My journey through Soul Restoration 2 - Week 2

Hi everyone,
This week in SR2 we were to create our mission statements with prompts from Melody. I'm going to share mine. My short mission statement is very close to Melody's, it spoke to me and I wasn't sure I could write anything better.

Short mission statement

I will remember, in all things that I do, that I want to guide my life and my decisions with these qualities that I value the most, unconditional love, unconditional faith, unconditional gratitude, optimism and authenticity.

Long mission statement

I know that I am my very best self when; I sing, when I create, when I bake, when I serve others without putting myself last and when I trust in GOD and his plan for me.

I know that because I have unique weaknesses, I need to avoid times when I am wasting time on the computer, getting sucked into media experts’ advice, engaging in destructive relationships, participating in gossip and when I allow others to determine my self worth.

I will be most a peace and happiest when I spend my personal life creating, singing, spending time with family, praying, having alone time, traveling and learning new things.

I will be most at peace and happiest when I spend my work life serving others, learning new things, making an impact and refraining from gossip.

 I will seek out times when I can use my inborn gifts to comfort others, be the family historian and memory keeper, make music and spread love.

I will take care of my body and soul in ways that are personal to me including; going to yoga, walking, enjoying the foods I love, drinking water, not stressing about every calorie, reading, singing, dancing, creating, praying, learning about my faith and spending time with family.

I know that I am meant to love and share that love with others.

I will work hard to be known as someone who lived well and loved well and never let that love go unspoken.

So there they are in a nutshell, I'm sharing them because it will help me to be accountable. So if you know me and I'm not living my mission statements, call me on it.
Love you!!

My journey through SR2 - Week 1.

Hi everyone,
If you have been reading my blog, you know that I am in love with the girls over @  Brave Girls Club. I have taken a number of their online classes and have learned a lot about myself and about being creative. No words can explain how much they have changed my life. I've been in a period of transition for awhile now, trying to figure out who am and who I want to be. The Brave Girls courses have really helped give me tools to figure it out.
I've been impatiently waiting for Soul Restoration 2, since the beginning of the year, since I think that it is the next step in my self discovery journey and I'd like to share some of it with you. The course is designed to look to the future, what do you really want? I know what I want, I always have. I've wanted to be a nurse, a wife and a mom for as long as I can remember but I'm stuck. I'm a nurse but I'm not a wife or a mom yet and it doesn't look like either of those are going to happen anytime soon. So what do I want my future to look like in the meantime? I'm really hoping SR2 will help me figure that out. It also occurs to me that I've been in the same nursing job my whole career ( almost 9 years) and I'm thinking it might be time for a change but I have no idea what that might be.
This week the focus was to fill out our "fun sheets" (a journaling exercise that will be used later in the course). I have to admit that I've had to dig deep and I still don't know the answers to some of Melody's questions. The art project for this week was to prepare our art journal and decorate the cover if we had time. The class suggests starting with a new journal but I still had tons and tons of room in my SR1 journal, that I've decided to use it. So instead of a cover, I created a title page.

Disclaimer, while the final project belongs to me, some of the art work incorporated into project was provided thru Brave Girls Club course materials.

So for the next 5 weeks, this is how I will be spending my time. I'm planning to blog each week and I hope you will come back and check it out.
Much Love!

31 things

Yesterday I turned 31. So here is my list of 31 things that I'm looking forward too or plan to do this year that I'm 31.

