Moving right along

Though I have a little pile of Bernina goodies staring at me, begging to be opened and explored, there was no way I could allow myself to open them up until I’d completed this year’s December journal.

I got started easily enough.  I’d spotted a pad of 12” paper which was heavily reduced in Michaels when we were in Washington and though I’d told myself I needed no more Christmas supplies for now, it proved to be my go-to design for much of the month. 

My December journals are never right on trend. I choose not to follow the pocket methods which so many have adopted because not only do I keep my Project Life going throughout, but messing about with a glue stick and a pair of scissors is quite therapeutic at this time of the year.  So, though I admire the cool designs and very considered approach, mine will always be somewhat haphazard and be rather more personal. 

I don’t pre-plan and begin each page as it comes, though I try some some consistency by including a common design feature to each page – this year, it was the date stamp.

At times this year, it was really hard to keep it going.  For much of December I felt below par having picked up some kind of lurgy which made me cough and cough and cough some more.  But looking back over previous years, I knew I just had to complete it.

And hooray, I did!  My 2014 December Journal will take its place in the basket alongside those from previous years and I know that we’ll love revisiting the events during the run up to Christmas 2014.  For every page in there which records something new, something particular to 2014 there are others which tell the same story as every year.

That’s why I love it.

Belt and braces

I finished my travel journal from our recent trip yesterday.  I’d worked on it throughout the journey, usually sitting at the table in the evening and cutting and sticking whilst we watched HGTV and whatever home renovation show was on that night.  I’d taken my usual bag of tricks with me – a basic kit supplemented by a couple of rolls of washi tape and a few stickers bought along the way.

The advantage of keeping it going whilst we are travelling is that I can record all those small details which prompt the conversations later – like the man in the McDonalds by the filling station in Mount Vernon, OH, who came in wearing a T shirt with no sides.

How could I have forgotten that?!  (However hard I tried)  It’s a bit too personal to write about on my blog though, even though it’s those small details which make for the fun and provide the trigger for other stories.

So why keep the blog and the journal then?

Well, I had two days left to record in the journal to finish it off.  Our last evening in Chicago was spent sorting and packing, so I didn’t write and draw about the Field Museum.  Then of course, when we travelled home, all the journalling stuff was packed away, so plenty of time but no materials to record that.   Yesterday, I wanted to tie up all the loose ends so gathered the bits and pieces and wrote the last few pages.  Just as I was about to put it all together, I thought I’d check to see if I’d missed anything and opened up my blog of those two days.

I’d forgotten those awful five or ten minutes when I panicked, but thankfully, I’d told the story here.

I quickly added an extra page and the journal was complete.

See, I need both belt and braces!

Progress

Just before I went away, I acquired a new laptop for work use.  Ever-increasing security concerns meant that we were no longer able to use our own machines for local government purposes and emails sent to my work address would have to be read and replied to using the new laptop.  It was very secure, with numerous log in screens and ever changing passwords.

So secure, it wouldn’t let me in!

This morning, I collected it from the place where bad laptops go for correction and rehab and hopefully, it will now stop giving me some message about non-compliance.  Of course, it will also now take me at least twice as long to collect and reply to my emails as it used to but then, that’s progress.

Not that I’m against progress, of course.  Tomorrow, we’re going to see Prince Igor live from the Met – but we’ll not be at the Met, of course.  Actually, we’re going to the cinema in Cheltenham which is a little easier to get to on a Saturday afternoon (even if sadly, we can’t meet up afterwards, Jordi).  Isn’t it wonderful that such a performance can be opened up to a world wide audience?  We’ve been slow to catch onto these live HD performances but are very much looking forward to meeting up with friends for a bit of culture too.

I’ve been working on my travel journal this last week and made such good progress, I’ve finished it!

I managed to keep it going until almost the end of our cruise, actually, completing each day fairly easily whilst we were on the move.  But once we’d got to Ecuador, the stories were coming thick and fast and I couldn’t keep up.

It’s always a dilemma.  I don’t really aim to create a masterpiece but simply to record the everyday occurrences which make me smile and which make the days special, in a fun and colourful way.  I find that I need to record all the bits as they happen, there and then, however, or else I forget them. 

So, I  keep a notebook in my pocket or my bag the whole time and scribble things down wherever I go.  That’s where I write down the names and the small reminders which will help me put my journal together when I’m ready.

Like the word “windly”, which is how our guide Walter (or was it Hualta?) described the weather one day.  Sweet, n’est-ce pas?

Speaking of sweet, it was fun to play with the Clover Pompom makers the other evening when I kept our small friends company for a couple of hours.  Much easier than the old cardboard circle method I’m sure.

In no time at all we’d used up every scrap of wool we could find and made a family of pompoms because it seems that, no sooner had we created pompoms of different sizes, the anthropomorphism kicked in. 

(Beware the naughty little pompom, then, because it’s a bit of a rascal, I can tell you!)

So now, I’m ready to progress onto the next thing.  Will it be the traveller’s blanket which I think I might base on some of the lovely patterns and motifs we came across on our travels?  Or will I open up the Silhouette rubber stamping stuff I had for Christmas and which I’ve not had time to play with yet?  Come to think of it, I’ve not opened up my Gelli plate yet either – who knows, I might combine all three ideas and create a storm next week!

