Lady of Letters

This is my dear Aunt Helen from Dallas, who recently passed away. She would have been 102 years old today. She is my last tie to my mother's side of the family. She was the oldest of three sisters and my mother was the baby of the family. My mother died fairly young and has been gone for almost 38 years, so Aunt Helen has been like a second mother to me. Aunt Helen said that when I was born my mother told her she would share me with her, since my Aunt never had a daughter of her own. Little did anyone know all those years ago, that truer words would ever be spoken! 

Aunt Helen and my mother were very close and they shared the love of letter writing. Once my mother passed away I continued the tradition. We must have exchanged thousands of letters between us. She loved to correspond with people and she looked forward to receiving letters from them as well. Writing letters seems to be a lost art these days, but like my Aunt I quite enjoy it. It was a special bond we had with each other and I certainly am going to miss that now. I treasure all her letters, which were always so uplifting and supportive and funny too. About 10 years ago I began to save every card and letter she sent, thinking that once she turned 90 her letter writing days could end at any time. Little did I know that we would continue to write to each other for almost 12 more years! 

Family was always so important to my Aunt. She would share stories of growing up with my mother and my grandparents and I loved that so much. When I was a young girl and she would come for a visit, we would sleep in the same room and talk endlessly in the darkened room until one or the other of us would eventually fall asleep. We often laughed until we cried at some of the funny stories she would tell me. Now that Aunt Helen is gone, I need to start writing some of those stories down while I can still remember them. I probably could fill an entire book because there were so many of them! 

It makes me sad to think that Aunt Helen is gone now, but I am comforted by the thought that she is reunited with her dear husband, her sisters and my grandparents. I'm sure they are probably all sitting around laughing reminiscing about the good old days!

Memory Bear

In a previous post you may have noticed a little teddy bear sitting on the chair in my grandson's nursery. Well, let me tell you the origin of Mr. Teddy Bear. 

My dear hubby had a favorite chair in our living room. He wanted a recliner and although I've never been fond of the look of recliner chairs, I have to admit they certainly are comfortable.

As you can tell, George wasn't the only one who loved the chair. Our grand-dogs, Hank and Shooter loved the chair too. Or perhaps they just loved George. After George passed away, those dogs sniffed and sniffed that chair. Eventually they sat in the chair with me. I think we all felt closer to George when we were in that chair.

After a while, the chair finally broke. It was fine as long as I remembered not to recline in it. But somehow I always seemed to forget that simple rule. I managed to fix it temporarily many times.  But eventually it could no longer be repaired. I decided it was silly to hang on to a broken chair. It had served it's purpose of comforting me (and the dogs). So one day I dragged it down to the curb for the garbage men to pick up and at the last minute something told me to grab the arm covers off the chair.

When my grandson Jase was about to be born, I remembered those arm covers I saved from the chair. It made me sad to think that just like my daughter never got to meet her Grandma Jane (my mother), Jase would never meet his grandpa George. I wanted Jase to have something that he could hold when I tell him stories about his Grandpa. I never made a teddy bear before and I wasn't sure how this one would turn out. He's a little wonky with his crooked button eyes and his short little legs, but somehow that that made him more endearing. The arm covers were just the right size to make him...I used practically every inch of them. I hope Jase loves his teddy bear as much as his grandpa would have loved him.

Once upon a time . . .

Forty-two years ago today, I met this kind, funny, wonderful man. He was my soul-mate; the love of my life. I miss him more than words can say, but he has a place in my heart for eternity.

Photo Challenge - 8/5

Today's theme is "Architecture"

This is the beautiful chapel where my DH and I were married many years ago.

An Anniversary of Sorts

Forty years ago today, I met my beloved. It really doesn't seem that long ago. I had just graduated from high school. He was an "older man" by 3 whole years. I was from the north side and he was from the south side. We met while biking along the lake front in Chicago. It was the beginning of a wonderful life together. I miss him.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl

The photo above was taken 27 years ago ~ right after our daughter was born.

Here she is 24 hours old.

At two years old, she's the sweetest little pumpkin at the Pumpkin Patch.

She is married now and on her own, but she will always be our little girl.

Happy Birthday Honey!

Lots of Love,

Mom and Dad

xoxo

A Look Back. . . .

Many of my blogging friends seem to be acquiring either chickens (here & here) or Yorkies (here & here) these days. I do not have chickens, but our neighbors do. We used to have a sweet Yorkie (pictured above). She was our first "baby" before our daughter was born. Our Candy has been gone for many years now, but she still holds a special place in our hearts. All the photos of everyone's Yorkshire Terrier pups have brought back so many found memories for me.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Christmas in the Country

Call us crazy, but my DH and I decided to take a last minute quick getaway to the cottage this weekend. No, I am not all ready for Christmas. No, my house hasn't been cleaned for having the family over on both the 24th and 25th. No, my shopping isn't done and my presents are not wrapped. But it's kind of fun to put all that aside to spend time in the snow!
We ate dinner last night at a favorite restaurant and I had to take a photo of the tree in their waiting area. It reminded me so much of my Scandinavian grandparent's Christmas tree. They always had strings of Norweigan and Danish paper flags stretched across the boughs of the tree. I feel so fortunate that I still have some of those original flags.

