#Week In The Life - Progress

I am feeling accomplished, yet exhausted, thrilled and struggling.  I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

So, you ask, why the mixed feelings?  This is because for the first time in more than 2 1/2 years I have completed a scrapbook layout. And not just any layout, but the title page for my 2015 Week In The Life album. This project is something that I really love, and I've done it in 2011 and 2012. In 2013 and 2014 my life was too chaotic and to be honest, I wasn't sure I could handle having to really look at my life as it was.  Not only do I live with a disability that makes daily functioning difficult a great part of the time, but my life has drastically changed from the previous two years I participated in this project. My marriage ended in a domestic violence incident in December of 2012 and that sent me into a tailspin. Suddenly, I found myself emotionally adrift, as well as financially.  I had no home, no car, no phone, and no income due to my disability. My daughter and grandson were living with me at the time, my daughter completing her AOS degree in Massage Therapy.  Her only income was school loans.  We had been thrust into a situation that was certainly not of our choosing.  In the process of finding a place where we were safe and that we might be able to afford, my hobby supplies got boxed up very quickly and without any organization whatsoever.  And, although I have unpacked most of them, they are still unorganized and my workspace is quite small.  In addition, my previous husband did not support my hobbies (scrapbooking, sewing, and other crafts) so it was always a bone of contention between us. I have had to work very hard to regain my joy in creating and to give this gift back to myself.

Now, I feel a tremendous sense of joy at this finished layout, but my day was filled with mixed feelings as well as a debilitating migraine that made functioning at all very difficult.  It has never taken me an entire day to complete a layout before. Sometimes it might take me several days to complete a layout just because I had other priorities. Today, though, after waking up with a migraine, I had to only work on it small bits at a time because the pain and nausea were overwhelming. Plus, although I love my Ott Lite, the light hurts my eyes and I can only take it for short periods of time. So, finding all the supplies, adding the title in photoshop and printing it out, finding a sketch to use, all took more time than normal, and only happened in separate periods of time interspersed with rest, making sure I ate something (being diabetic and having migraines is not fun!), and trying to just ride it out.

All in all, though, I did it! And that is a victory for me! I was unable to read most of the posts and blogs in the WITL communities today (which made me sad), but I'm sure that you all can understand. I hope you missed me! :)

So, here it is, the beginning of this year's album.  And, here's to overcoming obstacles when they were trying to run me over! Yay!