Ali's Journal

First of all, thank you to everyone who has asked through this blog, and through emails, about our friend Chris. We did go to see him last week, and were relieved to find him up and functioning! He does have a neck brace on, which he will be required to wear for another five weeks, but he is recuperating better than expected from his accident and two operations. While we were visiting, he went through his series of exercises that he must do 2-3 times a day, and after a short rest, he walked to the kitchen table with the help of a walker to eat his lunch. This is so unusual for this type of injury, that we are calling it a miracle.

It is Sunday afternoon, and all is well in our home. Husband took a ride to the beach for some much needed R & R, while I elected to stick around here with the daughter who is packing for the next phase of her life.
I gave her the gift I’d made for her, which is a journal, and she said she loved it. I think she meant it. She also said I could photograph it and share it with you. I’d wanted her permission, since I wasn’t sure if anything would be considered too private for her to share.
But anyway- she said ok- so here goes…

Oh- I apologize for the quality of the photos. Shame on me for not editing these. You will see why...The book was propped up on my kitchen chair, and I didn't notice how bad the back of the chair looked while taking the photos. I am afraid that I just cannot retake these photos and do this over again!






I started with watercolor paper in a 9x12 size, gessoed (sp?) all the pages, then put a base color of acrylic paints down on each page. That took a couple of days because they had to dry in between layers.
I figured I would paint a page for each month she was going to be away, beginning with August, and ending with June, and then I made some extra pages “just in case.”





A sample of pages drying.


I wanted to make my own book from scratch, because I wanted her to be able to add and remove pages as needed, plus I wanted to include pocketed pages after each month for any items she might pick up along the way.
I went to the local stationery store that Black Eyed Susan's Kitchen talked about in one of her July posts, and looked long and hard at my options. I ended up buying binder rings that were about 1¼” in diameter.

I decided to take the cardboard (or is it called chipboard??) from the back of a couple of pads of paper to use as the front and back covers, and then I needed a way to cover the rings in a decorative manner. After rummaging through my stash, I found this suede skirt that my older daughter had handed to me many years ago, and that I had held onto with the sole purpose of “re purposing” it one day. I decided that the time had come.


Oh- this photo is dark, but you can see the skirt, and the cardstock papers.

I started with the construction of the cover knowing that I couldn’t proceed with my plans if the cover of the journal didn’t work out. I covered with cardstock papers (she is a Pink Girl,) punched holes, and cut and glued the suede. Satisfied, I put that aside and got busy with the pages.

The inside cover. Typed in pink, is a quote from her days of her Nicaragua trip.

Oh- that bit of orange on the right, is a heavy duty envelope with a Velcro closure that now holds a pink pen with black ink, and a pink pen with pink ink, for her writing and doodling pleasure.


The facing page.

At the bottom of the page is an inscription to her from yours truly.


Month by month- here are the pages-

The Popsicle sticks throughout are from our favorite Weight Watcher's ice cream treat.

This one is stamped with the word "explore."

The woman and child represent us, of course.

As she settles into her routine.... Journey and Courage.

And Halloween...always a favorite time for my kids, I wanted her to remember to add fun to her days.

The child is a one year old Allison, cropped from a family photo.

For the first time ever, this daughter will be away from us on Thanksgiving.

(She loves giraffes, and I liked the "licken" part!) The quote under the kids' photo is one which I have loved, and she always thought was funny because of the "stomach" part.

Christmas will bring her home again if all goes as planned. Since the holidays are always chock-full, it makes sense to me that this page is, too. I couldn't stop myself, actually. I had painted this page green and red originally (how original, right??) but I decided to cover the page with old "menus" from prior Christmas's, a photo of the centerpiece from last year, and then

when she lifts the house photo, underneath are more family photos- including one of the dog sneaking a lick from a guest's dirty pan that the guest had set aside after the meal to take home!

Bad dog!
smart dog!! it was good food.

January, new year, Armenian Christmas (as we were brought up to call January 6th) and a time to reflect on the past, and think about the future. The background colors are those that make up the Armenian flag.

The photos are self portraits of Allison, in one of her goofier moments. She had used my camera, and surprised me with a "slide show" the next time I picked up my camera. So, I decided to surprise her right back by including some of the photos here.

Those are her eyes at the bottom, and on either side, the Celtic cross (her father) and the Armenian cross (me) because she is made up of the two of us.

Her birthday month! The actual body of the mermaid was painted by someone else.

A peek at my mess.

Last March she went to Nicaragua, as many of you know, and what she experienced there is really what made her want to continue to do some kind of service work. She had brought back coffee for me, and cigars for the men, and other items- I just saved these labels and papers, etc., thinking (again) that I would one day use them in some way.

March represents Hope and Believe.

April= Easter, and Earth Day. One of our favorite books to read was The Runaway Bunny. I had to quote from it.

By May, her time serving at the clinic will be almost finished. Wisdom and Knowledge will hopefully guide her onto her next phase.

And finally June- home again (knock on wood!) and the conclusion of her experience in San Diego.

I have also included a laminated, two-sided map. One side is of the U.S., and the other is of the world. Just so she knows where she is!

This is the inside of the back cover. Another one of our favorite books to read was "Where's Rufus?" She used to delight in finding him on the pages of that book. He is included in this book as well.


Did you see him in the book?

Do you see him now? He's hiding behind the tail!

Well- that's it.

She is weighing her bags now. I said I would give her a hand. There is a 50 pound weight limit on each bag. Remember, she is packing for 10 months. I'd better head up the stairs.