Week 35: A recent outing found me sharing camera equipment with Wayne. It's not unusual for us to trade lenses...we use similar cameras and have intentionally avoided duplicating lenses to spend our photography budget more wisely. But as I snapped away, I found myself missing the familiar settings of my camera body. That experience, and my over-all appreciation for the role it plays in preserving our memories, prompted me to choose my camera as this week's blessing.

Many of you have already included your camera in your gratitude album so I'm encouraging you to look more closely at your memory-preservation systems. Do you have a journal or blog where you "park" the stories of your life until you're ready to scrapbook them? It's a far better system to record details rather than rely on memories that dim with the passage of time. Perhaps you have a file folder or box in the closet reserved just for ticket stubs, programs and other mementos of events in your life. Having a central location for memorabilia makes it easier to find when you're ready to tell the accompanying story on a scrapbook page. Or maybe in addition to layouts you preserve your stories on video. Hearing the voices of those we love long after they are gone is truly a special blessing. Examine your memory-keeping regime to see if you should be grateful for more than your trusty camera.

My layout is in the gallery. The design is based on a challenge I devised for myself to get my creative juices flowing. You'll find more about that challenge as well as a tip on still-life photography on my blog.




Week 34: One of the best things about summer is the variety and quality of fresh produce. Although we've gorged ourselves on cherries (which seem to be plentiful this year, strawberries and melons, it's the peaches that have made my heart happy and, therefore, are the basis for my blessing this week. They taste good, they're good for me, and they bring back plenty of good memories of people and places and warm summer days.

What summer fruit or vegetable has made not only your taste buds but heart sing these days? Are you a little like the squirrels in my yard, burying bags of fresh-off-the-cob corn away in the freezer for the cold days to come and thinking all the while how you used to watch your mother or grandmother do exactly the same thing? Or perhaps you're sitting on the back step with your children or grandchildren enjoying a big slice of juicy watermelon and spitting the seeds out into the yard just like you used to do with your dad. Maybe you've been making zucchini bread, in part because of the bountiful supply of it from the garden but also because it's an old favorite receipt you know has roots in your family from years gone by, even if you don't know the whole story.

We eat to nourish our bodies but sometimes the food does more than that. We associate it with events in our past and those memories nourish our soul. My prompt to you this week is to recall those happy memories as you're walking the aisles of fresh produce so plentiful and good right now and see if they aren't a blessing you might wish to record.

As always, my page is in the gallery and there's more on this idea on my blog. I've also been working on the journaling pages for my gratitude book and photos of those pages are also on my blog.




Week 33: I feel like I'm sitting in the lap of luxury this week. During a recent trip to the department store, I stumbled on a table of thick, bright-colored towels on sale for a ridiculously low price. You can be sure some came home with me to replace the ones in my linen closet worn thin by years of use. These pretty new towels have made me happy and the bargain price has become my blessing this week.

My prompt this week is to ask what makes you feel like you're living the high life? Do you feel like a style maven when you put on a special pair of shoes or carry a purse bearing a designer label? May you have a bottle of expensive perfume or fine jewelry you save for just those "special" occasions. Or perhaps a peek into your freezer would reveal some premium ice cream that you find irresistible. We all have these indulgences...little joys we add into our lives when we could get by with less. Life is too short to deny ourselves a few guilty pleasures. Consider documenting your luxurious little pick-me-up in your gratitude project.

My layout is in the gallery and, as always, there's more on this concept on my blog.




Week 32: It's been a long journey to get to my blessing this week. We started revamping a large flower bed in the front of our house months ago and the hard work and sweat we poured into it have finally paid off. The front door facelift is done and looks wonderful.

What have you poured your heart and soul into that took longer than expected to reach a successful conclusion? Have you continued to work towards an advanced degree or certification in your profession while maintaining your job and home? The hours of study and many sacrifices you made don't appear anywhere on the piece of paper you received at the end but you know what went into it. Or may you've tackled a remodeling project in your home, living among the dust and disruption in the name of improvements to your living space. If you handled the rebuilding and painting yourself, you have double the pride in the end result. Perhaps the project is more personal...weight loss, getting in better shape physically or rebuilding a relationship with someone from whom you've grown apart. While you may not have the tangible evidence of your hard work like the previous examples, the result is every bit and often more important. The challenge this week is to look at these things that took months, maybe even years, to develop and to express our gratitude for them.

My page is in the gallery, and you'll find a link to that cute little label I used on it on my blog. It's a free download and you can simply resize and recolor it in your photo editing software then print it to add to a layout or card. I see lots of use for this in my future.