A Tribute to Mom

 Hi everyone. 

I hope everyone is wrapping up a good week and weekend. Today is a big day in my house. It is the 4th anniversary of the kidney transplant. And the good news is the hubby is still doing well. My "little kidney that could" (as the doctor still refers to it), is doing its job perfectly. And the one I have left is working very well for me too. Smile.

I had fun but busy week. And I wasn't busy with yard work either, even if I could have been. 

My week's highlights included a beach walk. Pretty soon the beach will become a different place for a few months, and even though that doesn't means beach walks are over, parking is going to change  since towns want parking stickers or paid parking.

Now that I am fully vaccinated and the 2 weeks since my second injection have passed, I did a couple of things I have wanted to do for quite awhile now. First of all I was able to get together with some also vaccinated friends for dinner. It felt good to be able to enjoy some good food and company inside just like in the "old" pre-covid days. 

I was also able to go see my mom and visit in her apartment. They were limiting the time I could see her (an hour), and I did have to check in before I could go upstairs, but I hadn't been able to see her since last October when outside visits ended.

She was looking and sounding good too. (I talk to her on the phone frequently, but it is not the same as getting to see her.)

The visit was perfect timing too since today in the US  it is Mother's Day.

 

I thought I would share this cloth book I made many years ago and found in a bin in my attic last month. I was inspired to make this book by the fat quarters I used.  It is perfect for today since it has a vintage woman's theme and is probably how most people used to (or maybe how some  still) picture their mothers.

I printed vintage photos on fabric for these pages. The printed image on the right was black and white. I colored it in.

This book was pretty simply made. I cut 4 squares of thick interfacing, each 4 x 4 inches (10.6 x 10.6 cm) in size. I then cut my fabric into 5 x 9 inch ( 12.7 x 22.8 )rectangles. 

I folded over the edges of my fabric rectangles and ironed them. Then I pinned in my thick interfacing squares, one on each side of the fabric rectangle, leaving the center of the fabric rectangle open. I didn't want it to be stiff so I could fold it there to make the center of my book.

I stitched in the interfacing while sewing in the folded in seams in place. Then I stacked all the rectangles and stitched down the middle to hole my page together create my pages.

I'm not sure where else besides the US it is Mother's Day, but I am wishing all you mothers, whether you are the mother of a human, a cat, a dog, plant or any other living thing, a wonderful holiday.  And if it isn't Mother's Day in your country or you aren't a mother of any sort, I still wish you a great day.

And of course, enjoy the rest of your weekend.

 

T Stands for Happy Birthday and Weekend Food

Hi everyone. Time for T again.  Stop by  Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog  to join us or see what the T ladies have been up to.

This week for T we'll be celebrating my mother's birthday. This past Saturday she turned 90.

My daughter came home for the long weekend, and we headed down to visit Mom on the big day. I still have a hard time thinking of my mother as being that elderly. She lives in an assisted living center. Mom is really mobile but has some memory issues.  I'm not sure she knew she was turing 90, but she kept telling us she doesn't do birthdays anymore. We told her that she should celebrate because so many people aren't lucky enough to make it to 90, and never mind still be able to move around as well as she does. She wasn't buying that though.
 We brought her a little cake as you can see here.

(But she didn't want candles since she wasn't counting them anymore.)

We got her this fun balloon also, which was the same one we got her last year. She didn't remember it, so it made a big hit again. (We knew she liked it so much last year so why risk getting her one she may not like as much.) It also made a hit as we walked through the grocery store where we bought it and when we walked with it into Mom's assisted living building.

 And here's my drink for the week. I'd been drinking this Diet Coke for a couple of days.  I enjoy drinking a Diet Coke (as you can probably tell) but I never drink that much of it at any one time.)

 

 And I had my daughter take this photo of me and my mom. Some of my friends at work could not believe I was taller than my mom, since I am not very tall. (And no, this is not a comment on being short, but when you work with tall people,  and have many/well most students way taller than you, people don't believe that you could be taller than anyone.)

But no, I am not that much taller. When I shrink I will probably be her size.

