Yellow Ribbons

Just a quick post from me this evening.  I feel like I want to curl up in my bed and not come out until the sun shines properly and there is some good news.  

This is just some of the horrid stuff:  Yesterday I had a minor car accident and narrowly avoided a serious one where a car had turned over.  A friend of a friend was found at Beachy Head last week.  Timmy Macoll, a local Naval chap, is still missing in Dubai and it is now 3 weeks since he was last seen.  With Father's Day tomorrow, I am hurting on behalf of his 2 children (same age as ours) and his pregnant wife.  We have friends in common, one of whom is a serving police officer who must be beside himself with how helpless it feels not to be able to go searching for him.  As a show of support, thousands of us have tied yellow ribbons to trees and lamp posts near our houses.  We just wish we could do more.

As it happens, I still haven't shared all of the layouts I completed at the retreat and this one is about all about love and includes a yellow ribbon - my friends, Pete and Nina on their wedding day 5 years ago.  I used a sketch from a friend so I apologise that I can't remember who it originated from.

I used My Mind's Eye in a variety of collections because they all seem to mix and match well together and this is why I love them!  I'm pleased with this layout - it has lots of texture and I love the colours and the layers.  I'd forgotten how much I like to use ribbon roses too.

I always get emotional at weddings because it reminds me of my own wedding day and how I would love to do it all over again.  I am so lucky to have married my soul mate and to still be excited to see him when he comes home from work, even after almost 19 years!!  With so much bad stuff going on recently, I am counting my blessings and holding onto them with both hands.  To have my best friend and husband right by my side, my crazy kids sleeping soundly in their beds, all of us happy and healthy - that's an awful lot to be grateful for.

Bye for now
xx

Something a bit different...

Here's another layout from the retreat weekend.  Its not my normal style at all but I really like it.  The photo was taken while we were getting ready for my wedding in September 1999.  The girl in the black dress is my step-niece and she was busy putting on her lipstick, watched VERY closely by my littlest bridesmaid, my youngest niece Charley.  She was totally absorbed in the magical thing that the big girl was doing and copied her mouth movements, completely unaware of what she was doing.  This little girl is about to have her own baby - how time flies!

I managed to use a really old and previously unloved patterened paper that I got in a lucky dip bag at some point.  I never thought I would use it as it is one of those pieces that has things already designed on it with very little scope for your own placement.  The colours were ideal for the picture though and it came together quite swiftly.  I curled the edges of the main patterned paper using the water and rolling method.

I used various punches and hand cut flowers to layer up into clusters and then added some bling for the centres and a couple of my precious resin flowers for dimension.

I think this is probably the oldest picture in my album now but goodness what a lot has happened since then!  I wonder what the next 14 years will bring?

Bye for now

xx