Showing posts with label happy and sad pages. Show all posts

*Tap, Tap* Is This Thing Still On?

Yeah, yeah.  I know.  You all thought I forgot about this whole blogging thing.  I'm afraid that 2011 got a little busy on me, and my family had some needs that I had to tend to for awhile.  Things have settled down some, so here I am again with some pages to share with you.

Most of my creative team work lately has centered around kits by Jen Martakis. She's been busy creating several fabulous new kits and templates. You can check out her digital store to see all her of lovely goodies.

Also, just a quick hint. If you want to get a larger view of any of these layouts, you can left-click on the image of the scrapbook page, and it will enlarge the image so you can read journaling or look closer at the details. Here is my latest page, created with Jen's Toolbox kits: By The Numbers, Fancy Mats and Fancy Frames. I also used the Blossom kit for the papers and buttons:


This page about my son, Tony, used the Lined and Lined - In Color, and Grunge Brushes Set 1 kits:



The next layout uses the Halloween kit:


For Isabella's first day of school photos, I chose Jen's Fabulous Fall kit:


These final three pages are from kits that were released in the summer, and I loved them so much, I wanted to share them, too.

From Simple Starts Kit 1:

Made with the Summer Bugs kit:

Made with the Sunshine and Rain kit:

I promise...I'll be back much sooner than I did last time. Have a wonderful day!
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I Am Thankful

My blog has been quiet for a long time. The biggest reason, I suppose, is because I wanted to get all my thoughts together.  It's honestly taken me this long to do so.  Okay, here goes.

 This summer, I had two sad things happen.  At the end of June, my sweet grandma passed away.

 
While it wasn't completely unexpected (she was 97, after all),  it was still difficult to say goodbye to her. I'm grateful that she doesn't suffer anymore, but I will always miss her.  She was a loving wife, mother and grandmother, but she was also more than that.  I had the privilege of giving her eulogy, so I learned so many fun things about her.  Things she hadn't told  me before, such as she'd been a cheerleader in high school, a rodeo queen, a killer of rattle snakes, and more.  There were also other fun details I did know, such as she'd once crashed landed a plane, shot a bear, and didn't hesitate to speak her mind.  Grandma was one of my favorite people.  

Here's what makes me really sad.  The overwhelming craziness of the last four years and adopting our children drowned out some important things I should've been more cognizant of.  One of them is keeping in touch with and visiting some of my family members more frequently.  I wish we'd visited Grandma a bit more than we did.  We did see her some, but not as often as I wanted to.  I was trying to figure out how to put together a four generation photo shoot with her, but got sidetracked again and again, and forgot.  Then, she took a turn for the worst last spring, and never recovered.  Our last few visits with her ended up being in a nursing home where she wasn't always awake or aware of our presence.  I wished our last moments together had been at a different place and time.

About a month and a half later, my world was rocked again when one of my older brothers went into the hospital to undergo a routine surgery. I'd been notified that he'd come out of the operation and was recovering just fine.  The next morning, however, I my mom called to say that he was getting weaker, and he was going back to the operating table, but this time, his heart needed attention.  Just a couple of hours later, I was told to come down to the hospital and I should be prepared to say goodbye to my brother.  I was devastated, shocked, and distraught, to say the least. Seeing my brother unconscious and pale, watching my parents sob, and worrying about whether he'd make it through the night was a horrifying experience. But thankfully, God was watching out for him, and he recovered.  I rejoiced when he was conscious again and we could talk with each other. 


While he was recovering at home, different members of the family came to his house and helped with small things like taking him to appointments, helping with meals, and just keeping him company.  When it was my turn, I had a chance to apologize to him for being an absentee sister for the last four years and not being aware of some of his struggles.  We shed some tears,  had a good talk about some things that needed to be said, and I hope I'll do better now. 

So, if you've stuck with me thus far, I'm sure you're wondering what my point is.  Let me get to it now:  don't just scrapbook your relationships.  Get out there and make them better.  Say "I love you."  If you feel distant from a family member you should feel closer to, call or visit them. Remember that the blessing of family is a precious gift.  Life can change quickly, and you may lose the chance to be with someone you love or say something important.  

