Easter Sunday Memories

Hello, my friends!

Well, I guess I’ve just been feeling a bit nostalgic about Easters Past lately, as I have another little Easter layout from my childhood to share with you today.

A sweet Easter Sunday morning in Glendale, California…1968…where do the years go?

I used the wonderfully spring-filled “Easter Retro Vintage Kit” from Vintage Street Market for my layout…I mean, just LOOK at all this vintage goodness!

I love the pretty floral print paper included in the kit, as well as the wonderful textured cardstock…so many pretty elements to play with!

I made the pennant border using the vintage dictionary page included in the kit…and a pencil and a ruler…real old school here!

A close-up of the central pennant…I cut pieces of the pretty pink vintage ribbon and layered them on top of each pennant, for just a little extra color and texture…also edged the border with Platinum Stickles.

Just a couple of goofy kids…My younger brother, Steve, and I, right after our Easter egg hunt on the lawn…(notice there’s no big, fat, floppy bow on my head here?)

…and the rest of the family.  Baby Scott (he’s a pediatrician now!) held by Mom…

(Oh, look!  There’s the big, fat, floppy bow!  Got to be wearing all the appropriate Easter finery for the family photo, right?!)

 

A cheerful felt flower with homemade button, (using an Epiphany Crafts heart-shaped button punch), ribbon…the ticket & clip are included in the kit…

A close-up of the “Linen” Tinted Tape…love the aged look it gives a layout! (This close-up doesn’t make the lawn look too good, does it?!)

And finally, a trio of little Easter ducklings cut from on of the vintage storybook pages included in the kit.  I thought they echoed my parents’ three little ducklings quite nicely…

And if Easter memories weren’t sweet enough already, how about making some sweet NEW Easter memories?

(sorry for the glare—it’s still dark outside, so kitchen lights are blazing!)

A very sweet gift from a friend.  Koralee of Bluebird Notes sent me an unexpected package the other day…simply because I’d mentioned that I couldn’t find those wonderful silver dragee’s where I live…so thoughtful!

Those dragee’s bring so many childhood memories back to me…Mom decorated many a Christmas and Easter cookie with those pastel-colored sparkly beauties!

Just look at the sweetness Koralee made with her daughters using these lovely ingredients…! (We’ll be making some of these at our house VERY soon!)

 

If you’ve never yet visited Koralee, you really must!  A treat for the eyes (her photography is stunning, as you can see here!), lovely thoughts for the soul…thank-you, dear friend…

So glad you stopped by to relive a little of my childhood with me today…

See you soon with something new.

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: Vintage Street Market,Easter,childhood,Bluebird Notes

Hoppin’ Down the Bunny Trail…

Hello, dear friends!

With thoughts of Easter hopping through my head yesterday, I thought I’d make a little memory layout for my sweet mother…

{Easter bunny images from Crafty Secrets’ “Easter” Creative Scraps}

You know, as I look through photos of my mother when she was a girl, there’s hardly a photo of her without something in her hands…a doll (most of the time!), a ball…or a bunny…

Oswald the Rabbit, in this case…

An adorable Easter time portrait taken in their home, about 1943. 

The piano bench my mother’s sitting on is the same one I sat on to practice almost every day of my growing up years…and the same one my daughters sit on to this day…wonder who in my family will be sitting on it 100 years from now…?

{sweet little bunny from Crafty Secrets’ “Easter” Creative Scraps}

I’ve always loved this next photo…taken at Knott’s Berry Farm in Southern California about 1942…

My three-year-old mother, holding a new stuffed bunny…and her mother’s hand.  Her father right behind her, and her grandfather to his right.

{Soft, lovely vintage millinery flowers available from Vintage Street Market, and luscious seam binding in a big, loopy bow…tinted with three yellow & golden shades of Glimmer Mist}

Here’s me…holding a bunny, of course! Reminds me…my Dad’s always called me “Bunny Rab”…still does.

