December Daily: Day 31

Traditions: We don’t really have a New Year’s Eve tradition, it’s my sister’s 21st birthday tomorrow, so we are going to her party tonight which goes through till the 1st of January. I stayed up till midnight with Lauren’s 18th in 2008, Andrew and Esther in Kalgoorlie in 2009, and Ryan & Helen’s party in 2010. But I’m not usually one to stay up! I promise!

Craft: Working on my One Little Word Album

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

 

Singing: Dino Stomp song

Eating: Donuts from Puffin Fresh (Phill got a couple while out with Emily!)

Organising: The study

Watching: The post for my Silhouette Cameo – it arrived in Australia on the 28th…

Buying: A new colour laser printer and Dymo labeller

Listening: To Phill working in the shed (well, the garage)

 

Melissa

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December daily: Day 24

Traditions: advent calendar eating the gingerbread house, going out for lunch (one point to make a line?)

Craft: More tag creating!
Decorating: Putting up Emily’s chalkboard from Uncle Peter.

We finally found our other decorations we were given last Christmas!
Singing: Carols with friends and family tonight.

Eating: Froot loops for breakfast (Phill couldn’t wait till tomorrow, and I wasn’t going to argue!), club sandwich, beef burger, vegemite sandwich, chai latte, coke and water for lunch, mango smoothie for arvo tea and fresh home baked bread for tea.

Organising: Our plan of attack for tomorrow so Emily won't be too overwhelmed

Watching: The Playschool concert

Giving: wrapping and labelling the last presents

Buying: milk and fruit and most importantly chalk!

Realising: I love doing church on Christmas eve.

Listening: To the whiny carols playing in Woollies. The Season's Angry Birds theme.
 
 
Melissa

December Daily: Day 23

Traditions: Advent calendar.

Craft: Decorating, wrapping and labelling gifts.

Dancing: Lots of it (though Emily fell and bumped her headdan

Eating: Chicken enchiladas

Organising: Measurements for shelves and putting up the blackboard for Emily.

Watching: Emily loving to help with the wrapping and gifts.

Receiving: A few extra hours rest with Phill home early today! 

Buying: Wahl Clippers to help me cut Phill’s hair – can’t wait to try them out.

Listening: “What’s this Mummy? Is there a toy in there for Baby Jesus?”

“It’s myrrh”

“Ew, I don’t like myrrh, blech”

‘”It’s like perfume”

“That one is frankincense”

“Baby Jesus likes frankincense!” (conversation over our advent pictures today)

I just had to include this pic from yesterday!

Emily fast asleep. 

 

Melissa

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December Daily: Day 21

Traditions: Advent calendar

Source: Uploaded by user via Melissa on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Melissa on Pinterest

Craft: Making gifts!

Eating: Jester’s pies and chips.

Dinner with the Shanhun’s for Steve’s birthday today.

Organising: The last few gifts.

Giving: Steve’s birthday gift.

Buying: Some sandals and thongs for Emily.

Listening: To Emily singing instead of having a sleep.

 

 

Melissa

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December Daily: Day 18-20 Digest Edition

Things have been busy over the weekend and I’ve been quite sick (in bed for 5 hours today!)

Here’s a quick summary:

18th

Emily stuck about 20 stamps together, while we slept I managed to rescue about 17/18 of them!

Phill and I helped out a Pebbles

I was in bed for the arvo, meanwhile Phill made pasties for tea (YUM!)

Carols in the Park – so much fun with both sets of grandparents and about 12 000+ people

Turns out that Emily’s age group wasn’t singing on stage (she got given the music by someone thinking she was in the older group!), so she kept asking when it was time for her to go on stage.

View of the Park – stage is glow to the left

Fried Potato ‘Christmas Tree’ – Yummy!

John hard at work – we traditionally sit just in from of his camera.

19th

Digital scrapbooking webinar in the morning, Mum O and Emily played with the iPad on loan from Mum S.

Can you spin Mummy?
No, I can't spin at the moment Emily
Come with me, to my room, I'll teach you how to spin!

The Fathering Project Meeting

Phill and I wrapped Emily’s presents.

20th

Present from Woo and Stan in the mail today,

Can I open it?

Not today, when do you think you will be able to open it?

On Christmas!

Emily and Mummy wrapped Daddy’s presents.
We wrapped Jake's present today - Emily says “It could be his favourite!”

Working on my last few gifts to wrap.

