Ski Trip 2005

I went to a weekend crop a few weeks ago and managed to get 12 layouts done! I was very excited as I have been in a creative funk for quite some time now. Here are a couple of my faves from that weekend!

Challenge #5 at Dirty Scraps

I created "When I Grow Up" for Dirty Scraps Challenge #5. I am way too late to post it there but it's here for everyone to see!

Journaling: When I was growing up I was encouraged to be anything I wanted to be. I dreamed of being Prime Minister, a policitian or a lawyer so I could change our world. I never dreamed I'd grow up to be stressed, over-exerted, extremely depressed. I never longed to be angry, bitter or resentful. But through years of fighting for recovery I learned to fight for what matters. I learned to be a better mom, wife, friend. I am building a business in helping others to see hope. I volunteer at Celebrate Recovery. I am happy.

Cards Galore!!!

I went to a cardmaking day a couple weeks ago where we created 20 cards in 8 hours! What a day! Thanks to Dorothy of Stampin' Up for pre-cutting and designing these awesome cards for us to make! Take a look:

To Be Seen

Today I FINALLY created my FIRST layout of 2010! Pretty sad considering I usually have about 30 done by March! This one was inspired by Challenge #4 over at Dirty Scraps. http://dirtscraps.blogspot.com The challenge is to focus on how others see you.

My journaling reads: I volunteer as a small group leader at Celebrate Recovery, a Christian-based 12-step program. This is a serious role. Sometimes I forget how serious it is. We deal with all kinds of people in Recovery. Alcoholics, sex addicts, drug addicts, co-dependants and depressed to name a few. There are others who struggle with eating disorders, over-spending, over-achieving, people-pleasing, anger, rejection, loneliness, divorce, loss and hopelessness.

I can hardly believe that God is using me to reach out to these people. We are all so different. Many of these ladies I would never have had the opportunity to get to know in any other aspect of my life. But here we all are, every Friday night, sharing our hearts, our hurts, our habits and our hang-ups with each other. We support one another and in the common bond of great hurts we have developed a love one another.

I am so proud of these ladies for taking steps to improve their lives, their marriages, their situations. It took me a lot of years of sliding down a slippery slope before I decided to dry my tears and climb back up. I know the courage and the fear each of these ladies possess. I've been there.

I often get comments on how God is using me to minister to these ladies, how well I can relate to them or how gentle I am with their hearts. I am only being me. And I certainly am not doing it alone. I pray constantly that God will give me the words, the strength, the understanding, to help these ladies feel welcome and open to share. I know from my own experience that sharing my pain is a huge part of what healed me, so I pray that I can encourage them, give them hope and show them there is healing in the path they are now on if they choose to have it.

I am so humbled by the knowledge of God and the spiritual connection some of these ladies have. I am humbled by their strength to come forward and share their deepest secrets with me. I am humbled that they look up to me in any way. I just don't feel I am one they should be looking up to. But I do know that I would not trade this experience for anything. It has made me always ask myself, "what might that person be going through" and has helped me to stop passing judgement on what I don't know. And I have gotten to know and love some wonderfully strong women! For that I am grateful. - March 06, 2010

Belated Valentines!!!

I figured that come February I would finally get back to scrapping, but here it is with only a week left in the month and I haven't touched my stuff yet again.....just too busy lately! I need a crop to inspire me!

I DID, however, manage to create a Valentine's Heart Wreath....late, but at least I did it! I got the idea from http://flowerpatchfarmgirl.blogspot.com/. It was very simple and took little time and I made it from a book that I found at the Take-it-or-Leave-it.

Log Your Memories

I came across this book online before Christmas and I got really excited because I scrapbook chronologically and I am, right now, about 4 years behind! When I saw Kristen Rutten's Log Your Memory book, I knew it was the perfect thing for me!!!! Based on the idea of a daytimer, this book helps you record your daily memories for scrapping later. You can write down what photos you took, what events happened, how you felt, etc. Also, it has great little photo ideas, memory joggers and scrapping ideas!!!

I highly recommend this to anyone who has trouble remembering any details or importance of the photos you took by the time you scrap them!

http://stores.lulu.com/logyourmemory

First Creations of 2010

Good day everyone! Here are my first creations for 2010. I LOVE to crochet baby blankets and lucky me has a dear friend who just had a baby girl! This is the first time I knew the sex of the baby when I started the blanket and I really enjoyed making a PINK blanet. :D

This is the card I made to go with it. Didn't turn out the way it looked in my head, but oh well....it's still pretty cute! Have a great day!

Dirty Girl

Yesterday I became a Dirty Girl! LOL This is not as bad as it sounds!!! I just subscribed to a new challenge blog called Dirty Scraps. I am very excited about the idea behind this blog and wanted to share it with you all!

Check out Dirty Scraps blog here:

http://dirtyscraps.blogspot.com/

52 Pick Me Up

Happy New Year everyone! Glad to be back to regularly scheduled programming. I seem to be way more productive now than I was prior to Christmas, so for that, I am grateful.

For those wondering, my parents are doing well. There are still broken bones to heal, but for the most part they are feeling much better and the insurance claim is moving along.

I see that I have a couple followers now! YAY! Thank you for supporting me. :)

Today I want to talk about something called 52 Pick Me Up.

This was an idea that I originally heard about from Andrea Wiebe.

Her blog can be found here: http://ajourneysofar.blogspot.com/

The idea behind 52 Pick Me Up is to challenge yourself. Set a goal. As you are achieving your goal, reward yourself by scrapping a little momento or reminder each week, hence, 52 cards will be created throughout the year.

My goal in 2009 was just to live and not take life too seriously. As I learned more about myself I worked on my Pick Me Up cards, and though I fell behind and never did finish 52 of them, I am going to start again in 2010 and continue on to hopefully complete my set!

Here are some of my favorite lessons from 2009:

Christmas Day 2009

We opened gifts yesterday because hubby had to work today. But today I baked my heart out to help out my family. My parents were in a car accident on Christmas Eve and lost all the baking my mom had done. So today I took on the task of replacing the lost treats. I made toffee squares (our family's all-time favorite, but I forgot to take a photo of!) and shortbread. I had made the chocolate covered cherries and peanut butter cups a few days ago and I also made fudge today that hubby took to work to give to his coworkers. Then just as the baking was finishing I whipped up Caramel Apple Porkchops and Lemon Butter Pasta for Christmas supper. Aren't I a good wife??? :D

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! Blessings and peace to you and your family.