Don't You Shiver?

I'm telling you...if it wasn't for repositionable Hermafix, there would be a deranged woman twitching and rocking over this side of the country. I have shifted things around and around on this layout for a whole day now. Give the man who invented it an award. Truly.

I've been creating (read 'shuffling bits of card and paper around') for the Crafty-Ness Design Team, which I'm proud to be a part of. In this kit I was given BasicGrey Dasher papers, red, off-white and green cardstock, white snowflake brads and matching fibres (plus some other buttons and charms which I haven't used on this one). I've added my own gem brads and metal snowflake charm. And I've used lots of silver ink. Lots. of.

The title is from the song Shiver by Coldplay, as is the journaling--one of the verses of the song says, "...on and on, from the moment I wake to the moment I sleep, I'll be there by your side. Just you try and stop me." Isn't that how we feel about our children? They're like a piece of our heart walking around outside our bodies. Not that I've got any intention of following her around all her life (which strikes me as a little on the nutty side of things)... it's metaphorical you understand. Although NOW I'm thinking about this, it's giving me palpitations just imagining her flying off to another country on her own or somesuch thing one day...EEK!!! *Chrissie looks freaked out but shakes her head and pulls herself together* Grief...she's only 4...plenty of time before then!

New Year's Eve is fast approaching and it is a time when some people make resolutions or set goals...semantics-pedantics. I did set a couple for this year. In my head. Because then if I didn't do them, I could file them away nicely at the back of some dusty nerve ending that doesn't get much traffic and they *certainly* wouldn't be viewed by any passing critics. Heck...even I might have conveniently forgotten about them. But, yey, go me, I actually achieved two goals. Hoo haa!

I wanted to be much much better at recycling. Well, when I say 'better', what I mean is, actually recycle. Because it's shameful not to when you have bags and boxes and all that malarky these days that the council give you. So, for a whole year (much to Husband's chagrin as he found himself now having to lug out not only black bin-bags but also green ones full of tins and bottles and newspapers), I have sent my recycling off every couple of weeks and stood there looking duly holy and feeling very righteous.

On a side note...Swansea Council drive me crazy because they seem to think we live in the 1970s and don't provide wheely bins for your rubbish. Hence you have black bags sitting around in your garden for a week, which cats and foxes just love to have a forage in. And when I say 1970s, even THEN we were given round bins with lids. Tsk. *Chrissie goes off muttering about 'living in the Dark Ages' and saying words like 'nonsense' and 'ridiculous' a lot*

My second goal for 2006 was to keep a better record of my life. I come at this from a church perspective, which encourages one to keep a journal. I used to be fabulous at this when I was a teenager (when I come across my diary of life at 13 years old again, I shall share bits with you and I promise you will fall off your chair in your asthma-attack-laughing-fit). I was also pretty good right through my 20s. But then I realised that I don't actually enjoy HAND writing things (at uni' I could only ever ever write essays on the computer), especially as I touch-type and do that fast too. So my life became undocumented until I discovered scrapbooking which helped somewhat. But blogging (despite me slagging it off last January!) has helped me keep a record. All year. Albeit not quite as personal as it might be. But hey, it's better than a whole decade of next-to-nothing eh? I print off my blog at the end of every month and keep it in a folder.

So...we come to this new year. Shall I share? Or shall I keep my new goals floating around in a petri dish in my brain? Mmmm....