My First Rosettes

Ta-da!

The rosettes I promised to post, all three of 'em. I used real buttons on the black and white ones, a sticker button on the white and pink one.

The backs are ugly, but who cares, they'll be stuck to something anyway. I think these would make pretty brooches as well as decorations for scrapbooks, cards, and the like. I attached the white one to the envelope of a birthday card, stuck it amongst a vase of flowers for the birthday girl and it was a hit. Oh, and I also tried out the border die and I'm happy to say I luff the results!

The gift of this Vagabond is going to be one of my all-time favorites, can you tell?

I Did A Little Crafting

Even though I've been fighting this dang flu thing (cough, sore throat, stuffy head, no energy), I managed to do a little crafting.

 

This is probably my most favorite card I made so far. Dawn bought me different-sized acrylic people buttons, so I used one of the ladies, isn't it fabulous? I threaded it with some twine (from the Christmas Advent calendar goodies, see December) and tied it in a little bow.

 

I am in love with that twine, can you tell?

 

The "Crafted by" is a rub-on. I like how it looks like it's printed with glossy ink.

I also made Deni a Valentine's Day card. It's a bit on the gaudy side, but he liked it anyway.

Valentine's Day is also the anniversary of our first date, so I made up this silly ditty for the inside. "Roses are red, violets are blue, today is special, cause it's our anniversary, too!" I'm such a dork.

The polka-dotted frame and little tag on the back was cut using my Vagabond and a Nestabilities frame die. The hearts were made with a Martha Stewart punch. (Dawn made a heart banner for one of her co-workers' birthday by threading them on thin ribbon and it turned out adorable!) I could have printed out the text, my handwriting is just awful, but I think it gives it a more personal touch.

Next time I'll post photos of the rosettes I made, I'm so excited to have the die!

I made a few cards this past week, yay. I'll post photos as soon as I get over this flu bug, ugh.

Hours posted to the left of the door of one of our local cleaners, love it! (click photo to enlarge)

Mon: 7 TO 7
Tues: 7 TO 7
Wed: 7 TO 7
Thurs: 7 TO 7
Fri: 7 TO 7
Sat: 7 TO 6
Sun: Gone TO Church

Two Years Ago Today

I told myself I wouldn’t post about it this year, but it was a night that changed mine and my daughters’ lives forever. How do I not acknowledge it somehow? Some may think I’m giving it power over me, but I feel as though every time I talk about it, that power weakens and makes me a stronger person.

Two years ago today a man committed suicide by walking into the path of our car.

It was a little after 8 p.m., my daughters and I had just left a shopping center we rarely went to because it was a bit of a drive. Shortly after getting on to Highway 101, I had settled into the far-left lane, Dawn sitting in the passenger seat to my right, Valerie in the back seat directly behind me. Traffic was light, it was very dark, no lights shine on that particular stretch of highway. In a flash, I saw the man as he stepped across the line from the middle lane into mine. There was nothing I could do, all at once I heard myself make a noise (of disbelief, a person!), slammed on my brakes, held tight to the steering wheel and turned my face toward my side window and away from the windshield’s glass and dirt from the highway that hit us full on as this person made impact and then tumbled along the length of our car.

I managed to get my window down so I could see where I was going and pull the car over to the median. We didn’t spin out. We didn’t flip. We were alive! Dawn and I were spitting out shattered glass and dirt, and I kept screaming, “I hit a person! I hit a person!” and Dawn kept looking at me like she wasn’t hearing me (later she said her brain told her it was a tree or a pole or something). We couldn’t wrap our brains around what happened. I wouldn’t let anyone leave the car because I’d heard of people getting hit by passing cars. Or maybe I was frozen with fear, I don’t know, but when we saw headlights pull over behind us, we finally crawled out of the car, all of us covered with tiny shards of glass (weeks later we were still finding it in our skin).

Valerie, my brave Valerie, told us to stay where we were and walked back toward the headlights of the CHP, the man’s body silhouetted on the ground in front of them. We watched as she spoke with the officer, watched as he bent down to check the still figure on the ground. When she walked back to us and told us the man was dead I felt like I had lost my mind, the grief was so all encompassing. It was a night that never ended.

When I would hear about people having some type of catastrophic experience I’d think, oh, man, how awful, those poor people and then go on with my life. But now I look at them in a whole new way, I know the terror, fear, grief doesn’t stop when the incident is over. We have yet to find the right counselor(s) to help us work through this properly. It’s better, but we’ve all been left with PTSD and still struggle with what happened. The nightmares are less frequent, but I still have them, and sometimes I can’t get it together enough to get dressed, cook dinner, clean house, let alone go anywhere. I especially don’t like to drive, but I do it because it’s such an integral part of my independence.

But the thing that makes me feel the saddest is how it took away the innocence of my daughters, that joy that is innate in all of us before something tarnishes us. We are working to bring some of that joy back into all of our lives. We are broken, but who isn’t to some degree? We will be okay.

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” 2 Corinthians 4: 8-9

Killing yourself may end your pain, but it only creates more for those left behind. If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please, seek help, 1-800-SUICIDE, that’s 1-800-784-2433.

International Suicide Prevention Wiki

I have a Vagabond!

It's an early Mother's Day gift from my awesome daughters.
Thank you, Dawn and Valerie!