It was with mixed feelings that I witnessed my one and only graduate from preschool a few weeks ago. My baby is going to “big school”. She has worked so hard and put in so much effort this year and nothing makes me more proud than hearing her tell me that the thing she enjoys most about school is the work. She has such an inquisitive mind and is so eager to learn. But can't she just stay small and ignorant a little longer?

I have used the colours from The Color Room (steel blue, light steel blue, caramel, bright white) for this layout and the sketch from Once Upon A...Sketch. The journaling criteria from OUAS was to use a quote. My quote was “Knowledge Begins in Wonder” - Socrates. And how lucky am I that this week's word for Bird is the Word is also “Wonder”?

So it's been a productive evening. I simply couldn't stop before I have finished a layout as well. Like I said, I want to take part in more challenges. So here it is...
This layout was created using the December sketch on Once Upon A... Sketch. The journalling criteria was to write at least 2 sentences on what we look forward to in the next month. That was easy, as December is my favourite month. Hence the title, Favourite Month.

These photos of Karla and Sumari (my cousin, not hers) were taken in Gansbaai just before Christmas in 2008.
The journalling reads: December has ALWAYS been my favourite month. Not only is it my bday month but it is also the first month of summer which means LOTS and LOTS of SWIMMING! And of course there is the magic of Christmas shared with loved ones.
The beautiful sketch designed by Nadia Cannizzo:

Karla and I made a Christmas card for her teacher tonight. It soon became clear to me that her sole intention was to use up as much as possible of my Christmas stash. She became very upset when I tried to stop her by explaining that the card was already perfect the way it was.

So here are a few of my Christmas projects. Just by the way... I have come to the conclusion that if layouts and projects were models mine would definitely be runway models. While they are great at showing off they don't photograph so well. Karla, on the other hand, is excellent at both. Maybe I should stick to photographing her because I suck at photographing projects.

I decorated this little Christmas tree 2 years ago. It has taken root on my craft table every Christmas since then.




Since everybody has been making tags this year and they look soooo cute (check out Tim Holtz and a blog called A Delightful Waste of Time) I have decided to give it a go. The result doesn't look great on photos but the overall effect is quite the eye catcher.




These are my Christmas projects for now. The tree has been decorated, the trimmings adorn wall units and arches... now we just need to make cards for all the special people in our lives. Since card making is NOT my strongest suit I will probably not be showing those off here... maybe next year

It's a cliché almost as old as country music itself: using “From This Moment On” by Shania Twain anywhere in your wedding. But it's the first words that came up to me when I started planning this layout and, reading the lyrics, I realised that the entire song is perfect for a wedding. If this song was out when we got married on the 31st of January 1998 (before anyone knew Shania Twain's name) I probably would have used the words as my wedding vows as they are just such a beautiful declaration of love.

The layout is based on Sketch 110 by Let's Capture These Sketches

I finally finished my advent calendar. I got the idea from a post by the very talented Leeann Pearce (http://thepaintbrushgoesspottie.blogspot.com/) It didn't take too long to do the actual work but it's been a busy week socially and the printers tray only arrived on Tuesday. This makes me 2 days late but oh well. It's Karla's first advent calendar so I'm pretty sure she won't mind.

I fell in love with the printers tray the minute I saw it on Bidorbuy. It's a little bit small and I will definitely make a bigger one next year but I simply love the shape and layout.

It's made of dark wood so any embellishments would have disappeared into the shadows so I (actually Henk) sprayed it white. I added some cute embellishments, date numbers and a little note with instructions for each day. Karla will open the notes and have to sing a Christmas carol, give mommy or daddy a hug or kiss or be rewarded with a Christmas treat. Every morning that day's date will be removed so that we can see how many days are left until Christmas.

I can't wait for her to get up tomorrow morning so I can show it to her.