It's A Charmed Life and Thoughts of My Mom

My post is late this time around, was knocked off my feet for a few days thanks to an abcess tooth and the left side of my face being about 4 times bigger than it should be, but antibiotics, painkillers and finally some sleep have made me feel almost normal again!

The time is flying by it seems and Mother's Day is just around the corner again and it's time for a new challenge at Emerald Creek Dares!! I love spending Thursdays sharing some amazing Emerald Creek products and incredible inspiration from the Design Team, with all of you who stop by. At the end of my post there is a more personal note about my Mom and missing her and a poem my son wrote for her service.

For this project I used a frame that came in a Tim Holtz kit. I painted the the frame with Dylusions paint in London Blue, Dirty Martini and Fresh Lime. Around the corners I used Ranger Clear texture paste and a Tim Holtz stencil for some texture.

I used a 1" square punch to punch out the small pictures of my Mom and glued those on using the Distress Collage Medium. The line on the inside pic says "Though she be but little, she is fierce" and that was definitely my Mom.

And some amazing embossing powders from Emerald Creek are a must for projects, so many colours and so many textures!

For my large blue flower and the little tiny tattered florals I used the Irridescent Shimmer, for the leaves I used Vintage Ivy, for the heart center, Frosted Plum and on the bottom of my dressform the Hammered Metal.

 And a couple of the ephemera from the frame kit were perfect, the little robin, Mom always got excited to see the first robins of spring and the word piece that has Coney Isl on it, which was my Mom's favorite fish and chip place in White Rock.

Please join us for your chance to win a $25 gc to shop at Emerald Creek and try out these amazing embossing powders for yourself!

Please swing by and check out the Design Team creations, the talent is amazing from these ladies!!

Julia

Katelyn

Claudia

Shilpa

Pam

Our amazing leader, Kim

Products Used 

Emerald Creek Metal Brad Hearts 

Emerald Creek Flower Link Charms

Emerald Creek Vintage Ivy Embossing Powder

Emerald Creek Hammered Metal Embossing Powder

Emerald Creek Frosted Plum Embossing Powder

Emerald Creek Cardstock in Arctic white

Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Peacock Blue and Twisted Citron

Dylusions Paints in London Blue, Dirty Martini and Fresh Lime

Ranger Ink Clear Texture Paste

Distress Collage Medium 

Challenges Entered 
Frilly and Funkie: It's not Easy Being Green -upcycled a picture frame and used paper scraps to do my tiny tattered florals and my dressform.

On a more personal note, this is my 3rd Mother's Day without my Mom. It does not seem to get any easier to get through the day. I still have moments when things happen that I reach for my phone to call her, then just as quickly remember that she isn't here anymore. Small things that have changed make me cry, like a couple of her cardigans that I kept and hung on my bedroom door, sounds crazy I know, but they don't smell like her anymore, now they're just sweaters. But I still haven't been able to get rid of them, maybe one day.

Last year, on my way to work, The Dance by Garth Brooks came on the radio which is one of the songs Mom wanted played at her funeral. So the day started teary and didn't get much better. I just got home from work, put on my jammies and wanted to just forget what day it was. Then my kids reminded me I am a Mom and my son took his sister and myself out to dinner in White Rock (one of my fave places) and he took us to Coney Island (my Mom's fave fish and chip place). 

My Mom was very close to my kids and they loved her beyond measure. She was the most important person in their lives after me. My daughter sometimes still sleeps with the housecoat Mom always wore. My son had a dream about her just before Christmas and I think may have made some peace with losing her. 

The night after my Mom passed away my son wrote a poem, I still can't read it without crying and he said he could not read it a her service, so the officiant added it to his readings. And I can tell you when he read this poem, I heard some grown men lose it. I think it took alot of people by surprise that a 17 year old boy (almost 18 since his birthday was 8 days after he lost his Grandma) would sit and write. I've attached a pic of Lucas's poem that he wrote for his Grandma, with his permission.

Thank you for visiting and if you read this far, thank you for that too.

Cathy 

Where does the time go.....

Already at the May long weekend here!  The time has flown so fast it seems. My Dad has only 9 more days of work left then he is officially retired.  He is then moving down to Langley, to his wonderful suite at my sister's house, which is right down the road from my little rental suite too.

I haven't updated much and won't be for a bit due to lack of internet/cable at home.  After being unemployed and job hunting for much longer than I had anticipated, it has been hard to play catch up with all my bills and keep food on the table. So unfortunately I could only catch up on the cell phone bills this month :( But I need that more for work than anything else as I have to call in the minute I arrive at a store to start my merchandising.  It's very difficult not having internet as I use my computer for so many aspects of my life, my art class I just signed up for, sharing my cards that I try to sell to help make ends meet, my photography stuff. It's so strange how dependent so many things I love are on the internet. But it has brought me into contact with so many amazing artists and people that I am very grateful for that.

I am working now and have pretty good hours, but trying to catch up on my bills when so many other things need my money is stressful. I also need a more reliable car as my job is dependent on my having a vehicle as well. I merchandise books and mags in a number of different stores and need to be able to get to all of them. So that adds to my list of stressful things, also I'd really like to be able to afford a new bed lol I am getting too old to sleep on a too short (even for me!) love seat or an air mattress. But all things in time and I know that things are getting better slowly, it's just frustrating to keep struggling right now.

Not too many adventures lately as my son has been working overtime, which is great for him. So hopefully next week end we get to get out and do something. I enjoy the Sunday afternoons with my grown kids, it's nice to just get out and see something new and spend some time just being together, not talking about bills, rent, jobs etc.

I made some cards this week for a card exchange I'm in.

 Also had a nice Mother's Day with my kids and then dinner at my sister's house. It was the first one without my Mom so some moments were making me teary and the weeks up to Mother's Day had me emotional as well as I saw all the Mother's Day ads and cards and everyone getting cards etc. I know it's only the first one but was so sad not making a interesting new project to give my Mom for her special day and making her a card etc.

But my kids were good to me, my daughter made me a card using some of my fave things, purple, flip flops and Mickey Mouse :)

Beautiful flowers from my son. He was up early and went out and got me all the purple flowers the store he was at had, then came home woke me up and put on the coffee :)

The month has been going by so quickly, yet at times has felt like it was dragging. I miss having my internet, the cable not as much as I thought, except missing all the season finales of my fave shows lol
I brought my laptop and printer down to my sister's to use her internet to download and print all my work plano's and info that I needed, so thought I'd use the time to update here too! Hopefully I won't be gone too long and will update when I can, I am hoping to get everything back up soon so I can really make a good informative daily blog post about artists, classes, supplies and really get into my classes etc.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week!! :)

Mother's Day Scrapbook Layout

Want to make something original and from the heart for your own Mom, your sister, your Grandma, any Mom that is important to you? Here are the pictures of the layout we are going to do on May 5, 2012. We will also use the same colors and ideas to make a matching card too. You can do the pages for yourself to put in your album or use them as a gift for someone important in your life, just in time for Mother's Day.

CLASS INFORMATIONMay 5, 2012 - 7pm - 9pm At my home, will send address when registration is confirmed Fee - $20 You will go home with this beautiful 2 page layout and a matching card. All you need to bring with you are 4 pictures that you want to use, your favorite adhesive ( I will have some here as well) and your favorite cutting tool. Spaces are filling quickly! Please contact me to confirm registration and payment. Hope to see you in class! Thank you so much! Cathy