quote of the day

"Its not the decision you make that is the most important; it is the degree of commitment with which you make the decision." - Bo Bartlett


"Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions."  -Author Unknown


trying hard to make the right decisions without rushing or being pushed into something that won't turn out to be the right thing for us in the future.  sometimes its so hard to know...

weekend of loss

this weekend was full of sad goodbyes and hard decisions.

i said goodbye to my dear friend Mathea.  her and her husband are moving back to the other side of the mountains.  i will miss her so much.

due to some circumstances beyond our control we had to find a new home for Spencer... hopefully just for a few months, but i miss him so bad already.  yes, he's a rambunctious puppy and he is shedding like crazy right now, but he's become a part of our lives.  hopefully he'll be able to come back to us before too long.

and then the last thing... i haven't really shared this with many because i have no answers to the questions that follow.  but here it is:  we did not get our house.  not because we didn't qualify, but because the property did not qualify for the loan.  we felt that it was just not meant to be...  we've been trying to make it work for over a year now, and after trying to push this square peg into a round hole for so long, we now know that it just isn't going to fit.

i think a good way to share how devistating this is to me emotionally is to show you my last page i created with the ENLIGHTENMENT kit.  keep in mind, these pages are created the month before they are shared, so when i made this page, we thought it was a done deal.

the journaling says:  this feels like home to me.  I never used to think i would find a place that would give me that feeling.  now im married to the most amazing man, and not only do i feel "at home" in his heart, but now we are buying this house and will make our home together.  some people never know this feeling.  i can't believe how blessed i am.  welcome home, Shaina. 

and now that feeling and this house has fallen through our hands.   i feel like a rug was pulled out from underneath me.  and i don't know what my next move is supposed to be.  we've started to look at other homes because we'll need to move out now that we aren't buying.  everything is unknown...

so its been a rough weekend. 
and these things are the reason i've been so quiet lately.  i just don't feel like myself right now...
but i know that eventually i will have a home with chris.  at least we have each other.

oh friday

listening:  to eminem and rihana's "love the way you lie" over and over.  have you seen the video yet? HOT!
eating: leftover pizza from last night.
drinking:  lots of water... from my starbucks cup of course.
wearing: my comfy pants and moccasins. 
feeling: completely overwhelmed by life these last 2 weeks
weather: finally feeling like fall
wanting: a big hug from chris
needing: to re-schedule a senior photoshoot i had to cancel
thinking: about ordering the 4th season of Gilmore Girls on DVD...just finished season 3.
enjoying: the many kind comments i got on yesterday's BLOG HOP post.
wondering: if we will eventually find a house to call our own...

its BLOG HOP time!!

hello and welcome to all of you stopping by to participate in the Scrapbooking from the Inside Out BLOG HOP!!  if you'd like to start from the beginning, click HERE.  you're going to want to get in as many comments as you can so you'll be qualified to WIN one of our beautiful ENLIGHTENMENT kits.  also remember to click through and "like" us on Facebook!  you must do this step to win the prize at the end of the hop.


this is the kit we have this month. and let me tell you, its even better in person!!

 

and here is one more of my pages made with this kit

lately my life has been full of many revelations... i really have been going through a time of enlightenment.  and this page is all about one of the biggest ones.  it comes in the form of a quote from Oprah.  the thing about enlightenment is that we can know and understand something about ourselves, but still not be able to move past it.  that is what the fear of failure is to me.  something i know i need to move on from, something im aware of in my life, but its still a constant struggle, a process.  

thank you so much for taking a peek at one of my pages and seeing where my head was when approaching the theme this month.  its a very revealing theme...one im glad i got to explore.  click HERE for to see more of my ENLIGHTENMENT pages. 

and now you're on the next stop in our BLOG HOP!!  head on over to Aymee's blog HERE. 
thanks again for stopping by. 
and don't forget to follow all the way through... you're gonna want to up your chances at winning this amazing kit!!

guesting at the Dares!!!

a couple weeks ago the cool scrapping ladies over at the effer dares challenged everyone to create and picked the first 15 people to participate in a future dare.  so i got the cutest little kit in the mail full of fun papers to play with.  and today i am so excited to share with you the page i made for this week's Dare.

the dare:  scrap what you wear

so i did my page all about my scarfs that i wear.  and i channeled a little of ms.kara with the title.  ;)
head on over to the dares blog and take a peek at all the fun pages!!  there are so many unique creations all made from the same little kit.
it was an honor to be included.

i'll be back tomorrow with my first ever Scrapbooking from the Inside Out BLOG HOP!!!  be ready to win one of the gorgous ENLIGHTENMENT kits!!

what enlightenment means to me

i am taking a little break from my blogging break to share another page with you from the ENLIGHTENMENT kit.  this theme was hard for me initially... but once i thought about what enlightenment means to me the ideas just started to flow. 
this page was inspired by my friends kelly and katie.  as the poem included on the page says, they really have opened my eyes to so many aspects of life.  they really are true friends.

thanks for taking a peek.
i should be back to regularily scheduled blogging sometime next week.  hopefully by monday all the huge decisions will be made and i'll get back to feeling a little normal.  

a few days...

i'm taking a few days just for me. 
there are a lot of things going on right now... lots of upheaval and change and new adventures.  some of which im handling well, and some not so well.
so please excuse the quiet, and say hello if you've stopped by.

strip me

something about this song really spoke to me. and so i wanted to blog it so i'd have it.
"if you strip me, strip it all away, im still the same."

