In loving memory

This week Jill, my best friend in high school, was killed in a car accident. I am having a very hard time comprehending it. This picture was taken exactly one year ago this weekend when Jill, Marie and I gathered for our unofficial, very mini-class reunion.

I remember being nervous when I pulled in that gravel driveway at Jill's acreage. Except for one summer in college, and a few random phone calls or emails, I hadn't seen her since our freshman year in college and I hadn't seen or talked to Marie even that much.

And yet, as soon as Jill welcomed us in the door and the flurry of kids and pets settled down, I remembered exactly what it was that I've always admired about Jill: come as you are...no need to be nervous. The other amazing thing about our friendship was that no matter how long it had been since we talked or saw each other we picked up right where we left off and it held true for this visit too.

I also remember being so happy for her. She seemed truly calm and happy. She had these loveable little girls who gave us a tour of the house and introduced us to ALL of the pets; she had an adoring husband and she had this really warm-feeling home that you could just picture chilling in as a family.

As the news of her death has been weighing on my mind and weighing on my heart, I wanted to write down some of the things that I truly enjoyed about my friendship with Jill.

• We could talk about ANYTHING. Sometimes you have friends who you can't talk about certain things with, for whatever reason. And that's fine, I respect those bounds. But with Jill we talked about everything, and had some really good thought-provoking talks. Jill was always educated and well-spoken and passionate in the arguments that she made, but in the end she respected that you were entitled to your own opinion.
• Jill didn't care what other people thought. If she liked something, whether it was an "unpopular" person, an unheard of new song, a weird new outfit, whatever, she went ahead and enjoyed it. She didn't worry what other people thought, she just did her own thing. And the funny thing was, usually the things she liked ended up being the cool or popular thing later. But even if it didn't, she stood by her opinion.
• She was truly happy for other people and she truly saw beauty and value in other people...all people. Sometimes that's hard to do, and yet she always did it.
• She was fun. I remember countless Friday nights cruising around in that tan Ford Escort eating Taco Bell and listening to Lisa Loeb or White Zombie, or in later years the Dixie Chicks, just laughing and talking and doing random fun things as we went.
• You could count on her. If you needed a ride, money, the shirt off her back or a floor to sleep on, she'd be there for you in a heartbeat, no questions asked. But there'd be an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry on if you needed it.

These are just a few of the things. I know that she will always be in my heart, but it saddens me to know that I won't get to see her again. Even though we didn't see each other a lot, it never seemed to take long to get back to where we were.

Here's to you, Jill, and the awesome friend that you were. May you rest in peace, and know that you were loved.

If you're the praying type, please say a prayer for my friend Jill and her family. She left behind an adoring husband, two very sweet daughters, a loving sister & supportive brother-in-law, two adorable nieces, a loving mom and a big-hearted teddy bear of a dad.

I've been a card-makin' fool!

I've been busy making cards lately.

Teacup Cards (top): I made these thank yous for a friend to use. Her daughter had her third birthday party recently and the theme was tea party. My friend came over and we made invites, so then I used the same papers to make the thank yous as a surprise. She is constantly doing nice things for the rest of us, I thought she'd like a surprise. The patterned paper is from Stack I got at JoAnn's, the stamp is a new Hero Arts release. I used watercolor pencils to fill in the cup, and added stickles, a flower brad from Bazzill, and an adhesive pearl to finish it off. Made the scalloped edge with the Fiskars Threading Water punch.

Flower Card (middle): I made a set of four of these thank yous for a charity auction at my husbands work. The papers are from the new Sharon Ann Little Yellow Bicycle collection, the stamp is Stampin' Up.

Birthday Card (bottom): I made a set of four of these birthday cards for the same charity auction. The stamps are Hero Arts, I used my watercolor pencils to color them in, and then stickles to bling them up, as well as sugar-coated brads from Doodlebug and Liquid Glass from Close to my Heart. The patterned paper is KI Memories. I embossed the blue cardstock with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

If you click on the cards you can see them bigger. The glitteriness doesn't read well online, they do look better than that! :)

Thanks for looking.

Cards

A quick post tonight.

These are a few of the cards I've made recently. I made a set of 10 of the upper one for a friend who always compliments my cards. Her husband recently passed away and I thought she might find these useful in the wake of all the memorials, flowers, meals, etc. that will probably be given to her over the coming weeks. The papers and flower stamps and "thank you" stamp are by Close to my Heart, the wavy "heartfelt thanks" text stamp is Hero Arts.

