Today is my mother’s birthday. She would be 102. She departed this earth a long time ago, March 13, 1996 to be exact, It seems like forever since I have seen her and I miss her. She left too soon, too young, and she has missed so much. I would like to think she is watching from afar
So, happy birthday, Mama, I hope it is a good one there with Daddy and the rest of the family. I hope there is cake.
As I have mentioned before I am not a fan of book challenges. I much prefer to leisurely enjoy my books — reading is a relaxing endeavor for me not something to be rushed through just to fulfill a certain goal. So, because of this change of attitude, I read significantly fewer books in 2024 than in the past and it appears that trend will continue through 2025. How do I know?
I just finished the first book of 2025 and it is mid-February.
I started the Little Maudley series in 2024. It is a series (two books so far) about a small village in the UK named Little Maudley. It is written by Rachel Lucas. The first book is titled “The Telelphone Box Library”. Each book chronicles a portion of the lives of the residents, each with a different story and I found them to be very engaging and relatable.
Not sure what my next read will be — I will be sorting that out this morning as I picked up several books for free/cheap on Kindle unlimited during one of the specials. It is amazing how what seemed interesting at the time might not seem so interesting now so I will have to see what is stacked up in my “library”. I always sort of like to give it a day or two between ending a good book and starting a new one - gives me a chance to digest so to speak. I will let you know and notice that I have started my 2025 list on the side bar of this blog.
As promised, here is the fourth Valentine card I made for my grandson. Not sure how I managed to take the photo with the rest and not have it appear on my camera but that is what happened. So, here is the fourth “masterpiece” with the miserable rub ons. I have about a dozen pages of them left and am seriously considering just tossing them — hate to do that but not sure if the frustration is worth it. Hmmm…anyway..
Clearly I am having device issues as this is a photo of the photo on my phone! I am sure it is operator error but I am just hoping all my devices aren’t deciding to go kaput all at once. I have been having trouble with all of them — my phone and my iPad — the kindle seems to still be ok (touch wood) but I will not be happy if I have to replace a phone and an iPad at the same time. But, for today, I seem to be ok.
Let’s talk about youtube. Over time I have come appreciate the platform and all it has to offer. I am sure there is some unsavory material on it but since I don’t gravitate towards the unsavory, I have found youtube to be very helpfulin my hobbies — cross stitch, cardmaking and reading. I have also found many historically interesting videos and always enjoy those.
I follow several bloggers and I find their offerings to be refreshing and informative.
One that I watch regularly is Benita Larsson. She has a vlog about minimalism and I love seeing her home in Stockholm, her approach to life and her peacefulness is “catching”.
Another that I watch is Cecelia Blomdahl. Cecelia lives on Svalbard with her partner and her dog Grimm. Svalbard is the northern most archipelago closest to the North Pole. She is delightful, the area looks beautiful and horrible at the same time. She chronicles her life in this barren community and it is all, oddly, normal! Check her out sometime. She has a book.
I also follow Natalie Bowers for card crafting. I have spoken of her before and I find her videos to be straightforward, easy to understand and lovely to look at. Very enjoyable expenditure of time.
And last but certainly not least is Nicolas Fairford. Fairford is a vlogger who focuses on fine living. His vlogs are so relaxing and lovely. This is a young man who works hard to develop a lifestyle that he wants to live himself and he wants to share with others. He has also developed a brand of merchandise that you can purchase if you so desire. In his current videos he is doing a lot of traveling which interests me because I get to see places that I wouldn’t get to see otherwise. It makes for a relaxing afternoon with a cuppa — just letting myself enjoy a Scottish country house or a beautiful hotel in Vienna. Living the fine life vicariously while sitting here in my ordinary life in Texas.
Gotta thank youtube!
So, it is Friday. I have some errands to run and I have to say I am not looking forward to it in the cold weather but, if we want lunch……you get the picture.
Have a wonderful day, friends, and stay warm!
I have been busy making Valentine cards for my grandchildren. They don’t care but I find it great fun — until it isn’t.
What could possibly go wrong with some cute little Valentine cards. Well, let me tell you — it has been a comedy of errors.
