Fe-Fe's World Of Craft, Creations and Kids.

This blog was started mainly for my crafting, however I also find myself writing about my family life too and in particular about my son Josh. Josh is just Josh to us and we're used to his quirky behaviour. As I don't want to have to mention Josh's autism every time I post about him, I thought I'd mention it here. Hopefully you will bear this in mind as you read and it may give you a little insight into the wonderful world of the autisic child in a very gentle way!

Friday, 2 January 2009

New Year Resolutions for 2009

For those of you who have been visiting my blog for a while, you may remember that last year my New Years resolution was to make two Christmas cards a week and that would have worked out fine if I was just making cards for the kids to give their school friends as usual. However what I forgot to take into account was that, as Peej is now self employed and not the IT Director for a large company any more, we did not need to order 100s of Christmas cards and therefore do not need to get any specially printed with our signatures already in.

This was fine for Peej as he just went out and bought a couple of packs of charity cards to give out to his family and friends. I just couldn't bring myself to do that - it's like being a vegetarian and eating a meat dish because it's there and already cooked rather than go and make a meal yourself. You know you could but it goes against everything. So I still ended up with the mad rush of making loads of Christmas cards on the run up to Christmas and I did end up running out of time and so a few people didn't get cards that I would have liked to have sent cards to.
Sorry if you are one of those people.

This year I am aiming to make one Christmas card a day. This is not set in stone and I am not going to beat myself up if I miss a day or two but hopefully it will encourage me to craft every day and get a good stock of Christmas cards built up in the process.

So this is my first Christmas card of 2009 and, between me and you, it almost didn't get made. I suddenly realised at 8pm yesterday that I hadn't made one and was going to break my N.Y.R. on day one. So I quickly whipped this up.

Stamp: Penny Black
Coloured with: Twinkling H2Os
Papers: Cricut
Equipment: Cuttlebug ~ Nestibilities ~ Die cut sliders
Embellishments ~ green ribbon ~ Peel Off Stickers

This second card I made today. It's another quick one, if you don't include the time spent colouring. The gorgeous snowman stamp is one my Dad and Liz bought me for Christmas. The rectangle Nesties my Mum gave me and the Distress Inks I coloured the image with were a Christmas present from Peej. If the papers had been a Chrissy pressy too it would have been made entirely from presents - how cool is that?!

Stamp: Rachelle Anne Miller
Coloured with: Distress Ink
Paper: Daisy Bucket Designs
Equipment: Cuttlebug ~ Nestibilities
Embellishments/sentiment: Free with magazine

5 comments:

Leanne said...: Firstly, Happy New Year!!

Love your cards, and that is a great idea to do them one a day - I think that is something that I should try to do!

Can't wait to see them all!

Leanne :o)
xx; 2 January 2009 at 22:18
Unknown said...: Hi Fiona, lovely cards and good luck, I made a similar resolution last year but somehow....... well fell by the wayside, LOL.

Barbarax; 2 January 2009 at 22:22
Dee said...: Hi Fe.... good start, I didn't make any resolutions but had promised myself that I too would make a Chrissy card a day. So far I've par made one and got two images painted and ready to go!! i suppose it is a start LOL

Do I detect the Nesties slide die that I also bought you for Xmas, on one of your cards?

Love em all by the way... and love you too. :-)

mum XXXX; 3 January 2009 at 10:33
Deanne said...: gorgeous chrimbo cards fe x; 3 January 2009 at 16:18
Deborah said...: Adorable card Fe! I think the snowmen are going to be melting soon! I personaly am so over Christmas cards! Bless your heart for buliding up your stash! How about some spring flowers? LOL! Hugs, Deb; 4 January 2009 at 06:05

Ode to Special Mums

Ode to Special Moms(by Erma Bombeck)

Most women become mothers by accident, some by choice, a few by social pressures and a couple by habit. This year, nearly 100,000 women will become mothers of handicapped children. Did you ever wonder how mothers of handicapped children are chosen?

Somehow I visualize God hovering over Earth selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As he observes, he instructs his angels to make notes in a giant ledger.
"Armstrong, Beth, son, patron saint, Matthew.
Forrest, Marjorie, daughter, patron saint, Cecilia.
"Rudledge, Carrie, twins, patron saint, give her Gerard. He's used to profanity."
Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles, "Give her a handicapped child."

The angel is curious. "Why this one, God? She's so happy."

"Exactly," says God. "Could I give a handicapped child to a mother who does not know laughter? That would be cruel."

"But has she patience?" asks the angel.

"I don't want her to have too much patience or she will drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wear off, she'll handle it.
"I watched her today. She has that feeling of self and independence that is so rare and so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I'm going to give her has his own world. She has to make it live in her world, and that's not going to be easy."

"But, Lord, I don't think she even believes in you."

God smiles. "No matter. I can fix that. This one is perfect. She has just enough selfishness."

The angel gasps, "Selfishness? Is that a virtue?"

God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she'll never survive. Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn't realize it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a 'spoken word.' She will never consider a 'step' ordinary. When her child says 'Momma' for the first time, she will be present at a miracle and know it! When she describes a tree or a sunset to her child, she will see it as few people ever see my creations."I will permit her to see clearly the things I see...ignorance, cruelty, prejudice...and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life, because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side."

"And what about her patron saint?" asks the angel, pen poised midair.

God smiles. "A mirror will suffice."

"Welcome to Holland"

"Welcome to Holland" By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss. But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.