Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Week 4: Friends

Sorry for the very late post! It's been a full-on and FANTASTIC weekend here so I'm a bit late :)

There is a lovely quote I saw recently saying: A friend is one of the nicest things you can have... and one of the best things you can be. So very true!

2009 seems to be steering me towards spending more time with friends... and it's incredibly rewarding! How often have you been invited to do something with friends... bbq's, movies, trips etc and said... "I'd love to but I'm too busy"???? I know that I did it a LOT in 2008 but I've decided that this year I'm going to put 'busyness' aside and actually do some things with my friends because the housework/groceries/lawns etc can still be done tomorrow (maybe lol) but spending time with friends is precious!

This week I really wanted to capture how important my time with friends is to me... so here's my layout:

The journaling reads: I've just had the BEST weekend! After months of planning and organising Scrapfest finally arrived!!! For me, the best part of all was sharing the weekend with friends!

To be able to actually sit and talk... laugh... giggle over silly things... tease... and simply share an experience was FANTASTIC!

Friends make EVERYTHING better! I had more fun this weekend than I've had in a LONG time!... and much LESS sleep!

Friends make the great things feel AWESOME and they make the hard times easier to handle. Sometimes just by talking over a problem with a friend you just don't feel like you're on your own anymore.

So... I've decided to spend more time with friends this year. A lot of the time I let my 'busyness' stop me from sharing time with friends so it's time to put my friendships higher up on my priority list.

And I know I will have a lot more FUN!!!

I hope you get to spend some time with friends this week... either in person, by phone, or email :)

Have a great week and I'll be back on Sunday!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Week 3: Know your limits!

This week I've been learning a lesson in LIMITS!! More specifically, I've been learning a lesson in PUSHING the limits! Something mother's of toddlers and teenagers (kids general for that matter!) know all about!

The other day I looked at my 'to do' list... and it was LONG! And I realised that short of getting an extra couple of hours in a day (I wish!), going without sleep (not a good idea!) or living on 'party pills' (never tried them and never will!!) there was just NO WAY that I was ever going to get everything done... and I hit a brick wall (metaphorically speaking).

Teri Hatcher talked about the whole 'limits' thing in her book too... somehow I think it's a universal problem... especially for women (sexist? YES! true? YES!) Teri Hatcher wrote: You try to survive as best you can, and sometimes you're proud just to make it back to bed. But you can't let every day be about what you have to get done that day. Even if you manage to check everything off the list, does that make it a good day? Really? Or is it just a step forward on the treadmill that is constantly trying to carry you backward? Isn't it hard to feel like you're living your life when you're just doing what it takes to get by? ..... You're so focused on what needs to get done that you lose track of who you are. Forget not seeing the forest for the trees. You're not seeing the forest because who has time for a friggin' hike?

And that got me!!! I haven't been 'hiking' lately!!! I've been working, designing, organising, sorting, putting classes together... and I've forgotten to 'hike'! So this week I did something that I don't normally do (you'll see that on my page in just a sec) and then yesterday I spent the WHOLE day in my craft room... and it felt GREAT! I did something that I really wanted to do... something I've been putting off for ages... and last night I finished it... and I LOVE IT!!!

And today I feel great! I feel like I can get everything done! This morning I got up and put my page together and it feels good to document the lesson I've learned!


The journaling reads: I push my limits constantly!!! I didn't always do that!!! It's a habit I've LEARNED. Years ago I read Jonathan Livingstone Seagull and this piece really grabbed me:

"I just want to know what I can do in the air and what I can't, that's all. I just want to know."

And I'm like that too!! So I push my limits... I know where my limits are... but I'm constantly trying to push PAST them... and sometimes they push BACK! Sometimes instead of having 'just one more piece' to fit into the jigsaw you end up dropping the whole thing!

So... I asked for HELP! That's a scary thing for me! What if they said NO? What if they thought I was WEAK? What if they LAUGHED at me?

But I asked anyway... I HAD to because otherwise nothing was going to get done! And you know what... they DIDN'T laugh at me... they DIDN'T think I was weak... they actually said YES!! AND they felt HONOURED that I'd asked them!

So... did I get everything done?? Not quite.. BUT now everything is MANAGEABLE! I'm making progress AND I have friends that I can depend on!!!

