We need a bigger basket

I finished my December Journal a couple of days ago but only just took some photographs before putting it away with the other memories of Christmas past.

I made it 6 x 6 this year, really simply.  I didn’t feel the need to fuss or over-prepare and I resisted the urge to get caught up in all the online hype.  I wanted to do what I do in my own way, because that meant I knew I’d complete it! 

The first couple of pages use images cut from catalogues/magazines.  The White Company played right into my hands by including a 6 x 6 star on the front of the catalogue which arrived as I was working on the first pages and it seemed too good to leave out.  Above was the front page of a brochure I picked up in Berlin and showed the window display of a shop we visited.  I was going to use my own photo but then soon realised that their commercial one was better than my ham-fisted effort!

I try to include stories which are not told elsewhere but clearly, there are some similarities to photographs included in my December blog posts.  I know that I’ll look back at this page and gasp “Good grief, in 2015 I had all my cards made by the 2nd!”.  The 3rd tells the story of my WI Christmas lunch but behind the flap is a reminder that before that, most of us had been to the funeral of our friend’s husband.  I frequently add hidden stories and photographs like that.

I hang onto jolly pieces of post like this one from my Canadian friend Nadine to stuff them with bits of paper and there’s always a post about the Stuart Singers Christmas concerts as well.  Time to get out that musical washi tape and yes, behind that ticket are a few thoughts about the event!

I’m not sure the “walnut whip page” works very well design-wise and were I starting afresh, I’d not cut the circle on which to write the story.  I don’t really know why I did, but hey ho!  Done is better than perfect.  I not only forgot to take a photo on the 15th but didn’t pick up a menu or anything whilst I was out either, so relied heavily on ephemera from my collection.

Daylesford provided the picture for this page – or rather, I really liked their marketing campaign this year and was glad to be able to cut this particular image down to 6 x 6.  I posted the little paper ornament to facebook but still wanted to include it here and was glad that it fitted into that corner.

I’m seldom stuck for something to include, though it’s sometimes tricky to make this year’s pages different from last years, especially when we are doing much the same things.

So there we are, finished. A straightforward story of a straightforward Christmas.  None the worse for that – in fact, the lack of drama and crisis is a relief and the story of routines and traditions is definitely a comfort.

It’s even better seen from the clean start of a new year, too.

Still November

A discussion on the radio this morning echoed a conversation my hero and I had shared in John Lewis yesterday.

Is it Christmas yet?

No!  It’s still November!

I found myself nodding in agreement with Janice Turner, whose Times article from last year sums it up pretty well and leaves me with one and a half feet in the Turner camp even if I just can’t quite drag that last foot completely from Kirstie Allsopp’s sparkly Christmas grotto.  Whilst I enjoy some aspects of Christmas, I just can’t bear how early it all seems to creep up on me and that FOMO effect propels us into it all regardless.  I fear that some would have Christmas all year round given the opportunity, but wouldn’t that take all the joy out of it completely?

Needless to say, I can’t quite resist some of the offers which reward early shoppers though, and when I spotted cute polar bear wrapping paper on offer, of course I bought it.  Olaf took good care of it until I found a home for it.

The arrival of a box of goodies in preparation for my December journal arrived yesterday and also demanded my attention.  Our small friends are coming over after school tomorrow to begin putting together their album and so I thought I’d better gather a few things together for them which meant getting out the box of Christmas bits and pieces.

So, even though we were pretty determined to avoid being swept up in it all until next weekend at the earliest, as you can tell, we’ve caved in.

I pulled out the basket of December journals ready for the girls to look through and of course, couldn’t resist revisiting a couple of them myself.  I need to set up my album for 2015 and before I do, I thought I’d see what works and what doesn’t.  One of the discussions in the craft forums has been about the front covers, because some make very elaborate creations indeed.  However, as you can tell by the broken and damaged front cover decorations of some of these, the best ones are the simplest.  I’m not going to be over zealous about creating anything special for that, then.

