My Black & White World (was) - another Project 365 pages

I see things in black and white, right and wrong... that is until recently. Yeah, you guessed it right, until I had my baby. Not just having the baby part, but also our journey to have him as our son that reminds me that there are some things that you can't just categorize as black or white. I was also reminded that when things seems so dark and gloomy, God often has a beautiful plan for you. So these pages serve as double reminders for me about those things.

Another Project 365

I tend to complain... very...very much. And I also have this tendency of wanting everything to be perfect, as I've planned them to be. If things don't go my way, I'd freak out and act as if a major catastrophe has happened. I believe the correct term for this freaky behavior is obsessive compulsive, and that is something I need to work on really, really hard. So, I've made a couple of pages as reminders to myself to be a better person.

I played around with some liquid pearls from Ranger and just love the result.

Some more close up images of the person I need to be:

And most importantly:
When I first started scrapbooking, I measured everything. And by measuring I don't mean by inches or cms... I needed to make sure that every thing is cut correctly, up to each millimeters. I know freaky, right? Over time, I learn to be more relax about precision and what do you know it has impacted other aspects of my life. Of course not dramatically, but I see a little progress day by day. Let's hope... let's hope that I'll continue progressing.

The Most Meaningful Moment of My Day

I came across this article from real simple and somehow I found it inspiring, well at least something's worth to think about. It's definitely not the time I have to wake up in the morning. Naah, I'm definitely not a morning person, never have been and never will be.

But there's something I love about mornings, though - that is after I'm completely awake and begin to notice my surroundings. So... the most meaningful moment of my day is this:

I start my days with a short walk around the block with my son, Darrel. These trees in front of our house are home to tons of birds and butterflies that dart happily from one branch to another and they never cease to amaze us. And for the first time in many years, I really notice things. I notice my son's utter amazement in seeing these everyday beauties, I notice the shrill sound of birds chirping, I notice the beautiful pattern of butterflies' wings and the beautiful swift movement birds make when they fly, I notice how beautiful a flower is when it has just bloomed and all covered with dews, I notice how fresh the morning air feels. I notice.. period. All the things that has always been there for the taking, but I was just too busy to stop a while and look.

I've also made a page from this picture as part of my Project 365 and this is what I came up with:So what's the most meaningful moment of your day?

Project 365

Whaat? You’re sure you’re going to do this? – said a voice inside of my head when the idea first came to me. You work 9 – 5 everyday (which, is a blessing - I know. Believe me, I know, I’ve had my share of time when my working hours varied from 9 – 5pm to 9 – 2am; including weekends. With the latter being far more often that it can be considered a routine and the first an exception that justified for a celebration). You have a baby to take care of, a husband that also need your attention and a house to clean up. When will you ever find the time? You barely have time to sleep. Hah - you’ll never make it! – said the voice pessimistically.

“Hush! I’ll never know until I give it a try. So give it a rest, you helpless pessimist!” I scolded and the voice grew silent, chastened.

So that’s how I found myself starting to work on this project. The idea is to take at least a picture everyday & scrap it. Which means by the end of the year I should end up with a 365-pages album. OK, that might be too overwhelming, so I decided to take it down a notch – scratch that – a few notches.

I committed to scrap everyday. I won’t even push myself to finish one layout every night. I’ll just scrap as often as possible and hope that by the end of the year, the number of pages wouldn’t be too far from 365. And I won’t be limiting myself to pictures, at times when I don’t have good pictures or just haven’t got the time to print the good ones, I’ll look for quotes, thoughts….. anything that inspires me on that particular day. I might even use digi layouts from time to time.

And last but not least – I won’t even think of matching colors for the entire album. It’s 365 pages, ladies. If I insist on having matched colours and patterns from cover to cover – there’s only two possibilites:
1. The album will be in one color – and I can tell you from the get go that it will be chocolate – my favourite color. I know I should say brown, but chocolate is far more romantic, isn’t it?Ooh, I sound so much like Anne from the Green Gables.
2. Or…. I would find myself in a padded cell, holding strips of papers all around me and screaming “Oh no, they don’t match, they just don’t match!” Uh-uh, definitely not good for my soul! So let’s not do that.

And another note to self, I won’t push myself to create a masterpiece (yeah right, like any that I’ve done was ever even close to that… LOL). I will accept that just like my real life – which has good and bad days, my album is bound to have some ‘wow – pages’, ‘so-so pages’ and even ‘yucks – what the hell were you thinking?- pages’. Hopefully, the last one won’t be too many… LOL.

So now I’m crossing my fingers and… scrap scrap scrap. I’ll come back to post some of the pages I’ve finished.