That Was the Year That Was

Wow, what a year 2009 has been! So much great stuff happening and so much stuff that will stay with me for a long time. It was certainly a vast improvement on the pile of crap that 2008 was.

We started the new year in a positive way, with our best buddies Steve and Ally:

It was a great night after a really good Christmas; the perfect way to bring in a brand new year.

A few weeks later saw the first 'dream come true' events of the year: not 1 but 2 trips to see the mighty Metallica. The first gig was good but I was right at the back, however the 2nd was amazing as we were in spitting distance and they were fantastic! Still listen to the cd from that gig constantly!

April and May saw hen nights and weddings, namely that of my cousin Laura. If only PC World didn't still have my broken PC (after 5 weeks, grrr!) I could share pics. However, it was a gorgeous wedding with beautiful weather and lots of laughter with my family.

Event of the year had to be our holiday to this place:

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be holidaying in Antigua! And on top of all that, I got to see my only sister get married there:

Was definately an experience of a lifetime!

2009 also saw me complete my degree and go back to work; both big things in my life and putting me back on the road to not just being 'mum'!

Roll on to the end of the year and December has been all about these 2:

Christmas just has to be about the kids and do you know what? My kids deserved a good Xmas this year. They're both doing so well in everything and I'm very proud of them, they should have a great Xmas!

They certainly seemed to enjoy it anyway:

Christmas has also been filled with lots of family and friends, just the way it should be! OK, a little piggy reared it's ugly head too, but on the whole it was a good Xmas.

Then full circle to this week and Emily has seen out her year living her dream seeing Miley Cyrus in concert with her BFF Hattie:

What a great way to end a great year!

So, 2010? Who knows! We already have a few things coming up and this next year sees some big birthdays and anniversaries and there's at least 1 holiday already in there. Whatever, I just hope that 2010 is happy and healthy for us all!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! x

Earplugs At The Ready!

Ever wondered what a nearly 8-year-old sounds like when she finally gets to see her heroine in the flesh? Here goes:

Hey, I had 2 hours of that, imagine how my poor eardrums feel this morning!

Yesterday Emily and her BFF Hattie went to see Miley Cyrus in concert (and being only 8 years old, that also meant poor me and Hattie's mum Caron went to see Miley Cyrus in concert too!). The girls were all kitted out (thanks for the Xmas pressie Auntie Zo!) and ready to rock out:

The show was actually quite good. I ain't really a Miley fan; I used to think she was really good and a nice role model for the girls, but having seen a couple of interviews with her recently I'm not keen on the attitude on the girl. But hey, if I was a billionaire at 17 maybe I'd be the same!

However, the show was really good and the girls loved it so that's all that's important. It's not often at 8-years-old you get to live your dream, and seeing Miley in concert was Emily's so I'm glad she got to do that!.

For any Miley fans out there, here's a few pics:

Oh and just one point Miss Cyrus: there were a lot of mums at that concert, maybe a bit of an appearance from Billy Ray wouldn't have gone amiss?!

The Face Says It All!

For some reason I'm having trouble uploading a lot of our Xmas pics so I'll just upload this one; I think this sums up why all the months of planning for Xmas are worth it!

Just love that face. The excitement in the kids this year was unbelievable and it really made Christmas. Unfortunately I was still a little ill over Xmas: the swine flu had gone but the tamiflu made me feel really nauseous. So, the usual Christmas indulgences weren't meant to be. However, the kids had a wonderful time and we've had lots of family all around which is what Christmas is all about!

For today, we are cashing in those tickets that Emily is holding and going to see Hannah Montana herself in the flesh. Can my eardrums really take all that screaming?!

Don't Remember Asking Santa for This One...

I'm a bit confused. When I wrote to Santa this year, I asked for diamonds, holiday in the Carribean, a flat stomach and Brad Pitt dipped in chocolate! I don't however remember asking for bloody swine flu! I know Santa might be a generous old sole but I was fine with the original list thanks St Nick, could have really done without the extra!

JYC Catchup

So far behind with everything! here's JYC for 12th-19th:

Love This!

http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/5869ba93ca9e3573336e71dbfab405e6

Celebrating!

For those of you that don't know (and those who think I may not have mentioned it enough yet!), I got my degree results on Tuesday and it was a 2:1!! Woooooohooooo!!! I'm so pleased, can't stop smiling.

Anyway, in perfect timing style I had a night out planned yesterday with my crop friends so it was time for a bit of celebrating. We went out for a lovely meal and I got a lift so that I could have some celebratory drinks (on a school night aswell, tut tut!):

And what happened? Those lovely lovely girls from my crop got me a 'whole restaurant singing congratulations' type desserts! Bless them! I've never had that done to me before. As you can see I was very suprised but delighted:

Bless them!

Everyone had a lovely time. Susy (thanks for the lift hun) and Trina:

Hazel and Ali (and Ali was the sober one!):

But I think Kirsty may have eaten a tad too much!

Thanks for a wonderful night girls!

