Thinking of You...

Hello my crafty friends, I hope you are having a wonderful week. It's a good one for me since it is spring break and our son is home for a week. Then only 8 more weeks of classes left. I can't believe he will have his second year under his belt. 

I haven't been in the mood to do much crafting, so things have been quiet on my blog. First off I fell when my son and I were emptying the hot tub and cleaning it. Yep, graceful I'm not and boy was my son mad at me. It was so weird, I took my sandles off and got in the hot tub. There was just a tad bit of water in the bottom. My son had bailed the two outer seats, so I thought I would dry them off and wipe them down. Just as I was turning around to go to the next seat, down I went. Trying to catch myself, I grabbed but of course everything was slippery and nothing to grab onto. So I have bruises all over my right side and somehow hurt my right foot on the side of it. My son walked away for a minute and when he heard me fall, he came running back finding me on my back in the water facing the sky. Then proceeded to yell at me because he told me to stay out of the hot tub. Yeah, I didn't listen and he wasn't a happy camper with me. After he helped me get out and I hobbled into the house to change out of wet my clothing. I was going to go back out, but my son yelled at me to sit down and then proceed to get me some ice to put on my foot. He finished the hot tub and refilled it. I took care of the chemicals the next morning, hobbling of course. Still hobbling....I think my guys might as well wrap me in bubble wrap! lol

So I've been resting my foot trying to get the swelling down, but it isn't going down to well. Might have to go see the doctor about it. Thus one of the reasons it has been quiet here on my blog. The other reason is because my heart just hasn't been into crafting. Part of me wants to, but the other part of me doesn't. Hard to because when hubby would go up to the farm, that is when I would get crafty. I still feel lost and haven't found my "new routine" yet. Another reason has been because of a lot of "firsts" so far this year. With one coming up this Wednesday. I'm not looking forward to attending a dinner, a dinner for farmers who have to attend to keep up their spraying license current. One I attended for 20 years with hubby, one that our son #2 is going to now and he wanted me to come as well. One where they will read the names of the farmers who have left this world....one I'm not sure I'm ready for but will go for our son. So I've been...for a lack of a better word....sulking. Not quite the right word, but just can't think of the right word. So I haven't been into doing much in the crafty way. I did however had to make a sympathy card so I forced myself to do so. Thought I would enter a few challenges as well, which I don't do often but thought I would this time around. They will be listed in the end of this post.

I'm not very good at building a scene and clearly need more practice. I stamped my flowers and then masked them to stamp the jar. Yeah, you see the problem don't you?! I should have stamped my jar, masking the top rim of the jar and then my flowers. It looks like my flowers are on the outside of the jar right now, but it is what it is and I wasn't starting over....again. I embossed my outline of the jar and flowers with black embossing powder so when I watercolored them, it wouldn't run out of the lines. Yeah...need lots more practice with watercoloring. I used my Zig Real Brush markers to color my images that I stamped on watercolor paper. Used a snippet of pattern paper and a snippet of black paper. I also used a NBUS (Never Been Used Schtuff) as well.  Ok, can you tell I've not had anyone but the dog to talk to much?! lol Sorry for the long post and if you have stuck in here this long I thank you. As always thank you for visiting and sitting a spell with me.  I love your lovely comments, they make my day more brighter. I truly value your friendships and now here's my card:

outside

inside

Recipe:

My Creative Time "My Thoughts are with You" stamp and die set

My Creative Time "More Stitched Rectangular" dies

watercolor paper, not sure who makes it

cream colored card base-generic paper

scraps from my ever growing scrap pile

Challenges:

Snippets Playground  - use snippets on your project

NBUS - use never been used schtuff 

CAS Mix Up   Not sure if my card is CAS enough, but going to try to play along. 

Love Ya!

Hello my crafty friends, today is the day that I post over at Cardz TV Gallery. The following cards are the cards I made for my grandchildren using Mary's Cardz TV card kit and sketch one. This is such a fabulous idea Mary had and I am getting ready to get some kits made up again with sketch two. My plan is so make for each sketch to have on hand. I used the print and cut feature on my Explore to cut two of each image and then I pop dotted one on top of the other one. Then it was just a case of assembling after I had all my papers cut to size. I made two monkey card with different papers but didn't get a picture of the one. I think they turned out rather cute and my grandchildren loved them. The Cardz TV stamp set that I used is the Love Ya set. I used the "Sending hugs and kisses and Valentine wishes" on the inside of each card.  As always, thank you for stopping by and sitting a spell with me. I truly love the company and your sweet comments. They really do make my day!  Crafty hugs, Brenda

This card uses Cardz TV sentiment on the inside only. The outside sentiment is from My Creative Time.

