For the love of blogging

Hello and happy Monday to my much neglected blog!!! I am hoping to change that. Wouldn't you know that the last several months I've had a much easier schedule than I do now, but I have been meaning to get back to blogging for some time now. Might as well just jump in!!! I would love to say that I am planning to keep a regular schedule but as evidenced from my previous plans for that, I'm not so good at keeping to a regular blog schedule. For now, I'm just going to give it my best effort!!!

I wanted to stop in today to share a new layout that I made last week. I am super busy with working full-time and being a half-time graduate student, but I still find it necessary to fit in some craft time each week. Even if it means I have to stay up late to finish a paper when I have to work the next day. When the crafty mood strikes, I'm not going to turn it away!!! Some might wonder if my priorities are in line with that way of thinking, but if it keeps me sane to take a crafty break from school, that's what I do!!

I had decided a few months ago that at the end of the year, I would likely discontinue my membership with a kit club I've belonged to for several years. The company has made changes that, as a business, I understand they must make to survive, but as a customer I just didn't agree with. I didn't agree with the changes and the way those changes were communicated. Besides that, the kits haven't really felt like me for a few months. When there's a kit I love and can't live with out one month, and then there are several months that I just don't connect with for one reason or another, for me, it's time to move on. That meant that I decided to stock up on some new collections that I might not have added to my stash had things worked out differently. One of those collections was Shimelle's Christmas Magic. I think I picked up almost the entire collection. I'm still wanting to get the die's that go with this collection because, HELLO, paper chains are such a think I remember from my childhood...and really I just think it would drive my husband nuts to decorate the house with them!!

The circle pattern paper from the collection was just begging to be punched out!! I used the woodgrain pattern from the collection as a base for the layout. The holly leaves is actually the branding strip from that patter, but I loved it so much that after I trimmed it off, I just decided to use it right away. The photo is from our trip to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party last December. My husband and I live about 40 minutes from Disney in the central Florida area, so this 'party' has become a bit of a tradition for us every year. This year, we're going early in November when my parents are in town visiting. It's really a great time and totally gets you into the holiday spirit!! Plus, nobody does Christmas like Disney!!! The photo taken by the Disney Photopass photographer came out so great that we decided to use it for our Christmas card last year!! I put that into our December Daily album. I'm hopeful we get a good one again this year to use. We always go see Santa after the second parade and then go to the flag area for this pic with the frozen castle.

I'm looking forward to creating more with this collection and if all goes as planned, I'll be back tomorrow with another layout to share using it!!! Until then, thanks for stopping by!
deb