Time Changes Things

For the past few weeks I've been visiting 1999. Not a particularly eventful year in memory, but as I have gone through the photos to create an album I was amazed by all I had forgotten. Thanks to calendars and emails and a few letters and pieces of memorabilia I realised a LOT happened in 1999.

At the top of the list is that my sweet neice was born at the start of the year - and gifted with my name, too! What an honor that is. A few months later I crossed the ocean to be there for her christening. I also had surgery to regain the use of my hand (how could I forget that!). It was a year full of TBall, church activities, plays, overseas visitors, preschool excursions and school competitions, a Significant Birthday, and family holidays - big and small.

Revisiting the photos and all the events that made up that year also made me realise how much CHANGE has occured since then. Obviously our boys have grown taller and both now shave. (Sigh.) So, also, has the physical nature of our home as the extension and internal renovations that we began in 2000 finally wrap up this year (I hope).

BEFORE

Here are some photos taken in our tiny kitchen - one in 1999 (before the reno began - don't you LOVE the orange bench tops!) ...

AFTER

... and the photo above was taken more recently. (Note that no kitchen improvement is complete without cheerful helpers!)

I've been waiting for an Idea to define the next decade of my life. There has been no epiphany, so it is now apparent that I must simply begin building it - one stone at a time - until it takes form.

One thing I do know, though, is that Time does Change Things whether I am playing an active part in the change or not. Surely taking an active part is more satisfying than just letting life 'happen'. So I'm out to find the next pile of stones - whatever they prove to be.

Fatherhood Pays It Forward

Father's Day comes twice a year for me and I usually forget the first time. And that makes me sad because the first time is now, in June, when it is celebrated in America, and it is my Dad's day. The second time, in September when we celebrate it here in Australia, is still tricky because I feel like we have done it already. So no matter which one it is, it seems my significant men don't get the depth of recognition they deserve.

This year Janet Carr's Father's Day kit was sent to her Creative Team during the week and it gave me a chance to get better organised. So, here to begin the launch of my Father's Day layouts is this one for my Dad which features our family at it happiest (imo) back in the 70s, a year or two before the first of us went off to college. Now only one sibling remains in town with Dad and the realisation that a family scatters is sinking in as my own boys are getting older and will soon move on.

How do we hold on to these great years full of fantastic family memories. Of holidays, of discoveries, of trials, of acheivements, of living through the seasons together?

It is not only kept alive in the nostalgia, but also in seeing it going forward. The saying goes that good parents give their children both roots and wings. The grounding comes first. Part of that grounding is the hope that we can pass on our most cherished values to make their own as they take flight into their own lives.

The good work of Dads who sacrifice and give of themselves to their children will live on, carried within the character and memories of each child. Like ripples in the water the investment does make a difference. Happy Father's Day.

All the above layouts used this fantastic new kit, "King of My Heart" from Janet Carr's Little Feet Digital Designs. Check it out at For the Luv of Art.

Colour in the Light

Something a bit different this week. About colour and about light.



On Friday I stopped on my way to work to take some photos of The Carillon in Canberra. The bell tower sits on a small island in Lake Burley Griffin and on this morning the main body of water was shrouded in vapor rising from the warm water (it was -3 degrees C). Closer to shore, though, the morning sun was streaming in and the cold air made for crystal blue skies. Some autumn foliage was still clinging to the trees and reflected beautifully in the water.

There was nobody else to be seen and it felt like I had the moment all to myself and even though I had only a few minutes to stop, something deep was stirred within me.

I feel as though I have been moving in a mist over the past few years and have only begun to come back out into the sun again. This sight seemed to illustrate my life right now and the choice I face. I can return to the mist and stay there or I can follow the light and bask in the colour.

Standing on the lakeshore on Friday morning brought to mind how the Impressionist painters tried to capture light on their canvases. Perhaps that is why I am so partial to this artistic movement above all others. Light revealing colour. Colour defining light. It is not so much that light helps me see where I am going, although I do like that, but rather that light reveals more options. There is more life to embrace, more life to celebrate in the light. More colour.



Interestingly, a couple of friends have recently visited Monet's gardens in Giverny, France. Something I regret that we were not able to do when we were there. The photos from this garden reveal why Monet's waterlilies are such masterpieces. I could swim in his paintings and a print of one of them has hung in my home since I was 20. It is a constant reminder of the beauty of the ordinary, the joy of colour and the gift of light.



"Monet seeks to become intoxicated by the abundant wine of the air, the light, the flowers, and still more light. Through his use of color, he had undeniably conquered every fleeting object that can be conquered. He has taken changing appearances and made them permanent, trying to grasp all of nature's faces at every moment."
-- Arsene Alexandre, writing in Le Figaro, 10 December 1926

So I am moving toward the light. And I know that as I do, the path forward will become all the more clear ... and colourful!

The Light of My Path

Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
John 8:12

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shadow of turning.
James 1:17

Keeping Warm with Memories

Down here in Australia we are preparing for winter, which in Canberra actually feels like winter especially when there is snow on the mountains! The kids are already planning a ski trip. So forgive me if I forget that summer is bearing down on the northern hemisphere. I forget that school is out up there and vacation plans are simmering. And of course that means the digi kits that are coming out are full of travel themes!

Australians are known for their love of travel, so these kits are always welcome and useful for us. Seems we like to get off the Island as much as possible for as long as possible. After all, no journey is easy when an ocean has to be crossed!

So, I have been playing with various kits and have an eclectic selection of travel layouts to share this week. I will begin with this Canadian layout (above) using my mother's photos and journal notes. I love to travel vicariously and this was an event that captured my imagination as she shared it with me then - and I still enjoy the story now, 19 years later. Mom would have been 77 last week, so this is my tribute to her and her love of travelling roads of discovery.

This second layout makes me laugh. Looking at the photo of a Houston freeway spagetti bowl always makes me glad to be somewhere else and grateful that I survived so many years of driving there! The photo immediately sprang to mind as a perfect "sail away" page and the colours worked so well with the pelican on a quiet, bleak grey day down at a wharf on the other side of the world. I know where I would rather be!

Janet Carr's kit, "Where I Long to Be: Serenity of the Cape," like all her kits, gave me plenty to play with to make both of these layouts. Check it out at For the Luv of Art.

Our trip to Europe last year was a Dream Vacation for me. I never ever thought I would get to travel there in the flesh and walk the streets and feel the sun and soak in the light and ambiance for myself. Each day was filled with wonder as we spent six weeks moving from London to Paris to Rome to Salzburg. A couple of days in Venice provided me with many photo opportunities and these gondolas were begging to be captured as the sun was setting. Macy Goode's kit, "Vacation" is available from her etsy shop. I particularly love this background paper!

We stayed in a little apartment at a ski resort in Austria during its off season. The place was full, however, with geriatric tourists seeking health remedies from the thermal springs in the area. The guys got tired of the s-l-o-w pace and opted to rent out bikes for some exploring down in the valley below. Of course they had to ride back up, too! These gorgeous kits from Deena Rutter, "Hotel California" at Design House Digital and Nicole Young, "Steampunk" at Digital Scrapbook Place, worked surprisingly well together to tell some of their cycling adventure story.

Good memories do make for warm blankets as winter sets in!