My first December journal was from 1989 and it was fun to look back through it. 

So cute!  My journals contain so many happy memories and are much loved.

Even those tinged with sadness contain reminders that life goes on and there is comfort to be found in family traditions.  Looking through these reminds me why I continue to make these journals every year.  We all love them!

Some years, my journals are more complicated with bits and pieces stuck in there and there’s no doubt, the early pages are usually far more elaborate than those closer to Christmas itself!

As the pressure builds there is usually a sense of “get it done”.  That’s fine with me.

I think all of them have a page which prompts us to utter “remember that year when….”  this one was when Waitrose “forgot” our turkey order!

There are recurring themes in each of them and I know that these will feature in my 2015 journal too.  How will I make them different this year?  I have no idea!  (Maybe I won’t?)

Whilst choosing how big to make my 2015, I’m thinking that I don’t need to worry about running out of space because I can always create fold-out pages.  Sometimes, too, those fold out pages allow me to tell a more personal story, especially if I hide it behind a flap.  Hmmm.

So, taking a quick look through 2014 and remembering some of the pros and cons of that particular size/format, I’ve decided how I’m going to tackle 2015.

So, like Andy Pandy and Teddy, it’s time for them all to return to their wicker basket until the next time they come out to play.

Because it’s still November!

Done! Finished!

I finished my holiday journal over the weekend.

At last!

I don’t think I’ve ever lingered over one quite so long as this time.  Still, it’s finished and I’m pleased with it.

As usual, it’s stuffed with way too many pages for the size of the coil binding, but hey ho, it’ll just have to be tied closed.  Just in time, I remembered the little bag of goodies to bling up the binding – a key ring given to us in Taipei, a shell necklace in Boracay and some beading in Kota Kinabalu.  Sadly, the beading isn’t really practical to loop onto the spine, so I just removed the label and tied that on there instead.

I like to bling up the coil binding with “stuff” because it makes it a little easier to identify each journal when they are on the shelf.  Otherwise, one coil binding looks much like another.

I have quite a collection of holiday journals, so the shelf looks quite jolly!

Is there room for one more, though?  Maybe there’s a space in there somewhere?

I’ll squeeze them all up – of course, they are all much fatter than those spiral bindings would have you think and it’s not easy.

But where there’s a will, there’s a way!

Does that mean I have to tidy up now?

Has anyone seen my mojo?

I’m finding it difficult to complete my latest travel journal.  I know from experience that unless I get on with it during or immediately after the trip, I’ll find it hard.  But in spite of good intentions, here I am again, trying like mad to complete it before I move on to the next thing.

I got off to a reasonable start, recording all of those small details which tend to get forgotten or overwritten by events.  I spent time in Hong Kong drawing the framework so that I could do a bit of colouring in when I had an odd five minutes and of course, waking up early is a good time to sit quietly at the desk and draw.

I managed to keep it up for a few days in Myanmar, relying on my favourite ways of incorporating a wealth of ephemera – yes, the turkish map fold appeared about four pages in!

But as soon as we embarked Ananda and began a tight schedule, following a daily programme of activities not to mention enjoying the company of our fellow travellers, we were simply doing too many interesting things to keep up and the result is a few blank pages.

A lot of blank pages, in fact.  Because once I’ve let it go, it’s doubly hard to keep up.  After all, do I work on today’s page or return to the last one I was working on? At the end of another busy day, with my head buzzing full of the most recent experiences, it’s hard to think back.  So, I focus on my blog and keep that up to date as much as I can, so I can rely on that to remind me when it comes to creating the journal page.

At least I scribble in a few topics for the day and on this occasion, I printed out some page titles too, which means that I can dip in and out when I come across something which can be stuck in there.

So when we had a sea day and I wanted to have a quiet hour or two, I could complete a day or two in the middle, knowing I was on the right page, if you see what I mean.  But there remained quite a few empty pages to fill.

I’ve tried to tackle the project methodically, so began in Bagan (isn’t that a song title!?)  After a few short bursts of drawing, painting and sticking, I’ve moved on a bit and have completed several pages.

