When Bob asked what I wanted to do on the day before Mother's Day, I said, "Let's go to Grafton", where Mother's Day was born. Grafton is a small West Virginia town 25 miles from home. Anna Marie Jarvis, the founder of Mother's Day, lived here as a child Her Mother, Ann Jarvis, founded Mother's Day Clubs in 5 cities, where the ladies treated wounded Civil War soldiers. The Mother's Day Shrine is here, and on the day we visited, a Mother's Day tea was being prepared. The alter was decorated with white carnations people sent in memory of their mothers.
Grafton was a booming railroad town in the early 1900s. There is a huge train station and train yard, with a few working trains still running by. The beautiful train station is where Hillary Clinton campaigned. I bet the Secret Service had a ball with this one.
There are only remnants now of the past. The title of my layout came to me when looking at the picture of the now closed theater.
"Remnants of the past are here, as are we, in 2013. "
My Dad, who has macro-degeneration, took this picture of Mom and I on Mother's Day. I love it!
The words are from the song "I am your child" by Barry Manilow:
"I am your child. Whatever
I do, you taught me to do.
Whatever I am, you
taught me to be."
The garden archway is a digital brush from Cottage Arts. I sized it, then determined the size of my picture. I combined the picture with a partial oval shaped frame prior to pasting it into the archway opening. The journaling block is another digital image, this one by Carina Gardner.
After cutting it out, I added some splatters of paint.
The leaf mask smudged with mixed media white ink was the final touch.
My husband is a photo journalist and works for the local paper. He's a great photographer. . . his editor does not always publish the best of his work. Bob's nature and scenic shots sometimes get tossed in the trash. . . but the weather shots have a better chance. I loved this one. . .
Finals week at WVU. . . a graduate student sitting in the rain at the riverfront just getting away. Bob said she was taking a picture with her cell phone of the WVU rowing team on the river.
I matched the layout with the words to Laura Short's song "Blessings":
"What if your blessings come through rain drops? What if your healing comes through tears?
What if trials of this life-the rain, the storms, the hardest night are mercies in disguise?"
Bob's slug on the published picture was "Here comes the rain":
I used a rain drop punch and temporarily adhered the drops to the sides of the layout, inked around them, then removed the punch to get the rain drop "mask":
Happy Friday my friends!
I was delighted when I received a box of Basic Grey papers and embellishments from my blogging friend Jennifer Shaw. The "Little Black Dress" collection had my name on it!
The pictures are from Oglebay Park. The quote was one I heard on a CBS interview: "Life is about gathering material".
I brushed acrylic paint over the fence mask backed by a piece of black paper, then cut around it:
Thank you Jennifer for all the lovely items!
I heard these lyrics on Tony Bennett's Duets CD-this one recorded with Josh Groban. The song "All I Ask" was made famous by Frank Sinatra and Perry Combo. It's about having time to appreciate the finer things of life after one grows older.
So as I look back almost 20 years ago at this picture of me with my boys, I declare I'll stay "Younger than Spring". "Let the music play as long as there's a song to sing", go the lyrics. I will create as long as there are memories I want to preserve!
My Mom has lots of memories from her early childhood and teenage years. I'm lucky to have early school photos and some of her taken in film booths as a teenager. She grew up during the depression, yet has many fond memories. This page is for her. I made journaling cards for her to hand write some memories and place in the black envelope.
I love the Webster's trim I placed on the corners:
and antique buttons I purchased at the namesake store (Mom's Memories) last weekend. The Tim Holtz metal was purchased there as a single piece (I did not have to buy a whole pack!).
Happy Mother's Day! (Pictures beginning in 1932)
The Good Zoo at Oglebay State Park was just our speed. 1 1/2 miles of trails, mostly happy animals and some you could touch. We got the best "selfie" ever there posing with a hungry Llama. We also rode a small train through the zoo on this beautiful spring day.
May 2012
Also in Wheeling, WV is a local scrapbook store called "Mom's Memories" with a branch in Washington, Pa. Since it was National Scrapbook Day, we stopped at both stores. I love the Mama Razzi "Oh Snap!" stamps I got there!
