4 Generations

W-O-W where does the time go? We had Christmas Monday night at my youngest daughter Shari's house and my granddaughter Erika and her family was there from Dallas. Seemed like a good time for a 4th generation photo.

I am holding great granddaughter Ellie, next to me is oldest daughter Lori and her oldest granddaughter Nayda next to her and then momma Erika (my granddaughter) on the right end.

Shari has three grandchildren' two boys from her oldest son Joe and a baby granddaughter Lanna from her daughter Emily. I want to get pictures of them all soon.

So now you can see how excited I am to soon have a brand new grand baby coming next week. It has been 22 years since I've had a grandbaby!

It just took a new granddaughter

Yes friends, my muse and my mojo has been hiding for a year and a half and I've so wanted to get back into blogging, sewing, art and all the things I loved before Jake died. I've tried too but always I was disappointed in the results and most I tired of before finishing.But.......................

It just took having a new little baby..."Miss Rose Meredith Wendling" to get me fired up again and I am so charged. Of course she really isn't here quite yet.

But this is one of her latest sonogram pictures and I can tell already she is gonna be a little hoot.

This is another one and you can just see that a baby who sticks out her tongue before she is even formally introduced is a funny little kid.

So since she will be here one week from today on January 3rd and because even though I will get to see her when she is 3 days old, it's not likely that I'll get to see her again before she is 3 months old since she will live in Alabama so I want to be able to give her a new dress or two each time I see her so she will grow up and remember her Louisiana granny as the "Dress Lady".

This will be a little fancy pancy blue and white check gingham and you can see I already bought the leotards, hair ribbons and one piece white thingy she will wear under the pinafore.

I think this will be my favorite as I love love Red. So this is a bright kinda edgy little number with red tights and I got black hair bows. This one will have panties made from the green and the apron is the red, green and black print with collar and cuffs from the green solid.

This should keep me busy from when I see her as a newby until she is close to 3 months and then I can begin working on summer things in 6 months size.

"Got my mojo working..........." Seeya!

W-O-W

What a great way to begin December 26th.

Leslie at Alpha Stamps is having a great after Christmas giveaway called "While the Cats Away". To enter her daily drawings, hop on over to ALPHA STAMPS to enter.

Oh My Gosh.....There He is!

Our Great Grandson Luke and his big sister, Leah


Our daughter Shari (their Grandma) had taken them to see Santa and you can just "feel" the anticipation as they quietly wait their turn.

Totally an Awe moment. I love the handholding. I think it tells us that Luke feels secure because big sissie "has his back". I think Leah tells us "she will protect him". Are there many more events which would silence and have two little ones spellbound such as this.

What are your memories of the jolly one in the Red suit?

Ho Ho Ho ......Merry Christmas and a Jolly Good Night

Happy Birthday Jesus

Oh. My. Gosh.. I've been away from bloggyland for such a long long time and I've not forgotten any of you dear sweet sisters. How nice it was hearing from some of you. And such a busy time for us to take the time to say "howdy". I've already made a very early New Year's Resolution. I vow to come back to blogging. It was my first love in the social network. I've missed all of you and while I've enjoyed Facebook and will still keep my FB alive, it cannot take the place of a blog.

I want to take a moment to wish all of you the very nicest and happiest of Christmas Celebrations. The one day we acknowledge the birth of our Savior and Wish Jesus a Happy Birthday. God Bless you and Thank you for being my friend. Mollye

One week and counting

Show me your Tree! For the women who are older, your children are grown and gone I'm wondering if you ever longed for the day when your kids would be grown up with homes of their own and Christmas Trees of their own to decorate so you could finally have the tree of your dreams. You know, the color coordinated ornaments, tinsel, lights and the perfect tree skirt.

I can remember long, long ago thinking "someday I can go buy all the beautiful things I want to finally have a tree worthy of magazine layouts. ....... And guess what! I'm there. I may have done it once or twice but was left with a feeling less than what I imagined. What was the payoff?

