday; my reward for braving the crowds I suppose.  Perfect.

So leaving my hero in charge of the ironing (his, not mine!) I attended to all those things which I usually attend to.  Watering houseplants, and of course, checking the contents of the fridge.

We’ve not been shopping for a week, so it’s slim pickings: a bag of mangetout, a small bag of salad, about two glasses of juice and more than a dozen eggs.  Guess we’re having omelettes for lunch then!  Everything else has a sell by date after we’re back and stuff like milk and cheese can be used by our housesitters.

So I went upstairs to begin the worst bit.  Packing.  Or rather, deciding what to take.  I did as I usually do and turned on the TV, for that rare treat (?) of watching daytime TV.  I timed that one well too, didn’t I?

Eeeuwww… it was about the standards of hygiene in hotels and someone was taking swabs and telling stories about what they’d found in various bedrooms.  Not good viewing for a time like this.  (I packed a disinfectant spray!)

Fortunately, it was soon time for Homes under the Hammer and Wanted Down Under and my hero and I were both shouting at the TV “Don’t go!!”   (but they did…they won’t last, though!)

I know that my list isn’t working when there’s something like “anything else” on there…what use is that?!  Hopeless!

Anyway, at last I have two suitcases packed.  One for our first jolly, one for the second part, after which I’ll sort out my things for the third.  With destinations ranging from metropolitan downtown to tropical rainforest and a busy schedule of activities to look forward to, I’d tried to think of every eventuality and planned what to take accordingly.  That was when Mary warned us that right now, LA is cold and wet.  Hmm.  Better take a couple of additional layers then.

How are we doing with the weight then?   Oooh, easily within the limits!  Are you impressed?  (I’m surprised!)

With a copy of our itinerary on top of each piece of luggage, I’m done.  Ready to go.

(a couple of hours later)

I have steered clear of those suitcases, because I know that every time I pass them by, I will be tempted to squeeze in one more thing.  They are now closed and locked and we’re headed for LHR overnight, ready to fly tomorrow morning.

See you in LA!

In my haste

to post a photograph of that magnificent sky the other evening, I failed to notice the other detail in the sky.

Because up there, just in the shot is another little feature.  Well, not so little actually, because today I discovered it’s Mars.

Ooooo.

I don’t think I’ve ever linked to The Sun before, but on this occasion, it seems an apt reference to make.

All wrapped up

There’s something satisfying about tying the ribbon and putting the wraps on the story of December 2016.  Though I’d really finished it a couple of days ago, it was only this afternoon that I cleaned up a couple of pages and put the finishing touches to it and declared it complete.

I’d say it’s “comfortably stuffed”, to use a phrase I always attribute to a dear and long departed WI Craft Judge from Cheshire, who trained with me and who had the most delightful way with words.  Please note too, the pristine and rather swanky new cutting mat which Bettine gave me for Christmas.  I’m a lucky girl – it’s a full A1 size and with inches on one side and centimetres on the other, it fits the bill perfectly.  I’ll try not to drill holes it!

I kept my journal pretty simple this year.  I was going to write more but decided to stick to the visuals in here and write the stories in my Project Life album, which I keep more to myself.  My Christmas journals – and this is #14 – are in a large picnic basket and are often enjoyed by friends and family when they are here.  It’s always fun to look back and remember.

One thing is always staggering: How quickly the month passes and how the non-Christmassy events of the first few days soon morph into the full blown “most wonderful time of the year”.  So the month begins with a meeting on what turned out to be one of the few frosty days.

I try to identify what makes this particular year different from the others whilst still alluding to our own family traditions.  When Edward and Amy told me they had bought their first Christmas tree then, I decided to make some straw stars for them and sew them some Christmas napkins for their dining table.  Another page done!

This year, I chose to make my book 6 inches square for no other reason than I had a 6 inch square pad of cute paper I wanted to use.  It meant that I could print some full page pictures quite easily, then.

Not all the full page photos are mine though, and where I came across a catalogue or magazine photo I liked, it was trimmed to size and included too.

Of course the photograph on the 6th was the same as every year: Paddington and Aunt Lucy, “dressed in Holiday Style” for St Nikolaus.

And so the pages continue.  I didn’t preplan or prepare at all, but took each page as it came, feeling quite pleased when the end result turned out ok.