Recipe:

Monkey-Create a Critter 2

Hands-Summer Love

Bird and Mail box-On Parade - City Icons

Robot-Robotz

sentiments-Cardz TV "Love Ya" stamp set

Robot sentiment-My Creative Time "Best Bots Forever" stamp and die set

hearts-punch in my stash"

label-SU word window punch

Every birthday should be taken with a grain of salt....

Hello my crafty friends, I hope this Monday finds you well. Nothing new or exciting around here. I just went to a Rosery group at church on Saturday with my husband's cousin, and then to 5:30 pm mass Saturday evening with the cousin as well as her daughter and dad. They are such great family to me and have been a big help since Dwayne's passing. So I tend to spend a lot of time with them. After church we went out to eat at the local diner and had so many laughs. It's good to laugh like that! Then home, Bret came home on Friday to work, so he worked all day and evening on Saturday and Sunday all day. He then headed back up to school. Spring break will be coming up in a few weeks and he will be home for a week. I imagine he will work the whole time. I always love when he is home and can't wait for May to come around cause then he will be home for the summer. Anyway just a mundane weekend, which is right up my alley.

As you know it's time for a new challenge over at BBTB2. Our sweet Kelly of Kelly's Concoctions  chose our theme for this week and she wants us to create a fiesta themed project in honor of Nat'l Margarita day. Yes, there is a Nat'l something day each month I think. lol I had no clue what the heck I was going to do. So when that happens to me, I surf Pinterest. I typed in "margarita" and drinks and such popped up. So my card is inspired by a sentiment that I saw on Pinterest. My card is also very simple. I used the Ole Cricut cartridge in Design Space or Cricut Access, what ever they are calling it these days. I also used one of the writing fonts to put my sentiment on the outside and inside of my card. That font was called Chloe Whimsy.

I hope that you all will play along with us on this fun challenge. If you need more inspiration, just look for farther than BBTB2, my design team sisters have lots of inspiration!

As always, thanks for stopping by and sittin' a spell with me. I also love company especially now that I'm alone a lot. Your comments always lift my spirits and make me smile! Crafty hugs, Brenda

See, simple, very simple! But cute don't you think?

 Close up of the Wink of Stella sparkle and my "salt" is flower soft.

The side of the card. I goofed, when the Explore started writing the sentiment, I realized that the pen adapter wasn't closed. Ooops! That's why the "es" looks smaller from the rest of the letters. I can live with it though.

Chocolate...A Basic Necessity-BBTB2 Challenge

Hello my crafty friends, I hope your Monday is off to a great start. We had a very cold weekend here in Central PA with negative digits. More snow for today and supposed to change over to rain for Tuesday so they are already calling for heavy flooding. Not looking forward to that mess or the icy slush as it makes it to the change over. 

 I made it through another "first" without hubby. Friday into Saturday I was kept busy with 2 of my granddaughters. I went to pick them up and they spend the night. We enjoy supper when we got home, colored and made monkey bread for snack. Then I tucked them in bed. Saturday morning we made Valentines for their parents and colored some more and played games. The in the early afternoon their parents came and got them. Then I celebrated what would have been our 23rd anniversary with our youngest son. He came home from college to take me out to eat and then to the movies. His boss's wanted to meet me, they were very kind to me and told me I could come in anytime to escape reality and watch a movie with a friend. Just to let my son know and he would let them know. For free. How sweet is that?? They said they would take good care of me and give me snacks and such. I just thought that was so nice of them to tell me that. I don't go to the movies much, but was very nice of them to offer me that. Sunday my youngest granddaughter was over to see me, she is 3 months and really growing! Then my second to youngest granddaughter was dropped off so I could watch her while her parents went grocery shopping. She just turned 2 today and apparently is a little stinker when they go shopping. So the grands and my youngest son kept my mind occupied and I survived the weekend. Thank goodness for the grandchildren, they sure do bring a lot of joy into my life. It's a little bittersweet though, because my husband loved the grands so much as well and got great joy from them. 

Anyway, better get on with the job at hand. As you know Monday's always brings a  new challenge over at BBTB2. Emily is our sweet host for this week and she has challenge the DT and you to make a project using candy because today is national gumdrop day. I bet you didn't know that did you? lol So she wants to see candy on our projects. Make sure to go over to BBTB2 to see what inspiration my DT sister's have for you too. I started off with a card base and added some red paper for my base. Then using snippets of black and the heart paper as well as snippets of white.

