• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • Personal
    • Resume
    • Portfolio
  • BLOG
    • Around Here
    • Book ClubZ
    • Disney
      • Jolly Holiday Surprise Adventure
    • Family Tree TuesdayZ
    • Fitness
    • High/Low
    • I’m LDS
    • Lister
    • Monday Magic
    • Monthly Round-ups
    • Movie NightZ
    • My Favorite ThingZ
    • Podcast TherapyZ
    • Primary
    • Then & Now
    • Thursday ThoughtZ
    • Top 10
    • Wednesday WordZ
  • DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING
    • Blog Train
      • The Magical Mousetery Tour
    • Challenges
      • Show-OffZ Challenge
    • Creative Inspiration
    • Freebies
      • ChibiZ Collection
      • Color Sketch SilhouetteZ
      • Journal CardZ
      • PrintableZ
      • WordArt
    • Layouts
    • Products
      • CalligramZ
      • Character IllustrationZ
      • iScrapbook Exclusive Kits
      • LDS-Inspired Art
      • Princess Secrets
      • Printables
      • Product Releases
      • Sisters by Heart
    • Project Life
      • Life 365-2009
      • Life 365-2010
      • Life 365-2011
      • Life 2012
      • Life 2013
      • Life 2014
      • Life 2015
      • Life 2016
  • RECIPES
    • Appetizers & Snacks
    • Breads
    • Desserts
    • Main Course
    • Salads & Sandwiches
    • Sides
    • Soups & Stews
  • SHOP
    • DigiRewardZ
    • Etsy
    • * SHOP NOW *
      • Art
      • CuttableZ
      • Digital Scrapbook Products
      • Digital ImprintZ
      • Graphic Design
      • Illustration
      • Podcast TherapyZ
  • Nav Widget Area

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Google+
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

DesignZ by DeDe

Live Life * Tell the Story

You are here: Home / Archives for personal

personal

High/Low + Freebie Friday | Princess Leia

My LOW this Week is that my husband has been gone to a business conference in Las Vegas all week. I miss him when he is gone. But he’s coming back today, so the good life can resume  🙂

 
My HIGH for this Week is that its December and that means the Christmas season is here! I love this time of year, full of family tradition and hearts turned toward Jesus Christ and the feeling of peace in the world. We have a tradition in my family of having a Daily December Activity from 1-24. These activities include #LightTheWorld and scriptures and a Christmasy activity (whether its an adventure outside of the house or a small craft at home- but always great family moments!) Today’s Activity is to attend the Festival of Trees and I can’t wait to pick up Joey from the airport and spend time as a family!


I do have a freebie for you today! 
The next in line of my COLOR SKETCH SILHOUETTEZ!  
Meet Princess Leia!
DOWNLOAD LINK

Have a great weekend!



I get a little personal and share my high and low points of the week
and then offer a digital scrapbook freebie for everyone to download for FREE!!

Every Friday

Filed Under: Blog Series, Color Sketch SilhouetteZ, Freebies, High/Low Tagged With: color sketch silhouettez, disney, high low, leia, personal, princess leia, star wars

Jolly Holiday Surprise Adventure | First Magic Moments LO

I am so thankful that I started writing some of my memories down about this trip on the blog, because I think there is a lot I could have missed! I’m so thankful to not forget these stories! I didn’t write everything down, so from now on this album might not be as detailed, but I hope to get my families’ memories down too! I am happy that I made a trip planner and that I can use it, my photos, and all the memories my family can remember to get the journaling down. This trip was so magical that I just am so excited to be finally scrapping it! It’s so important to write down your memories and I am happy that I am starting to scrapbook again and hopefully get many pages done so that my family legacy can be remembered! I feel bad that I am so behind on all my albums, but I have to start where I am now!

