Life is like a bowl of cherries

There are always a certain amount of pits among the sweet fruits of life. And as I age, I seem to notice the pits more. About 3 years ago, I fell and broke my leg. I thought I would be in a cast for 6 weeks and then my life would return to normal. Beautiful dreamer. At the end of 6 weeks another xray showed it had not even begun to heal. Seeing my primary physician, and some tests showed that I had developed diabetes. So with the diabetes and growing older, that meant the healing process was going to be longer. Four months longer. At the end of that time I found I had lost " normal" along the way. Now my stamina was at a new low. Naps were no longer a luxury, but had become a necessity. I could no longer eat whatever I wanted or go without eating for long periods of time. Diabetes forced me to keep a schedule. Arthritis had been working overtime during this time as well. In other words my body had taken over by falling apart!! What I knew as normal was suddenly lost and gone forever. What to do? I did what most crazy old ladies would do. Threw a gigantic pity party. But of course no one wants to attend a pity party so I sat alone in my own misery for a while. I could almost hear Dr. Phill saying " How's that working for you?" It wasn't. That is a lonely place. Finally I began to contemplate where I could go from there. I soon realized there was no turning back to regain the old normal. My only option was to move forward and make a new normal for myself. One that included naps as needed, eating on a schedule and letting go of activities that couldn't meet the needs of my new normal. I decided one of the important things I needed in my new life was to remove as much complaining and negativity as possible. I knew that was going to be a huge task! After all, I had formed a strong habit of venting negativity. I needed a huge change of attitude. The opposite of complaining is being grateful. So I decided I would begin a gratitude journal. I made only two rules concerning it. 1. I needed to post one thing I was grateful for each day. 2. For 365 days I could not repeat any of the things previously mentioned. That wasn't too difficult for the first month. But then there were days when I thought I needed a grumble journal instead. I had to really concentrate to come up with something new to be grateful for. But it did get easier as time went on. One day I realized I wasn't thinking of my cup being half full or half empty. I came to the realizaion that my life and my world was full and overflowing with blessings. 2018 came and went and at the end of the year, I flipped through the pages and was blessed so much by what I saw there. I decided I wanted to continue keeping a gratitude journal in 2019. And I want to ask others to join me and share with me the glories of gratitude. Once I figure out who to approach with this idea, I will suggest we meet every two weeks to share our gratitudes. This is so much better than a pity party! I admit I am still working on developing a new normal for myself. I'll share with you, my progress as time goes along. My gratitude for today? That I can turn a facet and warm water comes out. My grandmother didn't have that luxury. Many people today don't either. S.

New Beginnings


One of the biggest things that stalls my creative process is something very simple.  It is the failure to begin.  It is the hardest part of anything we do.  Beginning.  I can while away hours thinking , but until I put that first brush stroke on that paper,  cast those first stitches on the needles or write that first word, my creative muse sits idle. She polishes her nails, cleans out the junk drawer, or a mirade of sidetracking activities but she is going nowhere fast. Now I readily admit there is value to mulling things over, but I think it's real value comes after you have begun.
I think another thing that sidetracks my beginning is my insane perfectionism.
My need to get it right the first time.  That is so crazy!  In my heart of hearts, I know some of my best work has come out my my errors. Errors are a given.  Creativity is the land of do-overs, the fertil ground of what ifs and now whats.  I know I will make mistakes.  It is inevitable. 
I don't think I judge my creative work by what others think of it, but I sure am my own worst critic!  While inner critic helps us grow, it can also keep us from even beginning if we allow it to have free reign.
So my war cry is: let the games BEGIN!   Learn the art of play.
S.

Restoring myself

It has been so very long since I have come here.  My life has been turned upside down since my last post and my creative muse has taken some hard blows.  But I think I see her peeking around the corner seeing if it is safe to come out.  I call her Suzie Q.   I wonder if she will recognize me.  I have aged physically and my arthritic hands struggle to play.  But perhaps she can see beyond those flaws and see the forever young part of me.
I would love to keep closer company with her in the days to come.
 I'm thinking I have been stuck in a rut because I have been limiting myself in creating to the ways I have always done.
Miss Suzie Q is hinting to me that creativity has many faces that I have not even dreamed of.  That is why there is never time for boredom.
My body may be crumbling, but my mind is clear.  I may not be able to garden any longer but I can enjoy the Flora around me.  Colored pencil art may be hard with my arthritic hands but watercoloring is still a possibilty.
I can knit, I can write via my computer and so much more.
My inner ears work fine too so I'm going to turn my ears to Miss Q's voice.  I bet if I begin to listen, she will take me places,I never imagined!
Hope you will come along for the ride.
S.

