Being me

Here's a layout that I did a while ago. I have hesitated to post it because I wasn't sure I really wanted to.

I have changed it many times, and I'm not sure if this is going to remain this way, so we'll see if I change it yet again. Ha! It's hard for me because I don't normally scrap pictures of just myself, especially when I don't like the way I look... but after all that's kind of the whole point of this page is, breaking through that apprehension of scrapping about myself, no matter how unhappy I am with how I look.

5 years ago today!

Today my husband and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! I wanted to get this post out sooner or have it scheduled, but I didn't get a chance to. Anyway thought I would share some pictures from our wedding day! We've been so blessed over the years and God has seen us through so much! We are so thankful for all he has given us and done for us!

It's so funny to think that on our wedding day it was about 70 degrees and beautiful out! And today on the same day five years later it's crazy snowy white, icy/rainy and very nasty out! We've had so much snow this year!

Thanks for stopping by to share in our 5th anniversary! Blessings to you all! :)

Attention Jane Austen fans!

For those of you who like Jane Austen, I thought I would share a link with you! They have redone Emma, and have made it into a longer version. It's aired on TV through PBS (I think) each Sunday evening. You can also watch the full length shows of it online through Masterpiece Theater (for those of us who don't watch tv or have cable or satellite). My sister and I have watched the first episode together, and it was 2 hours long!! You can now watch the second episode online now as well. I plan to soon. I just have to say that I really like this one! I have always liked Emma, and I am so happy they've made a longer version of it! I really like the characters in this one. Except, I have to admit, no one plays Mr. Knightley as good as Jeremy Northam. So although the Mr. Knightley in this new version isn't quite as good as the 1996 version, he still does a good job and I do like him quite well. I won't give too many details, but I would highly recommend you watch this!! I just love Jane Austen's stories and period films!! So pop yourself some popcorn, get cozy and enjoy!

blogiversary + Birthday

A year ago today I started my blog! I really don't have anything special to do in celebration of it. But I do have two pages I did from my birthday. As you may notice the first page is a redo of my original I did a week or so ago. I really didn't like my original one I designed, I just felt like it wasn't me. So it was bugging me too much, I just had to redo it! There are a few others I've done recently that I'm in the process of redesigning because I just don't like them. I feel like because I was kind of forcing myself to get them scrapped, that I wasn't designing what I truly like and what my style is. And lately, I'm not totally sure what my style is, but I have noticed I really am liking more simple designs, nothing too complicated and stressful on the eyes. I like things to look CLEAN and well balanced I guess. White background, a few flourishes, stitching (maybe you're getting sick of seeing me use so much stitching?? I'm just really into it right now!).
And I really like adding color- making my layouts bright and cheerful!
For this page I was inspired by this layout.

And because I'm not use to using a lot of pink on my pages (since I mostly do pages of the boys) I really wanted the page with me to look girly! I don't get that many opportunities for that and to use PINK! And I have so badly wanted to use it! And these papers from Crystal were just that! Bright and cheerful, and pink! They're really simple and clean looking, I guess that's what attracted me to them, oh, and the hearts and poka dots! I've been getting most of my inspiration from HERE & HERE lately. Crystal has been featuring digi kits that were designed by her little sister on her blog for a special price for one week (info here). I think that's so sweet that she's helped her sister out by doing that and also for helping her in design! I think that's awesome when people are so selfless and are so willing to give of themselves and teach others. Just a good example of how God wants us to freely give to others. I'm really trying to have a positive outlook on different circumstances in my life, and trying to always think the best of others. Sometimes it can be difficult, but with the Lord's help, he can see me through these changes! :)

So anyway, thanks for taking the time to stop by and visit me today! And to celebrate my one year blogiversary!! Maybe I'll eat a piece of chocolate cake in celebration of it! And you can go ahead and eat some too! :-)
Speaking of anniversaries, my husband and I will be married 5 years this coming Friday, the 5th! I'm really looking forward to it! It will be the first time in a LONG time that we'll get to go out alone together, just the two of us, no kids.

