Merry Christmas!!

Here we are, Christmas Eve and I can hardly believe that the year is nearly over and we only have one more sleep till Santa comes! Its been such an amazing year what with the arrival of our fur babies in the Spring, Jack's fab Summer in Canada and our wedding almost 2 months ago, we have been so very happy and I can do nothing more than wish the same for everyone else this Christmas.
We are having a houseful of family tomorrow, Mums and Dads, Aunties, Uncles and Cousins - exactly how I like it! I can't think of anything nicer than a house full of love and laughter on Christmas day, all the chatter and activity creates a great atmosphere and I love having everyone I care about around me. We're going for the usual turkey and all the trimmings, a real waistband buster and the only way to go as far as our family is concerned. We've been prepping all day so we have the minimum of stress tomorrow and can just relax and have fun (and take loads of photos of course!).
This year we've decided to focus on what is really important - its going to be all about family and not so much about gifts. In fact Dave and I aren't going to get each other presents at all, we got each other amazing gifts for our wedding and we have everything we could really need. Like many people we've cut back a bit this year and I bet we have an even better time - the family are all doing a secret Santa with a £5 budget and there are some hilarious gifts due to be exchanged - I am so looking forward to this!!
So with the snow trying to fall again and with a glass of mulled wine close at hand, I wanted to wish everyone a wonderful and happy Christmas.

Kit #2 for December

The second kit fof December uses the fab and retro looking 'Jolly by Golly' line in non-traditional colours of pink and aqua with dashes of red and green. The sample page has been very kindly designed by Jackie and she had so much left over she was able to create a second page with just an additional sheet of cream cardstock. Jackie picked up on the Wintry elements in the kit and used snowy photos on both pages, the great thing about this line is you can either go snowy or Christmassy, whatever you have photos for!

The kit includes; cardstock, 4 sheets of double sided patterned paper and a whole 12x12 pack of adhesive chipboard elements.

While the kit does not include instructions for Jackie's second page she has very kindly agreed that it be included on the instruction sheet so you can see what she did - thanks hun!!

Kit 1 for December

Our first kit for December is in the traditional red and green colourway that immediately makes you think of Christmas. The gorgeous double page has been designed by the very talented Tracey from our Essex club and is great for getting loads of Chrustmas photos onto one page!
The kit comes with 4 sheets of cardstock, 4 double sided patterned papers, an accessory sheet, adhesive crystals, paper shape templates and red twill. There is plenty left over if you fancy making a few cards or even another layout, you may just need to add a bit of cardstock.
I'm starting to feel a bit Christmassy just looking at this layout - thanks Tracey!!

Just married!

