Happy Birthday, Erik

Once a joyful day, May 30th is now a day of reflection and tenderness.  My son, my first child was born on this day 36 years ago.  It was a difficult labor and delivery, oh, but that baby!  From the beginning, he had a beautiful spirit, an engaging smile...

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boy.

By the time he was 16 months old, he had a two month old sister and was identified as legally blind.  At two, we learned he was mentally and physically handicapped.  Each discovery was devastating, but life goes on, and Erik was Erik and I loved him with my whole heart.

You see, I firmly believe that Erik was truly an angel.  He was born send a message of love, to teach, to inspire, and that he did.  It was finally determined that he had a very rare degenerative syndrome.  With every passing year, he lost abilities, but he NEVER lost his smile or his joy.  By 18, he was wheel chair bound and suffered daily from extreme pain.  He'd adjust.  Things would change.  He'd adjust.

Finally, God knew it was time to call him home, to release him from his deteriorating earthly body, to release from pain.  Erik got his wings in September of 2005.  

Now, some of you might wonder why I'm still tender after all of these years.  Well, friends, I don't believe I'll ever recover from the loss of my angel.  I accept it.  I am grateful that he no longer suffers, and I am forever grateful for the years he shared with us here on earth.  Over time, you sort of get used to it, I suppose, but there are days when his absence is just as painful as it was 8 years ago.  Today is just such a day.

Show Me Thursday @ Sassy Cheryl's

SHOW ME THURSDAY

What have you been up to?!  

I'm just coming off a terrific week with  Sassy friend, Cec visiting all the way from Canada.  We did it all!  Sadly, all good things must come to an end and my dear husband and I dropped her at the airport this morning...

BUT,

while she was here, we did all kinds of things...

After dinner out, we went to the movies-The Great Gatsby.  Whoa, the twenties were roaring!

We went to Winterthur in DE touring the home and gardens.  Winterthur is one of the DuPont mansions.

Naturally, we had to hit a couple of craft stores and Cec had to try some Maryland crab cakes.

We went to St.Michaels, a beautiful seaside town, strolled the downtown and ate overlooking the water.

We walked, went to the Tea Party parade and street fair, cooked, 

and talked, talked, talked some more 

AND 

of course, CRAFTED :-)

While on our little crafty shopping trip, I saw some chipboard letters that I quite liked.  they went in my shopping basket along with a couple of little paper pads.  This is what I did with them...

Neither Cec nor I are fans of having our pictures taken though I did manage to catch this one of her ...

I wasn't fast enough to catch her trying on the huge bonnet!

Sassy Cheryl's Challenge: #168 A Step Card

PATIENCE SECRET (RS)

All righty, now--- this week's challenge is a STEP CARD!  I am fortunate enough to have a Cameo Silhouette-LOVE IT!  A step card isn't really a challenge with a Cameo-just set it up, and this little lovely cuts it out :-)  

When Sassy Cheryl came out with her rubber stamps, I thought, "I HAVE to have these!"...and, now, I do.  Sassy Cheryl's rubber stamps are not only deeply etched but beautifully packaged.  I used all of the stamps in the set on this step card.  The images are all colored with Copics (truly, the only medium I use with regularity!)

I do hope you will join us for this week's challenge at Sassy Cheryl's!

Oh, and look for news regarding a design team opportunity with Sassy Cheryl's!  It's SUPER fun team with some remarkably talented ladies (and me, your pretty average card maker!)

Sassy Cheryl's #167 Stitching

MY LITTLE SNUGGLE BUNNY

Sassy Judy is our hostess for the Sassy Cheryl's challenge this week, and she wants us to stitch! 

I've been busy working on a bunting for my granddaughter's first birthday---I had some scraps, and here they are!  I used a number of dies as I wanted to use my Fiskar's Fuse (my DH gave it to me for my birthday/Mother's Day& anniversary-yup, he's getting a lot of mileage out of this gift!)  I really do like it-cuts and embosses in one pass :-)  I stitched the outside edge of the card, inside the flowered die cut and even stitched the grass.

BIG NEWS...

This hasn't happened for a while...

