Bye, bye…

I will be happy when 2012 is over, it was tough year all around.  It started off rough with Papa’s medical issues, worsened as his struggle became too much and he went into hospice.   In June, one of our dogs passed, followed by my 2o year old cat in October, and my sweet Labrador, Hunter the next month.   In the same week that we lost Hunter my sister’s husband had a stroke and has been hospitalized since.  

There have been good times in between, a trip to San Diego, a few trips to Disneyland, movies, birthdays, hanging out with friends, chatting on Facebook…  I am thankful for these moments and will never forget how they got me through the year.

Today, I am thinking about 2012, the good parts and the bad parts.  I’ve decided that I will keep what I have learned but I am letting go of the stress, guilt, depression, sadness, anger and regret and letting it fly away.

I am looking forward to a fresh start.  I have a good feeling about 2013.  🙂

Jazz hands…

2012 was supposed to be the year that I spent time on myself. I was going to eat better, exercise, lose the weight that’s been creeping up and up every year. I was going to rededicate myself to my writing and finally do the rewrites on my finished NaNo project from 2009. I even started this blog on January 1st so I could keep track along the way.

The year turned out to be not so good, but there was some good stuff, in between the bad. I wrote over 200 blog posts, I made some in roads personally and I cut down my Dr Pepper intake to 12 ounces or less a day.

Overall, though, I am looking forward to 2012 being over. I’ll even be nice and wave goodbye with Jazz hands.

Come on, 2013. Let’s do this!

http://www.lindyshirts.com/product/caution-jazz-hands

Light in the darkness…

Today, I am borrowing the blog post from Re-inventing Fabulous again.  We are putting up lights again, this time for our friends, family and anyone else that had gotten us through our dark days.  

“We need lights for our friends today…Let’s really light this sucker up with our friends, even the difficult ones (and we all have ‘em).”

Today, I am putting up lights for…

Sully – I wouldn’t get through the day without my best friend and soulmate, my husband.

Faith – my BFF, the ‘sister’ that I met in college, we chat daily via Facebook.

Val – met in Russian 101, twenty four years ago and always pick up where we left off.

My ReFab and Betty friends, who have helped me through this last year even though I lurk more often than I post.

Lighting it up for all of them and a few more.

Photo credit

Lights and loss…

All year I’ve been reading the Re-inventing Fabulous blog, written by author Anne Stuart.  She actually goes by Krissie, Anne Stuart being a family/pen name.  This past year those of us that have followed this blog have been there sharing all of our experiences since last January.  

As we move towards the end of the year, Krissie has been working on wrapping up 2012.  Today, she was dealing with sorrow.

“So today let’s put lights up for those we’ve lost, people we loved who lit our lives and then moved on, leaving the warmth of their love behind.”

Photo credit

Here is my addition…

I am putting up lights for…

My paternal grandmother who was grand and adventurous, she organized a group of older ladies from her church every year on trips to different locales, Egypt, Italy, Ireland.

My mother who died when I was 35, she taught me not to let anyone push you around. She was 4’11″, everybody loved her and no one messed with her.

My father who died 16 months after my mom, he was a high school teacher and football coach. A renaissance man who made me believe I could do anything I wanted to do.

My father in law who told anyone and everyone that I had truly became his daughter when I married his son.

I miss them all terribly, but I feel so blessed to have known and loved them.

Banner day…

Here are some pictures of my Christmas craft from this year.

I got the idea at Thanksgiving with this Thankful banner I found at the Centsational Girl blog.  I made my own and a few for family, you can see mine here.

My sister loved hers so much that she asked for a Christmas banner.  She wanted one that was green, gold and red.  She said it reminded her of the Victorian type of arts and crafts that you see in the most recent ‘Little Women’ movie that came out in 1994.   I am not an expert on Victorian arts and crafts but I think the banner turned out well.  I let her pick the saying.  It’s hard to see in these pictures but it says ‘Peace on Earth’.

My sister loves it and I can honestly say it looks much better in person than in these poorly lighted pics taken with my phone.

I used the Jasmine font Cricut cartridge for the letters. Boo and I added glitter to the edges of the base and clear coated them before adding the scrapbook paper.

I bought the holly berries and gold pinecone floral pieces at the dollar store.

Sully’s mom has a holiday party every year and I usually coordinate my holiday craft with her theme.  This year it’s snowmen and snowflakes, so I made banners with ‘Let it Snow’ on them.

I used the Joys of the Season Cricut cartridge for the snowflakes.

Sully’s mom requested a banner with ‘Believe’ on it.  Here’s that one…

Boo and I mixed white, silver and white flake glitter together for the large snowflakes. We used a spray clear coat to protect the glitter.

I also did a few of these banners, for some good friends.

 

 

**I did the last bit of work on these banners December 26th – December 30th.  The bulk of the banners being put together December 29th.  I am retro-posting this entry for December 27th because I was too busy putting these banners together to post.