I'm not looking for sympathy - I just have to give you a little history before I share my most recent 'mother story'. I've had the flu (G.I. and respiratory) for the past 2 and a half days. If you haven't read this blog before allow me to bring you up to speed. My mother is a spry, slight, wee, tenacious, little woman of 94. She is essentially blind and has had more than one near-death episode. She is still living in my childhood home. She has too much 'stuff' to even briefly consider a move to assisted living - well - that and she is as strong willed as a titanium girder.
I was supposed to go to her house on Monday evening. Since I was a whiny, bed-ridden, lump of germs, I had husband John call my mother early on Monday to tell her I would not be coming over to the house that evening and to tell her the reason I would not be coming over.
Not sure why I bare my soul on this blog - recently I admitted my personal and necessary use of
TWEEZERS, I admitted I'm not
gracious enough to mail cards, I secretly think my mother had
super ninja powers, and now I'm disclosing that I get whiny - VERY VERY whiny - when I'm nauseated (just ask my husband). Oh and for the record - I get VERY VERY nasty tempered when I get HOT (not to mention that my hair triples in volume and gets - how should I describe it - like a porcupine on steroids). As for verification on both of my heat related maladies feel free to check with my sisters.
The maternal unit then called on Tuesday to see if I was still sick. John told her yes I was staying home from work for one more day and would be back to work tomorrow. I had my cell phone turned off because I get so many text messages from students that I didn't want my phone buzzing all day long.
The doorbell rang mid afternoon today - and I knew before my husband unlocked the door that it was going to be THE NINJA MOTHER! Evidently she didn't believe my husband when he told her I was recuperating because she had someone drive her to my house this afternoon. As I was walking down the hallway, bedecked in my jammies, she announced that she had to come over to make sure "I wasn't dead." And that is a verbatim quote.
She asked if she could take me to the doctor. (She has no driver's license - she has no car...) (Silent, internal giggling as she is offering to be my medical chauffeur.) I said, I have the FLU I'm not going to the doctor and in fact I'm going back to work tomorrow. She asked, "when were you around sick people?" (hmmmm....beginning to wonder if she thinks I played hooky from coming to her house and going to work...)I answered, "I work on a college campus with 1000 kids..." I also told her, "and now YOU have been around sick people - me! What are you doing here?!!! "
She then asked if I wanted to go out to dinner. My hair looks like a harshly used bottle brush, I'm wearing NOT my finest sleepwear, have only sipped on juice, Squirt, and nibbled on crackers since Sunday - and she wants to go out to dinner. I know...I know...she was only concerned, but now she has unnecessarily exposed herself to all my cruddy airborne agents of illness. Oh well - she's made of stout stuff and the windows were all open. I can't believe she actually came over here...
On to the cards which I was able to make because I DO feel better today!
I Felt Grateful
~Base card - pre-made package of 3 from the Target dollar aisle
~Inside pumpkin stamped and colored using Copics
~Sentiment by Stampin' Up
Small Script and punched using Stampin' Up
Word Window
~Outside pumpkin is a thick felt sticker - I smudged the edges with brown ink - and inserted a coiled green wire
Challenges
Digi Doodles Shops' Best - use orange
Shabby Tea Room - pumpkin photo inspiration
This next card has some explaining that needs to be shared. I actually colored the little image while on holiday with my sissies - I stamped up assorted images took my colored pencils (only had 3 or 4 Copics at the time) and colored while they quilted having no idea what I would do with the images once I was back in Iowa. So he has been sitting around for a very long time. Then a couple of weeks ago I 'spun' the web around the cardstock using metallic threads and voile' a home for my little mummy! I ran a strip of adhesive across the back - intending the square for...something - I have no idea what. Why? Because I lost the little bugger! I looked EVERYWHERE (or so I thought) in the Bubble! Well, fast forward to today, I grabbed for my Scor-Buddy and felt something odd on the underside of it. I tend to be an organize freak in my Bubble I always put things back where they 'belong'. I use my Scor-Buddy with every card - but evidently - today I grabbed for it in a different manner... and there was the missing little spook. Thank you Saint Anthony! (He is the patron saint of lost items and he hears from me frequently.)
Spook in Hiding
~Base card - pre-made white linen card edges smudged with blue and purple inks
~Background card was a re-purposed marketing folder - stripes already on the cardstock
~Polka dot ribbon from Hobby Lobby
~Stamped image from Stampin' Up
Booglie Eyes pencil colored and coated with Ranger
Glossy Accents and his gauze topped with
Liquid Applique
~Moon is white cardstock 'bat stamped' with Versamark and embossed with Ranger
Black embossing powder
~Purple cardstock - edges 'scalloped' using a circle dot punch
~Blue and purple metallic embroidery floss randomly wound around the square (floss was a
Transfer of Crap item from sissy Gail)
Challenges
Craft Your Passions - sketch
Lexi's Creations - spooky theme
Something Completely Different - colors - purple and green
Going to bed now...back to work tomorrow. I know my peeps miss me I just turned my cell phone back on...
Nancy
