Monday, October 25, 2010

Last Week

I've been playing in the Scrap Your Freakin' Heart Out contest at the LilyPad in the past 3 weeks. I've had a blast! I really loved my week 1 page; I was pretty happy with my week 2 page also.
For the final week, I did this:


Journaling:
Oct. 23 2010, just another gorgeous fall day....
We have been living in this house almost three years now. It feels like home. We are so lucky to have such a gorgeous backyard, with bunnies, squirrels, foxes, deer, groundhogs... When I think back to our life in the big city, there is nothing I long for now. That life is gone now; I enjoyed it while it lasted, but now that I have tasted what peace being in the nature gives me, I have no desire to go back. I like to sit here and marvel at the seasons that go by.


Credits:
Paper, house, tree, flower and heard from Cottage Garden by Kaye Winiecki
Paper branch, green paper and acrylic alpha from So Grateful by Sahlin Studio and Sugarplum Paperie
Fancy Flourish Stamps by Jenna Desai
Foam Stamp Alpha Black by Sahlin Studio
Unseamly Stitched Alpha by Jenn Barrette
Fonts: Revista, Traveling Typewriter, CK Noah

I loved the idea I had for this page (taking pictures in my backyard in a full 360 degree turn), but it's a real pity that the pictures look so small in the 600 px web version! Plus, I botched the exposure in a couple of the shots, stupid me! Oh well. :)
It would be fun to do this again when the snow arrives, and then in spring when the leaves grow back, etc. Sounds like a nice plan! ;)

Since you can enter as many pages as you want in the contest, I also made this page, because I had been thinking for a while to document this, and this challenge convinced me it was just about time to do it. I'll be printing this and putting it in my art journal.


Journaling:
There was a time, not too long ago, when I believed that the world was a good place. Good things happen to good people, bad things to bad, right? Well, not exactly. Not anymore.
The world is a scary, evil place. There are days I cannot even get myself to read the news because the knot in my stomach is too tight and I cannot bear to hear any more bad news. But there’s no running away. A dear friend of mine was
brutally attacked and I will bring with me forever the shock and dread I proved when I first heard about it. That was the day I finally understood, and there’s no going back.
Most of the bad news we read in the papers don’t happen to criminals who were bound to end up that way. They happen to nice, normal people like us too. And it is so scary.
When I was little, I loved to ride the bus in my city and look at all the people walking on the street, wondering who they were and regretting not being able to get to know them all. Now, I think I was such a fool back then. Now, I keep away from people as much as possible. Keep at a safe distance to feel safer, but is anybody ever safe?
I don’t know if this fear will ever leave me. I hope one day to gain back a brighter view of the world. I long for that naive attitude to come back. I am hoping it is just buried beneath all the horror and waiting to resurface.
I long to reconcile the sheer happiness and contentment I feel about my personal little world with the dread of the big world. I long to find that balance.
But I can no longer be deceived. The world is not a happy place. I really don’t buy that anymore.

Credits:
Background: black paper from Mod Me by Jacque Larsen blended with newspaper print paper from Capture the Moment by Kate Hadfield and Designs by Liii
Fonts: SS Whimsy, CK Cursive

So anyway, I didn't win (so far... LOL... voting for this week hasn't even started yet) but I am not really disappointed because there is some serious, amazing talent in the gallery and the people who have been chosen so far all really deserved it. But of course one can hope, right? :)
The prizes for this contest are just amazing. There are 3 weekly winners (one for Design, one for Photography and another for Journaling) and they each win $30 to the TLP store. The contest runs for 3 weeks, and after that one of weekly winners is chosen in each category to be the overall winner: and among other great prizes, the 3 overall winners get to be a guest CT for 1 month! So yeah, it's not hard to see why I'd love to win. ;)

If you have some spare time, go check out the galleries for this contest. The pages there are just amazing!

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