My Mother's Clippings, printables

My Mother’s Clippings

I’ve been organizing all of my containers of miniatures and cupboards full of supplies. It brought to mind my mother’s enjoyment of organizing her hobbies and how much she loved magazines. In one box I found a clipping mom must have saved for me and I have scanned it out for you to see above, cute ideas for Christmas from an old 50’s magazine.

I really inherited my love of old books and magazines from my mother. She would love to sit for hours surrounded by magazines, flipping through their pages and tearing out pages of interest to her: recipes, gardening, hobbies and health issues. She would be sitting in her favorite chair with her legs covered by a familiar mohair blanket that she had for years and a box beside her for the clippings. This was before computers, Google and Pinterest to search for information about everything. Keeping these clippings must have been like a life line to her so she could retrieve information whenever she needed it. She always mentioned she would have to file them one time. I used to tease her about keeping the magazines for so many years and wouldn’t she rather “clear the clutter”. She always said she wanted to go through them first. Although my comments were probably difficult for my mother she probably knew in her heart I would find myself doing that as well when I was older. Each of the magazines I have saved I can remember as though they were friends. Sometimes when I pick up an old magazine it reminds me of what I was doing at the time I bought it or looked through it. Perhaps my son had visited and I had to put it down so I could listen to him. So sometimes old magazines are not just old magazines but are a reminder of times in our lives. She was also very interested in embroidery and sewing so I’m sure many of the clippings were stepping stones to a creative endeavour in those areas.

After she died I didn’t throw out her clippings and old calendars but I kept them and have really enjoyed going through them so much, a little bit of mom is in each clipping. I was quite pleased to find miniature clippings too about different famous miniature houses in museums and articles about making houses using fabric. It was like she knew I would be looking through the boxes some day and would enjoy finding these. Thanks mom so much for your symbols of love.

I really hope all magazines in the future won’t just be kept on an ireader, iphone or ipad but remain physical memories that can be passed on to the next generation.

All the best everyone, Hugs, Jean

1935 Mom & My Grandmother at Butchart Gardens & 2 free vintage Mother's Day cards

Happy Mother's Day! We are so fortunate to live in such a beautiful city as Victoria which features the fabulous Butchart Garden which always reminds me of great times with my parents and grandparents. We still have great family times there, especially at Christmas.

My grandparents lived in Saskatoon Sask. but made two trips to Victoria before moving here with us in 1959. The second visit was in 1935 where they always visited the Gardens. My grandmother knew Mrs.Butchart and had the good fortune of visiting her in her private garden that the top photo shows. You can see my Grandmother, Jeannie Turnbull born in 1888 and mom at 14 years old with grandma's sister and nephew. I think that is Mrs Butchart on the far left. This was and still is a completely private area for the Butchart family only. The second photo was taken at the same time but I think the third photo was much sooner because mom looks younger. I enlarged them and brought out more detail and contrast, it is wonderful what you can do to old photos in Photo Shop.

The last photo was one I took while visiting the Gardens last week, it was in the morning the the sun was shining through the tulips and really made them glow.

I have included 2 vintage Mother's Day cards from my collection for you to print and use in projects if you like. Just click on the image, then right click and save it to your computer. I have added them soon to my higher resolution area for download at 4shared.com.
 http://www.4shared.com/folder/ILtK6LJE/_online.html

Have a great week, Cheers, Jean

How to Help your Children Be More Creative or My Mother Let Me Make Mud Pies.

I was so lucky to have parents and grandparents who really encouraged creativity and were very creative themselves. As an junior high Art teacher, I used to give creativity a lot of thought to as well. Some of the ideas are so simple but they really worked for me.

* My mother used to make pudding in individual bowls for desert for us a couple of times a week. She would always put a design with her spoon in the top of her pudding and she would pour cream in the spaces. The designs were usually geometric and she would encourage my sister and me to do the same. Some people might think of this as playing with their food but it is wonderful sharing all of the designs.

* Dad used to treat many of his meals as landscapes by hollowing out his mashed potatoes and putting in a gravy lakes with vegetables arranged like a forest. He would encourage us to do the same.

*When we were in the car my grandmother always played "I spy with my little eye", where grandmother would see something of a certain colour or other description and I would have to guess what it was.

*Dad would have a piece of paper and draw some lines as part of a shape and I would have to finish the picture using that shape, then I would do the same for him. Very creative but it also showed a good starting off point for a sketch and that sketching doesn't always have to start off looking at something to sketch.

*Dad made a very large chalk board for us (he actually painted a board with chalk board paint) and we would spend hours at it. I remember just drawing intersecting lines and I found that all of the lines made such wonderful designs.

*Mom used to come home with bags of end cuts of fabric for quilting and there were so many designs and colours, each was a small square. I did so much with those fabric pieces and especially enjoyed pretending I had a fabric shop.

*When I was a teacher I would not let my students throw away a picture they had painted or a drawing just because they felt it wasn't good enough. I used to tell them it was theirs and theirs alone. No one else would make that particular image at that time. Sometimes children are much too critical of their own work and need to realize it is the process that is the fun part and whatever they do is important.

*Children don't need lots of toys to have fun!! Better to have them making things with all sorts of odds and ends around the house. A blanket over a table makes a great tent. My youngest son used to make fabulous houses out of cardboard.

*Mom used to have a large stack of decorating and craft magazines that I would pour over for hours, Surprising how much you can learn from old magazines and it helps you decide what you really love and want to make, even if you are too young to make it at that point in your life.

I will try to add to these ideas as I think of them.....

*When I was very small my mother actually played out in the dirt with me and showed me how to make mud pies. She was never bothered by me getting dirty and really encouraged it.

*We moved to Victoria and had a beach across the street, dad and I would go for walks and he would love writing and drawing in the sand. It is such a lovely sound too, when a stick scrapes the sand.

*Sometimes my dad would ask me to close my eyes and describe a scene I had just been looking at with him. He would do the same when we were walking. He really said how important it is to actually look at your surroundings and look remembering details. Sometimes life must be overwhelming for children and just watching tiny bugs can slow everything down and be really beautiful.

*When we lived in Regina Saskatchewan, we would get a lot of fabulous snow in the winter and mom would get me bundled to play. I spent hours stomping down the snow in puzzle patterns and looking for fairy caves provided by icy melting in the hills of snow against the fence.

*Mom didn't believe in a lot of lessons when I was young but wanted me to find my own interests that I loved.

Hugs, Jean