Grow With Love

{grow with love: letters} day one

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Happy Weekend!  I hope everyone is enjoying a beautiful day!

I’m really thrilled to get us started on our latest Grow With Love journey…Grow With Love: Letters.  This is a series of templates and journaling prompts inspired by letter writing that will be featured in the Artisan Notebook throughout 2011.  Crystal and I are really excited about this adventure and hope you will join us along the way as we challenge ourselves to really pour our thoughts and feelings in to our scrapping and journaling.  Each month we will release and feature 4 fresh prompts and templates…totaling in 48 amazing pages and letters covering a wide variety of topics and heartsongs.  You can find January’s offering {here} and {here}.  As with each of our Grow With Love projects, Crystal and I will be posting the prompts and diving in to them with you on our blogs.  This weekend we will play a little catch up and post the first two prompts with some inspiration.  Then you will be able to follow along for the last two January posts as such:

Week Three: Wednesday 19 January – join us on Sara’s blog

Week Four: Wednesday 26 January – join us on Crystal’s blog

Also, as with all our GWL projects, Letters is ultimately a self-paced journey and whatever you hope to make of it.  So you are welcome to follow along and jump in at any time, using the templates or not, scrapping digi or paper, or simply just journaling or creating an art journal: whatever inspires you.  You will be able to find all our posts as we complete them listed {here}.

So let’s take a peek at the first prompt for this month’s Letters project:

I always feel a lot of energy in scrapping at the beginning of the year as we all often feel inspired by that fresh-start feeling of all the goal setting and reflection and optimistism and hope that comes with the new year.  This prompt holds on to that energy and asks you to write to yourself about your compass for the year.  Whatever that may be for you..your “one little word” or any direction-setting project you are pursuing, scrap it.  Challenge yourself to get really honest with this prompt.  Think and reflect and choose something you know is “doable” not just something you WANT to be doable.  In a way, you are holding yourself accountable here and also setting yourself up for success by setting realistic expectations for yourself and something you will strive for in the long term…it’s an endurance thing so to speak, as opposed to a short-term sprint kind of thing.

I know for me, this kind of “shift” in my approach to scrapping my compass for 2011 resulted in some really wonderfully energizing and fulfilling introspection and conversations and prayer as I chose my heading for the year.

Here is a peek at Crystal’s beautiful page as she encourages herself through her journaling:

Clivesay_janletters_pg1

We can’t wait to see your pages of reflection and compass-setting!  And we hope you find this process one as energizing and hopeful as it was for us!!  Feel free to share here in the comments with us if your comfortable.  And stay tuned for the next GWL: Letters posts tomorrow.

Happy Scrapping!

{grow with love: holiday} day ten

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Happy Tuesday and Happy Day Ten of Grow With Love: Holiday!!  I feel as though I’ve time warped from the beginning of December to this moment because a good ten days in between was spent in complete sick-haze-couch-land and doesn’t count.  I have to be honest, those days when I was feeling really terrible were a challenge for me.  I LOVE this time of year.  And I felt so discouraged and spent and completely devoid of the holiday spirit.  So it was definitely an exercise in deliberate focus for me to stay focused on the positives…like the sound of my Bugga’s voice each morning (even when she herself was feeling yucky) discovered our little elf Rachel and her elf-y mischief or the sound of holiday tunes or lounging and watching my favorite holiday movies.  We had to forgoe a lot of what we were looking forward to, but the important thing was we had each other and the whole point of this season was still there.  We just had to work a wee bit harder to feel it.

We are nearing the end of Grow With Love: Holiday and despite all the busy (or all the sick) I hope that feeling of magic and warm is filling you up now!  These prompts will remain up indefinitely and you can find any and all of them (as well as other Grow With Love projects): {HERE}.  Feel free to dive in at any time!

