Scrapbooking

{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…♥

 

{grow with love: holiday} day one

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Happy Friday!  And welcome to the first post of our Grow With Love: Holiday Edition. Crystal and I are really happy to be walking along side you in storytelling as we navigate this very special time of year!  We hope that you are enjoying the moments of anticipation and preparation and advent and all things holiday-y so far and that you’re not feeling as though the month is getting away from you yet.  I always end up feeling that way at some point during this season (usually when I’m contemplating my to-do lists).  It is my hope that this project will help me to slow a bit, to pause a bit, to go with the flow a bit more, to smile a bit more and to just soak everything up.

We’ve mapped out the schedule for our blogging {here}…and let’s not get caught up in the word “schedule” or the whole idea of it really.  This project doesn’t need to be another item on your to-do list..in fact we hope, rather, that it will be something you can unwind with as you reflect and as you walk through these holly jolly days.  Remember, this is (as are all the Grow With Love projects) a self-paced workshop.  We will blog (and hopefully inspire) and you check in when at your own pace.  The prompts can be your jumping off point for documenting your holiday in and of itself or in conjunction with any other holiday project.  We can’t wait to see your pages and process as we go along!  So..let’s get started!

Here’s our prompt for {Day One}:

This is a lay-the-groundwork kind of prompt.  It may, at first glance, seem an almost obvious or “easy” something to scrap about…like “well of course THIS is why the holiday is important to me” because the meaning we each find in the holidays is something that is so within us and so a part of our history that we don’t often give it second thoughts.  It’s just a given.

But we really want you to give this a good think.  We really want to get you thinking about what you love about the holidays.  And more importantly, why.  Because it will be the why that will help you stay focused on what you love most and really enjoy everything all the more.  This kind of foundation building can really be a game-changer.  It can turn something “unpleasant” into something appreciated for its blessing.  It can change the way you consider others’ actions and intentions.  It can change the way you consider your own.  It can help give you a fresh perspective on the “old”. It can help you re-focus throughout the busy.  It can really transform and enrich your holidays.

So..whatever it is that you think of, whatever it is that you feel when you consider the holidays, scrap about it.  Get to the meat of it.  For a lot of us, it could be our faith that guides our attitudes and actions and traditions and everything about this time of year.  For others it could be family.  It could be a whole mosaic of things that really give the holidays meaning for you.  Whatever it is, map that out.

Here’s where this prompt lead me:

And Crystal:

We hope that you let yourself get a little lost in the reflecting and have fun scrapping your own “why” and then let it guide you through the holidays..and the next prompts.  The very next of which will be coming tomorrow.  Can’t wait to see your pages!

Hope you have a beautiful weekend!  Happy Scrapping!

 

{grow with love: kids} day seven

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So we’re headed into the season of crazybusy holiday and we will be diving in to Grow With Love: Holiday this week (so check back tomorrow for the details on that), for those who are wanting to join us in enhancing our family and story throughout the advent and holiday season.

But I have to say that I’m looking forward to keeping up with the Grow With Love: Kids Edition posts to help keep me grounded in what really matters this season.  Continue to check in here on Mondays and at Crystal’s blog on Thursdays for the GWL Kids Edition posts.  And remember, this is a self paced project and you can dive in anytime.  The schedule as mapped out now, has us scrapping the Kids Edition into January so there will be plenty of time to catch up if you find yourselves getting carried away with all things holiday.  If you’re just joining us (Welcome!!!!) feel free to peek at the backstory and summary of everything-you-need-to-know {HERE}.

For now, here we are at the start of Week Four and Day Seven.  This week will challenge us to act in the spirit of YES and scrap with perspective.  Let’s take a look at today’s prompt:

So grab your camera and let yourself fade into the white noise of the day to capture something “everyday”, something candid and “ordinary”, and then let yourself consider just how extraordinary that can be.  Be deliberate in how you ponder the scene (and photos) you see.  What is the story there? ….really.  What can you learn from this moment?  What does this moment reveal to you about your child(ren)?  About yourself?  Try to shift your perspective and really put pen to paper about this everyday.  Take something that may normally feel “superficial” and dive deeper.

What I love about this prompt is that it can really become so many things to each of us.  Because we all live so many little moments that are bigger and fuller and more special than we give them credit for as we hustle and bustle through our days.  These are the things that may just fade into the backgrounds of our minds…but they will be woven together as a backdrop, the kind that gives us (and our kids) a sense of who we are, the values we hold.  They are little pieces of us, pieces of our families.  Here’s a little inspiration…

I decided to quite literally follow my Bugga around for a day, taking photos here and there as she was immersed in whatever it was she was doing.  And the photo I choose to scrap in the end was a detail shot of her soaking up a new favorite book.  A gift from nana.  It was just a regular quiet moment.  But as I considered it, and this shot, it filled me with a renewed sense of just how sponge-y she is.  It’s something we all know as parents, of course, but the import of it just hit me afresh..that she is constantly learning and soaking things in..certainly more than I do, more than my DH does..and that we need to foster that at every turn.  Because really we only “have” her for a finite period of time.  We need to make the most of every moment.  Get “in the pages” with her even more than we already do.

Getting in tight on a shot like this..cropping in camera or in your program, can really bring focus to your page and story.

Crystal captured a beautiful moment of play and interaction with her son and daughter.  And I couldn’t help but smile when I saw this amazing photograph and page.  I imagine that’s how she felt looking through the lens as well.  Mommies and Daddies of more than one child can really seize a beautiful opportunity of a stellar candid capture in a shared moment between your kids, which will lend itself beautifully to the kind of perspective we’re hoping to share on the page with this prompt.

So go forth, grab the camera and capture that candid moment and scrap.  🙂  Can’t wait to see your beautiful pages!  As always, Crystal will be blogging on Thursday, so take a peek there for Day Eight.

Happy Scrapping!  Happy Week!

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