my favorite pictures

you can feel how much they love each other, and how excited they are to welcome their little one into their lives.  it hasn't been an easy road for them, but together they have formed a family.
i had the priviledge to take pictures of kim and ryan a week before she heads to portland to deliver their little baby girl.  we met in Manito Park in Spokane and caught some beautiful light.  it felt right to do pictures there... they had their engagement shoot and wedding pictures done in the same park.  i wanted to carry on the tradition. 
here are my favorites from their shoot.

thank you for letting me a part of your story. 

she writes

that is the name of the page i want to share with you today created with the ENLIGHTENMENT kit from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out.  i took the theme for this month and really thought deeply about what enlightenment means to me.  i took it to a place learning about myself and realizing what i need in my life, and what i love in my life. 
and writing is one of those things. 

the journaling says:  i am a writer.  i am a poet.  i see the world through the words that flow from my fingers to the blank page in front of me.  i took a break for a couple years, but recently i got out my notebook again and my heart has been poured out.  i see now that it is an integral part of me.  my soul needs to write.  i need to live through words and meter and rhyme.  i am open to the future, to where my poetry wants to go.  

the colors in this kit have just blown me away.  it has been an honor to work with the kit and this amazing design team.  please come join us. 

my yesterday

was all about this

*source

taking pictures like this

eating my favorite steak dinner here

*source

singing my favorite songs at karaoke

*source

and driving home from Spokane.

*source

a fabulous day, if i do say so myself.

WPPI Roadtrip: Seattle

Just a quick post to say Thank You to my dear friend Marta for bringing me along on this fabulous day.  i can barely contain my excitement for the future of photography in both our lives. 

look for my website coming soon!  i won it in a giveaway from Jasmine Star.  im so excited to work with the Showit software and design something that is very me. 

lessons

once again i was intrigued by a blog post written by my blog-friend and fellow SFTIO Design Team member, Felecia.  she always seems to have the best stuff on her blog.  today she had a link to a quiz with the title What's Your Creative Style?
of course i had to click through and take it too.  you want to also??  here's the link:  QUIZ.

and the result of my quiz:

Creativity gives you insight...You feel that creativity provides insight into your own being. In fact, it is like therapy for you, enabling you to get to know yourself better. You seem to be looking for a way into the mysteries of the subconscious. It’s not really self-expression you are seeking, but rather the tools of self-expression: discovering what your creation will reveal about yourself. Art helps you reflect on, analyze and expand your personality. You long to be creative, and it’s not just because you need to deal with your emotions. It’s the tension between contradictions, and the need to resolve doubt that drives you to be creative. Painting pictures, decorating rooms, arranging shells in the sand — these are all creative processes that allow your introspection to roam. You can trace your life through the different ways you have exercised your creativity. For you, art is there to make sense of life. You are more attracted to artistic activities that demand reflection, planning and solitude, and the personal discoveries you make often provide answers for others, too.

this result rings so true to me.  and i think that's why i love Scrapbooking from the Inside Out so much.  the concept pushes me toward personal discoveries and revelations about life and how i feel about it.  this month especially... ENLIGHTENMENT was honestly a harder theme for me to work with.  but the pages that came out of a month of self-reflection are so powerful and important to me.  i can't wait to continue to share this kit and my pages with you. 

enlightenment revealed

welcome to the first of september...the day when i get to share with you the amazing kit i've had the privilege to work with from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out.  the theme this month is ENLIGHTENMENT. 

Always keep your mind as bright and clear as the vast sky, the great ocean, and the highest peak, empty of all thoughts. Always keep your body filled with light and heat. Fill yourself with the power of wisdom and enlightenment. Morihei Ueshiba

Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment. Dogen 


The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness. Nikos Kazantzakis

this kit is full of orange and turquoise and bright jewel tones.  it has paper from BoBunny, Hambly and The Paper Company.  Nancy and Rachel always kill me with their creative match of colors and paper lines.  here, take a peek at this sweet kit...

and i also have my first of 5 pages i created with this kit to share with you.  i'm going to go by order i created them just for fun.  my first page is all about learning American Sign Language and what i learned about the world and myself through it.

my journaling says:  english is my first language.  ASL is my second and it truly is a language of the heart.  it has been said that english can touch the mind, touch our intelligence and logic.  But ASL touches our hearts, moves our emotions and can convey concepts only our hearts can understand.  Through sign language i have come to know my own heart.  Through sign language i have been able to dive deeper into Bible truth and learns things that just reading couldn't teach me.  through sign language i have been made aware of the love i possess.  it is a gift to understand this precious language.  

please come by and see all the other pages created by our fabulous design team.  this is a kit you won't want to miss!!

AUGUST 2010:  this month we had our mortgage loan approved and moved one step closer to being homeowners, i shared a lot of scrapbook layouts all about discovery, ate sooooo much corn on the cob, helped my in-laws move, turned 24 and wrote about all the things i learned at 23, took pictures of my friend jaimin, decided on 4 simple goals for the rest of the year, watched Aarti win the Next Food Network Star (she was my favorite from the beginning),  did a fun family shoot for an old friend, drank a ton of orange juice, ran out of scrapbooking adhesive, planned and executed the BEST surprise ever, cooked dinner all by myself, had taya help me touch up my roots, took pictures in the middle of the road, saw and loved eat, pray, love, got to go to the WPPI Roadtrip in Seattle and hear Jasmin Star speak, took pictures for my friends cam and amanda, learned even more about myself, watched my puppy grow, received a love letter from my husband, and moved toward the future with excitement.