Christmas and a pillow

Yeah Yeah I know its the end of January and here I am talking about Christmas but hey that's what you get. I know I have been absent from here for a bit and there are several contributing factors to that. Factor number 1 was that I was crazy busy working on all my Christmas crafts I needed to get finished so I could give them as gifts. I really wanted to blog these as I was making them but some of the gifts were for some of you fine followers so unfortunately I couldn't. Anyway did you have a wonderful Christmas? I cant even begin to explain how wonderful mine was! My whole family was together on Christmas day with not a single person missing which is unusual these days with everyone being married with kids etc. At my Grandma Browns it was warm enough to linger outside and chat with my awesome cousins, aunts and uncles. I even got some very thoughtful sweet gifts I will cherish forever! After staying there and not wanting to leave (I hate leaving my family because I love them so much), we finally headed to my Granny and Grandads. Now my Grandad had a stroke about 10 years ago and it has tremendously changed his life in so many ways. Because of this it is hard for him to play with kids because of is disabilities now. Usually young kids have a hard time bonding in these situations but I was so blessed to see my niece (3yo) and nephew (2yo) talking to him and giggling and making him smile. Truly one of the most precious memories of my life seeing them reach out and include him and love him just as I do. My nephew had to show him every single one of his new tractors before they could leave, I know those moments were so special to my Grandad just as they were to me and I am so grateful that God gave us those moments.

In January we found out some news that made that Christmas even more special. We found out my Grandad has a blood clot that is slowly plugging the artery running to my Grandads heart. Due to the location they cannot operate and they cannot get the clot to dissolve. We now know that it is likely that Christmas (2011) is the last we will ever have with him. Cherish your family folks, love them every moment you can, treasure them and most importantly pray for them and constantly show them and tell them of your love for them. Every time I get to tell my Grandad I love him I consider it a gift because any breath could very well be his last according to the doctors.

Reason number 2 I haven't been blogging is that I am planning a wedding silly! So I have been really busy working on wedding crafts and unfortunately doing a horrible job of taking pictures as I go. I will try to get better about that.

Reason number 3 well after all of my holiday eating (ok gorging) I felt awful! I knew I needed to get back to eating healthy so I decided to do a detox. Its pretty strict especially the first 2 weeks so even though I was trying a ton of recipes I wasnt sure about posting some of them. Now I am at a stage in the detox where I am able to be a little creative with food and I am really liking it. In fact I made a divine peanut butter pie yesterday that I will share with you. But not in this post. In this post I want to show you what I made my Mom for Christmas. So without further ado.

My sister found this ratty old OLD hand crocheted pillow cover that one of my Great or Great Great Grandmas made. It was in bad shape and we couldn't figure out how to recreate/save it. It did have some gorgeous hand crocheted roses on it that were still in great shape however. Finally my sister came up with the idea to cut off the roses and sew them to a pillow case. Enter me, she had the idea, I did all the work. First I bought pillow forms from Walmart, then I used some burlap I had to sew a pillow case for the pillow forms. I then sewed on the roses and realized something was missing, LEAVES! I custom made some felt leaves and stitched them in place. Something still wasn't quite right and finally I realized the roses needed some little fake pearls sewn in the center. The finished product is absolutely gorgeous and guess what my Mom loved her new old pillows. I know she will treasure them forever and one day my sister and I will get to treasure them too. Here are some pictures!