Triste Times Two

 Mismo Mujeres

 

"You are my favorite Hello and my hardest Goodbye..."

Truer words could not be found for the way my heart feels at having to depart from mi abuelita's casa this morning. We were all up early in anticipation of this being our last desayuno together. The poor dear even slept in her clothes and shoes so that she would be able to race her walker out to say goodbye should she oversleep! And truth be told, I pretty much wanted to crawl into bed and hold her all night long. But I think it's better to be invited lol. And if she did ask, I didn't understand it! 

What was easy to understand, was her sadness. My great aunt Allejandra stayed longer than usual to see me off and be of comfort to her, because it was so obvious that she was struggling with the pain of being left alone again. Together we have shared so many poignent moments this week. I told her, (in spanish, can you believe it?!) "We have had already enough tears, and we will have more laughs together, for all I have to do is think of you and I will smile." That she needs to live a long time -as if turning 98 next week is not enough- so that I can bring my daughters and "husband" to meet and entertain and be of help to her as well. That she will always be alive, for she and I are cut from the same natural fibers. I have lived all of these years within her heart, and ahora, es tiempre por mi corazon to crezcan, and make enough room for her to live the rest of my life within mine. And that I will be much better about phoning her, now that I really understand her "schedule." Then, being me, needing to see her smile even as tears streamed down our three triste faces, "Por favor, vaya con mi en mi bolsa- tu es mucho delgado, se que se ajuste a!" And I got the smile I needed to be able to tear myself away...

Why do we let life get in the way of our true heart's desires... it is such an American way to be. Putting aside our concern for each other. Having excuses like, oh they don't really need to see or hear me to know how much I love them, or, they can take care if themselves and would ask for help if need be. Not that the latter isn't true, but it is so much better to be with one another in person, verdad? Hitting "Like" on facebook is only one way to interact with one another and not a very great one at that. Don't get me wrong, facebook allows me to connect with my cousins in a way that my childhood definately did not. I love being able to see my friends and family growing, posts about what they are doing and places they go etc. It is a way for me to feel that I know them...

But wouldn't getting together for even a few moments over the telephone be even better? Wouldn't it be more incredible to accompany my cousins and let our children share more than we did? You know, when I was younger, the greeting cards I made throughout the year would be promptly mailed off or hand delivered. As I have sold more and more cards each month in stores, it has become apparent that I no longer actually send the cards, I make them with the person in mind and then decide that if it doesn't sell before the next seasonal greetings are appropriate, I'll send it then. Isn't that terrible!? The good news is that, as with any recovery process, the first step has been taken with my publicly admitting, "My name is Anna, and I have a problem sending out my greeting cards." Now I can be made accountable, if by no one but myself at least. 

I had to tell my father how happy I was with the time I have spent here these last 8 days. That these trips to see my grandmother have helped my Spanish vocabulary grow immensely. All the years of schooling have not been able to stick, but just 6 days in her kitchen and two with my cousins, and I can say so much and understand even more. I can hardly imagine a better way to learn than in my family's company! Of course, Google translate has my thanks as well because it was so much easier this visit to find the actual words I needed to express myself. 

 Salud!

But even more important, these two visits, last year and this, have helped my heart to grow. I would not say I am a grinch, but I do know the lovely, slightly uncomfortable feeling of a daily expansion within my chest. The awareness of time passed without correspondence only leaves room for improvement in the future. As my cousin Martha recently wrote, "Yes, there were flashbacks...and many tears..." during her visit to Tenamaxtlan and with our family in Tala last year. I am hoping that when I visit again- and I will, I know- I will be happier with my efforts upon reflection. My daughters and family deserve the best of my love; all that I have to give and can help to inspire within the rest of my family and acquaintances lies within my abuelita-inspired, love-filled heart.

I did not say goodbye, but instead that I will see her in my dreams each night- en mis bueno suenos!  

Daddy Daughter Date Night

Dad's don't always get the credit they deserve for doing something wonderful for their daughters, so I want to be sure to highlight something sweet Ray did last week.
Rainier celebrated her 4th birthday with a weekend of slumber party fun with me over at my mom's house, including a trip to the Symphony, lunch out with friends, and a big party after worship at church.