As always, thanks for stopping by and sittin' a spell with me. I so enjoy your company and love to hear what you have to say on my latest project. I'm not quite in the swing of things yet, but hopefully I will get going better with each post. Crafty hugs, Brenda

Going to go play at the Snippet's Playground this week because I used snippets on my card.

Recipe:

Valentine Sweets Cricut cart-I did a print and cut

Sentiment from Cardz TV stamp set called "Sugar Rush"

wink of stella on the candies (click on the picture to enlarge and see all the shimmer and shine on those candies)

Something I just had to Share...

Hello my crafty friends, I don't have anything craft related to show you, but I do have something I want to share. As you all know I lost my wonderful husband in Oct. of 2015. Still struggling, but making strides most days. Grief has a way of sneaking up on you when you think things are going well and this week it has really snuck up on me. I am struggling a lot this week and I assume it is because our anniversary is this Saturday. My youngest son also told me last Sunday that he is coming home to take me out to eat just like his dad always did for our anniversary, which made my heart smile but cry at the same time. He say's he plans on doing that each anniversary here after. Yes, I have wonderful sons, but my youngest had his dad the least amount of time and he is right in tune with me on our loss. So that might have something to do with my struggles this week as well. 

Today I ran across this blog by way of another blog and it came at the perfect time. I sat reading this post and the tears where streaming down my face. This post spoke to me in a way I never expected. So I thought I would share it in hopes that it may help someone else too. So please excuse the non crafty post, but I think you will forgive me after reading this. I will be back soon to share where I have been all last week. Still trying to catch up with commenting and emails. Came home to over 600 emails, how does that happen?!!! lol Crafty hugs, Brenda

Here is the post link so you can go to this woman's blog:

http://www.breakingyourheartopen.com/?p=145#comment-24

Here is the story if you don't want to click on the link:

I SEE YOU!

 Cindy Brewer

 February 5, 2016

 Death, Faith, Grief, Love, Marriage

 7 Comments

The last time my sister, Kristen, saw her husband, Rob, he was on the way out the door to do a favor for a total stranger. When she asked why he was doing this, he said “I am paying it forward.” He and the stranger died in a single-engine plane crash a few hours later. That was nearly three years ago now, and I know it still hurts.

It is not always death that takes loved ones from us; sometimes it is the end of a relationship that feels like it should have lasted forever, the loss of a baby that was never born or never adopted, or distance from a family member who has lost their way in the world. It is my sister’s birthday this week and I wrote this post for her, but it is also a letter for all those other souls who have shown us how to live gracefully, for those who have experienced great loss and left their hearts open to love again. If you know someone like this, send them this letter, and tell them, it’s from you.

To You, My Friend, Who Still Grieves When No One Sees

I see you, Friend. I see you go about your daily life. I see you laugh and work. I see your still vibrant smile. I see you putting your best foot forward. I see you creating your newly remodeled life. I see you stepping up and helping others along the way. I see you standing there, a bit wobbly-kneed sometimes, but feet firmly planted. I see you. And I want you to know how proud I am to know you.

I do not claim to know how you feel. Who can claim such a thing? Grief is so personally wrenching, so tailor-made for our own circumstances. The devastation of your personal loss cannot be compared to any other loss. There is no mathematics of grief; no such thing as: this loss is precisely 12.63 times more devastating than that one. Because loss is loss, like zero is zero, and no amount of multiplication or division makes it any other number. It’s just zero, ground zero for trying to rebuild your life around a cannonball-sized wound in your heart.

I do know a few things about grief. I know that years later, long after you have scraped yourself on the concrete and moved on, long after you have told yourself that you are okay now, the old grief can ambush you from behind. There you are, going about your day, shopping, cleaning, driving, or doing any old mundane task and then suddenly you are utterly flattened again by grief. And you can’t figure out how it managed to sneak up on you like that. Why didn’t you see it coming? It’s like, there you were, standing on a quiet street, minding your own business and WAM, a truck plows over you from behind. And that’s it. You’re down for the count. And the really weird thing about it is that everything around you goes on, business as usual, as if nothing significant had happened. You are down and the rest of the world still sees you standing. And you get used to them not knowing you are down. And you don’t tell them, because… well… isn’t there enough drama in the world already?

But I am telling you, I see you! You are not the same as those still untouched by loss. You have something different about you, something that draws me to you and marks you as one who knows the full price of love and chooses to love again anyway. I know you are not always steady on your feet, and I know that reconstructing your inner world is pretty much a solo project. But I see you standing there, with that cannonball wound in your heart, and I am moved by you. I know you have made that difficult choice to let the wound stand. You have not filled the hole with bitterness; you have not encased your heart in concrete; you have not surrounded yourself with emotional barbed-wire. You stand there with your broken heart and you give me hope for the future. I know some wounds never heal. But I think, when I look at you, that it might somehow be okay if a heart stays that way, a heart broken open by loss, vulnerable but welcoming like yours.

