Genuine Grace

I love this photo of my Mother, not because its a good picture of her, its not, but it's such an artistic photo from the perspective of standing in the door frame.  It really conveys a look.  I know I've seen a painting of a woman in a door frame but can't remember the artist.  The photo was a black and white that I converted to a sepia tone to better match the mood I wanted to capture.

I did this for the July round robin at Swirlydoos which, is always so fun, using one of my favorite kits, the Bo Bunny spotlight kit.  I added the laces and fan from my stash and a few other bits from other SDs kits.  I made the flowers from Tim Holtz glassine paper and achieved the glittery look by brushing with Perfect Pearls and then heating the flowers with my heat gun.  The glassine paper coating then sets the Perfect Pearls.  The flowers are so pretty and shimmery IRL.  Its kind of hard to capture in a photo. 

Painting the lamp post was fun.  I started by misting with graphite Glimmer Mist, then painted on some tattered leather Glimmer Mist, and finished by brushing the edges with walnut stain Distress ink.  I still wasn't satisfied so I added some bronze rubon.  I don't see that much anymore, but it is a metallic cream that you rub on, its fun messy stuff!!  I used scraps of white handmade pp stained with Distress antique linen to make the globes in the lamps.

The letters were first covered with Distress walnut stain and then I used gold rubonsto bring out the embossed areas. I used gold UTEE embossing powder on the watch casing.

I have to change the journaling a little as I got some additional information from my Mom yesterday but it  will read:

1953 Verdun, France – Dad had already gone to his duty station in Verdun, so you had to fly to France with a baby, Margaret, and Craig, almost 5 at the time. The plane was struck by lightening and caught fire so the plane made an emergency landing in Newfoundland. By that time, you must have been scared out of your mind and wondering why on earth you were traveling to this foreign land.


But there you were, in France, living in a house with a bullet holes from WWII in the front door. Our french landlady & her son had hidden in a cabinet in the kitchen when the Germans forced their way into her home.  Fortunately they didn’t look there and she was ok.

You and Dad lived on the French economy and with the grace that you’ve had all your life, you accepted the situation and set about learning to speak French. You and our landlady, Madam Gaillard, sat with the French/English dictionary and learned to communicate. By the time we came home from France, you were speaking fluent French.

Thanks for visiting my blog, I appreciate it!