The last month of 2012

Hello December… hello short days and frozen fog and perhaps some snow. I am so amazed that is is already the last month of 2012. It is a time of reflection and gratitude and remembrance. Hello singing duets and credit union mergers, visits from family and trying new recipes. I’m ready for time to slow down a little…to sleep more and be more productive with my days. I’m ready for enjoying my weekends off, reading more library books and watching Chris learn to use his airbrush kit. Hello finishing up some fun blog designs and diving into my design business. I think this month will be full of job, contentment and falling more in love with my husband. Welcome December…you’ve arrived much too fast, but I’m glad you’re here.

Living and Celebrating

Hello November… hello daylight savings time and crisp leaves covering the ground. Hello shorter days and and new schedules. I am ready to welcome in the changes that November will bring. Ready for blogging when I’m inspired and setting new goals and expectations. Ready for reading and learning and designing. This month will be full of figuring out my new phone and applying all the skills I gained at training. There will be less eating out and more money saved; less wasting time and more cuddles; less stress and more time with friends. I just know November is going to be a month to remember in one of the best years I’ve ever had. There is always something to celebrate when you stop and look through grateful eyes. Hello November.

Saying Hello to my favorite month

Hello October. I’m so glad you’re here. I’ve been waiting all year for you and your (hopefully soon) crisp cool mornings and turning leaves. This is going to be a big, important month. I will be closing a chapter of my life almost 4 1/2 years long as I begin my new job. Hello new professional clothes and wearing heels that make me feel more like my old self again. This month begins our Saturdays completely full of the Russian language and leaning into the learning process. October brings with it getting internet installed at home, blog design classes, the last visit with my sister before she moves to Australia, buying new tires, taking family pictures and maternity pictures, days of training at the Credit Union and possibly the switch from iced to hot coffee. There will be much to celebrate…October looks good on me.

Welcoming Autumn

Hello autumn…my favorite season. Hello warm (but not unbearably hot) days and cooler nights. Hello scarfs that have been in my closet for far too long. September brings with it days on the Pacific Ocean and visiting family, new glasses and blog designing, taking online classes and working 6 days a week. This will be the start football season and getting audited, creating with paper, not just digitally and expanding my Russian vocabulary.  I want to write more poetry, develop deeper friendships and have my work feel worthwhile. I hope September will give me a chance to breathe…a chance to savor…a chance to love more and love harder. I know there will be much to celebrate. Welcome September…be gentle with me.

At the start

Here we are the the beginning of another month. Hello more book reading, thunderstorms and hazelnut flavored coffee. Hello working two part-time jobs, art journaling and discovering new music. Hello little nephew (who is growing up too fast!), curating art and hopefully paying off medical bills. August looks like its going to be another full month with little road trips, weddings, visitors and slowly feeling better. I’m looking forward to taking notes at the district convention and watching the drama, wearing my new dress and maxi skirt, turning 26 and writing my things I learned list, and checking a few more things off of our Summer Manifesto. I’ll be celebrating big things and little things and sharing along the way. Lets not let this summer slip through our fingers, k?  Hello August…give it your best shot!

Welcoming in a brand new month

Today is the first day of July 2012. I am blown away that this year is already half way over! July brings extra hot days with the AC running all the time, reading in the sunshine, grilling for dinner and the crisp taste of iced tea. July will hopefully bring the arrival of the baby that is past his or her due date and visits with friends. This new month means going to weddings and parties and staying up way too late. It will be full of journal writing and more blog designing and time outside. I am looking forward to enjoying the long days with Chris and going to see the tummy specialist for more answers and hopefully some relief. Summer is in full swing, and I plan on celebrating every day of it. Welcome July…you’re going to be just swell.

Good morning June

Today is the first day of a brand new month...and I adore the month of June (its my second favorite month, if I'm being honest, but second out of 12?  that's pretty good, right?!).  June brings warmth and sunshine, swimming in the lake, too many cups of iced coffee, road trips (hopefully), and lots of picture taking.  June means summer has begun and I savor the days as they keep getting longer.  This June my best friend's first baby will arrive and I am eagerly awaiting meeting him or her for the first time.  June is also our anniversary month.  On the 22nd Chris and I will celebrate five years of marriage.  I have some fun things in store for the blog that week, including some "He said/She said" stories of when we first met, had our first date and got engaged.  I am so enjoying reading Chris' version of events, and I can't wait to share.  June will be full of things to celebrate, both little everyday things and big milestones.  I hope you'll join me and be inspired to celebrate your everyday this month.  Welcome June...I think you're going to be just terrific!     