First off I wanted to use some rub on transfers. They are so pretty and so easy (ha!). We have used alphabet rub ons before with kids school projects and now the arty ones look so much like watercolors that they are gorgeous. So I ordered some from Amazon. All pink and red, girly and yet some masculine stuff, sort of vintage —
Sort of garbage. I don’t recommend at all. At least the ones I bought. I learned a great lesson from this — Amazon may be fast but it isn’t necessarily great.
I messed up several panels, with the cutest images, and they got binned. I finally got them done but it was iffy at best.
As I have said I have been away from the activity for awhile so I had to reacquaint myself with my stash.
Oh. My. Gosh— I have a definite shopping problem. I keep going through drawers and it just keeps coming. I will never use all this stuff—
Yet, I needed some stuff that I just don’t have.
What might you ask? Space, My little short assistant (Bean) needs to get her sassy self over here and help me organize. I need to get rid of some of this stuff….I digress.
So, I finally got the cards together and I needed sentiments. I had recently bought some new stamps with lots of sentiments. Again, trash. They are all joined together, not separate like I thought they would be. And they don’t take the ink well. Bother.
Note to self — buy from a reputable company that you recognize.
Then, as I was trying to glue them all together I kept dropping the elements and getting glue all over — all over the cards, all over me — maybe having a tremor is going to make this more difficult. I finally managed to get that done without too much wonkyness.
I glued on a couple of little embellishments, called it done and took photos. Came down here to share with you and discovered that my phone didn’t actually photograph one of the cards so I will have to drag myself upstairs again to get that picture.
But, for now, here are my efforts —
What is next? A Graduation card. Oh, and I seem to have lost an entire palette of watercolor paints. Hmm….
Oh, I almost forgot —Bean, my daughter, her husband and a friend and HER daughter all did a college visit this weekend. Our family has a very long Aggie legacy so they decided to take Bean for a tour and here are a couple of picks. I think she might be abandoning her idea of NYU and realizing it is up to her to carry on the family legacy….we will see —
Good morning, friends! I am sitting here thinking over what I have done. I am a child of the 50’s/60’s which means I grew up during a time of lots of political unrest, civil rights unrest, Vietnam “war”, people were tuning in, turning on and dropping out, there was women’s lib, free love, protest marches and bomb threats and bra and draft card burnings — it was the best of times and the worst of times.
And, let me be clear — I did none, absolutely NONE of those things. I was a rather dull teenager in San Antonio, Texas. I went to school and went home. I had a boyfriend who lived away at college who I saw a couple of times a month. I was an average student that loved her family and would never do anything to bring grief or embarrassment to them. I was a good girl.
I didn’t have a political bone in my body, I was very quiet and didn’t make waves — I was almost invisible.
Until today.
I am so annoyed about the shenanigans of our school board that I wrote to the interim superintendent asking them to live stream their next secret meeting which is scheduled for this Thursday.
I imagine you are probably laughing your buns off thinking “is this as good as she can do?” I have never had any leanings toward activism, so out of my comfort zone. So, for me this was quite the step.
I did add a little bit of snark reminding him of who does, in fact, pay his salary but I did it in a very respectful way.
I don’t know how I feel about stepping out of my comfort zone, regardless of how tenuous a step it was. I hope I don’t have to do it again!
But, in a way, I feel a little liberated albeit it 50 years late!
“The phrase "wrong side of the tracks" originated from the physical layout of many cities where railroad tracks often divided neighborhoods, with the poorer areas typically located on one side of the tracks, thus signifying "the wrong side" due to the associated lower socioeconomic status.”s
The statement above is from a google search defining the phrase “wrong side of the tracks”. Apparently the phrase has been in use since the early 1800’s when the railroads were a “thing” and many times their tracks would bisect towns creating areas deemed poorer on one side of the tracks and richer on the other. I have heard the term all my life so I don’t know if it is more southern, northern or universal. No matter, I view it is as negative thing to say.
We have often joked, as a family, about living on the “wrong side of the tracks”. Growing up I lived south of Basse Road (no real tracks),the dividing line between San Antonio Independent School District and Northeast Independent School District putting me squarely NOT in the affluent NEISD. Conversely, I lived north of the tracks on Hildebrand Ave. which separated my neighborhood from the affluent Monte Vista area.
