ali edwards

So I did a December Daily last year. You wouldn't have been able to tell from my blog because, well, uhm, I didn't finish! I wasn't going to scrap each day as it was, so I was planning on sharing the album when it was done. Which didn't quite happen.

Now it's December 2011 and I knew when I saw The "25 days of Christmas" line by Simple Stories that I wanted to make another one this year.

Another motivator for me to get going is that apart from the Smash books I blogged about earlier I also am now thinking very hard about doing Project Life next year. I have more or less settled on doing that digitally, after finishing my "Me: The Abridged Version" (MeTAV) digital book which is now in production at Blurb. And then there's One Little Word which I started early this year but never got beyond the first month, thanks mostly to my year not going quite as planned, which I'm now thinking of trying again next year, and I'm also seriously considering joining Cathy's Move More, Eat Well class.

So I had to make a pact with myself, to at least finish last year's December Daily and get well on the way with this year's as well, before the end of the year. It felt really good to finish MeTAV, although that's another project I know there will be a sequel to, I even started a group on Flickr for everyone doing or having done a MeTAV album. Anyway, finishing = good and I want to do a lot more of it.

So, today, I'm sharing my December Daily 2010 as it is now, and my new December Daily 2011 cover. And check back with me by the end of the year, I will be showing you the last page of that 2010 album!

I'll only show you a few pages here, but I can tell you that I got up to day 21 so far.

And now, here's my just finished cover for 2011

The cover size is 9" x 7", I used the chipboard that came as packaging in the QuicKutz magnetic books for storing Cookie Cutter dies. Papers and stickers from 25 Days of Christmas by Simple Stories and Basic Grey Basics line. "daily" letters are velvet thickers, and 2011 was cut using my Silhouette. I've used Fiskars and EK success border punches for the top and bottom borders.

I've made this cover using this video tutorial by Following the Paper Trail for making a 3-ring mini album.

The rings go through holes punched in the spine, and are embellished with ribbons on the outside.

This was a really fun cover to make. I love how it looks now and can't wait to start adding pages. Like last year, I've chosen not to make foundation pages up front, because I like to adapt my page to the photo(s) I add, so I won't be done quite as fast as others.

When the year started and I read about Ali Edwards' One Little Word online class I was keen to join with my word for 2011: Alive!

Since the summer of 2007 I have been suffering from shoulder pain, up to the point I couldn't work and could do less and less in anything else. A real diagnosis didn't come, endless physical therapy never led to a real solution, just small improvements that allowed me to do something, getting back to work only to fall back again. So early this year I decided enough was enough. Last year I did experience that positive thought had a great effect on (the perception of) my symptoms, so I was determined to just power through and get my life back, I would feel alive again in 2011!

But in March, my physical therapist, after another fall back, decided to test me again. He had successfully helped me get rid of a lot of muscle tension, and underneath that... the truth finally came out. My shoulder was unstable. The shoulder capsule was either torn or too wide. I would most likely need surgery. Though I had been thinking there was something more to my shoulder problems, not just bad posture or overexertion, and had wanted a real diagnosis, this did startle me. I would be in a sling for 4-6 weeks, and then there would be a long rehab process. After the initial shock I was relieved. There really was something wrong that could be fixed. I was referred to an orthopedic surgeon specializing in shoulder problems, saw him early April and was up for surgery only 15 days later. It all went really fast. Unfortunately the same thing can't be said for my rehab. I'm now over 3 months on from the surgery and I can only just drive my car again. I can't lift my arm sideways beyond 45 degrees. I have a ways to go.

It's a waiting game. You mostly 'sit around' waiting for improvement. Something I have done in the years before the surgery, with the difference that I'm now actually working on the solution to those problems that I had no real idea of whether they would ever go away before. But it's still no fun having to wait to be able to pick your life back up. Thankfully I've found a really good physical therapist for my rehab who's helping me with both the physical and mental aspects of the rehab process. She works in my parents hometown, which is where I have been staying since the surgery, away from my scrap room. Now that I'm slowly picking up driving again I hopefully can go home soon, and slowly pick up my work and scrapbooking again.

So instead of working on my One Little Word of 2011, "Alive", my 'word' for the moment is "On-Hold". One of these days I'm gonna find that remote and press play, even if it's only at half speed. "Alive" is coming, one way or another.