Happy New Year! And Providence 365 Begins...

I hope you all had a happy, safe, and joyous New Year's Eve. We were at our pastor's home, where we enjoyed the fellowship, the snacks, and the funny stories. I even made it to midnight, awake, which is something of an anomaly! But, I was working on a little something for you all to start off our Providence 365 year:
I chose this verse, Ephesians 1:11, as I think it sums up quite well what this year of looking for God's hand means. The sentence actually starts up at verse 10: "In Him..." We are indeed "in Him" if we have claimed His salvation by faith, and we are no longer our own, but are bondslaves to the Most High. All the things that come to us in this life come at the Providence of a loving, kind, gracious, patient, and good Father.

Lest you all think that I'm sitting pretty here, making it easy to say these truths, I confess that I am struggling with annoying, difficult, frustrating, and heartbreaking situations in my own life where I must constantly preach this Gospel to myself. But, our steadfast anchor is not our situations, nor our feelings, but the unmovable, steadfast Word of God.
Can I get an "AMEN," sisters?

So, having set the stage spiritually, it's on to the logistics of this year. I have decided to use a unified color scheme, a basic template, and only one kit for my pages.

In 2010, I had a blast using kits of all styles, templates of all shapes, and all the colors of the rainbow on my P365 layouts. However, I feel the need to simplify this year--concentrating more on the photos and stories by removing some of the more time-consuming, decision-making process. I will leave the more free-wheeling creative process for my other layouts.

As for the template design, I will use one page a week and continue with a photo-a-day. I really have liked the rounded corner clipping masks I've used occasionally this past year and will make my own templates. You just might be seeing a few of those here, too. :-)

Here is my cover page; I'll be replacing the photo with another taken during the year. But, for now, it's just fine.

I've used the kit Every Life has a Story. For the Scripture, I used the overlay blend mode and duplicated the layer.

You can get the wordart HERE.

I'm ready; are you? Let's see what God has in store for us in 2011.