Those were the Days spreads for Peggy

Today I finally finished my spreads for Peggy which have been in the pipeline for quite some time but as I've been teaching etc. they kept being put on the backburner. Today was the day though, despite insurance hassles and some lovely phonecalls with Helen, in which we managed to prevent a double booking incident. I think this was a wonderful example of synchronicity about which I am reading a book at the moment (Soul Moments by Phil Cousineau), which in itself was of course co-incidence in its finest form!

Back to my spreads for Peggy. She selected A Song to Remember as the theme for her TipTopJournal and we could all use our favourite song to illustrate. It was a difficult choice as I love so many songs but this one has been of pivotal importance in my life so it simply had to be The One. It is: Those were the Days, by Mary Hopkins. If you're not familiar with the text, Google it! But a tavern figures largely. The main leitmotif for me has always been to live your life in such a way that you won't regret anything when you look back on it.

I made my fabric/paper collage for this one using music notes and French text in the background followed by a layer of taverna themed napkins. Needless to say there are many of these (I seem to have them all too!!) and in the end a French bistro/bar and a Greek taverna were the main ones I used. This collage turned out amazingly well. So well in fact that I had some trouble making the first cut into it. But I have scanned it first so the image is in my computer to use in future projects.

I added the text on the first page as well as a stamped transparency of a face and for the second page I found a transparency of a nostalgic looking lady (from Victorian Images sheet by Altered Pages) with a rose in her hair which followed exactly (more serendipity!!) in the line of the roses on the collage. As you can see below, the two pages run into each other, an effect I really like and which hopefully will look good in Peggy's album!