trimmingthesails

December Days 16 -19

Oh my goodness, it that really the date? Thank-you so much for all your good wishes and beautiful cards, and just to reassure you that we do now have heating and all is well :). And it has been lovely, touching and a privilege to read so many Simple Moments from all corners of our world, each telling such a multi-layered story. Thank-you for being so willing to open a window onto yours ...

I was going to say that there wasn't much to say about life up here at present but if the truth be known, there is just too much to say! so I will simply leave you with a flavour of this last week in my Book of December Days.

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Wishing a happy and hopefully not too busy time over the next day or so. Anyone hanging up a stocking this year?

Simply A Moment (December 12)

Hello, and glad you could visit! This is my Simply A Moment for December ...

If you feel like joining in, it would be lovely to read your moments too - do feel free to add your link below ... Hoping the weekend is treating you kindly and there is a moment or two somewhere to catch your breath :).

December Days 8 and 13

DAY 8
Hello and welcome! I am hoping the pictures today speak (rather less than) a thousand words - I suspect you'd have little time to read them, if your days are anything like mine! Day 8 is in the album ...

The design is as Day 9 but reversed, with additional journalling space - there's just never enough room to write ...

Behind the flap lies the rest of the journalling:
"Dearest grandson number 1. I loved: our game of footie under the breakfast table, the way he gave his Mum (and anyone else) a yellow card when he was cross; his ability to compromise - his newest phrase is “OK, I’ve changed my mind”; his pleasure, in his swimming lesson, when he had the courage to jump in without the instructor’s helping hand; the way he called “Did you see, Grandma? I’m very proud of me!

Dearest grandson number 2: it was delightful listening to him repeat words when we were reading (like ‘slimy’); such fun singing songs like Incy Wincy Spider with actions and seeing him copy us; being a little wary at table when he looked thunderous and quickly moving everything out of his way; watching him eat Start like there was no tomorrow (which when you’re nearly two is probably true!).

Me: recorder of events, player of games, reader, tidy-upper, just happy to be there."

DAY 13
A trifle tardy in tackling Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas, I was taken with today's prompt about the weather, what it was like where we each live, or what we might hope for ...

You may be feeling too frantic to even think about taking a moment to simply catch your breath and note what is around and within: but on Saturday the 15th, I will be enjoying Simply A Moment and you are most welcome to join me. If this is new to you, I hope these links will be helpful:

• From Blurry to Clear (14 September): the original post
• Simply A Moment Prompt (15 September): a pdf of tips and ideas
• September's Simply a Moment
• October's Simply A Moment
• November's Simply A Moment

This cold snap, may there be warmth in your woollies and something hot in your hand! (Old Irish blessing.) And if you're a lovely blog-reader in the southern hemisphere, may there be coolness in your cottons, and something chilled to press against your cheek :). See you soon?

Working backwards ...

 ... possibly. Sounds like a crossword clue! Having been away, there's a lot to catch up on - both for myself and with all of you and your news. I thought I'd work backwards to fill the gaps. It was the 10th when I started on the 9th in my Book of December Days, and now suddenly it's the 12th. I'm not quite sure what happened, but here is a glimpse ... 

Heading back in the direction of hybrid clean and simple, I couldn't resist a bit of The Real Thing, especially when it tasted so good ...

To help my addled brain, I've hoicked out my pdf. Jump Start Journalling with a List from this time last year, with a download below in case it's of use to you ...

Download JumpStartJournalling pdf

So ... that only leaves days 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12 then - not to mention Simply a Moment on the 15th. Anyone prepared to lend a TIme Travel Machine? Hoping you are all well, and looking forward to visiting you all very soon :).

 

Winging it ... (December Days 3 and 4)

Swooping in on the wing for a brief 'Hi, how are you, my blog friends?' Not easy right now to get time on the computer so my scrapbooking is of the paper and scissors sort, in little pockets of five minutes here, ten minutes there. Day 3 was inspired by an art journal page I once saw, but I am not sure I like the result. In the interests of full disclosure (as they say in journalistic circles) and just so you can see I can do duff pages with the best of them, here it is ...

Though I have the prompts for this year's Journal Your Christmas class with Shimelle, we are still very unChristmassy here, so my December Day 4 is more of a quick reminder of a few bits and pieces. I might have been better just to have written, as DH used to in his childhood diaries "nothing happened today"!

The next few will be digital and completed next week - for today, Friday, I am off to have a day and a half with my lovely son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. One thousand five hundred miles may seem a long way to go for such a brief visit but I am taking any chance I can get! The digital templates are prepared and ready for photos to be dropped in on my return, and I will make journalling notes when I am there. Right, off to hide before the Clean and Simple police come to find me ... :). Hope to see you next week?

Day 2 (December Days 2012)

Can I be the only one who feels that December is whizzing by faster than any other month? Could time actually be speeding up? And how would we know? All of this was whirling round in my head on Day 2 of my Book of December Days. Along with a love affair with the floral fabric tape ...

It's a three-layered page: the front with two photos, an inside spread with eight photos (see above), and an additional private journalling pocket underneath, accessed by pulling The Back Story tab (see below) ...

Not quite keeping pace, but hoping I'm not the only one. Gotta go - just seen half-an-hour zipping past. If I'm quick I might just catch it ...

The back-to-front and other stories ...

