1. I need it. I really, really need it. Project Life allows me to recognize the blessings in my life. To be grateful. It allows me to process my days, and to work through any negative emotions I have. Life can be overwhelming for me. I'm overly sensitive and let unnecessary things affect me. Project Life is very good at helping me to focus on what is important.
2. Being creative helps me. Although, I have design work that is plenty creative and needs more of my attention, I like to be creative with something that has no pressure attached to it. So I put in five minutes here and there to work on my Project Life. Design work is a big chunk of time I carve out specifically to be productive. Lately, I've been struggling to get things done. It is amazing how one small thing lacking in your body can throw off everything. I have been suffering dizzy spells, exhaustion, vertigo, aches, and irritability to an extreme I've never felt before. It appears to be just a deficiency that can be fixed in the next few months with supplements. Hopefully, it is nothing more.
3. Grounded. Project Life keeps me from floating away when I feel other parts of my life are a little out of control. You should have seen the pile of laundry I had the other day. Yikes! My biggest goals lately have been to ensure my kids are happy & healthy, that I get some rest, and that my daughter adjusts well to school, as well as my getting used to our new routine. So far, so good! So, I'm trying not to let it get to me that my yard is growing wild, my house has cobwebs, and that clutter has been getting a little too comfortable in its little piles around my home. Stuff will wait. It surely will.
4. Improvement. Finally, I am embracing Project Life as a challenge to learn how scrapbookers use product. I think using supplies in different ways (many out of my own comfort zone) will make me a better designer.
Now to the reason I'm writing this blog post. Timing. Timing is everything. I'd stare at those unused supplies over the past few years with that guilty feeling. One of the items that bothered me the most was a book I'd treated myself to several years ago. It is a book called Love Your Handwriting by Heidi Swapp. I came across it yesterday when I was attempting to organize some baskets. I had to laugh when I realized the book was written by Heidi Swapp. I hadn't remembered that. I bought the book because I do not like my handwriting. I never took the time to use the workbook and I always regretted it. Just yesterday I had been cursing my handwriting on my Project Life pages. I want to use my own writing but it looks so bad. Finding this book again was perfectly timed. I spent half an hour reading it last night and already I'm seeing an improvement on my pages. I was also having a hard time finding a good black marker for my journaling. The book comes with a pencil, a marker, a ruler, and eraser. It felt like Christmas! The Zig brand marker is perfect. The eraser removed the pencil lines without damaging the paper. Exactly what I was needing.
What gave me the final laugh? The intro of the book is written by none other than Becky Higgins. This book was written before Becky began Project Life. Who knew they'd all be such players on my scrapbooking stage in 2012? The universe was just waiting for our worlds to collide. Ha! Some things really are about the timing. Patience and trust are needed. Things will happen. Just keep plugging along at life as best you can and things will come together as they should. That was my happy realization last night.
Next post... maybe I'll finally get around to writing about CHA Summer 2012 and my paper release Alphabet Junction at Carta Bella Paper.