Welcome October

October means cooler weather, changing leaves, scarfs, pretty sunsets, hot coffee, getting creative in service, circuit assembly weekend, visits with friends and family, photoshoots, decorating, dreaming and cute shoes of course.  

October is my favorite month. 

October looks good on me.  

DECEMBER 2010:  this was quite a month.  2010 went out with a bang.  chris and i started a new tradition of going out for breakfast together on saturday mornings, i applied for another term at SFTIO, took the final 5 pictures of my 52weeks project, celebrated our Half-Aversary, spent too much money at the Del Red, had a fantastic visit with our friends in Portland, tried some new songs at karaoke, bought some new Mark makeup and love it, watched the sing-off on Hulu, got addicted to playing wordfued on my phone, bought some new music, had to wear my old glasses for a full week without contacts, saw tron in 3D with chris for a date night, cooked a 24lb ham (haminit), decided my word for 2011, thought seriously about changing my hair to red again, ordered boots that didn't fit, made way too many grilled cheese sandwiches, shared my WONDER pages throughout the month, figured out my plan for my 52weeks book,  i was included in an artists post about self-portrait photography (a true honor), thought a lot about this last year and reviewed all my different hair-styles, had a friend over for tea, watched tons of movies with husband, did absolutely no scrapbooking, made some big decisions about the future, didn't do dished for a full week, interpreted at all the meetings and felt my confidence in my signing skills growing, took my in-laws out for a special dinner, wrote poems from the depths of my heart, struggled with rejection and worthiness, bought husband a mandolin, went in service with lisa on monday afternoons and was filled with hope.

what a month.
what a year.

NOVEMBER 2010:  this month winter arrived and brought with it many adventures, our pipes froze and then burst, chris got stuck in his garbage truck, i bought peppermint creamer for my coffee and drank a lot of it, i took pictures of marta for her website, i scrapbooked a ton and felt a renewed sense of creativity, i was inspired and supported by many lovely muses, i did a lot of ASL interpreting, i started working on my medical transcription coursework again, i set new goals, i had my pictures taken by marta, began work on my website, ate a lot of homemade caramel corn, lost and found our poor little puppy (what a story!!), took notes on a talk about the strength of vulnerability, shared a part of my heart on my scrapbook pages, took a walk in the leaves before they were covered with snow, got a new phone, shared what ACCEPTANCE means to me, re-found a favorite artist, had our meeting canceled cuz of the snow, woke up screaming from a horrible nightmare, enjoyed a lovely visit with my mum, took 4 more self-portraits and wrote a couple poems, had a couple pages featured at Cartwheels in my Mind, so tons of hand stitching on my December kit from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out, planned a weekend getaway, got excited for new music coming out, watched some cute movies, had photoshop elements crash on me and got awesome technical support from Erin of MCP actions, shot my first session in all manual, had my yearly egg-nog milkshake from McDonalds, played Phase 10 dice with chris, laughed sooo hard at damnyouautocorrect.com, got a new stove, listened to chris say funny things in his sleep, got super fast internet thanks to my DROIDx and tethering it to my computer, made breakfast with chris and dreamed of tousled hair. it was a good month.

OCTOBER 2010:  this month was one of extreme highs and lows in emotions and weather.  i focused on my PURPOSE with the amazing kit from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out, spent some quality sister time with my sister megan, was creative in ways i hadn't been in awhile, thought about auditioning for My Fair Lady and deciding right now is not a good time for so many responsibilities, missed my puppy, spent some real time with chris and we fell in love all over again, welcomed autumn to our neighborhood, got my hair cut (so needed it!!), celebrated our friend's 5th anniversary in Spokane, did my very first newborn session and fell in love with taking pictures of babies, watched chris play a lot of Assassin's Creed II, made the decision to get rid of our TV service for 6 months and we haven't missed it, thought about intentions vs. actions, figured out how to use chris's phone as a mobile hot spot, drank less coffee, had too much fun at karaoke with friends from out of town, got a huge box of chicken and a huge bag of onions for free and have been eating too much of both ever since, got flu shots for free from chris' employer, played and won my first RISK game in like 10 years, took some more fun self-portraits, embraced the things within my control, was featured on the Cartwheels in My Mind online magazine, missed having taya around something fierce participated in a DARE and did a scrapblog layout, had a great visit with my parents and enjoyed the circuit assembly in Omak, had trouble sleeping and was grateful that it never hurts to ask. 

