Journalling A Very Shivery Christmas

So December is upon us and that means, amongst other things, one of my favourite Xmas projects: Journal Your Christmas. I took part for the first time last year and just loved doing it so was keen to do it again this year. The only trouble last year was it was so time consuming: I made my own album, made every page a different size, shape etc. So this year I decided to not stress and make it simpler, after all it's about writing about Xmas so the format shouldn't really matter. So, I bought myself a ready made album and made a promise to myself that I would stick to one page size all the way through!

Dec 1st's prompt was to write a manifesto about what your Xmas was going to be. Mine had one main word: SIMPLE! For too many years I've been tired or ill or run-down at Xmas because I've taken on way too much, so this year it's about simplicity both in general Xmas stuff and my crafting. You may get a handmade card this year but you may get a shop bought one, it doesn't really matter as long as I send you a card does it? And am I really going to get people walking out at Xmas dinner because the stuffing's Paxo rather than a home made one?! And do you know what, as much as I'm sure my friend's kids love knitted/sewn toys, are they really going to complain about one bought from Argos? Nope! So why make it hard on myself? There will be some home made cards and some home made gifts, but there will also a lot more things purchased in the old fashioned way (oh and the new fashioned way, god bless Amazon!).

 

Day 2 was all about the weather. Oh how I laughed when I looked back at last year's entry  and saw how I talked about how we rarely get snow, what a difference a year makes! Obviously yesterday's entry just had to be about snow. This year as well there's an extra prompt in the JYC class that focuses on photography. As my photography could do with vastly improving I thought I'd have a go. So the 1st prompt was about the rule of thirds so I took a pic using this with my picture focusing on the hanging basket covered in snow in the left upper third:

And just to emphasise the point of how chilly it is, last night was one of the coldest nights for a long time, down to -9C here. This was my car this morning:

Very pretty but that ice was on the INSIDE and took forever to clear!

Right, off to today's entry which is to do with the aforementioned cards. I have a plan, it's just dragging my bum into that freezing cold conservatory to do it!