Challenge YOUrself December

So it's December :) Predictably the challenge this month over at Challenge YOUrself is to create a layout with a holiday theme. This can be Christmas, Thanksgiving, anything you like!

Now I did this layouts back in May for National scrapbooking day. At the time December seemed such a long way away, doesn't seem two minutes ago now. Think its an age thing, the older you get, the more time speeds up.

So this layout I did with last Christmas' Like forever kit. I loved the muted colours and the shaped sequins. Looking at it now I want to pull the flair off the top left hand corner of the photo but oh well!
Do you ever look back at old layouts and want to change them? Do you or do you just shrug your shoulders like I do and think 'It's done now'?

Getting there :)

Today was a busy day, but productive so I'm happy :)
We got a bit of money in so went to town to buy the LAST Christmas gift on the list. Yes, the LAST, I'm not buying anymore! (anybody believe me?) I had some points on my Costa card thanks to all the boosts they've done over the past few months so treated ourselves to coffee and cake.

I also finished and delivered a couple of Christmas decorations I've been making. Remember the roses I keep moaning about? Well this is what they were for.

My Granny was thrilled so was worth the hours of cutting, gluing and rolling paper.
Next was the blocks for my Mum. She saw something like this online months ago but it was really expencive so she asked me to make one. I bought the wood and the chair from Facebook, painted and decorated and this was the result.

Simple enough but she likes it. Just got to finish the one I'm doing for Gran and I will only have 2 gifts left to make!
The to do list is getting shorter people! Woohoo!

Crafting

In my tote are my kits, not my new Like forever ones, the ones I've had for far longer than I care to admit.
So I had the 'bright' idea of pulling out the last two Christmas kits I had in the and combining them into one MEGA kit.

There were a few more bits in there than I thought *hangs head*
Luckily Like for ever are doing a daily prompt on the Facebook page. As well as taking a photo relating to the prompt I've challenged myself to do a layout a day based on it too.
This might start to be a bit more of a challenge the closer we get to the 25th but we'll see. I've set it all up for easy use and I've cut quite a few embellishments and backgrounds on my Silloeutte too to help.

As we're on the 5th, I have actually done a couple already (go me!) but true to form I haven't photographed them yet. Something to look forward to I'm sure ;)
Taking bets on how much stash will still be left on my desk on January 1st. All of it? Half of it? Most of it and more I've added over the days because I'm dreadful like that?
Yeah I think the last one too.

Lincon market

Every year my Mum, Gran and I visit a Christmas market. We started at York (hated it, it was HEAVING) then Birmingham (loved it, went two years in a row) but this year we fancied a change and visited Lincoln.
Beautiful city, and while it was busy it wasn't overly busy iykwim. The cathedral was amazing, it was actually quite dizzying looking up at it.

Girly selfie :)

So all the stalls there, I bought a waffle, cakes, pies, fudge, sausage rolls, cheese; so lots of food! lol. It wasn't all food though, I also bought a couple of decorations for the tree, and these two little bowls.

I bought some of these when I was in Spain for embellishments and wished I bought more. I've seen them for sale in this country but they were too pricey. These however were only £2 each so a bargain!
Must admit I'm exhaused today, so looking forward to a quieter few days. Fx anyway as we all know my life, lol.

Party time :)

Its that time again, Christmas party time!!! Star was obviously in the party mood and brought along a dish for the kids to enjoy. Wish she had cleaned up a bit after herself though.

Amazingly enough, reindeer poop is really yum! May need to make it again sometime ;)

So like I said, today was our annual Christmas party. As usual I forgot to take many photos, but the kids had a great time :)
The theme this year was Crafty Christmas. We decorated cookies, painted plant pots to plant little Christmas trees and made salt dough ornaments. I was surprised how nice the things the kids made were! Usually when I do crafting with groups of kids its all kind of shoved together but they really thought about what they were doing and the pots turned out lovely!

Poor photo but the best one I got. First proper Christmas event done!

Short hair!!

Caitlin loves her hair. It takes ages to convince her its time to get a trim because she seems to think I'm going to strap her to the chair and have the hairdresser shave her head.
Her hair is beautiful, thing is it gets knotted easily, she won't let me plait it or do anything with it and moans if I even suggest a pretty bobble or something. So you can imagine my surprise and joy when she sat in the chair and asked the hairdresser to cut it short!

There were a couple of tears after she saw it the first time but she loves it now. Makes her look more grown up and will be much easier to manage. Happy Mummy and happy Caitlin :)
Yesterdays prompt on Like for ever December daily was advent, I'm hoping to do a layout a day based on the prompt so used this photo of Cam and Cait with the calenders from wayyyyy back in 2013. Tomorrow is 'to do list' so that should be interesting. :)

I didn't get a photo of what Star did this morning, but whatever training CIA agents have, it should include trying to change bedding while the kids are sleeping.

December!

It's the first of December!!!! Always exciting around here. Start of Advent calendars, Christmas events, and Star!
First is my advent calender. I have a chocolate one, obviously, but I also took part in a swap on Facebook were we made little envelopes of craft items, sent it to someone who mixed them all up and sent them back so we have a surprise each day.

Day one was this little bag of die cuts and some bunting. Can't wait to use them :)

The other big deal is obviously Star came back! The kids were so excited. I thought they'd have grown out of it a little by now but nope.
She always brings breakfast on the first day, nothing healthy, so hot chocolate, a huge cookie and crumpets fitted the usual menu. ;)

Kids all shipped off to school Mark and I went to the movies! We recently got a CLA card so I can go cinema free with him and a limitless card for Mark so its seriously cheap to go now. If we go once a week it works out cheaper than buying a cup of coffee each!
Marks depression had started to get overwhelming again and a big part of that is the fact he rarely leaves the house, so a weekly trip to the cinema will hopefully help with that.

Fantastic beasts and where to find them, AMAZING film!
So movie over, home for Mark to go to bed and me to snuggle up on the couch with a shivering pug. That dog is not built for any form of extreme weather.

So December is off to a brilliant start. Hopefully its a sign of good things to come ;)