For Grandma Good

I have been trying to do things to keep this month from pulling me under the wheels of the bus that go round and round. One thing I've been doing is LOTS of crafting. Today I made a gift for my Grandma. She always had lemon drops at her house while I was growing up....so I thought about sending her a big bucket full for Valentine's Day. I had some felt flowers left from my wreaths and I wanted to incorporate them as well. So I took some skewers and hot glue and got to work. If I had had more time (and warm weather for spraying) I'd have painted the skewers green.....but I didn't.
I took a vase I already had (from GW) and washed it really well. Then I lined it with tin foil....cause that's how I roll. Then I hot glued the felt flowers to the skewers and used Hubby's wire cutters (not mine in case it dulled them) to cut them to the right lengths.
Then I jammed the sticks into the lemon drops and arranged them just so.
I glued a felt "Love" on the pot/vase and there you have it. Cute little thinking-of-you gift for my sweet Grandma.
I hope she likes it.
The flower that looks like it has an eyeball is kind of freaking me out.
Maybe Grandma won't notice.
I wrapped it in red and white Christmas paper. Very Valentine appropriate.
I took yet another fabric flower and glued a felt flower to it and glued it all to a brooch pin so she can have that too. My Grandma always wore a pin to church.....not that she has to wear this to church....just saying that she used to.
I am linking to these parties.....please check them out.

I Made THIS Tuesday

Show and Tell

Whatever Goes Wednesday

Strut Your Stuff Thursday

It's a Keeper Thursday

Pretty Packages Party

Not Bright and Shiny

More like Blue and Whiny. If you came for bright and shiny.....just stop now. It isn't one of those days. I'm just going to wallow in the self-pity for a minute....a pity party if you will. I tried. I really did. I put up stupid decorations and everything. I had a plan.....I made crafts.....I had a plan. This year was going to be different. This year was going to be easier.....I had a plan....I decided. But today....I can't even fool myself for another minute. It's too hard....and taking too much energy to keep up the farce. February has hit and along with the winter blues....I have the third anniversary of the passing of my sweet Mama. How I miss her. I try all the dorky things that people who aren't grieving say to do....focus on the positive, stay active, exercise, do something for someone else.....did it all. No good. The next two weeks are going to be hard.....again.....still. We have the anniversary of the day I flew to say good-bye. We have her birthday. We have the memories of her last doctor appointment and her first visit from Hospice. Then of course Valentines Day....the morning she left. And then the memories of the viewing and all the people who had such sweet things to say about her. And then the funeral.....and the burial.....and the haze of days that followed. Watching my Dad grieve in the most unbearable pain. Then my trip home and having to adjust to the fact that I couldn't pick up the phone and call her. Seeing something in the store and thinking how much she would love it and saying "I'm going to get this for....." and then realizing that buying it for her would be pointless. All of this I have been working so hard to avoid thinking about this year. All of this I want to lock away and not feel year after year. All of this I would give anything to never have to experience again. She left such a huge hole in my life. It is always there but February it seems to be a little jagged around the edges.....completely unavoidable, no matter how hard I try. So if I don't answer the phone or email....I am still here. I will be ok. Just not yet. Just not for a while. And I guess that will just have to be ok.

Hint, Hint

This is hanging on my fridge right now. Do you think anyone will notice? Always happy to help out!

Spring

I told you I was done with Valentines Day crafts....and for the most part....I am. I'm still making a few little things. I'm just not blogging them. What I am dying to show you is this. My SPRING banner. I am very excited for it. I saw this project here at Our Best Bites. I love their blog for the recipes and I was very excited that they throw in a craft or two. Sara made the cutest Valentines banner and while I don't usually stray from the theme of a "How-To", this time I decided to shake it up a bit. I started with some jumbo ric rac, felt and ribbon. I cut my sheet of felt into rectangles about 4 1/2 inches wide and into triangles from there. Usually I am queen of the glue gun....but I pulled out my trusty (and maybe a bit rusty) sewing machine to sew the triangles onto the ric rac.

