it's that time of year ...

You know, when everyone reflects on what kind of year they had. What went well, what they achieved and what they didn't. I've never done a "review of the year" type post before, so this year I thought I'd give it a try.

I've taken my inspiration from Fabulous Adventures of Listgirl (aka Christine Newman's) blog, which by-the-way is a brilliant read! Christine never ceases to amaze me at just how much "living" she manages to squeeze into any given month. I frequently leave her comments saying how exhausted I am just from reading her blog! Seriously, after you've read my post (and  yes I'm hoping you'll stick around long enough to read it), head on over to Christine's blog and you'll see what I mean.

So without further ado, here's my highly condensed summary of what happened in 2012:

• I started the year on a creative high with thank you cards and wedding invitations
• I began a new cooking adventure, lovingly referred to as NEWrecipes52
• We celebrated Iain's 40th birthday in Barbados
• The weather was a talking point throughout the year (as normal) from snow and stormy winds messing up the garden, to the very few days of sunshine that was our summer
• I baked bread for the first time
• I received 4 bouquets of flowers throughout the year
• I discovered (& became addicted to) Instagram
• I "baked" two diaper cakes for friends expecting babies
• I baked LOTS of real cakes as part of my NEWrecipes52 adventures (although I only got as far as trying out 30 new recipes rather than my intended 52)
• I watched my beloved Chelsea win the Champions League
• We celebrated the Queen's Diamond Jubilee with a street party at work
• Oscraps sub-committee meeting was held in London and we welcomed some of our international friends from Holland (Diane & Maya) and Australia (Ona & Marie)
• I celebrated by 41st birthday
• I found Fat Mum Slim's photo-a-day inspiration lists
• I made my first ever claim on my car insurance (I accidentally scraped the side of someones car in a car-park. The lady was very nice about it & my insurance dealt with the claim very quickly!)
• The Olympics made me proud to be British
• Iain and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary
• I finally got my hair cut (after almost a year since the last visit to the salon!)
• I blagged my way in to One Little Bird's and Paislee Press's creative teams (still pinching myself about both appointments!)
• Hazel and I went to New York and had a BLAST
• Iain grew a moustache for #movember and the team he was part of raised over £1000 for men's health charities
• I created my second Blurb photo book
• We got creative for our Christmas lunch at work
• I uploaded 232 Instagram photos (and counting!), blogged 59 time (more than in 2011 - yeah! but less than in 2010 - boo!) and took 2728 photos (not many compared to previous years!)
• Christmas was a quiet affair at home, just the way we like it

So there you have it, my 2012 in a nutshell. When you see it listed like this, it doesn't really look like I've done a lot. But in between all of the above, I've been working (quite a lot), relaxing (quite a lot) and generally loving my life as it currently is!

I've no doubt that I'll be asleep as the calendar flips over to from 2012 to 2013, so I'll take this opportunity to wish you all a prosperous New Year.Thanks for reading. See you next year!

be merry

credits: One Little Bird, A Star On Top + Wrap Star

creative fun and games at the office Chrismas lunch

On Thursday this week, my company had it's annual Christmas lunch. It usually takes the format of a staff briefing, followed by a buffet lunch, then the handing out of Secret Santa gifts. This year, they decided to change things up a little and introduce some fun competitive elements too.

The senior management team took part in their own version of the Great British Bake Off with each of the 6 senior managers bringing in [preferably homemade] mince pies for a blind tasting that was judged by the staff. My boss, Paula, was runner up for her "homemade" pies (they may have been homemade, but I'm pretty sure not by her!) and it was our MD who came first ...

Congratulations David!

We had a Christmas themed trivia quiz in which staff were grouped into teams of 5 or 6 and had answer 20 questions about all things Christmassy! The team I was in came joint third. Kudos!

We also had a homemade Christmas hat competition and the entries were all really impressive!

Cute little Santa hat ...

Gingerbread house inspired hat, complete with working lights ...

Jingle bell covered hat ...

Rudolph and Christmas tree hats ...

Tinsel and bauble crown ...

(oooppps, this is a bit more blurry than I thought - sorry!)

And a Christmas pudding hat, alongside the Grinchiest Santa ever ...

Then there was my not-so-little chimney hat, complete with fake snow, presents (at the very top) and pom-pom reindeer on the brim ...

I had no idea there were so many creative people at my company! Here's a group shot of everyone that took part, wearing their own homemade creations ...

The overall winner of the competition and now proud owner of the brilliantly ugly Christmas jumper prize was [insert drum roll here] ... Andy and his Christmas pudding hat ...

Congratulations Andy!!!

It was a really fun afternoon and probably one of the best Christmas lunches we've had in a while. But without a doubt, the funniest moment of the day came when my colleague, Hayley, tried on the winning hat ...

and did a little shoulder shimmy dance ...

Just think of the episode of Friends where Monica puts the turkey on her head and you'll get the general idea!

adventures of a New York wanderer | the book

I'm one of those people who doesn't usually print their photos. I scrap with them, I view them on my laptop and I even blog about them, but I very rarely print them. However, following my recent NYC trip, I knew I wanted to create a photobook as a way of "showcasing" some of my favourite images ...

