Christmas cards.

Last year I read on Ali Edwards' blog about a great project she does with her Christmas cards every year. So I set mine aside. Of course, I never actually got around to doing anything about it. Until now! :) So starting with all the cards we received this year, I used a 2" square punch to punch out designs from card fronts, photo cards, and Christmas letters, and then mounted them on a sheet of 8x8" cardstock. I chose to use this smaller size because we don't get a ton of Christmas cards each year (Ali's is 12x12"). I also filled in some empty spaces with the signatures from the insides of cards. I added the year with some glitter chipboard number stickers.

I went back as far as I could, making a page for each year. I ended up with a page for each year from 2006-2010, and one page that uses bits and pieces from 2000-2005. But for most years I only had one page, and I wanted a little something more. One option would have been to mount our own family Christmas card on cardstock for the left page - except that I've been pretty bad about actually sending out cards in recent years. Lately I've been loving using really big pictures (when I finally post my 2010 December Daily album you'll see what I mean), so that's what I decided to do here. The final format for each year (again, except for 2008 which had more cards, and more photos, than the other years) ended up being: left page, big family photo; right page, collage of Christmas cards. I love it! No stressing, no thinking. No agonizing over embellishment placement or journaling. And it was fast: I put the whole thing together last night (about 6 hours). I plan to get an 8x8 album (probably red), and display it in our home each year during the holidays. Click on the images if you'd like to see them larger.

If you're one of those people like I am that feels guilty about getting rid of things like Christmas cards, yet you don't want to (or have the space to) store piles of them for years on end, this is a great project that provides the best of both worlds.

Resisting this process.

With just a few days left until February, today I decided I should probably buckle down and take that self-portrait that I'm supposed to have for my One Little Word album.

I hate taking pictures of myself.

With some help from Chris, I took 47 pictures of myself this afternoon. 25 of them were deleted almost immediately (most were blurry or out of focus). In the end I had 5 photos that made the final cut:



Holding on to faith (#1)



Holding on to faith (#2)



By faith, not by sight

Leap of faith



Praying for faith



They pale in comparison with the amazing inspiration I was working with (I've just linked to them here since I can't get Blogger to embed the images directly from Flickr... I guess the uploader isn't working? something about the URL incorrect or some other B.S.): 

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/marrngtn/2749129013/in/faves-scrappyhare/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/katieelizabethphotography/3306085106/in/faves-scrappyhare/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/jennystonephotography/4961305505/in/faves-scrappyhare/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/hayleyjohnsonphotography/4333811954/in/faves-scrappyhare/

In my defense, I am not a professional photographer. I have a nice camera (a Canon Rebel XTi), but I do not own professional equipment or have access to a well-lit studio. I am not a model. Nor do I spend hours in post-processing. However. I must admit to a certain amount of dissastisfaction with my own images. They look so much more like casual snapshots than carefully-planned photographs. The suburban background is simultaneously mundane and distracting. And anyone who knows me knows well what I think about pictures of myself... ;)

I actually have a bunch more inspirational images bookmarked on my Flickr account, but they all feature some kind of beautiful necklace with a cross. I have one such necklace... somewhere. It is small and gold and delicate, and it was a gift to me from my godparents on the occasion of my baptism. Some years ago the chain broke, but I know I still have it. I know I do. So if any of you happen to know where I left it, I'd be much obliged if you'd let me know. ;)

Speaking of letting me know... I'd love it if you'd leave a comment telling me which photo you think I should use as the opening photo for my One Little Word album. Which photo speaks to you? 

This post is part of a series. Click here to see all posts relating to my One Little Word.

Clarity.

I had something of a "breakthrough" moment while I was driving home from yoga class this morning... Recently my weight loss has stalled and I've been trying to think about ways that I can change to get it started going again.

One of my big issues is eating late at night. So I started thinking, well, why do I do that? I think part of it is to help my body keep going as I stay up late. So what if I went to bed a little earlier? Then I wouldn't need to eat at night. And suddenly it dawned on me, I used to have sleep issues. I had terrible trouble falling asleep. Sometimes I'd lay there for hours before I finally fell asleep. So maybe what I need now is FAITH that I can fall asleep at night without being dead-dog tired from staying up late! And I need to have FAITH that my body will get all the nourishment it needs during the day, and I'm not going to starve if I don't eat every 4 hours around the clock. And when I realized all this, it was like, all of a sudden everything was perfectly clear. Of course! Now as I type this, I'm wondering how long this knowledge was simmering in my subconscious. So I should add, I need to listen more to what my body tells me, and have FAITH that it knows what's best for me. :)

This post is part of a series. Click here to see all posts relating to my One Little Word.

Faith is a scary word.

Is anyone else a little scared of their word, and what it might bring in 2011? My word is Faith, which doesn't sound all that scary, until I realized the enormity (for a type-A control freak like me) of handing my life over to God's hands and willing that He bring into my life exactly what I need right now. Whether that's something I think I need or not.


A big part of my journey to Faith this year is going to be working towards having faith in myself (and in others). Faith that someone else can take care of my kids as well as I can. Faith that reaching out to people won't always end in rejection. Faith that I am worthy of true friendship, and allowing that to develop.


I found a quote today that I really feel speaks volumes to this topic:

“As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit.”   Emmanuel Teney

Definitely something I need to keep in mind as I work on that letting-go of control.


This post is part of a series. Click here to see all posts relating to my One Little Word.

Tips for sewing on paper.

1. Use a fairly sturdy needle - I usually use a size 11 or 14. Paper is tougher to sew through than fabric, but the bigger the needle, the bigger the hole in your paper.
2. Use a longer stitch length on paper than you do on fabric; if you go for super-tiny stitches it could actually tear your paper.
3. Practice on similar-weight paper before you stitch on your layout, so you can adjust the tension, stitch length, etc and get a feel for it.
4. Go slow, and be prepared to help move the paper through the machine. Sometimes the feed dogs don't like to move the paper along (and that's especially true with page protectors or anything with a slick finish).
5. Use a spot of adhesive if you're sewing two or more pieces of paper together, but not in the path you're going to stitch. Adhesive on the needle will gum up your machine.
6. Keep your needle for sewing on paper separate from your needles for sewing on fabric. Paper dulls a needle very quickly.

Have fun! Machine stitching is an easy way to add texture and dimension your cards and layouts.

One Little Word for 2011.

My word for 2011 is FAITH. It chose me about a week ago as I was thinking about the next year and trying to pick a word.


I feel like I’m being called to strengthen my FAITH – as in, finally find a church home here. We’ve lived in this city for 10 years but never found a church we were truly at home in.

I need to have FAITH as my son is tested for autism – faith that everything will be ok and that God won’t give me more than I can handle.

FAITH that the world will go on post-2012 (which makes me more anxious than I care to admit!).

FAITH in myself, that I am strong enough to do the things I need to do: get my life in order, persevere through the changes in our life that are happening right now (new NASA contracts mean my husband is changing companies although his job is the same), fight the depression and the diabetes and all the extra weight that (literally) weighs me down.

FAITH that God is in charge of my life and that through Him I can have peace in my mind and in my heart.

It’s a little bit of a scary word for me; when you let God take the reins you never know what will happen!! But I feel like this is what I need to do right now. For sure it will be an interesting journey!

This post is part of a series. Click here to see all posts relating to my One Little Word.