Fathers Day Memories and what he taught me.

Father's Day, Is my day of memories, things we as a family  learned from my dad. 

 

 I learned you can be a hero.

I learned being part of a family meant doing for others, will benefit you too,

I learned don't lie, it doesn't pay,

 I learned sitting up strait or standing up strait, will make you look confident.

I learned you can always share something and still have it as your own,

I learned hard work would not kill you. 

I learned, watch your manners it helps you be a good person, 

I learned look at how you dress, it means something, even if you don’t have much to wear. 

  

I learned having fun can be in your own back yard. 

I learned that love and  protection can be a good thing.

I learned anger is harmful. 

I learned he loved me just because.

I learned you can make beautiful music with a whistle.

I learned creativity out of necessity. 

I learned you can make it with something if you look around and see what you have and use it.

I learned fun can be gotten with very little.

I learned look out for others, especially those that can’t help themselves.

I learned cruelty can be quick, but have lasting consequences. 

I leaned the good and the bad in life, but it does not have to make you either.  Just balance it. 

These things are things I learned from My Dad. I am sure there are so many more. Some say he was not worthy to call father, some say he was mean, some say he did not love them, all that may be true in my family, but I loved him, I knew how he felt about a lot of things because I took time to find out. He wanted more for us than we wanted for ourselves, but he did not have the means to get us there. He wanted well behaved children because he knew the bible, and he knew that if you spared the rod you spoiled the child. He wanted love, but many times did not know how to give it because it was not given to him first, when he was young. You only can mimic what your taught from your parents. He required respect, but had a hard time teaching it, and because of that may have been hard and difficult. But he told me he loved us all. He was overwhelmed many a day and did his best, as he knew it. 

I hope that you can look into Fathers day  and find something, one thing you can say positive to balance a negative of your own Dad, and maybe in this dad.

Fathers have so much to do, so much to care for,

so much to concern themselves with, so much to answer for, so much to balance, and so much to bring into your lives during the time you live with them. You can not know that until you are one.

Fathers are your major influence in all you will be as an adult, and with out one you will be less of a person. 

Today pick something and let others know a good thing or a and bad thing. But the one thing I really learned well from my Dad is “ If you can’t say something nice... be quiet”.

Gardens

http://themagiconions.blogspot.com


The above link is what got me started on a whimiscal day in my Garden.......

Gardens, they fill up our yards, they make something old and ugly beautiful, they are subjects of paintings.

Gardens can be fun, whimsical, and alluring.

Join in the fun of the 2012 Fairy Garden Competition and create a spot for your fanciful delights. 

Animals, Nomes, Fairies, Insects, all can delight your senses.

Come create a spot to enjoy, inside or out, a garden is your delight.

Gardens, bring lightness to darkened areas of life. Come and enjoy Gardens.

Mothers day came and went and I did not get to mention my mothers gifts to me.

I was looking at a site on the internet and they had a competition for what did your mother give to you?

I thought about this all day. I thought I would begin by posting some of her attributes that I hope to say I have received from watching her raise her family.

My mother was a mom to 11 kids, and for 25 years a wife to a difficult husband. My dad was a good man but he had a hard job trying to keep up with what had become a large family in no time. He had many jobs and many of them did not carry insurance as that during that time of life was not a standard.

Our family ranged between the years of the late 40's then entered the 50's into the 60's and on into the 70's.
 So as you can imagine there were many changes that came over time.

The war was just the beginning When she was married. A gorgeous bride, and her dashing sailor husband. Soon my oldest brother was born, he was premature, and sickly, he had heart problems and had one of the earliest heart surgery ever performed on a baby. She lost her next babies a set of twins, and then my oldest sister was born, a family was beginning all during a war overseas, and she had become a mother with an absent father. Her dedication to raising her babies was beautiful. She was graceful, and giving. She would have visits from her husband, and as a result another pregnancy, she was patient during the difficult days of restrictions and rationing. She had no idea this sacrifice would serve her later years when things got tougher. 

Three soon became four, and then five.
During this time my father had changed ships so many times. She would endure the telegrams stating he had been  torpedoed, and/ or his ship was  sunk. Every time a ship change his pay was delayed. I never read where she complained in the letters she wrote to her sailor. I found in her letters a concern

and caring to what he was having to endure over seas. He was burned badly while saving other crew men on one sinking, and then he ended up with pneumonia as a result.She found the hardships he endured were more than she could add to. She never wrote and told him she was being foreclosed on. The house with 5 children was about to be taken by the bank.

 Word had gotten out at a local USO that this was to occur, and the airmen of Lowery Airfield collected their pay and saved my mom and dads house. This was posted in the local paper the Rocky Mt. News.
And that is when my father first learned of the problems back home. My mom was gracious with thanksgivings to those that helped her through this time. The war was ending but the Korean conflict was beginning, he was finishing his tours as a sailor and she now had been a single parent for many years.

The change of direction the family of now six kids  had to make to accommodate a father figure was just the beginnings of difficulties. He had to get a job, and find a way to pay and house this ever growing family. The little house that was saved by the airmen, had become too small. A new location with a built in business seemed the perfect answer. They had found a house with a water system that provided water to 100 homes. Our family was at this time 6 kids strong, and not long after moving there was an additional member. That would be me. It was the mid 50s'. Jobs he had were many but  included the care of 100 homes to provide water for. The family had become a business, and he in ways treated the older members like partners instead of sons and daughters.
He used the kids for chores of collecting and meter reading.

