A blank book for you to write your own story as a mother and a parent. Fill the empty pages and pass the memory on.
Most of us own journals, a lot of them! The majority of them remain empty and forgotten. Some have a few pages full, but that is about it. Our days seem so mundane and unremarkable that after a short while we are pretty sure that no one would ever be interested in what we did and how we did it. Yet sometimes we read a forgotten page and gasp, and laugh ..."Rossi went skiing for the first time... " She was just 3... Nothing really, but makes you feel different in a very special way. You read it to your, now all grown up daughter, and for a brief moment you are back there - young and full of plans to conquer the world, to be a super mom and super professional at the same time.
I do not want to offer you another journal to be forgotten in a dusty cupboard. I want you to write your story as a mother and a parent. Your happiness and sadness, frustrations and triumphs can be a source of strength for those that come behind, regardless how talented of a writer you are.
I offer you a blank book without guidance or structure - make it your own. Fill as much as you feel like then pass it on so your children to add their story.It has been made sturdy and worthy of bumping and keeping.
My own mother is battling advance cancer at the moment and I have to face the possibility of a life without her. She never spoke much or told us a story. She seemed happy to stay in silence and care for us without any consideration for her own comfort at any point.
I wish she had written her story. Sometimes is easier to write than to say things. I know that she was an orphan." I hate my memories, there was nothing but struggle there..." she would say when I pressed her sometimes to tell me about herself. Now when my own children are almost grown up I would have loved to know how it was to be a parent when you do not know what parent is yourself. I would have loved to know how she coped with losing a child, with loneliness and sickness.
We do not have to leave our children orphans after we are gone, because at any stage in our lives we need our parents. We need the perspective, the solution and the connection with those who have done it before us.
Fill the empty book and pass it on.
Why the Victorian design? - Today we lead busy lives and anything is acceptable. It does not matter what we wear or how good our manners are. I love the times when mothers had to do it all while impeccably dressed and on their best behaviour.
Some might argue that those ladies had help. A lot of mothers have help today as well, and that does not make them less of a parent. The love we feel for our children does not go down with the amount of help we receive. A mother is a mother, no matter where or how her children are raised. If nothing else, with today's conveniences it should be easier for us to be dressed better and behave with more class.
What would you get - 80 full colour, high resolution images of fashion engravings originally published between year 1800 and 1900. Each image depicts mothers with their children, doing all the happy things we do with our children today - going to the park, zoo, movies, playing with friends and pets, taking part of family parties and Cristmas celbrations.
Each full colour image is followed by a lined page for notes, with faded colour image of the same fashion plate on the background.
The fist images in the journal show fashion styles and scenes from the early 1800's, and with each page we move ahead in time with the last page depicting styles from 1898.
