A New Year ....

Last year was tumultuous. I started out with optimism but quickly moved into "back to basic coping strategies" as problems exploded. Two months later and I was treading water. Life was starting to become "manageable". A few bumps but nothing life threatening. Then came the worst day of my life. No words, just tears and back to treading water. On the good days that is.

Then came light from an unexpected corner. Darkness receded to the power of light.

This is how we ended the year. Too many changes, too many ups and downs. We start 2012 higher than a year ago, now that is an achievement!


I wanted to welcome in the New Year with "Light" so headed to the beach to catch the first sunrise of the new year. Sand, water, light - a wonderful combination.  Leaving home at 3:30am, I was back before 7am. Here are some of my photos.

Pre dawn with first light:

First light:

 Then full light:

What can be more beautiful than the first rays of sunshine showing you the possibilities of a new day?

I wish you all a wonderful 2012!

February Pages

January Roundup

I have just completed uploading my 11 pages of photos for January to Inkubook, where my year book will be printed. It is so exciting to see it all formated and in book format on the screen. Using templates with no embellishing and mostly graphic format has been a lifesaver and has simplified the task no end. I have included a lot of journalling including current affairs, weather and also a calendar of what we have done on a day to day basis. Sounds complicated but it is simple as I am journalling whatever interests me at the time.

This works out much better for me than photo a day with a week of photos to a page. I started out well in 2010 but when we had week after week at doctors and major medical problems, I really did not want to look back on so many of my weeks. Some things are better ignored. This year, I am scrapping months and I am aiming for anything from 3 to 10 pages of photos a month.

To give an outline of January:

Page 1: Contains a page of photos taken on 1/1/1. I will also do this randomly throughout the year for special days.

Pages 2-5 were photos from our visit to see my parents.
(These pages were posted earlier)

Pages 6 and 7 are photos taken over the month with a world news/current affairs summary. (We are news junkies here!)

Page 8: Photos with random summaries of the month including weather etc.
Page 9: Photos and journalling about my garden. (Yes there is a lot of journalling this month but it is Summer and I am planting seeds.)

 

Page 10: To keep me inspired with Photo a day, I am selecting a different topic each month as a focus. For January this was flowers and these photos are all cropped onto the page. 

Page 11: Our monthly calendar.

 

To try and tie the individual months together somewhat, I will be using a different colour theme for each month and selecting one coordinating paper. That is it. No embellishments or elements. Not a staple or stitch in sight! 

Now lets see if I am as enthusiastic at the end of February or for that matter later in the year.



And if anyone is interested, the templates that I am using/modifying are from Biograffiti at Oscraps.

Have a great week everyone!

Canberra Visit

Welcoming a new year