It was not all work though, He liked to travel, and would always find a way to be near water, or on a lake, He would provide family times of adventures like a road trip in a old school  bus converted to a camper. During one of these adventures she was cook, laundry service, baby tender, shopper, and many more things. I don't remember her being out of sorts or feeling that she could not handle any crises  This  trip was to the west coast from Colorado. It always seemed that things could not go easy, and the bus broke down and My mom had to gather all our possessions and get us home in one piece. I remember a train trip that seemed fun to me but must have taxed her because of 8 little people relying on her. it was not long and another 3 babies came along. It was a taxing situation for a family to find work during this time. Family difficulties such as open heart surgery on my younger brother were just adding to the pile of hardships my mom and dad had building. His job situation, her family life demanded more than they could survive and after 25 years the cracks were too deep to repair.

My mom who had never worked began  the job search her self. Scared, and now alone with 8 mouths to feed and bodies to put clothing on. She had a few jobs and finally landed one that she worked many years. The hours were hard, teen-agers were harder, and she never lost her gracious nature. Many times we had very little in ways of food and clothes, but she endured.  She always prayed and took us to church, she provided with out complaint, and she survived the raising of the rest of the family. She gave to us first, She prayed for us first, She let us complain first, She held her head high, and I found that she was one of the strongest persons that could have ever influenced my life. I loved my mom and in dedication to her.
Happy Mothers day Dear dear mother. I miss your smiling face.

Changing the nature of our modern applances to a more beautiful view.

We all have them,... MAGNETS... some from the schools, some from the advertisers on the phone book, some from Pizza houses, and some from real estate companies. We all have them, and they hold our up our pictures, our papers from our kids, and so much more.
They are predominantly placed on the refrigerator, and basically ugly.
 I want to end the savaging of our refrigerator.

 We strive for beauty in our houses, we polish the wood of our cabinets, and polish our floors, BUT  we
                         allow these ugly magnets to invade our largest,
                                                                    and our most used, message board
                                                                                           Our fridge.
   

I say no more.

Never should we allow our precious ones to be held up by real estate ads, or eye glass sellers, or out of date calendars again.

Take down the magnets with the ads of agents, or banks,

                     Pull the paper from the magnet backing,
  add paper scraps or embellishments to the face of an old magnet,
  Change the look of a magnet with ease,






 I make cards, I have tools to  re-purpose paper,

                       Cutting Dies are only one plan I have 

                                                                                         for the magnets on my fridge. I use paper, fabric, magazine pictures, old wrapping paper, you name it. It can easily be added to the face of an old magnet.

 The paper should be light weight.

  The embellishments should be few, or the magnet will not hold up your work or the pictures you what to show off.

     The ease of changing the look of a magnet can be made with simple scrapbook paper or cuttings from 

 magazines of your favorite recipe or  photo of a place.  But let your creative nature change the horrid look      

                               from the old magnets we now let adorn our fridges.                            

  

                         Let the beauty of simple glue and paper begin to change the face of your favorite
 
                   memory keeper, it can be the the most beautiful place in your house, your refrigerator.
           




Credits: Graphic45, Cuttle Bug, Spellbinders, Cricut.

Creating Memeories

One of  my great indulgences has been paper crafting. I have loved it before it was fashionable. I have saved magazines for clip art projects for my Girls, I called it cut and glue. We have books created by them of items and sayings cut and placed together to create a page of whimsy and fun. Some were alphabetical, some were just for fun, some were content driven. But all were a placement of time and wonder into the minds of my children. I now can see the formation of who they are by these books done when they were small. I am sure they will some day treasure them like I do. I still get them out and work on mine from time to time.


I have introduced this form of fun to my  granddaughter and will to my other grandchildren when they are old enough to cut an glue.

This form of creative paper clip art was started years ago by my grandmother, she had a book we would race to when we visited her house, and spend hours in it to see what was in it. It was similar to the newly created I SPY books. She made it from clip art from magazines. Sadly that book did not survive, but I found one that is older and made from paper sacks and sewn with twine, It has great paper art from magazines clipped and pasted in a book. Very old, and one of my favorite treasures. ( Some pictures from it below) I followed the tradition with my own design and idea and newer art but fun none the less. The art of magazine art is being lost at a great rate, and this is one way to preserve it.

My passion of paper art was renewed the other day by a friend passing on her former passion of paper, she supplied me fun glitter, glue, and paper from her collection, She was changing her passion from paper to beading. I love that form of art too, but have never indulged there. My daughter wanted to make Christmas Cards this year and so for a while I was going to my favorite store Archivers to take in their workshops, and creative fun and free ideas.  
      I loved this class so much, well, I went a bit wild and bought lots of fun things from all my favorite stores, Hobby lobby, Michaels, and where ever there was crafting sales. These cards were just the first of many that we made, my daughter and I a sampling of the ones we made are here.

Specilty papers and embelshiments from my favorite makers KC and Company, are added fun, the stamps my friend had in her collection and some I bought on line,
from  www.scrapbuck.com  helped with the stamping and made it reasonable, and Papers and More online stores provided the perfect card foundation to build on.  Papers from Archivers from Graphics 45, added the vintage look that is so creative and unique. I love this so much that it has inspired me to make stacks for the other holidays and see if they would be sale-able to the area gift stores. This love of paper, that has taken my life into a new realm is fun and creative. I will continue as sales provide                                 format for my obsession. But with a bit of creative gifting for others

Happy Holidays and let the fun begin for this is the season of beauty, family, and fun.