Then I took a bunch of colored ribbon and cut 10-12 inch lengths and folded them in half and sewed them onto the ric rac as well.
As of one week ago I didn't love tassels....at all....this week, I am kinda crushing on them.
Then I cut some shapes; a heart, a bird and a horrible misshapen flower, out of felt. I pinned them to the banner temporarily until I decided where I liked them.
Of course I can't have the felt out and not make some rosettes. It just wouldn't be right.
After I decided I had the right colors and patterns together.....time for the glue gun. You knew it was coming out at some point...right?
Little bit of birdie love.
Look at the pretty flowers. So springy....so bright....aaahhhhh....sring......
A bit of a close up post glue phase. I just left it up there and glued them on while I stood in front of the fire. Too lazy to take it down....just sayin'.....
As cute as it is....there was one more thing I wanted to add....just a little more texture to the plain felt shapes. Buttons. I do like a cute button.
So I glued some buttons to the hearts and flowers (if you can really call them that).
And there it is. I will add letters for real as soon as my Silhouette Iron-On paper gets here. Very excited to try that out. I am missing my spring decor box with my cute bunnies and such. You'll just have to imagine them up there. So here is my first official I-can't-wait-for-spring project.
On a side note...see that lop-sided bird house on the left? My baby boy made that for me when he was in Cub Scouts. I will keep it forever!!

I will be linking to these parties.....some great ideas await your perusal!

Metamorphosis Monday

I Made THIS Tuesday

Whatever Goes Wednesday

Strut Your Stuff Thursday

Remodelaholic

Frifty Friday

Wordless Wednesday

One Good Turn

I'm no fan of winter. I don't like to be cold, I hate how early it gets dark and I loathe shoveling snow. When we lived in Idaho, I thought I had lived through some pretty tough winters. However, I was shown my ignorance of true winter weather when we moved to Minnesota. The natives (my friends) warned me of the severity of it all.....the huge amounts of snow....the brutal cold. It was worse than I could have even imagined. Never before have I been so cold and buried under mountains of snow. So when we moved to Nebraska, I wasn't expecting tropical weather, but I knew it would be warmed than MN. And it has been....but there is still that issue of snow. Ish and ick. Of course we don't get nearly as much as MN or even ID but really....any is too much. So when I awoke to this....let's just say I was not a happy camper. For big, heavy snows Hubby is usually the guy in charge of snow removal. But on this date DH was unavailable for snow blower-driver duties. So that left me (sick with a nice head/sinus cold....thing) and beautiful Daughter to man the shovels (since I can't really run the snow blower). So not happy about that. Our driveway was completely drifted over and I couldn't even see the sidewalks. This was going to take all day. But...it had to be done....so I resigned myself to the fact of it and....decided to wait a while for it to warm up a bit.
Then I heard the neighbor using his snow blower and entertained notions of asking him to start my big red snow moving machine for me to save my already aching body. But then I heard the whine of a (decidedly smaller {well smaller than mine}) snow blower coming up my driveway. Crazy delusions....and wishful thinking...I was convinced, but I looked out the window anyway.
Sure enough. There was our neighbor with his green snow blower attacking the snow that so brutally covered my driveway and squelched my joy for life.
I was so happy and so thankful, I wanted to cry. Seriously.....I was giddy at the idea of spending the day in my jammies, eating chicken soup, trying to convalesce....and not shoveling.
And then...just when I think he is finished and going to leave a small bit of shovel work for me (which I was totally fine with)....he swipes the shovel off my porch and finishes the porch, steps and the places his snow blower couldn't get to.
Amazing. To say I wanted to run out and hug this man and his magic green machine is an understatement. I immediately went to my kitchen and baked some yummy rolls for him and his family. I took them over to them while they were still hot. He looked at me as if I was crazy. "You really don't have to give us anything, Jim plows and shovels for us all the time." Oh....well...I guess it just really means SO much more to me today....it just seemed bigger today. It was really appreciated and felt like a life line of sorts.
I feel very blessed today to have such a great neighbor who would do such a huge thing for me and really think it was nothing. Amazing.
On a side note a big van load of people from our church stopped by also....but since our driveway was done they worked on the neighbors sidewalks. These snow angels are everywhere today.....and God bless them....every one!

All But Done

So here are the Valentines projects I have made this year. I am making one more wreath.....but the yarn wrapping takes so long that I am putting it off because I hate that part because I have a short attention span. Some of them I am giving away to my Pay it Forward friends. I am excited for them to have a piece of my heart hanging in their homes.


I've linked up with The Speckled Dog: Favorite Things link party. Check them out!!