5/365

So I am pretty excited about today's picture because I made it completely from start to finish. I work with the youth and we have an event coming up that we needed an invitation for so I searched for ideas for designs and I found this idea on pinterest: 

I loved it and decided to use that general pattern. Thank goodness they had downloads on this site for all of the different parts of it. I only had to create the invitation part, the temple card with this year's theme, and the watermark for the outside part of the paper. 

I used this website: 

http://helamangallery.com/

for the free images of the temple that they have available. I fell in love with his work and now really want one of his prints for my home. I actually made two options for the temple card, the second option was my favorite print but didn't match the rest of the invitation quite as well. 

Here is that photo: 

Isn't it gorgeous?! Here is the one I used for the invite: 

Still gorgeous, I just love the colors of the first one so much! 

And here are the pdf downloads of the parts that I created to use in case anyone finds a use for them later on. Feel free to use them. 

And here is the finished product and my day 5 picture: 

Thanks again to picmonkey for my editing purposes,
I was able to adjust the white balance quite a bit to make it
less yellowy than it originally came out. 

4/365

So the ending of this week has been a little crazy to say the least, but yesterday I was able to snap one photo  on our date night at least. Don't judge me that it was with my phone, it was better than nothing. Plus it was of my hot husband so that's a pretty redeeming factor.

I did play around with editing on Picmonkey, which probably taught me close to nothing about editing photos. BUT I love picmonkey! So easy to use!

3/365 - (Bad Mom Award...)

So my sweet baby girl woke up from her nap yesterday with an eye swollen shut. The doctors couldn't get her in till this afternoon, but this is how she woke up. Broke my heart.

When we went in to see the doctor: pink eye in both eyes AND a double ear infection. She hasn't even been messing with her ears. Not to mention her eczema. Does someone want to take over for a week?? I feel like I am breaking my child, the poor thing! And yet she is still always SO smiley!

2/365

Nothing like a little indoor window frost to welcome you to the North Country!

Project 365 Kickoff

So I have a confession to make:

Most years I see New Year's resolutions as pointless. In my way of thinking I was sitting down at least monthly or weekly to evaluate my life and my goals and was making goals at that frequency. 

It has been a good long while since I have sat and done that. 

So this year I see New Year's resolutions as a chance to recommit myself to self improvement and I am making a few resolutions. 

1. To keep a journal every day 
1. If I blog about my day that counts, otherwise I am using my favorite journal and want to fill it up by the end of the year. Then I will have an excuse to buy a new journal. I love journals! 
2. To improve my photography skills
1. Project 365 
2. Online class in January
3. Possibly take online course through the Art Institute online... that one's still a maybe 
3. To improve my relationships 
1. Not miss sending birthday wishes to a single family member (parents and siblings, I wish I were organized enough for cousins and everything. Maybe after I master sending them to parents and siblings:) )

With all that said, this is where I will be posting my photos for Project 365. I am excited to see if I can improve my skills with shooting manually and doing minor editing. 

So here is the first photo of the year, my gorgeous smiley daughter playing with her Christmas dolly. She has just started cheesing it up for photos and I am loving it!! 

I used Gimp (a free editing software) for this photo. It's still a little over my head, but hopefully this will help me get better at it! 

Growing Pains

The last little while for our family has been extremely busy and full of change. We have moved from one side of the US to the other and we didn't have housing when we got here. Once we finally found housing it has been an adventure to get unpacked and settled. Throughout all of it I have been having some growing pains. I am learning the reality of my roles as a wife and mother. It is a good reality. It is a blessed life. But sometimes I still have growing pains when I have to learn more about the realities of what I am called to do in my position.

Today I was blog hopping and I ran across a wonderful article that reminded me of how wonderful it is to be a mother. I try so hard to enjoy every minute of my life, and in all honesty I think that I do pretty well. If it makes any sense at all, that's why I sometimes get growing pains, because I love being with my daughter, I love serving my husband and I don't understand why I should be having a hard time with loneliness or tiredness when I am living the life of my dreams. 

As I was reading through the article Motherhood- The Highest Service of Order I was filled with a love and an understanding about my position. It is no different than many other women that have gone before me. It's just not quite as publicized in the news or media. And I realized today that maybe that's the thing, maybe I need to be more actively searching to surround myself with a community (online or otherwise) of women who know what I am going through. 

Not only that, but there is this wonderful online community of mothers who are not only in my position of being a stay at home mother and wife and so I can relate to them in that aspect, but they also have my same beliefs. What a wonderful thing to be able to connect with what someone is saying because you too are grateful for a Savior who has died for each and everyone of us. What a blessing to have guidance from a loving Heavenly Father by prophets and apostles that are here on the earth. They truly have words that speak to exactly what I need to hear in my times of need. 

I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. It truly is what I draw from during hard times in my life and for that I am forever grateful.

In my blog hopping another thing that was comforting to me today was a link to this video:

I hope that by sharing these things at least one other person can be comforted like I was. The Lord knows us and he knows our trials and he sends angels to guard and comfort us. How blessed are we!!

Click it up a Notch July Contest

I have decided to try to learn photography. My hubby got me a fabulous camera for Christmas and I have been dabbling here and there, but I finally am trying my hand at shooting manually and I love the results SO much more! 

This was one of my favorite pictures that I took in July.  It was for graduation pictures for my younger sister.