 SEPTEMBER 2010:  this month i had to switch from bloglines to google reader to read blogs (and i hate it), felt comforted by really good food, didn't get to see my friend lara get married, shared many pages about ENLIGHTENMENT in my life, felt completely creatively drained, got some horrible news about our house, started a weekly conversation thread on Facebook with my dear friends Kelly and Katie, participated in my very first BLOG HOP with Scrapbooking from the Inside Out, gave our friends Casey and Taya a going away party at the Del Red (our favorite karaoke place), got some encouraging e-mails from a dear far away friend, found a new skin care product and am going to start selling it too, had a terrific visit with my sister megan and took pictures of her, shot another maternity session for friends from spokane, got flowers from my husband, took a fun online quiz, found a couple new favorite songs (have you seen the eminem and rihanna video?? dude!), guest designed with a little kit from the ladies over at The Dares, and started packing up our house.  what a month. 

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.

JULY 2010:  this month went by to fast, we traveled to whidbey island for chris' cousin's wedding, i dove deep into courage, i wrote poetry i am proud of, i was inspired by a new music video, i made a grateful list to keep me focused, bought fresh cherries off a truck by the side of the road, played with camera apps on chris' new phone, searched for inspiration online, fell in love with quotes again, tried my hand at stop motion, got photoshop help from ms.kara, did a photoshoot with nani and kaleb, got to meet sweet baby nadine, didn't get a sunburn, got woken up at 3am by a bunch of cops outside our house catching some guy, got really sick a few times, got a new to me IKEA desk for $100 and the promise of a photoshoot, saw and loved the movie Inception, edited pictures from my visit with KT and Kelly, got good news about buying our house and the First-time Homebuyers tax credit, watched my puppy grow even more, went swimming at the lake a few times, was gifted an action for photoshop, missed seeing my mum 2 times, started reading a new book, found an earwig in my mouth after taking a drink from a straw, got all my friends reading eat, pray, love, added more photography blogs to my bloglines and finally got some scrapping done. 

JUNE 2010:  this month i shared more of my love of sunflairs, wrote all about my puppy spencer and the things that make him special, went on a road trip with the love of my life, had a visit with my special girls, kelly and kt, got my new glass as an anniversary present, enjoyed seeing special old friends in canada, worked on my pages for the design team over at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out, got a free tire for one of our cars, had a horrible allergic reaction to all the mosquito bites i got up north, celebrated my 3 year anniversary with my hubs, fell on my face at the convention and still have a bruise from it, took pictures of my dear friend rebecca, got my hair done again, dealt with frustrations and depression, fell in love with eat, pray, love, answered 8 questions about myself, went to the convention in Prince George, watched 'so you think you can dance', dealt with a family emergency, won a gift certificate, loved it when spencer got the hiccups, weeded my yard with my mum, drank a lot of orange juice, spent a bunch of time with my friend taya, had some crazy nightmares, got new living room furniture from my parents, felt a drain of creativity, had some good heart-to-hearts with some special friends, got a new clock for my collection and was glad when the month was over.

MAY 2010:   this month chris and i brought home our puppy, spencer, i was a blog sponsor over at kylaroma.com, i enjoyed the lilac bushes surrounding my house, THe CrEatiVe TyPe was featured over at ScrapStreet.com magazine, i played along over at the cybercrop @ Scrapbooking from the Inside Out and won one of the challenges, i redesigned my blog for the first time in a year and a half, i did a guest blog at Amy Lapi's blog all about my 52weeks project, fell deeper in love with purple, gray and yellow, took lots of cute pictures of my new puppy, learned how to create a widget for my new blog design, supported my husband at the karaoke contest, fell in love with hazelnut flavoring in my coffee, had happy photography "customers" who loved their prints, got the other car up and running, laughed at the things chris has been saying in his sleep, fell in love with pictures printed on metallic paper, had our final performance of Razia's Shadow, got an amazing phone call telling me that i am one of the newest members of the Design Team over at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out!! failed one of my quizzes and had a breakdown about my course, scrapbooked with paper and scrapblog.com, planned for future photo shoot collaborations for my 52weeks project, was a shipping middle-man again, started doing special quotes on my blog and finalized plans for our vacation!! 