Emily loves the wrrapping paper we chose for her gifts – she thinks the curly haired angel is her! “It’s me holding my pussycat”

Hope you are enjoying your December!

Melissa

December Daily: Day 17

Traditions: Advent Calendar
Craft: Christmas Cards
Home making: Phill is adding a couple of sprinklers to our back yard. Oh and washing the car for the first time at our new house.

Giving: Getting the Christmas presents organised for wrapping.
Receiving: A mention in iTunes new and noteworthy for hobbies, for the December Daily Podcast

Eating: An impromptu BBQ tea with Mum and Dad O, Cait and John (straight from cricket practise). It was a fun afternoon.

Listening: To a few podcasts today.
 
Melissa
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December Daily: Day 16

Traditions: The advent calendar.

Craft: More Christmas cards!

Singing: Away in a Manger.

Eating: Chicken kebabs and greek salad.

Organising: An interview with Stephanie from Scrapworthy Lives. The Fathering Project website!

Homemaking: Paving finished! Only a week too late for the party.

Watching: Sherlock

Buying: Memento and Photo365 for my iPhone

Listening: Emily: ‘It’s a mystery’ ‘Something’s missing’

Today we visited the Dr for baby #2. All is going well. 

Melissa

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December Daily: Day 11

 

Invitations: Facebook & Email
Salads: Mum O, Mum S, Nan, Melissa
Cooking BBQ: Phill, Dad O, Mike, John + more!
Singing happy birthday: Emily
Cakes: Melissa
Guests: 47 attended

Simple Template Album Template 24; Peace on Earth by Flergs and Eva Kipler at Scrapbookgraphics; Fonts: Melissa's Hand

List documentation challenge courtesy of Memory Logbook Challenge 51!

Enjoy December Daily? Check out my podcast!

Melissa

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December Daily: Day 15

Traditions: The advent calendar.

Craft: More Christmas cards!

Singing: Emily can sing 2/3 verses of Away in a Manger!

Organising: An interview with Stephanie from Scrapworthy Lives. The Fathering Project website!

Watching: Sherlock

Buying: Memento and Photo365 for my iPhone

 

Listening: Emily: ‘It’s a mystery’ ‘Something’s missing’ 

Melissa

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Check out the December Daily Inspiration Podcast

December Daily: Day 14

Traditions: Phill’s birthday! Though we only had a small gift (well at least compared to the scroll saw, cutting tool and other gifts he got on the weekend!

Craft: Christmas cards, making the Christmas garland from Jessica Sprague’s free class. I did the activity for Playgroup – Rudolf the Reindeer. They didn’t get antlers, but I’ve had a busy week!

Emily catching a ride on the fire engine at clean up time!

Singing: Away in a manger, Happy Birthday to Daddy.

Eating: Hot dogs, salad and icecream for tea.

Organising: Our verticals for the last couple of windows we have bare.

Watching: Upstairs Downstairs part 2

Giving: Phill’s present, and wrapping another one

Buying: My new phone. I’ve had no phone of my own for just over a year, and finally decided to go with an iPhone. Managed to keep it up and running for about 3hours before crashing it! Which must be some sort of record for me. Thanks to Phill for many hours in queues in the past week to find a phone, sort out the transfer of my number etc.

Realising: I need to do something about the pain level in my left hip as it’s stopping me sleeping (Seeing the Doctor on Friday). Or was the the builders next door?

Listening: Emily is such a cute singer!

Melissa

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December Daily: Day 10 Layout

Phill cooked up some pancakes this morning - we had been cleaning out the freezer and had no bread left. Not that we were complaining!

Simple Template Album Template 4; Happy Hollydays Add on Paper Pack by Karen Lewis Designz available at The DigiChick; Happy Hollydays by Karen Lewis Designz available at The Digichick; Fonts: Melissa'sHand

Enjoy December Daily? Check out my podcast!

December Daily: Day 12

Traditions: Opening the advent calendar.

Decorating: Well, more like undecorating from Phill's 30th party!

Singing: Away in a Manger - with Grandma O today. Emily just need to sing along with people now!

Dancing: To Silent Night

Eating: Alfredo with olives and semi dried tomatos and home made garlic bread. Daddy had another work party today so just Emily and I for tea.

Organising: My digital scrapbooking class.

Watching: The ultrasound of the baby. Today we had our 19 week scan and Phill and Emily came along. It was so amazing to see the 3d pictures/video of the baby. ‘Nano’ growing well and doing all the right things so the Sonologist was happy with that!