Where did I fall in regards to the “tracks”? — Firmly ensconced in middle class mediocrity. I lived, for all my life until adulthood, in housing that was built for the returning troops after World War 2.
So, where is this going? Let me make one thing clear — I AM NOT POLITICAL! I don’t care for politics, won’t talk about politics, don’t play the game and it truly is a game but….
I live in Fort Worth — far north Fort Worth —in an area adjacent to a small town named Keller. The two areas are divided by — you guessed it — a railroad track and a state highway. We pay Fort Worth taxes but we pay Keller school taxes and our kids go to Keller Schools.
We have modest houses on this side of the tracks as well as houses priced in the high six figures, some 7 figures. The neighborhood across the street from us is popular with hilly terrain and McMansions. The property in Keller is much the same — modest housing all the way up to 7 figure houses. It is all relative.
The majority of the schools in KISD are on the West side (wrong side) of the tracks with one high school and a handful of feeder schools on the East (right side).
So, what is the problem you might ask? WELL — Keller ISD is having financial issues. They aren’t as flush as they need to be. They are blaming it on our governors insistence on instituting a voucher system giving state money to families to, in turn, support private schooling. That wouldn’t be a good thing because our public schools would come up short. Because the state hasn’t been able to “sell” this voucher system to the public, the governor has withheld funds to the public schools and our teachers haven’t had a raise in two years. He really wants his way.
So, the KISD Board of Education has decided the thing to do to save the district is to split the district in two and separate creating a new, yet unnamed district. The KISD would have one high school and a small feeder pattern. The OTHER side would have all the schools and, all the debt. See where I am going here?
Basically, we on the West (wrong) side of the tracks would have to start over again, our teachers would be affected as well as our students. We, on the West side, would lose access to some important facilities and programs as well.
So, you might say, upon further thought what is wrong with it? Well, what is wrong with it is that the Board of Education has been making these plans without public knowledge, in back room meetings, no public vote — they were just going to make it happen until it got leaked and now it is a big ball of mess.
How does this affect me? Well, my property values will likely decrease. My daughter is a teacher in this district and Bean is a student in the district. The stress my daughter is experiencing is excessive and my granddaughter is going to join in a protest on Friday (are we back to the 60’s?). And, honestly, I am getting tired of being called “underprivileged” and “one of those people who cant pay their bills”. It is ludicrous that they want to deny the West side the use of facilities that were paid 75% by the West side.
I say to our students, here is your opportunity to shine — make the new ISD the best it can be, get those test scores up, show the world what you are made of. I say, be bigger, be better and be kind — yep, be kind — and as Jean Stapleton said in “You’ve Got Mail” it is the right thing to do.
Ok, rant over.
There is a lot in the news these days about immigration, citizenship, rights of non-citizens, etc. This is a conversation that raises a lot of genealogical questions for me. I am not here to discuss the current state of affairs but rather glean some information about generations past.
Everytime I hear a news story about our immigration woes I find I am thinking about my great-grandparents. Most of my relations have been in America since revolutionary times, have a historical presence, fought in wars, helped build universities, etc. except for my mother’s paternal grand-parents. That is where the questions come up. I know I will have to do some research to suss out the rules and regulations at the time but I thought I would throw it out just in case anybody had any insight.
Because my father’s family’s genealogy had been done I started with my mother’s grandparents who immigrated from Wales late in the 19th century. In genealogical circles they are called “new immigrants”. I was always interested in my great-grandparents from Wales because we didn’t know much about them (closed mouth grandfather) and we didn’t know them because we were in Texas and they were in Pennsylvania although my mother did travel to see them when she was tiny — too tiny to remember anything about it except large icicles hanging from the roofs in Scranton, PA. So, there was interest in a different locale, different weather, different accents, different birthplaces — just different. And I was curious so that is where I began my genealogical journey.
I began learning about my great-grandparents before my mother passed away and she was able to give me some information. She always told me that they came on a ship (really Mom? I assumed) and that they came to Scranton and nothing really changed other than their zip code. Their lives pretty much continued in the US as it did in Wales — they lived in a Welsh-heavy community, they went to a Welsh Baptist church, they sang in Welsh American choirs — my great-grandmother even had a cottage garden, like she did back home as family lore shared.