I used blurb.co.uk to create my book (I'd used them once before for photos from my friend's wedding in Italy in 2011). Blurb's software is really easy to use and you work "off-line" until you're ready to order the book, which meant I could fiddle with the font and the position of my images without having to have Internet connection (i.e. during my lunch-breaks at work).

Now I have to confess. I have a terrible time visualising sizes. I always have and I always will. When I created the wedding photo book, I did it in the small square size of 7in x 7in and whilst I was happy enough with the end result, the book felt a bit small in my hands. So this time, I opted for the large landscape size of 13in x 11in ... that's about the same size as my laptop. Wow!

As with most things, it's the preparation that takes the longest time; selecting which images I wanted to use, tweaking them to correct imperfections, cropping and saving them took several hours (over a period of about 4 days).

My next challenge was picking the style of my book. I knew I didn't really want any text / journaling. I just wanted the focus to be on the images, with a single line indicating the "when" and "where" kind of data ...

I decided to keep it very clean and simple with most pages (42 in total) having just 1 central image. There were a couple of exceptions though. As you can imagine, I took a LOT of images whilst visiting the Empire State building and I wanted to show the views looking north, south, east and west ...

I also wanted to include some of the photos captured on my mobile phone and knowing that these images wouldn't stand up to being enlarged, I opted for a multi-image page that meant keeping them neat and small ...

I ordered 2 copies, one for me and the other as a Christmas gift for Hazel (she doesn't read my blog so it's OK for me to share here) and they arrived yesterday. The quality of the books, the paper, dust cover and bindings etc is excellent. Mind you, they weren't cheap and even with a 20% discount coupon, the books worked out at approximately £45 each! A wee bit pricey, but I'm delighted with the end result. I just hope Hazel feels the same way when she opens hers on Christmas morning.

movember moustache madness

Thirty days ago, Iain and ten of his work colleagues decided to attempt to grow moustaches throughout the month of November or Movember as it's now commonly called. Movember is all about raising awareness of men's health issues and in particular testicular and prostate cancers. You can find out more about it from the official website (http://uk.movember.com/about/).

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Iain and I actually work at the same business and this year, they registered as a team to help encourage and MOtivate each other, by posting regular updates and gathering donations from family, friends and anyone else who was willing!

I acted as Iain's "official" photographer throughout Movember and as you can see from the following images, they were all taken with my mobile phone and often in pretty poor lighting but never-the-less, they show the progression from sexy stubble, to furry monster, all in the space of 30 days.

Day 3

 Day 6

 

Day 11

Day 21

Day 30

 

Now he and his colleagues have done an AMAZING job and between them they've raised over £1000 for the the Movember charities!!! I'm so proud of him and the rest of the guys in the team. Spectacular efforts and lots of laughs all round.

But, I'm going to be soooooo glad tomorrow morning, when he finally shaves the darn thing off!

 

NYC captured

Since returning from New York, not surprisingly a lot of my layouts have featured images from my trip. If you've been reading my "adventures of a New York wanderer" posts, you'll have already seen the photos but here are some of them again, this time incorporated into my digi-scrapbooking pages (all the images are linked through to my Flickr gallery where you'll find full credits for each LO) ...

adventures of a New York wanderer | day 5

Our last day in New York started much like every other, with a filling breakfast! Our flight back to the UK wasn't due to depart until 9pm and our transfer from the hotel to JFK airport wasn't due to arrive until around 4pm. So what were we to do until then? Why, more sightseeing of course!

We packed our cases and checked out of the hotel, but thankfully they offered a left luggage service and for the princely sum of just $2, we had somewhere safe and secure to leave our suitcases.

We didn't want to walk too far, so we checked our map to see what landmarks were within a 10-15 block radius and Grand Central Station and Rockefeller Centre came up trumps. I'd heard that Grand Central was an impressive sight, but nothing prepared me for the opulence and splendour that greeted us ...

My photos really don't do it justice, it is simply magnificent. It's the most ornate train station I've ever seen (though St Pancras station in London comes a close second!) ...

We almost walked straight past the Chrysler Building, which really isn't that impressive at ground level (just my opinion!), it's beauty is all up top ...

We grabbed a cuppa tea before strolling along Lexington Avenue and over to St Patrick's Cathedral. Sadly, the exterior of the cathedral was completely under scaffold, so I didn't get any photos. After a quick look round the interior, we popped across the street to Saks Fifth Avenue, one of the city's classic shopping experiences!

A short stroll down West 49th Street and we arrived at Rockefeller Centre ...

The NBC Studios are located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza and it was here that we caught a glimpse of two stars of the small screen, Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan. They were filming (presumably an episode of 30 Rock) right there by the NBC Studio entrance of the GE Building!!!

For the most part, we had decided we'd try and eat local cuisine (i.e. not from a franchised fast food chain) but on this one occasion, we did treat ourselves to a McDonald's milkshake with added whipped cream and a cherry on the top too! Chocolate for Hazel ...

