Change of Scene

I have been sewing myself stupid for the last month to fill the days so I have decided to have a change of scene and catch up on some scrapbooking. The snowy weather reminded me of a little book I started way back in 2010: The little book of snowmen. 

Inside the box is a little accordian book held together with ribbon and fabric tape but essentially all set up to simply add a photo each year or so.

It started when Big girl made her first snowman with her friend which I snapped a photo of. I hoped my children's childhood would be filled with fun times making snowmen and indeed it was, and it turns out still is. Recording them all in one place seemed like a fun papercraft project. 

Today I added our latest snowmen to the back of the book.

Initially, I was a bit disappointed that I had come to the end of the book until...

...I realised you can work your way across the back too!

I enjoyed doing some papercraft for a change and I think I should really try and catch up on some other half started paper projects while the days are cold and there are empty days ahead. It is something I can potter away at while the girls are home-schooling and I can craft at the kitchen table only a shout away. 

Not as much snow this weekend as we thought but a beautiful kitchen window view nonetheless.

Stay Safe. Jo xxxx

Do-you-remember-whens

I have been on a bit of a self enforced go slow. Life was getting too hectic.

I have settled into two and half days work leaving the weekends to be with the girls, Sunday to be altogether as a family and the week days to do long over due jobs, but only my own and for people I really like! 

I have been careful though to make part of each day when I am here on my own a time for enjoying being on my own because I know that when everyone gets back from work and school my day will get busy again. I had been trying to do lots in the day but found that on reflection the busiest time was actually between 3:30-7:30 pm so I was feeling well and truly burnt out. Best to save my energy for later and try not to buy time and get ahead because that never exists.

For the last two weeks I have allowed myself, yes that is the frame of mind I am in, to do some scrapbooking. Photos have piled up in packets. I used to be an avid scrapbooker when the children were small and they had a nap in the afternoons but time has moved on of course.

It is funny how quickly a holiday you thought you had only just had was actually over a year ago. The children's faces have changed already from the photos starting at me now, to the ones that will sit at the dinner table tonight. I don't want to lose the stories and the memories and the do-you-remember-whens.

I have lots of paper crafting materials to use up. A few afternoons have consisted of a very precious hour listening to the radio and catching up with memories.

Do you still print out photos in this digital age?

Thanks for dropping in on your busy week. Jo xxx

Who do you think you are?

I used to be really big into scrapbooking before I returned to the machine and needles which you may know me for. Every afternoon on maternity leave 10 years ago I would lay the babes to sleep and cut and stick for an hour and a half every day. I loved it.

Then I started to make their clothes and mine. I didn't get bored of scrapboooking but I simply ran out of photos and events to journal. I ran my papercraft supplies down but kept the girls books up to date - nothing major though.

I started a family history scrapbook way back then which I used to add to periodically. My great Aunts were alive then so I could ask them about the people in the black and white photos. It was a nice conversation focus when I went to visit them.

Lately, my dad's wife has been giving me little shoe boxes of his artefacts and this has rekindled my interest. Also a colleague gave me two boxes of scrapbook stuff she no longer wanted, and you know me, I couldn't say no to free stuff. While sifting through historical papers I found old paperwork relating to people I already had pages about. It has been so interesting matching those belongings to these familiar people. For example, I had a page about my great-grandfather, Jack, and his farm tenancy agreement from 1937 turned up in one of the shoe boxes so I slotted it in.

My dad was from a farming family and they did not stray far geographically so I recognised most photographic images: the houses, farm yards, churches, and events that we still traditionally hold now.

I already had pages of my Grandparents but I found some more of their wedding photos, pictures of my Nan and her sister as farm girls and a lot of pictures of women wearing stout shoes on days out. Luckily, I knew who most of them were. 

My Grandad was the only son of his father who was one of nine so it appears he was the executor on a lot of his aunts and Uncles wills. I guess his two sisters didn't hold that post in the 1930's. Reading all of the probate notices was interesting. It turns out two of the pieces of furniture I have in our house are listed in probate from the early 1900's: an oak chest and our dining room table. Both of these I had from my dad when he moved into a bungalow and didn't have room for them. The probate notice above is from my four times great grandfather from 1862. It has a wax seal. Amazing.

There were postcards, certificates of educational achievement, death certificates, Victorian school books in wonderful script handwriting and so much more. I slotted them into pages I already had of the person they belonged to.

There were certificates of monetary gifts to the WW1 effort from my great, great Uncle who emigrated to Canada, my Nan's WI calendars of events, her driving licenses, my grandfathers Young Farmers Club meeting cards, ration books, notices to families on what to do with evacuees...

...wedding invitations and gift cards, coronation memorabilia, mine and my dad's school reports, notes of currency from around the world: the list is endless. I didn't want them to just remain in shoe boxes forever so I have filed them all away in little pockets on my existing pages.

It was such a satisfying way to spend the last days of summer. I have been on my very own episode of 'Who do you think you are?' 
I do love that program.

