groovy stuff

January 20th was the 21st anniversary of the day hubs and I met ... twenty one years ... just flew by!

WHOOSH! 

On Tuesday, I mailed my first mini sampler off to my partner, Marti, in Linda's swap, A Swap For All Seasons. Per the good old USPS, Marti will be receiving it today so I'm going to share a little bit with you.

I found this saying/quote online to use on my card for Marti.

A bit of a peek at my sampler for Marti.

I had so much fun making it for you Marti!

I know it sounds hokey but I love being creative, it's where I feel true joy and feel connected. I hope to do lots more this year!

Happy almost weekend, my crafty friends!

seventeenth anniversary

Thank you for our wonderful life together Sweetheart! 

 

We'll be together 21 years in January
and seventeen years ago today,  

Friday, October 17, 1997, we got hitched. 

 

Happy Anniversary to us!

remembering

(source)

November 22, 1963.

Fifty years ago today, I was nine years old and the day began like any other day in my nine year old life. A school morning, seemingly unremarkable and then my favorite subject "lunch time", followed by playing on the playground after lunch, before returning to class for the afternoon. 

If you lived close enough to the school, you were allowed to walk home for lunch. And so it was that one of my classmates went home for lunch on that ordinary morning and returned with the news that our President had been shot and killed. 

I can remember that we were very upset and called our little friend a liar.

Funny how selective the memory is. I have no memory of our teacher or Principal talking to us when we returned to the classroom after lunch. And I can't remember if we just proceeded with the rest of the school day, as usual? Or if we were sent home?

I don't remember anything my mother said to me when I got home from school. I know that sometime after I was home from school that day, my father came home and said to me, "You will never forget this day. You will remember it for always".

I remember seeing so many of the images on television those first few days. Walter Cronkite. Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. The line to see the casket in the rotunda. Little John John saluting. The entire country in shock, grief and mourning.

And as my father had foreseen, I have remembered it, always. A day that changed our lives forever as individuals and as a country.

Remembering my father today also, tomorrow would have been his 95th birthday.

sixteen years

Yesterday was our 16th wedding anniversary (January will be 20 years we've been together). We picked up our old selves and went out to dinner at our new favorite restaurant - a vegan sushi restaurant. I had read how fantastic their Downtown location is for years and they finally opened a spot on the West Side near us.  YIPPIE! 

They're having a Halloween tasting menu during October and so we decided to try it. Pumpkin Tempura, Pumpkin Soup, Pumpkin Sushi, and Pasta with Pumpkin Cream Sauce. Yummy!

When dessert time rolled around, all the servers came over to our table with our desserts and a candle had been placed on one of the plates to celebrate the occasion.  Then they told us to hold this heart-shaped wreath and that they were going to take our picture.  We weren't sure what was going on??

When we were done with our dessert, the servers came back with the card at the top of this post, with our photo in it. So much fun! Very sweet.

We're hoping for a quiet weekend. 

My husbands surgery is scheduled for 12:15 Monday afternoon and his surgery should be over about four hours later and then post op can take another few hours.  We need to arrive by 9:45 that morning, so it's going to be quite a long day.

one year

Saturday was one year since my father passed away.

What a thing grief is! Ever since January, which was the one year anniversary of when this all began with my father's fall and his breaking his hip and then his decline - I have been replaying and reliving, the sad, the traumatic, the painful events. As if it's on a loop in my brain.

SOB!

Not being a newcomer to this world of grief, I have been counting down and longing for the arrival of March 10th, knowing that somehow miraculously, things do weigh less heavily, less frequently, after the first year mark.

I made plans to do something that would bring me joy on the day and also something in remembrance of my dad.


The hubs and I went down south to Santa Ana and took in GLITTER FEST for the first time. So much fun to get to see lovely creations and artists I've seen online. Can't wait until it's time for the next one in the Fall.

Cards from a few of the wonderful artists in attendance.

I got some darling - as if I need more, geeeeeeezzzz - Easter ornaments for my feather tree.

(by Sue Smith of The Fox & The Hare)

(by Robin Kelso)

I apologize to the wonderful artisans who made these for the miserable photos - it's always easier to grab the stupid phone, rather than hunt down the camera and here are the results. WAH!

And we ran into my crafty friend Susan too! Hi Susan!

And then we drove over to Costa Mesa to have lunch at the Taco Asylum. We're vegetarian and I had seen online that they had a wild mushroom taco and a curried paneer taco - nom nom nom YUMMERS! Tasty! Now they weren't in tortilla's - they were on naan bread, like pita. Actually I'm not sure that anything on the menu is what you typically think of as a taco, but they sure are good if you're in Costa Mesa.

Then on Saturday evening, we met my sister-in-law and my two nieces for dinner, to share the one year anniversary and think of the father, father-in-law, grandfather, we all miss so much.

My oldest niece was newly engaged the previous weekend and her fiance came along too. So very nice to have some good news this year, after so much sad news, so many passings last year.


We lost my brother 16 years ago, so my darling oldest niece will walk up the aisle with her momma. The moments my brother missed and the moments his dear girls have missed with him, break our hearts, over and over. But life goes on and somehow new moments of joy are made.

Then on Sunday, we went out to breakfast and then took a trip out to the cemetery and sat with dad (and my mother and my uncle too, nearby) for awhile.

So, one year passed. Our hearts look both backward and forward ... we long for Spring and new beginnings.


Happy Monday to you all!