Pure joy & side by side

Hello, well here is my other page I did with the rest of the pictures I had of Samuel from the layout I did of him before. So this is the second page. There were just too many stinkin cute pictures of him, I had to use most of them! so this was how I decided to do it.

And here are the two pages side-by-side.

I wonder if maybe I don't have an updated version of Picasa, b/c I can't for the life of me figure out how to post two pictures at the same time??? There were NO options ANYWHERE, it would only let me do one at a time. So I just used regular blogger for posting these.

26 years of life

Okay, honestly, I'm not sure if I like this page. I really am not too crazy about the last few pages I've done lately. But one thing I know is, that at least I'm scrapping them and getting them done! But I do want to like my pages and have a purpose for why I'm scrapping them. But I figure even if I get the things scrapped now and get them done with, I can always come back to them another time and redo them if I have a better idea for them.

This was from my birthday in December. I have more from that day, but I think I will scrap those on another page, or two. One thing I love about digital scrapping is it's soooo versatile and you can pretty much do whatever you what!! Redo it, and not have a torn up mess. You can change the colors of anything to have it match your layout, resizing anything you want whatever size you want, and if you have pictures from a certain day or event you can make multiple pages, (not that you can't do that with traditional), but it's just so much fun and easy! And who says you only have to have one page from that day?? Oh, the possibilities are endless!
P.S. this is my first time blogging from Picasa... Yeah, seriously, the FIRST. I've wanted to use Picasa so bad in the past but I could NEVER get it to work for me when I wanted to blog from it. So I just haven't tried in a really, really long time. So it's working now! Yay! But I don't notice as many options I normally have when going through regular blogger... Am I not noticing everything?
Dreamland is calling my name! Goodnight!

Picnic

Here is a page I created last night of the boys and I, having our last picnic outside at our old house.

This page was a little challenging. It turned out differently than I first planned. Sometimes I find it difficult to use so many pictures on  a layout. So I mostly just wanted the pictures to be the focal point of this layout. I kept it pretty simple. I tried adding other things (elements and such), but it just didn't look right.
Designer Digitals has this new kit out that I think I fell in love with! I really like it! It's a collaborative kit that several different designers contributed to, and Ali Edwards and Katie Pertiet are two of them, along with many others, I really like their work! All the proceeds go to the victims of the Haiti earthquake. While it's a little more than what I normally spend on a kit, I just might have to get it! But I can't this week. So I will have to wait. I have my eye on some other digital goodness I've seen lately as well!

Tupperware Mess + 2010 word

Hello!! Here I am with another page!! Yup! I am really trying to force myself to get into a scrapping routine so that I can get some of my scrapping underway here. I just have way too many pictures and I feel SO FAR behind. And I am tired of procrastinating. So instead of really having an order of what I'm scrapping right now, I just go through my pictures and find ones I would like to scrap and go from there.

So this is a page of my sweet little baby back in the summer, I can't believe how young and little he was here and how FAST time has gone! It almost makes me want to cry! So this page went together rather fast. I kind of had an idea in mind. And these frames I purchased from Designer Digitals a few weeks back are nice for doing a quick page. I'm not totally sure if I'm sold on this page, I don't know, maybe it has to grow on me.

So ever since December I had been pondering on what my word for 2010 was going to be. I prayed about it and thought about it a lot. And nothing would come to me. So many things came to mind that I wanted to work on and change in my life. Last year my word was "grow", and in many ways I felt I didn't achieve that goal as much as I had hoped. But when I sat down and thought about it, I think the Lord showed me that I did grow, but not necessarily in the areas I expected to, but in the areas that the Lord needed me to! So it's amazing the things he shows us and ways he humbles us.

And while there are a lot of things I still carry from last year, things I want to change and work on in my life, as I'm sure there will always be some. It's not like everything magically disappears over night right when the clock turns midnight and the new year begins! Of course to God it's just another new day to serve him and follow him. And really, we should treat everyday like a new year, a day to start fresh, to be forgiven (if need be) and learn to forgive yourself (again, if need be), (A friend really encouraged me in this! You know who you are! ;) and move on throughout the day. Allow God to be our strength and might throughout the day.