Rainy Days are for Stitching

There have been a lot of rainy days in my neighborhood. That usually means I can be found in my favorite chair creating cards to send to loved ones and shut ins.

I love to work on dark cardstock because it makes the colors "Pop".

I began making cards by using rubber stamps. Paper Embroidery became a passion for me in the last while. Then just lately I decided it would be great fun to combine the two of them. I usually color the images with colored pencils and sometimes water colors. It has brought new excitement to my card making. Combining the two mediums has opened my mind to other possibilities. Isn't that what keeps us creating?

I am so thankful to live in a time when there is such a wide range of colors and different kinds of threads to choose from. My colored pencil box is huge too. I have the rainbow at my fingertips. It seems the more I do, the more ideas that come.

Hope these will brighten your day.

Have a great weekend.

A new kind of Mother's Day

Darkness has fallen on Mother’s Day 2011. I am ready. I knew the first Mother’s day without Mother would be difficult. You just don’t live for almost 70 years with your mother in your life and not feel a deep sense of loss when she is no longer with you. She will always be in my life because she will always be in my heart but it is different.

I knew it would not please or honor my mother to have it turn out to be a day of mourning and tears. But I also did not want it to be a “business as usual” kind of day either. Some wise soul told me that it is sometimes a good thing to embrace our pain. At first I thought this sounded like a lot of craziness. But I decided it was worth a try.

I had made plans to make a memory garden in her memory so earlier this week I picked up the perennials to do that. I chose flowers that I knew that she liked and a few that would remind me of her. As I can no longer get down on my hands and knees I decided I would put them in containers and have them near my little deck table where I often have morning devotions.

Then this afternoon I went out to the deck and began to plant the flowers and at the same time buried some of my tears into the soil. There were no deep sobs, no lost feelings, just a sense of love and peace that seemed to come from my mother. Once they were planted, I sat in the sunshine for a while just feeling it’s warmth and the presence of God. . I find myself wondering how my own mother worked through her time of grief when her own mother died. I realize it is a cycle we all take and yet we do not seem to learn from those who have gone before. It is a personal thing and we must each walk the road relatively alone.

My reality is my mother has died. We will not see each other again until we meet at the feet of Jesus. I know she is at rest and I need to continue my way to find peace about that.

It is time for me to find a new part of myself, new growth and hopefully a way to bloom once again.

Mother’s birthday was June 11^th so that is my next hurdle. But I have learned things from today and I hope I will manage as well as I did today. I am truly relieved that this first Mother’s Day is over. I cannot but hope that next year will be just a bit easier.

So tomorrow I will return to dong the creative things, cooking meals and gardening, hoping I will grow and bloom and all the love and hard work of teaching me the best she could will be rewarded.

I had hoped to post photos of the new memory garden. It will have to wait until I can shoot pictures in the daytime. Perhaps I will let them settle in just a bit.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you, even those who are missing their mothers. Memories can bring us close

Sallyann

April is here, Spring is not

Well it is warm enough here so that we are getting rain instead of snow, but I still need my winter coat. I am planning a celebration for the day coming when I can hang it in the closet for a few months.

I so want all the things that come with spring so I have been putting some of those things into my cards in the last couple of weeks. I love the baby bird! It is one of a set of bird clear stamps that I bought this last month.

I also found some lovely quilt block patterns in paper embroidery that reminded me of all the joys I found in quilting in years past. And just as pretty on paper with threads.

The little Lily of Valley flowers were just what I needed to work on on the first day of spring as flurries of snow fell from the skies.

I am so thankful that I have art to express myself and to share with others. Hope all of you enjoy them as well

Hope you will all find ways to embrace a season you love.

Sallyann