A Year of Memorable - 2013 in One Layout

I have done it. I have made a "summary" layout of our year. I went for the 4 x 4 grid format so in theory I could have fitted 16 photos but I opted for 11  2"x2" photos. That way, I have space for a little bit of journalling.

I have used supply from Webster's Pages by Alison Kreft.

Animated Christmas Lights

Remember, my photos from Berlin with all the lovely lights ?  Well, Google took one photo, animated the lights ( animated gif with multiple layers ) and sent it back to me.  Big Brother Google! Lovely or what ?

Berlin Christmas Market

Happy New Year my friends.  Hope 2014 will be a healthy and prosperous year for you all. Is it too late for some Christmas lights ?

We were in Berlin before Christmas for the Christmas markets.  I think, on every square and at every street corner in Berlin, you can find a Christmas market. We started with one on Alexanderplatz...that was fun. You need to be careful not to wander into the path of a tram. They also have hot dog sellers that carry their carts.

The next day, we found another market, just the other side of the Alexanderplatz train station, right under the tower. We took a ride on the big ferris wheel. They also have a big skating rink around a fountain with a giant Neptune in the middle.

We had to pay 1 Euro each to go to this next market.  It had more artisan products but I am not sure it was worth the entrance fee.  Still, I believe the fee was going to charity.

This posh road had all the trees covered in lights.

We found this giant reindeer being ridden by Santa in another posh area near the zoo.

Not quite lights or Christmas market, I love this giant mural of the Berlin bear on one wall at our hotel.

We also did a tour of Bundestag, a Berlinwalk.de walking tour entitled  Berlin behind the Iron Curtain and a guided tour of Hohenhausen prison. Watch out for some Berlin layouts...

Get the Sequins Out

How's your Christmas prep coming along ?  I have bought one or two things but saving my shopping to do when we go to Berlin. I hear there are a fair few Christmas markets over there!

So with no presents bought, I decided to prepare in advance and made some gift tags for the four of us.

I cut the tags from some 6x4 American Crafts Variety Pack in Pastel.  I removed 1 1/5" of the 4" width, leaving me with a tag approximately 2 1/5" x 6".  I added some Christmassy Washi Tape to the top before punching a large hole in the tag.

Next I added some stickers and Chipboard from Crate Paper Bundled Up Collection.  Lastly, not forgetting those sequins, I grabbed a few stars and glue them down with Diamond Glaze.  I added an alphabet Thickers to each tag so we can identify which presents belong to whom.

I love those Nut Crackers.  The tall one used to belong to A, it got returned to us when his parents had a clear out of A's stuff.  So he has been around a while.  He has moved a few housed with us.  Once house move, he came out of the box and was missing a foot.  This somehow miraculously, got reunited and reglued back on.  Next house move he lost an arm...many months later we located this too.  I am pleased to say, he is complete right now. I'll take better care next house move.

The yellow Nut Cracker was a gift from a German au-pair who lived with us about 10 years ago. He is still very much intact.  Perhaps we'll invest in another one when we are in Berlin ?

Was This Not the Best Looking Cake ?

I am hosting the Sketch challenge at Sarah's Cards this month.  My sketch is simple so you don't have any excuse not to join me. 

This is what I've made.  In some ways, you could say I have an obsession with trying to get the Heston's or Delia's cake from Waitrose.  As I don't normally shop at Waitrose, I usually missed out.  Not last year. I happened to be in Waitrose Cafe for coffee morning with the other mummies. I managed to snap one up.

I have used products from Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party collection.Sooo pretty! Instead of patterned paper matting under the photo, I have used multiple copies of the same photo. I happened to have printed a few in mulitple sizes to see what would work better.  It turned out, all three sizes worked together. Here it is close up.

So, what do you think ? Was this not the best looking cake ? Whatever you think, you've got to play along at Sarah's Cards blog.

Christmas order, confirmed!

I did this LO for Scrap365.  Did you see it ?

The local farm shop has these turkeys out front as you drive in. When we first saw them this year, they reminded us to place our order. This was back in October.  A few weeks later, as they flocked up to the fence to look at us, ever curious, we thought their number have swelled.  But no, they have merely been fattened up.  No doubt by now, it being December, they would no longer be there in their enclosure...

I have added pretty feathers to the layout, entirely appropriate, I thought.

The Swarm at Thorpe Park

We went to Thorpe Park a few weeks ago, when the weather was still nice and the sun was still high in the sky.  You needed that, if you were planning on riding the water rides. We got thoroughly soaked on Tidal Wave!

When we got to Thorpe Park, Hamish and I promptly joined the queue for The Swarm. It was a 20 minutes queue at that point. The 20 minutes turned into over an hour.  The queue management was the most shambolic of any rides we have been on. For a start, they had 2 rows of seats on the rides turned backward for extra thrill.  The queue for this was much shorter but when you get to the ride, you can go anywhere you want.  So our "going forward" queue was getting slower and slower. Then they decided to hook on another set of rides so they can have 2 going simultaneously.  That took some time, not sure why they didn't do it before they open.  Then the 2 simultaneous were ran more like one after the other.

Enough about the bad queue.  The ride was awesome.  It was very, very fast, very high, twist and turning that I have ever experienced. And over is less than a minute. The ride went very close to some buildings built as prop for the ride but unlike the dummies in the test runs, there were no close calls. We didn't lose limbs. It was extreme but it was very smooth. It was the best ride on a roller coaster for me, ever!

You want to see the layout as evidence, right ?