PUZZLE

I can't take any credit for this post.  This is all my Mother and my Husband's work of art.

I've mentioned my Mother many times in my blog, but if you haven't ever met her she is the most amazing 91 year old woman  you woud ever want to meet.  She has more energy than most 50  year olds including myself.  She still rides her exercise bike each and every day, she just recently gave up her driver's license after a minor traffic accident.  My siblings and I all agreed that it was time for her to depend on us for once.  She put up a little fight but in the end we stayed united and she accepted that her independence was going to take a very small hit.

She lives in a Senior Citizens apartment complex just about 10 miles from me.  Now that she can't just pick up and leave per complex whenever she wants she had to find other things to occupy her time and energy.  We tease her and tell her she is the activities directory in her apartment complex.  Her latest project is working puzzles with all the ladies on her  floor.  They just completed one that is 40 x 16 and is a replica of the last supper.  She informed me last Friday that we needed to head to the craft store because she needed to find "puzzle glue."  Off to the craft store we go,  one bottle of modge podge & a foam brush later and we are on our way home. 

This past Friday she informs me that I have to come pick up the puzzle that is all glued together and take it and have it framed.  The good daughter that I am I pick up the puzzle and bring it home and tell my husband "we have to take this and get it framed."  He volunteers his services and says he can do it.  We headed to Lowes and bought a large piece of oak framing that was 120" for only $13.00.

He mounted the puzzle to a piece of panelling that we had leftover from another project and he made a few cuts to the framing and here she is all finished.

Don't mind the white poster board underneath the frame.  Hubby had to work on the kitchen island because it is about 6 degrees in the garage.  We have 6" of snow with more to come tomorrow.  Have I mentioned how much I hate Western Pennsylvania winters?

My mother is going to be so surprised tomorrow when she sees this puzzle all framed.  She will be singing my Husband's praises AGAIN!!!

I'll be linking up to:

Princess Party

You are never too old for a Princess party right?

Today is my daughter Kylee's 28th Birthday. 

Just to have some fun and to agitate her just a little I decided that we would go with a theme for her birthday dinner celebration.  I started the morning with this picture on facebook.

The caption read something like "today is my big sister Kylee's birthday and she loves me so much that I wanted to be sure that everyone wishes her a Happy Birthday.

Then the day progressed to this...

Here's a better picture of the Birthday girl holding her daughter (my beautiful granddaughter) Mya

and here is the face behind all the sillyness

Sister #5 in person

Happy Birthday Kylee

I am so proud to be your Mother

QUICK WEEKEND PROJECTS

My daughter and Granddaughter came to visit this weekend.  My daughter bought a vinyl cutting machine and brought it home for me to see and play with.  We completed a few projects in between coloring eggs and baking Easter cookies with my favorite little girl.

The first project we completed where 2 glass jars that we added words to in pink vinyl.



Next project was a dollar store vase that we added the words "faith, family friends."

One more quick update.  Added the word princess to a white vase that I had from an edible arrangement.



and the very best part of the weekend was this.................................

Everyone meet my sweet Granddaughter Mya.  She is 4 years old.

Come join the party at:

href="http://s1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff438/kammyskorner/?action=view&current=TtoTKammyKorner.jpg target="_blank"><img src="http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff438/kammyskorner/TtoTKammyKorner.jpg" alt="Trash to Treasure Tuesdays at Kammys Korner" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/2012/04/wow-us-wednesdays-63.html

Hats off to my Beautiful Niece

Back in April my beautiful niece turned 40.   To help her celebrate her sister “BellaBud” threw her a birthday party.  The party was titled “hats off to Leigh.”  I was in charge of the favors, I decorated wine glass with polka dots.  I will post more on the favors later. 

I wanted to share with you the gift I made for her.  She has always worn hats for as long as I can remember hence the “hats off” theme.  So I decided I wanted to decorate a hat box for her.  I went to Ollies and purchased as hat box on clearance for $1.99.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the box before I started but I forgot.  Sorry.

First I painted the box white and then I used crackle paint over top of the white.  The next step was to paint over the crackle paint with black paint.  I left the ridge of the hat box the original color because it coordinated with my color scheme.  I made copies of all the pictures that I had of her wearing hats and decoupaged them on to the box.  I took a wooden flower and painted it black and glued it to the center of the box.  I just printed out the words “fabulous at forty” and glued them to the flower.

I forgot to mention we all had to wear hats to the party.  Here is a picture of my mother, the birthday girl and me.

I love how it turned out and she loved it. 

Leave me a comment I’m curious what you think. 

 

HALLOWEEN

Where did the years go?  This is a picture of my two little ones many years ago. 

My little ones are now 26 and 22.  Seriously, it seems like just yesterday they were this size. 

Happy Halloween everyone.  

Thanks BellaBud for the picture I stole borrowed from your Blog, I couldn't resist.