And I also did some baking this weekend. I started a new Diet Coke on Sunday when I took this photo.

 I found this bread book in my attic a couple of years ago. I don't know why I put it away up there because every bread I've tried from it ends up being delicious. This past weekend I made a German Friends Cake with my sourdough discard. And once again I was not disappointed.

This coffee cake style bread had apples and walnuts. It also called for raisins, but I'm the only one to eat them in the house, so I left them out.  It also had a brown sugar crunchy top. 

And one more bit of junk food for the post. On the way home from my mom's, my daughter and I made s top at Trader Joe's. We picked up this bag of gummy spider candies, not realizing they were a mix of sweet and sours. We had a fun ride home having a sweet/sour candy adventure and laughing at our faces when we got the sour ones. They were pretty yummy. and  a good way to make the last hour of the trip a go a little faster.

Wishing you all a great T day.

And thanks so much for stopping by my blog.

Cute Balloons and Art

Hi everyone. Hope you had a wonderful weekend. We got cold temperatures this weekend, not quite frost weather but this morning it was 39 degrees F (like 3-4 degrees C). I guess it is the middle of of October and time to get chilly, but just a couple of days ago it was like a hot summer day.

Today I had an afternoon of art. One of the pieces I was able to make is this tag which I want to share over at Tag Tuesday and their challenge buntings/flags.

I started by partially covering a tag with some music paper. Then I rubbed a bit of ink over it. I added some painted cardboard as well the TH found relative and some flower stickers. I also added a bit of cloth trim and some little gemstones.

I was also able to make a page to join Linda's challenge at Art Journal Journey, Creature Comforts, and my creatures are having a dance party.

I used  bit of black ink on the page and then added these fun stickers that I found in the Halloween section at Hobby Lobby awhile back. I drew the disco ball and colored it with silver glitter glue and also added a few little metal stars.

So yesterday I went to visit and celebrate my Mom's 89th birthday. Look at this fun balloon I found for her.

This balloon was about 2 feet tall and I knew Mom would love it. Her dad used to raise beagles so she named this one Sally as it was the last dog her dad had. (I actually remember Sally when from when I was a young child.) When I walked into her apartment building there were a lot of woman in the lobby waiting for lunch to begin and this balloon caused quite a stir. I think many of them hoped I was delivering it for them. 

She had a good birthday celebration and my brother showed up too so it was nice for Mom to have both of her kids (and one of her grandkids) there.

And here's the birthday girl. She'll tell you she's 29 again.

And since my brother showed up I got distracted and forget to get a group photo.

Thanks for stopping by to visit.

Happy Mother's Day

We celebrate Mother's Day Sunday May 14th  in the US. To those of you who are Mom's any place in the world, I wish you a fantastic day.

Here's a photo of my mom, myself and my daughter taken last winter. I'm not up after my Tuesday surgery for the 2 hour drive down to visit my mom, but I wish I could. I will give her a call though as I can comfortably do that from the couch. :) 

I'm not yet back into making art, I'm much more into napping, reading and watching movies,  so far at least.  But I took my little walk to the mailbox and scouted out if I could find my bird feeder.

We had a large black shadow of a visitor last night.

 Before he went running into the woods, he reached back with one of hairy paws and pulled off my feeder. Then he made a dash  with it into the woods.

Bent my pole right over and there was no sign of the feeder.

I did manage to recover the humming bird feeder though-which I am sure he guzzled down as a little sweet evening drink.

I wish I could have photographed Mr. Bear for you, but I was only using the moonlight to see him. Once we put on the back light he disappeared-with the feeder. 

I'm getting antsy to get playing but since I'm not yet that energetic, I thought I would show you a few more photos of pre-surgery pages in my calendar and daily drawing journal.

And a big thank you to all the warm well wishes coming my way! I love you ladies for thinking of me!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone!

Somebody's Having a Birthday

This young woman is having a birthday today and turning 29

again.

If my math is right that means it is her 55th year of being 29!

Lucky her.

This is my mom,

and though she doesn't read my blog

(but she should) 

I am wishing her a

Very Happy Birthday.

See you again soon.