december daily 2011.

...I'm a little embarrassed to admit this. (don't worry, it's nothing terrible - I'm only "a little" embarrassed :-) I've been slow about posting here because this is post 1001. and I had grand intentions of celebrating post #1000. I guess when I made that fifty for 50 list, I didn't consider the real impact of trying to post daily during november, or how much I post in december, sharing december daily, and holiday fun. so here's my first change to that list... instead of celebrating my 1000th post, I'm going to celebrate my blog's 5th anniversary. next february. when I'm sure things will be much quieter!

whew, it feels so good to get that off my chest! ...and now back to regular posting.

2011 journal...ready to start

one of my favorite things about december is my december journal. started in 2007 with shimelle's fabulous journal your christmas (JYC), I've continued the tradition with a mix of shimelle's prompts and ali edwards' december daily (tell a story each day). 2008 was a hybrid album, 2009 & 2010 were full digital. and for 2011, I decided on another hybrid. just to have the fun of playing with scissors and glue and pretty paper. for reals!

five days into this format, I'm loving it! I downloaded ali's 6x8.5 printables and bought a 7x10 art journal from michaels. I dis-assembled the journal and ran the pages through my printer. one page per day - with room to add "extra stuff" when I get it. once the month is done, I'll reassemble the pages, do something fun with the covers, probably add ribbons to the spiral binding. who knows!

so today's JYC is about advent calendars and I have a new one this year. I've discovered empty nesting and advent calendars can result in 1) way too much chocolate and/or 2) a daily early morning reminder that you're getting old. so I'd planned something new for this year. I'd downloaded ali's advent boxes a few months ago, but it wasn't until last thursday that I hit on the idea of overlaying those boxes on favorite photos (heavily inspired by this photo).

today's page - the tree, three of my favorite ornaments already hanging, and a photo of pulling it all together (it was actually much messier than this!)

I spent way too many happy hours on thursday going through my archive of photos and found 24 favorites. I gathered them into photoshop pages, spent a few more hours matching those advent boxes with the photos, and later, adhered the photos to patterned paper, cut them out, added eyelets and cord. the finished "calendar" is 24 of my favorite mostly holiday photos, ready to hang on a tree.

I love the finished result. beside the tree is a snowman dish full of ornaments waiting to be hung. he's full of happy memories waiting to be relived. ...and I loved the process of creating it. those hours spent sorting through the photos reminded me how beautiful our holidays are...and I'm grateful to have so many of those moments captured.

looking back.

...at 2010. it was very hard to select just twelve photos to tell the story of this year. so many changes in my life - all good. yes, I can even say that now about the hard things, like katie moving across the country, because it's been a wonderful change for her (and it's ok if I tear up writing this).

the look back is shimelle's prompt for the 30th, so I also have one for 2007 and 2009 (2008 was a letter to myself and I didn't share it online). I'm sure I couldn't imagine how different my life would be in 2010 when I did that first page in 2007. and I wonder how surprised I'll be this time next year when I look back at 2011. time flies. I need to remember to enjoy it.

a nice dinner.

...the shop was busy yesterday - knitters visiting from many places (I waited on ones from germany, new hampshire and north carolina) with families and friends kind enough to show us off - knitters needing help with projects (mostly ripping! but I'm pretty good at that since I've had years and years of practice!) - and I'm sure a few knitters who were thinking about this weekend's upcoming football marathon and planning ahead to have something to do. it made for a steady stream of customers, plenty of running around, and no time for a break.

sara came to visit in the afternoon - she brought holly (the regular tuesday knitters had been asking to see her) and asked what I wanted for dinner. oooohhh yes! I suggested cheese sandwiches, maybe with soup? she agreed. she cooked. she cleaned up.

and we enjoyed a delicious hot meal. thank you, sara. it was very nice!

more details on the layout here

merry and bright.

...from our house to yours - best wishes for a merry and bright holiday!

more holly pics.

...I had to smile at a comment left in flickr on monday's december journal page about how much holly is showing up in this year's journal. because I'd just uploaded tuesday's page.

yep, more holly photos! I know they're much cuter and probably appeal more broadly than the in-process shots of my holiday knitting. which I am really (really!!!!) hoping to finish today. and I'll admit I spent a few minutes yesterday happily thinking about what I might cast on next.

is it tuesday already?

...oh my, time flies when you're having fun! following sunday's relaxed pace, we hit buckhead for lunch and shopping yesterday. I was perfectly happy to knit and hold holly while katie and sara drove*. anis didn't disappoint - seriously, they are great with dogs! - and the food was delicious. after lunch, we went to phipps plaza and actually found all the gifts we were shopping for (plus two more - santa is going to be so pleased with me!)

*to accommodate everyone's evening plans, we had a very complicated car arrangement which involved two cars and ended up with my coat (and my keys) parked at phipps instead of with me. so glad my neighbor donna has a spare key - I'm embarrassed how often I end up using it!

merry times.

...indeed. our annual family gift exchange is one of my favorite holiday traditions. karen hosted this year and it was especially nice this year to have the whole family there - we missed katie last year (which is maybe why I didn't even blog about it!), and of course holly came too.

I had fun this morning going through the nearly 100 photos from katie's and my cameras. and was pleased I ended up with a enough good ones to create a collage for day 18.

we didn't take our usual group photo this year, but we did get one of the cousins so my mom can put a new photo on her refrigerator.

sara, pj, jillian, andrew, paula, katie

I was surprised how much the "kids" have grown and changed since 2007 and 2008. I'm really thankful we have these fun times together...and the photos!

all here.

...both girls arrived safely - sara on thursday afternoon and katie yesterday evening. we've shopped and sara baked and now today is our annual family gift exchange. looking forward to merry times!

