Weekend Warmup: Sneak Peek of our October Kit

I've always worried about fitting in. I grew up in an environment where it wasn't OK to be different...in fact it wasn't OK to even think about how you might be different from what you were expected to be. 

I come from a fearful past - where thoughts and feelings were taboo - as if God was in our heads, watching everything and judging us.

I'm pretty sure that every kid, tween and teen feels like that at some point in her life. Either because she's being bullied, just feels like an outsider because her hair is the 'wrong' color, or her body is the 'wrong' size...

If I had only had an outlet, some way of expressing what was going on in a safe way...oh, right, that's why I created SFTIO! 

I love that I get to express who I TRULY am, and that I get to (hopefully) inspire other women and girls to do the same. 

That whatever I think and feel is absolutely OK - it's better than OK, it's CRITICAL to understanding what makes me tick and what matters most.

Yeah, I do it for me...and for you...and for this guy:

The best way for me to teach him to be his authentic self is to NOT teach him. I need to SHOW him.

I'm showing him that he has the right to all his thoughts and feelings...that whatever his choices, his wishes, by his very existence in this world, he BELONGS.

Join us on October 1st for the BELONGING kit.

You belong. Just remember that.

Lay It Out! - Fulfillment/Distance

Ready for another challenge?  Let's swing on back to the topic of the month: Achievement.  Join us with this first challenge.  Scrap your thoughts, use a self-portrait or a stock photo (or no photo!), incorporate the design twist and then post it in the community gallery at Inside Out for a chance to win some goodies!

Ready?  Here's your first Achievement challenge:

Fulfillment: What makes you feel fulfilled in your life? Do you create goals to achieve that are different in your personal life and your life outside the home? Do the two conflict with each other or are they symbiotic? Are you someone who longs for something different than what you already have? Does fulfillment in your life depend on acquiring something or someone, or are you at peace with what you have?

For our first challenge -

Please create a LO about your level of fulfillment. Are you in possession of that which you need to be fulfilled, or is it far from you?

For the design twist, please surround yourself with your fulfillment or separate yourself from it. 

I sure hope you play with us.  Sign up (it's free) to our message boards to gain access to the gallery and show us your interpretation... just lay it out!

Sneak Peek of PURPOSE

Here's a sneak of the October kit from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out!



On-trend styling, gorgeous embellishments AND deep meaning. We are REALLY excited about this one.

Ready to explore your purpose? Please join us on Oct 1 for the full reveal.

Love,

Rachel

New Challenges All Around

I love a good challenge...don't you? I love sketching and pondering what I'll do with a particular challenge...now to find the time to actually scrap...sigh.



Here are challenges 2 and 3 for the LOSS kit at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out.

#2: Healing Tears/Liquid Imagery:

What methods do you use to relieve yourself from the difficulties of life? For some people, a good cry is the way to open the pressure valve. How often do you cry, and when you do, does it bring you some comfort and release? Are you open enough to cry in front of others, or do you hide your deeper emotions? How did your parents treat crying when you were a child - were you chastised and told to 'buck up', or were you allowed to express yourself?

Please share a LO about the role of tears, expression and release in your life.

For the design twist, please use some sort of liquid imagery...like the clear drops in the kit, crystal accents or paper glaze, stickles, or if you're not a cryer - maybe ice cubes or an iceberg? Hmmm.

#3: Change/Cycles and Circles:

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight. Marcus Aurelius

The seasons come and go, year after year. Children are born, they grow, parents grow old and leave us. There is nothing constant but change.

How do you feel about change that you cannot control? The seasons, life, death, transitions that are part of the human experience? Are you at peace with the speed or nature of nature's constant movement?

For the design twist, please use an image of a cycle or circle.



Just a couple more of these beauties left...click here to grab yours at our new lower price but with even MORE goodness...so perfect for autumn and exploring your heart.

So go for it...and post your LOs at our site in the challenge gallery, and you could win one of this month's prizes...

What will you learn about yourself?

Love,

Rachel

October Joy Inspiration

Journaling Prompts:

Simple Joys: Some of life's greatest joys are tiny moments of pleasure: the purr of your kitten, the perfect latte, the unexpected touch of your husband's hand. What simple moments of life do you cherish? What small satisfactions might you be taking for granted and how could you make time to stop and 'smell the roses'? If you could ask for five small things that would make you feel more joy in your day-to-day life, what would they be and why?

Deep Joy: True and abiding joy is like a smile on the inside: something deep and meaningful that gives you that feeling of fullness in your heart that we all crave. What brings you that joy - creating art, connecting with your loved ones? Some of us experience the joy of finding a soulmate: someone who truly understands and respects us deeply. If you're lucky enough to have found that special person to share your life, what joys and challenges does it present? If you're still looking, what are the emotional qualities you seek? Do you even believe in the concept of a soulmate?

Choosing Happiness: What is the part we play in the happiness we experience? How much of life's experience of happiness is in our control, and how much is circumstantial? Have you ever actively changed your view of something difficult to experience more happiness and less pain? How did you make this change happen?

Joy and Sorrow: Some of us who feel sad things deeply sometimes wish we didn't. But there's a school of thought that says that our capacity for sorrow is equal to our capacity for joy; if we didn't feel the sorrow so deeply, we wouldn't feel joy as deeply either. Does this describe you? How does the natural balance of dark and light affect your life and how you see the world? Are you a more optimistic or pessimistic person? Has that changed over time, and if so, why and how?

Quotes:

Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn't stop to enjoy it. - William Feather

That is happiness: to be dissolved into something complete and great. - Willa Cather

The only joy in the world is to begin. - Cesare Pavese

Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have someone to divide it with. - Mark Twain

Joy is not in things; it is in us. - Richard Wagner

Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city. - George Burns

Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times. - Anonymous

It's a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy. - Lucille Ball

The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. - Allan K. Chalmers

Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life. - Burton Hills

Happiness comes only when we push our brains and hearts to the farthest reaches of which we are capable. - Leo Rosten

You won't be happy with more until you're happy with what you've got. - Angel blessing

Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast-you also miss the sense of where you are going and why - Eddie Cantor

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes. - Hugh Downs

It's never to late to have a happy childhood. - Wayne Dyer

There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something. - Henry Ford

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them. - Kahlil Gibran
He who has not looked on Sorrow will never see Joy. - Kahlil Gibran

More important than talent, strength, or knowledge is the ability to laugh at yourself and enjoy the pursuit of your dreams. - Amy Grant

Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is just out of grasp...but if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. - Nathaniel Hawthorne

The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular cause for being happy except that they are so. - William Ralph Inge

We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world. - Helen Adams
Keller

The happy person is the one who finds occasions for joy at every step. He does not have to look for them, he just finds them. - Ossian Lang

Joy is but the sign that creative emotion is fulfilling its purpose. - Charles Du Bois

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in. - Rachel Carson

The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference. - Audre Lorde

A thing of beauty is a joy forever. - John Keats

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven? - Kahlil Gibran

... joy and sorrow are inseparable. . . together they come and when one sits alone with you . . . remember that the other is asleep upon your bed. - Kahlil Gibran

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy. - Thich Nhat Hanh

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? - Albert Camus

There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course.

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. - Carl Jung

There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved. - George Sand

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. - Mohandas K. Gandhi

The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, not our circumstances. - Martha Washington

Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow. - Swedish Proverb

Links

Spiritual Practices - Joy

Finding Joy - a Mind, Body and Spirit Guide

Find Your Own HappinessCupcakes!

75 Simple Pleasures

Laughter and Play