It's been a while....

I haven't posted here in 4 years.  Since that time I continued to make jewelry and now have started to paint. I have also set up a website and facebook page to showcase my paintings and jewelry.  Eventually I will figure out how to sell them online.

More Jewerly

Some jewelry I have made.

SWAPA at NAAP Dance 2010

Pam, Patty, Colleen, Carol, Gail and I am in the front.

Colleen, Carol, Mary Ellen, Patty and Pam at the 50s party for the NAAP conference!

Elvis is in the Houes

I met Elvis!  How exciting is that! 

One of Those Days....

Have you ever had "one of those days?"  Most of us have had a day that is too strange to forget. 

Mine was a couple days ago when I went to a funeral.  I didn't know this lady, but she was a relative of a relative, so I went along anyway.   After driving for over 3 hours it was good to arrive at the church/funeral home.  At least I thought it was that.  There were plaques with peoples names on them.  I thought it was very nice of people to have donated money and their name is on a plaque.  There were everywhere.... WOW this place is getting a lot of money.  Nice place, big (several rooms), pretty (lovely stained glass windows, fountains, statues etc), nice santuary (don't most churches have sanctuaries?). 

So I settled into this lovely church/funeral home, not really sure what, but there is going to be a funeral here.  After riding 3 hours I thought I should find the ladies room.  There must be several in a big place like this.... So I wandered around (didn't want to ask...surely I could find this on my own, which I did!)  Funny, they only have one bathroom, behind the lovely sanctuary.  I go there, no big deal.  When I came out I again admired all the names on the walls, seeing some areas that need some names. 

This lady I knew from my hometown realized that we know each other, so we started to chat about the lovely building.  She said she thinks it is a mausoleum and those plaques are the for all the people who are behind the walls.  I was stunned, I should have realized this, but I have never been in a mausoleum before.  This got me thinking of many things; cultures of the world, cost, how did the seal the tombs etc.    When I settled on my new found knowledge I realized there were a lot of people here!  No wonder why they only have one bathroom for the ladies, these people didn't need it!

It was time for the funeral.  The honored lady was around 90 years old and lived a good life.  She even wrote a corny joke for her funeral.  There was a lovely poem and pretty song, too bad we didn't have good singers.  The lady sounded like a very fun woman with her home grown brew and love of strawberries.

When the ceremony was complete the minister said we could go to her "crypt" (so that is what they call those things in the wall!!!!)  I really wanted to see her crypt so I went with the group to the crypt.  She was on the lower level.  There were 6 levels.  Her husband was already resting in this crypt.  I wondered how do the people fit?  Are they side by side, on top of each other, end to end?  Looks like end to end was the crypt this nice lady was going to. 

The workers lowered her into her resting place.  The group was totally silent...totally...then they started screwing something????  I couldn't see, but I could hear the errr,  errr, errr of the screw... It was STRANGE... no one talking and this was the only sound. 

I did think that standing here was a lot better then the last funeral I was at when I stood outside freezing my hindy off.  This mausoleum thing wasn't such a bad thing after all.  You can stop by to see you loved one in warmth and beauty. 

Once this lady's crypt was sealed our group began to break up and things got REALLY STRANGE......  One of the funeral attendees, another elderly lady became unresponsive.  She had been a little tired so her friends told her to rest, and boy did she rest..... 

Instead of leaving our group was gathered near this lady hoping she would not keep resting... She didn't want to wake up!  She wanted to join her friend who we just placed in the crypt.  I really doubt if she had a crypt in this mausoleum, but there must be something some place.  The funeral attendees did everything to help this poor elderly woman.  The daughter of the lady in the crypt was doing mouth to mouth, while someone else was doing CPR... I was hiding around the corner, praying that she would respond.  I was also thinking..... there is a new way to do CPR.... just compressions.  This went on for 20 minutes before the police and paramedics finally arrived... PTL!!!  The lady didn't look too good, but at least people really tried. 

The policeman was asking who she was etc.  I didn't have a clue, but her one friend came over and said she found her and gave the information.  The paramedics did their thing and got her out of the mausoluem to a hospital...I think she needed the mausoleum more then the hospital.. but you never know. 

Our group regrouped so we could get to the dinner.  We thought we could help by taking the flowers which were then loaded into our car.  In the mean the time the friend of the lady who passed out was trying to get her car working.  It was right next to ours... hood up, being held by an ice scraper (only in Wisconsin would you hold your hood up with an ice scraper).  My darling husband listened to her engine and said the "oil pump wasn't working, don't drive your car."  This poor woman, her friend, now her car.  She really wanted to drive it, but noooooo,,, it will die on the highway... So we convinced her to leave it and come to the dinner then we will figure out how to get it back to her car for someone to pick her up.

My SIL and I were watching everything and we could not believe how strange this all was... this lady was have a "REALLY BAD DAY!!!!"  We could not control ourselves and were crying/laughing... praying that this lady wouldn't need the paramedics too.   Then she gets in our car... we had room.. moved some flowers for her.  She settles in and is laughing... saying she knew there was something wrong with her car, her family are mechanics and will help her.  She was taking it all in stride, while we were freaking out! 

So we drive to the dinner...1 1/2 hours late!  Got to know our new friend who is having a lot of bad luck.  When we arrived at the dinner location I was sure it was the wrong place!  Everything was decorated for a wedding!  Beautiful decorations!  Here we are a funeral party, 1 1/2 hours late due to a probable second death and a near dead car!  But they were expecting us and gave us a couple of tables.  The food looked GOOD... it was 2:30 and we were STARVING...  let's eat!  When the bartender arrived the funeral party flocked to the bar! 

