The big C

My new (academic) year's resolution was going so well.  Scrapping and blogging daily and enjoying my reclaimed me time.  But then tragedy struck and my step-dad died.  It's a story that more and more families know only too well but this is the closest to home that cancer has struck.  Ray was diagnosed in July and just 9 weeks later he died in a Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice.  I spent some time with my mum and Ray at the hospice before he died and on the day that he died and the staff could not do enough for us.  It's not a job that I envy but they did it with great care and humility.

Ray has been my step-dad for 26 years.  He married my mum after we'd been on our own, the three of us, for seven years.  You can imagine that things didn't always go smoothly when joining a family with teenage and pre-teen daughters in it.  But I think that Ray had a good life. He has three children of his own and five grandchildren including my son.  He loved spending time with Connor and he did that quite a lot, especially before Connor started school and when there was snow!  

My final Hey Little Magpie challenge from the other weekend was Niki's sketch challenge.  This had a big shape on it and I decided to go with a decorated circle.  

Harvest

This photo is of Ray and Connor collecting plums from the fruit tree in the garden.  As you can see, this is serious business.  I love the composition of this photo though and it's lovely to be able to scrap the memory of Ray doing things with Connor.  

I love this textured woodgrain paper and bought a whole pack of it a while ago from Hey Little Magpie.  This time I used a white ink pad to lift the grain before sewing a circle on to the page and decorating it with all manner of embellishments.  

At the end of the weekend Hey Little Magpie had a prize draw and I won a prize!  I wasted no time in placing my order, including a whole lot of Illustrated Faith products, which is something I'm planning on getting in to having recently bought a journaling bible.  That was very exciting :)