Shopping Trip

Granddaughter and I took a shopping outing yesterday.  I needed a Craft Store fix so we bundled up, strapped in and headed for Michael's Arts and Crafts.  For the first time ever I put her in the child seat in a real cart. It's a lot easier to keep them there now that they have seatbelts for them. 

Sorry it is blurry....I took it with my phone and I'm not good at that.

I didn't want her to gum the bar so put my hands on it so that she was gumming my knuckles a lot. She flirts with people now and they respond with smiles and "oh look at that smile"...or "oh look at that pretty red hair"...and "oh what pretty blue eyes you have". Once they talk to her she acts all coy and shy.... cracks me up.

She points to things now with one finger and at the Craft store she kept pointing to Scrapbooking supplies, egging me on to buy them.

See that tiny finger pointing?

I had to keep telling her "no Grammy doesn't need that" and "no Grammy can't afford that."  She did talk me into buying a couple of punches though. I bought an EK Success edge punch called "Swiss Cheese" and it's companion corner punch.

I thought it was called "Bubbles"...until saw the real name.

and also bought a new Martha Stewart punch that is a scrolly heart....very pretty. It is so new I couldn't find an image of it on the internet. 

One of us had a nap on the ride home. I had the Elvis Presley station on my radio and he sang her to sleep....lucky girl.

Have a good day all. 

Good Will Wednesday

Happy Wednesday all. Today I am playing with Granddaughter: Oh For Joy!

Good Will Hunter found another piece of Waterford at our local GW. This one is a crystal Teddy Bear that has a picture frame for the tummy.  It is very thick and heavy. I don't know the age of it and you can buy one like it on eBay for $85. Our $4.99 was a bargain. 

Have a good Wednesday.

Snowglobe

I spent the day yesterday putting Christmas decorations away. I also took all the ornaments off the tree so hubby can put it back in the attic today.  Every year, no matter how hard I look around, I miss a Christmas decoration or two when boxing everything up. They usually end up going in the hall closet until next Christmas.  I did well as I only missed one yesterday. 

The one I missed is a small snowglobe I had on my desk. I think I missed it because my desk is, again, in need of clearing off.  When I picked up the snow globe and created the snow storm my mind wandered back to when I bought it: 1989.

My sister and I went to a local shopping mall to do some Christmas shopping together. I had been caring for my dying mother for many months at that time.  As you can imagine, it was a difficult time for both of us. Sis and I ended up in the gift section at a store called The Bon Marche.  I had decided to buy myself a pretty something as a treat. I had always wanted a snowglobe and spent time looking at some rather large ones but decided 'it' was too much money to spend. So I picked a small sized one to purchase. I remember now that I told myself then that I would buy a larger one when discretionary money was available.

I take that snowglobe out every Christmas and think of 1989 and my mom. Today when I discovered it on my desk I asked myself "Why didn't you ever buy another one?"  My first thought was I just didn't want to have more or collect them.

As I swirled the snowglobe and saw the storm brew I thought of the time I took care of my mom and the storm that was for us. She'd had a heart attack late 1988 and then developed pneumonia in the late summer of 1989. During a follow-up to that the doctor noticed something in her lung x-rays. Several weeks later she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Four months later she died. 

Mom had been staying with us for 6 weeks before she moved to hospice. I worked hard to care for my family as normal and take care of my dying mom at the same time. Life seemed orderly on the surface but there really was a storm brewing in me: fatigue, sadness, regrets, anger, frustration....

Today I decided that is why I was drawn to that snowglobe in 1988. It signified the storm in me that I hadn't acknowledged yet.....and actually just did today.  I understand now why I didn't buy any more. I don't need another storm.

I'll keep this snowglobe of course.  Today I also thought maybe I should buy a new large snowglobe for myself; one that depicts a fun scene and would bring Joy to mind; not despair. What do you think?

First Layout done in 2011

I set a goal to do 75 layouts this year...here's the first.  My personal challenge for this layout was to use Bling from my stash.  I grabbed some gold rhinestones to put on after I'd written the date with gold Stickles. They aren't the same color of gold, obviously. I like the gold color of the Stickles better than the rhinestones. But it is very hard to get rhinestones or cardstock in a true gold (mine are a more yellow-gold).....well I haven't found them yet and if you know where I can order some let me know.  Thank you very much.

I really enjoyed taking the Light Classes and hope to do so again in the fall of this year. 

Again, Happy New Year to you all.....scrap on!

Happy 2011

We say:

Happy New Year to you all. Last night with Granddaughter was fun. We partied together by dancing in our pj's and sleeping when the calendar turned to 2011.

 I'm working on a list of resolutions but they seem awfully familiar. Maybe  because they were on last years list and are so good I need to keep doing them. Or maybe because I'm a failure at fulfilling resolution lists. I see from the picture above I do need to get my glasses adjusted so that is now on my list.


Have a good day and thanks for reading my blog. Do a kind deed on this first day of a new year.