Make Lemonade ~ Cope with good memories ~ Part 3

We don't even realize how many pictures we have taken from special moments to daily routines. Once they are gone, especially ones captured everyday life become much more significant than special occasions. Without words, those pictures tell you all stories which keep you nodding.

Projects with pictures are easy to get hooked with for most of people. Material is easy to get. You could find all sort of ideas online and offline. If you wish to do some projects but not sure what it would be, this could be a good one to try.

Some would make a beautiful scrapbook with all fancy embellishments. I wanted the pictures to be storytellers. So, I generally kept it quite simple though mixing up with some different backgrounds.


Picture Perfect

There are so many pictures of her, print and digital formats in the drawers, the photo boxes, the computers, the camera, my cell phone, my Flickr account, and on the walls and the refrigerator. Oh, do I need to mention my cube at work? I had made a photo album for her sweet 16. That one got some extended pages for her 17th birthday charity cookout. Naturally, I started adding more pages to it.

Soon, I realized one album was not big enough... It was over 3 inches thick, oh boy! I kept the sweet 16 and the charity cookout in the original album, also added all Christmas cards made with her pictures with Mr. and Mrs. Santa.

Everything else was moved to a new one. The expandable scrapbook album led me add more than pictures. The "Marilyn thing" from the drawer was added to the album.

Every picture, every object has stories. They brought me back to the moment. They made me smile. I didn't put any words on purpose. I can tell all stories of every single picture. They have much more words than being able to fit in the pages.

From the camping, the vacations, the trips, the parties, our wedding and all other adventures we did together to the naps in the yard, they are all in it.

This is her post on Petfinder. This is how I found her... and she hypnotized me to take her home over the Internet😜

It said

Please make this girl part of your 2008 plans for addition in your home.

So, we did it. Marilyn, checked!

One of the cancer walks we did together.

Marilyn was the winner of the Newburyport Store for the Black Dog Lookalike Contest. She is at the top left in the facebook page.

Thank you very much for all your kind words. They stay together with her memories.

The pages go on even after her furry body was gone.

I looked through the finished pages, sorted them in the order for the album. There was one blank page in the middle. I sorted them again, then sorted them again... No matter how I arranged the pages, the blank page was still there.

I went through all her pictures again to fill the blank page. I couldn't pick any more pictures. "How can I finish this album?" I started going crazy with the thought. The thought was looping in my head.

A couple weeks past. One day, I realized that I didn't need to finish the album yet. That was ok. I could add more pages in the future. There was no reason to finish it there. I would find more good memories to add later. I felt it so right. The blank page is still there so far.

From Marilyn to Marilyn

I think Marilyn sent me a subliminal message to make another album for her saver, human Marilyn, as our appreciation for all joy and happiness brought to us. My Marilyn was named after the lady. I found her contact information on one of the vet receipt in the adoption package.

For this one, I added some notes to tell how Marilyn's life was like in every page.

Finishing Touch

When I picked up the frames at the craft store, there were something else I found for her.

In case she hadn't gotten her wings yet, I would give her a pair or two. I tried to find the best color for them.

Here are the wings for my special girl.

The navy album flew away to Marilyn in Tennessee. I was nervous about how she would think of the package from a stranger though I put a letter to explain and a copy of Marilyn's Petfinder post.

Some time later, there was a voice message from Teresa, who was the contact for Marilyn's adoption at the rescue. She said she saw the album and wanted to talk about it. It seems the album reached Marilyn.

In the conversation with Teresa, I learned the lady, Marilyn, was my Marilyn's sponsor and Teresa was the one who found my baby at the shelter. It was my first time talking to Teresa since all communication with her for the adoption was done with email. It was nice to hear her voice. I felt her passion to rescue dogs in need in her voice and stories. It is so grateful that we can have our dogs because of people like her and their efforts.

The little extension of the project led me to Marilyn and Teresa. My Marilyn keeps connecting me with more people.


Stay tuned. The last post of this series, Part 4, is in working progress. It's about a shadowbox project.

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