It's been a big lesson! It WAS scary! But I did it anyway! And the world didn't end because I admitted that I couldn't do everything by myself. That's BIG!! I don't think it will ever get EASY to ask for help.. but I do know that next time I'm in a situation like this I won't find it quite as scary!

I'm feeling pretty lucky to have such wonderful friends! I feel quite humbled that they would be so generous with their time and energy to help me! So a big THANK YOU goes out to you!!!

While on the subject of friends... I have a lovely friend called Esther (Hi Petal!) who just LOVES jigsaw puzzle pieces.... they're her 'signature' on all her creations so I thought I'd better show you a close up of the jigsaw piece I put on my page this week:

The puzzle piece is made from MDF and I inked it with some distress ink... stamped a 'crackle' background onto it and then stamped a wee owl on top. Next I stamped lots of leaves and twigs around him to remind myself about 'not seeing the forest for the trees'.

So now it's YOUR turn! Do you push your limits??? If you're following along and you have a blog I'd love to see what you're doing with the prompts so please leave me a comment so I can visit you... and if you'd like to see what some of the girls on the forum are doing with them then please check out the gallery HERE.

Have a great week... and remember to do a bit of 'hiking'!

Shell xx

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Week 2: Organisation

Everywhere I turn at the moment people are talking about getting themselves organised. For some it means starting a new 2009 diary and for others it's having a big clean out!

Last year I bought myself a diary and by the middle of January I'd lost it!!! As a result, I missed several birthdays... including Dad's for about the 4th year is a row!!! I also 'remembered' events after they'd happened.

So this year I am determined to keep track of things! We've got a family diary so that I know what the girls are doing... and they know what I'm doing... and I've got a diary of my own as well. I also got a gorgeous calendar from one of my nieces for Christmas with her handprints on it so hopefully we'll know what we're supposed to be doing this year!

I'm also determined to get my craft room organised! I really get frustrated when I can't find things when I need them. How can I own 5 steel rulers and not be able to find even 1 of them???

The worst part about being so disorganised is that I can't even create properly!! I've been doing all of my Scrapfest stuff on the coffee table so that I don't have to be in my craft room!!!

But, sometimes the answers to life's 'problems' come when you least expect them... and the answers to my 'organisational woes' came in the form of a quote on this card:

It was made by Suzy (click HERE to check out her blog). So I'm going to 'create' a new and improved 'Shell'... an organised person who can find her own craft supplies when she needs them... and doesn't forget her fathers' birthday for a 5th year!!The journaling reads: Today while I was on the internet I came across a card that really grabbed me! It wasn't so mch the design... it was the quote... and it's been floating around in my head ever since!

Life isn't about finding yourself.

Life is about creating yourself.

That quote is powerful for me! It gives me the freedom to be who I want to be!

One of the things that I am going to achieve this year is being organised! I've bought myself a diary... one I like... one I will actually USE!

And tomorrow I'm tidying up my craft room! I'm going to really tidy! Not just the "I'd better tidy up because someone is coming" tidy... the "I want to be organised" tidying up!

Someone said to me "you'll change when the pain of not changing gets too much... and you've got a high pain threshold". And he was right!

The pain isn't physical... it's emotional.. and I've reached my threshold! So tomorrow I'm going to tidy!!! Yay me :) This is progress!!!

I actually wrote this last night... and YES I have started tidying up my craft room! It's going to take a while because I want it to be really, really organised... but already it's worth it just to know that I'm doing what I need to do for me to feel good again!

I also decided that I was definitely going to use the very last piece of my 'special' flax paper to decorate the inside front cover of my album... and I'm super happy with it :)

I've decided to add a few quotes to inspire me as well! The one at the bottom of the page is from this weeks prompt... and the one at the top was in the signature line of one of the girls in the forum... thanks Kirstin! It reads:

"Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what is going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity..." Gilda Radner

And on that note I'm off to continue organising!! I hope you all have a wonderful week :)

Love Shell xx

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Week 1: Just use it!

Happy New Year everyone! Does anyone else have the feeling that 2009 is going to be a GREAT year??? I actually woke up 'feeling' different this morning... almost like the weight of last year is lifting... I think we're going to have an exciting year ahead! I've created my cover for this album and I'll share it with you very soon... but first let's jump straight into the first prompt!