I was also told that they never became citizens which is evidenced on census records where they are consistently listed as “Al” on citizenship. They came with three children, a boy who never married and two girls. The girls married American citizens and became citizens through their husbands.
My great-grandparents went on to have several more children here in the US including my grandfather — a first generation American. I assume that by being born here he was a US citizen — I don’t ever remember hearing it being questioned. But I have a question —
Did he have dual citizenship - was he also a Welsh citizen, a British subject, could he live in Britain with the same rights and privileges as a British born person by way of his parents?
I remember my mother had questions as well because she told me of a story that when her grandmother passed away her father received a document to sign that had ribbons and fancy writing on it (she was still a child so I don’t think she perused the paper) and she thinks it came from the UK. We don’t know what it was, if it actually came from the UK or actually what it was at all. There doesn’t seem to be a way to find out because I can’t find any record of a will for my great-grandmother.
So, my question is, does anybody know of past citizenship rules? They came in 1890 and she passed in 1937 so it isn’t like it was a terribly long time ago.
I guess I need to do some more research. Sigh.
I believe that I promised to share my attempts at cardmaking in an earlier post. I have tried my hand at making cards before with various successes but the process is fun and creative. I would like to say it is relaxing and in some respects it is. However, trying to get things straight is annoying, sometimes difficult, and proves to be frustrating. There are lots of tools out there to help the process though and they do help.
The comical part about the whole situation is I am rubbish at actually mailing cards — not just on time — just at all! So, why would I undertake such an endeavor when a quick text to the recipient might be enough? Art. It is the art of it all. The papers, embellishments, colors —- it doesn’t matter if I get them mailed, it is the process. Plus the joy of getting the card panel on the card base centered appropriately.
So, I created an 18th birthday card for my grandson. As plain as plain can be. No sparkle, no movement, no bling. But the sentiment made the day —
So I was thinking about upcoming card requiring events and the 18 year old’s high school graduation comes to mind but surely there is something coming up sooner.
Ah ha! I have a childhood friend that I keep in touch with and her birthday is this coming week. Perfect! And off I went.
I am still going through supplies and reacquainting myself with my stash and I ran across a paper packet that I really like — it is “vintage” and has tea pots and cakes and things— very “old ladyish” — but hey, if the shoe fits….sshhhh…don’t tell her I said that!
I made the card, got it all packed up with a cute little seal and forgot to take a photo. So, this morning, after fretting about it all night, I opened it, ruined the seal, took a photo, got a new envelope, made a new seal and here we are. When I repacked it, however, I covered the front of the card with a piece of copy paper to protect the little pearls. I thought that was a prudent thing to do considering the condition some of my mail arrives in.
So, without further ado — my birthday card for my friend’s 75 birthday. I hope she likes it but if she doesn’t I am sure there is a rubbish bin close by. It is the thought, right?
I didn’t take a photo of the envelope with the seal but I made the seal with one of the little teapots cut out and made into a sticker. I also didn’t take a photo of the inside (silly me) but it is lined with one of the pieces of coordinating paper.
I am pleased with how it turned out, I love the paper and colors. There were things I would have done differently but I was trying to keep it flat to go through the post. The butterflies looked really nice with their wings up a bit but again, trying to be cognizant of the mail.
So, there you have it. I have worked on it for several days. Not because anything was difficult but because I was “thinking” about it. If I make it again there will be changes and who knows you might see this again in the future.
Have a great Saturday!
I will admit, I am sort of obsessed with the “reels” on Facebook. I love to see the dogs and the little kids and the older lady with a 12 year old sense of humor — I think her name is robbnwa. I think. Anyway, they are fun, funny, sometimes a bit irreverant but they do add some mirth and frivolity to the day.
There is one, however, that hits home to me and not in a light hearted, fun filled way. It is produced by a young woman named Grace who is a small business owner. She is a 20-something that produces and sells shirts. Her business is thriving and I look at her in awe and think to myself what a gift she is and what a gift she has. Why would I think this about THIS particular young woman, clearly she isn’t doing something that others have done before her what sets her apart is that she has Downs Syndrome. It is so heartwarming to watch her videos and see a vibrant young woman, so in love with her life that you can’t help but catch her enthusiasm.