{me…about 1964}

This poor portrait.  It’s the only one there is, and it’s quite large.  It was rolled up for years before I got it, and I had to take it out of the frame to photograph it.  I’m obviously no good at editing out the creases—anyone got any tips?

And now for the sweetest bunnies of all…

My three little bunnies at a beautiful Easter garden party at our Aunt & Uncle’s house in 1997…ah, memories…

So glad you could join me on the Bunny Trail today…hope you’ve got some happy Easter memories hopping around in your head, too…

See you soon with something new.

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: Crafty Secrets,Vintage Street Market,Karen Ostlund Smith,Easter

{Vintage card images found online}

Love’s Old Sweet Song

 

{this beautiful, central image from Crafty Secrets’ “Love Mail” Creative Scraps}

Funny thing about inspiration…you never know where it’s going to lead you.  I’ll explain later.

My great-grandmother Pauline was pretty certain about one thing.  She didn’t want to marry a farmer.  Especially an Arizona farmer. 

This beautiful, young school teacher had a few other suitors in that rural part of northern Arizona where she lived at the turn of the century… the question was just one of choice.

{three lovely, imperfectly perfect brown vintage buttons…}

Shortly before taking her mother for a two-month stay in California for her mother’s health, Asahel Smith came to her family’s home to propose marriage to Pauline.

 

“I promised to correspond with him and think it over…but I then had not the least intention of giving up my schooling and becoming an Arizona farmer’s wife.”

While in California—at some point during their exchange of letters, caring for her mother and sightseeing by the sea--Pauline had a change of heart... 

  {a picture postcard of Pauline while at Ocean Park on her trip to California…June 1908}

…She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that when she returned home, she would marry Asahel.

Back in Arizona and while she and Asahel were courting, his mother once told Pauline:

“Asahel speaks with a sack of flour, a load of wood, or a job attended to, rather than with fine words.”

Another visit to Pauline’s family’s house on the evening of his 28th birthday late in 1908… 

…a question formally asked, parental permission and a young woman’s consent both happily given.  Pauline’s changed heart was content and secure.

Of the months after their engagement, Pauline wrote (much later in her life): 

“Our letters were now exchanged once a week.  I leave them to you for your character appraisal of us.  Our letters have their defects (mine, at least!), but so be it—we did, and still do have, too.”

To Pauline…January 1909

“…I feel now like there is nothing I could not undertake, if you were there to help.  I feel like all will be right with us…I can see so many things in you that I admire, and I shall always find more.

“I am going to write every chance I have—the thoughts that come to me so often lately—for I have (been living) in a paradise of beautiful thoughts.”

To Asahel…February 1909

“My soul is filled with gratitude all the day for you, and the assurance I have that all will be well with us…for a happy home.

“In my mind, home is not a house or furnishings….I love to plan and think of it…I think about how I’ll manage things when I can do everything to suit myself, with only my dear Asahel to please, who I know will be very compassionate with me.”

Another page made for my heritage scrapbook…

 

Remember what I said in the beginning about inspiration being a funny thing?  Yesterday morning, when I was wanting to start a project, I had absolutely nothing—or no one--particularly in mind.

Soon, Asahel and Pauline came to mind. As I hadn’t written about their courtship yet, I decided I would.  I had intended to finish and post yesterday, but it wasn’t to be.  Life just gets in the way, sometimes, doesn’t it?!

{I’m just in love with these keys from the Tim Holtz collection…LOVE really is the KEY, isn’t it?}

My scrapbook page finished later in the day, I decided to sit and read some of Pauline’s memoirs…it wasn’t until late last night that I realized that the next day—today (April 2nd)—was their anniversary. 

Sometimes things happen for a reason. 

Upon reflecting on her life…nine children and many decades of marriage to Asahel before he passed away…I do believe that Pauline found that being an Arizona farmer’s wife ended up suiting her very well, after all.

Happy Anniversary…

Julie

{images of old letters found online}

LiveJournal Tags: Crafty Secrets,Love Mail,Pauline Udall Smith,Asahel Henry Smith,anniversary