Scrapbooking and Relaxing

Life has this irritating habit of making one come undone. Frazzled. Frayed. Here are my ways to relax:



1. Read.
Pro: What's not to love about reading????
Con: What? There are no cons with reading!



2. Bake something yummy.
Pro: That delicious scent of freshly baked goods wafting through my kitchen.
Con: Calories. Carbs. Butter.



3. Gardening.
Pro: Delicious vegetables to eat, or lovely flowers on my table.
Con: Backache and frustration because I really don't know what I'm doing!



4. Scrapbooking.
Pro: Patterned paper, ribbons, bright colors, total immersion in own little creative world
Con: Too many hours and dollars spent in the local scrapbook stores.



After being on the go for too many days in a row, yesterday I'd decided to give myself a bit of a break. I sat on my back deck for an hour with a cup of coffee and started in on Susan Wigg's The Ocean Between Us (wonderful author, BTW), then baked three loaves of bread. The scent emanating from my kitchen smelled like heaven. I hauled out the old forsythia branch trimmings from their messy little pile in the back of the yard. And I finished a scrapbook layout, called One Great Guy. I'm not sure which Great Guy in my life I'll select to have his photos included in the layout, but I loved the brown and blues of the DCWV patterned paper. The flowers are spiky enough to be used for a layout for a guy, and when paired with the Urban Lily stripes and polka dots, the overall layout had a distinct male feel. I added a brown grosgrain ribbon bow with a brown polka dotted organdy sheer ribbon overlay. Oh, and I love, love love my Cricut for making titles!



And yes, I did go to bed thoroughly relaxed after a day of indulging. A good book, tidy garden, lovely scrapbook layout, plus that last piece of bread all slathered heavily with butter and homemade strawberry jam helped me fall sound asleep the moment my head hit my pillow. Ahhh . . .