Weekend Warmup and an INNOCENCE Challenge

Hi friends! Hope you've scheduled some creative time this weekend...last Saturday I had the pleasure of spending the day with my pal (and Teen DT Coordinator) Sofia at the lovely Scrapbook Daisies.

We were having a belated celebration of Sofia's 17th birthday (which was all the way back in April.) We cropped our tushies off and had a really fun time.

I broke my personal 12 hour crop record by completing 5 pages (even with a run to Starbucks) and one of them is my take on this month's first challenge up on the SFTIO site message board.

Infancy: Do you have photos of yourself as a very new person – hospital photos, or ones taken when you first came home from the hospital? How does it feel to see yourself as an infant? Does the photo resemble you today, or does it seem like a different person? Looking at (or imagining) your infant self, what do you imagine was ahead? What do you think were your parents’ dreams for you, and did you fulfill them? Were you a clean slate or were there expectations already on you? Do you believe that you already had a destiny in you?

For the design twist, please use a number in your design in a prominent way.

Here's my LO. It was especially fun and interesting to create given that while visiting my parents in NY last month I was the recipient (at least until they're all scanned) of a huge number of photos of me from birth until I graduated from high school. As a new mom, I cherish these photos and can't wait to share them with Huxley. This one was among my favorites:

And it helped inspire this:

I love the thought of starting with a clean slate - that we are all born innocent and pure. It's been said that we are born with everything we need to survive already inside us. On tough days I wonder, do I really have everything I need for my journey? I hope so...

My beautiful son turned nine months old today. I see in him the innocence that I wish we could all hold on to. I wish I could shield him from every pain and from all suffering, but I know that's not a realistic goal. I hope I can imbue him with the confidence to keep getting up when life inevitably hands him challenges. When I look into those sweet eyes, I see his gentle soul. When I encounter his strong will (do I ever) I believe he has the spirit to persevere.

Do you have a baby picture of yourself to scrapbook? If you don't, how about scrapbooking what it feels like to not have a record of your first moments. You can still tell a great story about your beginnings and your destiny. Come share it at the link to the message board above.

Do I want you to dig deep? Guilty as charged...

Have a good one.