As much as I enjoyed spoiling her with mother daughter time, I couldn't help but feel that our better halves were home missing out. True, we would be hosting a Tea Party for her friends on her actual birthday of Monday the 19th, but I was relieved nonetheless when dad mentioned his plan for a Friday date night for he and his oldest gem.

After a short morning's work under a few horses, he drove home, showered, and packed up their organic popcorn treats, and with Rainie decked out in date night finery they headed to the Harbor for their evenings activities. Shopping, movies, and dinner, just what any lady likes!

While they were gone I had so much love in my heart at the thought of their good time that I had to fashion up a card to show how much I appreciated his thoughtfulness. The perfect sentiment popped out of my stash, but I wanted the background to reflect my heartstrings' song.

Anchors are such a strong symbol. Not only do they reflect his maritime joy but are a true reflection of his importance in our lives...although it may be my love of Washington that has anchored us here for now, he is the foundation of our family upon which most of our philosophies and habits are set.
Often times while I am preparing to make a card, I will glance around my desk to see what leftovers I can use, and my eyes fell upon this Basic Grey sticker sheet. The stickers have long since been used up, a recent trend I've pounced upon btw, and it seems a waste to toss the left over "frames," so there on my desk this sheet sat. I love grid designs, and when I layered the sticker backing over my anchor printed background, I loved the look so just went with it. I did end up turning the backing a couple of times to get the placement right.
An enamel swirl, some blingy bling and I was almost done. After adding some distress ink to the sentiment strip it felt like this card was ready to be hidden in plain sight for hunny to chance upon.
Thanks for celebrating an inspiring dad with me today!
 

L O V E

Love is in the air, and lately I've been thinking of, well, things I love! Specifically, "things" I feel like I need. Things, that aren't really things at all; like my family, cuddles and snuggles, creative time and space, good nutritious food, healthy communication... all the important stuff that gets me through life in as effervescent state as is possible. But "the greatest of these... is Love."

It's all I really need.
 

Everyone knows that Valentine's is the perfect occasion for getting a loved one a little something, like chocolate, or perhaps a beautiful card, maybe dinner out at a fancy restaurant, or my dream: A DIAMOND :-o
However, there are a few people out there who look at this special day more as a marketing gimmick than as an opportunity to make it magical. Those kind of people believe in spoiling everyday, not waiting for holiday occasions, and I'm lucky enough to live with a guy like that.

My sweetie has always been great at making dreams come true. He is usually willing to pick me up a box of chocolate - it fuels my creativity- when he's at the store. He loves to spend an hour or more gazing into my eyes as we dine on an exquisitely prepared entrée while dining out. However! He is completely against the purchase of diamonds because of the hardship their extraction places on miners in impoverished countries. What a Bummer for me!

Enter... my new favorite website to wish list on! The considerate folks at BrilliantEarth.com offer Beyond Conflict Free diamonds, meaning, not only are they considered conflict free, mined ethically and with respect for people, but for the environment as well! According to their website, they even track their diamonds from the source to the store, ensuring they arrive without being entangled in the corruptive practices that can profit from these valuable stones. Brilliant Earth even goes so far as to incorporate recycled and reclaimed gold, silver, and platinum. Wow, I think that's an awesome way to create beauty out of what someone else can't use anymore.

Hmmm... maybe I'll just casually place honey's name on their mailing list...

Here's how I created my Valentine's layout:

 I find it easiest to mix and match patterns and colors when I'm using papers that are all from the same collection. I'm in LOVE with the SEI Alpine wood grain patterns and color tones, so I knew that a few of these tones and wooden textures would form the neutral base of my page. I had this idea of highlighting the "O" and using a heart shape instead. I found a cute double heart on the cut apart sheet, which gave me some more ideas about the colors and embellishment choices to come.

  I also envisioned polaroid style frames around my new Posterboard alphabet stamps by Close To My Heart. Stamped in Chocolate ink on this cream and red grid two or three times to get that dark solid outline, and then shifted the stamp slightly without re-inking to achieve the shadow effect. Then I used my square punch to create identical openings in three brown, kraft flocked rectangles.

