Happy Mother’s Day! If you are a Mom I hope you were greeted as I was this morning with breakfast in bed, presents and flowers. Yep. I’d like to start every morning like that!
I have something special to show you today that was made for a LOAD prompt a week ago but time got away from me and so sharing it with you was delayed. Looking at it today made me realize how appropriate it is for Mother’s Day though! We’ll just pretend I planning it this way! 🙂
Lain gave us the prompt on Day 5 of “And Then There Were None” – a mystery book title. As my kids are still quite small I could not write about empty nest feelings or anything like that but as I pondered the prompt I realized I could write about the fact that I no longer have any babies in the house. That the girls are growing so fast and gaining such independence now – especially Marley who is now 9. For National Scrapbooking Day Shimelle posted many challenges on her blog, one of which was to journal in a letter format. I felt this was a perfect way to answer both challenges and that is how this layout came to be.
I chose this fairly recent picture of the girls (note to self, get a picture today of me WITH my girls!!) and took my colour cues from it. I didn’t want to cover up too much of the pattern so kept my other paper layers tighter than I would normally make them. When you have such a bold back ground pattern you really don’t need a lot of additional embellishments on your page.
My title was compiled from 3 different sets. The word “grow” was from an old Dear Lizzy pack which I am slowly using up. It feels so good to use your stash rather than have it sit wasted, unloved and growing (no pun intended) stale! However, as you use up all those letter stickers you will find yourself with odd letters, no more vowels and the thought that you can’t possibly make another title from what you have remaining. I challenge you to throw out that argument as invalid! Mix things up! Use multiple fonts in the same colour for a cohesive look. Or mix colours in the same font for a fun yet easily legible title. Or, if your subject matter can handle it, mix up font, colours, flat vs. chipboard, fabric vs. paper, glitter vs. wood-grain … you name it! Have fun and use up those letters!!
Because I had so much to say, I knew I needed to type out my journaling. I normally hand write on my layouts and consider myself an advocate for adding your own hand writing to your layouts, but sometimes you just have to go with the computer generated option. This is what the journaling says.
“To my wonderful girls,
Have I told you recently how much I love you? I’ve probably told you to “stopping bugging me” and “do it yourself” and “pick up your shoes, put away your coat and for heaven’s sake clean up after yourself when you finish doing/eating/playing something!” Right? I know I can seem frustrated with you and Marley, I know you find it hard sometimes being the eldest as Dad and I tend to be tougher on you than the other two. But here’s the thing. Dad and I are trying to teach you all independence. You NEED to learn to do it for yourselves because, quite frankly, I refuse to do it for you all your life. That is not my job. My job is to show you how to do it for yourself so you can go out into the world and be awesome!
And you know what? I think it’s working!! I am starting to see glimpses of independence from all of you that warms my heart. Don’t get me wrong, I love it when you want to snuggle in with me on the couch or insist on good night hugs and kisses. But when you do things like make your own lunch without being asked, or do an awesome job cleaning up the shoes in the hall or walking to school by yourself, a part of me cheers!
Hip, hip, hooray!
The girls are growing today!!
And you are growing. So fast!! In a little over a year from now you will all be in Elementary school. I will miss you at home but I will also celebrate this next stage in your growth and development. It is hard to believe sometimes and while I am in the thick of menu planning and chauffeuring to dance and field hockey and gymnastics it is hard to remember to stop and smell the roses. Or in your case, the clean, after showers bodies. 🙂
You are awesome! You are loved! You are mine, always and forever.”
One final detail to note. These chipboard banner pieces were also part of that Dear Lizzy pack in my stash (as well as the hearts and flowers elsewhere on the layout). I wanted to add just a little something to the bottom of photo and when I saw this I knew it was perfect. Such a simple embellishment but the perfect finishing touch.
Oh, and speaking of finishing touches, I realized I forgot to sign my letter. I won’t go through the process of taking photos of the layout again, just know that if you were to look through my albums, my signature is now on this layout!
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