A walk will do wonders!

Hello!  How are you today?  Be warned...today's post is a non-crafty one, so I will understand completely if you would like to duck out now and pop back in tomorrow for something covered in glue and sparkle! LOL I have been busy up to the eyeballs caring for my gma lately.  Away from home, away from my hubby and kids (although they visit when they can!) away from my friends, and away from my normal day to day life.  I came here not knowing how long I would be here.  I accepted that when I packed up and headed this way.  It has been 7 months now.  I have watched my grandmother winding down slowly.  She has become such a different person than the one I knew growing up.  She is even completely different than she was when I got here.  It is quite a challenge some days being her only care provider.  Seems that every day there is a new little something that we are figuring out how to deal with.  Some days her mind is very sharp and she is on top of every little thing, but other days she struggles to remember details.  Those days are becoming more the norm for us.  We even had a day last week when she asked me who I was.  The mind works in such crazy, bizarre ways and it is tough to watch her fading slowly away from the person that she once was. I am from a very small family and I feel strongly that family is the most important thing.  I cannot tell you how many people keep telling me how "good" I am to be here doing this for her, but to me it just feels like the right thing to do.  It's been the most challenging, frustrating, exhausting, demanding, amazing, wonderful, important thing ever, but it's the right thing to do.   I know that I am fortunate to have this time with her and I try not to take any of it for granted, but I must confess that I am really missing home!  Since I have been here there have been 3 very special people up here that have helped me out.  Two of them were friends of my Uncle's (my gma's son) and adopted my gma after he passed away and one is a friend of her's from church.  All three of them stop by at least once a week and visit her and check in on me!  They are all three amazing people and I am unbelievably grateful for them all!  Today one of them stopped by unannounced and threw me out!!  She told me she was here to sit with my gma so I could get out for a while. She offered me her car, but I declined settling for a nice long walk instead!!  What a wonderful mental health break it was too!  I snapped a few pics while I was out and thought I would share those with you!

I have one more picture to share today!  This one shows a glimpse of my gma's true personality!  

If you made it this far, I thank you for hanging in til the end!  I will be back soonest with something of a more craft-y nature to share! Happy Saturday and I hope you enjoy the weekend!

Say what?! A card?!

Hi there!  A card!!  I made a card! Can you believe it?!  It has been so long since I've made one that I was beginning to think I might have forgotten how! Funny, how it comes right back to you! LOL

Since I have been away from home my stamping buddies have been wonderful about keeping my spirits up! They e mail and text and send me fun little goodies in the mail! They have gone out of their way to keep me included in the going's on of our stamp group!  I have met and made some really amazing friends because of stamping!!  I feel very fortunate to have such a wonderful group of ladies in my life!  Big, big hug guys!! My most recent goody package came from one of those good buddies (Hiya Kavi!).  I needed a card this morning, so I raided her fun package and put this one together:

So bright and cheery!  I just love this paper and the new Stampin Up! Butterfly framelits are just gorgeous!!  Sadly, they are on back order right now because of the dock issues in California.  It's a big mess!

Close up of that beautiful butterfly! :)

Any fun plans for the weekend?  I think I'll do some crafting! ;)

Eating is such a fun thing!

   Hello! So I have always enjoyed eating!  I mean just really, really loved it!  I love food.  I love the social aspect wrapped around it. I love dessert (I really love dessert!).  Being here with my gma I have discovered exactly where that love of food comes from!  That tiny little woman can put away some food!!  She loves to eat and she thinks that no meal is complete without dessert to finish it off!  She has chocolate peanut butter on her waffle at breakfast, cookies with her lunch every day, a cup of m&m's after her 4:30 potato chip snack and then dessert after dinner every night!  My initial response upon getting here and seeing that was to fuss, but then after thinking about it and deciding that the sugar is what has actually preserved her so well (she is 97!!) that maybe, just maybe there was something to that whole dessert thing!  So, what did I do?!  I joined her for dessert, of course! LOL  I have some more pictures to share with you today!

Here she is enjoying her breakfast!