(and I'm caught up on my december album - click here to see)

10 things to do.

this week's prompt is very timely! shimelle's "to do list" prompt comes a little later, but with just eleven days to go, I needed this one today. it helps to get it all down on paper. and I love how that #1 item doesn't look nearly so intimidating in words!

as I typed up the list and grabbed the photo of my tree, I was thankful that decorating wasn't still a to do.

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photoshop textures.

...I can't remember how I found kim klassen's website, but I've been following along for several weeks now and I'm just in love with what she can do to a photo. last weekend she posted these beautiful textures and I've been waiting for the right photo to use them. yesterday seemed to offer a good opportunity. it was cold, and we had snow flurries on and off all afternoon and into the evening. I loved the way our tree looked from the deck, so warm and inviting.

and I'm really excited about the image I created.

I ended up using silent night 2 - and I used it twice. once as a photo overlay (on 100% opacity) and then again as a normal layer. it was really a happy accident. I'd planned to use the texture as background paper, behind the photo (with the overlay), but when I copied it into my photoshop file, it landed as the very top layer. and now I've spent way more time on this than I have. christmas knitting awaits!!

making me merry.

click photo for more details

...and now it's friday morning: the snow might be sunday (but they're saying it won't stick). and marc got little holly get out of her very warm bed before 5am so he could see her before he went to work. smitten indeed!

a favorite tradition.

...holiday lunch at maggiano's.

I started taking my management team to lunch there in 2000 (of course my documentation skills were not the best way back when I started...and apparently pretty spotty since then, too - I found only one photo from those ten lunches, from 2007). we'd get family style, have some wine, talk about stuff besides work and generally just have a fun, loud time. as my assignments changed, so did my management team. some years were definitely more fun than others! and lisa & janel were always two of my favorites (I can say that now, right?, since I don't work there anymore!)

so glad I haven't lost the tradition forever. lisa, janel & I met for lunch yesterday. we weren't a big enough party for family style, but we had a great time and the food was delicious. celebrate together indeed.

two for two.

...as in so far so good!

click the image for more details on the photos and digital supplies

for these first two days, I've loosely followed the prompts from shimelle's journal your christmas - hands down the best on-line course I've taken. it's a bonus that you join "for life" and get to participate year after year but only pay the first year. she updates the materials every year and this year she's added a second daily prompt focused on photography.

stay tuned for something more like ali edwards' december daily tomorrow (or saturday, I'm not promising three for three!)... shimelle's day 3 is about christmas cards. and I just don't think I have much to say about that!

today is december.

...doh, right?! but I think it's just the right tagline for the opening page in my fourth december journal.

photo from the starbucks window

participating in the project has become a tradition in its own right. and I am thrilled that katie and lydia are going to play this year, too.

happy december!

a favorite holiday memory (day 31).

...so glad karen & I were able to squeeze in our traditional holiday lunch in december (just barely). we had planned bistro vg, but they were closed (huh?!) and then we tried pastis (closed as well) and ended up at salt factory. at a table that looked out onto the street, still decorated for the holidays, and provided some of the best people watching. a lot of talk about the upcoming year, but also catching up on the past few months. I am really hoping we get to spend more time together in 2010.

lunch out and a quick look back (days 29 and 30).

...I smiled when I re-read my "once a year" things from 2007 - "lunch out. a lot." this year is no exception. I think yesterday's was number seven in 12 days (see what I mean by a lot?!) marc gave us a giftcard for the buckhead life restaurants and sara researched the menus on-line to pick pricci. excellent choice! and as usual, I enjoyed the company and conversation as much as (maybe even more than) the food.

and for today, I followed shimelle's prompt and did a quick look back to 2009. much harder to do with photos than the words-only view from 2007. but I guess that's a good problem to have. looking back through the thousands of photos to select just 12 took a while. and I enjoyed every minute of it!

indulgence.

...inspired by shimelle's prompt about holiday indulgences.

not much has changed since I first journaled about this in 2007. except that I am setting my alarm and not staying up too late. I really do love this morning time. and I think it makes marc feel better when he gets up at 5:30 to head to work that I'm up, and coffee's made...oh, and I have a much better camera! (and am knitting a LOT more)

yesterday afternoon when the undecorating was done, and another load of laundry was folded and put away, I sat down with a mug of tea (loving tazo's joy and bigelow's vanilla chai) and my knitting. and just knit. for over an hour. and it was wonderful.

day 27.

...said goodbye to katie yesterday afternoon, not sure when I'll see her next. our wintery garden with its bare branches and fallen leaves was the best expression of how I was feeling. so it seemed like a perfect time to take one last photo of the tree. in winter.

and admit it cheered me immensely to have two whole hours this morning to play in photoshop, and look back over my 365 project , remembering all the very good times this year has given me.

now looking forward to a very chilly walk and then un-decorating. getting the house ready for the new year is a huge part of getting myself ready for it, too. and one chore that I really don't mind that much (maybe because I have the time to do it since I have this whole week off?!)

a new tradition (day 26).

...the timing of our traditional family christmas gathering was too late to include katie this year. so we planned a girls only lunch out instead. and it was a blast! we had family style at maggiano's. which means plenty of really yummy food. and lots of time to talk. and a pretty setting for the group photo.

day 25.

...wow, funny how different christmas day is without small children!

we enjoyed a late breakfast with bagels and lox and then opened stockings and presents and watched four christmases, julie & julia and mary poppins. love that marc visited the factory twice to wish the shift workers a merry christmas. and the look on sara's face when she opened her gift from me and marc. many special moments. and I did cry more than once...and laugh a lot.