So we ate, and talked and ate!!!!  Needed to get out by 4:00, which wasn't a problem!  Our waitress was invited to the wedding, so she was glad that she would be waited on instead of waiting on others.  Our new friend is on the phone to her family trying to figure out the car stuff. 

As we were getting ready to leave the call came from the hospital that the lady who passed out at the funeral had passed away... that surely silenced the group, exept for the lady on the phone figuring out the car stuff.  Another lady wondered who was going to plan this second funeral... how was her family going to get here.....  oh dear.. all these people will be getting together again in a couple of days.  Since I have never met any of these people I don't think I need to go. 

The car lady FINALLY gets off the phone being giddy about getting her car problem sorted out... then she heard the news about the friend she had found passed out.... She totally missed the announcement...  She didn't know what she was to be driving  when her car was in the fix-it shop and now she has another funeral to go to.  Needed to get home first!

Oh how sad for everyone.  They did say this lady who passed on was living on borrowed time because she was declared dead 2 years ago.  She had a good long life,,, so things were sad, but not so sad. 

It was time to leave and the car lady still needed a ride back to her car.  I made sure someone was taking care of her, since her day was going so badly.  She had a ride, so we left.

While driving home we kept thinking about the day.... it felt like we were in the twightlight zone... a bad movie,,,,   The day was too strange to be forgotten. 

I pray that everyone still living is alright, and those who aren't are resting in peace.  As for the car... that will be fixed.. one way or another. 

Snow Crystals

Liberty

I had the little Liberty Lisense plate along wiht the little tiny stars, so I decided to make a patriotic card. The flag was die cut. The little stars were attached with sticky tape.

This ATC was made by dropping blue and green ink onto a piece of wax paper then spaying it with water. I then placed a white 2 x 3 inch cardstock into the ink and let it dry for the background. When dry I stamped the barn. For the door I used Twinkling H2Os in various stages of browns and painted. When it dried I stamped the door and cut out the center. The door was placed over the stamped barn image. There was an open area, so I added "Have A good one." I layered the ATC with green and blue.

Hero Art's Cards

I have been a member of the HACE, Hero Arts Card Exchange for many years. I run a Yahoo group for this. Here are two cards made with Hero Art's Stamps. These cards celebrate Mother's and Father's Day.

Cards Made from my Slice

For my 25th anniversary at Four Winds I received a gift card for Archiver's so I purchased a digital cutting machine, a SLICE. Here are a couple of cards I made using the SLICE.

Friends Meet

We got together with Lynne and Caryn in Germantown. They are pictured here with their God Children.

It's a Party!

I love my Cuttlebug! On this card this piece of equipment was used to cut out all the images on this card. The cake was a bit of a challenge. I had to use a scissors to trim the different parts of the cake. I'm not too sure about the cake color combination, but this is what I endeed up with. All the edges were sponged to give the card some depth.

Hello

The main stamp image on this card comes from Hero Arts. I painted it with Twinkling H2Os. For the vase I added a couple of colors to create shading. The background border was done with a stamp by Club Scrap.

Happy Birthday Card

Balloons are great fun. For this card I used Stampin' Up markers to color my balloons. I added squiggly lines around the edge of the card and a couple of presents that are lifted from the page with dimensionals.

The Eagle has Landed

Look what my boys saw in the tree in front of our house? They said the eagle sat in the tree over a half hour. When they were walking home from school the eagle was there, so they ran into the house, grabbed the camera and took pictures from the living room.

My Favorite Lady

This lady was done by decorating the outline of a lady. I had to add the hat, jewelry, clothing and makeup.

Layered Flower Card

I made this layered flower using templates. There were 4 templates. Large outer petals, medium petals, inner decorative layer and the circle in the middle.

I also stamped inspirational sayings to be placed on the petals. Then punched some small flowers for the final touches of decorating. The flower folds down to a tiny card and once open it is truly stunning.

Clear Season Book

This clear acrylic season album was made for one of the exchanges I was doing this summer. It contains 5 pages of different sized acrylic sheets. The front she was approximately 3/4 inch small then the next, which was 3/4 in small then the next sheet. After minimal consideration I decided to have a season theme. Everything I used in my album came from the stash of supplies. I used square punches of 1 inch and 1 1/4 inches. To fill in openings I used my oval punches. The challenging part of this project was figuring out what showed from one layer to the next when the book was open to each page. Colors and shapes had to be coordinated.

Since I started the book with punch outs with the letters "SEASONS" I then had to use the same sized punch out for each subsequent page. Each square had to lined up with the page before it.

For Spring I went with the green color theme for most the colors. I also used some pastels. My images came from small stamped spring images and stickers. When the book is open the work "SPRING" is on the left page and a variety of images on the right.

For the "SUMMER" layout I utilized "Card Candy" that had been given to me in a swap. These images were already layered in coordinating colors and fit perfectly onto the square punches. I used. I also had some beach stickers and silver flowers to complete the pages.

"FALL" is one of the easiest seasons to make cards from. It is very colorful and my stash is full if stickers, images, and "fall card candy." Since my pages are getting wide as the seasons progress I get to utilize more of my supplies and creativity. It becomes fun to line up the card stock so they are hidden from the top layers and surprise the viewer when they get to the latter seasons. I even found images that I had sent in a swap to use for fall.

My main color for Winter is blue to represent snow. Winter also has Christmas colors so they are included in the layout. I found some great snowflake rubons and shiny stickers. I also had some snowman designer paper. The Winter pages are the widest of all the pages in this album. This allows additional creativity.

To finish my album I found some heavy duty stickers made by Stampin' Up. They express the unique and creative spirit of this album. Their colors were also quite different from all the pages. These stickers aligned perfectly with my punched squares used throughout.

I hope you enjoy looking at my album as much as I did making it.

Now I have to give it up to a friend.