Indulge me please… for the hours I spent doing THIS KIT…
Read my longest post ever.
Sun Porch, Veranda, Balcony, Sun Room. Miss J, Patchas and Addicted2Scrappin’ got it right (wait for my email with the download link ok?). Why not the Dining Room or the Kitchen – where the family gathers? This design line was meant to focus on Granny and what she liked to do FOR herself… Read (and do crossword puzzles!)… Sew or embroider (in a room where all her cloths, her threads, buttons and old sewing machine is)…Tirelessly leaf-though all our family albums in the receiving room or look through all our photos mounted in frames (that’s why there’s a frame file in the Receiving Room Set).
While I have to admit that the kitchen is a MUST and both my Grannies would definitely say so too (my paternal granny has a yummy secret recipe for a Spanish beef stew which will remain a secret now that she’s gone. The family’s Christmas dinner has never been the same since…) – I wanted to do rooms where they relaxed. Both my Grannies were always caught up in a whirlwind each time the family visited and they always end up cooking soooo much (which they did so lovingly I might add…) I wanted rooms where Granny sat still and DID SOMETHING FOR HERSELF, for a change. She always put everyone ahead of her own joy, comfort and well-being.
I also have to admit something: I was scared I wouldn’t be able to capture the essence of Granny’s Kitchen where she did everything, every dish, every yummy memory with great love. In all honesty, I was afraid that my designs would not show how much she loved what she did for us, her family… I was scared my creativity might not be enough.
But I did what I could… and here it is… I love it! I love every paper and every embellishment that went in this kit. I’ve tried to put as much detailing into every item in this kit. I hope you love it as much as I do… My favorite? Honestly, I love every paper I made (if I didn’t I wouldn’t give them to you). However, the one that speaks much about how I feel for my grannies is this paper matched with this ribbon with a heart gem. I was teary-eyed by the time I finished designing it. All red and distressed, I just know my grannies would have loved this paper too.
So allow me to rest the series for a while. To those who wrote me LENGTHY emails about this – LOL- my answer is: No, I’m not ending the series. My Granny’s Place will always be a continuing series as I muster the creativity, the challenge and re-discover the treasure trove of memories left by my Grannies and share them with you (with the hope that you will also remember yours.) Who knows, My Granny’s Kitchen just might pop up one of these days…
The Granny-isms Quotes however and some Granny Embellishments (her CLOSET!!!, her bags, her embroidered handkerchiefs, her parasols, her intricate hand-fans… so many!) will make their appearances in my blog every so often as I remember details, patterns, textures and colors. I just hope they become more than just digital creations for you but things that would help you remember your respective Grannies too. Feel free to post and share your anecdotes here. I would love to read them too.
Both my Grannies loved to sit still in the veranda where they can see their flowers and plants. My maternal granny (based for more than 3 decades in Honolulu, Hawaii) loved and grew orchids (she had the greenest thumb I ever knew!) and she always found joy in being surrounded by something green and blooming. ANYTHING green in fact with a potential to bloom! LOL! A few hours before she had her fatal stroke she asked to be wheeled to her garden to see her plants and get some sun! So you see? I had to do a room that would “say” just that! More than the Kitchen where she worked lovingly FOR us, the Sun Porch was it… where she was happiest by her lonesome… with her view of her orchids and her plants… her garden.
This last room has the “lightest color palette” in the series – less tapestry… less embroidery, less detailing and more of what her special place was like and the view it gave her and the general “feeling” of sitting there and looking at her as she potted every little twig, talking to it and telling it to grow up! LOL! This is where my maternal granny had much joy – near her garden tools, a garden view and a bit of sun. I hope the colors, the patterns, the texture of every element reflects that general feeling – NOT my design slant nor my creative approach, never anything about me but just MY Granny and how I REMEMBER HER.
I hope the four rooms I am concluding FOR NOW showed you my Grannies for the wonderful women that they are and how I much I miss them. I’m pretty sure my 3 grannies (my grand aunt included) are smiling down on me for this special remembrance…I hope you all like this final set. I hope it was worth the long wait.
Miss J, Patchas and Addicted2Scrappin’ got the following sets EXCLUSIVELY! Will send you the link via email. Just give me a day to catch my breath. Thank you so much for your interest in Granny’s Place.
