celebrating 5 years of one-ness and an entry for SATW

Hello lovely readers!

How time really flies. The husband and me have been married for 5 years and what an eventful 5 years it has been. There were so many ups and downs and I'm thankful that we are still together!

As it is, I create a layout for every anniversary we celebrate. And as with any layout I make, there's always a story behind it. This year is special, because we didn't have a special candlelight dinner to mark the event. There were no flowers, no chocolates, no expensive gifts because we were - and still are - going through some major adjustments at home with the husband leaving his pen-and-paper routine to start his own business and us have to live significantly off my salary. Budgets had to be strictly followed and both of us felt wrong to splurge on a dinner. Instead, we renewed our vows and truly appreciated the meaning of "for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse".

And how can I resist a challenge while I'm at it? SATW has a really eclectic mood board this month:

Now they have a sketch to follow but I used my own. And this is my take on it:

Black and white always remind me of weddings and I had a couple of shots done in b/w. But another inspiration that arose out of the mood board was interestingly the photo that says "All in your head". In our years together, there were times when we wanted to throw in the towel. But every time, God brings a new revelation to me as I prayed for help. "It's all in my head" - how I wanted to treat my partner, how I dealt with hurt and anger issues, and ultimately how much I want my marriage to work. Someone said that everything begins with a thought. If I'm convicted that marriage is for life, I should choose to consume myself with that thought every single moment and that will eventually translate into real and meaningful action. On the other hand, so does failure. Tell yourself that you will fail often enough, and one day you really will. So despite the difficulties, we are determined to work things through and celebrate each other. How apt is that for an anniversary celebration!

 And back to the layout! Some close-ups:

The traditional and modern gifts for 5-year anniversaries are wood and silverware respectively. So I added a wooden ticket and a metal zipper on the butterfly.

Layering textured paste, doilies, resist canvas tags.

Flower power!! I took a chipboard bird cage from Maya Road and embossed it with Ranger's liquid platinum before dry-brushing gesso on it for a distressed look. The firebird bloom from Prima was cream (on the yellow side) to begin with, but I gesso-ed and misted and distressed it until it looked nothing like how it was out of the package. And it was fun!

And that's all I have for now! It's been a productive week, so I'll be back with another scrap challenge entry shortly. Stay tuned!

love,