Family

More and more these days the word
"Family" has different meanings. Over the years I have had "brothers" and "sisters" that my Mama never delivered. I think that comes from being an only child; I have, however, been the beneficiary of lots of aunts and uncles. Which also means many wonderful cousins. I happen to be the oldest.

Since my youngest aunt is only 5 years older than me, I have been an unofficial little sister to my Mother's sisters and brother. I have always treasured my times with the "aunts," especially since I have gotten older. They are all delightful, beautiful, talented southern Ladies, as is my Mom, and we all share that kinship of WOMEN. The photo shows (l-r) Aunt Frances, Aunt Ella, Beautiful Sutton, Bernie, Mama Anne, and me.

Yesterday several of us gathered at a lunch table in a local family restaurant. The main purpose was to bid farewell to my cousin Sutton. Sutton's dad, my Uncle Jack, died in January. Sutton and Stuart, (Sutton's brother, my cousin) had come back to Virginia to be with Uncle Jack in his last days and Sutton had stayed to settle matters here. Sutton and Stuart have made their lives on the West Coast and are very successful individuals.

I realized, during the brief times that I had shared with them, that I truly loved being with my cousins, and also that I wished we lived closer so that we could enjoy each other as friends. Alas, the time has come for Sutton to resume her life after this tragic interruption. She will be taking the long way home, stopping along the way to visit friends in different parts of the country. As I mentioned to her yesterday, sometimes a commute helps ease the transition. She said that she agreed and that is the main reason she is doing it; a 4 hour flight would be too quick.

Sutton's maternal Grandmother, Bernie, (whom she affectionately calls "Boo") was also there to thank all of us for our tenderness towards Sutton during this time. We all knew that "thanks" was unnecessary as we love her, Stuart and Uncle Jack. We were all appreciative of this last opportunity to be together. Bernie plus Sutton's mom and step-dad will also be traveling to the coast later this summer in a major move of household to be near their children.

So, bonne chance mon cher cousin! I do hope we will be together again someday. Remember, tho' you now live on the west coast, you are a southern girl at heart (remember those ham biscuits) and we all stick together! I will miss you.

Tee

Bad Blogger...

Well, life has been hectic but just wanted to share a few words. Tomorrow I will be teaching a class -- "De-stressing with Distressing!" If my students are amendable, I will post a photo. This is a paper distressing class to show the great effects you can get with white core cardstock, which is offered by Close To My Heart, amongst other good companies. Did I ever tell you that I am a consultant with Close To My Heart?

Anyway, still working on cleaning and rearranging my studio. I have heard from a very good source that my Williamsburg buddy, Lizzy's, studio is now finished. I hope to get some pics from her soon.

Spring is here in Virginia by the calendar but you wouldn't know it by the temp. I will leave you with a pic I snapped at Historic Stratford Hall (home of the Lees of Virginia) last weekend at a Leadership retreat.

Happy Creating!

Tee

Scrappin' Happenin'

Saturday I had the honor of participating as a vendor for the 2nd Rice's Hotel, Hughlett's Tavern Scrappin' Happenin'! My friend Susan again asked me to help these wonderful ladies with their fund-raiser and I was happy to help. RHHT is a historic location in Heathsville, Virginia and was an Inn and Tavern in the late 1700's. Volunteers have labored long and hard to bring this group of buildings back to life and are MANIC fundraisers. They also have lots of FUN while working hard! If you are interested, here is the link to their website... http://www.rhhtfoundation.org/ .

So, approx. 40 ladies gathered for a 12 hr crop and here are a couple of photos of the event...They all had lots of fun and did lots of pages. Most did my St. Patty's Day make-n-take and Vickie was the lucky winner of my doorprize.

Amongst other news, the redo of my studio is at a halt for a time. The sad thing is that I get going on sorting and tossing and then I have an event. I have to mess everything up to plan for the event and it takes me a couple of days to get back where I was before the interruption! Two steps forward...etc. I hope to work on it again this weekend.

One of my good friends, Lizzy, is also redoing her studio so I am eagerly waiting for the finalized photos. Lizzy and Betsy, my best scrappin' pals, are VERY organized; they are neat scrappers and when we get together, it is obvious that I am their complete opposite. I am lucky if I do not have an AVALANCHE of stuff at least once falling off of my table. They are good role models but I am afraid this old dog is hard to change. Maybe I will have some pics to share when we both are done.

Have a great week and if you don't have time to scrap...make some memories!

Tee

Finally...some papercrafting!

OK folks, this blog is supposed to be about papercrafting but you've only heard my ramblings...up to now! The photos featured here are of a make-n-take card and a centerpiece door prize I am offering as a vendor in a local Scrapathon tomorrow. I chose St. Patrick's Day as a theme 'cause it is always fun to feature holidays. All of my cardstock and patterned papers are Close To My Heart. I ran the darker green mat through my cuttlebug for the paisley emboss and sanded it. The shamrock is three hearts cut from the Cricut with a ribbon stem.

The little hat is the inner roll from used ribbon and a circle cut from cs. The buckle

was cut from the Cricut. This idea was lifted from someone (sorry, cannot remember) on the Two Peas site. So cute!

So, hope you have a great weekend and I will share some photos of the Scrapathon with my next post.

Tee

SNOW!

I know that most of the U. S. (I mean that is used to the stuff) got a lot of it this winter. I have been complaining that we never get the big snows that we used to have here when I was a kid.

We'd get 10 inches easy that would close school for a week! It was a fun time of sledding, making snow cream, snow angels, and snow men. It was also usually time when the local pond froze over and we could ice skate and warm up by the bonfire. Truly a child's memory.

Well, I can stop complaining because on March 1, 2009 here in the eastern part of Virginia, we got at least 6 inches. The only problem with snow here is that ice usually comes along with it, downing power lines and taking out phone and cable services. However, during our last big re-do of our 105+ year-old Albatross, I mean home, we installed gas logs. So when the power went off at 10 p.m. last night, I was ready.

Dear husband Rannie had already bundled up and gone out to help move snow for VDOT. He was not happy. We have differing views on lots of things.

It was nice and cozy infront of the fire. Both cats were like round lumps of fur warming themselves near the grate. BUT, Cody, the wonderdog, was cowering under the covers in our bed. Why? He is scared to death of the fire! That is another long blog entry.

The cold did not stop me from snapping a few photos on the way to work. Here is one from my back door. All of them are fuzzy and white but hey, it was snowing!

Hope you are warm, safe, and dry!

Tee