She brought it back from a trip to Maui. After a bit of thought I decided that it would be my 'Endo-something' book. It got it's name from my trying to explain (probably very drunkenly) to my friend what I was going to use it for. I wanted a book that would release endorphins in my brain every time I looked at it (only I couldn't remember the word endorphin, hence Endo-something). I wanted a book that would make me smile and laugh and rejoice and feel happy every time I looked at it. It is still very special to me, although gladly I hardly ever need to look in it because I feel sad. I thought I'd share it with you here and a little of it's contents... On the opening page, to set the scene, is this quote from Roger Hargreaves... 'If you ever feel as miserable as Mr Miserable, well you know what to do...just turn the corners of your mouth up!' There are no rules as to what I put in this book, only that it must make me smile or laugh. So I have included... 
Photos of times and things that made me laugh and still do. (Elaine do you remember how that troll just kept turning up!... Nick: the world's smallest banana in Mshiri) 
I write down little things that happened, scenes, that were funny 
special photos 
postcards of great places I've been (with great people) 
newspaper cuttings of good things I have done (this was when we were helping the home birth insurance campaign in 2008) 
quotations from songs that meant a lot at the time. 
Funny news paper clippings 
This is a small bag of stones that I found in my shoe after Andy threw me into the sea on our first date (romantic guy eh?!) 
Memories of babies, look at Rebe's tiny, tiny foot print. 
Benny's birth page, the top line of numbers is my timing the contractions, my emergency hospital bag list, our lists of possible names. 
There are quite a lot of special flowers I have pressed, these were from my friends' wedding cake.
And of course special pictures drawn by Rebe. This was her first ever 'person' picture.It is so full of so many special memories and things, the above is only a snippet. The good thing is there are still so many pages to fill! To some extent this blog is an Endo-something blog also filled with great memories and pictures. But there is something special about being able to hold these memories in my hands.
Do you have an endo-something book? If not, I can't recommend them highly enough?
Oh how special - I have my journals, kids pics and special things scattered all over my life, great to have it in one place.
ReplyDeleteLove the Dali pic. And hurray for our home birth campaigning. That how I discovered you were a good-un ;p
xx
Thankyou so much for sharing this, such a good idea tomorrow I shall buy a special book and make one myself. Tbh, it's desperately needed x
ReplyDeleteI love this! I have done scrapbooks for years but sadly, I got sucked into the fancy scrapbooking trend and what used to be something lovely and therapeutic became something expensive and time-consuming. I love this idea and plan to search for just the right book.
ReplyDeletethat is a fantastic book full of joy by the looks of it. You other half sounds a bit like mine, we once skimmed a stone into the sea and instead hit me on the back of the head with it which made me bleed, so romantic lol.
ReplyDeleteI love this!! I had something like this MANY years ago but it got burned in a house fire and I didn't ever make another but perhaps now is a good time to start again. Thanks for sharing this :-)
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