Oh, and today, I’m thinking of our friends who continued on the ship after we disembarked in Lima.  They will have reached Buenos Aires today and most will be making their way home soon, if not already. 

It seems an age since we left them to go to Machu Picchu.

The usual dilemma–resolved

Once again I’m trying to think of practical and effective ways of recording the trip.  In this case, our four night stay in Hong Kong, which generated a few bits of ephemera which I wanted to assemble in some way.  I’d intended to keep a scribbled journal whilst we were there, to maintain it as we went along and stick bits in it with washi tape there and then.  I couldn’t see how I’d have time to spend on it once we were home.  So, I packed the bare minimum of pencils, tape and a mini stapler and a new little moleskine notebook.

Or so I thought.

When we arrived, I opened it up to find I’d already used it a couple of years ago, in Sweden.  How silly of me not to check before we left!

So, there we were. Before we’d even left the hotel, I was bleating that I needed to buy a notebook from somewhere…anywhere.

Now, you’ll appreciate that I am indulged by my family when it comes to things like this, but I try hard not to push it.  It wasn’t fair to take up half the first morning on a shopping trip to find a stationers and so I went with the flow.  Made do.  Managed.  Until my hero spotted a notebook in the gift shop at the Nan Lian Garden, which I agreed would do nicely, thank you.

Except it didn’t really.  The paper quality was so poor that it crumpled almost as soon as the page was open.  And the binding was flimsy.  And though I tried to clip some cuttings in it I could tell, it wasn’t going to work.  So, I simply scribbled, made notes and put all the ephemera into a bag to bring home.

(By the way, do you see that clipping?  I'm a goat...note "spending spree is justified" ??  )

Today, I assembled the lot into one of these which I bought ages ago with this exact intention.  It owes a lot to Heidi Swapp’s Memory Files, but was simpler and way less creative!  I hadn’t time to dwell on too many decorative features because I just wanted it done.

So here we are.  Edward’s birthday trip to Hong Kong, January 2014.

No need to open every little page and flap – you get my drift?  I cut open the bottom fold of the file folder, because it’s actually a kind of pocket and until the bottom is cut off, it doesn’t open like a book.  Once I’d made that cut, some of the “pages” were a little loose, so I had to make a few adjustments before I started.  But it worked well, allowed me to insert some extra pages as necessary and I would do something similar again for a short trip.

Next time, I’d think ahead and use more of those newspaper cuttings and suchlike as background material.  In something like this, it’s not necessary to have every square inch visible, but it gives the right kind of flavour to the page and photos and other stuff can be layered over it all.

The whole thing is quite sturdy, opens up comfortably and best of all, on this rather dreary Sunday at home, it’s DONE!

Now, to work out what I’m going to do for the next trip….

Christmas Journal 2013

I have emerged from the bomb site that is the journalling corner of my studio with a completed “masterpiece” at last.  I’m always keen to get it finished and move on, because once Christmas is over, I’ve had enough of it.  In addition, I find that I need to keep up with it if it is to stay “real”, because I forget all the small details after just a couple of days and it is those small details which make it special.

You might remember that I put the “bones” together in late October.  How efficient was that?!  Anyway, I’d seen a good idea for a kind of pocket construction and I thought I’d give it a go.

It’s quite chunky but that’s because there are spacers in the form of pony beads in between each page/pocket.  I thought this might be a good idea because my journals always end up bursting at the seams!

So, on the 1 December, I pulled one of the pockets out and created my first page.  Each day, I made some kind of design on the pocket, sometimes using Shimelle’s prompt as a focus, but often simply using something I’d come across which seemed to fit.  I used a 6x4 card for most of the actual journalling, usually printing out a full size photograph for the reverse side.  I attached a tab to each card and slotted it into the pocket.  I was also trying to keep this journal a bit different from the more everyday record I keep in my Project Life album not to mention what I record here on my blog.  I mean, how many times do I need to write, photograph or document the same old stuff?!

At this stage, I didn’t want to be messing up my spiffy covers so simply kept the finished pockets together with a pair of book rings.

Each day, I included a “playing card” design I’d made in Photoshop with the date on it and at least one gold star.  Otherwise, every pocket was different.

Today, having finished the last page, I began to put them together in the binding, carefully keeping everything in order – until I dropped the lot, that is!

Oh well, try again.  Only to find that, once in the binder, there were too many beads and the spine wasn’t wide enough.  How strange.  I thought I’d measured that bit.

All the pages came out again, as I removed a couple of beads at the front and the back of the pockets.  It was as well I was home alone, because I was getting pretty irritated by this stage!

This time, it fitted perfectly.  Phew.

Not only that, but the pages opened nicely, the pockets all worked well and the beads didn’t get in the way at all.

I’d worried a bit in case the plastic pockets I’d used to contain a few receipts and other ephemera were too wide, but this didn’t seem to matter.

And though I hadn’t worked out the tabs at all, they seemed to jolly along well together, too.

I couldn’t resist taking out this particular card out, “just to check”    We enjoyed watching North and South with Mary whilst she was here and were glad to find that Richard Armitage hasn’t lost his good looks in the intervening years.

So here it is, my Christmas Journal 2013, done.

I cut the binding tape long enough so that it can be used to tie the book closed too.  I’m not happy with the “2013” numbers though, so will probably redo those in a while.  I think I’ll rubber stamp it in black, to fit with the design.

I’ll repeat it on the spine too, I think.

Ta Dah!