Friendship and Forgiveness. It's what I keep telling people my book is about. A Sweethaven Summer is a story about friends, brought together by a little town and a scrapbook. That's it in a nutshell...but friendships are rarely so cut and dry, are they?
I am so blessed to have friends all over the globe, people I love even when I don't get to talk to them every single day (or even every single month.) People who "get me."
It's a resounding theme so naturally, it deserves a lot of attention when it comes to this fabulouso Art Challenge I'm about to issue...(I'm thinking tomorrow I'll get all the details announced...and the prizes...well, I'll tell you some of them!) :)
Anyway, it's easy to document your children's friends, but what about your own? What about those people you cherish? Maybe you've known them your whole life...grown up with them...or maybe you met at a particularly important point in your own lives and have been friends ever since.
For my friend Anabelle O'Malley, part of friendship is the tradition of going to Disney with her girlfriends...a tradition definitely worth documenting...
Anabelle took photos from three different years--three different trips--and used them all on the same layout. Can you imagine if Anabelle's son found this years from now and tracked down these girls to hear more about what his mom was like when she wasn't on "mom duty"?
It intrigues me...the whole idea of it. I guess in some ways, I think when we play a "role" all day long, like "MOM"...it's hard to think of ourselves as anything else. But that role of "FRIEND" is so important... it shapes us and forms us into who we are...don't you think?
What if you step outside the role you're most used to playing and focused instead on another role, maybe one you don't get to play often enough, but that you're so thankful for.
The other day, I had a radio interview and they mentioned the idea of the gratitude journal...in my mind, scrapbooking and art journaling are largely about expanding this concept...talking about our blessings, focusing on them...keeping them in the spotlight. My real life friend, Liz Hicks, demonstrates this with her "Blessed Beyond Measure" art journal page:
I love that Liz's art journal pages are always so full of vibrancy and life...and to be able to document the blessing of a good friend is something that she (and future generations) will cherish. I love to hear stories about my mom's friends growing up...it won't be any different with our kids...
I think more than anything, they want to know us as people not just as the "warden in the prison of their life" (as I expect my daughter might say given that the mother seems to be the villain in the story she's currently writing...)
But the truth is, friendship IS a blessing...a huge one that we should never take for granted. Our friends see us through so many storms, whether we realize it at the time or not.
Check out Liz's blog for tons of great art journaling tips, techniques and prompts. You can find it HERE.
Question for YOU: Have you created a layout or art journal page highlighting your friendships? Does any of your artwork focus on you?
I'd love to hear about it...and if not, I'd love to hear why...
And I'd especially love for you to join in my Sweethaven Scrapbooking Challenge and create a page inspired by one of the beautiful pieces of art my friends have shared...but we'll get to that later!
For now, I'll leave you with a documentation of some of my favorite friends...
People I don't live near anymore...but who I carry in my heart...
Happy Monday!
