Getting My Feet Wet, originally uploaded by krisalis903.

The first scrapbooking I do in several months and I workin a size (8×8") that’s new to me. It’s a slight difference, but not too much.

I’ve been working on my December Daily album. This is pretty much what my pages look like: some Christmas paper, a few photos, some embellishments, and sticky notes galore serving as reminders of where things go. I use scrap paper as placeholders for photos and try to get everything as close to done as possible without having to restrict my own creativity. I’ve noticed I’m definitely not using as much permanent adhesive as I normally do (unless i’m adhering something I’m pretty certain I won’t change).

But the longer I work on it, the more excited I get about this project and the forthcoming weeks of friends, family, and colder weather

It’s hard to believe how quickly this year is going by. It’s already the second week of November! In two weeks it’ll be Thanksgiving. A few weeks after that, Christmas will be here.

Sometimes I wonder if I say the same things over again. For example, that previous paragraph? It makes me feel like I have a case of deja vu and I think, have I written that before? Perhaps I’ve just had it floating around in my head for so long that it just feels like I’ve said it before.

I’ve been making some decent progress on my December Daily album. I have about 4 pages creates already, 21 more to go. I’ve even started a topic calendar to act as an idea generator for when I get stumped on a topic one day. My goal is to finish 5 pages by tomorrow, which seems highly likely (though I do have a book club meeting tomorrow night) and then 5 more pages by Sunday.

I’m finding it a little challenging putting together pages for photos I haven’t even taken yet. Even more challenging is fighting the urge to really embellish some of the pages. I mean, if I don’t have the topic of a page yet, how can I even embellish it now?

But anyway, I’m keeping faith and looking forward to when December gets here.

Ok, the cloc

So this year, in an attempt to jumpstart my scrapbooking, I’m participating in Ali Edwards’ December Daily event. For December Daily, you do all of your preparation ahead of time. This would allow you to document the Christmas season without having to stress out over layouts.

Unfortunately though we’re already in the second week of November and I’ve barely created one layout!

Yep. Part of the hang-up too is I’m working in an 8×8 format (I’m so used to 12×12). I thought it would be easier to work in a smaller format. Maybe I’m just not used to thinking in that size yet. Probably in time it’ll get easier.

I have a goal to complete 5 pages by Wednesday, but tomorrow night I have a date with the Mac Genius at Willow Bend to take a gander at my laptop’s iSight camera. It’s doing weird stuff like not working so I figured I should have it looked at while it’s still covered under warranty. I’ve got one page kinda complete–now all I have to do is 4 more

Fail Me Not, Coffee Grinder, originally uploaded by krisalis903.

Our coffee grinder chose the wrong time to bust. I woke up this morning with Thor pounding on my head with his mighty hammer. I wonder if it was perhaps the really terrible wine I had the night before (everyone at the party was cutting it with 7-Up–it was THAT disgusting). So the first thing I do after taking the dogs out is make a pot of coffee. I pressed the button down on the coffee grinder and 3 seconds later I hear a snap-pop!

I opened the grinder and see the plastic thing inside had somehow come loose and was now mangled by the blade. Yep, awesome.

So I finish grinding the coffee in my little food processor (worked surprisingly well) and brewed a cup of coffee.

I ended up going out to Bed Bath & Beyond and buying this shiny number: Cuisinart DCG-12BC Grind Central Coffee Grinder. Usually I check Amazon for reviews before making an appliance purchase, but for some reason this time I didn’t. I wished I had though. They were NOT good Hopefully this one won’t be a lemon.

I can’t believe it’s November already. You know what that means, right? National Blog Posting Month! Yes, I’m participating for the 3rd time and boy am I excited. I don’t have the patience to tackle NaNoWriMo, but a blog post a day? That I can handle.

In addition to NaBlo, I’ll also be preparing for Ali Edwards December Daily event this year. I love the idea of journaling the 25 days leading up to Christmas. “The Basics: gather up a bunch of holiday supplies, create an album with 25 pages (one for each day), and then when December rolls around you will have a foundation upon which to document you and your family’s story. The idea is to take the time now to set it all up so that on December 1 you are ready to experience + to capture the memories for the day and add them into your album as you go.”

I’ve never actually documented the entire Christmas season so this will be a new experience for me. I am looking forward to it though