Another Life Lesson Learned

Last night my Dear Mother was honored at a charity dinner in Station Square in Pittsburgh for her many many years of service.  That would be over 50 years of service donating to a cause near and dear to her heart the Chimbote Mission in Peru.  I can’t even fathom giving each and every year for over 50 years. 

To understand this a little better, my mother is not a rich woman.  Not in the sense of the word as money rich.  She will tell you that she is rich in love and kindness that she has experienced in her 90 years on this earth from her huge family. 

There were times when I was growing up that I remember my mother working two jobs.  My father was disabled back when I was 11 years old and I am the youngest of 6 children.  So for many many years she worked very hard to keep it all together yet she always donated to her charities.  Growing up I always remember a picture of at least one little girl taped to the refrigerator.  These were her adopted children she would tell us.  Each month she would send money to the organization to help, feed and cloth these kids. 

 When you are a child yourself you just don’t understand why she is doing this.  In my adult years I have a much better understanding as to why she gave each and every month.  She would say that God has blessed her with 6 healthy children and she wanted to give back.  What a wonderful example she has set for all her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. 

How ironic that the day she was honored for her charity work was also the day of her 90^th birthday.  As her 6 children and 2 of her oldest granddaughters and one Great granddaughter traveled with her to Pittsburgh, we got to sit back and enjoy with her her moment in the spot light. She was honored by Bishop, David Zubik of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Bella, Mom, Me, Lori, Carol, Leigh, Sona, Crissa, William & Denise

 

How fortunate I am to have such a wonderful giving mother.  Watching my Mother today I learned another lesson on life. 

You always have enough to give just a little to someone else.

Happy Birthday Mom,  I love you.

Party preparations are coming down to the wire!

  If you have been reading my blog you know that my dear Mother is turning 90 years old on October 13th.  We have been planning a huge party at our favorite Italian Restaurant here in town. 

This means all the relatives are coming in for the party.  The count is now up to 118 people. 

Today was the day to pick out the perfect outfit for the guest of honor.  She has been shopping on two separate occasions and still is undecided as to the perfect outfit.  So, Sister Number 2 came to the rescue.  She drove in from Ohio with 9 outfits , shoes and jewelry in the trunk of her car.  She went shopping without the guest of honor and bought all the outfits and will let our Mother pick her favorites.  She has narrowed it down to 2. 

I missed the actual fashion show but I'm sure it was very fun. I did get all the details from Sister Number 2 as she was traveling back to Ohio.   I opted to stay home to get a start on the baking of many, many cookies for the party.  I have 9 dozen wedding cookies and a pan of brownies made from scratch in the freezer.  After I froze them all, I realized I forgot to take pictures.  So you are just going to have to the wait until the day of the party for all the pictures. 

Please stay tuned, this is going to be a very busy week.  On Thursday my Mother is being honored at a dinner at Station Square in Pittsburgh for all her charity work that she has done over the years.  She knows that she is invited to a dinner but she doesn't know that she is being honored and that all 6 of her children and 2 granddaughters are going to be in attendance.  I'm guessing there will be a lot of tears of excitement.

Saturday is the big day for the birthday celebration.  I promise to take lots of pictures.

Fall Craft Show 2011

Or should I say Family Reunion 2011.  This weekend was a fall craft show at my church.  My daughter and my niece (both grown and living out of town) decided to get tables side by side so they could gossip, eat, laugh and complain (about their mother’s) and maybe sell a few items.

 I know  I didn’t mind one bit, I got to spend the day with my beautiful granddaughter who is 3 but thinks she is 13.  She is seriously so bossy fun. She reminds me so much of my daughter at that age.  Anyone out there who agrees with me that it is so much more fun to be a Grandma than it was to be a Mom?  Now I get to do the spoiling, and I love it.   

PACK YOUR BAGS

We have a saying in our family it goes like this "pack your bags you're going on a guilt trip. I grew up in a very Irish/Italian family, my mother being the Italian one.  Italian mothers have a special gift of sending you on a guilt trip and you never even get to leave the house.  Of course this talent  curse only effects the female offsprings of the family.  The male offsprings don't get to enjoy the ride.

With the holidays just around the corner I will taking a lot of these trip and I won't have any frequent flier miles to show for them.  Bring them on "Mother" I'm ready for you this year.  One advantage of being the youngest I can always ask if all my siblings are attending the party, shower, picnic, dinner or church bazaar.  If I hear that one my "older" siblings is unable to attend the event, I feel I should get a free pass. "NOT" Well let me just tell you that doesn't work in my family.  I've learned many years ago to just put on a smile and attend the function of your-mothers-choice.  Life is much better when your Mama is happy.

My wonderful Mother will be 90 years old on her next birthday in just a few months so I will be taking as many trips as she would like and I will truly be smiling along the way.  I really do have the best Mother in all the world and I feel truly blessed to belong to such a loud large family.

As far as traditions go, I'm looking forward to passing them all on to my children.  I know they are really looking forward to this one in particular.  Love you K & Z.