The Nut Doesn’t Fall Far From The Tree- A Mother’s Day Note

The gals at Patience Brewster, who make phenomenal ornaments and decor, have inspired me to share a Mother’s Day celebration post – celebrating special mothers everywhere. I have been blessed with so many amazing women in my life, my mom especially, so I felt like it would be a wonderful post to write. Patience wrote a fantastic post about her mother, which you can read here. Marietta sounds like she was one heck of a lady!

So, I was recently picking out cards for our moms for Mother’s Day with my husband and came across a greeting card that was almost too perfect. The front of the card had a tree with a little branch of nuts on it and it said “They say the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree.” Then you open up the card and the inside reads, “And that just scares the hell out of me!” I almost got it because my mom would have thought it was hilarious. She is a bit scatter brained at times. In fact, when I worked for her, she called me her brain because my memory was impeccable. I say “was” because all the years of having to be her memory have started to take it’s toll on mine. So we joke that I am becoming more and more like her every day, more scattered.

It got me to thinking just how much alike we are though, and although we joke about it, I am quite proud to be like her! My mom and dad split up when I was just eleven months old, and she was a single parent with me until she remarried when I was nine. Despite everything going against her, she followed her passion for the arts and went back to school to a fine arts college when I was a toddler. She double majored in graphic design and photography, and when she graduated instead of playing it safe, she went for what she loved most, which was photography. I remember carrying her equipment for her, or sitting in the car playing my gameboy while she would go take an order. Through the years she built her business from nothing, through four different cities, and became to be one of the top premier portrait photographers in our area. You can see her amazing work on her website Here. She is a self made woman. She never gave up, and she is a good example of just what a woman in this world can do when she sets her mind on something.

I inherited the creative streak from my mom. I can’t remember a time when we weren’t making things together, crafting, going to local plays, art museums, etc. She has always been there for me, even when things were hard. She has been my biggest cheerleader. She has supported me through every kind of the arts I was interested in from music, to drama, to fashion and costume, to living the creative life I do now. She raised me to dream big and create a life that I loved. Although she is my mom, she is also one of my best friends!

On Mother’s Day, my sister and I always spend the day with her. Sometimes we go shopping, sometimes it’s a picnic. One thing that has become a tradition is that I always make her a gift. One year, my husband and I made her an accent table with a tiled top. We had a lot of fun making that one, and she keeps it in her sunroom, her favorite room in the house. Of course I can’t tell you all what I have made her this year just yet, but I will be posting about it next week. Do you all have any Mother’s Day traditions of your own? How do you celebrate your mom? I’d love to hear! To all the moms out there, may this Mother’s Day be your best one yet! Hugs to you all!

XOXO- Ashlee