Lunch is one of her three favorite meals a day!

Funny story!!  She LOVES these funny giant goldfish crackers, but only the bacon flavored kind!  Well the stores here stopped carrying them, so my amazing hubby went online and ordered her a lifetime supply of the gargantuan sized bags!! 14 of them! LOL  He is such a keeper! :)

Here she is enjoying a brownie which started out  practically as big as her head!  The chocolate-y-er the better! :)

Every good brownie needs a milk chaser!

One happy gma!

I really like this picture!  I think hands tell such important stories!  What do your hands say about you?

A gma funny for you! She loves Johnny Cash and so I You Tubed the JC song I Walk the Line for her one day. She loved it!  She tapped her foot and snapped her fingers! Sang along and she must have asked me to play that thing over 20 times!  Later that day she started walking circles around the dinning room table and singing "I walk the circle!" She's so funny!

Ok, I am off!  I will be back tomorrow with something more craft related to share!   Have a great day!

Family fills my heart!

     Hello there!  Nice to see you again!  Ever feel like the luckiest person in the world?   I feel that way on a pretty regular basis.  Just so happens I have the most wonderful hubby and kids ever!!  Since I have been a bazillion miles away from home my husband has been an honest to goodness saint!  He has driven back and fourth countless numbers of times (9 hour trip one way).  He has grocery shopped for me when I couldn't leave my gma alone. He has helped out with my gma whenever I needed it (which has been quite often...have I mentioned that she is a very busy little thing?!)!  He sends me little goodies in the mail to keep my spirits up!  The list just goes on and on and on...he has definitely taken that "For better or for worse" clause and shown it who is boss!   My kids have also been wonderful about keeping in touch, sending me photos, visiting with me when they can and just understanding that this is something I have to do!  I miss them all so much when we are apart.  Thought I would share some more photos with you today!  They are pretty random, but that kind of describes my life over the last 6 months!

 My very handsome hubby and I! 25 years later and he still makes me swoon and my heart pitter-patter!

This one was taken on one of my girl's visits up here. It was sooooo cold out that day!

My youngest daughter and my hubby!

My beautiful girls!

I tried to get out of the house for a walk every day when I first arrived and took the next several shots on some of my walks.  My gma requires much more attention now though so I haven't been able to adventure out.

She lives across the street from this!

It is very pretty here!

Marina just down the road!

Fall in New England is pretty darn beautiful!

This was taken on Thanksgiving of my Gma and long time friend Jim.

Thanksgiving goodies!

I took this picture early one morning when the season's first snow fell. I was excited to see snow!

This is a picture of the sixth or seventh snow!  It became much less fun as time went on! LOL  

Another snowy day!  There has been a lot of shoveling in my winter this year!

This is my goofball gma in her Christmas hat!  

Here we are in March and she has slowed down quite a bit.  She still manages to sneak in a few funnies here and there though!  Tonight she took out her hearing aids and told me, "I'll take these out now, but then you can't hear me!" LOL  She also really enjoys flirting with my hubby!  She likes to give him a hard time and he picks right back at her!  He is such a wonderful guy!  Did I happen to mention how lucky I am?!

Have a wonderful day!  I will be back tomorrow with a few more pictures and then I will start sharing something a little craftier with you again!

Label love

Hello and happy weekend to you! :)  I have a quick post for you today!  I made a card that I wanted to share with you!  I was supposed to be cleaning up my stamp room, but I got distracted instead and wound up making this card!

When inspiration strikes, who am I to tell it no?! :)  

Lots of fun details on this card!

Here is a better view of the main image!  If you have any questions about the card feel free to send me an email!  I would love to hear from you!

Hope you have a great Saturday! 

I will be back soonest with more to share! 

Too much happy!

Hey there!  Week is just buzzing right along! Thought I would pop in and visit for a bit before my day got nutty.  I have a card to share with you today.  This is another let's use up some of the scraps on my table instead of putting them away kind of cards! Anyone else do that?!