Today my mind takes me back to the days when all my children were little, we were just making do. You know living from paycheck to paycheck and when Christmas came around the kids delighted cutting our own little straggly pine from the woods and making paper chains either from red and green construction paper or from glossy magazine pages we'd been given from my Mom. Popcorn chains and the glitzy popsicle sticks with silver and gold glitter, Elmer glued to form crosses and stars. Pinecones and other treasures gathered from outside and multicolor lights blinking wildly completed the look. Underneath the tree would be an old white sheet covering the green metal tree holder and giving the illusion of snow.

Can you picture it? Of course you can. You had one just like it for many years.

A Charlie Brown tree. A tree decorated with love and innocent expectations. What I would give to only go back.

Introducing...............Polka Dots for August

new friend, Denise at ScrapwithLola who was my ATC Partner for August with Patti's Swap Group from over at Treasure Barn.

Our Theme for August was Polka Dots and since this has always been my favorite pattern to wear I could not resist playing along. However when I sat down to make her card I was simply stumped.I somehow thought of a Bunnyboy wearing a polka dot tie! Isn't it funny how your mind works or in the case of mine.....not work at times!

And Denise was kind enough to send me TWO Polka Dotted Beauties! She said this was her first swap but wowza isn't she good? I can't wait to see what this gal comes up with next. I haven't visited her bloggy yet because our computer has been down more than up in the past month, but I am hopeful all is now well.

I am loving this cooler weather but of course came all the tragedies of nature in getting us from horrible hot to nice and mile. It is not as nice for many out there who are dealing with the aftermaths of hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding and now fires. God Bless our country and all the wonderful people who make it up. Praying for you all.

Rise and Shine

and she said "I'll rise but it is too early to shine".

For some reason Friday is a hard day to sleep in for me. I'm still playing with my "newly found" Picnik Program and it's fun. Wish I could tell you the steps I used to go from here

to here

but I just click on all sorts of options until I find something that pleases me and it turns out to be a OOAK creation!

Don't know if I've mentioned on my blog that our son Buddy and his wife Jessica are expecting a baby girl in January. I know I've talked about it on Facebook so if I'm repeating please excuse it to an excited granny's ramblings. We're planning a little trip to Mobile this weekend. Is there anyone reading this who lives in Mobile? Mike and Buddy are going to be doing some fishing and scouting for deer hunting places and I'm going to be left on my own. I'd love to meet someone in bloggy land and do some shopping.

My dil Jess told me there is a huge fabric store there where I can get unusual fabrics and some vintage laces so I'm looking forward to shopping for baby stuff to sew.

Where ever your weekend jaunts take you I hope you will be safe, stay cool and have a wonderful weekend and remember to tell someone you love them because Vita brevis (life is short).

Practice Makes uh.........Imperfect but Still Fun

This was a very small b/w photo with some editing and just playing around in Picnik. Of course I don't have a clue what I'm doing. Just clicking on different effects until I find something pleasing, but it sure is fast and fun!

Happy Tuesday everyone. I'm meeting my Punkin Darlin at noon for lunch together. We probably don't do this more than once every couple of years. Go figure.

From PICASA - PICNIK

Who knew you could have so much fun and it would be completely legal! Bwaaaaaaaaaaa

I just totally stumbled upon Picnik from Picasa and am having way too much fun playing around. Wouldn't it be a hoot if this could somehow get my creative side sparked up again! 'ya just never know.

TOO CUTE

Hi Ladies.....I'm knee deep in chores today but came across a cute picture I wanted to share with you. This is my third oldest grandson Joe who is my daughter Shari's oldest child. He will be 30 on Halloween and he is holding his youngest child, Luke who is 3 1/2. Luke is just the ray of sunshine for all of us. All children are precious we all know, but haven't you seen some who just seem to have a special aura about them? We're surrounded by youngins but I tell you folks, Luke is one of those for sure. It was obvious as a newborn and he'd seem to stare right straight through to your soul.

Y'all try to stay in and stay cool today.....we're still in triple digits here in Louisiana!

Overwhelmed by Kindness

I received a BIG Box full of Surprises yesterday!

Drum Roll - - - - - - -- - - Stickers, Flower Petals, Fibers galore

Stamps.... Big Ones! Unmounted and Mounted, Some Brand New and all Never Used...I've got to tell you I was speechless at the wonderful assortment of Stamps. Gotta go buy INK today.

