Bling, TALENTED ladies & excellent memories!

Hi, friends!

Huge apologies for my absence... it's been a wild few months, but I SURVIVED leaving
my fabulous homestead and venturing ALL THE WAY TO PHILADELPHIA for a family
reunion and a dear celebration of life for my late Uncle James... and WHAT a celebration
it was - we had a FANTASTIC time, even through the tears of remembrance - there was joy!

There were rekindled relationships and GENERATIONS of great folks...




HISTORY!



Enlightenment...



Works of ART!




Saving the WORLD!



Lots of WALKING!


And delicious consideration...



Okay! I said we walked a LOT! We were HUNGRY....



More ART!



INTERESTING architecture...



Beauty in familiar places....



Random graves....



More....!




I found these SO random, but extremely beautiful..
{WHAT must it be like to trick-or-treat in downtown Philadelphia?}




Sooooo much to see!



And LEARN.... and LOVE...

and remember...!




And OH, so much fun!

I LOVED Philadelphia!

Meanwhile, back in blogland.... OH HOW I'VE MISSED BLOGLAND!

My lovely friend, Dawn, from Wplus9 introduced not ONE, but TWO
new, FABULOUS designers, Christina Kowalczyk and Jean Martin!!!!
I am SO excited - I LOVE these gals' work! Both of them have amazing
resumes and FANTASTIC personal styles! If you're not familiar with
them - I hope you'll check OUT their blogs! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO
looking forward to seeing them work, EVEN more magic, with Wplus9
stamps! Welcome, WELCOME ladies! {Are WE in for a treat.....!}

Additionally, we're still SLINGIN' da BLING over at Want2Scrap! I hope
you'll keep checking their FANTASTIC and hugely inspirational site:
grab your sunglasses - it's BRIGHT and BEAUTIFUL over there! Yee Haw!

I miss you! Can't wait to catch up!

Maybe I'll start every NEW YEAR this way!

It can be kind of hard to justify extra craft time during the height of holiday activities...

But, babies - the kids are BACK at school, normal routine kicking in.... And taking a little time to get my craft onnnnnnn.... It's FOR REAL beta endorphins... Wooooo Hooo! I'm on a program!

It's the POST CHRISTMAS, NEW YEAR'S EXTRAVAGANZA, twelve tags of bliss, diet...

My scraproom has shed ALL kinds of "extra" pounds! Ain't life grand! Yipeeeeeeee!

I'm so glad you took the time to stop by! Additionally, I must THANK YOU, so much, for all of your kind thoughts and words regarding my dear uncle, and the picture I shared in my last post. It's pretty magical when someone in your life shares words of comfort, a similar experience or even a hug, during a sad time: to receive it from blog friends - just fills my heart in ways that cannot be measured. My intention was not to solicit pity, but rather to strengthen a bridge that already exists - and dear ones, it's stronger than ever! Thank you!

Reality, kicking in...

A little good, a little sad...

Please indulge...

The good is still VERY good! More tag fun, influenced by the Holtz man... I'm still just kind of being inspired from the final image of Tim's tag... Where I don't have HIS stamps, die-cuts, etc., I'm totally improvising. One of the grandest things I have discovered about grungeboard, is that it's SO easy to detail cut! Where chipboard can rip or stress when you cut into small areas or round corners, grunge board is soooooo forgiving - AND bendy!

Here's a close up of the birdy.... I used my details scissors for the whole THING! {*Swoon!*}

THANK GOODNESS I have been hoarding grungeboard. This is my NEW go-to material for 3-D fun! I LOVE IT! And just for all you purists out there -
you can bet I'll probably acquire ALL the dies, eventually! But for now, I'm not slowing for lack of product.

{I KNOW! Do you remember what my middle name is? It rhymes... with.... RANGER! Ack, ack, ack!}

Now, on to reality. New Years... they don't stay all that new for long.

My MOST favorite uncle, Uncle James... passed away on the second day of this brand new year. He was 79 years old. Quite a guy! A Korean war hero, one of 8 children from Irish immigrants and one DANDY of a man. When I was little, Uncle Jim WALKED a little taller than mere mortals. He was handsome, generous and charming. These are the memories I'm going to keep, most tightly in my heart.

I wanted to share some of the darling photos of he and I from my childhood. At further review, not so darling. At least, not enough to put on BLOG. They were darker and more 70's ish than I recalled. Drats, growing up in such challenged photographic times. Instead, I went back FURTHER. 1942, to be precise {much BETTER photographic history, I'll say!}. This one's for Mom ~ She's the baby, in the arms of her eldest brother, John. Next to her is my angelic grandmother, Maryanne. Uncle Jim is the dapper-lad with the GREAT hair! Next to Jim is my dear Aunt Nancy... Just LOOK at their amazing style. Gosh, now THIS was a photo!

I used to look at photos like these and wonder how people's faces could CHANGE so much. Now I look at each, exquisite person and see the soul and familiarity of fine people - those whose lives touched mine, and those I never had the good fortune to meet, yet I know them! Their features are as familiar as my own. I yearn for conversations never heard and cherish moments I still recall.

God Bless you, sweet Uncle James. I pray that you are doing a fine jig in the company of those who preceeded you. I love you.

Thank you, blog friends, for indulging me. Bless you, too.