Scrapbooking

I finally finished them! My Mother's baby pages for the heritage scrapbook! I loved doing these, but had trouble getting the rosebuds to look just right so I needed to get assistance from my local store of professionals. They are made from apple punches! An interesting side note: my grandmother (my mother's mom) was a scrapbooker. My mother had saved a tiny box filled with teeny-tiny Cupie's my grandmother had cut out. Some of them are so small I have to handle them with my tweezers! It's amazing how intricate they are! Anyway, Gran Bigler cut them out and saved them for something and my mother saved them probably just because her mother had. I went back and forth, talking myself into and out of using some of them on a page and finally decided I should. I added them to these pages (look closely) and I hope I have the blessing of both my mother and my grandmother for doing so. I call it trans-generational scrapbooking! This first picture was taken when she was about a year old. This was her first kiss!! I think she was about two here: Check out the car in the background! The comb and brush are pictures of the set she had at the time. I now have them saved. Did you find the Cupies? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've been making some progress in getting back to my scrapbooking projects and have decided to try and finish my heritage album that my mom and I were working on together before she had to go to the nursing home. Aunt Jessie was the next section to work on and I have completed the first page in the series and thought I'd share. My cousin and and I have been trying to piece together our history from what she remembers and from what my mother told me. My cousin being several years older than I, has more first hand knowledge and I am trying to do what I didn't do when my mom shared these things with me and that is...WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN! How is it I thought my mom would be around forever to answer my questions? "Aunt Jessie" was my mother's aunt; she was married to my grandmother's brother. My cousin said "She was a romantic, glamorous figure to me as a child. She lived in California!" Jessie met her husband John in one of the hottest spots in the mountains west of Colorado Springs, during the height of the gold mining era. At that time Jessie was on her own, supporting herself...Jessie was a "working girl". Looking through the pictures I have of her (which I hope to show you in the coming days), and from what I remember my mom telling me about her, once she met John, she left her former life behind and became a faithful, hardworking wife. Because of her "colorful" past, her new mother-in-law never liked her, yet my mom said she and John were very much in love. They never had children, though to hear my mom tell it, it seems as though they wanted them. Sadly, John died young; I'll have to see if I can get some dates to see how many years they were actually married. My mother told me stories of how much she and Jessie loved to look at magazines of the Hollywood stars and how they would go shopping and to the movies together. I have a great picture I'll be adding soon of her and my mom (mom was about 13) on a dirt road with their thumbs out in hitchhike fashion LOL. After John's death, for reasons unknown to us (one can only surmise), she left Colorado Springs and her husband's family behind and started a new life for herself in California. When I was about three years old, my parents and I went on a trip to California and my mom was able to look up Jessie and pay her a visit. I have pictures of us together and I can only remember snippets of that visit, and they are mostly feelings of her being kind and caring. She gave me two small "treasures" that I have to this day. One was a tiny top, the handle being about the size of a toothpick; it had bright yellow, green and orange paper glued to the top in swirl shapes which mesmerized me as I watched it spin. She also gave me a tiny barrel shaped bank that was sized only for nickels. I don't know why I saved them all these years, but I have never been able to part with them...perhaps Jessie had more of an impact on my young life during that visit than I realize. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My mom crocheted the holly and rosette accents I used on this page. The holly was used for the bridesmaids candle holders and the rosettes decorated my headpiece. She also crocheted my slippers and the edge around a hankie for my "something blue". I have written a short story about the day my mom and I bought my dress and it will be displayed oposite this page.

From left to right are my brother who was an usher, the next two girls were my roomates in college, then my best friend growing up, me and hubby (of course), my cousin who was ring bearer, hubby's army buddy, two guys we went to college with, (the tall red head was married to the bridesmaid in the middle), and finally, hubby's younger brother who also served as an usher.

I've been spending some time trying to finish my wedding scrapbook, so I thought I would share a few of my favorite pages.