Saying Goodbye and Hello!

Today we waved by-by to our old kitchen cabinets as they were carted off for scrap metal. It was a very strange sensation seeing my old sink and cabinets loaded up onto a truck. For a brief moment I felt sad about it, but life goes on and a brand new sink is soon to be installed--well, maybe in a day or two (fingers crossed).

I also got to say goodbye to a project that has been taking up room on my desk for a very long time now. I finally finished the mini- album I have been making for my cousin's new baby. I had been putting off completing it with the excuse that I still had a few more weeks, well-- she had the baby on Monday! I'm so happy for her and although I have not talked to her yet I have heard that mom and baby are doing fine. Since I was not called into work today I thought I better use the time to finish up the album, because I intend to give it to her as a gift when I go and visit her and the little one.

Although I am happy that I made this album, I am glad now to have finally completed it. I had been working on it in bits and pieces for about four months. It definitely was a learning experience for me, being the first album I had ever made. It's funny to see how my style evolved as I put each new set of pages together. Unfortunately, I 'm not too happy with the first few sets-- but by the time I realized this there was no turning back.

I chose to go with muted colors for the album. Although I wanted it to be all about baby boy, I didn't want it to be too pastel or frilly. So I chose the muted colors and used geometric shapes to play up on the baby boy theme. I also tried to work in as many journaling spots as I could. I'm thinking this will be a great album for her to save all her very favorite pictures and memories of her new son. When they are little there is barely any time to sit down and write about all of the new things they are doing and your own thoughts on being a mother. This way when she has a few free minutes she can sit down with a stack of her fav. pics and jot a few thoughts about them. It will be something she'll be grateful for in the future.

In the end, I wonder if she will like the present. As I look it over I realize that it has a very eclectic style, while that works for me, she's more of a "everything needs to match" kind of girl. Well, hopefully she'll know that it's a gift that comes from the heart and as a new mom, she'll probably be excited for yet another reason to show off her new baby.

In the future I plan to make a few mini-album's featuring my own little guy-- but will probably not choose this for a gift option again any time soon.

I hope you enjoy,
Tina