Sparkle & Jingle #2

As I was saying the other day, I love to make a mini book over christmas, but I love to capture more detail so I have kickstarted project life again. Over the past few months I haven't had time to notice much detail of our lives and I have missed it, so I planned on restarting project life december first.

So here are the first pages.

 Just some patterned paper to divide december from the rest of the year.

 Some descriptions of how December started for me and what was going on the first week. Craft Fair mainly.

 Then a full 6x12 insert with a description of the craft fair day and how nice it was with the family. 

 On the reverse of the insert is one of the christmas cards I made for this year during Sue's fab Beat The Christmas Rush challenge. I am pretty sure she is repeating it this coming year and I will certainly be joining in.

 The second week with some bits and pieces about Ali coming home with a positive sticker on him. His teacher and I are working hard to communicate about what is going on with him when I can't often be at the school.

 The wish list for Ali and a review of the Primary School Christmas Musical.

 This one hasn't been scrapped yet as the print isn't very good, I will order one when Christmas is over and replace and then scrap it.

 A few more hat photos.

 My take on the UKS weekly challenge. I loved the sketch.

My take on the previous week's UKS challenge, set by Sue too.

I am really enjoying working on it again and it is a definite skill to remember to record stuff, and set aside time to record it. I will get practicing again through January as the albums are something I really treasure.

Sparkle & Jingle #1

I have missed blogland whilst I have been busy with the new store. I am going to jump back in and see how it goes. Thank you for still reading.

I am following along with Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas. I am not actively doing the prompts but using them as a guide to get me thinking and mainly recording the day to day.

I am also using it as the starting point for a Project Life boost. I have only scrapped the 'big' events for a few months and none of the detail that I really love. So, lots of journaling for PL and I am also making a mini book (just because I love them) with a quick pic and sentence.

I'll show you the mini book first. The kit is made up of Alison Kreft's It's Christmas collection, Studio Calico's Magical, Pink Paislee Luxe Collection.

Cover.



Manifesto.

Day 1. My lovely Christmas Jumper *sigh*.

Day 2. Craft Fair Frenzy.

Day 3. The boys were under there all that time. Doesn't Ali look charmed by the experience.

Day 4. New mobile contract time.

Day 5. A view of my neighbourhood that I have taken once a month this year.

Day 6. I had a stall at a craft fair. DIS-AHSTER DAH-LING. Enjoyable though =)

Day 7. Spent hours sorting out the new iPhone including speaking to America for a while.

Day 8. A lovely day just crafting, I put the kit together and got it organised and spent all day working on it.

Day 9. Homemade Cookies and Hot Choc. Like being bludgeoned by a sugar bag. I didn't hear any pleas for pudding after that lot.

Day 10. We went to see Hunger Games 2: Catching Fire. As soon as the boys saw the camera they slunk down their chairs, as if the camera couldn't see them.

Day 11. Ali's Christmas Show: Primary School Christmas Musical. A spoof.

Day 12. Up to date now with some snaps of Louis in front of the tree from our annual "Mum makes us sit in front of the tree for ages to get some mediocre shots that look nothing like the ones on Pinterest"

Phew. Well done if you are still here. And you still have some bandwidth.

I'll show you the Project Life part tomorrow. Consider yourself warned.

Sue's Sketch Challenge.

I love Sue's sketches and her sketch challenge is fab, you can find it here at her great blog Me & Mine. There is lots of inspiration there.

I have scrapped a photo of sunrise on Midsummer morning. You can see the blog post from the day here.

(Love the spot of Listerine I dropped on it; buckling the paper =) )

It was absolutely magic and looking at the layout will always take me back to a perfect moment of calm and peace, not quiet; it was very breezy! I seem to love my hometown more and more as I get older and see as much of it as I can.

I still have some of the lovely Atlantic collection from Studio Calico. I have so enjoyed scrapping with it. I will use it to scrap the last bits of the summer, mainly my shop opening and the new kitchen and most importantly, my dear Louis turned 13 a couple of weeks ago. 

