Catching up around here...

Hmm, where to start? Well, how about I start with telling you that a new prompt is up at the Forward Progress blog? The prompt is to imagine that you are 20 years in the future and write a letter to your current self. I used more of the yummy Teresa Collins Crush line to make my layout:
Journaling:
Dear Staci,
I wanted to let you know that life is good. Sure, there have been some bumps in the road, but I have gotten through them, and they have made me appreciate the good in my life even more. While on this journey, there are some things I have learned along the way:
1. Embrace the every day moments in your life. I know it is hard to do with two small children when your days are often chaotic and they sometimes all run together, but try to sit back and take it all in. Breathe in these moments and truly let them surround you, as before you know it, they will be gone.
2. Speaking of moments being gone, don’t live in the past. I know you have a hard time of letting go of each passing phase – your babies no longer being babies is a big one for you. Remember that life goes on and with each new phase, new amazing memories will be formed. Try not to linger so much on the goodbyes but instead embrace the hellos of a new stage.
3. Worrying gets you nowhere. I know it is easy to get lost in all of the endless possibilities out in this big, sometimes bad world, but worrying changes nothing. The only thing worrying does is alter your quality of life in a negative way. So many things that you worry about are out of your control, so breathe in, and let the worries go.
4. Nurture yourself. It is easy to consume yourself with being a good wife and a good mom, not to mention being good at your work. But remember that you are important, too. Don’t let yourself feel guilty for taking the time to nurture hobbies and things that you enjoy. If you live your whole life for others, you are cheating yourself.
I know that a lot of these things you already know, but sometimes a good reminder is important. Please know that in staying true to yourself and living the life you want to live, your life continues to be good to you. Oh, and by the way, you have aged very gracefully :-)
Love always,
Me at 53 (your twenty-year-older self)

Next up: Denise from the Scrapping Out Loud challenge blog asked me to Guest Design for her this week. You can check it out here.

Finally, I finished my project for Round 4 of the contest at A Million Memories. Ack! It took me forever, but I sure had fun with it! I made a Winter Village. I found patterns for the tree, houses, church and schoolhouse online. I made them out of chipboard and covered the body of each building in pp. I painted the windows, doors and roof and applied lots and lots of diamond dust to the rooftops to look like snow. I painted my tree and covered it with a garland. I used a cotton ball to make smoke coming out of one of the chimneys. I used fake snow to cover my base and again added a lot of diamond dust and glitter. The fence probably took me the longest, lol - I freehanded each piece out of chipboard, painted all of the pieces white and then glued it together. Finally, no village would be complete without people! I dug out some Basic Grey pp from last year (Mellow line) - the people and dogs were the perfect size for my village, so I cut them out and placed them within the village.
Wish me luck!

How is everyone's week going so far?