Giving: Away lots of goodies to my students! $40 worth of digital supplies, a getting started with digital scrapbooking booklet and more at my Christmas Fun workshop (you can register for the free online class here)

Listening: To the rain fall – again!

Melissa

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A Compliment a Day

I’ve had a few people ask about the compliment a day that I used to do as a teenager (for several years actually, I consciously did try).

As a teenager, I gave out lots of compliments to my friends outfits or hair styles, but also tried to be appreciative of people’s special talents. I even tried to find some thing positive to write most weeks about the service in our Church communication cards.

I have to admit I did better at giving compliments when I was out than at home!

I found that a lot of people find compliments hard to deal with (in Australia we are notoriously self-deprecating!) and at that time in my life I felt the odd one out by responding with a simple ‘thankyou’ to compliments I received.

Some people still feel that I’m insincere or trying to get something out of them by giving them a compliment, I try to ignore it an perhaps just tone down the compliments in future. Of course my compliments are sincere and I truly hope people don’t get the wrong end of the stick!

Over the past 15years I’ve consciously tried to get into a habit of speaking positive words to gain a smile, rather than being sarcastic to gain a laugh from others.

In some ways, I think it did help me form a habit of looking for the positive in most situations.

One thing I ask – when you receive a compliment, take it on face value, smile and say thankyou!

Melissa

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Free Time Management Course for Scrapbookers

In this two day online course, Jennifer will teach you the 5 Simple Truths of Time Management and help you:

• Rid yourself of scrapbooking stress and guilt
• Find balance when you’re overextended
• Scrapbook in smaller amounts of time
• Banish procrastination and overwhelm forever
• Know exactly where to start when you scrap

Keep a Contented Heart: Scrap Happy Blog Hop

Welcome to the Scrapworthy Lives Scrap Happy Blog Hop.I've been loving reading Stephanie's blog about the Scrap Happy project over at Scrapworthy lives, so I was thrilled when I found out she's got a blog hop going. You have probably found me from Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking.

This month the theme is:

Keep a Contented Heart

During this busy Christmas season when advertisers and even the government seem to be encouraging us to buy more, do more, and spend more ;Gretchen Rueben suggests some tasks that keep us focussed on contentment:

Laugh out loud

I’ve talked about a couple of ways to document the laugh out loud moments in my Dececember Daily Inspiration Podcast!

Use good manners

Oh yes, being mannerly can help us focus on the good, and be concerned about our own actions rather than those of others.

Give positive reviews

As a young teenager, I decided to try complimenting at least one person per day, something I should pay attention to doing again!

Find an area of refuge

For me a few quiet moments of contemplation, prayer and sleep while Emily rests are my refuge. My art is also a refuge, but one that I can’t rely on being able to do every day! But I do write most days – especially during December Daily!

Being Content helps me focus

Rather than being scattered thinking about the next big thing, being content helps me focus on the here and now, the precious moments I have in my hand already!

How has being content brought you happiness lately?

Head over to Nihao, Cupcake! for the next stop in our journey.

In case you get lost, here are the rest of the blogs:

• Fun Mama
• Kiss & Tell Scrapbooking
• Melissa’s Blog – you are here
• Nihao, Cupcake!
• Our Life with Spiky Potatoes
• Scraps & Sass
• Scrapworthy Lives
• Slice of Life
• Take a Picture and Remember This
• This Kalil Life
• Your Memory Connection

Melissa

PS Want more Scrap Happy goodness?

• Scrap Happy Blog hop: Buy some happiness #New52
• Scrap happy blog hop: Contemplate the heavens
• Pay Attention: Scrap Happy Blog Hop

Enjoy this post? You may also enjoy Lisa Day’s Journey to Happiness What Matters Most class at Big Picture.

What matters most in your life? Have you really taken the time to think about the answer to that question?

“We will be working towards celebrating and creating a life
dedicated to focusing on what matters most to you!”
- Lisa Day

In Lisa Day’s latest workshop, you’ll spend four weeks setting up creative action plans to make sustainable changes that will help you focus on and stay true to what matters most. In class you will create two layouts and two mini albums which can be used as a guide to creating and celebrating a life – never losing sight of what matters most.

Do you want to make some changes in your life so that you can experience greater happiness and really focus on the things that truly matter to you? The journey to happiness is an on-going process, but with a clear focus, you can enjoy that journey every step of the way.