Silence

I was on a blogging role through December.  One of the reasons I started this blog was to show my family, who is spread all over, the little projects I was working on.
In particular, I wanted to show my Mom.  Who, as any good Mom does, wants to see what her children are up to and of course compliment them on it no matter what!  Who doesn’t want that kind of fan:)

We moved to Texas almost six years ago- it was a hard decision but it was a good move for my husbands career and seemed to be the right thing for our growing family.  But leaving my parents broke my heart.  They have always been my best friends- my husband jokes that I am a 50/50 split of them.
We knew it would be hard but planned on lots of visits and it was a quick, relatively cheap plane ride away so it would be ok.

About 4 months after we moved, my Mom was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.  It was hard to diagnose and there were different treatments/options/ideas that were tried and tossed around for several years before everyone (doctors/specialists) were in agreement that it was Parkinson’s PSP.  It is a form of it that is fast moving and doesn’t respond to meds that typically help patients.

I won’t go through all the particulars but it is a devastating disease and our whole family, including my Mom, mourned the loss of the vibrant woman she was.  It took away her mobility, sight, and some cognitive abilities but she still pushed on.  She loved her family and friends more than herself and at times I know her pure generosity was thought fake by some.  But it wasn’t.  She wasn’t perfect and even in those imperfections she taught me by sharing her mistakes.

Our family suffered two terrible losses at the end of December.  My Mom was the second one and our only comforts were her being with precious Scarlett, and that she was at peace and her vibrant self once again.

You can not prepare for loss.  I thought I had been, I really did.  But I wasn’t.  I sat staring at the wall for the next several weeks in a deafening silence- somehow getting through Christmas with my boys, both boys having tonsilectomies the week after Christmas and a New Year that came and went.

She was supposed to see it all with me.  And while I know she is watching over us- it just feels like a consolation prize.  She was not old.  She had years to see all of her precious grandbabies grow and shower them with the love I know she wanted to.  Years to travel and relax in retirement with my Dad, her husband of 30 years.

This post isn’t meant to be morbid but it is meant to pay tribute.  I haven’t felt creative or motivated since her passing and while I know that is fine- it also just isn’t me.  So maybe one little craft at a time I can start showing her again what I am working on- but now it will all have a piece of her in it because I can’t imagine a day that will pass when she won’t be on my mind.

And just so you know, Mom, it wasn’t just that I hated going to school, it was that I really did just love staying home and spending time with you.

So to get back in the swing of things I decided that just organizing my jewelry was not enough.  I needed to make that organizing cute!  but still cheap… gotta keep the hubs blood pressure down.
This is what I started with- a $5.99 cork board from Ikea…

I already had some (big surprise) buffalo check fabric- so using some spray adhesive- I made sure the fabric was stuck to the board and then I used some push pins from the Dollar Store to create a fake nail head look around the border and also to keep the fabric in place.  I then hot glued the extra fabric to the back and was pretty pleased!

 

Awww… but you know me so well! It wasn’t quite done.  Just one more excuse to use my amazing Gold Leaf Pen! Those little silver pins looked pretty but wouldn’t they look even prettier in gold?!

And I am pretty much obsessed with the gold and silver mixing together so I didn’t try to hard to completely cover them with the gold- just put some on and was done.

I think it is a pretty way to display some of my jewelry and there aren’t too many places I can make girly in my house of boys, so why not?