If at first you don't succeed...

I have a friend , whom I adore.

I don't see her often, in fact hardly at all.

We send messages through FB, follow each others pinboards, and send emails to stay connected.

But if we happen to be in the same city we try to see each other.

She has been my scrapbook  cheerleader and inspiration for well over 5 years now.

She said some things to me when I was just starting out that have stuck with me all this time.

1.  If you don't put yourself out there, you won't know what you can achieve.  Rejection sucks but it happens.
2.  Scrap what you love.

So I put myself out there recently and applied to the Bella Blvd Design team.

I decided to apply because it is one of the paper companies that I love.  In fact I had been hoarding some of their paper for well over a year.

When the call when up I went to my stash and thought, "well I certainly don't have to buy anything to try out for this call."

And in staying true to me I put together 4 layouts that have been on my mind for some time. I look at them and they make me smile.  I love the paper, I love the photo's but most importantly I love the stories.  Here they are:

Life lessons...Things I've learned along the way...the hard way.

Tactor-tractor, J having fun on his uncles tractor during our Vacation.  I love  how he pronounces tractor.

Little brother, Thoughts on J being a little brother.






















 Pumpkin pulling determination, Mr Independent pulling at least 40 pounds of pumpkin.

There you have it folks, me putting myself out there.  I didn't make the team but I'm okay with it.   Maybe it had something to do with my blurry photo's  HA!!!!

Thanks Lisa for your friendship and inspiration!!