My Return to Blogging + My Favorite Page Ever

Wow. I've had quite a long break from blogging. I guess. If you'd call 18 months a long time...ha ha! Some of you may be familiar with Ali Edwards "One Little Word". Each year, you pick a word that you can focus and reflect on as you go about your daily life. I love this idea. Ali always has great ideas that really resonate with me. You can read more about it on her blog. This year my word is...

For me, "LOOK" can mean several things.  Look for ways to be of service. Look up from my phone.  Look for the good in others.  Look for the good in the world and in every situation.  That last one is part of the reason I've chosen to blog again.  My blog is called "Things that Matter" and I'm really trying to focus on that.  I want to document the good that I find.  I want to document the things I'm LOOKing for.  

So, welcome back, me.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a scrapbooker.  I'm obsessed with my hobby and think about it all the time.  ALL the time.  Part of the reason I'm so drawn to scrapbooking is because I want to document our family's stories.  In a strange way keeping our memories has grounded me and made me realize how blessed I am and how much I have to be grateful for.

The other day, a co-worker and I were talking about my love for puzzles (because those are the kind of riveting conversation topics I bring to the table, folks).  She challenged me to use puzzle pieces on a layout. Immediately my brain started working and in seconds, I knew exactly what my page should be about.  The title: You are all of my Missing Pieces.  Brilliant.

I keep a baggie of puzzle pieces that we find after we put puzzles away.  My hope was that when we pulled out a puzzle and it was missing a piece, we would go to that bag and find the missing pieces.  We never did. So, those are the very pieces I put to work on my page.  I like that they are literally the "missing pieces". Here are some of the details of my layout:

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the title and lots of the Maggie Holmes Flea Market collection.

Those tiny wood veneer letters from Studio Calico were perfect for my husband and daughter's initials.

While this layout was very fun to create, what I really appreciated about the process was the chance to reflect on what matters to me.  What matters to me, really.  It gave me the chance to look for the good in a seemingly bad situation.  And maybe that is what makes this my favorite page of all time.  Thanks for letting me blabber on about it. :)

See you again soon, I hope!

PS - Bear with me as I try to update my blog.  I know it's pretty outdated! ;)