Week 1: Just use it!

Are you a hoarder? Do you save things for 'something special'? Do you buy things because you 'might' use them? If so then this prompt is going to be ideal for you!

My grandmother would have to have been one of the world's biggest hoarders! She kept EVERYTHING!!! She lived in a fairly big house but every single space had stuff in it... some of it was definitely treasure... but a lot of it was junk!

When I was little we always went to Granny's house for Christmas and all the grown ups would sit at the table drinking their wine from regular glasses because they weren't allowed to use the crystal glasses because they 'might' break them. She was saving them for 'something special'.

I remember looking in her china cabinets... yes she had more than one! She had so many glasses... and they were all gorgeous! But guess what... she NEVER used them!!! When she moved out of her house to go into the rest home, my mum and her brothers packed up the glasses and divided them up between them because Granny had no where to put them. So the glasses that were given to her never actually gave her any pleasure at all which seems really sad to me. And then I realised that the 'apple didn't fall too far from the tree' as the saying goes!Here's the journaling:

Do you buy lovely things (like paper) and save it for 'something special' only to find that you are still saving it years later?

I was sorting some things out in my craft room yesterday and I 'found' some gorgeous flax paper that I bought a long time ago! In fact the shop I bought it from has been closed for 3 years! So... I cut it! I used it! AND I loved it! I decided that 'something special' would be my cover for this album. And you know what?? That paper is special because I used it!

A few years ago my sister and I went to a craft fair and bought some 'special treats'... pesto, curry sauce etc. Within a couple of weeks she'd eaten hers and mine was still unopened! And... it's still in my cupboard! The BEST BEFORE DECEMBER 06 sticker mocks me! So now I have to throw it out! At least my sister got to enjoy hers!!!

So... I've come up with somthing that will work for me. Instead of asking myself if I want/need.... I'm going to ask "Will I USE it? Because curry sauce doesn't taste good if you're pouring it down the sink... and paper isn't 'special' until you've done something with it!

My new 'Will I USE it' has already worked for me too! I was in a friends shop yesterday and I saw some gorgeous Tim Holtz products... I LOVED them straight away and I wanted them... I even thought I needed them and then I asked myself... 'Will I USE them'? The answer was 'maybe one day'... so I left them there! It was a very empowering moment for me!!!

Now for the cover... I'm dying to show it to you because I really LOVE it!!!

It's made from thick chipboard which I covered with my 'saved' flax paper... (I've got one piece left which I think I'm going to use for the inside front cover)... The letters are from the 'Thickers' range. I stamped onto the letters with a crackle stamp and embossing ink and then I embossed them with gold.

The 'OPEN' door knob is from 7 gypsies... I bought a wee kit about 5 years ago and it had the door knob in it.... waiting for 'something special'... and the heart and wings are made from Grungeboard... I've had that for a year and hardly used it because I didn't want to 'waste' it!

I inked the wings with white versa mark and then embossed them with polysparkle... very pretty effect! The heart I inked with some Distress Ink and the swirl is actually a pattern on the grungeboard.

Down the bottom of the cover I put a photo of me 'wearing' a crown which Miss Krystal thought was a bit weird... but it's actually to remind myself that this is MY life... and I need to do what's right for ME! The crown is also Grungeboard and I embossed it with gold but it looked to 'perfect' so I added some more gold and then over heated it a bit so that it's got a tarnished look to it... that's to remind myself that I'm not perfect... I'm allowed to make mistakes!

And finally the charms on the side... I had a huge stash of bits and pieces that I've been 'saving' so I got them out and started working with them... the metal discs came from the same kit as the door knob.. I stamped words (inspire, dream, think, hope, love & create) onto them with Staz On ink... added some jump rings and then the chain which I bought ages ago in another kit. Then I added the beads and the key (from other kits) and finally the little Chinese good luck coins. I love how they 'tinkle' when I pick up my book.

I've taken this weeks prompt quite literally... I've actually USED lots of bits and pieces from my stash for my album cover and now I have 'something special' to show for it!

So the challenge is out there... what have you got that you're not using? Is it something that you need?... or is it something that is really just cluttering up your life? I've still got lots of things I need to use... but I've made a start!

I'll be back on Sunday with the next prompt so until then have a wonderful start to the New Year :)