27 November 2019
26 November 2019
Happy Endings
The holidays always make me hungry for happy endings.
And yet, fourth quarter strikes the fear of the holidays in my soul.
My co-workers and I often joke every year that the holidays should be in January so we can enjoy them. We try to do the best we can every year to survive the pressure and overtime, and we try to keep the bad parts from spilling over into our families.
This year, my family had an additional hard knock. A death in the family forced an unplanned family reunion. Good with the bad. Making lemonade. The circumstances were difficult, but being together during traumatic times is like chocolate ice cream for the soul.
Many, many moons ago, my adopted teenagers both took permanent unauthorized field trips. They ran away. Communication for a good many years was painful, infrequent and often laced with bitterness.
Now both kids have kids of their own. They've realized some of what they put me through, and they are trying to rebuild our bonds.
My daughter had not seen my family since the last death in the family. She wanted to be part of this recent tragedy. She wanted to stand together with my family. She wanted to be there for my nephew, who is close to her age and has a daughter close to my granddaughter's age.
She doesn't have the resources to take an unplanned trip, especially via air.
I wanted the family to stand together, too, and I thought her being there might help all of us have something to be grateful for during our time of loss. So I ran up the credit card and flew her little family out to California, too.
As I suspected, everyone in my family fell immediately and irreversibly in love with my granddaughter. My great-niece and my granddaughter became fast friends. Both of them cried when it was time to go home.
One of my brothers has a granddaughter just two months older than my granddaughter. She has never met my granddaughter or my great-niece. I came up with an idea while watching the two girls play school with colored twisty pencils and a notepad. Both of them have access to phones and/or notebooks, but they preferred playing together, face to face.
When I got home, I put together three note card sets with coloring pages and fruit-scented colored pencils for each of the three cousins, the two who met in California and the third one who didn't get to make the trip this time. I pre-addressed each of the envelopes and then stuck stamps on them. I wrote a letter to each girl, introducing the other two with photos and life snippets, and promising them if they mail one card to each of the other two every Monday, they should receive a note card from the other two each Friday (or earlier). In this day of electronic devices and diminishing personal contact, I thought the gift of pen pals, something my siblings and I enjoyed when we were young, might be the best gift I can give those girls. I will renew their note card packets each month, and I hope to eventually encourage them to create their own note cards and drawings. I will bribe them with sequins, glow-in-the-dark glue and scrapbooking jewels.
I can hardly wait to hear how the girls react when they receive their packets! I wonder if they will become lifelong friends like my cousins and me.
When we drove my daughter and her family back to the airport after the funeral, she confessed she'd been afraid my family would always harbor angry feelings toward her and reject her. She was moved to tears because my entire family welcomed her with open arms and treated her no differently than back in 2002 when my brother died.
There have been many hard pills to swallow throughout the years, and the death two weeks ago is another. I am grateful beyond measure for the togetherness we all felt at the graveside, and I'm so thankful God has brought our family together again. This is going to be a joyous Thanksgiving and Christmas!
25 November 2019
Snowflake Monday
This is a short work week for most, and sometimes you just need an easy snowflake pattern that doesn't require too much thought.
I worked up my second Gratitude Snowflake using Lizbeth's metallic thread. The thread has a nice texture and a beautiful sheen but can be difficult to work with because it's pretty splitty, in my opinion. Here's the flake unstiffened, finger-shaped. Further into this post, right before the pattern, is a photo of the snowflake stiffened. Snowflakes made with the metallic thread don't necessarily require stiffening, but I think I like them better stiffened.
I designed this tiny gem back in 2012, using cheap thread I found at a bargain store, then wrote the pattern in 2014. I looked up the creation date and the pattern date in my journal to see what was going on in my life back then, and it was a bit fun stepping back in time so I could see how far I've come.