I ended up with a lot of these little strips of paper and thought it would be cute to staple them all together and do ... something with them! My staples didn't quite work the way I envisioned, though, and I'd love for you to comment with a use for my little whatever it could be.

To highlight my heart shape even more I framed it in red gingham, and backed it with a square of red. There was a line border pattern going around the red square, and only one line of the box shows... and that is just fine to me! I fussy cut with my exact-o knife around the outside of the heart shape and popped up the outside border with two sizes of dimensional adhesive; thin at the top and bottom, and thicker pop-dots on the sides. I thought it would look more dimensional that it did, so maybe if you try this yourself, either leave off the thin top and bottom dots, or double up the side pops.

Once my polaroid style frames were adhered atop stamped-letter-topped grids, I considered how I would dress them up. Some of my ideas included tying twine around the edge or bottoms, or adding enamel dots or brads, but in the end I added some red chipboard arrows on top of a sticker that I cut into three edge pieces and stuck to the left of each letter. From what was left in the middle of the sticker, I punched two hearts and placed them at the bottom right of my heart's polaroid.

For contrast to all the warm colors, I added some silver Mr. Huey's ink to the background, and then layered silver ribbon, dots, and hearts stickers to each of  my framed groupings. A double dose of hand cut hearts and a peach woodgrain in between put the focus on "L O V E," and left me a little room for my handwritten title add on, "it's all I need."

It's true. Despite all the things I want (chocolate, more washi tape, and yes, Diamonds) and feel I need; time with friends, being surrounded by family, having a creative escape daily, it all boils down to the fact that without Love, I'd be lost.


Check out the upcoming March edition of Die Cut Crazy to see even more fun ways to use the heart shape, Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy a Happy Valentine's!

I love you, Law!

Using Your Christmas Cards

What to do with all those beautiful Christmas cards received each year... some I admit are easier to toss than others, but really, what good do they do in a box in the closet, never to be looked at again. Aha! I finally found a home for three of them! The top left purple with silver ornaments actually came from PartyLite. How did they know to send me a card in my favorite colors?! The card behind the girls came all the way from Ed and BJ in New Jersey, and the Christmas Wishes sentiment was cut from the front of a card, complete with popped-up letters!

If you watched my recent Album Review movie on YouTube, you know that one of my favorite layouts ever created was one of Rainier in front of the Christmas tree at my bank last year. My Little Christmas Angel has grown up quite a bit in the last year and has a new sister to pose with as well... which meant, back to the bank for a photo shoot this year!

She walked right over to the tree (shedding outerwear all through the lobby as she went) and turned on the charm for my camera;  highly unusual behavior for her! Of course I didn't have the camera ready, but I still managed to snap a lot of great photos of her and Sunday. I love the way the tree shimmered and twinkled behind them. After our shoot those two amused themselves and the tellers by touching as many of the ornaments as possible.

I really wanted the focus of this layout to be on Rainier and the look on her face. I did get a photo of her with a great big smile, but this kind of look is more "her." Using a CTMH flip flap sleeve allowed me to hide her sister and the journaling in one place. I'll carefully slice through the page protector and this page will become interactive.

 If you look carefully in the border near the bottom of the page, you'll see I continued my baker's twine theme for this month in green and white, lime green and white, and purple with white. A little washi tape on the back of my layout keeps the twine in place just fine. Another goal of mine this year is to use my supplies, and I'm happy to report that another sticker sheet went in the garbage after this! So long, Teresa Collins fabrication stickers!

What do you do with your old holiday cards, or birthday, Mother's Day, etc.? I'm looking for a way to house the hundreds of cards Ray has been fortunate enough to receive from me over the last five years- any ideas? I'd love to hear them! Leave a comment below and you could win a repurposed card from me. What you choose to do with it afterwards is up to you :-)

Creative Catch Up

First I started with my colors, Rainier helped me pick these patterns after watching the latest episode of Glitter Girl's Adventures. I started following her example but somehow my first patterned strip ended up on its side and collected everything on top of itself!