"I can't get to sleep, Grandma", said the little voice dolefully on the other end of the phone. "Daddy said I could ring you for a bit". His voice tailed off uncertainly. "Of course you can" I replied, settling into Himself's work chair. "Have you had a story yet?"
"Lots" came the reply. "Lots and lots. Daddy says his story-reading place is full up now". Himself and I smiled at each other. "Mmm, that can happen sometimes", I said. "Would you like me to read you one?" Himself reached forward and lifted down from the shelf behind me our well-worn copy of one of Rev. Awdry's classics.
"Could we have a train one? About James The Red Engine?" came the eager voice."And can you wait a minute? I'm coming back". We waited. Himself picked up the camera.
"I'm here again" he said, a little breathless."I just needed to get onto the sofa".
"Are you comfy now?" I asked.
"Yes", he said. "And I've got wiggly toes".
"Oh my goodness", I replied, "we'd better get going! Can you make the noise of the whistle blowing?" And off we went. His Dad's voice interrupted me half-way through story number three. "Brilliant, Mum, he's fast asleep - thank-you! I'm just going to pop him into his bed ..."

And that's the back story to my page below today: printed out, tucked in at the back and held in place by the page protector. Building a stack of patterned paper behind a photo has been a prompt in Shimelle's Remix class, and my November reflection for Ali Edwards' One Little Word seemed a good place to experiment ...

Sometimes, a page can hold much more than just one story: there might be three here. Possibly four if I were to add The-Inking-of-Edges-And-The-Carpet saga ... :)

Simply A Moment (November 12)

 Hello and welcome to this month's Simply A Moment! Thank-you for popping in today ...

If you'd like to share your own post, please do enter your link to your blog right here (open for two weeks). We look forward very much to visiting :).

 

Just another ...

onday morning - hello!  This week, according to my diary, will be bringing its fair share of things beginning with M: meetings (the service I work in is being disbanded in March and we are facing unemployment) with concomitant misery for me and my (not so) merry band of comrades ...

h my goodness, I'd completely forgotton that I'd signed up for Shimelle's Scrapbook Remix and it starts today; if I haven't made any inroads into my eight boxes of patterned paper by the time class is over, I'll be offering the lot to the first of you who wants it. (Until you discover how old most of it is).

ot a happy pumpkin painter. Acrylics went on like a dream. Then I thought I'd scratch through for a distressed look. Wow, it wasn't orange underneath - it was black! Was this some new chemical reaction? Peeled off most of the paint excitedly before remembering this one was originally a dark green squash.

owton Abbey: how on earth did I miss the first series? I am not often hooked by television, but this has me gripped. if you are still waiting for it (I used to feel the same about the new series of Friends!), get out your shoes with a bow, silk sash for your hips and a fetching cloche. Oh, and a hanky. (Lace, naturally).

pologies for not yet having the Linky for Simply A Moment: it needs Paypal which requires a verification process which demands a bank manoeuvre which involves a three-day wait - you get the picture. This should be under M for Moan. (Or C for Cranky - see below). Wonderful to read so many Moments :).

oga, Pilates, Yogalates (no, I didn't make that up), Tone Yourself, The Exercise Book for Scrapbookers: I've got 'em all. Isn't it funny how just reading about exercise makes you feel fitter? Any day now, my toe is going to reconnect with my nose. Virtually speaking. (Sorry, I lied about the Exercise for Scrapbookers.)

My hitherto unsuspected Inner Crank has been romping round my psyche and (oh dear) cranking out birds. Himself has a message he wants me to pass on to you: Aimiable and amenable Alexa appears to have gone AWOL. If you see her out there somewhere, please send her home ASAP ...

Dressing up ...

Dressing up, said Sian: that's the theme for stories this month on Story Telling Sunday. I don't remember any dressing up, really, I mused, as I unfolded the covering around the pile of family linen which Mum had given me to 'look after' a few months ago before her operation. Perhaps I'll have to give Sian's wonderful feature a miss this month: I really need to work out how best to store all these lovely pieces ... And as I lifted and shook out the table- and tray-cloths, sheets, pillow-cases and pyamas bags, admiring the fine needlework and beautiful embroidery (some of them done by my very talented Mum), I realised that though there wasn't much 'dressing up' of people, we certainly did a lot of dressing up in other ways. "`Even just tatties (potatoes) and butter" Mum used to say "taste best on a well-dressed table". And she was a real expert: a handful of wild flowers in a glass, a crisp white table runner and napkins, and it didn't matter that it was only lentil soup again. Then right at the very bottom, wrapped in cotton, I found this ...

And there, in Mum's handwriting, was a tag explaining it was either for a bed or a large table. Why didn't she know, I wondered? I don't remember this heavily and richly embroidered cloth. Just as I was folding it up again, admiring the wonderful variety of stitches, the tag flipped over and there, on the back, was the story. Mum had written a message:

"This bed spread/or tablecloth was given to Grandma Lindsay by staff of Thomas Somersett's linen business, where she worked, as a wedding gift. NB It was her wish that Alexa should have it after Jack". (Jack is my Dad).

I smiled through the tears: Mum found a way of making sure that it, and its story, would reach me. Grandma Lindsay had, I knew, worked in a linen factory in Belfast, though I hadn't known its name. She had loved it, being very sad to have to leave when she married - the rule in those days, almost a hundred years ago now.

I am not sure that I will ever have the courage to use this wonderful piece, but I will be treasuring the tag as much as the embroidered linen itself. You'll see that it was tied on with ribbon: Mum dressed even the simplest and humblest item beautifully ... I was going to say "And that's my story for today", but it is, in truth, much more my grandmother's story and - most of all - my Mum's.