Sassy Cheryl's is looking to add a few new "Sassy" designers to our talented Design Team! 

More information will be coming soon! So stay tuned!!  

Some other challenges I plan to enter with this card:

Challenges 4 Everybody - 2W, 3C - Always Anything Goes 

Eclectic Ellapu - 2E - Anything Goes

SASSY CHERYL'S "SHOW ME THURSDAY"

 

It's Show Me Thursday at Sassy Cheryl's, and this week, I actually have something to show!

A friend and neighbor asked if I'd make some Bridal Shower invitations for her-25 of them.  It's a recipe shower.  I had little to go on other than she wanted it clear that folks were to bring a recipe and she wanted some kind of an image of a young woman with raindrops falling around her.  Hmmm...I went to my go-to artists and decided this Stamping Bella, Uptown Girl image was just the thing.  I showed my friend a couple of images, and she did, in fact like this one the best.

I don't want to reveal personal information so you'll just see the corner of the inside of the invite.  I looked up vintage cutlery on the Internet and found this set.  I quite liked it so decided to fool around and see if I could make the 5x7 recipe card my friend hoped people would use.  I am NOT a pro by any stretch of the imagination but I was pleased enough with the card.

Several friends have asked me to do "jobs" for them.  I never turn them down and NEVER know what to ask in return, but I will tell you, prices should be made clear from the outset (nope, I never do!), and folks really need to understand the amount of time and materials that go into these projects (most people have NO idea unless they themselves are crafters!)

 I don't think I've broken even on any of these projects yet-the materials alone generally cost more than the money I receive, but then, I guess I don't really do it for the money!  Most of my creations have given somebody real joy, and that is what it's all about!

I have to say, I'm not overly fond of coloring the same image, the same colors 25 times!  Some of the cards are definitely better than others, but they're all hand crafted, and I am NOT a machine so I hope the recipients will accept the flaws as a signature of a handmade item!

So, there you have it!  Now, it's your turn!

Sunshine Mail.org...On the Farm

Our sponsor for this challenge period is Wings and Willows and our theme is "On the Farm".

How cute is this cow?!  I colored her with Copics.

You'll have two weeks to join in this challenge.  

Sunshine Mail Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit, provides children in need comfort, support and joy through free Sunshine Mail Care Packages.  Sunshine Mail is filled with handmade cards, care essentials and other age appropriate items and delivered to children in hospitals, homeless shelters and in foster care. 

For more information about Sunshine Mail, click HERE!

Sassy Cheryl's #166 Handmade Flowers and/ Lace

MADDIE AND HER LADYBUG

Hello, my sassy friends.  Cathy is our hostess for this week's Sassy Cheryl's Challenge, and she wants to see homemade flowers and/or lace.  I have this fabulous lace tape, a gift from my BFF actually imported from Korea (by her!).  I punched a bunch of flowers though I don't think the picture really shows them well.  I colored little Maddie with Copics.

In June, something extra fun going on at Sassy Cheryl's...that's all I'm saying for now!  

I hope you'll join us for this week's challenge.  Remember to use a Sassy Cheryl's image, and check out the latest images---so stinking cute!

Sassy Cheryl's #165 GIRLS RULE!

...AND boys drool!

An Ace in the Hole & Who Burst Your Balloon

...just sayin'

This week, amazing Pat is our hostess at Sassy Cheryl's, and the theme is Girls Rule.  Hmmm...I wasn't really sure what to do with that, but I knew I wanted to incorporate rulers.  I had this Tim Holtz paper in my stash, but wasn't really sure how it would look with these fun images.  

I colored them up and popped them on, took the photo, posted and thought, "Ack-ick!"  I did some serious fussy cutting.  Clearly Max ties in with the DP, but Maddie?!  Then I thought, "That's okay---she rules, so she needs to totally stand out."  

Now, it's your turn!  Let's see what you do with this theme!

Anything Goes With a Mo Image

It's been a while since I entered a Mo challenge...not that I haven't colored up just a "few" of her images!  This newest release had a few images that I just had to add to my collection.  These images put bring back lovely memories of spring.  I am so ready for spring and warm weather!  We get an occasional tease-enough already!