I finished with one last tradition – a memory of a Christmas past.  This year, it was a photograph of my Grandparents and I at the Christmas dinner table in a local hotel on the outskirts of Hull.  In 1967, I believe my Aunt thought it was getting too much for Nan to cook Christmas dinner for the whole family and I expect neither she nor my Mum were willing to take on the task.  So, a table was booked for a dozen or so and there we were, not looking very happy, I’ll admit!  But what I notice is that each year I have to look a little harder for a different photograph to include, because not only do I have just a few, there are no more where that came from.  For some reason, it struck me this year that the photographs I have of those days and those people are the only ones there will ever be and though the pictures I have in my head might be as clear as they always were, sadly they can’t be placed into a journal.

I think December 2016 might be a little more fully recorded.  I note that I took 507 photographs last month, not all of them are in the journal though!

Hello 2017

Happy New Year!

Once Christmas is over, I’m ready to put all traces away again, but with the arrival of friends to welcome the New Year in, we decided to let it be a little while longer.  Today, however, it was time to say Goodbye…

Going…

Gone.

In no time at all, we’d cleared the baubles away though it took a while longer to untangle and sort out the lights, I’ll admit.

It’s also taken a while to chase all the small and extraordinarily light bits of black “paper” which seem to have found their way into every corner of the house.  One disadvantage of a largely open plan layout is that such things tend to float about a bit!

Still, the Flying Paper Wishes on New Year’s Eve were fun and we all had sweet wishes to make, of course.

It’s been a glorious day in our neck of the woods though that clear blue sky brought chilly temperatures.

As I came upstairs around 6pm, the moon and Venus were shining so brightly, I just had to get my camera.

So, our friends have all left, the Christmas decorations are all put away for another year and peace reigns once more.  this afternoon, I completed the last page in my 2017 Project Life album having finished my Christmas Journal on Friday.  Tomorrow, I plan to blitz the studio and clear the decks for the next project.

It’s almost time for another adventure

All secrets are out

“and that’s it for another year”, as Mummy would say as we went to bed on Christmas Day.  Well, in our case, a few secrets still remain, for just like HM The Queen, a heavy cold left m-i-l Bettine feeling low yesterday and she decided to take the sensible option of staying home rather than join us for our Christmas celebrations.  She’s feeling better today, so we’ll enjoy her company for Boxing Day lunch and will exchange a few more presents with her then.

I hope you had as lovely a day as we did, for in spite of one empty seat at the table, five of us enjoyed a jolly lunch, noting as we did that the birds had “cherry picked” all the red berries from our outdoor table.  Fine with me – we had plenty of our own good things to eat!

We had all been good this year, for Father Christmas filled our stockings with good things, though one small sugar mouse came a cropper somewhere on the journey :-0

Amongst other treasures I had a box of pencils: Specially chosen for me, do you think?

My family are the best present givers, extraordinarily generous and very clever at choosing the perfect surprise.  Of course, Mummy Christmas makes a similar effort and keeps an eye open for similarly well-chosen ideas, so from time to time, the inevitable happens*.

Two Amazon Echos were unwrapped yesterday morning!  We had identified it as a great idea for Edward and Amy and my Hero had liked the look of it so much, he bought one for me (us).

No sooner had we plugged it in than we said Hello to Alexa, the new member of our family!  She began by telling us a joke…and then another and another.  But soon we were finding out about her other tricks: “Alexa, play BBC Radio 4….louder….quieter….volume 6” 

Ooo!

We asked her questions, she told us another joke, we turned the radio on and off and then, before going to bed, we linked the Echo to our Spotify account and played some music.  Like small children, we were giggling at the magic!

“Alexa, play Fix You” (she did)

So this morning, we’ve said goodbye to the old Bose kitchen radio/CD player after many years sterling service and plugged Alexa in the same corner.  My Hero asked her to play our favourite internet radio station, Swiss Radio Classic and I interrupted the programme for a few seconds to ask her to remind me to put the ham on to cook at 10.10am.

“OK.  Reminder set”

Love it!

We hope you too had a happy day and some wonderful surprises, filled with love and and just a little magic.  Perhaps, like me, you cried a little at some point (watching We’re Going on a Bear Hunt when Grandma says “There’s nothing wrong with being sad.  It’s just a way of remembering the happy times.”)  I hope you also laughed, too.  I mean, when we are given at least one pair of White Company slippers, then we will have warm feet and cosy toes.

Excuse me, though, I have to go.  Alexa is calling me