Sweet Shoppe Designs

Created for the Sugar Free Challenge #50
Credits: Layered template (Template Challenge 3) by Chrissy W, Cutie Patootie by Kay Miller and New House Doodles by Kate Hadfield. Font is DJB Miss Liz by Darcy Baldwin.
Journalling reads: For as long as I can remember there has been conflict between me and my mum. Nothing I said or did was ever good enough for her. We used to argue about everything. She would say I was lazy, I had an attitude problem, and throw insults about left right and centre. I would stand there and take it, deciding that it wasn’t worth the effort of arguing with her. With kids everywhere and nothing ever being completely safe from being damaged, or destroyed, I was fed up of sharing my bedroom with my two younger sisters, who climbed into bed with me every night and expected me to be a mum to them. I used to escape to Nan’s house whenever I was able. I would happily sleep on Nan’s floor and get up to go to work with her at 7am rather than go home. The older I got the worse things got, my mum hated me more and more, made my life more of a misery. I got a job and worked from 7am until 9pm at the weekends just to avoid being at home. I worked every day after school and was literally at home only for the hours I was asleep. I would hand over my entire wage packet each week to my mum, just to try and make life bareable. I used to dream about the day when I would finally be legally old enough to move out. Only I never expected things to turn out the way they did. I met someone, and I fell hopelessly in love. The first time him and my mum met each other they despised each other. I didn’t help things when I started keeping some of my wages each week so I could do things with him. She was furious, and took the stand that it was her money, she was entitled to it and he was taking it from her. Things got worse and worse everytime he came around. I was desperate to spend more time with him, so I did something stupid, I booked the day off work and I didn’t tell her. I got up in the morning and I put my uniform on and walked out of the house, and then I walked around to his house. I spent the whole day with him, my mobile phone turned off. Lies always have a way of coming back to bite you. When she saw my wage packet she knew it was short, so she rung my boss to ask why. To say she hit the roof would be an understatement. I have never seen her so mad in my whole life. She screamed, she shouted, she threw things, and then eventually she turned to hitting me. After giving me two black eyes, a split lip and taking a large chunk out of my throat and another out of my chest. She told me to get out of her house. I grabbed everything I could carry and ran to Nan’s house. I knew that she would never turn me away and I was right. She took me in, my stepdad was nice enough to pack up my clothes and bring them to Nan’s house for me, even though he earned my mother’s wrath for doing it. She made his life a misery for weeks afterwards saying he had no right to go behind her back. All of my electrical equipment, a combination of gifts and purchases made with money I had been given by realatives, she considered her property. Same with furniture, cd’s, dvd’s and anything else of value. Nan helped me to buy everything I needed. The worst part was having to go to school and having people asking me what had happened to my face. Dealing with the questions from friends and teachers alike. They wanted to lodge a formal complaint against my mum on my behalf, but I refused to allow them. I didn’t want my brothers and sisters to be split up, I was still desperate for my mum to love me didn’t want her to get in trouble and part of me wanted . I suppose I still believed that I must have deserved it at that point. The hardest part about it all for me though was being at the same school as two of my brothers, seeing them every single day and watching them walk past and avoid looking at me. They were forbidden by her to speak or even look at me, later they told me that they didn’t really want to anyway they were disgusted that I had let people in on what really happened in our house. The relationship didn’t last long I caught him with another woman, and for a while I wondered if it was all worth it. But it all worked out in the end. I will always be greatful to Nan for everything she did and continues to do. I have been here ever since, apart from the short while I stayed at Mark’s. Nan’s house will always be my home.