Sharla

X = Xerochrysum

Week 14 Sorry, I’m so late. My photo shows one of the delightful chaffinches that visit my garden.

O = Orchid

Week 13 Two rooks getting ready in lots of time with nest building

Week 12 At last, the taller daffodils are opening. These are in our local churchyard – I just loved how vibrant they looked.

M = Meringues

Week 11 This collared dove is a regular visitor to the garden. She is perched on a walnut tree branch but behind her you can see some pink and white blossom on other trees - spring has definitely started.

E = Eccles cake

Week 10 This photo was taken as the day was coming to an end from an upstairs window. It was taken extending the zoom on my little digital camera as far as it could go to capture trees and a snowy hillside a long way in the distance past chimney tops and roofs. I haven’t altered it in any way because I rather like its bleak moodiness at the end of a grey day.

N = Napoleon Cake (a classic Russian cakes, made of very thin and flaky puff pastry cake layers and a smooth, rich and luscious pastry cream)

J = Ji Dan Gao (a traditional Chinese dessert usually eaten on the first day of the new year)

Z = Zuccotto: a Creamy Italian Dessert Cake

W = Waffles

L = Lemon Meringue Pie

I = Iced Doughnuts

C = Cream in all its different types and forms

Shiver, I can't even imagine what that feels like. In England, even up here in the north, it rarely gets below -5 and that's a rare event. Spring is definitely beginning here, I have started seeds in my little greenhouse and am keeping my fingers crossed we don't have a sudden cold spell. A couple of years ago all the blossom trees were damaged by a late frost (one of the very cold ones) and some have still not recovered.

K = Key Lime Pie

Week 9 A Siskin finch, on route to our bird feeders, kindly posed alongside some early cherry blossom.

I = Ice Cream

D = Dulce de Leche (a luxurious and gooey caramel sauce...)

I love that as a problem simply because it means you have enough material for lots of books! See it is a large jigsaw - take all the segments and then keep on moving them round until the fit logically together and then divide it all into chunks (chapters and sections). I use pieces of papers and write out the headings and then just keep moving them about until I have them in a sequence that makes sense. Don't be frightened of changing your mind - just keep moving the pieces until it fits okay for you. When I think back to my first introduction to scrapbooking and PSP I really needed things to be quite simple and in small bites - the Bootcamp was perfect - so my view is that first book should be quite basic. Mention of things like how to create masks or even clusters would have lost me completely. You can include loads more in follow ups and even have an experts guide for those who have been doing it for a long time. By the way I think you mentioned that Tips and Tricks is 6x9 inches - my copy is the next size up. Amazon show the size as 17.78 x 1.14 x 25.4 cm or 7 x 0.45 x 10 inches depending on what site you're using. I suspect that size is probably large enough for this book, 6x9 would have been okay for Tips and Tricks.

Week 8 At the start of the week I planted some vegetable seeds. I don’t know why I took a photo of three of the tomato packets but I’m glad I did because life got in the way last week and no other photos were taken… Fingers crossed, later in the year there’ll be some photos of actual tomatoes.

Yeah! All the very best of wishes for a wonderful birthday and for your best year yet.

As we like flowers, I am sure it will happen again.