My Sweet Thursday Friend

Amelia was born in June, 2007. Her Mommy and I became friends while working in the scrapbook store together. When it was time for Bethanie to return to her "real job", she had childcare all arranged except for Thursdays. I offered to be the Thursday person and that worked out good with everyone's schedule. It had been a long, long time since I had babies around and at first it was a real learning experience. So many new conveniences to learn about! I had never even had a pack & play with my kids. (I should note here that Bethanie is the same age as my children, in fact we discovered quite by accident, that she had graduated high school with my youngest son!) At first, Amelia slept alot as new babies do so I didn't have to do much except feed and change her and give lots of kisses. As she got older and her skills increased, we were able to do many more things. We took walks, read lots of books, sang songs and explored our house. I looked forward to and cherished my time with my Thursday friend!

I rarely had Amelia for the entire day on Thursday because her Nana lived close by and would pick her up after her (Amelia's) afternoon nap. But from 7:30-2 we had a fun time and developed a certain pattern of activities and a loving relationship. I have learned that you surely don't have to have a bloodline connection to someone to love them like your own family. This is true with Amelia and Bethanie, too!

Amelia loved to "help out" in my studio or play with my bears and dolls.

She loved to read and had a favorite book, a pop-up book, titled The Zoo. We read it every day, at least twice, before her morning nap.David & I encouraged Amelia to broaden her skills. She loved to dust with the Swiffer...and she also helped "D" (her name for David) haul the trash out to the curb....child labor laws, did someone say anything about child labor laws???? (You know this was just a joke for the photos-right?)

And of course there was Edith, the squirrel, who came every day for peanuts at the back deck door.Earlier this Spring, Bethanie and her husband decided that Amelia needed to be around other children during the day. Two weeks ago, Amelia started going to a daycare center near their home. The change would mean much less travelling for Bethanie and an opportunity for Amelia to be with other small people. Of course we supported this decision 100% but when we knew that our days were numbered, David & I were both sad. I'm writing this blog post to share with Bethanie and you, my friends, some pictures I took over the 19 months that Amelia came on Thursdays.

We miss that sweet, sleepy little face early in the morning. We miss our dishwasher door filled with alphabet or animal magnets. We miss singing and dancing and getting the Cheerios from the pantry for a snack. We miss reading about Grandpa and the pizza and playing with the farm animals. We hope you come and visit us often, because we don't want you to forget Auntie Joyce and Uncle D.

We love you Amelia, Thursday friend. Don't grow up too fast! XOXO

New Banner, Links, and a few Handmades

I have been sneaking some changes to my blog over the past 2 weeks or so. The most recent is my blog banner. I purchased a kit from Shabby Miss Jenn Designs here Any kind of digital work is still a learning process for me but I loved the design of this banner and it was on sale....
Other new links are to the left of my post. There are some new blogs that feature images you can use for free and there are 2 classroom sites that have some fun projects featured right now. Cupid's Workshop by Lisa Pace ($20 to join) has some amazing Valentine themed art tutorials and Joli Paquet (free) has projects to learn and some to buy as well. I took Lisa's 12 Days of Christmas Workshop and her projects for that series were great, too.

There is a Vintage Spring Sweetness swap you can sign up for. Linda features a swap each season and the one for Spring sounds like fun. This will be my second swap with this group (I missed the mitten swap) and I'm looking forward to a Spring project. It's not too late to sign up!
From time to time I add blogs to my favorites list. Are you like me? You visit a favorite blog and see which blogs are that person's favorites and then you visit those blogs and before you know it, you have 1,000 blogs that you're reading!!! Maybe I should say that my hobby is linking and lurking!
OK-I promised myself that I would do some kind of post today to get started in blogland again. I have missed writing but January has been more than busy for our family. In my next post I will tell you about turning 60 last week!!!!
I will leave you with some pictures from a scrapbook I made for a customer for a couples' first Christmas.


These next pictures are of some items that were Christmas gifts for a special friend. The wonderful letters I used for the dream banner/garland can be found here. (Of course it would be from Martha!)The candle is a Novena candle that I found in the Ethnic Foods aisle of my grocery store. I covered it in scrapbook paper (from Graphic 45) and wrapped it with a strip of ivory colored felt. I cut flower shapes from the felt and sewed a button on for the flower center. The lacy scalloped border was made using a punch from Martha Stewart that I found at Michael's. Don't you love the chubby little bird on this paper?


A visit with Amelia over the Christmas holiday was a treat for David and me. She and her Mommy came to see us one evening. Amelia loves books and "D" is happy to read to her.