The Story of My Confessions....

.... and the winner of the Evalicious giveaway will be posted below too!

Working as a doctor I get to do my fair share of night-shift stints. In fact, in some of my rotations I spend as much as 1/3 of my time rostered onto it. It's quite a different world, and it takes some getting used to. Anyone who does it will tell you their own little tricks for coping. My main staples include lots of coffee, plenty of carbohydrates and some fast-paced comedy entertainment (love 30 Rock!!)

Whilst that sounds like a bit of fun actually, there's also a down-side. It's socially isolating, patients (and even other staff) are more aggressive, I question myself constantly and worry more, I'm perpetually tired and often fall sick. However, I also tend to build better relationships with the other staff when we get the time to sit around and chat because we're much more honest with each other! And it's quite satisfying when everything goes well and you know you've played a vital role in that.

In making this layout I started off with a sheet of Flea Market Jenna paper. You know how I always like to have a border of contrasting colour around my layout? Well this paper already has one built-in! Then I chose some of the chalkboard elements from the Chipboard Stickers and Heirloom paper because I liked the idea of the black representing the 'dark side' of what I was journaling about, and it contrasts nicely against the other pastel colours.

On the other hand, I used the Vellum Gold Doily behind my photo to represent the sun coming up. After all, when you're on night duty that's what you're hanging out for. Seeing the sun rise is the promise that you're soon about to knock off and be able to crawl into your own bed! It's a mini victory every single morning!

I had a lot of comments on this layout that I shared when posting about the Evalicious Giveaway. Specifically, a lot of you were asking about the paper I used, or whether or not I had added the paint splashes/stiches/rubons in the background. The answer is no! All the white that you see is just part of the paper... fabulous isn't it? Makes it look like I had done a whole lot of work when I really hadn't!! It's by a (?French) company called ICC and whilst I can no longer find the exact one I've used here I can see only this one from the same collection that you can buy in Australia.  

Now onto the winner!! Sorry to keep you waiting!

So by random draw the winner is......
LEANNE!
Leanne, send me an email with your postal address and I'll get your prize off to you ASAP :-)

Have a good long-weekend Melbournians!