Definitely searching for my balance

Lately, I've started to wonder about the title of my blog. Why did I pick this one and am I really living up to the name? Some people say, "Who cares what your title is?" And they're right, as long as I have fun documenting my daily life with Little Man A to either 1) get things out of my head (too many things up there anyway), or 2) some way for me to write things down for A's scrapbook later.

Well, over the past few weeks, I have definitely been living up to my title. Not only have I been dealing with a temper trantrum throwing 13 month old (14 months old in 3 days!), I've also been trying to keep the house in order, groom my poor cocker spaniel who hasn't been touched with clippers since November, do our taxes (we need the cash!), run errands after Little Man A goes to bed, finish Little Man A's first year scrapbook, and last but certainly not least, put a scrapbook together for a friend of mine.

Yes, I am trying to start a small scrapbooking business where I sell pre-made scrapbooks. My friend actually approached me about putting a scrapbook together for her because one of her beloved dogs was deathly sick. Since she has asked me, I have to note, that her dog is recovering miraculously from Immune-Mediated Hemolytic Anemia (her body's own immune system is attacking her red blood cells and her body is not able to regenerate them fast enough therefore making her extremely weak)!! It was originally going to be strictly about her sick dog, but when she found out she was on the up and up track, she decided to include both her dogs. Not only that, she of course had pictures of her beloved "Bruce" with each of her dogs as well. (Happy First Birthday, Bruce!)


I am actually quite impressed with myself. When she asked me to take on this project, I have to admit, I was nervous on a few levels.

1. Her only seeing a few samples of my work, I wasn't sure she would like my style of scrapbooking. I had seen the pages she had designed digitally... although they were fabulous, it would not have been anything I would have thought to pick out myself. I just don't think I have the creative level to be able to come up with some of these layouts that are published in magazines.

2. I wasn't sure if I could get it done within a reasonable amount of time. Only having nap times and at the end of the day, I needed to go through a couple hundred digital photos (which actually was a lot easier than going through hard copies), coming up with ideas for layouts, purchasing the paper and hoping that it would go with the photos/style/theme of the photos, actually putting the layouts together, adding journaling... it's a long list.

And, 3. I just didn't have the confidence in myself since I had been out of the loop for so long. I would make excuse after excuse during Little Man's first year growing up not to scrapbook. Here I am, not able to even finish my son's first year... and she wants me to put a scrapbook together of her two dogs??

Well, I did it! During the process, I was able to decide which photos to use, design layouts for each one determining the number of photos, pick out paper, put the layouts together, and use lots of products and even designs and styles that I hadn't used before. And I did it all in two weeks!! That's 10 layouts in 4 days!

So I want to thank you, dear friend. This has been a wonderful challenge to show me that I could/can/will be able to take on this new episode of my life. So I will keep everyone posted as to how things progress and hey if you would like to see some of my work... just stay tuned!