Remembering Her Legacy

First off, let me apologize for my length of absence.

It seems that summer days slip away much faster than any other time of year. We have been enjoying these sweet, hot days dripping with fun, fresh food and family.

My studio has been humming with new shop items, sales, and also a new quilt for my family. More on that next time...

Back in June, we made the unexpected trip home to celebrate the life of one remarkable woman. Justin's grandmother passed at the ripe age of 90, still sharp as a tack, and with her life fully filled with the Lord.

Christmas visit, December 2010

She was a mother to seven, and grandmother, great-grandmother and even great, great-grandmother.

Meeting Great-Grandaughter Alora at 4 months old

Her last hours were spent scrawling wisdom of the Lord, words of love and even a few jokes on over 40 pages to her family as they surrounded her. Unable to use her voice, she wasn't going to let that prevent her from sharing what her heart told her to say.

Meeting Everett for the first time

One of her last papers, written to be shared with all, said simply this:

I love you all

I love the Lord

Lord, take me home

What a place to be when coming before the Lord in her final hour. I hope to be that at peace when my time comes, whenever that may be.

We spent the weekend remembering, laughing, crying. The day before she was laid to rest, we went to the cemetery where her husband was interned 28 years ago.

What joy to know they are together again. 

We planted flowers she would love and made it look unique from all those around. "She wouldn't want to blend in" said Mom. She is the purple and orange in a field of red and white.

Everett helping Grandma

Ayla tucked in with Momma Alicia, Justin's sister

Ayla wearing her Grand-Grandmother's baby bonnet. Such a beauty.

 I was honored my mother-in-law asked me to sing at her memorial. Amazing Grace. Just as she would have wanted. The last piece laid open on the organ, verses typed up and next to the score. A hymn to sing her home.

A avid crafter, she had projects started all over the house, many for great-grandchildren. She loved crocheting for those little babies.

Alora wearing her purse from Great-Grandma Pryor at the pumpkin patch. She takes it everywhere.

She was a sewer, quilter and weaver as well. I am honored to be inheriting her beautiful floor loom. I have never used a loom, but I look forward to learning and honing my skills and remembering the love and legacy she wove through her family.

My grandmothers lived across the country from me as I grew up and passed away before I had children of my own. I wish my children could have known those two women and I know they would have delighted in great-grandchildren immensely.

Having a relationship with Grandma was natural and easy. She showed me the same love as any of her own grandchildren, and she and I had many stimulating conversations, from child-rearing to crafting to religion. She brought a fullness to my life that I didn't know I was looking for. A wisdom of a life lived deep, shared without reservation.

She was such a blessing in my life and my children's lives. A joy and a delight.

Remembering her today.

Love to you all,

A peak into my drawers...no really!

So after going on and on about my basement of craft mania, I thought I would give you a little peak into my space and what's been going on down there recently.

I have a wheeled cart that houses my current works in progress as well as recently completed items. I can just roll it around wherever I am and have it next to me with all my project elements at hand.

Honestly, I also find it reassuring to open my "Finished" drawer just as an occasional morale booster. I have to tell my self that whatever I am in the trenches with, it will someday be finished and someone will get the pleasure of seeing it on their baby or child. So here's my "Finished" drawer as it looks right now.

One of my other favorite places is my shelf of fabric bins, just begging to be created into something new and fabulous!

I always wash and press everything right after I return from the store so when I have time to go down and create, all I have to do is pick my fabric of choice and get crackin'! When you have two little kids, you have to take full advantage of every moment you have to work!

Ah yes, the lovely Singer, currently set up on my craft table as I have been using it so much. (love, love, love).

My spools and bobbins are like little rainbows in boxes - such a delight!

Here is my latest purchase from my favorite yarn store in Denver, Lamb Shoppe, which is a beautiful little place piled ceiling high with the most beautiful fibers from all over the world. They house their yarns on old wooden built-in bookshelves complete with rolling ladder and all! They always have a large stock of my favorite Debbie Bliss yarns on hand. Ohhhh, it's like a bag of pure softness and tactile goodness.

Here's the top of the knitting bakers rack loaded with baskets of beautiful fiber from projects past and also a good stash for projects yet to come.

Next to the long craft table are the towers of madness...yes, the scrapbooking towers. Recently neglected in favor of other crafting options (namely for the shop), I do still love to look through all the papers and notions knowing that someday I will have time to put all my little one's pictures in albums. I am okay with that fact that that isn't today.

Right before shipping out the door, all my sales take a stop at the wrapping station to get dressed up all pretty in tissue paper, a tag, and pretty ribbon before heading out the door to their new home.

I have almost finished three boys knit hats in three different sizes which I hope to have up in the next day or two! Buddy Boy is up from his nap, so Mom duty calls :)

Mogul Mom? Momtrepreneur? Moron?

I have always loved crafts (and for those of you who know me well, this is the understatement of the century). A self proclaimed hobby-a-holic, I have always needed something to put my creative energies toward and making things with my hands has always been an outlet for me.

My basement is a rather embarrassing shrine to this habit. Clear storage bins and sliding drawers are stacked to the ceiling in the scrapbooking corner packed full of a rainbow of papers, stickers, rub-ons, stamps, embelishments, tools, punches, and more. There’s the sewing station with spools and bobbins galore, with each shade reminding me of projects past. A side of the road find bakers rack is loaded with baskets of the softest, most touchable yarns, remnants of precious projects that have graced my babies heads, feet and wrapped them in warmth as they were brand new. A storage shelf holds fabrics, pattern books, cross stich projects and floss/thread, my kids’s art supplies (googly eyes, pipe cleaners, finger paints, water colors, contruction paper and more) and some of my favorites: bins of keepsakes from when I was younger: writings, clay figurines, old programs from plays and concerts, and more (scattered in with the occasional 10 lb nursing school text book!). Then there is the banquet length craft table, inevitably strewn with the paraphernalia of whatever creation is attempting to take form.

It is merely a flight of stairs down into this organized yet somehow haphazard space, yet I feel a world away when I am down in my haven of textures and mediums just begging to be combined into something new and fabulous.

Up until about a month ago, everything I have made has always been for myself, my children, or as a gift for someone close to me. After multiple “little birdies” chirped in my ear (you know who you are!) that I really should sell what I am making, I decided to jump in with both (well, one and a half) feet.

I first heard about Etsy from my sister-in-law. What a treasury of unique, handmade and vintage gems. The concept is rather wonderful. I have been able to open a “shop” selling my handmade articles that lets me market and sell my creations to the greater population, have control over how much I make and sell, yet still have relatively little commitment if things should not go well or I get burned out. Sounded good enough for me.

Thus Rosewill Arts was born inspired from my kids’ middle names as they inspire me to be a better woman, wife, and mother every day.

So here’s to becoming a momtrepreneur, for now. We’ll see where this takes me, and for the time being, I’m along for the ride!