Good, Better, Best

There are those small, quiet moments in life that may—just may—go completely unnoticed…

…but sometimes, if you’re very lucky, a loving eye will SEE such a moment, and capture it, holding it tight…save it and share it with you at just the right moment…

Barely 4-year old Chelsea sat at her grandparents’ table…holding a pen tightly in her sweet, chubby fingers…

I remember seeing this happening, but I was not the one to preserve it on film…that was her ever-watchful grandmother…I lost the moment in my mind until that same good grandmother gave me a little gift last month…

“Would you like to have these?”, she asked me, while handing me an envelope and two small photographs…the picture memory came flooding back as I sat there in the very same room my sweet girl sat so many years ago…

Chelsea had been quietly practicing her name, over and over again on the envelope for her Daddy’s birthday card that year…isn’t that wonderful?

She was so proud of her efforts!  And so were we—always trying, always learning, always practicing…that’s always been our Chelsea…

{beautiful bow die-cut from Vicki Chrisman…see below}

Two weeks after this simple gift was given, I found myself remembering it with tears in my eyes as I sat in the enormous university coliseum, waiting for my daughter to parade in with thousands of her class who would be graduating that day…

 

That same little girl who held pen tight in those chubby little fingers now teaches many little ones to proudly hold pen in hand and do the same…

A teacher.  I couldn’t have imagined anything more perfect for this oldest daughter of mine…

  {this was my sweet girl blowing me a kiss as she jumped for joy after graduation…my heart is STILL jumping for joy…}

 {a new page made to celebrate my daughter…complete with my very own homemade tassel!} 

And for the icing on the cake that day, my photographer daughter, Sarah, brought this picture with us from home…

…a picture of me and my parents on my graduation day from the same university…24 years to the week earlier.  The same spot was found, a similar picture memory was taken…

What a wonderful day!

“Good, better, best--

Never let it rest,

Till your good is better

And your better is BEST!”

Remember that, Chelsea?  The quote that hung on our wall to celebrate the beginning of each new and exciting school year?  You took it to heart…it became part of you—and that’s exactly what you have done…each and every day…and I know you will continue to do so, each and every day………………………

 

We are so very proud of you…

Love, 

Mom

{Fabulous bow die-cut from the amazingly creative mind of Vicki Chrisman—available HERE.  It was stamped using Crafty Secrets’ “Flourish” stamp set.  Lovely blue vintage background print from Crafty Secrets’ “Creating with Vintage Patterns” CD.}

The “Cap and Gown” and adorable vintage graduate girl graphics were given me by one of the greatest collectors and lovers of vintage I know…thank-you, Sandy!

LiveJournal Tags: Chelsea Campbell,graduation,Crafty Secrets,Vicki Chrisman,bow

Beautiful May

The beginning of May always brings such lovely things to mind…the sweetness of flowers on May Day, Mother’s Day…and our wedding anniversary on Monday {our 24th this year}!  So many things to celebrate…

A few projects made this week {during the moments when my flu-y haze was at a low!}, inspired by the events of the month, using products from the wonderful Vintage Street Market…

First, a sweet little tussie mussie cone for a bouquet of flowers–a gift for a friend, perhaps…

A paper cone, wrapped with turquoise paper from the “Dimestore Vogue” Paper Sheets and Tags kit…encircled with a chocolaty brown crepe paper ruffle (from the same kit), dotted with Stickles for a bit of glitz.  Edging the crepe paper is a circling of pretty aqua tinsel…

{I couldn’t resist filling the flower cone with “Cecil Brunner” roses…my mother’s favorite.  The original “Sweetheart” rose}

…and a simple little tag, also from the “Dimestore Vogue” collection, complete with a bit of pink Twirly Twine & a single flocked, vintage posy…

Next, a pretty little powder puff…a vintage puff found in a lovely aqua powder box I bought at an antiques shop last year…altered just a little bit for a Mother’s Day gift…

I used the Mother tag from the “Family Fun” Paper Kit, a sewing tag from the “Dimestore Vogue” kit, edged with a bit of Stickles, a vintage mother-of-pearl button & more pretty vintage posies & tied it all together with a pink Twirly Twine bow…

And last, but certainly not least, a simple little tribute to my beautiful mother…

Her one and only “glamor shot” was the focal point for my little layout.  Paper from the “Family Fun” kit, a bit of the beautiful aqua foil sheet (one of my favorite things!), again from “Dimestore Vogue“, a border of vintage mother-of-pearl buttons…

…and a pretty little rosette made with the chocolate brown crepe paper from the “Dimestore Vogue” kit, topped with a “button” from the same…some seam binding & Twisty Twine finish it off, along with a little pink tag …and that’s about it!

Wishing you many beautiful & inspiring May days this month!

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: May,Vintage Street Market,Mother's Day,tussie mussie,roses,Karen Ostlund Smith,Dimestore Vogue,Family Fun

The Family Quilt

I didn’t even know it existed…

I’ve always heard people referring to their “family quilt”, one made by a great-grandmother, or great-great auntie…I didn’t think we had one in our family…

Well, we actually do.  My great-great grandmother Augusta made a beautiful crazy quilt around the turn of the century, but it’s in a small museum in northern Arizona…beautiful, but untouchable…

My mother proudly took me into her large closet this last week to show me some shelves that my father had built, and I saw it…

“What’s that?”, I asked…

“Sarah’s quilt”, she said, almost casually…..

“Sarah, as in great-great-grandma Sarah?!”

 

And so it was.  I never knew we had it…shows what happens when you never ask!

Imagine my joy when my mother gave it to me while I was there…what a wonderful gift!

It’s not fancy.  It’s not perfect…but it was made with her beautiful, aged hands…

The hands of a woman born on a Virginia plantation during the Civil War…hands that helped her husband carve out an existence in rough and tumble Arizona in the late 1800s…

…the hands of a skilled midwife who delivered 1,600 babies during her lifetime…and “never lost a mother or a baby”, as she herself recalled…

It’s a quilt made with those hands…and I love it.

My guess, due to the fabric patterns, is that it was made in the 193os.  Sarah passed away in 1940.

My plan was to have my husband make a beautiful rod to hang it on—a lovely place on a large, blank wall already chosen in my mind…

{I love the traditional, old “pinwheel” pattern that Sarah chose for her quilt so long ago…}

The morning before we left, I was organizing our things…getting ready to pack up the car.

The quilt, which had been in our room, carefully folded, was nowhere to be seen—I was in a bit of a panic!

I found it…not too much later.  My oldest daughter—the new college graduate for whom we had all gathered to celebrate—had sleepily looked for the comfort of a warm blanket late the night before, when the rest of the house was sound asleep…

…and she found one.

I found my great-great-grandmother’s quilt, still rumpled by the pillow where my daughter had slept--and I realized something…

That’s just precisely what Sarah would have wanted.

{a new page made this week for my family stories album}

She didn’t spend hours and months on her quilt for it to be hung on a wall…not to  be touched.  She meant for it to be wrapped around the ones she loved…to comfort and warm a sleeping child…

I think Sarah would be very pleased...

Julie

  {my youngest daughter, Annie, willingly snuggled with her great-great-great grandmother’s quilt for a photo}

{lovely vintage label & scalloped journaling paper from Crafty Secrets’ “Creating with Vintage Illustrations” CD, vintage thimble ad also from Crafty Secrets}

LiveJournal Tags: Sarah Indiaetta Young Vance,quilt,Chelsea Campbell,Anna Campbell,Crafty Secrets