I've been playing around with mini books again....a lot of decorating, but I haven't put any pictures in them. The green book is a paper album I made based on the video I posted below. It was SO easy to make and so much fun. I have another one in the making for my littlest niece so it'll be in lots of pink. These are so simple and so fast...perfect for kids to play with.



I think I have about 3 weeks of Debby's Dare to make up....not so sure I'll be doing that. I may have to wait until the subject changes because the last three....Favorite Birthday, Favorite Teenage Memory, First Love, didn't conjure up any happy memories. Not that happy memories don't exist, I just didn't grow up in a run of the mill family with birthday parties.....the teen years were angst ridden, and my first love was my "dear old dad" who, after years of bouncing back and forth, finally ran out on us when I was 12. Feel free to fill in the blanks and you'll know why I never married.

You in 52 - Week 9

November 22, 1963 was a day that challenged everything I believed in. My world was shattered, not for a day, but for endless days of grieving and sorrow, disbelief and painful realities.

I was 16, a high school student. We had a President that was young, someone we could relate to. It didn't really matter so much back then if you were Democrat or Republican, once the President was elected, he was everyone's president. He challenged us, he gave us hope and he made us proud. He was respected, looked up to, revered and guarded...until that day.

I don't think I can describe the sense of loss that I felt, the emotional turmoil that left me looking for answers for years afterward. Little did I know that this was only the beginning....I would blink twice more before I turned 21.

You in 52 - Week 8

Question for week 8:

What is one moment of Faith for You?

This time I knew immediately what the journaling would be. The layout was a bit more difficult. I have a couple pictures of the person I write about, but they didn't seem to fit into the whole scheme of things.

Journaling reads as follows:

"Oh, so many years ago I worked with a young man, (a very young man) whose Christian belief and values were like none I’d ever witnessed before in someone so young. He was new to the corporate world, and very naive, but he was confident that his faith in God would carry him through.

I loved Patrick like he was my own son. He was so helpless in the office that I immediately took to mothering him, and he immediately accepted my help, (which, in hind sight, he really didn’t need). Then one day he invited me for a drink after work and told me the sad news that he was leaving the company. I was losing my friend, How sad!

As we talked more we shared stories and I told him about the dreams that I’d had since I was a very young girl. I would wake up in the middle of the night screaming as I dreamt that someone, or something, was after me. I was in my 30’s and these dreams still plagued me. Patrick listened intently and then told me he would pray for me…in fact, he decided we would pray right then and there…and we did.

As we bowed our heads, and held each other’s hands, I was totally aware of the fact that we were sitting in the middle of a bar with our heads bowed in prayer. The irony of the situation was the only thing that kept me from total embarrassment….that, and the fact that there weren’t too many people imbibing that evening.

I was raised as a Christian, but I’m not particularly religious, nor do I believe that all prayers are answered. But I always believed in Patrick and his faith in God, and I haven’t had one of those dreams since that night."

You in 52 - Week 7

I haven't been able to pin point this one yet. I will though, because I really want to finish with 52 layouts. I'll just have to come back to it later.