This binder is changing the way I view the world, well that's the intention. I want to purposefully sit down with my binder on a regular basis and engage fully with it. It's just a basic 3-ring A4 binder that I have decorated. I plan on keeping track of my goals in here in the form of One Little Word, Sea Change and using Leonie Dawson's Workbook. See post here for more information on these programmes. I want to use this as a modified Project Life album too. It'll be a purposeful mish-mash of authentic Allie. I am really looking forward to exploring and creating my ideal life with it. The outside alone fills me with joy and excitement! Go 2014.

This is one of my favourite Layouts in a while. I am working on a painting and misted a part of it with a butterfly mask. There was a lot of leftover ink on the mask so I grabbed the top paper in my section white papers and pressed it into the ink. I loved the pattern that it left, complete with paint transfer on the top of the paper. I put it aside to dry and decided to create a LO with it on the next Tuesday Night Scrapbooking Session (I am making a commitment to regularly scrapbook. I have an ISCA training call in the afternoon and I am always buzzing with excitement and energy on Tues night so picked then to be creative). This Layout came together really quickly while I listen to an audio book.

I am still loving this set of Thickers! The colour, the scribbling, the size. Oh My! I put the geo tag on as a reference to the fact that be we need to be ourselves, that it is a place to be all the time, rather than a destination to strive for! I am also loving the date stamp at the top. I had a large one, but I found this at my friend's place when I was helping him tidy his office. I told him how much I loved it and he said that he never used it so I could have it. YAY. Now every time I use it, I think of him and his family (the reason I was there in the first place was that his wife had just had a baby! Yay)

I love this random layering! I first saw this messy thread nest technique done by Lisa at RecklinghausenMusings. I decided to give it a go and I am so glad that I did. Most of this page was from my kit, but I added the butterflies and thread from my own stash, along with the two buttons and brad that I used.

The butterfly that inspired everything stayed being a major focus on the page. I loved what I did with it. I used the mask to cut out parts of the wings for a little dimension and I layered paper underneath. I used two smaller of the misting masks to create other butterflies to layer. I had a black velvet butterfly in my stash that I then put on the very top. Each layer moves to reinforce the being-free theme (that is a very strong need of mine!) Finally I had some crystal swirls left over from a 21st so I cut them into antenna to top the butterfly. I added another thread nest to the bottom and added a red brad button to bring the red back onto this side as it was quite heavy on the right. The bottom strip is two free hand cut paper strips stitched down with the washi tape layered under it. I am so very happy with the outcome!

Lately I have been getting really inspired by challenges and blog posts. Unfortunately, I often I just think that I am too busy and read and then move on. As a way to keep these blog posts together I use GoogleReader. I have a lot of great inspiration in my GoogleReader feed including the great blog shimelle.com.  There were a series of posts that fed into one another to get me jumping OFF the computer and over to my scrapbook desk. This one, this one and this one. Go on, click them, they open up in new pages so you can read them and then pop back. I will wait, I promise ;) Okay, so in summary Shimelle and a couple of guests were using frames as inspiration to create scrapbook layouts. My brain had been percolating ideas but the handcut, layered frames was so very motivating. I grabbed my March Crazy Monday Kit and whipped up this gorgeous layout. I added a few tidbits - a deep teal paper from Studio Calico, bits and pieces of the Everyday Eclectic kit that I had as well as a wood veneer bird to reinforce the up and away theme. Just like with a traditional polaroid I will write my journalling across the bottom (hence the 'notes' sticker) This photo as taken when I was on my very first training call with the Inspired Spirit Coaching Academy. 2 years later I am still studying with them in the advance programme that she now offers. I love being a Life Coach and get quite emotional looking back at this photo that literally catches the beginning. I want my journalling to be very heart-felt and I am not going to rush it. I will jot ideas down on paper and work and rework them until I get what I want to say. It is such a different approach from how I normally work. Generally when I scrapbook, I write my journalling on the layout and embrace all the imperfections that may crop up. Spelling mistakes capture where I am now and my handwriting is often changing depending on my mood. It is a great way to capture the here and now of me and my life.

Do you want deeper connection with those around you? Start with yourself.

I have recently been connecting with people who say that they want deep connections with the people in their lives. I know that I want this for myself. I want to really SEE the people around me, to know who they are: to hear the good, the bad, the beautiful. I decided to manifest other people into my life who wanted the same things. I have met a few people who also crave this deep soul connection, or so their words told me. The moment that they didn't like something that I had to say or if they felt I was being negative of them, they cut our acquaintance off. This really got me reflecting inwards. This is the type of behaviour that I used to portray all the time, but I realised that I don't do it as often anymore and I wondered why. I realise that it is because I love myself now. People can put me down and it even hurts but I can easily bounce back because I know that even with those flaws, I am a beautiful woman who genuinely wants the best for everyone around her. I wonder if these gorgeous, adorable, talented, interesting people that I met know that about themselves? We all have skills and weaknesses. By truly knowing these about ourselves, yet loving ourselves anyway we can have a wonderful life. 

I was recently at school with my wee 5 year old foster brother. It was writing time and the young girl beside him was having some trouble with her writing. She was doing everything she could to engage me in conversation because she was feeling bad about not being able to write very well. It broke my heart that she was even worried about this. It is my personal belief that children shouldn't even learn this until about the age of seven. Read with them and allow their brains to naturally see the patterning in the words and then they will be able to write with ease and confidence rather than struggling with 'not being good enough'. But I digress, I am good at that ;) When she asked about X's inability to write I decided that would be a good teaching moment. I explained that perhaps he would never be able to write and that was okay, because he had lots of other skills and talents and is loved deeply anyway. I then went on to ask her what SHE was good at. Now I wont go into detail as I live in a small town and it may be identifying information, however, when she started to tell me, her entire face lit up and I could see her relax. Isn't THIS the state that we should be in? In love with ourselves and the people around us??? It really comes back to loving ourselves and helping others around us to love themselves and perhaps those deep connections will occur naturally. This is my hope anyway, because I do still crave deeper connections. Do you? Or would you rather stay safe in the shallow 

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My first LO from the February Crazy Monday Kit. It is about half kit and half stash. I love it! The texture is awesome. I even used some of the tissue paper packaging so bonus points for that! It has deep and meaningful journalling, a photo I love and paper. This is scrapbooking nirvana to me! I have it displayed up on my studio shelf.

I love the journey that I am on. I love the growth that I am experiencing. Yes, it can be hard, but it is always worth it! The way that I view the world has changed dramatically and I will never, ever be the same again. Through various avenues, such as the ISCA, the internet and the various books and audio books I've devoured, my mind has expanded to the possibilities that life can bring.

I am currently listening to Paulo Coelho's 'The Zahir' and it is really making me question so very much. I am questioning relationships, co-dependency and it's destruction in our society. Questioning if I can release the need to control someone and allowing someone to control me Questioning the need to be married or even if I want to bond myself to another human being? Do I even need to have a boyfriend to express myself physically or is a lover what I require? Are affairs bad? Is monogomy the way to go? All I know for certain is that being honest and expressing myself is the key. The key to my soul, to my desires, to life. And that's enough.

There is change occurring, so much change. Through all this exploration of my soul and discovery of my beliefs, I feel more authentic and alive than I ever have before and I love it.