1. Go to my oldest friend’s 30^th Birthday party.
2. Say goodbye to my One Tree Hill friends one last time and then probably re-watch all 9 seasons on DVD.
3. Finish my first ever paying scrapbooking gig (hopefully in the next couple weeks).
4. Soul Restoration 2 by Brave Girls
5. Finish the rest of the Harry Potter movies with my mom.
6. Finish reading the Harry Potter books again.
7. Attend 3 bridal showers for my sister Patti.
8. Plant a magnolia tree in my yard in memory of my step dad, Denis.
9. Scrapbook more about my faith.
10. Patti and Ryan’s Buck and Doe.
11. Paint the deck.
12. Be my Dad’s assistant when he puts in a new tub surround in the bathroom.
13. A photo shoot and not a wedding related one either.
14. Dance barefoot at my younger sister Patti’s wedding.
15. Make an effort with those who matter and stop trying with those who don’t.
16. Kiss my cousin Roo’s baby girl once she is here.
17. So far I have 4 teddy bears to make.
18. Another Supernatural marathon with my brother Tim.
19. Learn something new, not sure what that is yet but something.
20. Possibly a trip to Spain this fall, while my sister Katie is there.
21. Play with Alexis, cause she’s not much for cuddling anymore.
22. Make Alexis’ Christmas present.
23. Spend a few days with my girl Fez and her daughter Miranda.
24. Cry when my Dad and Sandra move (this isn’t something I’m really looking forward too but it’s gonna happen).
25. More gum surgery, I’m only looking forward to this, in the fact that I’ll be done for awhile.
26. Finish my “The year I was 30 scrapbook.”
27. Another year out @ Grey Roots.
28. Beach days with Liz.
29. Scrapbook more of my history, for example scrapbook more old photos and also scrapbook more family stories, I’ve got a great one about my Grandma’s mom and superstition.
30. Keep Listening
31. Be the girl I was meant to be, even if that means I have to be different than everyone else.

Thanks for stopping by.

Keep Listening

Good morning all.
This morning I wanted to share with you something I created for Courtney's class Scrapbooking your faith. I've been taking a Lenten study at my church. The lesson that stuck out most for me was "keep listening." Now my friends would say I'm a great listener, my sister Patti would tell you she is surprised by how much I know about people that I've never shared and that they don't even know I know. But when it comes to GOD, I'm not always a good listener. That is because sometimes it's not always what I want to hear (no, you can't have that right now), sometimes I have a hard time believing it is true (I have a fear that I'll be an old maid who hoards and has more than a dozen cats - that I'll never be a wife or mom, but my family has huge faith that this will not happen to me - first of all I hate cats and second they are not telling me this to be nice, they mean it)  and sometimes the other voices are way louder (you let us down, you are not enough).   
Courtney wanted us to create something to put on our walls to remind us of a lesson we have learned but often need reminding off. "Keep listening" is my lesson. It's funny how things fit together perfectly as if they were made to go together.
Here is the canvas I made for my living room;

The bird idea I borrowed from Brave Girls.. Melody always uses a bird as her Truthteller and encourages us to use it too. The butterfly image was left over from Brave Girls, Body Restoration printouts (I would not claim that as my own). This is the lesson I learned this Lenten season and I'm so glad I learned it. Now I just need to remember it. :)
Thanks for stopping by!

Mixed media fun.

Good morning.
Let me tell you a story. When I was a little girl I loved to put on an old work shirt of my Dad's, roll up the sleeves and paint with my sister Patti. One year my Nana put my sister and I in painting classes @ the local art gallery. This year my Nana told me that the reason we were put into the painting classes was because Patti was so good @ art but she felt that it wasn't fair just to put Patti in them and not me. Imagine her surprise when I loved the classes more than Patti. I think it was the structure or something. Patti could make up anything out of her head and didn't like to be confined (funny that she is a graphic designer now and gets paid to create someone elses vision). I on the other hand can't just "paint" but can paint a flower if someone asked. Somewhere along the line though, art was lost on me. Probably because I was always competing with Patti (which might also be why Patti doesn't sing much even though she has a beautiful voice  - I'm the singer). 
This year thanks to Brave Girls, I have re-discovered art....I love having paint and glue on my hands. And it doesn't matter if it isn't very good to anyone else, it always suits my style. Brave Girls has gotten me brave enough to play with paint and glue and fabric and paper and ribbon. And it has bumped my scrapbooking up a level.
I want to share a mixed media piece I created for Courtney's Scrapbooking your Faith class. The purpose was to pick a phrase, a scripture or whatever that when you read it you knew that it was true, even if sometimes you forget it. So I picked "You are loved" a line from Josh Groban's song of the same name. In fact I could have used any lyric from that song but this one pretty much sums up the whole song.