I used the Project Mouse Collection by Britt-ish Designs & Sahlin Studio



I’m so excited to share my family’s magical Christmas adventure of 2014 with you!
To see all the postings in this series go HERE

Filed Under: Blog Series, Digital Scrapbooking, Disney, Jolly Holiday Surprise Adventure, Layouts Tagged With: christmas, disney, disneyland, first day, food, gifts, hotel, magic, magical, moments, movie, personal, planning, presents, storybook, surprise, traveling, trip, vacation

Podcast TherapyZ | Co-Dependency and Connection

Life is interesting. It weaves, flows, stutters, changes and is continually moving. For the last little while, I have been on a journey of self-discovery. It all began in January, when I was at my highest weight EVER. It was completely shocking and discouraging. I have struggled with my weight for several years, but this was a low point. I finally realized that it was just not going to go away or get better without me really focusing on it and CHANGING my lifestyle. It’s been an interesting year, as I have tried to find the right program for me to get healthy. Something that I have especially come to understand is that without cleansing my mind, my physical body will never be healthy. It’s been a STRUGGLE! I’ve fought with myself and I’m still too hard on myself, but I am learning WHO I REALLY AM and what POTENTIAL I have. I’m desperately trying to work through my feelings and my despairs and my past. It’s still a journey; its still a struggle and its everyday, but I’m BECOMING something – someone I just might be okay with!

 

This year, I’ve also reconnected with my oldest and bestest friend, Beverly. A beautiful person who I grew up with and who like all of us, struggles and is on a journey of her own. I can’t tell you how much this reconnection has meant to me. It’s a true blessing from my Heavenly Father, that she reached out to me and even though we are hundreds of miles apart, I have truly felt her love and support. She is what has made this journey possible for me. One of the things that Beverly has taught me (along with some amazing podcasts) is THAT IT IS OKAY TO FEEL. In fact, it is the most important thing. Feelings can be overwhelming and sometimes you either keep it all inside yourself or you train your mind not to feel because it hurts to much. Both are so unhealthy. I think I tend to keep it inside so much and don’t share my pain and worries with others because I feel like I don’t want to be a burden or that it just feels too personal. But it builds up so much and eventually you will explode. Bev also introduced me to Isagenix (which I would love to talk to you about on another post soon) and to some amazing podcasts that have changed my life.

 

And that is where the idea of this blog series, was born. I have been listening to about 5 podcasts a week and really working hard to change my mindset and healing those things about me that have prevented me from making healthy connections with those around me and honestly, really connecting with myself for the first time ever. I feel amazing about how it is going and I just want to reach out and connect with all of you. We all have struggles and we all need help. We all need connection and this is one of the ways I would like to connect with each of you.  Another thing that helps me is “creating.” So my plan is to every month, listen to a podcast (in some cases, over and over), create journal cards and/or art prints to help you and I journal the process/inspire ourselves, share a summary and my comments/insights about the particular podcast episode, and connect with you! My hope is that by journaling and applying the concepts learned through the podcasts and spending time using my talents to “create” something that will help others, that I will find the healthy connections, the validation, and the change that will truly HEAL me and prepare me for the life that I want to live. I have found that healing takes WORK! Lots of work, but I’m willing and ready to get started.  How about you? Do you want to connect with me and work at this together? That’s what this is all about! Please join me on the 1st Sundays of every month for some,


Today’s Podcast:
Connexions Classroom 
Episode 1: Co-Dependency and Creating Connection

In this inaugural episode, Jodi Hildebrandt discusses the concept of co-dependency, explains how it disconnects us, and takes live questions from listeners.

As this is the very first episode, almost ten minutes of this podcast is spent talking about Connexions Classroom and their vision and what they have available. You will find that this is something that happens in the beginning of each of their podcasts, but as we are listening to these podcasts sometimes years after the episode aired, their current offerings might be different. I encourage you to check out their website for all that they have to offer. Their vision and purpose is truly amazing and I love that everything they do and offer can help anyone and everyone with principles of connection in all of your relationships. There are definitely some workshops that I would like to purchase and delve into eventually.

The discussion begins with a great definition of Co-Dependency. Co-Dependency is an attempt to get my own self-centric emotional and physical needs met by others. Jodi talks about how when you are in a co-dependent relationship (of any kind) that you only focus on yourself; the things you want, the things you desire, the things that matter to you.  It was really interesting for me to understand that if we are being co-dependent we use a kind of psedu-connection with food, money, powerful positions, or anything that we feel that will quiet our emotions down so that we can feel better about ourselves. Jodi simplified the definition even further with, “I make you responsible for me”.  It makes sense to me that with this co-dependency attitude that if I make others responsible for me then I don’t have to be responsible for myself and that it could be really easy to blame my mistakes or anything else on someone else. I think its so easy to get stuck in this kind of attitude and not even realizing that you are doing it. 