Surprise!  It is all pink and happy!  (Those two things just compliment each other so well, don't ya think?!)  I punched the butterflies out of my Blushing Bride layer and mounted it against a piece of Rose Red.  I ran the top 3/4's of the card through the Polka Dot EF and then added the bling-y bellies to each butterfly. The sentiment is from Yippee Skippee and the bitty butterfly is punched out of Silver Glimmer paper.

I stamped the sentiment and punched it out using the 1 3/4" Circle punch.  Then I punched and matted it against the 2" Scallop Circle punch.  I added the dots to the scallops to keep the polka dot theme running through the whole card. Happy, happy, happy!

Hope that your Thursday is filled with happy!  I will be back soonest with more to share! Have a great day!

Thinking of you!

Hello there!  Have you been crafty yet today?!  I spent about an hour in my stamp room this morning working on a card. It is a simple card, but it required a lot of fussy little details to make it come together.  While I was in there stamping, cutting and glittering my little ole' heart out I got to thinking about how important this silly stamping thing has become to me.  I joke all the time that it is good therapy and much cheaper than a therapist, but there is some truth to that!  It has been such a beneficial outlet for me over the years and I can honestly say that it may be partially responsible for maintaining my sanity.  I have created cards  to welcome babies into the world. I have created cards to offer love and luck to people on exciting, new adventures. I have created cards that were intended to let someone know how very special they are to me.  I have created cards to bring a smile to someone's face.  I have created cards to wish someone a happy birthday, cards to lift someone's spirits, even cards to poke fun at someone!  I have slapped together paper and stamped it in an attempt to offer condolences to friends that were experiencing loss (even though mere words can seem inadequate sometimes).  I have stamped through my own happy times and not so happy times.  Stamping and creating have become very important to me.  It has become part of who I am and I am grateful to have found such a wonderful outlet.  Soon I will be stamping wedding invitations for one of the dearest people in my life.  My oldest daughter will be tying the knot and she has honored me with the task of sharing that sweet occasion with people.  She has been on my mind a lot lately so my simple card today is for her.  My sweet, amazing, adorable, often a hand-ful kid! Love you Tyler!

She lives at the beach so I thought she might get a kick out of this card! 

I created layers by tearing and adding Dazzling Diamonds to the waters edge and sands edge.  I stamped and (fussy cut!!) the octopus, sea stars, crabs and flag pole from the set Seaside.  I added some details to the sand with Gorgeous Grunge.

I sponged the clouds and the sunshine using a negative mask.  I even drew foam in the water with a white gel pen and tiny little crab foot-y prints with a marker in the sand.  The sea stars also have some Dazzling Diamond sparkle to make them shine.  

Here is a picture of my kiddo!

Hope that you can find some time today to be creative!  It doesn't even have to be stamp related!  Creativity is just so good for you! 

I will be back soonest with more to share!  Have a wonderful day!

Thanks...big time!

Hi! I have a bazillion and fourteen things that I want to get done today, but I wanted to stop by here first and visit with you!  The rain has finally stopped falling out of the sky (although there are still some thunder-boomers in the forecast for this afternoon!).  It will make me pretty darn happy to be able to squeeze in my walk raindrop free today!  I sat and played this morning with some of my favorite oldies and a some of the new products from the holiday cattie that will be available August 28th!!!!  I put together a thank you card this morning with what I think has a touch of a vintage feel to it.  Here is my project for today:

I sponged the edges of everything with Crumb Cake ink.  I wanted the card to look worn, but only gently worn! I used the Timeless Talk stamp set and the new oh so fun (!!!!) star border punch.  (Spoiler alert!!!) LOL

My colors are the deep, gorgeous Blackberry Bliss, Blushing Bride and Whisper White.  I used the DSP Typeset and also Silver Glimmer paper.  (Have I mentioned that I would wall paper with that stuff if I could------->every room?!)  :)

In keeping with the theme I added silver stars and silver accents to the wheels with Dazzling Diamonds. This was a fun card to make, plus it shimmers!  Win, win!

Ok, well as much as I would like to hang around (and I really would!!) I am off to be productive!  Hope you enjoy your Tuesday!

Much love!