And finally! I have me a blinkie! (LOL!) To those who’ve asked me for one (I’m honored!), here’s a 150 pixel by 100 pixel blinkie you can display in your blogs. All you got to do is REMOVE the first and the last ASTERISKS marks and copy-paste where you want it to appear.
*<a href=”http://www.myscrapworks.com/mswdigi/”>
<img src=”http://www.myscrapworks.com/mswdigi/mds_button.gif” border=”0″ />*
Why not just right-click and copy paste? Well you can too. But if you do the step above, my blinkie in your blog will change everytime I redesign mine! Neat!
And yes, for the kind words left by Lily (as always), Sharon, Barbwire, Carola, Tink and Lunelle and the countless others who took the time to post a few words… YOU MAKE ME WANT TO DO MORE. More than ever, to those who always take the time to post a few words for me, my freebies are yours. Thank you…
October 22, 2007 10:07 pm
Such a lovely kit, I lost my grandmother whom I was very close to February 2005, my heart still aches from her loss.
Thank you for sharing this kit.
I’ve tried to download the 1st set of embellishments, but the link doesn’t work for me.
Lisa
October 23, 2007 2:34 am
This is such a lovely kit! Thank you for sharing your hard work with us.
October 23, 2007 3:41 am
After you read this, i hope you’ll take a look at my blog where i’m trying to talk a little about my family. Both of my grandmother’s’ pictures are on the blog: one in the Underground Railroad freedom quilt–she’s top left–and one in th eone called Mama–wrote a poem about that.
My Mama was young, just 38 when i was born. My two siblings and i went to live with her when our mother died when we were very young. We lived with her for 5 years, and some of those hoppy times will be seen soon on the blog. She was a deeply spiritual woman, she loved us and her children, and all of her family. It was like, family was the most important thing there was, and she had responsibility for us and she wanted to do the right thing. Didn’t have any money, of course, and because my dad didn’t send much to help support us, she was forced to supplement her–yep–seamstress work with whatever she could get from the dole. Yet she found a way to occasionally give us a TINY bit of spending money, we always had plenty to eat, and as you’ll be able to tell when the next LO hits the blog, we were the best dressed kids ANYWHERE! I think i had ONE storebought dress the whole time we lived with her. She made all our easter outfits, slips, well she did BUY underwear and socks and shoes, but she made every coat that we wore. When we first came to her, she made aprons! I love aprons to this day. She made ones with scallopy edges and pockets, or straight plain edges, or with tops. When we came, she taught me the hemstitch right away and put me to work (i was 7. if there hadn’t been so much of it, i might have enjoyed it more. as it was, i didn’t even want to touch a needle after i left her, and always pleaded, whining, “but i don’t know HOW to sew.” Haw! N E way, The sewing room, although i would have loved to have had that kit, is not what caused me to write. It was the quote about what counts.
When we were 12, 10, and 8, my dad showed up. He had remarried. He had a lovely young Quatemalan wife. She had no children, but she had family, including sisters with children (or about to have children, who lived nearby. When they came to visit us–actually to take us away, but we didn’t know that then–they waved LOTS of cash, $2 bills, $5 bills, took us to places. We were so impressed. But then my dad started asking if we wanted to live with him. Well, yeah, we wanted to live with these rich people! When these things started being mentioned, my grandmother, never saying ANYTHING bad–she NEVER said anything bad about my dad and wouldn’t allow anyone else to say anything bad in our presence–sat the three of us down and essentially said “what granma said” about what does and doesn’t count. In one ear and out the other. To top it off–and i can’t tell whether this was deliberate–while my dad was there, for the first time my grandmother took me, the oldest, to pick up the surplus food. My stepmother, later in the day, took us to the diner to buy anything we wanted to eat. My grandmother also made me a new skirt, the latest fashion (although i didn’t know that some folk would have KILLED to have had something like it–it was homemade!); my stepmother took us out to buy new clothes–no, not nearly as nice, but the were not homemade… Still, my grandmother would not speak against my dad.
By the time the social worker came, explaining that we could make the choice about where we’d live, we were completely ready to go live the fun life in NYC with my dad.