I’m a pretty independent person and so I usually think of myself as NOT co-dependent, but I can see that at times I do get trapped in a situation where maybe others don’t meet my expectations and so I will feel unloved or betrayed or just have some kind of uncomfortable emotion that I don’t want to feel so I blame another person or reach out to a pseudo-connection with food or something like that to feel better. I think that most of the time, I really do not realize that I am having such high expectations that I feel have to be met by others. This really made me think.  Jodi said that we need to start being aware of how and why it is we are connecting with our relationships (ANY relationship) or we won’t be able to identify whose being responsible for who in your life. That is something that I am really working on in my life – being aware of my emotions: what I am feeling and why I am feeling it; because most of the time, I don’t know. I am working at when I feel something, I just take a breath and then acknowledge that I am feeling something. I need to get to the “why I am feeling it” part but for now, I’m trying to just be aware and discover what I am feeling. It’s hard for me and I really appreciate that learning to be aware and holding myself accountable for my own choices is very important.

I loved the little part that Jodi talked about service. Service has always been something that I truly believe in and something that I want to bring into my life fully. Jodi states that “Service is a free gift that we offer another person with no strings attached”  and that it does not have to do with co-dependency at all. I appreciated her example of how her son had asked her to make breakfast for him and because they didn’t have a co-dependent relationship, she was able to just make him breakfast as a service and everything was great. She talked about if she hadn’t been able to make breakfast for him that morning that he would have been disappointed, but not personally affected, but if a co-dependency was an issue in this circumstance, then her son would have felt like it was a personal attack against him. Another great thing about this podcast is that she has some simple but wonderful examples of everyday situations that we can use to learn and apply these principles.

It was interesting to hear how most of us are very fluent in co-dependency because we were raised and taught that way and if you are a parent, co-dependency is quite literally what happens as we are responsible for our children. But I also appreciated that Jodi talked about how we can gradually teach our children to be independent (or interdependent) so that they can become healthy adults. A concept that really resonated with me is that as we discover the principles that will help us grow and have healthy relationships, we need to also teach our children these concepts to enable them and empower them (but we have to learn to do it for ourselves first). I liked that she said we do have a responsibility to actively instruct our children to stay connected with themselves. I just like that idea of “staying connected with myself” – I need to learn to do that.

When we are in a co-dependent relationship we are in a drama-cycle. Jodi said that there are 3 positions in a drama cycle: Victim, Persecutor, Rescuer and the position that we are in is how we act out our co-dependency. The drama is how we act out our insecurity.

 

The final minutes of this podcast was answering some questions:

Could you walk us through this drama cycle with forgiving another person who has harmed you? (this was asked specifically in regards to someone with addiction, but I think it can apply to anyone)

Jodi replied that in order to offer forgiveness to others you must first let go/surrender and forgive YOURSELF. Resentments are coming from Anger and they are staying because you can’t let go of your anger. Anger is coming because expectations you had that didn’t come to fruition. We need to look at ourselves first and come to understand what our expectations were. There are reasonable expectations and ones that were spoken and then there are the hidden expectations that were not spoken or even understood. We must get honest with ourselves about what our expectations were and then forgive ourselves and then we can forgive others.

This question and its answer hit really close to home for me. I’m experiencing a situation that has been very hard for me to forgive. It has been a source of pain and anguish for me and it is something that I am truly working on. I know that I need to get to the bottom of my expectations and true honesty with myself so that I can forgive myself and then hopefully have some peace. 

Are there things that you can do that enable others to be co-dependent? When you take responsibility for other people’s feelings does it encourage co-dependency?

When we enable someone, we don’t allow them to have consequences for the decisions that they make. Every choice has an outcome and we all need to learn to take responsibility for our outcomes. Consequences are our teachers. We need to look at our motives for why we are doing what we are doing. You can have empathy for someone and help them, but if we are “helping” to change another person’s emotional response because we are uncomfortable with it or if we have guilt/shame or do something for someone that they can/should do for themselves, then we are enabling.

