Scrapping the Tough Stuff, Part 1

Early this morning, I was surfing around on scrapbook.com and I came across a post that has stuck with me all through the day today. The poster asked what is a tough subject that you've scrapbooked, and how did you scrap it. There were several people who had scrapped the loss of children, parents, or grandparents. There were some who had scrapbooked either about or for family members dealing with Alzheimers. There were some who had scrapbooked about their own personal challenges that they had dealt with, or were still dealing with. And there were people who had things that they wanted to scrapbook, but they hadn't yet.


Reading all these posts got me to thinking about an album project I had started planning a few years ago. I had seen an article in Simple Scrapbooks magazine about an album a young woman had done chronicling her journey through kidney disease, dialysis and finally kidney transplantation. Boy, did I ever sit up and take notice! As I like to say:"Been there, done that, got the scars to prove it." The article only showed a couple of pages from the album, but if you went onto the magazine's website you could see the rest of the album. So the very next day, that's what I did. There were many similarities between this lady's story and my own; the main one being that our mothers were the donors for each of us. This inspired me to start planning an album to tell my own story. I right away started drafting the journalling. This turned out to be really hard at times. There were times that I as I was fighting tears as I wrote about some of the more painful moments that I went through. (Since I was doing a lout of this at work during my lunch breaks, crying was the last thing I wanted to be caught doing.)

Seeing this post on scrapbook.com has really motivated me to go back and carry on with my album. I'm still in the drafting phase of my journalling; there's a lot of stuff that I haven't written about yet that I want to make sure gets included. And there's a lot of stuff that I've never shared with anyone before now that I want to put in, even though I still find some of it painful. In some ways, I think that starting this album has been quite therapeutic for me. I've been able to write down some of the stuff that I've never been able to express before, such as how I felt like I needed to put on a brave face, even though I was scared to death. I felt as though if my family could see that I was doing okay with all of this, then maybe they wouldn't be so scared. So I kept my feelings to myself. I cried myself to sleep more nights than I care to count, and I wished desperately that I had someone to talk to. But I didn't want to burden my family with what I was feeling because they were already scared and upset at what was happening to me. I guess I was afraid that they would be more upset if I let on just how scared I really was.

To be continued...

TTFN!

Oh, how I HATE spring cleaning!!

I've been attemting to re-decorate my bedroom for going on three years now. Or is it four? I've lost count now because it's been too long. Anyways, I've decided that this is the year my room will be re-done. I will have a nice, pretty sanctuary to escape to at the end of the day. My new Ikea furniture will finally get to come out of storage and see the light of day, as will the custom blinds I ordered for my room. The floor will be bare, and I will no longer be tripping over things that are laying around.

There's just one problem. Currently, my room looks like a hurricane went through. Where did all this c**p come from, anyway? Does it multiply in the dark of night? Or is someone dumping stuff in my room when I'm at work during the day? This bag has...scrapbooking stuff in it. This one... oh, there's that started needlework project I've been looking for. Stray sock? Where did that come from? Oh well, throw it in the laundry and hopefully I have a mate to it somewhere. Let's see...what else do we have here? Bag of books, another bag of books, another bag of scrappy stuff, more books, more needlework, random balls of yarn for needlework, new clothes, new shoes, new purse...uh oh! I'm starting to notice a disturbing trend. This is all stuff I've BOUGHT!! To borrow a phrase from Britney: "Oops, I shopped again!"

I am making slowly making progress though. Very slowly. Today I cleaned up the space behind my hed (it's approximately 1.5 feet x 4.5 feet. I couldn''t believe all the, uh, we'll call them "treasures", that I found back there. A book I've been looking for, several pens, a stale bag of chips (don't ask), chocolate bar wrappers, a hanger (?), and the list goes on. I pulled everything out, piled it on my bed and vaccumed. From the looks of the rug, it's apparently been a while since I did that. Then I put back only what's necessary: my basket of journals and devotionals, my laptop case (I finally have enough room to keep it within easy reach of my bed where I usually sit to play) and two of my special Cabbage Patch Kids. I also cleaned off my cedar chest, put away some stuff that's been sitting on top of said cedar chest for a couple of years, vaccumed it and then re-arranged the Cabbage Patch Kids that sit on top of it, along with a couple of my Webkinz. And I put away a bunch of stuff that was lying around, and consolidated some bags of scrapbooking stuff that I want to give away. The bare space on my rug is getting larger, although not nearly fast enough for my liking. Maybe I should stop doing so much shopping, and start spending a little more time cleaning. Like that'll ever happen!

TTFN!

