More New Year Resolutions..... mine

I read 'somewhere' that 'someone' had decided to set 12 goals for 2012 and I thought I would do the same (sorry I can't remember where and who or I would give you credit, honest)

So without further ado here are mine (12 4 2012 on the 12th!)

1. scrapbook more
2. walk at least once a week
3. declutter each week
4. be at least 1 stone lighter by the end of 2012 (ie maintain weightloss!)
5. send at least one piece of 'happy mail' each week
6. read 52 books (I lost count last year and don't think I managed it)
7. spend more time with friends and family
8. pay it forward x `12 ( I didn't actually manage a single pay it forward in 2011.... hangs head in shame... so I am going to do one each month during 2012, some may be random on the blog, some will be given as a surprise and some might even go to those who are owed one from last year!!)
9. take a photo each day
10. be more organised with Birthday and Christmas cards
11. blog more
12. 'Just do it!!' (well done if you guessed this was my NYE resolution!)

New Year Resolutions

As usual I am a bit late, but I wanted to share our New Year's Eve 'Writing of the Resolutions'! (Photograph taken from the TV as we watched the fireworks in London)

NYE 2010 was a very quiet one as I had been really poorly, it was just the 4 of us at home. As a new idea, I thought wee could write down our resolution on a scrap of paper each and swap around and guess which one was which persons (I also thought those little pieces of paper would make it onto a scrapbook page but they haven't yet!)

NYE 2011 we mananged to meet up with friends, 6 adults and 6 children. Just before midnight DS suggested we all wrote down our resolutions of bits of paper, put them in a hat and then tried to work out which one belonged to each person. So here they are.....

Eat less Chocolate

To drink more

Be better

Change the World

More exercise

Just do it

Stop swearing and eat more chocolate

To look even more like One Direction and to sell lots of I survived 2012 t shirts

Keep the same friends for a year

To travel more

To keep my room tidy and eat more vegetables

Sadly although I thought I collected all 12 pieces of paper I ended up with 9 and I couldn't remember one. These were written by a group age 10 to 48 (with 4 teenagers!) and just looking at them all makes me laugh as they are all so different. I still can't believe someone seriously wrote to eat more chocolate! LOL!

So which one is mine? (Obviously not the eating more choccie!) I challenge you to guess and will reveal all in my next post!

I look forward to reading more about other's hopes, dreams and goals for 2012 and I will be sharing a few of my plans with you soon. I wish you all the very best for this new Leap Year and hope to keep in touch with you more via blogland

cheers! xxx

Family 12x12 blog hop January 2012

Oh my goodness I totally forgot about the blog hop as I had totally missed the email from Margie! I am so sorry to the rest of the team and anyone trying to blog hop around.

In December yet again I didn't manage a photo of the four of us but I am determined to take part every month throughout 2012 so I thought I would share this family photo instead ......

I spent a lot of time with my extended family as we were visiting my dad in hospital a lot over the holidays (in fact we are heading back to see him and everyone else again today). It was great to see so much of my sister as we don't always get together as often as we would like to. As you can see she is the beauty in the family and we are totally different as she has blonde hair and blue eyes whereas I have dark brown hair and hazel eyes.

I am now off to catch up with the other blog hoppers starting at Margies blog here

Story Telling Sunday January

Happy New Year!

Sometimes stories are fun to write and even more fun to read but sometimes the story you have in your heart may not be easy to put down on paper (or blog) and it may not be easy to read. Sometimes you wouldn't chose to share personal tales, some things should probably remain private.

Sometimes I believe everyone else has a perfect world, difficult things don't always get mentioned on blogs and blog followers may not want to read about such things...... or would they?

I have been deeply touched by reading personal accounts of difficult times on blogs and it has made me realise I am not alone, I have felt comforted, moved and honoured that others share with me via their blogs. So should we share like this??

If you think it is ok, read on, if not please forgive my ramblings and come back another day when I share something crafty, fun or both!

On Christmas Eve my carefully planned festivities all went wrong after a phone call. Dad was in casualty with extreme pain in his leg requiring morphine. He was blue lighted to another hospital and underwent emergency surgery (I was soooo worried as his chemo had just been delayed as he was so immunocompromised so a big infection risk,plus he has a heart condition so anaesthetics aren't always good). He had to have several clots removed and if unsuccessful possibly have his leg amputated!

Fortunately the initially surgery worked although he has no sensation or movement in his foot and it looks like this is permanent. He is recovering but has had a few set backs. We are not sure how things will be long term but he is alive, he has both his legs, he is loved and we are so grateful that he is a survivor! Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Also as far as Christmas's go this one wasn't too bad. Christmas Eve was a wash out as we cancelled the party we had planned and were left with lots of unused food including 3 litres of mulled wine. But on Christmas Day I was with all my family and I saw my dad! JYC has been put on hold but I think I will have some interesting aspects of Christmas to write about this year.

2012 is now here and I hope I manage to blog more and read more, share more and craft more, I will be back and I hope you will too!

Today's mutterings were part of Sian's storytelling Sunday go visit her blog for all the really good story tellers tales!

Story telling Sunday December

Christmas is a magical time, full of surprises, love and family. Growing up I spent my Christmas's with extended family at my Nanny's house in London. She was an amazing woman (I could fill a year of story telling Sundays with various exploits of hers) she worked as a dinner lady so catering for all of us on Christmas Day came easily to her. I have so many happy, loving, snuggly feelings from those years, but I do recall one more painful memory ......

