A little late to the game – it has been a very busy week here what with my first week at a new job and THEN a wonderful weekend… BUT, I did want to say Happy Mothers Day to everyone!

I was a little too late in posting to get this linked up to the actual link party at Vintage Thingie Thursday at Colorado Lady’s blog, but I’m happy to include a link anyway and hope you’ll head over there and check out all the beautiful vintage holiday items!

I don’t know exactly what ever happened to my mother’s Christmas stocking, but a few years ago we found this one at our local antique mall which looks exactly like it. Of course I admired it, and my hubby and daughter went back and bought it for me as a gift. I have enjoyed using it the last couple years.

I wish I knew a little more about it – whether it was originally a store-bought item, or perhaps handmade from a pattern. (My dad’s mother was very crafty, and I know she made us all stockings a couple of times over the years. Having seen so many of her other hand-made decorations – many made of felt – I can say this is a pattern she would have liked.)

Either way, this reindeer gal with her cheerful jingle bells and big eyelashes always makes me smile and think of Mom.

Hope you had a lovely Christmas weekend!

More soon!

This week I’m dealing with the loss of my mother-in-law, Betty Green. Betty was a delightful person – outgoing, out-spoken but never mean, giving, generous. She was also a thrift-store junkie and a crafter, like me.

Betty and I rarely shopped together, but we had a lot of fun showing each other our many wonderful “finds.” One day when Betty and Art stopped by for a visit, I had a whole box of goodies to show her – I knew she’d get a kick, as always, out of my bargains, and hearing the circumstances of each particular item.

As I went through the box, I pulled out this pretty blue ceramic vase. I had spotted this vase at a thrift shop and really liked the bird motif and the pretty blue color. But I almost didn’t buy it, simply because it was so small at about 6 inches high – and seemed, due to its size, to be lacking in real utility. In fact, I set it back on the shelf and walked away from it. I passed by it a few more times while wandering around the shop, and ultimately I couldn’t resist its charms.

As I was showing it to Betty and telling her its story, Art said to her, “That looks like that vase you painted for Clara a long time ago.” (Clara, Betty’s sister, had passed away a year or so prior to this.) And Betty said, “Well if it’s the one I painted it would have my initials on the bottom.”

We turned it over and sure enough, on the bottom, were the initials “B.G.” and the number “87” – a year which fell smack-dab in the middle of Betty’s ceramics-class phase.

We all marveled at this incredible coincidence. What were the odds that I would be the person who purchased an item made by my own mother-in-law, more than a decade ago, from a thrift store where the inventory changes daily?

Of all the objects in our home that remind us of Betty, this is the one that I have cherished the most since that day. I daresay it’s not likely to end up in a thrift store again, any time soon.

Love and miss you, Betty, more than I can say.

More soon!

Got a call that they were set to demolish our flooded house today, so knowing that work goes quick, headed over to watch it happen. About 2 minutes into the work, something broke off the giant claw and just like that, they were done for the day. Now the house is sitting partially busted up and exposed and likely to stay that way for a few days while they wait for a part and/or deal with this week’s winter weather. I know, it’s just a house – and an empty shell at that. But it’s painful, seein’ it like that – seems like there’s just no dignity for this poor house. Video above shows the entire 2.5 minutes of work that was done on Monday, 12/8. The audio of a voice saying, “DON’T, no no no,” is me telling a news photographer I didn’t want my picture taken.