Do Less. Do It Better.

Saturday was a very productive and enjoyable day for me. It was beautiful outside and I'd heard reports of rain on Sunday, so I got to some yard work I'd been itching to do for a while. Because it was so nice out, I decided to take breaks between my chores on our beautiful new patio furniture, under the shade of the gazebo. This whole work/play rotation brought a balance to my day that I haven't felt in a long, long time. I couldn't put it into words, but it just felt good!

During one of these breaks, I brought out my laptop. While reading an article on Paperclipping I happened on this link recommended by Noell. Now, normally I'd steer clear of any blog named The Happiest Mom (I have this fear and high suspicion of anything that even remotely hints at some June Cleaver-esque euphoria), but the title caught my attention. And there it was; the exact words to what had made my day so perfect. Do fewer things. Do things better. Well smack my head and hand me a V8, why, oh why couldn't I put something as simple as that into words?

And just like that, the ideas started brewing for a layout. Here's the journaling:

On a sunny, warm Saturday, I took advantage of the weather and my family being busy. I did dog duty in the backyard. I raked the front garden. I did some dishes and some extra loads of laundry. I took care of what needed to be done. And that was enough.

When that was all done I again took advantage of the weather and my family being busy. I set up the patio furniture cushions. I made more coffee. I read the paper, surfed the net and snuggled with Lilah on the patio. And that was alright.

Admission: this picture was not taken on the date shown on this layout. It was taken a week or two before, just after we set up the furniture. Lilah came and jumped up to test out it's comfiness with me so I got Kelsey to snap the shot. However, it was perfect for this layout.






And see that flower? You don't know how long it's taken me to figure those darn things out! All this time I was trying to glue the ends together completely wrong!

Other tidbits: I Glimmer Misted the Thickers, which started out leaf green. All of the paper is a combination of Basic Grey's Ambrosia and My Mind Eye's Meadowlark collections, including the diamond which is actually a MME die-cut frame.