That Jolie Girl

Push Pin Contest

I've said many times that I come from a long lineage of crafty people.  Well, here is one great example of this.  Each year Newport, OR has a push pin contest.  What's that you wonder?  All entries to this contest must be held up by no more than 4 push pins.  This year, my Mom won the contest!  She created this amazing mix media book.  Get this - she only used two push pins to display it!  My mom and I share a knack for collecting all kinds of things.  Here you can see that this talent serves a very wonderful crafty purpose.    Below are a few pages from her book.  It's by no means the entire book which probably had at least 50 pages.  You can gleam from the examples I've chosen how much love and care went into this creation.  It's really spectacular to thumb through in person.  I'm extremely proud to have acquired my craftiness from her.  She is an inspiration to me and to our entire family. 

 

May Day

I want to wish everyone a Happy May Day today.  Growing up, my family always looked forward to May Day.  We would make baskets and fill them with flowers (some years real flowers and other years paper flowers) for our neighbors.  We would leave them on our neighbor's doorstep, ring the bell and run away.  As an adult, I have done this once or twice for my neighbors.  I think to do it every year, but usually time gets away from me.  Do other people do this?  I have asked my friends and they usually just give me a funny look.  If you did this as a kid or still do, I would love to hear from you.  Who knows, this might have been something that my mom thought up.  She always has good ideas.

This year I just have a cat in a basket.  For some reason, he loves to sit here.  I don't think my neighbors would want him, nor could I part with him. 

Cork Wall

When I was 7 years old, my parents built a house.  It was a great house.  My bedroom and my sister's were the coolest.  My mom took into consideration all the things that little girls need.  We had a nook for a desk.  Our closet had a couple of shelves on the bottom that held plastic containers for all sorts of odds and end.  But the best thing was the cork wall.  We had one full wall that my mom covered with cork tiles.  I haven't been able to find a picture of it, but it was cool.  We could put a million things on the wall and not damage the walls.  It helped encourage our creativity by not having restrictions on what was 'wall worthy'. 

My mom made the above tile.  It has hung on my wall forever.  She always made fun stuff like this for us.  I do think my creativity comes from my mom.

Thursday Nights

My mom was way before her time.  She understood the importance of spending quality time with her children.  Back in the Reagen era while everyone else was pacifying their children with TV, my mom made time for me and my sister.  Each Thursday night, my dad would take one kid and my mom would take the other.  My father would always take us out to a movie or occasionally bowling.  We didn't do too much bonding, but I always felt special having a night on the town with my dad.  My mom would stay home with the other child and she would have craft night.  We did everything from carving soap to making paper flowers. We had her undivided attention the whole evening.  The following Thursday, my sister and I would switch parents.  I always looking forward to each Thursday.  It was the best day of the week.

Momento Box

I am going to start a new series over the next few weeks.  I'm going to be sharing the many brilliant ideas my mom had when I was a kid.  Some of her ingenuity was based on the fact that we didn't have a lot of money growing up.  Others stemmed out of her own craftiness.  I like the thought of putting theses ideas out in the world for others to enjoy or try.  It's also a way to say thank you to my mom for her genius.

My mom always had a Momento Box for me and my sister.  We each had our own and it was just a normal study paper box. She would throw everything that had to do with our childhood that she no longer needed into this box.  There was no rhyme or reason to what was in the box nor was it organized at all.  She was really good at dating each of the items.  When we grew up and left the house, my mom presented us with our box.  This past weekend, I went through my box again.  I hadn't looked at it in a couple of years.  My mom wanted a drawing I had done, so she could embroider it.  Looking through my box was so much fun!  It brought back great memories.  I decided to post some of the items I found.  I encourage all moms to not throw away drawings after they have had their stay on the frig.  Save them, your children will thank you.

The above picture is me.  I grew up in a small town, so there weren't too many babies to chose from.  My sister also likes to tell people that my dad was president of the Jaycees, so she thinks that's the only reason why I won.  She's just jealous because I was so darn cute.

A smattering of drawings I did.  I absolutely love the quail on the left and will probably have to do a craft around that quail.  All in all, there were probably about 100 drawings in the box.

A cross stitch that I did when I was around 12.

A journal entry from 5th grade explaining how easy cross-stitch is.  It also shows a cross-stitch I had completed.

A small book I wrote for a school project.  I love that my dream was to be a banker.  How random is that? I also found an award I had gotten in the second grade for my ability to stay awake in class. 

Probably the very first craft I ever did.  My mom was always very crafty and she passed this love on to her children.  Also in the box were many report cards, thank you cards I had made, hair from my first hair cut, the hospital wrist band from when I was born and even the baby poll to guess when I would be born and how much I would weigh.

Predictions

My family doesn't have many traditions.  We do have one that I wanted to share.  My mom, sister, and I get together every Christmas Eve.  Usually there are more people with us like my husband, my niece, family friends.  On Christmas Eve, we do many things.  First we have dinner.  We usually go for something not very traditional.  This year we had a baked potato bar with all the fixings and lentil soup.  Last year it was Lebanese food.  After dinner we read the story of Jesus' birth in Luke 2:1-20 by candle light.  After the reading, we eat birthday cake for Jesus.  Many of my friends roll their eyes when they hear this.  My family believes that there is always a reason for cake.  Cake is good!  This year our friend made the cake (pictured above) and it actually lit up.  He made a bunt cake with a jello middle.  Under the jello had a little battery operated light.  It was definitely different, but tasted great.

While we eat cake, we do our predictions.  This is the tradition I wanted to pass on to others.  I don't know how my mother got the idea, but we have been doing this for 20 years.  First we read our predictions from last year.  This is always fun and we say if the prediction came true or not.  For instance, my husband and I both predicted that he would make a friend in 2005.  Unfortunately that prediction didn't come true.  Then we write our predictions for the following year.  There are no rules to what you can or cannot write.  I always write about my friends (D will get engaged this year), work (I will still be at my job, but I will get a big raise), my house (my bathroom will be remodeled), myself (I will finally start my jewelry business), who's going to be president (in election years), and whatever else comes to mind.  I always write positive things that I would like to see come to fruition.  Who ever is with us on Christmas Eve also does predictions.  My mom keeps them for the year until we read them next Christmas Eve.

We started this tradition in 1985 when I was 11.  My first year, my predictions were few and I wrote a lot about Live Aid (the greatest thing I had seen.  I was glued to my TV in Central Oregon for it's duration).  It's great fun to read back through the years.  To see the year where I met my husband.  To read the prediction that he would propose to me.  My niece started doing predictions as soon as she could talk.  We wrote down what she dictated to us.  It's a great way to document and summarize the year.  It is something I look forward to doing every year.  I think weeks in advance as to what I'm going to write for the year.

So I encourage you to create this as a tradition for yourself.  It's not the same as resolutions.  There is no pressure to get something accomplished, just thoughts that you have for the following year.  If you get something right, great.  If not, no worries if anything it might prove to be funny.  I don't know why we do it on Christmas Eve, it's just always worked for us.  Usually after I write mine, I think about it for a day or two and then completely forget about it.  That's one reason why they are so much fun to read each year.  It's kept my family close and makes me look forward to next year.