31 Things | Day 1

This is the first page of my 31 Things album.  Can you believe I've already finished the layout?! I can't! Ha! :) I hope the rest of the pages come together this quickly. I used the template provided in the 31 Things class. The papers are from a super cute kit called Owen's Room by Wishing Well Creations. I think she's my new favorite designer. :)

The journaling reads:

I don’t wear a lot of jewelry. Necklaces make my shoulders hurt, and big dangly earrings bother me. I sometimes wear small earrings, but the only pieces of jewelry I wear every day are my wedding ring and my James Avery ring. I bought the James Avery ring for myself while in college. They were popular with my friends at the time. I have always worn it on my right hand, and I still really like it.


David picked out my wedding ring and had it crafted at [...] Custom Jewelry in his hometown of [...]. I hate to admit it, but I did not like the ring at first. Receiving gifts (especially big ones) often makes me uncomfortable because I feel so obligated to like it. I have since grown to love the ring, though. It suits my hand. My knuckles stick out a bit, and a traditional straight band would not have been as flattering. I also love that David picked it out for me and imagined how it would look on my hand. I regret my initial reaction, and I wish I could go back and change that, but it’s part of who I am, and he still loves me.


My mom never wore a lot of jewelry either. I think she and I both view our hands as tools, and a lot of “bling” can be a hindrance. That’s the same reason why I almost never wear nail polish (and she doesn’t either). She usually wore her wedding ring (a plain gold band which she lost in the lake twice that I can remember) and a ruby ring with a gold band that looked like it was made of lattice work. The shape of the band was wider on the top, very similar to my James Avery ring. I remember playing with her rings and asking to wear them. I also remember playing with May’s costume jewelry (May [...], my elderly babysitter who ran a daycare out of her house in [...]). She gave me a purse that I liked to play with and some of her necklaces when I was probably about four years old. I still have the strand of fake pearls.


Another thing about my rings is that Braden always brings them to me when I leave them on the counter after giving Cameron a bath. He hides them in one hand, and holds out both for me to guess which they’re in. I almost always guess correctly, and it amazes him every time. It just occurred to me that he won’t always do that. One of these days, both boys will be bathing all by themselves, and I’ll have no reason to take my rings off in their bathroom. Hmm… I think I will stop being annoyed (as I sometimes am) that he doesn’t leave them where I left them, and just enjoy his thoughtfulness.

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I'm thinking right now that I'll get these pages printed as 12x12's from Persnickety Prints. I haven't printed 12x12 pages in a long time, but the type is pretty small on these, and I don't know how easy to read they would be in an 8x8 photo book.  Also, I have a 12x12 post bound album that Braden got me for Mother's Day a couple of years ago, and he keeps asking me when I'm going to use it. :) I think this is the perfect project for it.