This morning, I made a page about the Bamboo workshop and used a photo to record the journey.  No prizes for identifying which one!  I don’t have that much ephemera to fill the pages though, so the pages are quite sparse.

Not quite as sparse as this one though.

Perhaps that’s the answer for getting it done?

Anyway, in between visiting classes (three this week – should have been four but one was cancelled), writing reports and attending meetings, I am making a real effort to fill some of those empty pages.  After all, soon, we’ll be off on the next trip!

(no, not that soon, really)

In the meantime, if you should see my mojo, please box its ears and send it home.

I wonder if it got packed up after last weekend’s show?

Art essentials

Time to assess the art kit this morning. 

On our return from our last road trip, it looked like this: a clear bag of pens, pencils and suchlike.

And a similar sized tin, which originally held a travel journal kit and the journal itself.  But over the years, I seem to have acquired a few additional bits and pieces and last summer, the tin was stuffed full of things as well.

Definitely needed to reduce the bulk here.

Dealing with the tin was easy.  I’ve been using these travel themed rubber stamps for years and it’s definitely time for a change there.  They’re staying at home.

I don’t need US-themed things in the next few weeks either, so there’s another saving.

A whole sheet of mostly used up stickers, with only one I’m likely to use?  No way am I carrying that!  It stays home and, if I feel the need to add the single sticker in my journal, then I can apply it when we get back home again.

So it continued.  By the time I reached the bottom of the tin, there was hardly anything I was likely to need on the trip and so I made the decision to leave the whole tin at home.

Oh..but, I might just take along this small plastic bag with a few little things inside.  I cut those binding stickers with my Silhouette so I could include things without punching holes in everything.  Those placemarkers are home made too and are really good to use on maps.  I put the bag on one side for consideration later and put the tin away.

Whoops!  Nearly left the little gin bottle behind – no, of course it’s not gin, but ModPodge, which is great for including some bits and pieces into my journal.  I’ll take that (and the roll of washi tape that’s stuck on the bottle cap!)

Now for the bag.  I tipped all the contents out and put things back one by one.  The post it notes taken from an hotel have been useful, so I’ll leave those in, with the 3” cutting mat, the sheet of alphabet stamps and the curve template.  I left out the other notepad, since the first hotel we set foot in with have one by the telephone…

Glue is a must have, along with the tiniest roll of sellotape and a hotel sewing kit.

I found some new rubber stamps in there which I bought last year and had forgotten about.  Makes a change from those old ones – they’re in.

Nest, a couple of hand wipes which are useful for cleaning up, a small tin of paperclips and brads, a couple of waterbrushes and a sponge brush for using with the modpodge.

I’ll put this little stapler in, pre-charged with staples with another strip just in case.

Now for the main stuff.  Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils.  Love them.

Waterproof pens in different widths and a couple of thicker markers.

A couple of small ink pads and matching markers and there we are.

There’s the satisfaction of seeing the things which will stay behind, though I did decide I needed some scissors after all.  I’d also snuck in a small eraser, a pencil sharpener and some glue dots as well.

And I so very nearly forgot my hole punch!  Last time I managed to find a replacement on a morning walk in one of my favourite cities, which was fun, but it’s easier to bring one along.

So there we are.  One art kit, neatly packaged and all gathered in.  Closes easily – no squeeze – too!

As my eyes fell on a few of my travel themed stamps, I was tempted…but resisted!  I didn’t even put this thin little border stamp in the bag.  How good was that?

I had already prepared my little concertina file ready for ephemera collection

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I’d already prepared my journal as well, in a 5 x 7 Seawhite book which fits neatly inside a large Ziploc bag, so there we are, ready to roll!

I love to record our travels in this way and making my journal as we go along is all part of the fun.  This time, I’m going to try to make the best use of found paper along the way rather than to rely on purchased ephemera, though whether I’ll resist the first stationery shop I see remains to be seen.  At least I recorded my good intentions here