As many of you know, a couple of weeks ago Dave and I flew off together to the beautiful island of Mauritius to get married. We wanted a very personal and private ceremony that focused on what was important to us rather than what we felt was all the nonsense of cars, wedding favours, table plans etc that seem to go along with the 'traditional' weddings here at home. So we booked a gorgeous hotel in a stunning part of the island and had a simple beach wedding that was incredibly romantic and very 'us'!
Just the two of us went which was lovely and romantic but I have to be honest, I really would have loved for our three children to have come along with us. Every day I thought about them and how much they would have loved everything but we had decided that if they couldn't all come then we would go alone (and Dave's children would not have been supported or encouraged to come). We missed them all terribly and to make things harder Dave could not even talk to his children while we were away. That said, this was the only black cloud in our otherwise sunny skies and my Jack was thrilled at the prospect of our wedding - in fact he sent me a text telling me to have a great time and to bring him a Step-Dad back!!
Planning and organising a wedding abroad was so relaxed and easy, I just had to come to terms with the laid-back attitude in Mauritius! We could have practically anything we wanted and so we were able to tailor-make our wedding to suit us individually rather than have a 'cookie-cutter' day. Plus, we were the only wedding to take place at the hotel in the entire fortnight we were there! I did have concerns about our wedding being one of many on a conveyor belt but one of the reasons for selecting our hotel was the fact that they only hold one wedding a day to make sure that they could put all of their effort into each wedding. But in the end we were the only wedding in a fortnight and so practically became mini celebrities amongst the staff and guests with everyone recognising us!
Dave looked so handsome on our wedding day, in fact I almost broke down when I caught my first glimpse of him waiting for me at the top of the steps to the beach - he took my breath away! I had an amazing day, I felt beautiful and was so proud to be marrying Dave, something that I can see that shining out of our wedding photos. I was smiling so widely I thought I was going to burst with happiness! I am happy to report that that feeling hasn't gone away since - I am carrying around my very own bubble of happiness and can't stop smiling!
We had an incredible honeymoon but the fun stuff didn't stop there. We had a beautiful blessing in my local church when we got home followed by a fab wedding reception! We planned things so well that we even managed to 'borrow' the huge firework display that night which just happened to be in front of our restaurant on the beach!
So many people commented to us that they had never been to such a great wedding reception - the venue was stunning, the food was phenomenal and our entertainer was brilliant and incredibly good fun (and what more could you ask for??). The highlight for me was my Jack's speech - he had come up with it all by himself and spoke from the heart and it was perfect (even if his impromptu singing wasn't!! LOL!!). We had a great time and just want to thank everyone who came for giving us one of the best night's of our lives!
So now its down to the business of settling into being Mrs Anderson - new wife and Step Mum! Who knows what the future holds for us but all I do know is that it will be filled with lots of love and laughter!

Anyway, does anyone have any idea how long it will take me to scrap 2000 photos??!!! I have a feeling it'll be a while!!

Kit #2 for November

Claire has designed a gorgeous second kit for November using the My Little Shoebox 'Imagine a Forest' line. I love how Claire isn't afraid to use unusual colours on boy pages and makes them work - so for those of us surrounded by guys we have no excuses this month!

The kit includes cardstock, 2 double sided patterned papers, a die-cut shaped paper, a 12x12 pack of die-cuts and a glaze pen. The design uses one 6" x 4" portrait photo and two 3"x4" potrait pics. You will also need to pop some 3d foam pads into your tool kit - but thats about all you will need!

Kit #1 for November

Kit 1 for November uses the new Earth Love line from Cosmo Cricket in soft greens, creams and browns with a touch of dusty pink. The gorgeous double page sample layout has been designed by Claire F who is an extremely popular teacher at our crops and we are very grateful that she has agreed to design both of the November kits for us!

The kit contains cardstock, 3 double sided patterned papers, a 12x12 sheet of double sided journaling cards & titles, a 12x12 sheet of double sided borders and title strips and a length of luxurious May Arts ribbon (this is definitely one for stroking!!). You will need a 5" x 7" and two 6" x 4" potrait photos for this design and you will need to pop a creamy brown inkpad and a scalloped border punch into your toolkit together with some double-sided tape and 3d foam pads.

Keep checking here for November's kit #2................................

More for your money this month!

At the Kent club last night Claire B brought along not only the sample page that she had made with kit #2 but also this additional page which she had made using all of her leftovers from the kit. I loved it so much that I asked if she would mind sharing it with everyone and she very kindly agreed! With some careful positioning of her template in the centre of the cream cardstock when she made her first page she was able to make this gorgeous page with the addition of just a few scraps of ribbon and some flowers from her stash. She used some of the lush Martha Stewart punches to create the punched and embossed decorative strips and reused the chipboard leaves from kit #1 as a template. Now that is budget scrapping at its very best!!
Claire very proudly showed off the small handful of diecuts and bits of patterned paper she had left even after all this creativity, no doubt she will found something else to use them for by the time I see her next!!
Now I thought that our kits were fab value but with 2 meaty pages out of just one of the 2 kits available each month, this has to be one of the best ways to stretch the scrapbooking pennies!!