JYC Update

Quick JYC update. Sorry not much time to ramble; I'm hoping once this week's over I'll have more time to blog in a bit more length!

Tuesday's prompt was to get your camera and take images of the day. I decided to make a mini book within a page to display all my pics:

Book folded out:

Wednesday's prompt was about traditions. I scrapped about a new tradition we have this year of collecting Xmas baubles when we go away:

Thursday's prompt was a nice simple one. You had to stick some of your wrapping paper down and journal about wrapping:

Friday's was about the Xmas tree. I was at a crop yesterday so had a bit more time to go to town on this one, with fancy cut-out Xmas trees (Marie, I can feel you shuddering from here!):

Right, short but sweet! Have a good week everyone!

Love You!

Just had to share this picture that Marie sent me the other day. It's of her son Ewan and Emily having a big old love! Just love it when my kids love my friends' kids; makes you very warm and fuzzy inside!

Attila, Desmond, JYC, Halos and the Giant Jam Sandwich!

I'm a nervous wreck at the moment. Why? Well, a couple of weeks ago I got a letter from the university saying that I would have my degree results before 18th December; that's within the next 10 days! Every time I walk in the house I feel sick incase the postie's been. Then I will have the whole trauma of actually opening the envelope! It all rests now between Attila the Hun and Desmond Tutu!

Quick JYC update: here are days 5, 6 and 7. Prompt 5 was about the countdown to Christmas. I journalled about how I never understand these people that start telling you in September how many days it is til Xmas. To me, the countdown can start once the tree's up (which it is now Chez Gillard!); I've too much else to think about in September!

Prompt 6 was about Xmas memories. It was supposed to be about a good memory and bad memory but who wants to have a lasting reminder of the crap Christmases? So I decided to go with the memories of the kids' first Christmases. I also did my first acetate page:

Which meant a mirrored layout for Prompt 7. This was about organisation. I'm actually fairly well organised for the event itself, it's all my crafty stuff that's taken over. So, I've used this page to try and organise my Christmas projects so they're all done before the big day:

Prompt 8 is on hold as I've had a mad 'sh*t, every Argos is out of stock' moment on a couple of the kids' presents, so had a dash up to Toys R Us. 50% success rate with a good alternative on the other 50%!

I might have been able to do it earlier but I was sat making 16 halos:

It's my school's nativity and I'm in charge of sheep and angels! The sheep were done at the weekend (with expert cottonwool ball sticking by Em!) but tonight it was the turn of a stapler and 12m of tinsel! Carpet's a bit shiny now but at least they're all done!

Finally, I got a lovely piece of post today (no, not the Attila (would rather not have the Desmond!)). Last week they were clearing out our school library and I happened to spy this:

It was my favourite ever book as a kid and I haven't seen it for a good 25 years. So, onto t'Ebay I go and I only found an original version (printed in the year I was born!). Love it! Going to read it to the kids one bedtime and see if they too marvel at the giant loaf of bread!

Right, better pop off and try and make a dent in this To Do list!

JYC Day 3 & 4

I'm absolutely loving journalling my Christmas. the only problem is I'm spending hours doing it which doesn't bode well for the the weeks to come when it is decidely chaotic! Note to self: must scrap faster!

The 3rd Dec prompt was about Christmas cards. Although I do make some Xmas cards every year, I've done them differently this year and used some new crafty techniques, so I decided to journal about that:

And include a card in the journal too:

4th December prompt was to journal your perfect Christmas. Now, maybe log cabins on the side of a Swiss mountain should have sprung to mind, but to me, the whole chaotic Christmas is what it's all about and so to me, that's perfect! Our favourite Xmas film is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Apart from being hilarious, I just love how everything goes wrong in a way that you just know it could happen to you. But the whole dysfunctional family thing works to make a perfect Christmas, even with a bucketload of disasters!

Just sat now waiting for today's prompt then it's off for a lovely day and evening at Lisa and Andrew's cabin at the coast (with Lisa & Andrew and all our broods!), then home for treet trimming tomorrow! Yay!

Journaling My Christmas

Yes, that's right people, I am now officially using the C word! I actually relented on 1st December and finally started saying "Christmas" in full!

So, very excited about being able to do this at Christmas: Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas class. I've seen people do this before but never joined in. But finally I decided this was the year to give it a go. Of course I have the lurverly Mariek along with me, who's now a JYC veteran and has made me drool with her previous journals.

Anyhoo, every day there's a prompt from Shimelle with a theme for the day, so here are the first 2 (Dec 3rd's is half done but was just rudely interrupted by the Brownie run!). Dec 1st was to write a manifesto with your commitment to JYC. Mine's basically about recording the big things and little things about Christmas and having something to look back on in years to come:

Dec 2nd was about Christmas weather. As much as I'd have loved to scrap lovely snowy scenes, this is Englad and that doesn't really happen. So I scrapped the day's weather (er, cloud!) and how we always want the winter wonderland but never really get it in reality. Oooh and look at super new crafty stuff: Craft Robo'd and liquid appliqued fluffy clouds:

Watch this space for more Christmas musings!