The One About Document 2011 - January...

A few weeks ago I decided to take up the challenge to scrap life in 2011, as I'd seen so many other people producing fantastic pages.  I'm really far behind, and haven't keep any keepsakes in the first few months, but at least from March onwards I have my blog as a bit of reminder of what went on!  So the first few months will probably only be 1 12x12 page, whereas later months will have a double page spread.

I started January's on Wednesday night after my order came that day in the post - finally!!!  I used one of the monthly kits from December 2010 from Sarah's Cards to do these pages, and finished it up on Friday night, (whilst M was downstairs playing on the x-box!)

In January I went shopping to the Trafford Centre with my best friend, S and her mum, in the sales looking for an outfit to wear for a wedding in February.  S found a dress and matching jacket in the first shop we went in, unfortunately I had to try on numerous dresses until we found something for me.  The tricky thing was it was a winter wedding so I needed something that was going to look good, but keep me warm too!

On the 26th it was M's birthday.  I clubbed together with his dad and my mum to get him an x-box (his other one was making strange whirring noises all the time).  He actually had it a couple of weeks early as we got it in the sale and traded in the old one.  His birthday was on a Wednesday so we combined a curry with our friends with a trip to the cinema to see Unknown, which was a really fab movie!

January was also the time when we decided it was a good idea to sign up for the AAT course, in the hope that it would help me find a new job, as after 6 months in the other one I was constantly stressed, coming up against brick walls at work, and not actually spending many of my days doing things I enjoyed.  So my books came, and I started studying.

On the very last day in January I signed up for a new phone.  The phone that I was using was really only ever meant to be a fill in, it was M's hand me down, and I wanted one that I'd actually chosen.  So after playing with S's i-phone whilst on the hen do, and one of the other girls Nokia phones, I knew it had to be the Nokia.  Simply because it was easier to use, and would still use predictive text.  Since having it I've realised it doesn't do everything that I had hoped, because its on a different operating system to most Smart Phones and so there aren't many apps for it, and probably not many in the making.  But I use the internet easily on it, and the camera is fantastic!

And finally, the last weekend in January I went on my friend's hen do in York, and we had such a wonderful time :)  the maid of honour who had planned it all had put so much effort in, that it was good fun.  The first night we stayed in, with lasagne's, pizza, general nibbly things and wine of course.  E, the maid of honour had put together a Mr & Mrs quiz with the help of the husband to be without the bride ever knowing!  It was hilarious watching the bride trying to guess what answers her groom might give!  There was also a name that child quiz for famous people, which our team won!  And they had also made a pinata that was full of sweets that the bride had to smash.

The next day we were booked in for paintballing, and luckily it was only the low impact version, because it was still very painful when you got hit.  There was a very strict rule that even if you weren't in a game if you were out on the playing area you had to keep your mask on otherwise you risked losing your eye.  Well I was very grateful as I got shot in the back of the neck by a stray paintball from someone else's game, which stung like anything.  Could you imagine if I'd been facing the other way without my mask on???

Saturday night we were going out for a tour round the York dungeons.  So 12 girls had to be staggered using the two bathrooms, in order to get ready.  I'd also decided to curl my hair which made things take so much longer.  After burning myself with them on my first twirl, it was decided safer is S took over!  With minutes to spare we were ready to go.  The dungeons had been divided into different areas where different stories were told, and different things made us all jump.  There was one bit where the bride was put in the dock as though in an olden day court, and another where she was burnt at the stake!  This was followed by a yummy meal, and then dancing at a nightclub till 3am!  I know this isn't all on the scrapbook card, so I've written a large amount of journalling on the back so that I won't forget.  I'm just disappointed that I didn't take any photos at all whilst we were there.  I think I decided for that weekend I was going to enjoy being part of things, rather than an onlooker with a camera!

I've already started on the February pages, which see's my friend C get married, Mum and I go wedding outfit shopping, and the family receiving some very bad news, (which I think I'm going to include as it became such a large part of our lives - let me know if you have ever scrapped bad news or anything sad).