Let's Get Shabby - Inspiration Challenge

Inspiration: the natural shabby minimalist background, one of my favourites because there is not much it doesn't work with, the colour of the gown, also a favourite, the frill on the gown; I bought this ribbon years ago and never got to use it, I have tea dyed it to age it; the colour of the feathers is repeated in the white roses and the pop of pink in another rose, finally the formality of the photo:

This is a photo of one of my four nieces, she is dressed as matron of honour for her elder sisters wedding and was taken as she prepared her baby's bottle so that her Mum could care for him.

Due to distance and family circumstance, I lost contact with this niece for some years; what I found many years later was a wonderful friend; the reason for the title of this layout. She is such a strong person having worked hard to become the lovely young woman she is; she is the wife of a serving member of the armed forces which means she is left alone to care for her young family for many months at a time with the added worry of the safety of her man. She has four of the most delightful, well mannered, well raised children I have had the pleasure to meet and still finds time to scrapbook and sew for them. Although we live on completely opposite sides of Australia, we scrap with each other by text and email showing each other our completed pages before we put them on our blog; this page is the very first she has not seen first; I hope it is a nice surprise for her and I have done her proud. She is the daughter of my heart; one that was lost and now is found and I thank God everyday for her friendship and wisdom.

Thank you for looking and any comments you may leave, kind regards.