Inspired by Cards

I've become a regular visit to Catherine's blog Confessions of a Scrapaholic (you can find the link in the sidebar under "Other Blogs I Like"), and I've been so inspired by some of the beautiful cards that she makes that I'm thinking I may have to try my hand at making some of my own. I've got tons of cute embellishments, and goodness knows I have enough cardstock to open my own store, so there's really nothing stopping me. Well, actually, there is. That darn annoying little voice in my head that keeps telling me "you couldn't possibly do anything as nice as that, so why bother?" Sigh. How to get away from that voice? I keep telling it to go away, but it keeps sneaking back when I'm not looking. I may have to force myself to just sit down and try something, and see what I end up with. With any luck, it'll actually turn out to be fairly decent-looking, and I can say to the Voice "Take that! I can make beautiful cards (or at least nice cards!)" I've got some cream-coloured blank cards that I bought that I'm going to use for my first attempt, and I'm thinking of doing something with butterflies or flowers to celebrate the beginning of spring. Or maybe cute bunnies and chicks for Easter (I've got the cutest Mrs. Grossman Easter photo stickers. Hmmm... Now that I've actually start putting down some of my ideas, the ideas are coming fast and furious. Maybe I should use the cute vellum butterflies... Or the Sandylion 3D hibiscus flowers... Or the Jolee's boutique lilies that I didn't think I had but which I just discovered I did... Or...

TTFN!

My March Goal

I was just over at Teri Leigh's blog saw her journal prompt that she had posted: Write about one thing that you would like to accomplish this month and how you will go about accomplishing it. Since I've finally gotten the album that I wanted for my Smile book, I want to get that done this month. It's only 24 4.5" x 6.5" layouts, so it shouldn't be too hard, and I've got lots of ideas already for what I want to put in it. (A couple of them are going be kind of "cheats", like the dolphin postcard that I have on my bulletin board in my office that my dad sent me from Florida just because he'd thought I'd like the picture. I don't want to do anything to it in any way, so it's going in just the way it is.) I've got lots of cute scrapbooking stuff that I bought just because I love it, so I want my album to kind of showcase some of those things, as well as being a collection of stuff that makes me happy.

How am I going to accomplish this? Well, I guess the first step is to figure out what else I want to put in it, aside from the things I've already decided on. The next step will be to make sure I have everything I want to put in it gathered up in one place so I don't have to look for it. And I've decided that behind each layout I'm going to put a 3" x 5" journalling card that tells the story behind why these things make me happy, so I'm going to have to make those. And then I'm just going to have to find the time to sit down and work on it. Today's cold and snowy, and I'm sick (again), so I think I'll spend some time working on some things for my album. I have one idea for my album that I've been dying to get to, so I'm thinking that's going to be my starting point (the only thing I'll say about it is that it involves Winnie the Pooh).

Now that I have a computer that will actually "talk" to my digital camera, I'm hoping to start being able to post pictures. That should be interesting, because as of yet I don't have a clue. I think my camera came with a cable that will let me plug it directly into my laptop, thus allowing me to take the pictures right from my camera. But we shall see. I'm hoping that my BFF who lives nearby will take pity on me and help me out if I get stuck.

TTFN!

The View From The Driver's Seat

I love my daily commute. Seriously. I think of it as my "me" time, away from all the pressures of work: the irritating co-workers, the deadlines, the ringing phone, the endless emails, you get the picture. In my car, there's no one who wants anything from me; it's just me and God. My co-workers all think I'm nuts because I actually enjoy driving all that way, twice a day, every day (although I will admit that it's not so much fun in the winter). But I enjoy it. And because Dad commuted to work every day, I grew up thinking that's just what people do. I have to admit, I can't quite understand why my co-workers look at me like I've lost my mind when I say I enjoy the drive every day. But I digress. I use the time in the morning to plan my day, talk to God, talk to myself (yes, I do talk to myself, but as of yet I haven't started answering myself - if that happens then I'll start worrying) or just crank up the tunes and sing along, which is my favourite way to spend the time - I refer to it as "car karaoke". At the end of the day, I use the time to decompress before I get home. I'm telling you...there's nothing better after a lousy day at the office than cruising along on open highway on a bright sunny day with good music in the CD player. It's one of the best forms of therapy there is, in my opinion. I sometimes feel quite privileged because I get to watch the changing of the seasons, the rising and setting of the sun, I get to see the baby animals in the spring and sometimes I get to see wildlife. I love to look acorss an open field and unexpectedly see a herd of deer grazing. That is truly a special thing.

TTFN!