Let the Countdown Begin

Today is April 27th. There are 25 days left to my birthday, a very milestone birthday at that. On May 17, 2011 I will turn....wait for it....FORTY! Yes the BIG 4-0. When I turned 30, I hated it. I had just ended a 4 year relationship on very bad terms. I was trying to figure out the next steps in my life. I was living in a small, less than exciting town. The idea of not being in my 20s totally depressed me.

I still have mixed feelings about this next decade, but overall, I embrace it. I have embraced myself in all my imperfection. I have a good life. A family who loves me (nuclear and extended). My health is relatively good, considering! I have a job and a roof over my head, which in today's economy is a lot. Of course, I still have work to do. My one little word for the year, afterall, is DECLUTTER, on a variety of levels. But just because there is some clean up to do in aisle 40, doesn't mean that a lot of other things aren't in order!

So with that in mind, I created the following layout. It's a busy layout. Very anti-Cathy Zielske's whose clean and simple look and style, I love. But shabby chick is still a style I like and enjoy and I think that's what this layout is...shabby chic!

The bottom reads "Both of us can't look good at the same time...It's either me or the house." The tag on the bottom right corner says "original." The top left "R" is for my name and now you know what the "40?" is all about. 

The journaling reads: I chose this photo for a few reasons. First, I don't scrap pictures of myself enough. And I actually like this photo! Second, this picture was taken on April 10 at work. That's not the reason! The reason is that I am going to be 40 in 5 weeks (from when this photo was taken). Call me crazy or conceited, but I don't think I look 5 weeks shy of 40 at all. I certainly do not feel like 40...whatever that means!!

I was listening to the Paperclipping Roundtable this week and was inspired by the idea of chronicling a piece of my life. I thought about it too late to chronicle the year leading to 40. I do want to do a long term project chronicling my 40th year - on being 40! But that is not here yet. So I decided to do a Countdown to 40. I will document the last 10 days before I leave the decade of the 30s. TEAR! Like New Year's Eve, it will be 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, FORTY! 

Stay tuned because part of the project is to blog on each of those 10 days. I haven't figured out all the details yet. I only know that the 10 days of blogging is goal 1 and making a mini album about those 10 days is goal 2. This layout is practice :) I hope you will join me on my journey.