Ever since my mom retired last year, she has been letting her creativity flow. She now has more time to do the things she used to be too tired or busy to do, and quite frankly, I couldn’t be happier for her. She has always been very talented when it comes to using her hands to make, do and create beautiful things; I remember as a child, when we didn’t have much, my mom would sew clothes for my brothers and me; she would paint and wallpaper various rooms; she could decorate with panache even before Martha came along. Actually, to me, she was the original Martha Stewart, making everything she touched special and fabulous. Since I started scrapbooking a few years ago, my mom has taken an interest in whatever I create, and now that she has more time to indulge in her creativity, she has caught the scrapbook bug as well. She’s not exactly putting together 12×12 layouts, but she has a fancy for mini-albums…she has made quite a few nice ones which overflow a lovely basket sitting on her gorgeous fireplace hearth. She enjoys making small journals (or what I call mini-albums) so much, that she can make them faster than she can fill them up, and actually has more fun creating the books than using them for herself. This is where a brilliant idea was born for us to collaborate and sell the journals and books in my Etsy shop, Retrospect

The Everyday Bingo journal

The Everyday Art journal (also known as our version of a Smash book)

The Travel journal

When my mom showed me these journals she made for the first time, I’ll be honest, I thought to myself, “This is something I should have in the shop…” No kidding. They are really cute, and something I would definitely buy from her, if she had a shop. Luckily for me, she’s content with being a “member of my shop”, which pleases me to no end since I just have not had much time lately to create much. It’s a bit difficult, sometimes, working full-time, being a wife and mother, going to church, volunteering, and running a business (now you know why I have not blogged in a long time). I’m waiting for 36-hour days to be invented…but until that time comes, I am grateful for the extra help to keep Retrospect going. It’s nice that the shop has a few more items to sell, and as soon as I can, I will be adding more journals and mini-albums in order to fill up the shop more. I am sure looking forward to seeing what my mom and I can come up with next; with her talent and ideas, I’m sure not to lose my inspiration or motivation any time soon, thank goodness. So be sure to come take a look around the shop sometime in the near future; hopefully you’ll see something that sparks your interest! Thanks for stopping by!