Little Black Bags

I love small black bags. My collection is small - but growing. The one in the middle here is one I found a few weeks ago in an antique store. The clasp is a round cluster of rhinestones. They have always caught my eye for some reason - for as long as I can remember. I often wonder when I find one that I like - what the history is behind it - who it may have belonged to. I think that is one of the main reasons that I like antiques or anything for that matter that belonged to someone else before me. There is a history to them - and although I do not know what what that history is - it is connected to those items. Something about a bag that I like may have been the same thing that caught the eye of another woman years before me who picked it up, turned it over in her hands, deciding whether or not she was going to purchase it. A small - but a connection to the past.
"The past is not a package one can lay away." ~ Emily Dickinson

Beanies

 

 

I have made more of these beanies than I can count. I think Luke used to lose them faster than I could make them. I made these for a friend to send to his son. I started out making them for my boys - then their friends. I sold quite a few to a local skate shop. It seems like someone always wants them.

I have just two more days until we are off for Spring Break! I am so looking forward to a week off. No special plans - but it will be great week no matter what we end up doing.

"I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision." ~Eleanor Roosevelt

For Mom

Posted a bit late for Valentine's day, but I was going through the pictures on my camera today and saw this one of the valentine that I sent my mom this year - made with an Altoid tin. I had forgotten I had taken a picture of it. That is me in 1962 - I thought my mom would enjoy the picture - which I believe she did.
This project started with my cleaning out and organizing my "stuff." I admit to being a pack rat, and keep every ribbon, button, tag, etc. that I come across because... " someday I may use it for something"." More often than not - I do use the things I keep, but over the years it has really turned into quite a lot of "stuff."
“It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be born a millionaire” ~Robert Louis Sevenson

Sadie

This is Sadie. We have had dogs in the past, but more for the sake of Richard and the boys. After putting our dog Kirby to sleep, I did not plan on ever getting another dog. The boys are grown up now and I have always preferred cats to dogs. Then along came Sadie. Jacob mentioned that a friend of a friend that someone knew - or something like that - had a basset hound that they were wanting to give to someone. Did I mention that I did not plan on getting another dog - ever? The next thing I knew Jacob brought the dog over to show us - and I was at Pet's Mart acting like a grandmother shopping for her first grandchild. We have had her about a year and a half now. I was hooked from that first day, but since then she has found a way into my heart - something I did not really expect.
She got out of our back yard one day this winter, and she was missing for nearly 2 days. I was not prepared for how I felt thinking that I may not get her back.
"You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, 'My God, you're right! I never would have thought of that!'" ~ Dave Barry

crochet therapy

One of my little girl hats. Crocheting hats seems to be something I like doing more than anything else. I think because it is sort of a therapy for me. The patterns are easy and I can make them without even thinking about it. Making things has always been sort of a therapy for me. If I go for a period of time without making anything or being creative somehow - I tend to be a lot more stressed. Which may explain the way I have been feeling lately. So - maybe I should crochet a hat tonight.

It's not that some people have will power and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not.~James Gordon, M.D.

Grandma

This picture of my grandma and me was taken nearly 48 years ago. I love her polka dotted dress and boy did I have some pudgy legs. She was the same age in this picture that I am now. We lived in this big red brick house until I was 14 and she lived in the apartment upstairs. She was such an important part of my life. She taught me how to embroidery, knit, and crochet. I still have the first little sampler that I embroidered with her help to earn a girl scout badge. I will have to find that and make something out of it. I can remember sitting in her living room learning how to do each stitch and making a row of each one on a piece of linen. She was always very patient and caring with us kids. I think she enjoyed children - she babysat for years even after she retired. She would get off work at midnight from the hospital and I would wait up for her. We would go up to her apartment, watch tv, have a snack - then go to bed. She may work on a crossword puzzle or we would say the rosary. I used to love to sleep under a baby bonnet quilt that she had.

And this picture of my grandma and me taken 48 years later. I usually go visit my family in Iowa during the summer, but last summer I did not get back to see them. I decided in October that I needed to go back instead of waiting until this summer - this was the last time that I saw my grandma. She passed away in January and I look at this picture and I am so glad I made the decision to go back to visit. She was 95 years old - and her mind was still so good. It was always fun for me to go visit her. I have so many great memories of her growing up and one of my only true regrets is living so far away from her and the rest of my family the past 25 years. I know she is with me still. I miss her, but I smile when I look at this picture - because we had her in our lives for so long and I do have so many great memories. She was always a very strong willed, independent woman and she did not like being in a nursing home at all. She made that very clear to everyone. She seemed sad this last time I saw her and I hated that. She could not see well enough to crochet, read, or do crossword puzzles anymore and I know she missed those things. But I think she was happy this day and when we took this picture. She was so very special to me.

"Surely, two of the most satisfying experiences in life must be those of being a grandchild or a grandparent." ~ Donald A. Norberg

St. Patrick's Day

What would St. Patrick's Day be without corned beef and cabbage with potatoes, soda bread, and of course a mug of cold beer. I don't know why I only make that meal on St. Patrick's Day. We all love it - Richard especially. Sort of a quiet day. Richard and I went to a cigar store for a show or whatever they call it. They have a salesman there - everyone gets a free cigar - food, wine, and beer. I really enjoy going - although we usually don't know too many people there. Richard always runs into someone he knows - of course. But it was a nice afternoon. The weather was great and then I get to pick out a couple of flavored cigars. I have somehow gotten myself enjoying them. I am so against smoking - yet here I am lighting up flavored cigar on Saturday night. I tried a Kahlua one last night which I wasn't sure I was going to like - it was good though. This is new bad habit for me so I am trying different ones to find out what I like. My favorite has to be this raspberry/champagne with a vanilla flavored tip.
"If you are lucky enough to be Irish, then you are lucky enough."

It's A Boy!

I have given two baby showers in the past 5 years. Both times I have had so much fun. This past one was for my friends daughter and we had such a great time. I was most excited that the baby was a boy. It seems like every baby I have had to buy something for recently has been a girl and being the mother of two boys - I always have fun when I get a chance to pick out girl things. But to me there has always been something special about a baby boy.

My own boys are 19 and 24 years old now. I sometimes think it would have been nice to have had a daughter, but I think I would have felt like I missed out if I had not had a son. God blessed me with two sons - and they are so completely different it amazes me. I am very close to both of them - Their personalities are very different - and my relationship with each of them is just as different. I don't think I really expected to remain as close to them as they got older. I had this idea they would sort of outgrow me or something. But I guess that doesn't really happen - they just need me differently than they did when they were younger.

I think about how quickly the time passed and miss the days when they were young - but I also enjoy the relationships I have with them now.

“Whatever they grow up to be, they are still our children, and the one most important of all the things we can give to them is unconditional love. Not a love that depends on anything at all except that they are our children.”