ellenspictures

Category: Grandbaby

  • The Christmas Stocking Story

    The Christmas Stocking Story

    Giving of arts and crafts has been interwoven tradition in my family for years. In lean years, we made gifts for people. I still have several of the treasures that my talented mother made. I have some also that I made for family members not with us any longer. I have been making Christmas stockings for people in my family since my first born. My great grandmother made my first Christmas stocking that I still have and display each year. My grandmother made a giant Christmas stocking that has inspired me always in my work on Christmas stockings.

    I love all of the handmade crafts made by my family – these are true treasures. Even more, I love the memory of being taught how to do something by family and friends. My mom taught me how to do needlework (crewel embroidery), that I learned in Girl Scouts, but didn’t refine until my mom showed me some key points of understanding about the skill – today we’d call them “hacks”. Back in the day, we did not have social media and widespread how-to’s available to us except in books and magazines or if we were lucky, with a mom or grandmother who could show us what to do real-time.

    Very much I wanted to carry on the spirit of tradition and love of making by hand the Christmas stockings. In this, I made a Christmas stocking for my grandchild just in time for his first Christmas in 2015. It was a work of love and hard work this is. Needle work is always hard and it takes love to drive it and have it look right – creativity is a must. Here is a little video of my tour of the stocking (pardon my amateurish camera work!). Hoping that this lasts so that my grandson can see this one day, and appreciate it.

    Everyone loves to look at the work and ask about the history. Some of these are deeply handmade, some are just choices of really cute little items that we’ve found that we wanted to include in the work.

    Love

    Of – My Grandson and Carrying on Tradition by Making…

    Visual Memories From the Generations

    Especially for My Grandson – A Christmas Stocking Story by Geema

  • Thanksgiving 2017

    Thanksgiving 2017

    I really do not want to dwell on the past year’s historic mindblowing state of affairs, nor do I want to dwell on the personal bombshells that have hit our family.   So, I won’t.

    Thanksgiving is about being thankful – grateful for what we do have.

    I have family.  For this, I am most grateful.  My husband, my son, my grandson, my uncle and aunt, my cousins – and my family in-laws, present and past, who are extremely wonderful and gracious to me.  For this is a beautiful thing and family is one gift of being human – especially if family relationships are good.

    I have relative health compared to some.  OK, aging does mean that you are still here on the planet, but it poses challenges as parts are wearing out on you, or becoming defective, you have to deal with it.  So, I can’t go on that run today, as I normally do – but, I am not bedridden, I can walk without assistance, I can climb stairs, and probably, if I went out right now and got on it, I could ride my bicycle.  Injuries are hopefully temporary.

    I made 2 pies and one dessert, yesterday, with an aging oven.  It was a challenge, but guess what?  We have pies and a dessert.  I hope that they are tasty.

    I did the baking without copious amounts of wine as I had to rely upon last year during our unfolding family crises.  It got worse before it began to stabilize.  I was proud that I did Christmas and steeled up in the storm, with all of the uncertainty.  I am certain that this took it’s toll on my mental health and potentially, on my physical health.

    This year, I am grateful that things began to stabilize, last spring, but we are not ever going to be back where we were.  Forever changed by one person, never anticipated, it is how life is to have these unexpected turns.

    Turkey and trimmings.  Friends.  Fellowship.  The good weather we are now having after the crazy weather we suffered at the turn of the seasons… Knowing that holidays are difficult for some large number of people this year due to that crazy weather, we pray for their recoveries – each of them.  We pray for the state of the world, as it is in peril right now.  We pray for stability.  We pray for healing.  We pray for the lonely and those who are alone today.  We pray for hope.  We pray for a future for my grandson that will not prove difficult for him to live a good life.

    Thanksgiving is about giving thanks for what we have and it is for praying for the future of the world that includes everyone and everything in it.  Peace be with the world.

     

  • an eight-pound sledgehammer for Mother’s Day – who said that I’m typical?

    an eight-pound sledgehammer for Mother’s Day – who said that I’m typical?

    The call from my grandson started me out today – waking up suddenly, realizing that the phone was going off – but always, I love these FaceTime visits – just watching him, amazed at his rapid growth, and how fast he moves around – his saying “da-da-da-da-da” plus a thousand other sounds that are his baby babble – the baby language – understandable to themselves and other babies (my theory) – the cacophony of developing language within the baby human’s skill set at age 9 months… delightful!

    He has discovered cars and blocks, already playing with these little toy cars, knowing that they roll – his skills at doing this are not quite there yet, but he gets it – what they are going to do – and blocks – exploring every shape – picking them up, then delightedly throwing them down!  How wonderful to watch – I long to be there with him, but recognize that life is complicated for everyone and the daily routines consume everyone’s interests and priorities over seeing grandma who lives in another place at a distance.  Thank goodness for technology!

    My sweet husband cooked a beautiful brunch, and he plus our big fuzzy dog got me cards to open – we drank bubbly and enjoyed the time – making a plan for the rest of the afternoon, my husband suggested visiting my younger son’s resting place after grabbing a Starbucks coffee – the routine we do – I have done – since Rob passed on in 2005.  It does not really get easier, but it changes in character, this visiting.

    We took a tour of Wal-Mart and two big-box hardware stores in search of a big hammer (we ended up with an 8 pounder!) – and another steel plate, plus some alligator clips to mount onto some cable to mount onto a block which I can use to hold things while soldering or working on them – my husband is a clever craftsman and knows some tricks!

    I proudly told the check-out guy that my Mother’s Day gift was an eight-pound sledge hammer!  He looked at me and said something like “how sad!”  Well, I didn’t think it was sad… I wanted that big hammer for making my mixed media wearables – some aspects of which do require pounding!

    We met a young artist in the garden section who complimented my necklace – I told her I made these – and she asked about the constituents… We conversed, and when my husband asked her how much she would pay for one of those, she said, “I’m a bargain hunter.  I’d try to pay about $15-$20 bucks…”  OUCH!  The time and sweat that goes into these is probably worth about five times that; sad to see things so cheaply discounted because of wide availability over the Internet – it sounds like you have to really understand marketing online to be any measure successful in this – which I am not sure I really want to pursue.  But one day, I will have to move these out –

    Right now, I am building inventory – making gifts for friends, and also for potential showing – and learning new things – and it beats the heck out of working on the same things all the time!

    But back to Mother’s Day – I miss my Mom, and my Grandma Ellen – they were those people that my natural inclination was to honor and buy gifts and of course, they were those mothers in my life – then there were other mothers that had a lot of influence, too…  I can’t forget them… Too many to mention here…  I love you all.

    For now, Barbie, Caroline Howard, and my other mothers are those who come to my mind…  I’m just on that boat of looking out there on the sea of life – Today, I pay special tribute to my friend in Canada who recently lost her daughter – and is now even more of a mother to her grand-children than ever…  Bless her for her strength and courage…