Today’s prompt is another that has us considering a specific aspect of the holidays and one that can be deeply infused with meaning…music:


Even though there may be moments when I feel “tired” of hearing all the musical holiday notes everywhere we go this time of year, mostly I just love it all to bits.  I looove holiday music!  I am working on a page now that showcases my favorite holiday songs in a “playlist”.  And it includes some that make me giggle and warm my heart (like I Want a Hippopatomus for Christmas):

a totally random pairing but song I just can’t get enough of in Bing Crosby singing with David Bowie (ummm..huh? lol!) Little Drummer Boy:

Oodles of other favorites from the Bing and Sinatra and Ella era, plus many traditional hymns and choral pieces and of course my most favorite (as in gives me the chills every single time I hear it), O Holy Night …really any version amazes me but I loove Josh Groban’s version:

ANYhoo…I could do this all night. I love love holiday music.  So I’m excited to finish scrapping my music-y page while listening to some of these tunes.  You can choose many to showcase, or one that is extra special to you.  One that annoys you, one that uplifts you, one that takes you back to a special Christmas moment.  Whatever you scrap I hope that you have fun reflecting on the sounds of the season.

Tomorrow the family and I head to the Polar Express train ride (the Grand Canyon Railroad) and I can’t wait!  It will be just what we all need to get us feeling better and FULL of happy holiday spirit.  I hope you and yours have beautiful days and moments leading up to Christmas!!  ♥

{grow with love: kids} day thirteen

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Hello everyone and happy new week!   Can you believe I’m actually blogging today?!  Neither can I actually, as I almost wasn’t sure I’d make it.  This illness has wrecked me so totally.  I can’t recall the last time I was so hugely impacted by a virus, both physically and mentally.  It’s day nine of the sick for me (which also hit my sweet Bugga and my dear love) and I’m only just able to peel myself off the couch for a few moments.  Went back to the doctor today and they did a chest xray…which was sent off to be read to be sure of what they were seeing.  I’m praying for good news and a clear film.  In the mean time, I have been given some better meds and I am trying desperately to catch up on all that I’ve missed and regain all the holiday cheer I was feeling before this sick arrived.

I have missed you so and have missed scrapping and blogging and making merry so SO much.  I hope that everyone has been enjoying their season and not feeling waylayed by illness or discouragement.  I know that Crystal has been guiding you along the way with both our Grow With Love: Holiday and Grow With Love: Kids and I’m so grateful for her inspiration and for her stepping in when I couldn’t.

I’m happy to be bringing you Day 13 and the start of Week Seven of Grow With Love: Kids Edition.  We will be taking these prompts into the New Year so there is still plenty of time to hop in and join us.  You can do so at anytime, at your pace, whenever you feel inspired.  Be sure to check out the main listing of postings {here} to catch up and follow along, for the backstory of Grow With Love and some wonderful inspiration.

Soo….let’s take a peek at today’s prompt shall we?  It’s another “act and scrap” prompt as Crystal and I like to say and we find these ones to personally be among our favorites because they challenge us to really tangibly act in our lives.  And today’s is one I have found to help guide my steps on the harder days of parenting.

So, it’s true.  Parenthood is the most rewarding gift I’ve been given, but it’s also the most challenging.  Sometimes parenting can be exhausting, and it can feel thankless, and it can feel like hard.work.  Because many times it is.  We are shaping our kids into the people they will become, we are guiding them and teaching them and that is HUGE stuff.  Important stuff.  And oftentimes frustrating stuff.  I know I have some days where I am happy it’s bedtime.  I always feel a little guilty for admitting that too, but some days…the hard days…nighttime can’t come quickly enough.  It’s on these days I need to work a little harder to focus on the positives and so this prompt is helpful for me.  It’s not about shielding from the important lessons or pretending life is all “rainbows and lollypops” but it is about being mindful of the power of your words.  A parent’s words are heavy with meaning.  Meaning that lasts.  So we challenge you to take a day and let the praises be louder than the negatives..both outloud the little unsaid things you may say to yourself.

Ok..so I hope that gives you a good point to jump from.  My head is feeling a little fuzzy so its entirely possible this post has made no sense.  And I had better stop while I’m ahead.  I will be back tomorrow though with Day 10 of Grow With Love: Holiday.  And Crystal will be blogging on Wednesday.

Oooh ooh!  And if you missed it…I’ve shared a freebie on the Scrap Orchard blog today as part of their advent hoopla annnnd my releases there at my guest home this month are currently 50% off (but only for a few more hours). ♥

Happy day and Happy Scrapping!