APRIL 2010:  this month i was thankful for the start of spring, celebrated with my husband when he found a new job driving garbage truck, scrapbooked a lot, worked so hard on my medical transcription course, built and announced the brand new site for THe CrEatiVe TyPe, chris and i decided that it was time to start our family and found a puppy we get to bring home soon, our play Razia's Shadow opened with a bang, the flowers in my sweet yard started blooming, i reached my halfway mark for my classwork, found new music to love, drove to seattle by myself, got my reward from my dad, took maternity pictures for my lifelong friend tracy and her hubs jason, we picked out a name for our puppy and he will be known as spencer, i did a paper scrapbook layout, spent so much time editing pictures, had some lovely visits from my sisters and friends, didn't go to karaoke once, bought a fabulous bag for $2 at burlington coat factory, loved watching my husband perform on the theater stage, found a perfect tattoo, got the biggest sty in my eye i've had in a long time, completed 4 more weeks of my 52 weeks project, went to the tricities for our special assembly day and sat with my mum and dad, went to canada with chris to pick up my new computer, got to know my friend nani even better, hurt my foot at play rehearsal, entered a picture in a photo contest, said "so-arry" till i laughed so hard, listened to Tegan and Sarah on pandora, made plans for our vacation in june, oh, and Windows 7.... it was my idea! ;)

MARCH 2010: i fondly remembered my husband's sweet proposal to me on the 3-year anniversary of that day, went in service with my mum, took photos of myself wearing a beautiful scarf i got as a gift, i entered a giveaway for a fabulous camera, almost quit our play 3 times, chris made me eggs Benedict at home (my favorite breakfast!), fell off the stage backwards at the theater, found an artist from my childhood and reveled in memories, made plans for my first maternity shoot, tried to help my husband find a new job, changed my hair again, did some more digi scrapbook pages, continued to learn and develop my editing skills on picnik.com, listened to this song over and over, saw spring come to my backyard, took family pictures for my cousin hannah and her sweet little family, dealt with drama in the best way i could, ate organic eggs, borrowed my friend marta's camera and fell in love with her prime lens, visited with my mum a bunch, celebrated the Memorial of Christ's death, ate dinner with friends a lot, progressed even further in my medical transcription course, had food taste really weird to me most of the time, found inspiration in this video, drank way too much coffee, lost our main lead singer in the play, fought with money and our plans for the future. what a month!!

FEBRUARY 2010: i watched the team i was rooting for win the superbowl, bought a new scent for myself, dove into my class work and have a goal to finish it by june 1st, got stressed out about rehearsals for the play, got strep throat and a sever cold that lasted for 3 weeks, had a lovely visit with my canadian family, didn't sing nearly as much as i wanted to, ate homemade pizza, had no money to pay bills for the second february in a row, helped my mum through some hardships, decided spring has arrived, read a couple really great books in a day, was made assistant choreographer for our play, dreamed of tattoos and dreadlocks, touched up my blonde hair, went on a road trip to canada, enjoyed warmer weather, was in and out of sync with my husband, finished up my second month of 52week pictures, survived a family emergency, watched my littlest sister get baptized, was given a desktop computer by my father-in-law, worked in ellensburg for a day, was blown away by how fast my hair grows, helped develop the idea for our play poster, started buying gold at work, ate some gross microwave popcorn, and took pictures along the way. it was a good month.

JANUARY 2010: i took lots of photos, started blogging again, sang karaoke as much as possible, decided to start a 52weeks project and started a blog just for that, created some digital scrapbook pages, had a wonderful visit with my mum and took pictures together, stressed out about huge changes at work, started working hard on my class work at home, drank a lot of tea and green tea lemonade, became closer with my "in person" friends, got addicted to playing chuzzle on my phone, drove around with the windows down and didn't have to wear a coat, got in the biggest fight with chris we've ever had, started rehearsals for our upcoming play, Razia's Shadow, got excited for american idol, got frustrated at football games, found a new favorite (bad) snack: chocolate peanut butter bugles, enjoyed our CO visit with Wasyl and Roxane, had fun styling my short blonde hair, enjoyed interpreting ASL again, decided i really do look like drew barrymore ;) and was inspired by this wonderful online world. :)