Holiday choices!

So the holiday season is literally round the corner.  My imaginary life has gone into overdrive with handmade decorations, gingerbread houses and beautifully wrapped presents.  My reality is I haven't even got the Christmas cards sorted.   Regardless though, I am already being tempted by the variety of holiday e-courses on offer, after all I should really document all this burgeoning creativity, right?

My bank balance puts a limit on what I can realistically do - so, for the third year running, I'm going to try and try again to follow along with Ali Edward's December Daily.   But for those with a little more spare cash, there are some wonderful looking courses out there.  Here's the Top 3 on my Wish List:

Winter Stories
I've been a long time admirer of Hope's blog, and her super artsy journalling pages, in fact her journalling e-courses are high on my non-holiday Wish List!
Just the vintage retro styling of the course badges alone makes me want to sign up, and this Winter offering is a collaboration with Kari Ramstrom of Arsty Mama, so I just know it's going to packed to the brim with creativity.  

30 days of Festive Photography
A workshop run by Tracey Clark, photographer and founder of Shutter Sisters, this could be the perfect complement to my December Daily album.  Tracey has been running seasonal workshops on Big Picture Scrapbooking this year, and I wish I had been taking them.  Can you imagine what a fabulous album I would have by the end of the year?  Oooh, Spring is available as self-paced workshop... I wonder if the rest will be?

Journal your Christmas
This was my first ever e-course, and I have yet to complete it.
Thank heavens Shimelle generously allows the alumni of her e-courses to continue participating each year at no extra cost despite always adding new material each year. 
Could this be my year?



* main image is from Ali Edwards and is of her 2010 cover.

I signed up...

Okay, this video did it for me.
How could I resist?
Can you?

Pretty paper and true stories

Before I was a blogger, probation worker, photographer; I was a scrapbooker.
I didn't know that was what I did, but for the first four years of our marriage, on our anniversary, I would present Cam with an album of the last year we shared together.  It contained anything from photos, to emails, to ticket stubs, and those initial albums are amongst my most treasured possessions now.  Seriously.  You think you won't forget the good times, but as the days, months and years come inbetween those memories, they do get lost.  Looking through them today, I am reminded how much we have actually accomplished and done as a couple, and that makes me happy - my only regret is that I didn't continue with it for the last 5 years!

Anyway, it was this creative journey which led me to discover the blogs which would later transform my World, and amongst the first (if not the first) was Shimelle Laine.

Although she now offers a range of online classes, back in the time, she was just launching her Journal Your Christmas class which also became my first online class experience.  Again, I didn't complete the course (are you sensing a pattern here?) , but one of the great things about Shimelle's classes are: once you've registered, you stay registered! So each year the class rolls round, I start with the best intentions all over the again.  Maybe 2010 is going to be my year :) 

Now, I am not a traditional scrapbooker as such.  I don't actually have the patience (or ability!) to embellish my pages and I've found, from past experience, trying to do so just frustrates me more than anything else!  However I love the concept of preserving my memories.  So, although Shimelle mixes it all up with pretty papers, it's ultimately her true stories which inspire me.  Take a look at her blog and you will see it's literally overflowing with tips, free projects and even cupcake recipes.  It just makes me want to grab a cuppa, roll up my sleeves and get creative!

The reason I am blogging about Shimelle today however, is she is just about to launch a new class.
I feel my e-course bone twitching, and I am trying to resist all my urges to sign up now.  But it looks so good, and is right up my alley... and for only £10, despite the scary economic climate and recent spending review, I can afford it, right...?

image from shimelle