Mojo Monday 163 - Scrapbooking in Melbourne, Florida

Hello, friends!  Did you vote yesterday?  I trust that the answer is a resounding "YES"!


Believe it or not, I created a card today for the Mojo Monday 163 challenge! 

I realize I have been relatively absent lately.  Trying to find a job is not much of a mojo generator!  But I needed a card for a fellow blogger who lost her husband this weekend after a long illness.  So devastating and so very sad.  I know I cannot even imagine her sorrow.

I decided to use some elements with a vintage feel.  My mom gave me a lot of old sheet music.  I would use it in every project if I could!  It may get monotonous, but I just love it.  The lace is from Hero Arts and the Prima roses were a gift from my friend Mona (thanks dear!).  The sentiment is from Verve and the die templates are my beloved Spellbinders(TM). 

Well, my son Alan is graduating (B.A.) from the University of Florida in December!  He had to pass a French college equivalency exam  or take French in the spring and graduate next spring.  So he has spent the past month re-teaching himself French, as he had not touched it since high school.  He took the exam yesterday and found out this morning that he passed!  Not unusual for him to pass an exam, but he was so worried about this one.  Now on to the Physics GRE so that he can start graduate school next year.  Better him than me, for sure!

I hope to be back soon with something else to share ;-)

Till then,

 

Mojo Monday 120 Challenge Scrapbooking in Melbourne, Florida

It's been a few weeks since I've been able to participate in my favorite challenge, Mojo Monday.  So I was really happy to be working on this card in my studio.

I pulled out one of my all-time favorite Close To My Heart paper packets, "Silhouette".  I hope this collection never retires!  Add to that my favorite Spellbinder's dies and my favorite Verve stamps, and you can't go wrong!  Right???

So here's my sketch interpretation.  I was very literal this time, staying as close to the sketch dimensions as possible.  Since I used a few different patterned papers, I kept the embellishments to a minimum.  You can click on the image to enlarge it.

Yesterday was a wonderful cropping day with friends!  We had a Flamingo Gals group meeting in the morning, then I headed over to play paper dolls (ha) with a gaggle of gals close by in Melbourne Village.  It was so enjoyable - like I imagine quilting bees used to be - women with a common bond laughing, creating, telling stories about our kids....sharing goodies (both craftable and edible).....what joy!  I headed home early to cuddle with my kitties...it has been C-O-L-D here in sunny Florida!  But it's better than the heat, so we'll take it!

I'd like to challenge you this week to pull out some of your favorites...maybe some things you have been 'saving' (like this Silhouette paper collection - ha).  Look at them with a different eye and nestle them with some of your other favorites that might no be intended to 'go' together.  Pull items from different companies and let them break bread together!  Then share your creations with your blogging buddies.

Keep warm,

Deb

Father's Day Card, but no one to give it to Scrapbooking in Melbourne, Florida

I know most of you have probably seen the men's shirt template going around the boards - so popular last year. I decided to try one with our Sarsparilla paper. Did you know that Sarsparilla has that first 'r' in it? Fun facts to know and share - tee hee.

Anyway, isn't this cute? I thought it would be nice to add to my card class this Saturday.

We lost my dad three years ago. It seems like yesterday! My dad and I shared a love of chocolate. Our birthdays were two days apart, so we also shared our birthday celebrations! Although this is a fuzzy, blurry photo, I thought it was time that I looked at it and reminisced a bit. This was our last birthday together. We are in my mom's house. That is me beside my dad, with my cute mom standing there holding the cake. It was chocolate through and through!

I also made homemade chocolate-covered cherries for my dad that day. When we were kids, Santa always left a box of chocolate-covered cherries under the tree for my dad! Then in the late 70's he had his first heart attack....no more chocolate-covered cherries. Santa refused to bring them for the next 30 years.

Well. I knew that this would be my dad's last birthday. Now, if you can't have something that you really love for your last birthday.......then why bother, right? So I bucked convention - and mom - and made these candies just for him. Put them in little candy cups in a pretty little box. You should have seen his face! I was so proud that I was able to put a smile on his face!

Our last moments together also revolved around chocolate - what else! He had been on Hospice care at home for about a week. I was cooking roast beef....Jamaican pork....whatever I could think of to take over to the house to get him to eat. He had no appetite and just laid in the bed. One day my mom called me at the office. She told me that the Hospice worker said it was time to take him to the Hospice House and that an ambulance was on its way. I ran out of the office and got to the house before the ambulance did.

My son knows, because I have told him, that when I am ready to go, I want him to give me some chocolate. That may sound trite and shallow to some of you, but I hope most of you understand and give yourself the freedom to enjoy something you really love when the time comes. So anyway, my dad wasn't talking, just really into himself. I asked him if he wanted some chocolate. He looked up at me and gently nodded his head. My mom went to the freezer and pulled out a Dove ice cream thing - vanilla inside with chocolate outside, sort of like those chocolate-dipped vanilla cones, but square. I held it up to his lips and he ate about half of it.

Little did I know that this Dove bar would be his last meal. We all (mom, Jeannie, Teresa, Hughie and Alan) stayed with him night and day for a couple of days, till the end. Friends came and went. My dad left us. But he left me with a love for chocolate.

I have to stop now. If you still have your dad, make this Father's Day extra special. You never know how many more you will have!

Sweet dreams,