Summer Bucket List #5: Evening Coastal Cruise

Onto #5 on the Summer Bucket List, to find out more about it please go here.

Last of the events to get done from the Summer Bucket List was an evening coastal cruise.

I live in a seaside tourist town and there are a few boats taking visitors out for trips in the day and evening including a speedboat, which now I know Ali doesn't get seasick will be our next trip, it looks like fun. However for this trip I wanted calm and relaxing as it was the last day off before I went into the new store opening.

The boats have been advertising that we might see Dave The Dolphin and I have to say I was quite excited at the prospect, I have never seen one in all my years living next to the sea (and some years working at sea). 

 It was raining but not particularly convincingly and the sky promised better.

 Ali was looking forward to it, a bit apprehensive though.

 A very high spring tide had disappeared the end of the pier landing.

 The view up towards north exmoor, misty and eerie.

 One for my friend Linds, our local girls rowing in the gig. (Her daughter is a rower).

 Smugglers Caves at Watermouth Cove.

After my cynical mind had given up on the promised Dave The Dolphin as a marketing ploy; there he was. 
We spent 45 minutes in Combe Martin bay as he performed for us. The Captain says he (or she, they don't know) has been around about 3 months.

 It is pretty hard to photograph a dolphin =)

 One for another friend Sue, Sandy Cove hotel where she stayed a while ago and on the right hand side is Damien Hirst's house, well one of them lol

I gave up trying to photograph Dave and shot some footage of him instead, then I tried to capture how lumpy the trip home was, it was fantastic, we went into quite a swell and it was a bit like being on a roller coaster, but with less seatbelt =) It was then so nice coming into harbour with the lights all on. 

Dave The Dolphin from Jennie Hart on Vimeo.

Magic, will definitely do that again in the summer next year.

Well, as a family we have ticked off some of the smaller items from the Bucket List as well as the ones I have blogged about. The bigger ones I wish we had got to was the midnight picnic and stargazing on exmoor and the daytime picnic up there too. Never mind, they will be first next year.

I so enjoyed this and it definitely made me think about the things we wanted to do as a family and actually get out there!

Hence I am just about to write my Autumn Bucket List and do the same for this season.

Summer Bucket List #4: Coast Path

Walking the South West Coast Path is something I am challenging myself to do. It is on my doorstep and unless I suddenly find myself with 6 weeks and nothing better to do it could take me the rest of my life to finish! It starts in Minehead in North Somerset and finishes in Poole in South Dorset. It takes in 630 miles of stunning coast. You can see more about it here.

The geotag on the map below is my house so you can see just how close we are. It also shows the whole route we took on this particular day over to The Blue Mushroom.

This is a close-up so you can see how it meanders back and forth up the cliff.

At the end of the houses we chose the Lime Kiln coast path to reach the main path.

The Lime Kiln

It was so refreshing to be out in the fresh air and see all the pretty cliff flowers.

Love this natural arch.

Mum enjoying the amazing views, the dogs wondering what I am doing.

There is the view she was looking at.

The geotag at the top.

The sea mist kept rolling in and out.

The marker stone at the very top.

Love this shot of them from above.

A 360 view from the top, oh and how thirsty the dogs were.

Torrs Coast Path from Jennie Hart on Vimeo.

The Blue Mushroom. From whence the cottage it stands by got it's name. Mum tells me that it is a stand for a house where cereal was milled or stored. They were kept off the ground to stop rats and these 'mushrooms' were what kept them off the ground. I think she must be telling me a tall story?

The Only Flat Point =)

Love that the cows are completely laying down.

I blew the photo out but loved seeing the bee on it.

Hello Ewe.

It was such an amazing walk and as a result I have been up there umpteen times at about 6am to give Minty an early walk and me some chill time (as well as some exercise!).

Walking the Coast Path for the Summer Bucket List = Done.