Too many a time I find myself these days really getting down on myself for failing in the areas I really want to change in. Areas that I don't like about myself. If I make it a point to not give into these things throughout the day, and then fail to do so, I really, REALLY beat myself up about it. I have a little battle in my mind with myself. And I know I don't want to keep doing this over and over again. And I know the enemy wants to bring me down and get me depressed. But it's my choice to be depressed and let him get me down. And that's something I DO NOT want to give into. I know I will always be growing and changing and moving forward. But sometimes it's really frustrating when you feel like you're going through the same things everyday and feel like you're never going to learn. Like HOW MANY TIMES IS IT GOING TO TAKE ME BEFORE I GET IT THROUGH MY HEAD!?!

But really, it all comes down to overcoming. God wants us to be over comers of our bad habits, areas that aren't necessarily sin, but that could eventually become sin if we continue to hold onto it. And only by the Holy Spirit and God's strength can we overcome these habits in our lives.

And lately, there are just a lot of things I believe the Lord has shown me that I need to work on and change about myself.

There's' so many things that I want to work on.

I'm just tired of being a slacker and procrastinator and not being organized and punctual or have any kind of normal functioning routine... waiting until the last minute to do things, putting things off and waiting for that "perfect" time (in my mind) to come, which if I do that I will never finish all the things I want to.

I'm tired of getting upset with my boys and giving into anger and frustration.

I'm tired of being lazy, not giving myself a routine to go by each day. Sitting around doing nothing because I feel overwhelmed.

Feeling like a bad wife and mother. God wants me to love myself and be happy with who I am (not in a haughty and prideful way). But because I am a child of him and his creation, it is his will that we love ourselves and we love others and love him.
I want to give all I can and be all I can for HIM, to grow stronger and deeper in HIM and his truth. To be all he wants me to be. No more or no less. And this will be a continual thing throughout my entire life as I walk with HIM.
So during this past week, my word came to me. It was really cool too! I had been studying the word "STRENGTH" throughout this past week. I would look up different verses on it and then write them down. It was very encouraging. A VERY great word to study. If you ever want to study that word I highly encourage you too, or any word for that matter. It's just so encouraging to have a word to look up in the bible, read all the many verses on that word and write them down, it really helps for it to sink in. There were so many verses that really spoke to me and stuck out to me.

And while it was actually when I was reading a little daily inspirational book I have by Joyce Meyer when my word came to me. And I hadn't read this book in a long time, but thought I would open it and read some. So I read one page, and what was the word that stuck out???

CHANGE.

Yup.

simply.

CHANGE.

And that pretty much covers it all! Ha!

God wants me to change the areas of my life that I have allowed to become bad habits and that could become something even worse if I don't do something about it. And I want to change because I am unhappy with my bad habits and things I have given into.

And I realize this is a pretty big feat for me. And in some ways it kind of scares me. Because I know that this will take A LOT of discipline. And probably a lot of trial and error.

This verse was my last verse I wrote down for the week. And it really just spoke to me. So I want to share what I got from it.

Colossians 1:10-12 "That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;"

That I walk worthy of the Lord in ALL pleasing!

I sure don't feel like I do much.

To be fruitful in every good work and increasing in knowledge of God..

I sure want to be more like this!

strengthened with all might, according to God's GLORIOUS power, unto all patience and longsuffering with JOYFULNESS.

That's what I want to be, to be strengthened and to allow God's strength to strengthen me through his glorious power, and with patience I can get through these times and changes one at a time, instead of trying to change all at once..

While having the longsuffering of working through it all, and while going through it to have joyfulness and even more joyfulness coming out of it!

Whew!! Okay, so now I really wrote a book here. And I really don't know how many of you out there still visit me and my little blog, but for those of you few that do, THANK YOU! Thank you for taking the time to read all of this and what I have to say! I pray that God is showing you things and encouraging you in areas of your life that you would like to change or even make better! Because you CAN do ALL things through Christ which strengthens YOU!

I will end here.