Something very, very special...

Hello everyone,

I hope you're all well. Some of you may have noticed me popping by once or twice recently. I was feeling a little better there for a little while, and the pain had abated, so took advantage of that to visit a couple of your blogs. If I didn't get round to you, I do apologise, and I'll try to do so soon!

First of all, my blog is officially 1 year (and 4 days!) old! I will be putting up a candy to celebrate some time very soon, so watch this space...

Now then, on to my very special project.

As some of you may know, my son is about to finish primary school. Now of course that in itself could be cause for a few special cards for teachers, but as my little man has Aspergers, school has been - to say the least - a roller-coaster ride so far. The first few years were a nightmare, and he was bounced around from school to school, and no-one seemed to want to even try to work with him. But all that changed a few years ago when he arrived at his current school (for the second time, under a new head!) and was paired up with his current 1 to 1 teacher. Suddenly things went well. He stopped being sent home every other day, and was improving both in behaviour and social situations. Now, he has a class full of friends, has missed exactly one afternoon of school all year (because of illness) and has excelled academically. And we owe so very much of it to his 1 to 1 teacher.
So naturally I wanted to do something special for her, and after a little thought, I decided on a mini album. She has always seemed to be fond of girlie things, so I thought the papers in the LOTV "heartfelt" pad would be perfect, and of course I had to use a couple of stamps too. namely James bear (as my son is known as "baby bear"), and "Never too old for a hug", as he is extremely affectionate and loves to hug people he is fond of.

I had picked up a MDF book from the MDF man at the Harrogate fair, and decided to use that.

Here's the front cover, complete with James!

 The wooden shapes are from Hobbycutz

A close-up of the charm chain:

Inside

There are lots of tags and flaps, etc. throughout the book, which have either photos or messages written by my son on the reverse.

I also added my all-time favourite picture of him, which just so happens to be a school photo, along with a list of facts about him.
"Smile" is from Fernli designs.

I personally LOVE how this page came out:

Such an adorable stamp! The butterflies on this and the previous page are from Fernli designs

Some flaps with messages written on the inside

Another of my favourites. I especially love the frame by Fernli designs. Couldn't resist adding it with a small picture inside.

So there it is.  A very special project for a very special person. I am personally extremely pleased with it, and hope she will appreciate it when we hand it to her on Friday.
I suspect there will be tears all round that day. But I for one am so very grateful that they will be a happy kind of tears as opposed to the tears of frustration we had before!

Hope you all didn't mind the extremely lengthy post, and thank you for sticking with me if you made it this far!

Naturally, I would like to enter this into the LOTV "take two" challenge. Though I think it's more of a "take five" in this case, lol.
And as it is, after all, a way to say thank you to someone very special to us, I would also like to enter it into this week's Lovely Lili challenge at The Ribbon Girl.

Wishing you all the very, very best.

Sammy-x