Sad farewell :(

I'm very sad to say that my Gran, or Nanny as we called her, passed away three weeks ago. I almost typed "lost her battle"..... but it was more a case of she felt it was time to be reunited with Grandpa, and refused any treatment on the ITU ward, eventually slipping away a year and 10 days after she buried the love of her life. Yesterday we finally buried her ashes with Gramps, in a beautiful spot over looking Mumbles. I can't put into words the grief I have felt over the past few weeks, but have found a level of peace knowing they are now at rest together. Thank you for your kind replies on my last post and messages on facebook, email and text...it really meant an awful lot xxx

The week my Nan was admitted, my cousin emailed my a lovely old picture of her - my Gramps was a keen photographer and loved experimenting with lenses, light and film - he even developed his own prints at home, turning the kitchen into a darkroom, when their children were small! For my blog work this month over at Sarah's Cards, I had picked out the beautiful  Audrey papers to create a page; and when I realised the the feminine colours and bow motifs were a perfect match for the photo so it seemed like fate that I should use them together..

Please click on any of the following photos to view a larger image

It was hard to decide what to journal, with so many emotions and memories and things I wish I could say to her right now. Whilst looking at the picture, I began to wonder what she must have been thinking about while patiently posing, when it suddenly hit me that this beautiful woman could have had absolutely no idea of the future that lay ahead of her, and the importance she would have on two little girls, her grandchildren, many years in her future. So I went with that :) She played such a huge part in mine and my sisters lives, as did my grandpa.

I love using my Jelly Glaze pen to add a bit of shine to customise papers like I did on the hand cut cameo:

The Cameo heads are actually quite uncanny, as my other grandmother had two little porcelain bust statues when we were small, one with a bobbed hairstyle and one with long hair, just like my sister and I had when we were little, that she named after us. When I saw the two cameos on the patterned paper, it instantly reminded me of those!

I found some Liquid Pearls in my stash that I've had for years (literally - I bought them when I was an art student wayyyyy back in 1999!!) and gave them a whirl......I think I've found a new addiction and may need to buy some more colours! You can see them here on the alpha and butterfly and around the patterned paper:

The focus of my post on Sarah's Cards was to provide a tutorial on how to use the fabulous Roll Up Flowers from My Little Shoebox, just one of the latest CHA products in stock in the shop. For the full step by step, hop over to the blog here :)

Thanks as always for stopping by xxx