What is it when we feel responsibility for others emotions?

It is shame. Shame will be featured on many other podcasts, but it is a belief/theme inside ourselves, typically learned at a very young age. Jodi said that we need to ask ourselves really hard questions to understand where the belief started. She also mentioned that when people come from a childhood environment where there was a lot of responsibility and little to no validation that people grow up to be adults who feel a strong responsibility for others (and not always for themselves).

Shame is what is driving drama and co-dependency. Is shame an emotion?

Shame is experienced by emotion and thought and shows up in 2 contrasting ways. It’s underlying feeling/belief that there is something wrong with me/I’m just not enough/not worthy or shame is also experienced as I’m better than you/I don’t have to follow the rules  

Jodi ends the podcast with a question to ask ourselves…..Do you have either of the contrasting feelings of shame?

 

Wow. So did you make it through-I know that there is a lot of words here! I didn’t cover everything that Jodi talked about so I hope you will go to the podcast (link above and you can also subscribe to the podcast channel in iTunes) and really listen to it. I’ve listened to it several times and will continue to do that with each podcast because I learn more from them every time I listen. When I first saw the title of this episode I almost skipped it and went to the next one, but I decided to listen to it and I’m glad I did because I feel like there are concepts/principles that apply to many situations. I hope you will listen to them all with me!


But of course there is more to it than just listening. We have to apply what we have learned and one of the ways that I would like to help you and me with that is to offer some journal cards each month that we can write down our thoughts and feelings and I think that will help us to really be aware of ourselves and where we need help.  So these C0-DEPENDENCY & CONNECT JOURNAL CARDZ are available for purchase. You can use them by themselves, in an art journal (or any other journal you have), in a scrapbook…..wherever you would like to help you connect with yourself and start your healing process. They are printable, so feel free to make extra copies if you need more (personal-use only)!

I have also created a fun art printable to remind you to CONNECT WITH YOU! Be aware of what you are feeling and why you are feeling it! Print it and hang it where you can see it every day! Also check out the other products you can purchase with my digital hand-lettering graphic!


And now if you feel like it, I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at dedesmith32@gmail.com or comment below and I’d love to discuss this topic and connect with you! I hope you will join me in this journey of healing!

Our next podcast will be in January
(usually this will be every month, but with the holidays, we will skip December.)

January’s Podcast:
Connexions Classroom 
Episode 2: The Voice (Shame) is NOT Guilt!
 



Connect with me as we listen to podcasts
and journal our journey to healing.

Every 1st Sunday of the month

Filed Under: Blog Series, Personal, Podcast TherapyZ, Product Releases Tagged With: co-dependency, connect, connecting, connection, journal, journey, personal, podcast, relationships, therapy, weight loss

Jolly Holiday Surprise Adventure | Planning

Jolly Holiday Adventure 2014 | Planning by DeDe Smith

I’m so excited to finally be scrapbooking my family’s Disneyland 2014 trip. It is so fun re-living these moments! Today, I scrapbooked a spread about the planning of our trip and I loved how it turned out! I also love the Project Mouse Collection that Britt-ish Designs & Sahlin Studio are doing. They are amazing and I plan on using them a lot for this album!

Jolly Holiday Adventure 2014 | Planning by DeDe SmithI used the Project Mouse Collection by Britt-ish Designs & Sahlin Studio 



 jollyholidayheaderI’m so excited to share my family’s magical Christmas adventure of 2014 with you!
To see all the postings in this series go HERE.

