Character

I found it sitting on a dusty shelf in a little, old antique shop last year--and I knew immediately that it was mine & what it would become…

This sweet Victorian album would become my “CHARACTER” book…a book filled with images of my mothers—the women that came before me—and would—with just a few words--encapsulate their characters…

The pages weren’t in the best shape, but not too bad, either…a bit ripped where family photos from the former owner had been removed…I could work with it…

It was a bit hard for me to write that first word on the beautiful old page…but once I started, I couldn’t stop!  A bit of my art journaling coming into play here…and just the tiniest bit of doodling—couldn’t resist!

Words and elements added to briefly illustrate a life well-lived…here, lovely bits atop a piece of crushed red velvet—just the kind Estella loved to put in her hair when a girl…

My youngest daughter told me I should write just snippets of their stories on the sides of their portraits…so I did.  And I love the results.  

A perfect pen nib found—“memoirs” etched upon it—it illustrates Anna’s life so well, as she spent so many of her later years recording not only her own life, but of those she loved, as well…

{nib from the Tim Holtz collection—thanks, Tim!}

The two women together…I didn’t mean for the book to be in any kind of order, but as it turns out, these two are perfectly perfect to be facing each other, as their children married each other…which is precisely why they became my great-grandmothers…

I love the shabbiness of my new treasure…bits of gilding, still lovely--it’s seen a lot of love in it’s life--and will see much, much more now…

Pages waiting to be filled…I can’t wait!

Now I just need to find another one for my fathers…

See you soon with something new.

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: Character,heritage,album,Tim Holtz,Estella Vance Stapley,Anna Meier Brandley Ostlund