My favorite time of the year – the Christmas season – is about to start, and so today’s journaling prompts are all about getting ready for the season:
And since I also had something to say about my preparations, I made a page, too:
It broke the day I had to turn it off to prepare for my travels this past summer: my refrigerator. It didn’t cool anymore, and so I knew that this was going to be on the list of things to do after I got back: Getting it fixed.
Getting it fixed, however, was quite the adventure.
First, I didn’t know where to start looking for someone who’d be able to fix a refrigerator. There’s no such thing as the Yellow Pages around here, and most local businesses like that wouldn’t have any internet representation.
Then, after I finally managed to find someone who could hook me up with a contact, I needed someone else eloquent enough to communicate in Chinese to help me negotiate things. Which again took a couple of weeks. (You see, things around here often take time and a lot of patience.)
Today, however, I finally managed to have an appointment set up and have someone come and look at my fridge. That’s when they decided they needed to take it to their workshop, because repairs would take more than a little fixing.
And that’s when the chase began. Soon after the repair guy had left, I received a phone call informing me that I needed to go to the school’s main gate to confirm that my fridge had permission to leave the campus. So I hurried over there only to find that my fridge was nowhere to be found, and to find that I had left my cell phone at home, so I couldn’t really make any phone calls to check back. Fortunately, the officer at the gate told me that my fridge was on its way back to the foreign faculty residence, needing a form which confirms that leaving the campus is a legal act etc. etc.
So I rushed back home in search of both, my fridge and my phone, but when I got back to the foreign faculty residence, there was still no trace of any fridge. At least I was able to get my cell phone, and sure enough, my friend called, telling me that the fridge was back at the gate waiting for me. So, once more, I ran over to the gate, and lo, there it was, sitting on a little three wheeler, its driver/repair man waiting for me. I still hadn’t managed to get any official paper for it, but after talking to the friendly officer at the gate, I was able to convince him that this was a privately owned fridge (not school property) and that it was merely leaving the campus for repairs. That’s when he reluctantly decided to let it pass, and that’s when I went home thinking to myself: There’s never such a thing as an easy way when it’s easy to make things really complicated here!
It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
~ Chinese Proverb ~
Yes, autumn has not quite left us yet, and so today, we decided to give it another shot and try playing in whatever capacity of leaves we may get. Remember those devious tree shakers I told you about last year, who always try to make chasing autumn leaves as little fun as possible? Anyhow, we found ourselves that favorite spot again, where chances of finding leaves are at least existent (though small), and where last year we’d had a blast with our autumn photo shoot. And it seemed like we were lucky yet once more. Of course, the wind found that place, too, and decided to share it generously with us and the dust it whirled around. But we didn’t care. We love leaves. And we love leaves in fall. And so we enjoyed a very happy autumn day!
A while back I came across this layout, and I thought about how much fun it would be to scraplift it.
I loved the arrangement and layering of the different papers, and that pocket in which Kelly (the scrapper who created this page) had inserted the tag. So, I sat down to work on a page, and it was that page that got me into creating the Thanksgiving kit “A Grateful Heart,” which I’ve been sharing with you lately.
Click on image to download
I’m happy to share with you the next part of my digital scrapbooking kit “A Thankful Heart.” Today you’ll get the first part of the papers, and if you come back next week you’ll be able to pick up the remaining paper parts.
And for those of you who have tried to download the alphas and the link didn’t work last week: I’ve fixed the link (at least I hope I did). Sorry for the inconvenience of that broken link. I’d copied the link as I was supposed to but then when I posted it, it reverted back to the original image’s link without me realizing it. I tried a couple times and it always reverted back to the old link, and it took a while for me to realize that I had to completely delete all links embedded in the image for it to finally accept the correct one. Anyhow, you can scroll down to find last Friday’s part (if you haven’t downloaded it already), and keep me posted on how the downloads work for you, k? And no worries, I’m intending to keep the downloads up for a while so you’ll have sufficient opportunity to grab the full kit!
Lastly, I’m happy to announce that I’ve already started working on a Christmas themed kit. I only need to work on the alpha and a couple more embellies, so hopefully, before we’re too far into December I’ll be able to share it with you.
For now, and as always, I wish you happy scrapping, and a happy Friday!
The other day I told you I had brought my down coat to the cleaner, and today, I picked it up again. Not quite as clean as I had expected it to be, but it certainly will keep me warm. And now that I have finished washing all my other warm winter stuff, I’m ready to face whatever cold may come. Of course, I hope that this winter that cold may also bring lots of snow, since we hadn’t had a really snowy winter in a long time. But only time can tell what will happen. Until then I’m content with knowing that this winter at least I’ll be warm and cozy!
The Thanksgiving Holiday always is a great opportunity to express gratitude, no matter which country you are from. So, I want to take the opportunity to say thanks to all my family and friends who have helped make this an unforgettable year of my life!
Credits:
Christmas Stories by Meghan Mullens & Traci Reed
Christmas Single by Cindy Schneider
Font: Dear Mr. Claus by Darcy Baldwin