More Stamps

And Ephemera, Vintage laces, crochet, ribbons, Silk Ribbons, Old Papers to thrill my heart

Cabinet Cards, Post cards, Charming B/W Vintage Photos

And it all was Stuffed in HERE!

Thank you so much Cindy. You made me cry with happiness and you fed my creative starving soul. You made my day brighter and you made me want to be a better person and keep the kindness going. So much love and thanks to you my sweet new sister!

If YOU do not know Cindy from My Artful Journey.......... then you're depriving yourself of an amazing artist and woman.

My First Love

Yay......I thought art, collage and ATC's were just a thing of the past for me but recently I met Cindy on Facebook who was having a giveaway and she got me inspired to get back to my art and I joined an ATC Swap with Patti Koosed over at Treasure Barn and set about seeing if I still remembered how to make an ATC! I first of all found that I no longer had supplies and was pretty taken aback at the amateurish card I created for Patti, but I'm learning each day to take it easy on myself so I was just happy I followed through! But Oops! I forgot to make a picture of the card I sent to her before mailing it, so maybe she will post it on her blog.

This is the card she sent me and I am over the moon happy with it. I adore Digital Collage, but do not have a program on my computer which allows me to experiment. The theme was Circus and oh my goodness isn't this the most beautiful circus card ever. The colors are amazing.

If any of you are interested in swapping ATC's, go visit Patti. She has a theme each month and I promise if you're new to ATC's or accomplished in ATC creating you'll have tons of fun while learning.

Thank You For Not Saying It.....

Thanks everyone. Don't you feel just so so silly when you do something and everyone is saying "don't do it...you'll wish you hadn't, or you"ll be sorry"

Well do any of you remember about 9 months ago when I was having severe bouts of anxiety caused by art studio overload and decided that I was through with art. My son had died, I was mourning and in such grief and heartache that I couldn't seem to find my sunshine. I'd take a peek in the art room and see all the STUFF I had accumulated in 3 or 4 years and just get sick.

I truly felt as if I'd never want to do anything creative with art again and I sold a few meager boxes at a fraction of what the contents were worth. Then I ran an ad on Craigslist giving it away. I loaded up at least 16 large moving boxes with every form of arts, crafts and hobby material you could possibly think of and gave it all away.

Yes I did.

I felt so free and my room was clean and manageable and I was content. Fast forward another 9 months and now I'm feeling more like I did before I lost my son. Don't get me wrong I will never stop missing him and I still have my moments where I can go back to those days of grief, but I have come through it. I'm in good shape folks. I am alive. And guess what??? Yep you guessed it. I want to be creative again.

I've been doing lots of reading, spending time in my pool, working tirelessly but joyously in Jake's Memory Garden, crocheting, and getting ready to make baby clothes when I know the sex of my new grandchild. I just now got back to my blogging, joined a fitness group with Lori and I signed up for a couple of swaps. I have done a little frugal shopping. (remember we just bought a new car, ouch) I got some nice stamps which were on sale at Big Lots, some scrap papers, glue sticks, glitter and some chipboard letters. I had thankfully kept all my paints, scissors, glues, metal and tools. And now I can't wait to get in there and ever so softly and slowly begin to make ATC's, journals, altered boxes and do some collages.

So thank you my friends for not telling me "I told you so", although you knew it all along didn't you?

So what's on YOUR art table today?

Happy creating. Love you all, Mollye

MAY I PLEASE COME BACK IN?

Oh I hope you'll say "Yes". I've been gone for such a long, long time. I've missed all of you terribly.

I have been right here, but so far away in my mind. The one year anniversary of Jake's Homecoming came and went.

Casey Anthony was aquitted which left me in a funk. Our state is in a drought and on and on I could go but all in all, it is just Life.

I've started a new Eating Program and it is very similar to Weight Watchers but is an online program, completely Free and is Fun. You can set up a blog and a homepage and it is such a smart program that it calculates everything for you! It is called My Fitness Pal.

