The onset of Christmas!

So we're halfway through November already, which means time to make plans for Christmas projects! Last weekend was the Country Living Christmas Fair, which was very inspiring. I bought some fabric to sew some presents, and a pretty snowflake stamp and embossing powder for this years' cards.

And if we're halfway through November, it must be time to start prepping my December journal, inspired by Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas e-class. She's just hosted a weekend full of Christmas related crafty posts, including this one, about choosing a size for the journal. This year will be my 4th journal, and I love to experiment with different sizes for these. My first two were 8x8, and last year I experimented with 6x12 with page protectors and a homemade cover (as much for ease of cutting as anything and the cover was purely for practical reasons as AC discontinued their line of albums that size before I could get my hands on one)! This one is my favourite so far as it made me think outside of a square box and made me see it truly is perfectly possible to make the whole thing from scratch.

When I came to do Learn Something New Every Day this year (a similar daily journaling idea, but for September to coincide with back to school), I decided to try 6x6, and actually finished it! I will have to photograph it for a belated post at some point, but it is one of the things I've made I'm most pleased with as a snapshot of a moment in time and a way of making time for regular crafty doings. I'd love to carry that momentum into JYC this year, so I've gone for a similar size (4x6) made up with AC page protectors and another handmade cover.

Last night I gathered my supplies and sat down to prep my album and pages. First I spread everything out, as you do.

Then I started cutting pages: some into 4x6 pieces (more than I'll need, but some are to make smaller than the book itself for decoration so will still fit nicely on the base pages). I pre-cut some smaller coloured pieces explicitly for journalling, cut out the individual journalling cards in one of the papers and used my circle punch to cut some 2" circles and cut strips of trees from 2 of the papers with numbers or dates or just embellishment in mind. I also kept some offcuts.

I also got started on the journal itself. First I tied up the page protectors with blue bakers twine and attached the black covers. This took some fiddling to get right, but I got there in the end. That's it, propped up at the back of the box of carefully cut and stored paper all ready to go! What a happy sight. :)

Month in Numbers: October

I thought October would be a good time to get back into recording my Month in Numbers (as inspired by Julie), because this month contained some rather special ones. :)

4: the number of months of blogging hiatus that I finally broke halfway through the month, on October 13th. The last post before that one was May's month in numbers, so let's hope this return to the form doesn't presage another leave of absence!

2: new dresses. There's something about Autumn that always says new clothes to me! And I had a good excuse...

18: The number of handmade birthday invitations I delivered. Who needs Facebook when you can have pretty paper and ink?

30: the number that has dominated the entire month, because as of last weekend, that is how many autumns I have now seen. I really can't take credit for the gorgeous lemon chiffon cake below, Konditor and Cook did me proud - I just told them I like orange, purple and glitter.

20: the number of people that (incredibly) managed to fit into my 1-bedroom flat for an afternoon tea party! Among the deliciousness on offer were 4 kinds of cheese, 2 homemade quiches and 30 cupcakes baked that morning.

3: the number of taxis we needed to transport 13 guests from there to a nearby bar for cocktails in the evening! What I'm not going to do is count the cocktails consumed, suffice to say they were good, and one of them was even in a boat.

3: nights spent in Tallinn the following week. What a beautiful city, totally recommended for a city break. Especially loved the the cobbled streets, the many towers and spires and the tea!

2: the number of times I went to see Daniel Kitson's heartbreakingly wonderful storytelling show "It's Always Right Now Until It's Later". And this despite having already seen it once before, two Edinburgh Festivals ago. If you ever get a chance to see this, I positively urge you to go.

5.5: The number of miles 8 of us walked on stage 9 of the Capital Ring, from Greenford to South Kenton. This one went past Harrow School and took in some lovely views across the capital. I'm loving these walks around zones 3-5 of London, it's great to see areas I'd never go to otherwise and it's surprising how unlike London they can feel.

1: gorgeous sunset watched from Primrose Hill.

Yes, I may now be staring down the barrel of the next decade, but this was certainly a month to remember.  :)