Remembering Dad

Today I have a very personal post.  One year ago we lost my Dad at the age of 88.  It's been a difficult year, but we have lots of great memories of a life well lived.  I've been thinking about Dad a lot lately.  I took some of the photos we used at his memorial service and put them together in some simple digital pages.  It's a fairly random assortment of photos but it was comforting to put the pages together and think about him.

Thanks for letting me share - give your loved ones an extra hug and appreciate every moment!

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A Week of Highs and Lows

It has been a week of highs and lows for our family and I have had many distractions that have kept me away from the blog.  This is a quick "catch-up" post to let you know about some of the things that have been happening.

My husband's parents are downsizing after nearly 35 years in the same house so we have been helping with sorting, cleaning, painting and staging the house.  A week ago Friday they closed on a new condo nearby and their house went on the market this week.  This process has made me realize that it would be good to start now to get our house in "ready-to-sell" order.  We don't have any plans to move in the near future but it would be nice to avoid the stress of doing everything in just a few months.

Our first sad news came at the beginning of the week.   My husband's brother and his wife lost their beloved dog.  Losing a pet is like losing a member of the family and we were so sad to hear the news.

Then, something good happened...

We have an adorable new grandniece born on September 12.  This is the first great grandchild for my husband's parents so we are all very excited. Our nephew and his wife live far away (in Europe) so I am not sure when we will get to meet her in person.  I hope it won't be too long!

On Wednesday, my husband called his brother to say how sorry we were to hear about the loss of their dog.  He told us that it had been raining ever since they buried the dog.  At that point, no one knew how much more rain was coming.  They live in one of the canyons above Boulder and if you have followed any news this week you will know about the devastating floods in Colorado.  Their small town of Jamestown was hit very hard by the storms and we had some nervous time waiting to hear if they were OK.  One man was killed in their town by the collapse of a building.

They were able to get to safety on higher ground and stay at her sister's house on the other side of the creek.  The town is completely cut off due to washed out roads and bridges.  On Saturday they had to take a zip line across the creek and the helicopters finally brought them out of the mountains.  The house has four feet of sandy mud inside - they were able to retrieve a few personal belongings but will most likely lose the house.  We are so shocked by all that has happened - it is hard to take it all in.

We just went to visit them in June and I shared a few photos from that trip already.  Our timing was perfect to see the poppies that grow on their property.

Living in the mountains they have amazing views - this photo was taken in the front yard.

My brother-in-law has been working on building this garage/barn/studio on their property and it survived the flood.

The house is on slightly lower ground and close to the creek that runs through Jamestown.

This is how the creek looked when we were visiting.

You can see how close the creek is to the house - I took this photo from the second story looking down at the patio area where we had dinner the first night we were there.

Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by this flood.  I hope that it will be possible to quickly rebuild the roads to give access to the stranded towns. We really enjoyed the spirit of Jamestown and the people who live there are wonderful at looking out for each other.  But no one is ever truly prepared for something like this to happen.

If you could keep Burt & Anna, Heather & Cameron and all of the people of Jamestown in your thoughts and prayers it would be greatly appreciated.  We hope that they all will be able to recover and rebuild.  Right now they need time to get over the initial shock from everything that has happened this week.  I wanted to share these photos of how things were just a few months ago.  There are so many images on the news of the devastation caused by the flash floods that it can be hard to remember what normal looks like.

Thanks for letting me share this purely personal post - crafty projects will be back next week...

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Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad's 88th birthday - Happy Birthday Dad! 

Instead of doing a celebration with all of my siblings appearing in Pennsylvania at once (from Minnesota, Wisconsin, New Jersey and Massachusetts) we are stretching out the celebration a bit.  My oldest sister and my brother were able to visit last weekend, my middle sister and her husband will be with Dad today and I'll be going back down to Pennsylvania to see him again after Thanksgiving.

Thanks to those of you who asked for his address and sent cards - I know that he has received some of them already. 

I made this card for him with the idea that the "badge" could be removed and worn for special recognition on his special day.  The ribbon color isn't perfect for the paper on the card but I thought it would stand out nicely if the badge is pinned to his sweater.

You may recognize that copper metallic cardstock - I have been using it a lot lately.

I added more numbers on the outside of the envelope, then I worried that they might come off in the mail so I put a clear envelope around the card.  At the post office they said the clear envelope was OK but since the gems inside were making the card a bit thick I ended up putting this envelope inside another envelope.  That's a lot of unwrapping for him to do to get to the simple card inside!

The copper numbers were cut with my trusty old original Sizzix (the red one with the lever) using the "Fun Serif" dies.  I used pinking edge Nestabilities to cut the brown and cream circles and sandwiched in between the circles is a flattened mini cupcake wrapper made of gold foil.

This photo was taken on my last trip to see Dad - just before the hurricane.  He is wearing the cardigan I bought him for an early present.

Dad has had more and more health issues as he gets older.  We are so happy that he is able to celebrate this birthday and we hope that with more physical therapy he will be able to move back over to his apartment in the assisted living part of his complex.  

Have a wonderful weekend!  Will you be crafting or cooking to prepare for Thanksgiving?

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Happy Labor Day!

Happy Monday!  I hope it is a holiday for you and that you will be doing something fun today.  Labor Day signals the end of summer.  School will be starting this week (I know it has already started in many other parts of the country).  Football season is here again - I'll share the details on how I made these footballs tomorrow.

