hero

Sarah thinks it's really hard to buy gifts for guys. The things they like are way out of her league & budget. Things like cameras & i pads. Cars. "Girls are easy, you can buy them earrings!" she moaned. In the end, she made her Papa a coupon for another granite slab for his garden. He will, of course have to take her to purchase and transport the slab home.I finished the mini, minibook I started in Mr Papa's honour. I wonder if he even likes it with pages of glimmer misted, citrusy colour. But I poured myself into it, with the little snatches of time I had. Usually late at night. So much is going on in our lives right now. Exciting ,challenging, exhilirating. Things that keep all your brain cells working . Sleep is easy these days, when there is time. (grin)


In all this busyness. In the looking forward, making this little book reminded me of the constant that is family. That the main driving force, the intangible power that keeps us going, is love.
In the days ahead, I will get busier and more immersed in the' building' of the new store and all it entails. I hope that my people will know, if I do forget to tell them, that their love carries me.
That all the little gestures & sacrifices, coming home to help, coming home to celebrate, being there always. In spirit, in words in encouragement. All these I want them to know, inspire me, define me, lift me up. Their love allows me to be the hero in my own story.
Heroes make heroes.

Dad & the phantom

Not a real phantom but a Rolls Royce. Philip brought one in for sale and Dad got his lifelong dream of sitting in one. He kept asking for the photos and I had purposed to make a layout for him but I had a problem. Dad was wearing green, Mum was wearing purple and the Phantom, was wine red. Yikes!
With Dad not feeling well lately I thought I'd just do it. So I converted the pictures to 'Antique' and worked with a subtler green & purple. We put it in an Ikea frame and Dad & Mum were pleased. Enough to put it up with all their other photos in the dining room.

(smile)

work of heart

I set a goal for myself. 2 layouts and 2 cards a week. This week I haven't made anything. But last week I think I made my quota =) Well not 2 + 2 but I'm letting myself off the hook because this one took a whole day to put together. Not including all the coordination it took Alka and the other ladies in our Tuesday group. I don't do commissioned work because it takes too long. And, ok mostly because it's really hard to do what other people like.

So anyway, everyone wrote their messages on little squares. I was to use green & yellow, Jo's favourite colours. And butterflies please. And so I began on a Wednesday morning, after a 'meeting' on Monday with the ladies. Christina and Lerks sent their stuff on Tuesday and Nie left her houseguests to give her writing to me on Wednesday afternoon. I worked like an ant , but when I had to print some more photos, found that I was out of photo paper. So off to the mall, no time to dawdle and back to finish off the gift.

We decided to do a quilt style project, because Jo makes beautiful quilts. I had fun making the little spool, thread & all. Nice change to create for a gift instead of a class. Although I'm thinking we might do a similar class.

It was done by dinner time and we still managed to get to Dad's place for our tri weekly 'sleepover'. Puff, pant.

Happily, Jo loved it. She said we made her cry. The guys pretended to be mad they weren't asked to write. Maybe next time.