Why would this woman have such an impact on me? Well, I will tell you. Growing up we all have outside influences that affect us — apart from our families and loved ones - and I was no different. My outside influence came in the form of a girl named S (to protect the innocent) and she lived across the street from me. She loved me and I loved her. We were only 11 months apart in age but this girl had such a profound affect on me that I can still feel all the feels to this day. I am sure she impacted me more than I impacted her but I will never know, at least not in this world.
She has a story and here it is.
S’s family lived across the street. As a young child I knew there was a mom and a dad and two boys — normal, rowdy, rascally boys. As time went on I learned there were two older daughters who were grown and out of the house by the time the boys were born. As time went on I heard conversations between my mom and S’s mom and the story unfolded — she and her husband were well past child bearing age with two grown daughters. The neighborhood parish priest asked why there were no more children. Uh, perhaps God’s will? Not good enough for the good padre so he went on to say that if they didn’t have more children they would be denied communion. So, after much medical intervention and prayer and more medical intervention they were expecting a baby. Yay, everybody was happy.
Until they weren’t.
The baby was born and unfortunately she was diagnosed with Downs Syndrome. Was there grieving? I don’t think so — there was anger. Lots of anger toward the church, the priest, toward God. How was this going to affect their lives, the lives of their two older daughter and their children - the solution?
Go to the priest and ask for a list of places to “put” this newborn baby. — supposedly the conversation went something like this —“it’s your fault she’s here so now you have to take care of her”.
So, off S went to a convent in a neighboring state to live with the nuns. Mom and Dad would visit often and it all seemed ok until it didn’t — matted hair, skin issues and fingernails growing into fingers isn’t a good sign. By this time S was about 5 and she was coming “home” - a home she had never known to a place she had never been to people she had only seen during visits — and two brothers born after her that she knew nothing about. The main concern was “how is S being here going to affect the boys lives”. “How will they be judged”. Sigh.
So, a few days before she was to arrive at “home” my mother sat me down and had a talk with me. She explained the situation, she told me the history and asked me to be kind to the girl. She explained that she looked different and acted different but I was to be kind. Being the empathetic child I was I promised I would do my best. And I did. Looking back I just don’t know that my best was good enough.
I remember the day S arrived. I didn’t know what to expect so I was sitting at our front living room window when I saw their car pull into the drive. The time had arrived. I watched with the curiosity of a 6 year old as this little girl emerged from the car — I was expecting a feral, grimy, uncontrolled child but what did I see?
I saw a gorgeous little girl dressed to the nine’s in a dress and a little coat, waist length golden hair that curled at the ends with a big pink bow. She carried a handbag and walked into the house as prim and proper as can be.
Over time she emerged from the house in cute little outfits with that platinum hair but she was shy. She spent a lot of time on the porch watching all the neighborhood kids, including her brothers, play their games and ride bikes. I was encouraged to befriend her since we were essentially the same age. She became Velcro. I didn’t mind.
Of course, I went to school and she didn’t because there were no early intervention programs or anything and she would ask me what it was like at school. I would tell her and you could see the desire in her eyes. So, what did I do? I made school — much like my cousin did for me when she went to school and I didn’t. She learned the alphabet and the alphabet sounds, she learned to count, she learned to read some words, she learned to write her name. One day she had been at my house for hours and her mom came looking for her thinking she was bothering us. When she walked in and saw what we were doing she was overwhelmed at what her daughter was capable of.
Time went on, we moved away, I became a teenager and lost touch. I guess somewhere around 1962 or 63 her mother who was not a young woman anymore became concerned about what would happen to S if something happened to her — her older daughter had already promised to have her institutionalized if if were left to her. So, not wanting S to be a burden she arranged for her to go to the state school for retarded children — horrible name.
I believe it was Christmas 1967 that my mom and I were out shopping and ran into S and her mom who were also doing some shopping. She was standing there in her little coat with her handbag and her long blond hair clean and stylish. I said hello and asked if she remembered me and I got the biggest smile and she said “of course I remember you Mabrissa” — she wasn’t good at “l’s”. I asked how school was she she said it was good that she had a baby — I looked at her with confusion, she laughed and said that some of the older girls were put in charge of the babies that were there so she was raising a baby that she loved!