 I've been given two amazing blessings that I hope to make the most out of in 2011.  The first is that I was given a big box of my late grandma's pictures.  I've been charged with scanning them, making copies for my siblings, cousins, and other relatives.  While I'll still miss my grandma, working with her pictures will help me feel closer and more connected to her. It will also give me a chance to teach my own children about her and how much I loved her. Also, since my brother was given a second chance, I have opportunities to build my relationship with him, as well as my other family members.  For all this, I am thankful. 






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Showing More of Ourselves in Our Scrapbooks: Documenting the Peaks and Valleys of Life

I really enjoyed this past Mother's Day. The kids are getting old enough to understand why we have the holiday, they get excited to give gifts and cards, and love coming upstairs to watch me open them. Their attention spans are longer now and they appreciate family togetherness more, so it was fun for me to create this page about our day together:



I love creating the "happy" layouts! I do feel it's important to document optimism, family togetherness, and everything that's good. But, honestly, I feel equally compelled to make pages about things like this:



It's not the most popular choice amongst scrapbookers to show the unpleasant realities of life in their albums. Some people have questioned why I would create a page about things my kids do that bother me. They have said they don't want to focus on the difficult things, and that the positive should only be accentuated. I do think being positive is important in our pages, but I see no reason why the "rosey" parts of our lives should completely dominate them.

I'll tell you one reason I feel this way. I overheard a conversation once --- I believe it was right before Christmas one year. There was a small group of ladies in an aerobics class I was taking, and before class started, they were discussing things that were hard for them about the holidays. One of the things they lamented was receiving the yearly Christmas letters from family and friends. They were talking about how weary they were of hearing about their friends "perfect" life, their "perfect" children, who were "perfect" in all their extra-curriculars, their "perfect" houses, and etc. These gals said additionally, that they didn't believe those who said everything in their lives were "stunning" and "always ideal."

I thought about what was being said and decided there was some truth to it. Making things appear perfect isn't always interesting. Sometimes, it can also come off as fake and insincere.

So, a few years later, when I discovered scrapping, I decided I would try to present a balanced view as I created my albums. While I don't believe that our scrapbooks need to have a gloomy tone, I think it's acceptable and even important to show that our lives have peaks and valleys. There are wonderful times, and then there those days when things are rough.

I made a choice to document our difficulties because I want my kids to see that life is not always smooth sailing. I think it will be a great teaching tool for them. They need to see that tough times in our life can be overcome and can teach us important lessons. I hope that by showing how we worked our way through the rough patches, we became better as individuals and families.

So how does one create a page on a hard subject? By being tactfully honest, which to me, means:

-speaking from your heart (as corny as that sounds)
-writing about what you've learned during your experience
-ensuring that your content is tasteful and not offensive
-not sharing any information that has been told to you in confidence

As I have applied these guidelines, it has helped me make layouts that tell the not-so-happy story with sensitivity.

For example, before my husband and I adopted our kids, we had a long, arduous battle with infertility. We had made the decision to file adoption papers and have me receive fertility treatments at the same time. There came a point when we knew we had had enough pills, needles, and doctor appointments, and that we were done with the medical aspect of trying to have children.

At that point, I made an album documenting my experience with infertility and the loss of having my own biological children. One of the reasons I did this was to provide a way for me to say goodbye to that dream. It helped me mourn the loss and enabled me to embrace the idea of adoption. One of the layouts I did was a goodbye letter to my biological child, the one I wouldn't ever get to hold in my arms:




When the album was finished, I realized that it has also served as a catharsis. Creating it had enabled me to feel my sad feelings and move on with my life. And, on those days when I still feel the grief and long for that dream child, I read through the album once more, touch the pages, and cry. It has turned out to be a work that continues to heal and comfort me.

The album is too big to share in its entirety here, so if you wish to see more, then you can see it at my gallery over at Two Peas.

Whew! That was a lot to say! I hope that something I wrote today will get you thinking about what you share in your layouts, and inspire you to show the peaks and the valleys.

Have a good day!
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