Days 3, 4, and 5

OK, I'm behind----I am fine with that. Cantata Week (see post below) and working in retail just don't allow any free time. But here are:

Day 3: The Search for the Perfect Christmas Card: journaling is inside a card in the envelope and talks about my yearly search for the PERFECT card.

Day 4: Your Perfect Christmas. This was VERY difficult for me because I'm just not into worrying about that kind of stuff.

Day 5: Counting Down to Christmas: Shimelle talked about advent calendars but it's always been "shopping days til Christmas" for me. (Sorry the picture is upside down--haven't figured out all of Blogger yet!) Made little shopping bags and the journaling is tucked on a pull card in the green bag.

Enjoy!

Janet

Christmas Cantatas ...

or 6 days in a row at church. Last week was dessert cantata week so it was BUSY, BUSY. Everyday I'd take my black formal clothes with me to work in the morning, work all day, then drive to church, pick up dinner along the way for DSis and I, we'd have dinner in her office at church, and then get dressed for the cantata in the ladies room. I'm including some pix of the event so you get an idea; we issue tickets( they are free; just crowd control) and we were "sold out" every night. We ask people coming to bring desserts and then the kitchen crew cuts and plates them and the choir serves the desserts along with coffee and tea before we go on to sing.

Between the four nights (Tues-Fri) we had over 2100 people attend!! Then of course, it was the choir's regularly scheduled weekend to sing in services so it was Saturday night and 3 on Sunday morning!!! Can we say dead singers!!! But the music had a powerful ministry and message to those attending which is the whole purpose of doing the cantata to begin with.

Needless to say, I'm WAY BEHIND on the Journal Your Christmas project. I've been printing the prompts on a daily basis and actually writing down thoughts and sketches during breaks at work, just no time to assemble the actual pages! I have two days off the week after Christmas and my goal is to make a significant dent in the backlog.

Today is my day off for the week--we've already been out to breakfast, been Christmas shopping at Target and Kohl's, been grocery shopping (need all those candy making and baking ingredients) at Wegman's and now I'm on my way across the bridge to IKEA to bring up the last of the Christmas gifts. Then it's off to make all the gifts for my staff and the other managers.

Wish me luck! Will post days 3, 4, and 5 in a separate post!

Janet

Journal Your Christmas --Day 2

Today's topic was weather--is snow necessary for Christmas or do you hate it? That sort of thing. She also encouraged us to incorporate snowflakes. I was going to cut some until I found these on some great Basic Grey paper. Also added some metallic ones with brads. LOVE the effect of the snowflakes hanging out over the edge.

I wrote about December's weather here in New Jersey--usually a total mixed bag of highs and lows, gloomy bone-chillers and bright sunshine. My vote for weather is mid 40's when sweaters, scarves and gloves are fashion statements more than necessities! Secretly though, I LOVE a dusting, just on the grass and trees, for Christmas Eve.

Now I must be off to bed --- days 3-6 are written and designed in my head and day 7 will arrive shortly. Hope to catch up on Friday and the weekend.

Enjoy,

Janet

Journal Your Christmas--Day 1

Day 1's prompt encouraged us to talk about why we decided to do this challenge. My journalling reads:




"Why would I choose to do this journal? I'm a retail manager; I have Christmas cantatas to sing, gifts to make and tons of baking to do. Because I need to:

• Rekindle our traditions
  

• Revive my creativity


• Recapture the joy


• Remember that Jesus is the Reason for the Season!"

Enjoy!

Janet

Journal Your Christmas--Part 1

I first heard about this last year in December while reading Ali Edwards' blog and it sounded like so much fun that I bookmarked Shimelle's website and checked in periodically until finally the notice of the class starting was posted in early November. This is my first internet class and I'm really looking forward to the experience!

This is a shot of the journal I'm using--a Rusty Pickle tag book that's about 4" wide and 11" long. Decided to really challenge myself with the unique shape. Also bought a whole assortment of Christmas paper: lots of Basic Grey as well as anything else that looked interesting and "spoke to me".

This is the front cover of my journal. Papers are Basic Grey as are the chipboard brackets. The calendar and the "December" are cut from the bookmark in this month's Real Simple magazine. Red letters are from a metallic paper and cut with Sizzlets. I'm really happy with the outcome!

This is my manifesto page. Lots of Basic Grey and Prima flowers with some trim I had that matched well. Basicly Shimelle wrote the text and encouraged us all to use it, post it on our blogs, etc. SO here goes:

MANIFESTO: Noun. A declaration of one's intentions.

Starting December 1st, I will keep a Christmas journal. In it, I will write something everyday to reflect on the holidays of my past, enjoy the holidays of the present and dream about the holidays of my future. To some, this will be a stack of papers and trivial scribbles, but no to me. I am taking back my Christmas, I am letting it be something I relish, and most importantly, I am giving at least fifteen minutes every day to myself no mattter how crazy this season becomes. I hope you will share, encourage, and understand as I make something with my own hands, my own words, and my own memories.

I am using this online adventure to start my blog, Scraps & Threads, and hope to post all of my entries there. Other artists from around the world are sharing this challenge with me and you can see some of their work at writtendown.com.

Above all, enjoy the season.

I WILL!!!

Janet

P.S. Still figuring out all the technical aspects :(

The 1st Post

I've finally done it! I've become a blogger--after reading everyone else's for the past couple of years and saying I need to start one--I've done it! And Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas class is the inspiration since I want a place to post all the cool pages I'm doing for that class. (More on that later.)





Tonight, Sandy(that's DSis) and I went to Girls Night Out at The Melting Pot in center city Philadelphia. What fun! We've been several times in other cities for special occasions but tonight was just to enjoy.

Now I must get to work on my Christmas journal ---- I'm already behind :(

Janet