Adding in these Heidi Swapp journaling cards and some banner pieces  and I thought I was done. When I showed my honey the end result he suggested I use different photos, and I love how these three 4x4 shots of the girls riding together in a shopping cart for the first time goes better with the Oh Happy Day title I found in my cut-ups bin.

 Later in the day I decided pie was needed...

And finally these four cards developed from the scraps on my desk. I was playing some serious catch-up with my creativity being at a low after a week of summer fun with my family. My mom came over and helped me Saturday night and most of the day Sunday, though, so of course she needed a card. I saw Jen Gallagher tie a ribbon around her frame, had to try that. I took some process photos of the Home/Comfort card for DieCutCrazy, and then painted one of my last wood veneer pieces from a four pack I bought at Michaels last week by K&Company.. The card with the scalloped banner was from a mini gelato tutorial I posted on Instagram

 

  Whew! I feel on top of my craft space now!

While Moms Away, She's Gonna Play!

Every summer, my friend Angela invites us (adult) girls up to her family's cabin outside of Shelton. This year it was my and Marilyn staying overnight with her and I managed to fill in some of the time making some scrapbook pages- what a surprise!
I keep a to-go package of papers and some old photos that I can grab on a whim. I'll need to add some more photos though, because I used quite a few of them this weekend. Included were these darling pictures of Rainier that were taken when she was between three and six months old. The one of her in the striped shirt looks so much like Sunday! A new technique I tried on this layout, I used my new EK Success Scalloped border punch to cut from  the same patterned paper for a dimensional but very subtle look. Using pop-dots helped to bring some more attention to that detail. And then underneath I put the title and another photo.


Then it was a trip even farther back in the past to scrap some photos from when my mom first met and started dating her husband Peter. That is the look of love in their eyes! It also looks like it was a really nice summer! Some scraps made the layouts really easy to put together and I', happy with the way they turned out, even if they are a bit simple. I figured I could always add more bling to them if I felt they needed it in the future.

 


 Then it was time to use what was left on my desk to create these four cards. That's a great way to avoid cleaning up! Plus I knew all the papers would go together since they were pulled from coordinated paper packs.

  My sister Ruby came out to see us the summer after Rainie was born and we took her to Ruby beach. These photos show her wonder at playing in the sand for the first time at the Pacific Ocean. Using paper packs is a really easy way to get a cohesive look when you're scrapping a series of photos like this beach trip that spans more than one page.

 I even managed to get Marilyn to make a few pages for her recent trip to Punta Cana! She did a great job for it being very late at night when she made them!

 

 

Oh and did I mention that I lost my glasses upon jumping into the lake immedieatly upon my arrival?! So despite our best efforts to look for them, all of these pages were made "blind."

What a fun weekend filled with memories :-)

Lunch-Time Creations

Using Topstitch papers, the Aspiration clear acrylic stamp set, and the Thank You set by Fiskars, this is my weekly card for Ray- Outside says, "I appreciate" inside reads, "all that you have done" 

I've been either mailing or hand delivering a card to Ray each week for almost as long as we've been dating, it's a unique way that I can show him how much he means to me! I know he'll like this card- even if it is PINK!

And speaking of Pink, we had a cake at work yesterday which announced that I'm expecting a baby girl... we were all very excited (Not just about the cake)! I was so surprised to find my counter filled with a showering of gifts for the baby, including some adorable layettes, baby shampoo and lotion, disposable natural diapers and wipes, a gift card, bath toys, and a window shade to keep the sun from getting in her eyes. All of these items were purchased "gender neutral." Joan who was training with us got the baby a really cute pink outfit at lunch since she knew what to buy for, so this card is for her as a way of thanking her for her generosity...

Again using the Topstitch paper line, mixed with the snowflakes from the Snow Friends acrylic clear stamp set and the recipe "Fancy 4" found in the Wishes book. I love this book for its easy-to-follow directions, and because I can make the cutest cards that are uniquely mine.

Well, since I had the Snow Friends set out...

My version of the example on page 43 of the Fall/Winter 2010 Idea Book! Again, using the Wishes book, and the "Noteworthy" recipe, I found it a breeze to make four of these cards! Can't wait to give them out... I suppose we should finish Fall first though?!