Comfortable Imperfection

There should be a jealousy for the Lord's honour and, compassion for men's souls like a well-spring ever in the heart; and then the outgoing effort should be with all the wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness of the dove; and "if any lack wisdom, let him ask of God." -William Arnot

There is beauty in weeds.

I have been asking God to grow me, I have been begging for Him to clean out my weeds.  It is definitely a big job because I've got a lot of junk floating around in my heart.  I refuse to put my God in a box and I am trusting that He will clean me out in His loving and gentle way.

I strongly believe that God has given me a unique perspective on life.  I did not come to this realization easily nor quickly.  All my young life was spent altering my views to fit comfortably with those surrounding me in life so that I would not "be wrong". I struggled to achieve my own opinions and perceptions. I gained a perspective early in life that making mistakes or being different was not okay. Perfection was the goal. I desperately tried to teach myself character traits, talents, and alter my appearance just to "fit in".  Insecurity was the name of the game and I was a big player.

Fast forward to my adult years and I still struggle with insecurities.  The difference now, I am way more comfortable in my own skin and with the gifts God has blessed me with.  I have nurtured my faith and relationship to my King, it is my own.  I say the wrong things, I give the wrong advice, and I certainly don't have it all together.  Satan knows my weakness and thankfully he is NOT creative so he keeps trying the same tactics over and over.  His attacks are getting weaker because I am getting stronger.  My strength is coming from a higher understanding.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9:10

Instead of striving for perfection, I am now in the process of being okay in my imperfection.  I am on a journey of growing in the knowledge of who God is and what a ride it is!

For those of you who cross my path on a regular basis, I humbly ask for your grace and kindness when I display my imperfection to you.  Know that my heart is genuine and true.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring. -Marilyn Monroe

(by this quote alone, I believe Norma Jean and myself to be kindred spirits)

quotes

I was doing a little research on something and stumbled across this quote by the loveable Charlie Brown:

This is my depressed stance. When you're depressed, it makes a lot of difference how you stand. The worst thing you can do is straighten up and hold your head high because then you'll start to feel better. If you're going to get any joy out of being depressed, you've got to stand like this.

I love this quote.  Its so honest without being "in yo face" honest, ya know?  Depression is serious and if you find yourself in a super funk more than not, get some help...professional help.  It does take courage to ask for help but don't allow yourself to stay in a "depressed stance".

On a sidenote... I want to grow my typography/design skills.  I thought a fun way to do that is play around with quotes and make little posters out of them. I figured I would start today.

Valentines 2012

Gummybear, Skittle, & Jellybean

I completely forgot Valentine's Day until yesterday afternoon. I have three children which means I needed 80 valentines stat! Mom of the year award goes to....

I needed cards I could quickly print out, have the kids sign and be done with it. So heartfelt, right? Okay, okay, I'll give it a bit more effort. Thankfully, my dear friend Pinterest saved me. I found 2 types of Valentines that didn't involve too much work and they weren't candy!

The first one was for the Boys to give out...

POPPING BY WITH A VALENTINE HI!
I made these in my design program and printed them out for the boys to sign.  I went to Staples and bought giant boxes of microwave popcorn and taped their cards to the top of each bag.  I know microwave popcorn isn't the healthiest treat but, its a better snack then some of the candy that my kids brought home from school today!

 

Next up were Jellybean's valentines.  I found this idea on Skip To My Lou (what a fabulous resource for all things crafty!)  The "sticky note valentines" were created by Amy Cluck (another darling site for inspiration).  I loved the template she provided but, wanted to give it my own flair and I wanted to do smaller sticky notes so I made my own design.  You should check out Amy's template...ADORABLE!

Because these were from my Jellybean, I made the colors sweet and soft.  I wish I would have put the "stuck on you" bigger on the inside but, oh well.

After I printed the design onto white cardstock, I folded them and had my daughter sign them for her classmates. 