If you have always wanted to catalogue your family history I was told the best way to start is to have a shoe box marked 'family' and then collect everything in one place - it has certainly worked for me and it appears generations of my family.

Thanks for reading. Do you hold important family information?
Jo xx

Crafting Saved My Memories

I lost my digital photos on a worn out hard drive in November and although at first I was really upset, I reflected that because I used to be such a keen scrap booker I had not lost as much as I first thought. Today I am going to share my Christmas album with you. It is nearly full but it feels particularly special now that the digital photos have gone.

It started life as a plain grey board album with book rings. I have added twice as many pages and bought bigger rings to hold the bulky binding as the years have gone on. This album is nine years old. I started it for Big Sis on her first Christmas.

It is a jumble of materials: some bought, some leftover from cardmaking and some recycled items. Here are some of my favourite pages...

Because it has book rings, the pages could be moved around so after Little M was born two years later we could insert pages which had things in common. I really like this one.

There are pages that are made of old envelopes. These hide cards that tell a different story to the photos. I like this one because Big Sis looks so happy about seeing Father Christmas for the first time but the card inside the envelope shows her running away and crying with a recount of the event on the back.

This page is what made me photograph the album yesterday. I wanted my Christmas cake recipe and I knew exactly where it was. It was in the envelope full of cards or tags of the children decorating Christmas cakes over the years.

This page has a pocket to hold their hand written letters to Father Christmas. The girls love looking at these to compare their writing to now.

Craft and cooking are always a big part of our advent and these are some of our favourite crafty pictures.

It does have an ad hoc scrapbook feel. Between these full size pages are Christmas cards punched as smaller pages both horizontally and vertically.

I like to include the good, the bad and the ugly in my scrapbooking. I love the photo of Big Sis on the left who does not really like dressing up so she didn't want her photo taken.

More recently, I have enjoyed the photos of them doing helpful things at Christmas time to prepare for our family meal.

Finally, last year, the laughter we had watching them use a pair of new swimming goggles to stop dust getting into their eyes while getting a gemstone out of a mock fossil just had to be recorded for prosperity.

I will add to it this year of course but I am so thankful we have it to look back on our Christmas traditions and memories. 

Hope you enjoyed that little peek inside my Christmas scrapbook.
 I only have to work one day this week because I had holiday to take and my learning courses have come to a seasonal end. The children have one more week of school left. Whoooo! 

Thanks for dropping by.Jo xxxxx

For the future

My cherubs are back today, all three of them. I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed being on my own all week but I am looking forward to seeing their faces and hearing their seaside stories. 

The last bit of tidying for the week was to take hundreds of photos off the hard drive, dull I know, however I already have a little craft solution to help me save my memories for the girls for the future. A CD scrapbook.

 Here is how you make one:

Cut a piece of card 6 x 12". Mark holes evenly on the left hand side and punch out. Make a fold 6 1/2 " from the hole edge. This should leave the hole margin as single card, the rest as a pocket. Cut out a curve to help you slip in a CD. Stick this down with double sided tape.

You make a book of these. I am just adding three more pockets to an existing book. Cover grey board or card for the covers and hold the pockets together with book rings. Bit boring though?

Then you can decorate them and write little notes to remind you what is on the CD's. When I first made this book, I put all the papers and stickers into a bag with the book to keep it matching but they have run out now so I need to make a new book in new matching colours, this one has gone a bit awry at the end - but job done. Here are some of the other pages.

I tied teeny bits of ribbon that were too short for sewing round the rings and hey presto a CD book, a faster running computer and I am safe in the knowledge that I have all my photos and video clips should my computer decide to throw in the towel (the last one did and it was sooo hard to get all the stuff off, I nearly lost everything)

Happy Crafting whatever page of life you are on today?

Jo xxxxxxxx

Keep Scrappin'

Last night bloke was out and I thought I should catch up on some scrap booking. I used to be obsessed with this crafting hobby, go to crop classes with friends, buy crazy amounts of craft supplies and generally throw myself right in there - that was before I had children.

I used to use their afternoon nap times to have a quiet afternoon scrap booking but alas it is the Easter Holidays and not a snooze in sight!

So I was appalled to find a photo I had just had printed, from not very long ago, February half term holidays probably but which I could not place. Where were we? What were we doing? Why were we there? When was it? I had no idea. I racked my brains but it has gone. Suffice to say it is a great picture of them both so I used the mystery of the destination as the page theme.

Then I found some photos from last year which had slipped through the net. Big Sis has her short little bob and Little M really looks much more of a older toddler. So I did that one too with some free papers I had from the Simply Homemade magazine.

It is safe to say that even after six years, I still have a little paper stash and like to rummage through my stickers, flowers, brads and buttons. 

The whole evening just reminded to me to 'Keep scrappin' because last night I remembered how much I love making our family albums of the children growing up - such precious moments.

I even combined scrap booking with a little whizz under the sewing machine. Such great results for a couple of hours of fun.

Thanks for stopping by Jo xxxx