Cathy Zielskes Clean & Simple: The Workshop (Week Eight)

Hi y'all, I hope that you have enjoyed viewing my pages so far.  There are only four more to go!  So sad, but oh well - maybe Cathy can be convinced to run a Clean & Simple: The Workshop - Part Two!!!!  Maybe a whole band of my amazing classmates can 'band' together to persuade her, what do you reckon?!

Anyhoo... I was so on to it this week that I had completed my page within the first two days of the assignment being posted in class!  That's a first, heehee.  I found it so much fun playing around with the text and getting it to line up perfectly etc.  It really played to that perfectionist side of my personality I think.  We are certainly getting into the nitty gritty side of things with Photoshop Elements (well I think so), and I am loving it!

This week we had the opportunity to play with the opacity of our photos as well as learning about type.  Once I had completed my page I just didn't feel that usual sense of satisfaction that I get when I have put my all into a project and believe that it is well done.  I think that the photos I chose really lost that 'wow' factor when the depth of colour was lessened.  Especially the top photo of my Knight!  I posted in class anyway and got some amazing responses that boosted my confidence a lot, but also challenged me to revisit the page anyway.  So, like advised, I went with my gut and re-did it.  Thanks girls (if you happen to visit this blog and read this) I really appreciate your input and value your judgement.

Version one.. see?  It's just not quite there aye?  So I tried again...

Ahhh... that's better!  Do you agree?  I did matt the top photo collage on red too but it did nothing for the layout, but it did for the second attempt.  There's my knight on our wedding day in the top photo.  He has gorgeous brown eyes so I guess that is why this b/w looks better too.

Journalling reads:

• Who would’ve thought that we would be where we are now?  Certainly not me!  Shane was 30 years old and had been a bachelor for as long as he was an adult!  It’s not that he wanted to be, he just wanted to wait until the right person came along, and apparently that was to be me!  I wouldn’t say that I was the ‘right’ one either, but I am sure glad that he thought that way because now I have a husband who really is hand-picked by God for me (even though at times I may not feel it).  He saw in me something that I didn’t even see in myself, and he reached out even when that meant that the ideals he had in his head of a relationship (and eventually marriage) didn’t quite match up with the reality.  His cousins’ wife always told him that the girl for him was out there but that she was in a place in her life where she wasn’t ready, and how prophetic those words turned out to be!  He believed.  He truly is amazing.

I hope that the journaling makes sense to the reader.  I think that when you write from an emotional viewpoint it may come across as nonsensical to the reader who doesn't know your background.  I hope that isn't the case with this writing. But if knowing the following helps then all the better..

Shane had dreamed of his future wife and what it would be like for years.  He had a girlfriend for a short time when he was a teenager, but really had no idea about women as his mum had left his family when he was just the tender age of nine.  When I came along I had the bruises of a life marked with violence, rejection and neglect.  I had lived many 'lifetimes' in the space of 10 years and it showed.  It basically didn't bode well for this young man with a relatively unaffected life, but he believed in the power greater than all and trusted that I was the one for him.  I am forever grateful in a way that may be incomprehensible to some.

Anyway, that was a very short story l.o.n.g. (get it? I'm an egg I know, lol), and so ends this weeks assignment.  Thanks for taking the time to read.  Please comment if you feel the call to; it's amazing what so few words can do to build up those around us.  Have a great week.
Steph