I just looked at her and the emotions were overwhelming. She was achieving the potential that I knew she had. I am sure she was a wonderful mother. I thought about all I had learned from her. I might have taught her some basic skills and given her a little knowledge but the things I learned from her were so much bigger and important.
We said goodbye that day at the mall and I never saw her again. We were about 17 at the time and I knew that they were told she would be dead by 17 — and that might have been true had she stayed in the convent with the nuns, but she lived to be 42 years old — she lived out her life in the state school, wasn’t a burden to her sisters and mercifully passed before her mother so her mother could rest in peace when her time came.
So, what is the meaning of this long post? Every time I look at the video reel of this young woman with her t-shirt business I think about S— what would she have been like if she had been able to grow up with the advantages that are available to this population today/. Would she have had a business? I think probably so. Would she have been able to do videos and go to the store alone and do her business alone? I think she would have. I wish she would have been born in a time where those opportunities were available to her because she was really an awesome person and I think she would have thrived.
My one regret? That I never told her — I never told her how special she was. I never told her that she gave fabulous hugs. I never told her that she was the absolute best friend a girl could have. I hope somehow she knew and when I see her again in the next world we are going to have a conversation about it. God bless S and God bless Grace.
You know what they say about hobbies — there are actually two hobbies involved — one the hobby itself and the second is collecting all the supplies needed for said hobby.
The first, the hobby itself, is an artistic endeavor for me. As I have mentioned before, my father was a talented artist that flourished in the world of comic book artistry. You might scoff and say that wasn’t a real job but indeed it supported us as a family and put me through college with no debt. So, I think that qualified as a real job. He worked for some of the largest comic publishers around at the time and I was always proud of his work and, to be honest, a little bit jealous of his talent. I couldn’t draw a straight line with a ruler as the old saying goes so I found my outlet in embroidery, cross stitch, quilting and such. I still enjoy those pursuits but a few years ago discovered cardmaking.
We have really had a mild winter this year until a couple of weeks ago — it got cold and messy and we even had two snow days at the schools. I don’t care for cold weather so I was really glad everybody was in and didn’t have to drive all over in the mess. From the weather reports we are expecting a similar situation next week. I am not impressed.
Poor Trixie started limping yesterday and I couldn’t figure out why. She has been licking her foot non-stop since which she does sometimes when her allergies are acting up but she has been taking her Claritin regularly so I didn’t think that is what it was. Last night I got her down and rubbed some Vaseline on her toe beans figuring it wouldn’t hurt her if she licked it but maybe it would help. She went to bed and went right to sleep so I guess it helped but this morning she was at it again. So, I got her on the couch and took a good look at her foot and I figured out what happened. When she was at the groomer a couple of days ago they shaved between her toe beans and I could see where they shaved her foot they got a little close and it is raw. So, tonight we will do more Vaseline — at least she isn’t limping now.
I have done nothing all day but shower, shampoo and sit on youtube watching how to make Gelli prints — it is completely fascinating to me —-I can see how it would be useful in my cardmaking. But….I haven’t accomplished one thing of any importance. I think I was just cozy sitting here in my recliner with my iPad on my lap because it is really cold outside and again, I don’t like the cold.
So, I guess tonight we are watching football — I might read. I haven’t finished one book this new year but that is ok, I was planning on going slow on my reading and the book I am reading right now is really good and I want to take my time and enjoy it. It is the second in the series.
There are a group of us from elementary school that have stayed in touch over the years. Two of the girls (ha, who am I kidding, we aren’t girls!) are very close and one of them has a son who has received a very unfortunate diagnosis. Of course, his mother is very upset and so is our other friend — I totally understand, because it is so hard to see our babies have to go through things — yes, not babies but they are forever to us. So, I was looking for something to try to bring some comfort and I thought about my favorite Bible verse. I shared it with one of the women and I think it helped, at least gave her something to think about. So, I will share it here —
Have a wonderful Saturday night!
Today is my mother’s birthday. She would be 102. She departed this earth a long time ago, March 13, 1996 to be exact, It seems like for...