I'll be making good use of some of my new items from IKEA while I "labor" in my craftroom.  After last week's unexpected trip to the emergency room with my husband I am planning to get back to working on restoring order to the chaos.  I am happy to say that he is healing nicely and the stitches will come out tomorrow.

Happy First Anniversary to Kelly and Will.  It's hard to believe that a year has gone by already.

Have a wonderful day!

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Old Friends and a "find" at Costco

We have lived in many places, sometimes for just a year or two.  When our boys were younger, we spent nearly three years living in Germany and then we moved and spent another five years in England.  When you move a lot, you are constantly meeting new people and saying goodbye to old friends.  This can be hard, but sometimes you do manage to keep in touch with people long after your paths have parted.

Today, our friends from Italy were in town and we had a brief but wonderful visit.  They did some sight seeing in town and I cooked lots of favorite dishes for dinner.  It is always fun to see how the children have grown up - it is hard to believe that the years go by so quickly.

Their daughter is attending college nearby and is just starting her second year so we hope to meet up at least once each year while she is here.  

I bought many of the foods we had for dinner at Costco.  While I was shopping I saw that some of the holiday items are already on display.  If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that I went to the PaperWorld trade show in Germany last January (you'll find a blog post about it HERE).  The ChristmasWorld show was at the same time and I really liked these floral LED light trees (but of course it was not possible to bring one home with me!).

While I was shopping for our dinner, I saw this smaller (but still 7 feet tall) version of the tree.  Dangerously tempting...

The tree is very beautiful - but the price is rather high (and I really don't have a spot for yet another tree).  Still...I may have to see if I can find a space (and some cash!).

You never know what you'll see in the "seasonal" area at Costco.  I have learned over the years to pick up the things I like even if it is far ahead of season because once they are gone, they may never return.  I wonder if I can convince my husband that we "need" another tree?

Thanks again for all of the thoughts and prayers.  My husband's injured  fingers are starting to heal and the stitches will come out in a week.  He'll need to keep the splints on for a while to protect the cracked fingertips - so it will be a while until everything is back to normal.

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Amazing Oz Centerpieces

I've been wanting to share something amazing that my brother made for the National Convention for the International Wizard of Oz Club, but I had to wait until the event occurred for these centerpieces to be "revealed."

You can read more about the steps that went into making these and see many more photos on my brother's blog, The Oz Enthusiast.  Be sure to click on the photos to enlarge them.

I think they are just wonderful and I want to get my hands on some of the metallic crepe paper he used to make the husks!  Please leave him a comment if you pop over to his blog.  If you are interested in the Wizard of Oz and the artwork from the original books, you'll find lots of interesting posts there.

We had planned to do lots more work on our remodeling and rearranging projects today but that didn't happen.  My husband injured two of his fingers when a piece of wood he was cutting kicked back at him - thank goodness it wasn't the blade!  We spent most of the afternoon at the emergency room where they stitched him up and added splints to protect the fingers since the top bones were cracked by the impact.  The projects will just have to wait while he heals.  We are very grateful for the care he received by the emergency crew and our local hospital. 

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Birthdays, Birthdays and more Birthdays!

We had a  very busy weekend with more birthday celebrations on Sunday.  My husband and our two sons all have birthdays within four days and it always gets a little crazy for us.  In addition to our immediate family birthdays, my mother-in-law, brother-in-law and great-nephew have birthdays just a few days earlier.  I wonder how many families have these "bunches" of birthdays.

I experimented a bit in trying to get a clear photo of the birthday cake with 23 (plus one for good luck) candles.  I turned off my flash and braced my elbows on the table - and this is the result.  A tripod would make a difference but sometimes you just have to be a human tripod!

The light of the candles is very bright so you can actually take  the photo in the dark.   Here he is just starting to blow out the candles...

This photo is funny - some of the candles had been blown out and it looks like the room would be filled with smoke.  The camera captures things that we don't really see in the moment.

I'll be off on another trip on Tuesday - headed to Pennsylvania to see my Dad and stopping first at my sister's in New Jersey.  I'll catch up on blog posts when I get there (and I'll tell you all about this Happy Birthday banner...).

I hope that soon things will get back into some sort of routine (at least life is never dull around here!).

Is anybody else feeling a little lost with no Olympics to watch?

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Family Farewell Dinner

Tuesday was a very busy day full of shopping, cooking and then finally sharing a meal with most of the extended family.  It was our last chance to get this many members of the family together until Christmas.  Will and Kelly (and Jelly) leave for California on Wednesday so they had lots of packing to do as well.

When you have a large family - you need lots of desserts, some gluten free, some nut free, some vegan (it gets complicated!).

One of the triplets is at a sleepover camp this week but we did manage to get a photo of two godfathers with two godsons.

It's hard to say goodbye to Jelly the cat - we've become quite attached to her.  I think she might like the California weather better than ours here in Massachusetts!

After I deliver the travelers to the airport  on Wednesday, I intend to get back in my craft room and sort through all of the things that have landed there over the past few weeks.  I have some interesting finds from thrift stores and the flea market and I want to start using or altering them right away!  I also have had some chances to work out designs in the computer (the image at the top of this post is one of my favorites) and I am eager to start cutting them out!

I hope your week is going well so far - it's hard to believe that the end of July is nearly here!


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