Crafty Picks of 2013

Hi All

We've had a bit of a lazy day today....did a little but of cleaning earlier and double checked my hospital bag (as I've been a bit uncomfortable with cramps etc over the past few days!) which is all ready to go!

So, today I thought I'd share some of my crafty makes from 2013 which seems to be doing the rounds on the blogs at the mo. I will try to limit it to my top 5 so as not to bore you silly! Then I said I'd go and make some homemade sausage rolls...I say homemade but it just consists of rolling out the ready made pastry and chopping up the sausages lol! My main baking day was this time last week!

Anyway, this has definitely been the year of SMASHing and scrapbooking for me. I have made very few cards and am really enjoying making something that I know I will be able to keep and treasure. I am very excited to try and start Project Life this year to document our little ones first year (and our first time into the life of parenthood!)

My first favourite of 2013 then is this scrapbook page which marked a new kind of style for my scrapbooking. No longer was it 'get as many elements on the page as I could,' it was now more minimal with the focus being the photograph. This is a picture of the hubby and I in Canada which was a fab holiday we went on in 2012.

My second favourite of the year was a page in my red doodle SMASH book of myself and my two friends from school. I really enjoyed making this and loved the colour scheme-I thought it went really well with the outfits of my friends! Lol! I love SMASHing, which I call 'messy scrapbooking!' There are no rules and anything goes!

 

 

My third project to share with you is another scrapbook page, this time with hidden journaling! This has become a bit of a theme in my scrapping since as sometimes all of the details I like to keep private from everybody but still want to be able to read myself in the future. I got this particular idea from someone on YouTube....so much inspiration!

 

 

 

My fourth project is another scrapbook page of our trip to Canada. I was really chuffed that this page was featured in DoCrafts Creativity magazine! It is the first time I have ever had anything 'published' in a magazine. I loved the DoCrafts travel range that came out earlier in the year, it was perfect to document our trip. I really need to make a full scrapbook though of events, rather than have odd pages! Lol! Maybe that could be a New Year's Resolution!

 

 

 

My fifth and final project to share has got to be another page in my red doodle SMASH page which documents an extremely exciting time for us, me finding out I was pregnant! I really enjoyed making this page and know that I will enjoy reading the journaling in the years to come. Even though another close favourite was my 30 before 30 page, this one had to make the top five with it being so important to us. Hope you like it!

 

 

Well, that's it for today. Hope you enjoyed looking at my crafty projects and if you'd like to see more of them, you can find them at Arline's Scrapping Good Time. I'm not sure at the moment whether I will keep this blog open or put everything in this one....will have to have a think! I am hoping that I will be able to find some time to still craft, even with a newborn!

 

I'll be back tomorrow with my New Year's Resolutions! Thanks for looking!

 

Hugs

Arline

xx

 

P.S. Apologies for the different size piccies....blogger seems to be playing up today!

Favourite Christmas Gifts

Hi All

I was truly spoilt at Christmas....it took the hubby and I ages to open everything and we were thankful for everything that we were bought. Even baby has got a few pressies here for them when they make an appearance! I know that the purpose and meaning of Christmas is not the materialistic element but I thought I'd share some of my favourite gifts. I hope you don't mind, I enjoy looking at what other people received so thought I'd share something of a similar nature!

One of my more technological pressies was a fab camcorder from my hubby. With baby coming along, I really wanted to be able to record just simple videos of them as a child. I have never owned one before so he assures me it is a simple one! I may also have a go at filming and posting some videos on the internet...I hate the sound of my own voice though so they may just be ones with music and captions....at least to start with anyway! Here is the camcorder I have been bought, it is super light which is great and I will keep you up to date with how easy it is to use:

Another one of my hobbies is collecting Charlie teddy bears. They are super cute and my Mum bought me a new one for Christmas. He is such a lovely old fashioned style of bear....super cute! My collection is currently sitting on the top of our sofabed in the nursery....I may need to find another storage place! This is the beautiful bear that I received:

 

 

Another lovely gift that I received was a stunning five year Jane Austen journal that my mother-in-law bought for me. It has a different quotation from Austen or one of her books on each day and has a small space to write just a small note about the day. I have decided that I am going to turn it into my Gratitude journal, where I write down one thing each day that I am thankful of or that had happened that day which was positive. I have seen lots of people having a go at this and I thought I'd like to try as it is really easy to get bogged down with the negative things on a regular basis! Here it is....got to find a nice pen to go with it....shouldn't be a problem with my obsession with stationery:

I turned 30 this year and so had a 30 before 30 list....some of which were completed! Others I am going to continue to work on during my 30th year! One of them was to purchase a 'designer item.' I had saved quite a bit of money to buy a bag or purse but then baby came along so the money had to be used elsewhere (of course this was a much greater gift than a designer something) but my sister knew that I would still like something designer. So, she surprised me at Christmas with a beautiful Dior Nail Varnish set in such stunning colours. Very excited about using this:

I received some wonderful gifts and there are far too many to give them all justice here but the one that made me cry (yes I'm a hormonal mess lol!) was a gift from my Mum which was a frame with our scan pictures in and the design matches our nursery theme. I will take a piccie at some point as I'd like to do a tour of the nursery for you so will make sure I show you this then!

Those are my top picks. I'm sure that at various times of the year I will end up showing you various of other items that I received! I would love to see and hear about some of your favourite gifts. Leave me a comment and link below if you'd like to share!

Thanks for looking.
Hugs
Arline
xx

A New Year, A New Adventure and of course, A New Blog!

Hi All

Well we are almost at the end of 2013 and what better way to look at the new year by beginning a new blog for all of my little adventures!

I decided to try out a brand new blog rather than continue with Arline's Allsorts (although I couldn't close it down just in case!) I'm beginning a very scary but wonderful new adventure, hopefully in the new year if dates are correct! We are about to be parents...due date is 11th January! I thought as I'm going to be off on maternity leave and experiencing this for the first time, I would try to blog about it! (Time allowing with a new baby in the house!)

I am still planning on documenting my crafting projects, in particular Project Life which I am hoping to begin in 2014! And continuing to organise things in general! Firstly, I will need to get used to organising myself and baby I think! Lol! I am also hoping to review any books that I have read...I've had loads for Christmas so best get reading, and am going to try and commit to blogging about something at least once a week. Of course, for the first few weeks after baby is born I may go a little AWOL but then I'm hoping to keep myself on track.

I'm determined to blog more this year.....hubby has even bought me a camcorder so I may even venture into some videos.....but this is definitely going to be my main new year's resolutions this year....more on this to follow!

So, this is my cozy corner in cyberland that I hope will be of some interest to you. I will try and post things that are useful from time to time, as well as just my journey into motherhood and my daily adventures!

So grab yourself a coffee and a piece of cake and come and enjoy the ride with me!

Hugs
Arline
xx