And so we were whisked off in my dad’s car! Back to the motel where they were staying. With my stepmother’s very pregnant sister and my stepmother’s little neice, who was her joy. Yes. 4 children, 3 adults, 1 car with all of our belongings. Peanut butter and cheese sandwiches through that long ride. Little neice popping all over the place and all her misbehavior tolerated. When we arrived–FINALLY–at the apartment in Brookly, we found again that all 7 of us were living in a 2 bedroom apt. And if young neice wanted to sleep in whatever bunk either me or my sister were sleeping–well young neice had her way. It was all too sad, and did not last. Within 9 months, that marriage was over (and no, we had not been angels either–we were just SOOO mad), and we were on our way to live with our nearly 70 yr-old paternal grandmother in the south. If we thought we had been poor in NYC (and we WERE beginning to feel poverty-stricken), we learned the real meaning of poverty–in both money and emotional caring (or at least what seemed like it to a 13 year old).
I’m told that my grandmother wept for months after we left. We were never allowed to see her again, and only saw one of our aunt’s, while we wee children, because she apparently wasn’t a threat–i dunno–and my grandmother died without ever seeing me or my brother and sister again when i was 17. So the quote, more than any of the other rooms, spoke most clearly to me, as it does still today. Oh yes, all of us “got it” very quickly. It was a lesson well learned before any of us were teenagers.
I don’t want anything from you, and when you make the decision to sell, i’ll happily consider buying your products–i’m loving the island girl charms, thank you. But I want you to know what and how your quote offering spoke to me. Clearly, although our grannies are from “different places” in the world and in society, there is a commonality that you have picked up on that has blessed my day today. Thank you. When i have “rubbed” the quote on to the page, i will let you know. –denise
October 23, 2007 5:11 pm
What a beautiful kit! I am sad I have just found your blog with your beautiful designs and think of all I have missed. I am grateful I was able to dl this one and will be sure to keep on eye out for your posts in the future. All grannies must have loved their flower gardens. I remember my grandfather’s vegetable garden and remember his sitting and weeding it. It was a couple of acres large with nary a weed in it. It was perfection and a site to behold. I have many fond memories of both of them. The fresh corn on the cob right from the garden, the freshly butchered chickens for fried chicken, the canned meat that was so special, the fresh baked bread, etc. etc. The food tasted different in those days with no preservatives or hormones. Thanks for bringing back all the memories.
October 25, 2007 2:05 am
What a wonderful kit – I´m sorry that I´ve missed the earlier part.
October 26, 2007 8:15 am
Thank you for such wonderful memories of my grannies!! And for these most beautiful kits!!! Huggers
October 26, 2007 9:09 pm
Your kit ist absolutely lovely! Thanks for sharing it…
October 27, 2007 1:07 am
its a wunderfull and lovley kit i love it. but i have it downloaded and the part The Sun Porch Embellishments (Link 2) – tested this and i will be open to the archiv he says me he cant unpack in the index.
but i need the pages they are sooooooooo beautiful.
please can you check the zip file and put in again.
thank you
greetings from berlin (germany)
pia
October 27, 2007 4:23 am
Wowzer. I hope that you’re still reading comments on past blog posts because I really want to tell you this: thank you, from the bottom of my heart. My mother “got her wings” February 16, 2006 – a mere 11 days after surprising me for my 40th birthday. When I saw your complete Granny’s Rooms line, I was struck by The Sun Room in particular, because the phrase you have in the preview, “she grows love in pots” is something that *my* mother said about *her* about a year after my maternal grandmother’s death in 1984. We were looking through an “old fashioned” scrapbook – you know, photos from FILM?! {LOL} – and there were several of my grandmother on her back porch in Youngstown, Ohio, potting plants or working in her garden. I remarked at how often I wished I’d had her green thumb, and my mom said, “she grew love in those pots.”
Thank you for evoking that memory. Thank you for designing this kit. Thank the Universe that I was led to your blog in time to download it, as it was my favorite “room” of your Granny’s. I’m not sure how they say it in the Phillipines, but in Hawaii, where one of my aunts lives, they say the beautiful phrase, “Mahalo”. Mahalo, Mabelle. And blessed be.
p.s. – I’m now a subscriber to your site, and I’ve linked to your blog on my blog, but I’m afraid I use Blogger – I’m not very HTML saavy yet – so I haven’t figured out how to get your blinkie on my blog. But when I do, it’ll be there!
November 2, 2007 9:53 am
Adorei! Muitp Obriogada por fazer coisas tão maravilhosas!
beijos….Dirce