The lower card is one of the Mother's Day cards I made. Purple shimmer Bazzill cardstock, stamps & pearls by Hero Arts, ink by Versamark, scallop oval punched with a Marvy Uchida punch.

Have a nice evening everyone!

Still not Spring?

Mother Nature has been teasing us again! Warm, sunny beautiful days (we're almost talking short weather here) followed by cold, rainy and even SNOWY days. Yes, SNOW. In the end April.

I really thought spring was on it's way...and it still is, but just sidetracked I guess. We've barbequed several nights, and my plants are starting to poke through.

When I was growing up, my grandparents lived on an acreage, and I remember starting in late winter, they would scour the seed catalogs to decide what plants they were going to grow in the spring. They'd place their order and start their seedlings indoors on these lighted shelves my grandpa built and then after the last freeze, they transfer those sprouts to the flower beds on the acreage.

With limited space, I decided to try this on a much smaller scale...and so far, so good! I have one small tray of purple and pink sweet peas and one small tray of assorted pink/coral sweet peas growing happily in my kitchen window.

Also, sadly, when I stepped out this morning to snap a photo of the snow that actually stuck, I realized my irises were poking out and had snow around them. Hopefully they'll be OK. But assuming they're OK, I'll have irises, coral bells, and hostas that come back on their own and then I'll probably pick a few filler plants when it warms up and stays warm!

I got another layout done this week. This one is of my scrapgirls at our ornament exchange last Christmas.

In other news, Greg and I've had a fun, busy week. We babysat for a friends' little girl last week which took us to the Zoo and McDonald's Playland. We went to a small group game night with some friends church and Greg had softball practice and men's Bible study. Also, my supervisor at work treated my team to dinner one night this for Admin's week. So it was a fun, busy week! Tonight we have a karaoke party at a friends' house. Should be fun!

Weekend update

This weekend has been wonderful so far, and the best part is we get one more day! Hurray! I took yesterday afternoon off to help my cousin with some errands and we had a really nice time together. Sometimes I worry that our age difference will set us apart (11 years) but usually it doesn't. We always find some things to talk about and I love hearing all about her college experience, her friends, her classes. Today, Greg and I got to sleep in a little before getting ready for a big day of babysitting. We had a great time with our friend's three-year-old daughter at the zoo and then at McDonald's playland, but now we are two tired puppies. Well, three because we wore her out too! Lots of playing and lots of fresh air. Tonight we were too tired to do much, but we did head to Barnes and Noble for a few minutes right before they closed. Tomorrow, we plan to go to church and then I'm meeting some of my scrap girls for a class. Should be great!

Here's a few layouts I sneaked in tonight while Greg watched a movie I didn't want to see :) The top layout, Mini Moo, is of my nephew's first Halloween. For you scrappy folks, the papers are Heidi Grace, the stitches are rub-ons by Die Cuts w/ a View, and the letters are American Crafts chipboard thickers. The bottom layout is of a family pet, Clancy. The papers are SEI, the letters are foam American Crafts Thickers, and the paw-print charm is Junkitz.

Everyone have a great rest of your weekend!

The Outtakes

Here's a layout I did with the "outtakes" I got when I did the Valentine's photo shoot of Jaedon...even the outtakes are pretty cute, but I may be biased. :)

For you scrappers: the papers are SEI, the flowers are Prima, the "bling" is Hero Arts and Mark Richards, the paper clip is Making Memories, the epoxy sticker is Cloud 9 and the letter stickers are American Crafts.

Thanks for stopping by!

A family layout

Here's a layout I did of some family photos. We were at a close family friends' wedding reception and we ended up getting some great pictures of everyone. These pictures are of my two cousins, my aunt and uncle, my mom, my grandma and my husband. I think we look pretty spiffy. Oh, and my aunt is making that funny face because "Cowboy's Don't Smile".

For my scrappy friends: the patterned paper is Doodlebug, the scalloped cardstock is from Bazzill...it came as a large 12x12 square but I cut it in half, layered it over each other to be the right height of the photo block then hid the seam with photos and ribbon; Prima flowers, Hero Arts sticky pearls, chipboard swirls painted white, and the title was cut from Pharmacy (a free font from the internet).