My Grandmother made this patchwork dog, out of scrap yarn no doubt! My Mom hand sawed 2 pieces of plywood to create this perfect sun burst mirror! I am the proud owner of both these treasures!
On this Mothers Day I would like to pay tribute to a couple of my crafty mentors: My Grandma Reta B and my amazing Mother, Christie. My grandmother was literally a pioneer. She grew up in the country and while sitting in a horse drawn wagon, taught herself how to knit with an old scrap of red yarn. Some 60 years later she taught me to knit. She crocheted over 100 afghans in her life and I still have the 1 she made me. She taught me how to use a thimble and she had a large collection of them that I inherited from her along with bags of yarn and half done projects. She and I had a somewhat unsuccessful attempt at learning tole painting...but we tried!! She was the original DIYer not just out of fun or hobby but out of necessity and the need to preserve the craft. I often wonder what she would think of me now and what I have done with the skills she passed on to me. And then there is my truly amazing mother. When she was 18 and her and my Dad were newly married, their first home together was on an Air Force Base. Their base housing was without a fireplace, so for Christmas she made one out of cardboard. She painted it like brick and hung their homemade stockings from it. She has sew everything from bibs and pajamas to matching dresses and Halloween costumes galore. She can slipcover anything! For several years she made our holiday cards, lining us 5 kids up on the couch for a photo she would take and frame beautifully with construction paper, every one done by hand. Our parents built us a Barbie penthouse one Christmas and my Mom decorated every room perfectly, framing our tiny school photos and hanging them there so we could pretend that we were Barbies pals. She can paint and draw beautifully, use a miter box, work a jigsaw, hang wallpaper, do stained glass, and one summer she painted the entire outside of our 3 story house using just an extension ladder and a brush. If the whole diy-home improvement-blogging world existed back then she would have ruled it. Only she would not have had time because she was too busy being creative to brag about it. My grandma Reta B and my beautiful Mother Christie are my crafting idols. They were crafty before crafty was cool, and they taught me everything I know!
I hit up the "Goodwill" yesterday with my sister. That is always a fun time! We stroll down the isles cracking each other up with the random things we see, and then find the most outrages, dated and crazy clothes to show each other! It's so fun! Mary is a "Goodwill" Pro! She goes for the clothes (she owns a clothing resell shop) and I gravitate towards furniture, so we don't compete. Later that night I talked to her and asked what she did with the rest of her day and she said "went to another Goodwill!!" What a life! Oh...and I got this great stuffed camel...totally random!
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