Strawberry for me ...

All too soon, it was time to head back to the hotel to await the arrival of our airport transport, but there was still enough time for Hazel to pose with one of the giant pumpkins ...

This was the exterior of our hotel, The Edison ...

I LOVED every second of my time in New York and it has strengthened my determination to return again; one day! But until that day arrives, I'll just have to be content with browsing through my photos and reminiscing with Hazel ... "do you remember, when we were in New York ...?"

Things ticked off my "must see / do / eat" list today were:

• meeting under the clock in Grand Central Station
• shopping in Saks Fifth Avenue
• watching the sunrise at 35,000ft as we returned to the UK

adventures of a New York wanderer | day 4

Another hearty breakfast (this time of bacon and eggs for both of us) and then we headed out on a stroll down to an area of the city known as Hell's Kitchen. Sounds charming, doesn't it? In actual fact, the reason we wanted to go there was because on every Saturday and Sunday, they hold a flea market on West 39th Street. They close off the whole street between 9th and 10th Avenues and lots of individual traders set up there stalls, full of all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff ...

Having perused the wares, we headed back up to 8th Avenue, where we hopped on a tour bus that would take us on the Uptown loop and through Harlem. Downtown and Midtown Manhattan are pretty flat, which is one reason why walking round the city is so easy, and it's not until you head north of Central Park that you realise that it's actually quite hilly! This shot reminds me of car chases you see in the movies ...

The beautiful architecture of Riverside Church ...

After an hour or so on the bus, we got off at the north east corner of Central Park and decided to spend time exploring the glorious scenery of the park. We entered at the more formal part called the Conservatory Gardens, with it's beautiful manicured lawns and neatly cropped box hedges ...

Then onto the more natural woodland areas where all the trees were in their glorious autumn colours ...

I guess we'd been walking for an hour or so when we found The Reservoir, a magnificent artificial lake right in the heart of NYC ...

Someone had told us to make sure we visited Central Park at the weekend, so we could get a real sense of how New Yorkers use it and having seen football matches, baseball games and lots of frisbee throwing activities, I guess we saw it at it's best!

We went back to our hotel for a quick break, then we headed out to pick up the Downtown loop tour bus to Midtown. As we walked over to the bus stop, we came across a HUGE street market taking place right next door on 7th Avenue. We couldn't believe we'd almost missed it! There were lots of food stalls selling tempting morsels; empanadas, gyros, kebabs, hotdogs, burgers, spring rolls and chicken satay with peanut sauce to name just a few. We treated ourselves to a few tasty snacks as we browsed the stalls selling anything and everything!

As the afternoon wore on, the cloud began to roll in and we started to think we may have to postpone the next part of our day's activities. We quickly hopped back onto the Downtown loop bus and disembarked at the stop for the Empire State Building.

Now, a word of advice for anyone planning on going up the Empire State Building ... do not, I repeat, do not get sucked in to believing all the rubbish spouted by the City Sightseeing Cruises guys (wearing bright blue jackets) that trawl around the entrance to the building. They'll tell you all kinds of crap about needing a ticket before you go in or fast tracking you past the queues etc if you buy your ticket from them ... you could end up paying $14 more than you need to!!!

Hazel and I learnt this lesson the hard way. By the time we got there it was already after 4pm and one of the guys in blue stopped us as we walked towards the building entrance. He said that the queues inside were long and there'd be 3 different queues before we could go up, but that for just $39 we'd only have to queue once (for the lift / elevator) and that we'd also get a bonus 90 minute cruise to see the city skyline from the water thrown into the package. Sounded good in principle, so we bought our tickets from him.

We did have to queue to go through security (you have to go through a metal detector scanner, like at the airport) but this was pretty quick. We then had to queue again briefly for the 1st and 2nd lifts. Yes, there are 2 different lifts to get you up to the 86th floor, but once up there the views are simple breathtaking!

To the west, looking over the Hudson River ...

To the south, looking towards One World Trade Centre ...

To the south east, looking towards the BMW (Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg) bridges ...

To the north east, looking over the east river and with the Chrysler Building in the left foreground ...

To the north, with Central Park and The Reservoir peeking between the high-rise buildings ...

Hazel and me on the 86th floor ...

It was only when we came down and were exiting the building, that we saw the price we could've paid to go up ... just $25!!! We were both a little miffed about being mis-lead but what can you do? Lesson learnt people, lesson learnt. I guess the extra $14 could be justified on the cruise, but in reality, the time and location of the departure point made it a pain to get to, so we didn't take the cruise.Instead we hopped on the last Downtown loop bus that would take us back to Time Square via the whole Downtown areas again!

We decided not to go out for dinner. Instead, we opted for a lazy night in our hotel room. We bought crisps, biscuits and cake and crashed out watching a movie on TV. It was a relaxing way to spend our last evening in NYC.

Things ticked off my "must see / do/ eat" list today were:

• delishious crispy bacon for breakfast
• seeing the fabulous autumn colours in Central Park
• taking in the breathtaking views from the Empire State Building