Daddy’s Little Dividend

For better or worse, I’ve always been considered a “creative” person. One of things my wife said won her over when we dated, was that she liked my “creative” side. For our first anniversary I took one of her favorite movies (Amelie) and recreated the first 20 minutes shot by shot so that it showed her life and not the titular characters … in French. For her birthday last year, I made a book (a thick one, I might add) of original poetry and photography for her. Honestly, I can’t say I am truly creative, but I do try. My track record of “creative” accomplishments is uneven to say the least. Still, like I said, when our family members compare us, I’m the one who is supposed to be creative.

I’ve always laughed about that because my wife is really the creative one. I’m just a hack that can push a few buttons. She on the other hand, really does have that gift in her. No one else has every really seen that side of her, until lately. When the Kitten was born, Pussycat started a scrapbook, as most mothers do. She ended up giving it up though because the things needed were so expensive and it was a pain keeping track of all the little pieces of paper, snippets of pictures, etc.

Then she discovered digital scrapbooking. Needless to say, something clicked. I’ve always thought I was pretty proficient at Photoshop, Flash and their brethren. I’ve done a lot of graphic design. I’m not saying I’m some design maven, but I’ve had to do my own stuff for the past 10 years. Book covers, newsletters, DVD covers, gallery cards for my photography shows … you name it I’ve done it. Like I said, I’m not an expert but I was good enough to help Bananagirl get a decent job doing it professionally.

I must confess however, that she now leaves me in the dust. When I look at the stuff Pussycat does, it makes me envious. Completely jealous.

Also, it makes me insanely proud. One of the greatest joys I have as a husband and a father is seeing how much love Pussycat doles out on the Kitten. When you look at each one of her pages and designs the adoration she has for Kitten shows through.
She’s even gotten good enough to “go public.” She’s been on scrapbooking radio programs too numerous to count and has been published nationally in the trades more times that I have fingers.  Plus, She just did a masthead for another blog: Sundry Mourning. Sundry’s blog totally rocks. We’ve been reading Sundry’s blog for years now and it’s one of the best ones out there. Very funny and very sarcastic … and the pics of her boy are just hilarious. Just our thing. Sundry gave me a hand with a problem I had on the blog and Pussycat offered to payback the favor after Sundry commented on the masthead Pussycat did for ours. Sundry was even kind enough to link back to us here. Sometimes you meet complete strangers that are just nice by nature.
Anyway, I said all that to say that I couldn’t ask for a better wife. Pussycat couldn’t ask for a better mother. The creativity she has is a nice bonus, but nothing beats just having the Pussycat.

By the way, you can see a few of her things here.