Filed Under: Disney, Featured, Jolly Holiday Surprise Adventure, Layouts, Personal Tagged With: creative, disney, disneyland, family, moment, personal, planning, scrapbook

Jolly Holiday Surprise Adventure | Cover

Jolly Holiday Adventure 2014 | Cover by DeDe Smith

For the last month or so, I have been on an interesting journey of discovery about myself. I’ve been struggling with depression and anxiety for several years and it has zapped all the creativity out of me. But I have found myself wanting to dig myself out of this hole that I have been in and I have been actually having fun creatively again and that is an amazing breakthrough.  I have discovered that I get burned out when I try to do just one kind of creative thing.  But if I do a little of blogging, a little scrapbook designing, a little crocheting, a little bit of wood crafts, and a little of graphic design, etc, I find myself being exhilarated by the things that I am creating and it makes all of my other creative projects better. I have been dabbing it a lot of different things lately and I am finding success and JOY again and it is making my life so much happier.  I’m so excited about transferring my blog over to WordPress and I’m excited about reformatting my posts and making everything so much more organized and better. I’m excited to blog again. I’m excited to design again. And I’m excited to SCRAPBOOK AGAIN! I have been making plans and getting organized and I have a lot to do and a long ways to go on my blog redesign, but I’m working on it and I’m excited about how its going.

One of the plans, is that Thursdays are my actual day to scrapbook pages. I’m so excited to finally be scrapbooking my family’s Disneyland 2014 trip. I haven’t actually scrapbooked in a long time and it feels really good. This trip was truly amazing and the highlight of our family adventures.  So today, I only scrapbooked the cover of this album, but I love it already. It’s so good to re-live this great moment in my family and to HAVE FUN creatively again!

Jolly Holiday Adventure 2014 | Cover by DeDe SmithI used my Happily Ever AfterZ: True LoveZ Kiss and the Project Mouse Kits by Britt-ish Designs & Sahlin Studio 



 jollyholidayheaderI’m so excited to share my family’s magical Christmas adventure of 2014 with you!
To see all the postings in this series go HERE.

Filed Under: Disney, Featured, Jolly Holiday Surprise Adventure, Layouts, Life 2014, Personal Tagged With: adventure, creative, disney, disneyland, family, fun, joy, layout, memories, moment, personal, scrapbook

Jolly Holiday Surprise Adventure | First Magic Moments

FIRST MAGIC MOMENTS
December 6, 2014

After revealing the secret, we all just couldn’t wait to get to the hotel. Our shuttle FINALLY arrived and we loaded our bags and ourselves and began our journey.  At this point we let the kids know that not only were we going to Disneyland, but we were actually going to be staying in the DISNEYLAND HOTEL! Ahhh! 

The shuttle driver kept us entertained with Disney music as we drove from Long Beach to Anaheim. Before we knew it, we were pulling up in front of the Disneyland Hotel. We grabbed our bags and excitedly walked in.  The kids immediately gravitated to the cute teacup seats. At the front desk, Joey and I got checked in, amidst a little complication with our credit card (the transaction got flagged, since we don’t take a whole lot of trips – but after some calls we got it figured out. The Cast Members at the front desk were really great and helped us get it all figured out).

lobby2
lobby1

We were able to get a standard room in the Adventure Tower. It was on the Downtown Disney side, but only the 2nd floor, so our view was trees – but actually I loved it! So easy and fast to get to our room from Downtown Disney and the trees kind of blocked the noise. It was awesome! And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Disneyland Hotel rooms. We all loved looking for the Hidden Mickeys and of course the headboard is AMAZING! It was just awesome.

room1
room2
room3
room4
room5
After checking out the room and settling in a bit, we decided it was time to explore!  Everyone was hungry and I also wanted to go redeem my voucher for the Annual Pass and also pick up our Photopass+ Card. (We had decided to get one Annual Pass so that we could get the discounts and such.) So we headed towards Downtown Disney. Joey and the kids grabbed some lunch at Earl of Sandwich and I headed down to the Esplanade. I redeemed my voucher, got my picture taken, and got my new Annual Pass. California Adventure looked less busy, so I went through the gates and headed to the photo shop where I redeemed the voucher to get our Photopass+ card. This all took about an hour and then I met up with my family at Downtown Disney, where we did some exploring in the stores.  We were all fascinated with the Lego Store and all of its awesome characters! The Build-a-Bear Store was amazing too and the kids were definitely starting their lists!
lego1
lego2lego3
lego4lego5
gobroncos
After lots of browsing, we went to Tortilla Joe’s for dinner! We LOVED it – it was so good, and we especially loved the guacamole, made for us right at our table!
tortillajoes
After dinner, we strolled over to the AMC Theaters to watch BIG HERO 6.  We were AMAZED by this theater. It was HUGE. It was definitely the biggest theater we’ve ever been to. Plus amazingly there wasn’t a whole lot of people taking advantage of it and so in the huge theater, it felt like we were the only ones there.  We LOVED Big Hero 6 – it was such a cute movie.  After the movie, we had to take advantage of a photo-op!
bighero6_1
bighero6_2
bighero6_3bighero6_4
After the movie, we headed back to the hotel and we had a little bit of a Christmas Celebration, complete with a little Mickey Tree, Treats, and gifts.  These were things I brought from home to bring some Christmas to our room.  The kids loved it all, especially the Disney gift cards from Dad and Mom and the money from Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
presents1
presents2presents3
presents4
At this point, we were just so exhausted. It had been a very long, but thrilling and exciting day! We couldn’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!
 