I hope you all taking some time to enjoy this last weekend before Christmas.

A Day of Remembrance

- Original Photo by Thomas E. Franklin -

Where were you eight years ago?

We Remember. . .

Freedom Isn't Free

by Kelly Strong

I watched the flag pass by one day.

It fluttered in the breeze.

A young Marine saluted it,

And then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform

So young, so tall, so proud,

He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him

Had fallen through the years.

How many died on foreign soil?

How many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?

How many died at sea?

How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?

No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of TAPS one night,

When everything was stillI

Listened to the bugler play

And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times

That TAPS had meant "Amen,"

When a flag had draped a coffin

Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,

Of the mothers and the wives,

Of fathers, sons and husbands

With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard

At the bottom of the sea

Of unmarked graves in Arlington.

No, freedom isn't free.

Catching Up

A while back, Heather asked us to do a RAK for Mel because she was undergoing major surgery to remove a tumor from her brain. Happily, the surgery was a success and once Mel returned home she was presented with a container filled with lots of wonder handmade tags and greetings. You can see pics of Mel receiving the RAK gifts here. Pictured above and below is the tag I made for Mel. It was so much fun to make ~ I hoped she liked it! The little vignette pictured below sits atop a cupboard in my kitchen. I have a teeny-tiny kitchen and not much space to have anything pretty around except for the top of this cupboard. I change it out as the mood hits and right now I have this little grouping soaking up the sun from the lace covered window.
These robin's egg blue spheres I made are another of the Casa Bella projects. These were easy-peasy to make. I have them sitting in an antique milk glass candy dish which once belonged to my aunt. I have a small collection of milk glass which once belonged to either my mother, my aunt or my grandmother. I think of them whenever I see or use these pieces. I remember this dish being used on my aunt and uncle's beautiful covered patio in the summertime.

Virtual Vintage Prom

Today is the day that Natasha is hosting the Virtual Vintage Prom Party on her blog. Now when she said VINTAGE Prom, I took the word literally and decided she must be talking about MY prom from back in the day. You see, my prom actually qualifies as a VINTAGE prom! Above is a dress that my daughter wore to one of her HS dances - isn't it pretty and pink and girly? Ah to be young again. The pictures below are of me with my prom date on the BIG night. (OK, stop your giggling girls!) Yes, I also had a pretty pink prom dress, but it is not quite as stylish as my daughter's dress. I suppose it was at the time, that is if one can remember back that far! Don't you love the high neckline? Quite different from the dresses the girls wear these days, isn't it? I look like I attended a Catholic High School (or convent perhaps) from the style of this dress. I would like to point out that I actually MADE this dress, along with my mother's assistance. We went dress shopping at all the big name downtown Chicago stores and we came across one similar to this at Marshall Fields (recently bought out by Macy's). I tried it on and we both studied it and sketched it and tried to remember all the details of the dress. Then we went to the fabric store and looked through the Simplicity and McCall patterns to find something similar. We ended up combining several patterns to create the best designer knock-off that we could. Just look at the sleeve detail....nevermind the blurry photo!
And what about this hairstyle? (Looks like a school-marm hairdo with that bun!) My self-inflicted up-do, complete with curly tendrils, was a far cry from the expensive trips to the hair salons that the girls have these days. Boy, was I ever a cheap date!
Speaking of cheap, so was my date! My prom was held at the Knickerbocker Hotel (formerly Playboy Towers - how inappropriate for a high school prom!) in Chicago. The theme of the prom was, "Beginnings" after the group Chicago's hit song of the same title. The hotel ballroom where the prom was held was quite impressive and even had a dance floor that lit up. After the prom, couples broke up into smaller groups and went to "after prom" dinner events that they planned themselves. I had longed to go the The Palmer House to hear John Davidson (is he still alive?) sing. But my date had other plans. He made reservations for us to go to Greek Town and have dinner at a small local Greek restaurant. Now, I have nothing against Greek people or Greek restaurants or Greek food. . .my sister-in-law is Greek and she's is a real sweetie. But eating pasticio and baklava at a neighborhood resturant while watching some old men do Greek dances was a far cry from listening to John Davidson sing at The Palmer House in downtown Chicago! I just felt that my date, being the worldly "older" man that he was (he graduated the year before me!) could have planned something more elegant for the big night!
And don't be fooled by this photo. . .if the men dancing on my prom night looked anything like the hunky men pictured above, I may not have been quite as disappointed with the choice of entertainment!

Well, I am off to go visit the other Virtual Vintage Proms now. Check out Natasha's blog for a complete list of participants!