An Easter Gift From The Island….

               

   My cousin Margaret lives on an island here in Maine. She is an artist who paints and sculpts and writes music and poetry and has many other hidden talents. Yesterday, I got a very nice surprise in the mail for Easter! This wonderfully sculpted cat holding an Easter Lily! She made it especially for my husband and I for Easter! Isn’t he cute? She also draws on the computer with the paint program and she created this card that came with it….along with one of her beautiful poems. The poem reads: There’s no talking rabbits Into breaking old habits What more can one say Have a great Bunny Day!  I thought he fit in fine on my dining room table with my set of bunny salt and pepper shakers. What a wonderful gift from the heart. He will be with us for many Easters and have a special place in our home. I tried to get close ups of his wonderful tail. It wraps around the side of him, but I am not good at operating my camera yet….need to do more reading! He is sitting on a little round green stool. Look at those fancy sneakers she put on him with lacings! He has a red scarf tied around his neck. What a great little guy. You can see her blog at Island Paradise and find it in my favorite blogs. Here is a link to it just in case you don’t see it.  http://islandparadisepi.blogspot.com/  Thanks Margaret!! Happy Easter to you and B. and we will see you soon I hope! Some day I will share some other things Margaret has made me that we have. One of my favorites of her artistic expressions are her mussel shells. She paints little scenes inside the shells that are beautiful. She puts a glossy glaze on them, drills a hole for hanging and voila!……a very unique piece of art work!

   Yesterday I got spammed in my blog. Someone left a very, very, long disturbing political comment in my blog. It was like a book….it was so long! I couldn’t believe the things they were writing about! Very nasty having to do with Obama and Oprah and on and on…..obviously a very sick person. Luckily my husband figured out how to delete it. If it continues, I will have to disable the anonymous feature. Did any of you ever get hit with something like that?? I hope not. Just wondering? Ok…..thanks again Margaret!!! I love my little kitty cat! I think I will make him a her and call her Lily!!

A Busy Body Mom?????? No..not me?

My son has moved down here from Bangor to Portland and is living with his sister who is 2 years older than him. It has been 6 years since my son has been this close to home. My daughter, on the other hand has been living in Portland for a while. She is fiercely independent and does not normally want mom’s help unless she asks. I have been helping my son find employment through networking with friends I know, that have business connections, so I have been calling my son a lot. Sometimes his cell does not get good reception, so I have to call my daughter. She’s not used to all this communication with her mom! Actually, truth be told, I call her at least once a week and she calls me back maybe every two weeks or when she feels like it. I guess I have not cut the umbilical cord yet. I miss them both and wish they were more ready and willing to miss me too but I must remember when I was their age, all I wanted was my freedom from my folks. Here they are at Christmas time a couple of years ago.

Surrounded by gifts (of course)….I don’t feel comfortable unless I do that! Carissa decided to put all her bows on her sweater to show how many presents she had opened! Anyway….am I the only mom who feels this way? I just got off the phone with my daughter regarding Easter dinner details and asked if she was coming? My answer was “Mom!…Just because Kyle is living here now, doesn’t mean that we always have to come together now to every event!”……OUCH!! That little *****…..I wasn’t expecting that one! She’s a Gemini and so is he….born 2 years and 12 days apart. She’ll be 27 in June and he will be 25 in May. That split personality really comes through with her! My son…not so much. Oh well….maybe some of you moms feel the way I do? Maybe it is time to back off and let them do their own thing? Who knows. Right now I feel like calling her back and telling her how I really feel!…..maybe not a good idea. What’s your insight into this? Clueless on the plains….:(

My Patchwork Folk Art Pillow

It’s finally finished! I have been working on this for a couple of months now and it is done! This is the first of this type I have made so I’m really not sure what to think of it? I made a folk art pillow I shared in this blog for my mother in law Alice Mary for xmas this year but this one is a bit different. It started out as a Victorian patchwork pillow. I had all this material and started just cutting it up. I have a vintage button collection and old broken jewelry I’ve saved and the rest just kind of came together. The darker shiny maroon material is a dress my daughter wore to an event in high school. She HATED that dress and asked me to throw it out! Instead, it was used in this pillow. The back is just that. As you can see I didn’t stuff it too well.:( Here are some close ups… See that blue embroidered flower and the buttons and the metal leaves? That’s my favorite embroidery. The flower head is called God’s Eye and the leaves came from an old earring. The metal leaves and amber beads above, once again from broken jewelry, I made into a praying mantis on the left. It was a lot of fun. This was my attempt at a fan of material. The teal material is from an old nightgown I had! The outer edges of blue and white and yellow are an old hankie that belonged to one of my aunts….it had a hole in it. This was me experimenting with embroidery….I haven’t done it for 40 plus years! An odd colored sunflower that my husband says looks more like a strawberry I embroidered. Having fun with edging….got a little carried away…that’s why it took me so long! Close up of one side…… and another……………. and one with buttons… and trying more embroidery designs… Have you see enough yet?….Don’t worry…almost at the end!……….. A scrapbook heart sewn in….who would have thought?…. And last but not least, my ice cream cone flowers with little black antique shoe buttons and clam shell buttons above. Whaddaya think? Be honest now…..don’t hold back….I can handle the truth!….at least I say I can.:(….ha ha…. I thoroughly enjoyed working on this pillow…..it was soul satisfying. Now I am not sure what I am going to do with it?

It’s A Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

              

Today is my hubby’s birthday!! He is a spring baby, born 5 days before his mother, Alice Mary’s birthday! This is a very special day indeed because if he was never born, God would not have gifted me this wonderful man. I am very grateful for that and for him being in my life. We met some 20 years ago while working at a place called Pineland. It was an institution for mentally challenged folks and we both loved working there. We became good friends and the rest is history.

So….I dedicate my blog today to him….Robert Augustine….I call him Bobbie….the man in my life….the man I love and always will. The man I look forward to growing old with….the rest of the days of my life.

                

                          

HAPPY B-DAY HONEY!!!!

         Enjoy your special day

               Your loving wife