GARAGE SALE

As you all know our Etsy Team lost a very dear member in March. She had no family here. Kathleen was a dear soul full of talent. She had so many ideas but due to her weakened health over the years never got to do much with them. She would see craft sales or shop online for craft supplies having some wonderful idea of what to do with them and she would buy. She bought, and she bought, and she bought, putting these items aside until they overcame her home.


Our team was her family and Nadine (second from the left) was closest to her. She was made the executor of her estate. The Etsy Team was her family and so we were left to go through all of her belongings and sort and decided what to do with all of it.

We started about 4 months ago. There was a garage suffed full of unpacked boxes of craft items and Christmas decorations.She had 2 rooms inside her home full of unpacked craft items. Things like beads, trim, ric rac, lace, fabric, patterns, all the items you could ever need to make flower arrangements and all of these were not just in single boxes but numerous boxes. We took turns working when we could and we opened boxes one by one and sorted through each one. We took a lot to Hospice and then we decided to have a garage sale. We sorted and priced and categorized every item in the house. It was tedious but we did it !

We covered the table with tarps due to the moisture in the air during the night.

We had the sale last Friday and Saturday. It was huge so in order for people to be able to tell who worked there we wore bright orange T shirts.

It worked, we had pretty much a steady stream of people all day both days. We actually had 12 tables full of items and boxes of items on the ground. Alot of it was new, alot of it was unopened but it was all good stuff. We sold just about all of it. Our total after the sale was $760.00. Oh and we got a buyer for her car which that money will go to the bank to pay off the balance she owed on it.

This money was divided in half and one half was split among those of us that worked to make this sale happen. The other half is going into a fund in memory of Kathleen Bush. This fund will be for our Etsy Team to support whatever our team needs it for.

Kathleen would be very proud of the job we did. It was sad to see people going through all of her things but we know that all of the items will be used in a good way and in a way that Kathleen would approve of.

We printed up an article about Kathleen and gave each person that purchased at the sale a copy so that they would know the person that lived there and what a good soul she had.

We also had this picture of her which I made a collage of, hanging right up front for all to see. She looks as if she is saying thank you ! :)

Needless to say we were pretty pooped. Today was our weekly coffee meeting and we enjoyed relaxing.
Here are our some of our Etsy Angels ....looks like we are glowing !
Patti, Brenda, Tirzah, Jan, Susan, Sue. Nadine took the picture.

Tune in tomorrow...I AM HAVING AN ATC SWAP

A TRUE LIFE LOVE STORY, TIL DEATH DO US PART

The words of this story are probably not accurate but I will tell this story form what I have observed over the 14 years.

Years ago when my husband was about 11 years old, his parents, Lloyd (whom I never got the pleasure of meeting) and Marion became friends with Marilyn and Ron Amundson. They had a boy named Jay. He was bit younger than Alan but they were friends from the start and have stayed friends for over 50 years.

As young families do, they spent many weekends together doing things young families do and became very close.

Marian lost Lloyd in 1983 and Marilyn was there to dry the tears. She then remarried an old friend of the family. His name was Syd. Syd passed away shortly after they married and again Marion was a widow.

Marion at times, seemed to be full of anger and could be pretty cantankerous and down right rude. Marilyn was always there to gently put her in her place. Marion was so fond of Marilyn that she acquired the nickname "Old Dear".

Off an on over the years I have been married to Alan, I would hear about Old Dear. She was quiet a lady. She was beautiful inside and out. She always had every hair in place and was never seen without makeup. Her attire was always neat as a pin and well put together. She was a classy lady.

Old Dear lost Ron and remarried Bob Mohle not long after Marion lost Syd. I had the pleasure of meeting him at a Christmas brunch at Jay's house two years in a row. He was the sweetest little old man. I noticed that he just seemed to not be able to take his eyes off of his beautiful Old Dear.

I was just about to retire and move from CA to OR and knowing that Old Dear and Bob were together constantly, I ask her if she ever got tired of being together 24/7 and her answer was "No, I love being with Bob."

Although I only got to sit and talk to Old Dear maybe 4 times in my life, I will always remember how comfortable she made me feel. She had a wonderful sense of humor and was a joy to talk to.

Two months ago Old Dear broke her hip and since then has been in the hospital and deteriorating fast. Just a few days ago, Bob was admitted with kidney failure. The hospital put them in the same room.

We got a call from Jay on Saturday saying that Old Dear was dying and would probably be gone by the end of the week. The doctors told Bob that Old Dear was dying. I am sure this saddened him deeply. This morning we got a call from Jay that Bob had passed away. This evening we got another call from Jay saying that Old Dear had passed away also.

These two people so in love, lived, loved and died together. It is such a sad but unique and sweet thing as they both were. Now they are together with the Lord our God in heaven.

Rest in Peace Bob and Old Dear

ANOTHER LESSON LEARNED

I got a very good tip from a friend over at Creative Souls on layering. She told me about a wonderful new button to click that I was unaware of. It is under the layer palette drop down list and the selection is "mulitply"and takes all the dark lines out of your layers and makes the color pop.

I took this image

and layered over it with this image

and this image

And this collage was born
"Girlhood"

I was having so much fun I decided to do another one so...

I took this image

Layered over with this image

and this image

And this collage was born
"Lonesome Pine"

Can you notice the deeper color in the piece :)

STICKY FINGERS

Today I made these 4 mixed media ATC's. It has been awhile since I got out my glue, glitter, scissors and embellishments to make a collage on an Artist Trading Card. I forgot just how messy it is. My fingers were sticky, I had scraps of paper everywhere and I forgot you have to wait for the glue and glitter to dry before you can put them in cello sleeves to send off to your swap partners.

I must say Photoshop spoiled me but I still enjoy doing it this way from time to time.

I am thinking of having an ATC swap soon. Hope you can join me :)

Happy Creating (which ever way you do it)

TIME TO CREATE

 Natures Beauty

Geniveve

These two collages were created over the weekend. I had time to create!