There is this strange thing that happens to me sometimes. I am in some public place and I see something out of the corner of my eye. Or I hear a voice and turn around, fully expecting to see a familiar face. And it’s just strangers, and they are not even looking at me. It’s weird. After all this time, I still have moments when I feel like I have entered into that alternate universe, where your life turned out the way it was supposed to and the loss never happened. And then I feel that pang in my heart, small though it is in comparison, and I think of you. And I send you my love, letting it pass along unseen channels, hoping somehow you’ll feel it. In those moments I remember your loss, and I think of you standing there with your open heart, standing beside all the other lovely open-hearted people who have gone there before you. God, you are a beautiful sight!

So, thank you. Thank you for being there for me in spite of everything. Thank you for showing me how to stand up again and again, no matter how many times grief ambushes you. Thank you for showing me how to love when your heart is broken. Thank you for showing me what I need to do when my losses come. Because no matter how we try, none of us escapes loss; sooner or later we all get ambushed by it. But I feel more confident about the future knowing this one thing: on that terrible day, when my heart breaks, you will be there standing by me with that broken-open heart of yours. All of us with our broken hearts will stand together. And we will know that our wounds are not signs of weakness, but badges of honor, because we have dared greatly and loved deeply and fully intend to love again. And if not now, well… at least… someday… hopefully soon.

I am so proud of you. And I want you to know, I see you!

Dear Reader,

Scroll down you will find a place to comment on this post and read comments by others. If you know Kristen and loved Rob like we did, you can post something about them here. If you have lost a love one, you can leave them a message here as well. Somehow I think they will get it. If you are wondering what my sister is doing these days to cope with her loss, you can check out to her website at stillwithyou.com. It is a beautiful and very personal project she hopes will help others cope with loss.

I Love You More Today...Cardz TV Gallery

Hello my crafty friends, it is my turn to post over at Cardz TV Gallery. It's February and so that means that Valentine's Day isn't far off! It will be a hard month for me since hubby's passing. Our anniversary is the 13th of February, that will be a hard day. But on the 14th we have a granddaughter who will celebrate her 2 birthday. I know hubby will be looking down on us both. My love continues to grow for my husband even though he is no longer in this physical world with me, so this sentiment is so true for me. I do love him more today than yesterday.

Some of you who visit my blog regularly will think that this card looks a little familiar to you Well that is because I made 4 base cards with the houndstooth pattern on it because I have challenged myself to always make more than one card at a time this year so I can build my card stash up. To see the card similar to this one, click here. I made two of these Valentine cards to place in my stash and made two of the other card. 

Thank you for taking time out of your day to come and visit me, you always make my day brighter with your visits and comments. Crafty hugs, Brenda

Recipe:

Outside sentiment-Cardz TV Stamps "Love Ya"

Hounds tooth squares-My Creative Time "Build a Banner" kit

Envelope-My Creative Time "Mini Stitched Envelope" Die

Hearts-My Creative Time "We're Better Together" Stamps and Dies

I Scream, You Scream....BBTB2 Challege

Hello crafty friends, hope you have had a great weekend and that the week is off to a great start as well. I am still taking each day as it comes, can't really look forward to the future yet or even conceive the future without my beloved. I know it will come one day, but for now I am best taking each day as it comes. 

Today is Monday, so that means a brand new challenge is going on over at BBTB2. I am hosting this week and the theme I chose for my DT Sisters and you is to use ice cream on your project. Did you know that on the first Saturday of February it is "Eat ice cream for breakfast" holiday?!! I can't make this stuff up people, it really is!! lol Sooooo, this is why I want to see ice cream on your projects. Go over to BBTB2 and see what inspiration my design team sisters have for you and then link up a project with ice cream on it with us. 

I used Mojo Monday 431 sketch. As always, thank you for taking the time out of your day and visiting me. Your visit is much appreciated as are your commented. You bring much joy to my day when you visit! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Recipe:

Cricut Sweet Shop cartridge, print and cut

Outside sentiment and face on bowl of ice cream-My Creative Time "You Make Life Sweet" stamps and dies set.

Inside sentiment-My Creative Time "We're Better Together" stamp/die set and Maymay Made It "Happy" stamp set

Hearts-WPlus9 "Borders and Backgrounds" stamps

Sequins and glossy accents