A2Z Scraplets May Challenge - Mum

Another of my back to basics pages...

My niece Bel is on the A2Z Scraplets design team and has access to many of their wonderful chipboard stock which she uses to make extraordinary scrapbook pages. Bel has posed the challenge for this month and as it is May and she is soon to become a mother again she has chosen Mum as the challenge subject.

Regular visitors to this blog will know I have four sons; each of them are married and have families of their own. I often write about my sons and our grandchildren but I rarely write about their wives and Mums. Two of my DIL, the ones on either side of me in the photo are sisters, it made meeting the families are whole lot easier when I third son married his big brothers wife's sister... confusing isn't it! Three of the four call me by name but the fourth one, the youngest in white, calls me Mum. She lost her own Mum to cancer just a few months before her own daughter was born. Her mother asked me when she was dying to take care of her daughter and I was honoured by her request. We have grown close and I was fortunate to not only choose the veil she would wear on her wedding day but also be present when my granddaughter was born.

I had a difficult relationship with my own MIL and made a promise to myself and my wonderful sons that I would be a good, supportive, MIL and not interfere in their lives or treat any of their families any different. At the same time I will not allow anyone to hurt the ones that were first to call me 'Mum'.

Thank you for looking and any comments you may leave, best wishes.

Let's Get Shabby - Challenge 54

My first thought for the Let's Get Shabby challenge was that I don't like using my actual travel maps as a background to my scrap booking and I couldn't find my USA travel pics. I was flipping through my photos and paper and found these two; they were perfect for this challenge!

My youngest sister's eldest son has talked about being a pilot/astronaut for as long as I can remember; he has always shown a great interest in all things aeronautical so it was not surprising that he chose flying as a career. This photo was taken on his first 'solo with a passenger' flight as a student pilot. I thought his Mum was terribly brave but she had great confidence in his abilities and was happy to climb into the co-pilots seat. This flight was to be the first of many and he now flies very large planes for the USA Airforce and perhaps hasn't given up his dream of space flight! I often remind him of his promise to me when the family moved to the USA; 'I will come home and fly for QANTAS'. I am holding him to his promise; if he comes home his Mum and younger brother will come too. We miss them all.

Another of my 'back to basics' pages with inspiration from the amazing Heather Jacob.

Thank you for looking and any comments you may leave, best wishes.

Life Paper Scrapbook - April Mood Board

It appears that the linkz tool doesn't allow you to link a single post to two websites so I have had to place my Life Paper Scrapbook post on a separate page; the rest of the story can be found here.

I just happened to check out the mood board from Life Paper Scrapbook and found it perfect for the photos I had chosen to use. In case I was breaking some rules I was unaware of, I have completed a double page; the first using the Stuck Sketch sketch and the second using the colours and triangles in the Life Paper Scrapbook mood board.

Thank you for looking and any comments you may leave, best wishes.

Life Paper Scrapbook Sketch Challenge - April

Life Paper Scrapbook also has a sketch challenge and I have challenged myself to complete all the grandchildren's Christmas and 1st birthday pages for their albums; an added challenge was to stay away from scrapbook shops and only use my stash, that is why I couldn't spell 'one-derful with the alpha's I chose! This sketch turned on it's side was perfect to complete the last 1st birthday page!

This is our second youngest grandson; he was born when we were in the USA so we didn't meet him until he was 3 weeks old; there was no way I would miss his 1st birthday party. His mothers family are great cooks and very confident in the kitchen (I am neither!) so I was grateful when I was asked to take swimming pool duty with my third son, his dad. My DIL is very clever with birthday cakes and made Humpty Dumpty herself, unfortunately I couldn't get close enough for a better photo!

Thank you for looking and any comments you may leave, best wishes.

Stuck Sketches and the Mood Board for Life Paper Scrapbook April Challenges

Stuck Sketches is a site I heard about through my niece and this sketch for the second half of April was perfect for me to complete the first of the pages  below:
 I just happened to check out the mood board from Life Paper Scrapbook and found it perfect for the photos I had chosen to use. In case I was breaking some rules I was unaware of, I have completed a double page; the first using the Stuck Sketch sketch and the second using the colours and triangles in the Life Paper Scrapbook mood board.
This is our only granddaughter of 8 grandchildren by birth (we have another grandson and grand daughter through marriage). The photos were taken on the occasion of her 2nd birthday and I do not get to use pastel colours often so really enjoyed creating these two pages. My favourite wish for you, that magic happens and you have a long, happy, successful life full to the brim with love.

I have struggled to scrapbook for quite a while and have chosen to go 'back to basics' in the hope that I regain my creativity; I am really quite happy with these two pages.
Thank you for looking and any comments you may leave, best wishes.

Scrap Around the World - April

The Scrap Around the World challenge site has a few rules that I had forgotten when I loaded an 'off the page' piece a week or so ago. The first quote speaks volumes! I love the colour and butterflies so much I decided to complete a scrapbook page as well.  This photo was taken at our 5 yearly family photo shoot in June 2013; one of our daughter-in-laws, our only granddaughter and two of our grandsons just sitting and playing while my husband and our sons were having a group photo taken. I hadn't realised we were being photographed and was caught in a very relaxed moment. Relaxed and unguarded moments are rare for me; I am almost always very aware of what is happening around me, what people think of who I am and what I do; I am a perfectionist and need to be seen as perfect; one of my many faults and one I struggle to correct. I wish I could 'not over think it and let it go'. I love this photo, I love that it is me being a mother and being Nan without the concerns of who is watching and what they are thinking. 

Thank you for looking and any comments you may leave, best wishes.

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An Event that Changed my Life...

I have hundreds of rubons in my stash which I rarely use; I was going through them the other day and thinking 'what a waste' until I saw this sketch; I knew that I had the perfect ones to complete it... no additional papers, just rubons!
The subject for the Once Upon a Sketch challenge is interesting and can be used in so many ways; birth, death, marriage, travel etc... so, as some of you would know, I had a lot to choose from but I didn't want this post to be sad, I have scrapped a few of our weddings and most of our births. I decided, and it was probably prompted by our recent wedding anniversary, to scrap this photo taken at a friends wedding in February.

I have always loved the idea of a photo booth but have never been game to try one until my niece's wedding in October 2012. I was surprised by how much fun it can be but also how conscious I was of looking silly. Nothing had changed between that wedding and the one where this was taken!

My husband and I; too tightly bound to really let go and have some fun with it but I like them anyway. The Event that Changed my Life... meeting this man; the love of my life, my protector, my friend. We have just celebrated 36 years of marriage, have been a couple for just over 40 years and met 43 years ago at the ages of 14 and 15 at a monastery. I thank God for him every single day. We live simply, are grateful for what we have, laugh and love our ever growing family and dream a little!The journaling is on the back.

Thank you for looking and any comments you may leave, best wishes.