All Grown Up

I am a mommy.  The fact that I don't have any children yet is just a technicality.

My youngest sister was born when I was 12.  And I doted on her.  If I held her in public, people gave me ugly looks since they thought I was a 12 year old with a baby. Ha, when she got a little older she thought it was funny to call me Mommy in public.  Punk.  My Grandmother used to laugh at me and call me 'Little Mama'.

When I started college she started kindergarten.  And when I left something my Mom told me haunted me. My Mom was the second oldest of seven kids and she said that the youngest kids don't really remember her being around.  I couldn't have that.  I never wanted my baby sister to feel like I wasn't there.

I sent her notes occasionally and would come up with random little gifts for occasions like 'back to school'. I helped to throw a murder-mystery birthday party.  I came up with crazy Christmas and Birthday gifts.

Yesterday she started college.

Of course I gave her a little bag full of cute and useful stuff...how could I not?

I packed a tote bag with a few books that I found helpful in the maze of being on my own.  You could say it's a little road map for the inevitable twists and turns.  This 'Map Journal' was tucked in with the other books to help keep track of her travels.

I gave her the little 'flat tire' road side assistance card holder that I made in one of the Iron Craft Challenges.

  

You know, for the bumps in the road.

I threw in a little bottle of sparkling apple cider to celebrate her new beginning.  And I made her a Passport cover so she can travel in style.

I guess this gift was kind of a carry on bag for her journey.  Ahh, corny...I know.

To be honest, I'm a little lost.  She isn't a tiny little thing that looks forward to my crazy gifts anymore, but I think she may still get a few crazy care packages anyway...

Good Luck Mantha, have a great 'trip'!

Last Leg

Staying with my sister while I wait for a house has been both a blessing and a challenge.  Craft space and my internet connection not to mention my sister's sanity have suffered heavily.

She has been a saint for not throwing me out yet.

In the meantime, however, I have neglected my poor Craft Noir.  I am fighting on though!  The guilt from missing any week at Iron Craft KILLS me...so I cut out cute amuguri food from chibi wrapping paper on breaks at work for memory cards...

and iced a QR code on a brownie amid a sea of 3 circling dogs.  And while Craft Noir has suffered, I've at least chronicled those forays on my Flickr page.

I admit, I'm not super impressed with most of these efforts but I still have felt the need to try each one.  It is shocking when someone likes one of my handicapped attempts.  It's a good lesson that I can't prejudge my projects before they're presented.  But that is it's own catch-22.  I wouldn't be 'done' with a project unless I thought it was good.

It's interesting when you have something mapped out in your head and it ends up NOTHING like you planned...no matter how many attempts were made.  I recently had one of those weeks.  Everything that I touched rebelled.  Even though I've been slinging art projects together that were perched on the back of the toilet tank and blinked through waterfalls of sweat on the back porch as I tied up finishing touches I've genuinely been so determined to attempt the craft that none of that mattered.  Yet after the week of rebellion, I needed a break.  I pondered the Iron Craft and not even a last minute 'Hail Mary Pass' appeared.  The tank was out of gas.

I regrouped and reassured myself it was ok to temporarily flunk out.  Not that I believed that.  I am still trying to think of my make-up project!  But nothing seemed suitable, so I cleaned and read and didn't craft.

I am happy to report this week I was able to jump back in; this week's challenge was Sculpture.

But I am definitely hitting that last stretch.  I am supposed to find out about the house soon.  I really pray that this house doesn't  prove to be just a mirage.  I am already fantasizing about my craft room.