On February 11, 2012, I'd exceeded a goal of designing a snowflake a day every day for seven days by one day. I don't know which of the eight snowflakes resulted in today's pattern, but I was really excited about two of the eight flakes, which later became Mount Eolus and Mill Creek. I suspect I didn't make any snowflakes on Day 9 because we were busy packing after church for our first trip to The Wave. On Day 10, we departed the Denver metro area shortly after 3 a.m. with the goal of arriving in Kanab, Utah, by 4:30 p.m. to stop by the BLM office to find out what we'd need to do on Day 11 to enter The Wave same-day lottery. (Complete instructions are all online now.) On Day 11, we didn't have to go through the lottery after all because there were only three of us vying for 10 passes, and I recorded what I've always referred to as my best Valentine's Day ever. Oh, how fun it was to go back and read that blog post and relive the photos!!!
On January 1, 2014, we were expecting snow, which never came. I'd finished that year's pdf snowflake booklet "I Dream in Sixes" the day before, and today's snowflake pattern didn't make the cut. I spent most of the day editing photos of The Wave to use as greeting cards and toying with my first ring flash, which didn't work out of the box. Earlier this year, my dad offered to take a look at the collection of inexpensive ring flashes I'd purchased and never been able to use because they wouldn't power up, regardless of what kind of batteries I tried to use. My dad got the first one working for me, and I've been using it for macro photography ever since. The remainder of the ring flashes, he said, were "trash," and not even good for parts. I wish now I'd sent him that first one as soon as I discovered it wasn't working, sparing me the nickel and diming of the other flashes, but also so I could have put that baby to work a few years earlier. It's amazing!
I am so thankful my grandmother taught me to crochet. I am so thankful for snow. I am thankful for the heavenly gifts of photography, writing, journaling, creativity, inspiration, technology and weekends. I am thankful I've been able to see The Wave twice now. I'm thankful I get to keep trying to see it again one day. I'm thankful for my family. And I'm most thankful for the best husband and companion a girl could ever desire.
You may do whatever you'd like with snowflakes you make from this pattern, but you may not sell or republish the pattern. Thanks, and enjoy!
Finished Size: 2.75 inches from point to point
Materials: Size 10 crochet thread, size 7 crochet hook, empty pizza box, wax paper or plastic wrap, cellophane tape, water soluble school glue or desired stiffener, water, glitter, small container for glue/water mixture, paintbrush, stick pins that won't be used later for sewing, clear thread or fishing line
Gratitude Snowflake Instructions
Make magic ring.
Round 1: 3 sc in ring, ch 6, sl st in 3rd sc (loop made), * 2 sc in ring, ch 6, sl st in 2nd sc; repeat from * 3 times; 1 sc in ring, sl st in starting sc, ch 1, 1 dtr in same sc to form 6th loop. Don't pull magic ring too tight.
Round 2: * In ch 6 loop just made (or next ch 6 loop in repeats), work (1 sc 1 hdc, 1 dc, 1 tr, ch 5, 1 sc in 5th ch from hook, ch 6, sl st in sc, ch 4, sl st in sc ((tri-picot tip made)), 1 tr, 1 dc, 1 hdc, 1 sc), ch 6, 1 sc in 6th ch from hook (picot made); repeat from * around 5 times; sl st in starting sc; bind off. Weave in ends.
Finish: Tape wax paper or plastic wrap to top of empty pizza box. Pin snowflake to box on top of wax paper or plastic wrap.
If using glue, mix a few drops of water with a teaspoon of glue in small washable container. Paint snowflake with glue mixture or desired stiffener. Sprinkle lightly with glitter. Wash paintbrush and container thoroughly. Allow snowflake to dry at least 24 hours. Remove pins. Gently peel snowflake from wax paper or plastic wrap. Attach 10-inch clear thread to one spoke, weaving in end. Wrap fishing line around tree branch (or tape to ceiling or any overhead surface) and watch the snowflake twirl freely whenever you walk by! Snowflake also may be taped to window or tied to doorknob or cabinet handle.
22 November 2019
21 November 2019
Lizard Quilts
Lizard has finished his first three-layer quilt! He has done some magnificent rag quilts, and he's been doodling in preparation for his first free-motion quilting.
Initially he planned to donate his first real quilt to a children's charity. But when he finished, he decided he needs to keep his first quilt. Because it's his first quilt!
I think he did a terrific job!
Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.
20 November 2019
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