{grow with love: holiday} day five

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Happy Friday!  I hope that everyone has been enjoying this the second week of December!  I know it is a time that is extra full for everyone…with all kinds of busy.  I know that I’m already feeling as though I could slow time a little bit to really relish all the moments and have a bit more time for the to do lists. And now that we are battling the sick in our house I feel that more than ever.  Here’s to staying focused on what really matters and taking time to pause.

All that said, I was really excited to take a pause from the hub-bub yesterday to scrap today’s Grow With Love: Holiday post.  And so without further ado here is our prompt for Day Five.


I’m really loving these “in their own words” prompts and pages lately and I love the idea of infusing MORE of my loved ones into my pages..not just me scrapping *about* them or speaking *to* them, but sharing more from their perspective in a real way.  Getting them engaged in the memory keeping.  So I had fun asking Bugga about her impressions of Christmastime.  So here we have Christmastime with 4 year old goggles.  What fun it will be to look back at this.  And in fact I’m feeling inspired to revisit this very page each year to see the changes over time.

Here’s where this prompt took me:

And here’s Crystal’s page:

How sweet are they?!  I just know your own pages will have you smiling too!  We can’t wait to see them!

Hope everyone has a beautiful weekend!  Happy Scrapping and Happy Growing with Love! ♥

{grow with love: kids} day nine

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Happy New Week!  And seriously I’m in bafflement (is that a word? no?) that we are already one week in to December.  This month seems to fly faster than any other and I know it has a lot ot do with the fact that there is so much to be treasured and so much to be done that we wish everything would just slowww a little.  Which is partly one of our goals of Grow With Love: Holiday if you’re following along with that.

ANYway..I’m digressing already.  Today I’m happy to bring us in to week five and Day 9 of our Grow With Love: Kids project.  We are keeping up with the prompts as scheduled, though as always you can follow along or join in at ANY time.  Crystal and I contemplated putting these on hold until after the holidays, but we really wanted to keep inspiring you with the everyday things and your kids amidst the holiday hub-bub.  This project will take us in to January and will remain available indefinitely so there will be plenty of time to hop in and get inspired.  You can click on the “storytelling” tab to catch up or look over any Grow With Love posts (from any edition) {HERE}.

So let’s take a look at today’s prompt:


This has room for A LOT of possibility.  And a lot of fun!  You can really go in any direction with this one as you capture what your child(ren) think right now, at this moment.  I am actually thinking of revisiting this prompt every year and creating an album (or including the pages in an album) for these interviews.  I had a lot of fun playing “reporter” with Bugga today and asking her some fun questions.  She really had a great time playing along too!

Here’s Crystal’s page with her eldest…it’s so fun to see his responses.  This is the kind of page that would be fun to revisit over time I think.

We can’t wait to see yours too too!

{grow with love: holiday} day two

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So remember when, at the close of yesterday’s Grow With Love: Holiday post, I told you to hop over to Crystal’s blog today for Day Two?  Yeah well, the Technology Gremlins had other plans and our sweet Crystal’s internet has been very uncooperative today, to say the least.  So I’m here to happily share {Day Two} of the Holiday Edition with you!

Now that we’ve set the foundation for our attitudes and our perspective in our scrapping for the rest of the project, let’s let ourselves do a little dreaming with the prompt for today:

I have to confess the song that kept floating into my head when conceiving of this prompt was this one by Amy Grant, wherein she sings about her hopes, her BIG hopes her IDEAL hopes for Christmastime.  (incidentally, there have been other versions of this song, including a most fabulous one by Michael Buble but this is the one that I remember from my childhood and so its nostalgia really brought on the extra holiday-y inspiration for me).

Cheesy? Perhaps Completely.  But also warm and fuzzy and full of heart and hope, in an earnest kind of way.  Which is just the recipe for a touching and amazing scrapbook page.  So let your “heart dream” and scrap your Grown Up Christmas List.  It could be on a personal scale..the kind of rarely spoken whispers of your heart: wishes for you and your loved ones.  It could be about your hopes for the world in which we live.  It is where-ever your own heart leads you.  And I have a feeling, in the spirit of this beautiful season, it will lead you somewhere really special, really meaningful.

Here is where it lead Crystal’s:

We hope you feel inspired to share your heartfelt lists…can’t wait to see your beautiful pages!

And with that I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!  Don’t forget to swing by again on Monday for the next Grow With Love: Kids prompt…♥

 

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