I went to Staples to pick up a package of mini sticky notes (set of 12 pads) and I separated the pads into sets of 3's (her teacher got a whole pad).  I stuck the pads inside each folded valentine.  I decided not to include the velcro closure like Amy had suggested in her version because they stayed closed well enough on their own.

(sticky notes inside)

Thank you, Pinterest and all the amazingly creative people out there that give this Momma last-minute ideas.

I'm in the band.

When I heard Louie do this at a Chris Tomlin concert it rocked my world.  Completely changed the way I hear nature and worship my King.  I was reminded of this demonstration this past weekend when I had the opportunity to spend the weekend on a leader retreat.

We stood around a bonfire singing praises to our King. The mighty ocean crashing to the side of us, the crackling of the fire, the stars above our heads, and the sound of our voices in the quiet of an empty beach (except a dog barking but, I just think he was singing too).  Standing shoulder to shoulder with others on the same journey, it was overwhelming.  I am so tiny.  I am a speck on tiny's back.

No matter where we are or how we worship, God hears it all.  Can you imagine the symphony he hears every moment of every day?  He doesn't need us to sing praises to Him, He's got a world already praising Him.  Yet, He allows us to join the band.  Incredibly humbling. I encourage you to watch this video.  No matter what you believe, I am confident this will change your perspective.  Science is cool.

Project Life

I decided to give Project Life a try with the "hand holding" of my sister-in-law, Corinne.  We are giving this a go together.  I have been scrapbooking for many years and it has been a long time since I've tried a basic method of scrapbooking.  I think Becky Higgins Project Life may just be the remedy for my lack of motivation to scrapbook!

My hope is to do one page per week with Project Life and add in layouts I create with my PersonalScrapper.com kits.  It has taken me a month to get started!  Once I completed my first couple of weeks, I loved it.

Here is why Project Life will be good for me:

1. I have everything I need to complete a page.  The Project Life kits come with plenty of items to create an entire album (and then some!)  Plus, they are all coordinated and have great patterns and designs.  I am also going to use up some of the obscene amount of product I have collected over the years! (I am using the Clementine Project Life kit)

2. I can keep the entire thing stored in one box.  There are a lot of great ideas out there for organizing your Project Life supplies (see Miss Wendy's blog, for example!)  I, however, get to use my dining room table as my work space.  It is in the middle of our house and it has many functions like scrapbooking, homework station, laundry folding, oh yes, and eating.  So, I need to be creative with my storage and supplies.  The box my kit came in is compact, sturdy, and already organized.  Thank you Becky for packaging this up so nice!

3. K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Sweetheart!  I can unleash my craftiness on my other layouts.  This project is all about documenting our daily lives.  In order to keep focused on our day-to-day memories, I can't be spending hours on these pages.  I will admit that it is a challenge to stick to a very simple method of scrapbooking but at the same time, it is so refreshing.

4.  I get to do this with my SIL.  Corinne lives in California and I'm up north in Oregon.  We would love to be doing this together in the comforts of a scrap room but, that just isn't a reality.  She's got triplets and I've got three kiddos so even if we were closer...do you think we'd be able to get much done?  This is a great way for us to cheer each other on and make sure we are getting the memories documented for our families to enjoy.  This is part of the reason I fell in love with the hobby of scrapbooking, it brings people together.

So, here are my first couple of weeks of January.  I will do my title page at the end of the year because I have a plan that will require pictures from 2012.

gosh.  these pictures are dark. I'll try to find more light next time.

When I sat down to begin my pages, I couldn't get it to work for me! Every scenario I tried felt too chaotic and I wanted a more streamlined look. I searched all over google, the Project Life Team blogs, and instagram for ideas on getting started. It helped a little but, I just needed to keep playing with the kit elements until it worked for me.

I love that I can go back to add more embellishments, digital editing, or switch things out if I want to!  I just need to get into the swing of things.  I love the philosophy of Project Life and look forward to playing around with it some more.

Are you doing Project Life?  Share your blog/website link, I'd love to see how you are approaching it!  It seems like there are a lot of people that are starting Project Life this year...I just love the community of scrapbooking!