Enjoy!

Anne is in positive mood for our 'Reflect' challenge in May.  We are on our fifth letter of 'Silver Lining' and that is E.  Our word to reflect on is 'Enjoy'.

I have a very special 'Enjoy' to share with you but without any photographs.  Our grandson was born yesterday a healthy 8lb 8oz and Mum and baby were back home less than five hours after his birth!  Our son came round about 10pm last night to ask us to come and meet 'someone' next door.  We couldn't believe that he had arrived so quickly and was home so soon!  It was lovely to meet Mason, in his own home and to have a little cuddle.

Mason's Mum and Dad prefer not to have his picture online, so I'm afraid I can't show you this precious bundle.  But, without doubt, he will bring us many things to ENJOY!

Kit - Baby of Mine by Jen Yurko

Reflection February - Impossible

And so we come to the Lucky Snapping in 2013, week of Reflection.  There have been some astonishing stories of courage and overcoming adversity from the Lucky Snappers this week.  I found it really difficult to think of anything that had been so challenging to me that it was impossible. I have faced many challenges but am fortunate never to have felt that anything was impossible. 

During the week, I was tweeting with some of my foodie friends and one of them discovered that I lived on a farm, worked full time as well as actively cooking, baking, occasionally crafting, blogging and sharing a house with my 88 year old mother-in-law. That was my lightbulb moment, I would journal about something other people thought was impossible i.e. sharing a house with my mother-in-law!

I put a little altered picture of her (taken in 2009) under the flap (the reason for the flap will become apparent when the cover of the journal is revealed) and I've given her glittery hair!  Anyway, here is what is written in the journalling around the edge of the page:

"I have shared a house with my mother-in-law since 1985.  Many people find this hard to believe and tell me that it would be impossible for them to live in the same house as their MIL.  I am not saying that we don't fall out sometimes, but on the whole we all rub along quite well together.  There is more tension between my husband and his mum, than between me and her. She will be 89 this year and still drives her own car, she has an active social life and helps around the house as much as she can.  Without her help my career would have been impossible, as she was there to look after our children  when I returned to work.  Sometimes I wonder what our lives would have been like  if we didn't share a house with her, but I find it impossible to imagine how it might have been."

Thanks to Anne for a great challenge, it pushes me to do some art journalling which I love, but never seem to find time for.

Serendipity - the start of the Silver Lining

Lucky Snapping in 2013 is now in it's second week and we have moved on to Anne's challenge.  Here is what she has asked us to do:

"Let's reflect - January

Welcome to you all.
So here we are, at the start of the Let's reflect challenge. We will be together for 12 weeks, the 2nd of each month. Wow !
I called my challenge let's reflect, because sometimes life gets in our way, doesn't go at all in the direction we wanted and we can feel hopeless and disoriented. I have been in this situation several times and to be honest I am in it right now, preparing my post in advance. A good way to go through these difficult times we all experience is to look inside and also to concentrate on others as learning from loved ones, even from strangers is also learning about ourselves.
As you know our discovery will be based on 12 words, each one starting with a letter from SILVER LINING.
Today's word is Serendipity. I absolutely love this word. If you never heard it before, it means
the act of finding something valuable or delightful when you are not looking for it
In simple words, it's taking joy out of something that you didn't expect.  
It 's a stranger smiling at you and making your day.  It's your granddaughter saying " you look beautiful today ". It's a letter from an old friend you had lost contact with.
It's a song that brings back some beautiful memories. It's a smell that makes you hungry when you weren't.
During this week, we will concentrate on the little things life brings, these little things that we sometimes are too busy to see. It is a good exercise to look for these moments during this coming week but you also can use moments having happened before and come back and add moments that will happen in the future. Remember, we are building a " Silver Lining book " for difficult times. Anything that can help you, can go inside.
You are doing this challenge for yourself, so whatever your serendipity examples will be this week or earlier, they are yours. We are all different, so if your examples only make sense to you and nobody else, that's OK. If you want to only share some with us and leave the others hidden, that's OK. If you want to explain a lot or just a little, that's OK. What is important is what you are doing for yourself.
The way you choose to do this challenge is also up to you. You can take pictures, you can write, you can make a scrapbook page, you can art journal it, you can draw, you can share about a book that brightened your life, whatever you feel like doing will be the right thing to do."

Although I have loved taking  a photograph every day, the fact that I also made it into a digital layout meant that I have done very little other crafting, so I am going to take this opportunity to start an art journal.  I intend to share the journal here unless there is anything that I feel is too personal. 


Tonight I have found a little pamphlet that I will use as my journal and have gessoed the front cover, I hope to gesso the first page tomorrow and then I will start to make my Serendipity page.  Already today, I found a little joy at my optician's appointment, let's see what the rest of the week brings!

 Here is my Serendipity Art Journal page, the journalling reads as follows:

Serendipity 
The act of finding something valuable or delightful when you are not LOOKING for it!
On Monday I went to the optician for an eyesight check up.  I knew the time had come for varifocals.  My sight test went well and although I will need new glasses, the good news is that my eyes are in excellent health and my macular is clear and helathy.  Important due to family history of macular degeneration. 10/01/13