The most crazy time of year

So how many of you have decided to add an extra workload of things to do during this busy holiday season?

"Me! I have! I'm crazy!"



Yes, I'm talking about December Daily! I wantd to do this last year, but decided I just didn't have the time to go about it. Quite why I figured I would have the time this year, what what an 8 month old and also being back at work full time, I will never know. With it being Riley's first Christmas, I have been trying hard to make it fun for us all this year and so want to have it documented!

Anyway, my kit got delivered months ago and I had so many ideas buzzing through my head completly unsure of which to go with. Because of this, it just sat there in my Raskog, destined to collect dust. It wasn't until the week before December I decided I had better get into action and just go for it.

I think the reason I struggle to get anything done is because I over think and analyse things, I like making things much more complicated than they have to be, and it is a huge problem! I figured the only way I will be able to do December Daily is if I stop over complicating things, and go back to the simple!

So thats what I did...Simple cover, and simple front page created in only a couple hours.

I embossed the "December" chipboard figure from Studio Calico's 25 Days class kit in Silver (my colour this year. I can't really abide gold...and I know a lot of people will gasp at that comment, but I have always been a silver type of gal!) and adehered it to the middle of the cover.

I currently have a huge problem and am addicted to Mama Elephant stamps, and I have a love for penguins, so obviously these stamps were used on the front cover too. I filled them in with Copic markers and fussy cut before positioning and sticking them to the album. To bring out some of the pretty stars on the cover, I (badly) embossed a few of them in silver too. Added some finishing touches with some glitter tape and twine and we were good to go!

The cover page was another extremley easy touch for me. I used one of Studio Calicos cut files from last year, punched a few circles from patterned paper and made some little gifts under the tree from washi tape and some twine.

Keeping up with documenting December however, had been harder than I imagined. I am trying to get caught up so I can complete this album in time for the new year, this is not something I would care to be completing this time next year.

I will be back with some of my completed pages soon!


 

My foray into something new!

Well, hello and welcome! My first blog post...woweee! 

I live in Dundee, Scotland with my boyfriend of three years; Kevin and our baby son Riley. I have become a very obsessed first time mummy, I never thought I would snap a picture everytime he happened to move!

                                             

                                                         Me and my other half at his graduation

I am definetly a bit slow in getting into blogging, I've read many many blogs, but never felt I have had anything to talk about on one.

Last year certainly would have been a good time to start, I started my dream job, lots of travelling and then shortly afterwards found out I was pregnant. I kept thinking to myself that I needed to blog the glorious time that is pregnancy, but something always got in the way. Well that, and the fact that I found pregnancy to not actually be all that glorious after all. I was not one of those lucky people that glowed...no. I had baaaad SPD, kidney problems and numerous other problems. If I had of started a blog, I think i mainly would have complained and scared everyone off!

Then I figured I would start the blog after the baby was here, after all, I was surely going to have time to sit down and update people on my baby's first smile, how happy and content he constantly was, and sharing pictures of him in my perfectly pristine house. Ha. How niave I was! Those first few months showed me the true reality of being a mother! The piles of washing in front of the washing machine, the numerous changes of clothes in even two hours thanks to a refluxy baby, the late night covering of sick patches on the sheets in bed with towels cause I was just too exhausted to change them. Ah, those days of newborn! Then as time went on I slowly got into a routine, and now, here I am - 6 months later, only just starting to do what I've been meaning to for so long.

Next month, when I return to work, I will be going back to what was my "dream job." I work in Business Improvement using Lean and Six Sigma techniques to find problems with the way the company works and implementing programs and changes to improve things. Its no easy feat, but one I found very rewarding. I like a challenge! It's also a job which had me travelling - a lot. Not something which I expect to be doing much of when I go back, but I got as far afield as India for 10 days which was amazing!

                                         

                                                        Outside Ghandi's house in Mumbai

Pastimes

Going to the gym used to be my favourite hobby. I also used to run 5K three times a week, but from about five months pregnant I was pretty much rendered useless with SPD and had to give it up. I will admit that I possibly made my SPD worse due to pushing it at the gym to try and run past the pain...not one of my more clever moments really! Anyway, I have been trying to get back into my running, but have been really finding it difficult to get back into a routine after such a long break.

I also used to be a keen scrapbooker after a trip to Florida when I was 17, but when work started getting crazy busy it ended up taking a back seat, leaving me with a huge stash! I got back into it when I was pregnant and looking for ways to document my pregnancy and the first year of my sons life. This got me into smashbooks as I loved the simplicity of it, and then project life - this has become the new love in my life. Easy peasy simple scrapbooking!

Anyway, thats your lot for today! I'll just include a picture of me and the little one that seems to have been talked about an awful lot already on two posts! 

                                                                   

                                                                     Me and my little boy

Welcome to my blog, I do hope you stay a while :)