This is not something that I would have been able to do a year ago. I used a piece of drywall from my basement, taped the edges and painted. I added rub-ons and chipboard. Some old sheet music and letters. I'm happy with how is came out and just have to figure out how to hang it on the living room wall.

I am so grateful for the classes I've been taking, I'm having so much fun!

Hope you guys are having a great week so far, the weather here is amazing!

Life Verse

Hello all,
   Today I wanted to share with you a LO I've been working on. It's for a class with Big Picture Classes, Scrapbooking your Faith, taught by the awesome Courtney Walsh. A few years ago I found her book Scrapbooking your Faith and loved it. I've pulled it out for inspiration many times since I bought it. By happy accident (actually a blog post by my friends @ Brave Girls Club), I discovered Courtney's blog and then this class. It's come @ a good time as I've just finished up Body Restoration by Brave Girls and it's Lent.
   Anyway, the LO for this week was to scrap your life verse. It could be a bible verse, a quote you love, anything, as long a it speaks to you. This is mine. "Life is not about the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away." It's spoken to me ever since Payton said it on One Tree Hill. It reminds me that I need to stop and take in what is around me and allow it to take my breath away. Here's my LO;

Here is a moment that I allowed take my breath away this weekend....My freshly bathed niece, after her 1st birthday party.

Thanks for stopping by!

Reflection on 2011

Happy New Year everyone! Hope everyone had a great night.
Stephanie Howell does a monthly challenge called blog your heart, basically you can blog about anything but it has to be authentic. So, since 2011 was such a mix bag, I thought I'd play along with my 2011 reflection.

1. I got to go to Punta Cana and witness a friend from highschool and a friend from elementary school get married. I also got to meet and spend time with some wonderful people, friends I hope will be in my life for a long time and friends that I got to reconnect with.

2. I became an Aunt for the first time! Alexis was born on March 1st. I also became her Godmother. I'm a little nervous about this as I think it is a huge responsibility and I want to get it right. I will be the one of the primary educators in the Christian faith. I'm not even sure where to start. But I'm really excited to get started!

3.I haven't really been feeling the joy at work this year. I'm a nurse so my job can be a hard one anyway but when you feel like you aren't fitting in that can make it even more difficult. It's hard being different, even if your different is an awesome kind of different.

4. Two of my cousins got married this year. I was so stoked for both of them, especially Andrea b/c it really is about time she had some happiness and sunshine in her life.

5. I got a new brother and sister!!! Okay not really but they feel like family. My Nana had an Irish student staying with her this summer, Ciaran. He fit in with our family very well, to the point that he was calling us his brothers and sisters and we were calling him our brother too. He just fits so well. His sister Aine came to visit at the end of the summer and it was like she belonged to us too. It's weird how that happens and we all wish that Ireland wasn't so very far away.

6. At the beginning of August my step dad Denis had a stroke, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, flew back to France for treatment with my mom and was gone by the first week of Sept.

7. My brother Dan and I flew to France to be with my mom for two weeks. Not the way either of us thought we would get back to Europe but there you have it. I'm really really glad that Dan went with me and I didn't have to go alone. Also, I know we were being looked after b/c it could have been a nightmare trying to get to France on such short notice. Everything went fairly smoothly, except for that time a pigeon pooped on me in Paris and we had to run to catch our train to Nimes.

8. I am so glad that I am not an only child, we five really banned together and I feel so lucky to have them.

9. While all this was going on I discovered Brave Girls Club. Perfect timing! If you haven't checked them out yet....GO. Go right after you finish ready this post. It's really hard to explain the value this group of women has had on me or the value of the classes I have taken. I have learned a lot about myself, about the lies I've been telling myself, about the lies that other people have been telling me, that I love paint and glue and that while Patti is the artist in our family, my work is just as valuable even if just to me. If you are feeling even the little bit lost, please check these ladies out....it will be well worth it. Can't wait for Brave Girls Camp 2013.


I am looking forward to see what 2012 will bring. More creating and more love I hope. Also my sister Patti is getting married...Finally!!! They have already been together for more than a decade. Sorry Patti but I have to dance barefoot @ you wedding so I have to get at least one jab in.
I hope everyone has a blessed year!