Saturday, March 23, 2013

Beautiful Souls

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Seeing it laying on a table in my craft room the other day, I realized I’d been neglecting it…

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…the old, Victorian photo album I found in an antique store last year—just begging to be filled—now coming back to life, page by page, with the women from my past…

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One these two pages—my grandmothers.  The pictures I chose for them here were their teenage selves.  Young women just beginning to blossom into the women they would become…and they were gloriously beautiful women—inside and out.

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The margins filled with bits of their lives—their characters—words to color and flesh out who they were…what they stood for…

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Borders chosen by colors that represented them in my mind…

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Yellow for LaPriel.  Her favorite color, I was told when I was a child.  The color of sunshine, happiness.  Words that describe what she did for others—how she made them feel whenever she was around them…

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A lovely deep purple for Velda.  It reminds me that she loved violets.  Each year, on her birthday, she told me that her grandmother would thoughtfully give her a little crystal basket filled with violets…I just planted dozens of newly budding violets in my garden—thoughts of my dear grandmother in my mind with each and every hole filled…

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My little “Character” book is coming along quite nicely.  I’m hoping my daughters and granddaughters will treasure it as much as I do, and learn just a little more about the women who came before them…

See you soon with something new.

Julie

Monday, March 18, 2013

Best Foot Forward

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A quick trip this last week—a need to spend a few days alone with my parents long on my mind…

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Not one to be able to stay away from creating for very long {thanks to genes inherited from my mother!}, I brought along my art journal and a few pens—an easy thing to do when traveling light…

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A little journaling about my week there—attempting to capture just a bit of our time together…

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…finishing a few pages already painted & pasted that were just waiting for the right words, while we watched favorite movies together late at night…

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“Be your very best self”.  Something those very same parents taught me all of my life.  I always knew they didn’t expect me to be perfect.  I always knew they didn’t expect me to be like someone else—just me.  Myself.  The best me I could be.

Something they’re still trying to teach me.

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And I am doing my very best to do so…

Julie

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