Another positive thing I've been doing is creating a little corner of our yard into a Memory Garden for Jake and it gives me much pleasure to work on it, adding flowers and plants that Jake would have probably selected. Also little fun pieces on the fence.

Our city is in mourning this week for fallen Heroes who have come back home to a Heroes Welcome and will soon be laid to rest.I didn't personally know S/Sgt. Michael Garcia but my daughter Shari worked with his brother until recently when he himself re-enlisted and will soon be deployed. The entire family is military and this handsome and amazing man paid the ultimate sacrifice.There is sadness all around.

We bought a new car. Yippeeeeeee. Not actually a brand new car but an "08 Nissan Maxima and it is loaded to the hilt and is the classiest car we've ever owned.

I am still enjoying my Kindle and love to download many of the Freebie books. One I'm currently reading is "Live Like You Mean It" by T.J.Addington and one of the questions the book starts off with is asking What Is The Purpose Of My Life? Well isn't that the million dollar question we've all pondered? But I think I do know it has something to do with blogging because since I've retired and since my Rheumatoid Arthritis has escalated to the point it has, I don't get out and meet and greet like I once did, but OMG I have found and met the most wonderful people by blogging. So many of you have inspired, lifted me up in prayer, encouraged and made me laugh and hopefully there have been a few along the way who have been helped by something I've written about, so I must ask you if you'll accept me back home and back into your busy lives.

And another very exciting little tidbit I must share with you is I'm going to be Grandma again this coming December or January. Do any of you remember my son Buddy who was having such a hard time adjusting to the death of his brother Jake and was in an unhappy state of mind in general? Well girls he and his beautiful wife Miz Jessica are expecting a baby! She hung up her skates during maternity time.

It will be her fourth child but his first and at 44 he was completely taken aback and surprised is an understatement. If a boy they plan to name him after Jake.

And my youngest daughter Shari became a new Grandma for the 3rd time recently to a beautiful baby girl named Lanna.

I "met"a beautiful lady yesterday through someone's Facebook comments and in reading her blog was inspired to get back here. If you don't already know Cindy from An ArtfulJourney be sure to stop by and she is also having a Giveaway.

That's all for now girls because I know you have many many more folks to visit and I'll be coming round your back door real soon for a lookey look. Happy hugs and much love, Mollye

Love Tag

Surprises are so much fun aren't they? I had completely forgotten that Marcia from One Heart was sending me an Encouragement Tag until I got this beautiful tag in Saturday's mail.

Thank You Marcia. She included a sweet note telling me that the theme of her tag....the Butterfly stands for Hope and New Life. Hope for me and a New Life for my son Jake who went to Heaven almost a year ago.

Oh yes Marcia I will treasure this tag the rest of my life. You did an amazing job and how appropriate the scripture reference of Revelations 21: 4.

If you don't know Marcia, please go by her blog HERE for a visit and say "Hi". You'll be glad you did.

Too Funny

A funny site I just happened upon called Crap At My Parents House. I'm almost afraid to keep looking for fear my kids may have sent in a photo of our house! Some pretty strange "crap" could be found around here for sure.

A long time coming

Several weeks ago I mentioned the upcoming burial of my parents and grandfather's ashes after holding onto for many years. My Grandfather, my father and finally my mother who died in 1988 were all created and my brother had been in the possession of their remains. However he recently graciously handed them over to me as I felt it important to give them a proper resting place where everyone who chose to could go visit and pay respects. I also took comfort in knowing they were resting so close to Jake, my son who was killed last June.

This past Monday my two daughters Lori and Shari accompanied me to Mount Carmel Cemetery down out of Florien, Louisiana which is about 100 miles south of here. It was hot and dry and we were at the mercy of the man who had made the markers and the man who was in charge of the cemetery as to when we could accomplish this feat. So when they were ready, we had to jump and therefore not many were able to go with us. But it was the way it should have been actually because just about all in my family who knew and grew up with my parents are my children.