As you may recall from previous shared posts, I was somewhat mischievous, some might even say naughty! (Still not sure how I made it onto Santa's nice list some years!!). This even extended to the festive period and this Christmas was no exception. I cannot recall exactly how old I was but I would guess at maybe 4.

My Nanny always received lots of Christmas Cards and they were hung on string across the tops of the wall and down from the door in the lounge. I was particularly interested in the cards on the door and kept pulling at them. My uncle chastised me a couple of tim

es and on the third telling off (I was ignoring him!!) he picked me up and removed me from the room. I immediately started screaming and crying and everyone assumed it was because I was embarrassed and frustrated to have been caught out. In actual fact I was in dreadful pain, my arm was really hurting me.

Eventually (after several minutes of wailing!) my parents realised I was injured and that it was serious enough to require medical attention. Now, it was Christmas Day and it was a white Christmas and my parents did not drive! So the only form of transport was a pushchair! I sat in the pushchair and more poor parents pushed me all the way to Kings Hospital in the deep s

now (I was still crying!) it was freezing cold and not an easy journey!

At casualty I can remember being taken into the room to have an xra

y and as they manipulated my arm to take the picture I screamed in absolute agony then felt no pain! My arm was painfree! A Christmas miracle....

Actually, when my uncle had picked me up he had accidentally dislocated a bone in my arm and when the radiographer had moved it, it popped back into place! Wow did I learn a lesson that Christmas and I have never pulled a Christmas card off a door since!

I am so happy to have joined in the final installment of Sian's Story Telling Sunday.

I would like to offer a blog reader a little Christmas Candy........

stickers (there are 3 packets of these all identical, vintage style stickers)

and a set of mini embossing folders

Please leave a comment here before Saturday 10th December and I will send a little package out to the winner (hopefully in time for Christmas! and I will send worldwide) xxx

weaving and banners

I have really enjoyed all the prompts and ideas from Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party it has been a great class and I am still working my way through it. I have printed all the prompts out and added notes to them all so I will continue to use all the lessons from class as inspiration.

Last week there was a great weekend of challenges and ideas incorporating some of PPP but on a Christmas theme. I wasn't feeling too well so I didn't join in very much but I did manage to make this card

based on the weaving idea I used up some unloved blue'ish Christmas papers and created a woven shape that was glued onto a snowflake embossed card. Continuing with the snowflake theme I added some Martha Stewart punched shapes in a pale blue glittered paper. I am not too sure how much I like this card as I tend to be quite traditional in my Christmas colours but I think I like the overall effect (and I used some of those papers which has to be a good thing right???)

Another challenge was all about banners. People are so creative with what they make and how they decorate these hanging works of art. As I wasn't feeling too great I went for the easy option and used some lovely stash that I had bought from Craftwork Cards. Although it is designed for Christmas, several pieces could be used through out the year, so I decided to use some of the Christmas specific bits. The banner shapes are all die cut so really easy to pop out, I added some Candi and some green alphas (from my stash) and put this together....

I have strung it across the fireplace to show you how it looks but I think I might take it into work to decorate a shelf in the office I share. Here is a close up.....

it simply says 'Happy Christmas' I was going to do Merry but realized I didn't have enough 'R's!! This is about all the Christmas crafting I have done so far this year but hope to do some more soon.

I am looking forward to

• checking out more of the Christmas preparations everyone is doing
• starting JYC (determined to do it this year and finally decided to do 6x6)
• Bloggers weekend in Telford next week!!!

Story telling Sunday

Last month on Story Telling Sunday I shared this story of my love of pigs and briefly mentioned an event involving a fire, I said I would be back to tell you more and here I am .... just!

I love fires, I would really like a 'real fire' in my lounge (or in any room for that matter!) but I live in a modern house and it would cost lots of ££££'s to have a chimney put in so in the meantime I pretend with gas and this fireplace (dressed up for Halloween!)

I really really like Bonfires and love sitting or standing around a bonfire outside in the dark. This makes 'Bonfire Night' a fun evening for me. Bonfire night is also known as Guy Fawkes Night and for some reason we commemorate this man's attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 ... he failed and maybe that is why it is a celebration! Traditionally it is an evening filled with fireworks, sparklers, a fire and fun food.

DS poses with a sparkler...

November 5th is the date this happens which was yesterday. I travelled to see my parents and my dad had a huge pile of garden debris to burn so we had a fabulous fire that was still smouldering when I left their house this afternoon.

Dad was feeling good, though he only finished his third cycle of chemotherapy a few hours before this picture was taken (sadly today he is feeling much worse, lacking in energy, tired but unable to sleep and constantly queasy). We had a houseful with 19 of us sharing yummy homemade food (jacket spuds, 'bangers', chilli, curry followed by trifle, key lime pie, caramel crunch mmmm my mouth waters as I type!) We spent a lot of time laughing and chatting with the TV turned off, enjoying each other's company, playing Rummikub and catching up with all the news across the generations. Loving family gatherings at the moment, so grateful that we can all get together (though my hubby was a bit poorly so stayed home especially as Dad is vulnerable to infections at the moment). We all stirred the Christmas pudding too, traditions are important and help make memories (see this post for info on Stir up Sunday)

My dad reminded my of my first venture into pyromania when I was probably just 2 years old. I cannot remember this time at all, but apparently I managed to turn on a heater in the bedroom next to my sisters cot (she would only have been 1 at the time) and the cot and the

mattress actually caught fire!! Thank goodness my parents discovered the burning bed before any serious harm was done!

Luckily I have never caused any serious damage since that time (at least I don't think so!)

I am looking forward to catching up with everyone else's 'Story Telling Sunday' brought to you from the superb Sian From High in the Sky pop over and check it out xxx