The Adventure Continues in another post…
 


 jollyholidayheaderI’m so excited to share my family’s magical Christmas adventure of 2014 with you!
To see all the postings in this series go HERE.

Filed Under: Disney, Jolly Holiday Surprise Adventure, Personal Tagged With: check in, disney, disneyland, gifts, hotel, magic, personal, planning, presents, storybook, surprise, traveling, trip, vacation

Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

I'm a wife, a mom, a blogger, a lover of crafting, and a graphic designer. I believe in living life to the fullest, sharing your heart and talents to enrich the lives of others, and then telling your story to leave as a legacy for those that come after you.



Footer

Recipe ThursdayZ | Chickey Pasta

This week’s recipe  |  CHICKEY PASTA A delicious pasta dish that is light and yummy! The chicken pieces are heaven – in fact, you could just make the chicken and use as homemade chicken nuggets! Chickey Pasta Save Recipe Print Recipe My Recipes My Lists My Calendar Ingredients2 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into[Read More…]

DeDe Smith

I am DeDe Smith of DesignZ by DeDe and I’m the proud creator of the TearZ, ScatterZ, and many more collections! I am a Digital Scrapbook Designer. I specialize on creating digital kits that help customers scrapbook the special moments in their lives. I hope that you can use my products to share your story[Read More…]

Jolly Holiday Surprise Adventure | First Magic Moments LO

I am so thankful that I started writing some of my memories down about this trip on the blog, because I think there is a lot I could have missed! I’m so thankful to not forget these stories! I didn’t write everything down, so from now on this album might not be as detailed, but[Read More…]

  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • Personal
    • Resume
    • Portfolio
  • BLOG
    • Around Here
    • Book ClubZ
    • Disney
      • Jolly Holiday Surprise Adventure
    • Family Tree TuesdayZ
    • Fitness
    • High/Low
    • I’m LDS
    • Lister
    • Monday Magic
    • Monthly Round-ups
    • Movie NightZ
    • My Favorite ThingZ
    • Podcast TherapyZ
    • Primary
    • Then & Now
    • Thursday ThoughtZ
    • Top 10
    • Wednesday WordZ
  • DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING
    • Blog Train
      • The Magical Mousetery Tour
    • Challenges
      • Show-OffZ Challenge
    • Creative Inspiration
    • Freebies
      • ChibiZ Collection
      • Color Sketch SilhouetteZ
      • Journal CardZ
      • PrintableZ
      • WordArt
    • Layouts
    • Products
      • CalligramZ
      • Character IllustrationZ
      • iScrapbook Exclusive Kits
      • LDS-Inspired Art
      • Princess Secrets
      • Printables
      • Product Releases
      • Sisters by Heart
    • Project Life
      • Life 365-2009
      • Life 365-2010
      • Life 365-2011
      • Life 2012
      • Life 2013
      • Life 2014
      • Life 2015
      • Life 2016
  • RECIPES
    • Appetizers & Snacks
    • Breads
    • Desserts
    • Main Course
    • Salads & Sandwiches
    • Sides
    • Soups & Stews
  • SHOP
    • DigiRewardZ
    • Etsy
    • * SHOP NOW *
      • Art
      • CuttableZ
      • Digital Scrapbook Products
      • Digital ImprintZ
      • Graphic Design
      • Illustration
      • Podcast TherapyZ

© Copyright 2020 | DesignZ by DeDe