It was 94 degrees in the hot, bright sun and the ground was hard, dry and cement like as they had seen no rain in several months. We were there for hours waiting for the man to dig down enough to set the stones after which he would have to dig even deeper for the containers of ashes. We had planned to say a few words or offer a prayer after the ashes were buried. I stood out there so long that I became ill, my heart was working overtime and beating so fast you could see it through my throat, I perspired until there was no more sweat. I was lightheaded and just felt I could endure no more heat so I went back to the car and turned the AC on. The girls opened up my Mother's Bible and read scripture from it and both prayed throughout. The man who was digging nearby and in actuality was setting the foot stones for Lori's family stopped digging out of reverence and bowed his head while they continued

How proud and happy my parents would have been and I like to think they were aware of and perhaps smiling down as the two "little girls" they had loved and taken such delight in as youngsters honoring their memories in such a sweet and humble way.

This act of a burial a long time coming has impacted me greatly and is truly one thing I feel my life has been directed toward. What an honor and what a gift to be able to do this for my parents and my grandfather.

What are you afraid of?

Many of our fears are tissue paper thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them.

-- Brendan Francis

What is stopping me from getting back into my art? What am I afraid of? Failure? Not being good at something...or feeling as if I've wasted money on the supplies...wasted my time? I don't know what it is.

Several months ago I wanted to get back into doll making and I thought it would be fun to try sculpting dolls; just simple primitive ones at first and then maybe learning to make the ball jointed dolls.

So I purchased lots of supplies and each time I'd want to get started I'd peruse the doll links and blogs looking and lurking. And then I'd put all the stuff away and forget about it.

Finally I decided to get busy and actually do something, so I signed up to make a little Prayerbox Doll by Nancye Williams. She is just as nice as can be and does amazing work. It was veeerrrry affordable and is very simple but maybe, just maybe it will give me the confidence to proceed with learning more and just maybe sculpting is my thing.

I love the quotation as I've found myself in this predicament before. Afraid to begin something and procrastinating and then giving away the supplies without giving my idea a fair chance. And who knows I may find the fear of beginning this project as thin as tissue paper.

Wish me luck and I'll share with you my completed project soon!

We Were There...Were You?

Yep...We watched the Royal Wedding early this morning from our living room. Wasn't it glorious.

Shari worked all night and came over as soon as she got off work and after stopping by her house to get into her favorite jammies and to snatch her Crown (which we shared) for picture taking.

I stayed in my favorite nitegown and we ate Sausage Bisquits and Orange Juice and piled up in fuzzy blankets and kicked back for a 4 hour Gala.

The names were fun to create. It's the silly game going around on Facebook where you begin with Lady if you're a girl and Lord if a boy. Then you take the first name of one of your grandparents followed by the name of your first or favorite pet and ending with "of" and the name of the street where you grew up.

It was quite fun and the only thing missing for an even "funner" wedding was Lori.

Oops I mean...Lady Margaret MollyBrown of Evelyn.

And of course if YOU had been there it would have been even better. Now what would YOUR Royal name be?

New Found Treasure

Do you know Basia Bulat?

She is a Canadian singer who plays the Autoharp and is Amazing. I found her recently while surfing for music to add to my blog and you can hear her sing Touch the Hem of His Garment by scrolling down to my Playlist at the bottom of this page. Also Little One.

I think she is simply unique and fresh and she has that smokey, bluesy voice somewhere between folk and soul.

Check out her website at Basia Bulat dot com

Great Grandbabies Blessings on Easter

Luke enjoying his 3rd Easter

Lana enjoying her 1st Easter

Good Friday Obituary

Do you know him?

Blessings

We had a great time last week at Dauphin Island. I am so happy I got to spend time with my son Buddy. It has been 6 months since I last saw him and we had a great time; Punkin and I. We mostly fished and you can see here we had some fun and caught plenty of fishes too. This is Buddy and our Alabama granddaughter, Isabella.

My daughter Lori came over to visit a little while today and gave me a beautiful Easter Surprise. Tiny little Sterling Silver Cross Earrings.

Aren't they beautiful. I'm sorry I don't know enough about my camera to make a better picture. They're so dainty and sweet.

And last night daughter Shari brought our little great grandson Luke over for a visit. He had new Spiderman Underwear and wanted to show them off. He was three in January and sure has our hearts. Isn't he a cutie?

I am a woman most blessed.