Gratitude

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challenges, courage, faith, gratitude, Helping One Woman Visalia, joy, life lessons, sharing

At last night’s Helping One Woman dinner I was pleased to win a lovely Gratitude Journal in one of the opportunity drawings.  It was a particularly relevant gift for me, because the HOW dinners themselves are such a lesson in gratitude each month.  As I have written before, the honoree at each HOW dinner is a woman who has suffered an irreparable loss in the previous 12 months.  And over and over, these amazing women demonstrate courage, faith, and even joy in the midst of overwhelming challenges and sorrows.  And over and over, they remind me of both how incredibly fortunate I am, and how quickly our lives can change.

I look forward to keeping track of the wondrous gifts I am given by life in my new journal, and perhaps sharing some of them here.

My lovely new “Grace of Gratitude” Journal by Deborah Perdue

The left-hand page is for journaling, and the right either holds a prompt such as this or an illustration.

More clothes

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hand-me-downs, new clothes, sharing, sisters, The Clothing Fairy

I have never had this many clothes at once in my whole life! I finally managed to try everything Melody sent, and all but two jackets, a sweater, and a dress fit perfectly. My challenge tonight was finding room in the closet for them. I still have to figure out a place for four pair of jeans, two pair of capris, some yoga pants, and two pair of skinny black pants for work — but I will shoehorn them in somewhere!

Many of the tops are familiar to me and I have always loved them. Tonight Georgia told me, “You look like Aunt Melody,” which made sense, as the only things I was wearing that started out as mine were my shoes! The things that didn’t fit will have another life, as I will be donating them to the fundraising yard sale for the friend-of-a-friend who is battling cancer (we also gave her everything that we didn’t sell at Baby Hendrix’s yard sale this weekend).

Do you have clothing that doesn’t fit taking up space in your closets? May I challenge you to go through your stash and share with someone else who could use a boost? It will do you both good. Happy sharing

National Scrapbook Day

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Creative Memories, fudge, National Scrapbook Day, scrapbooking, sharing

After yesterday’s melancholy anniversary, today was all sunshine and busyness. A group of dedicated scrapbookers are getting together for National Scrapbook Day tomorrow, and I spent today getting ready for my part of the occasion.

A fair question might be, “How can one woman have so many scrapbooking and storytelling supplies?” And a fair answer might be, “They weren’t all for me. I bought merchandise so my customers could get immediate gratification, instead of having to order from the company and wait for delivery.” Of course, another very legitimate answer might be, “My eyes were bigger than my scrapbooks!”

Truly these were (mostly) beautiful products. And I have made wonderful albums from them. But life is too short and I have too much product from my old (now extinct) company. I need to make room for NEW STUFF…from my new company!

So at our NSD event tomorrow I will have table after table spread with an (I hope) intoxicating array of papers, albums, tools, pens…you name it…to share with the other ladies there. Our shared dinner will be a soup bar, with selections to satisfy the most indulged taste buds. And there is a big batch of my mother-in-law’s delicious fudge waiting to be nibbled, too.

And when it is time to pack up and go home, I hope to be able to return with fewer boxes than I had when I arrived. And a tidy little sum in my pocket. I think they call this “progress”.

More minis

Tags

dollhouses, friendship, miniature collectors, miniatures, Morro Bay CA, National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts (N.A.M.E.), sharing

The motto of the National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts (N.A.M.E.) is “Only through sharing can we truly enjoy our treasures.” This weekend’s Dollhouse and Miniatures Show and Sale embodied that motto from beginning to end.

I reached Morro Bay on Friday nearly an hour before set-up time, and spent some quiet time outside on a bench with my novel. Once inside, a group of us spanning the miles from Oregon to San Diego chatted, shared upcoming show information, and started new friendships. My table location was lovely, with sweet ladies at each adjoining booth. We chatted and checked out each other’s merchandise in between customers, gave each other bathroom breaks, and swapped stories of when and where particular items were discovered.

There was a steady stream of customers across both days, and business was brisk. My merchandise — a blend of Mom’s miniatures and mine — was kind of quirky compared to things in other booths. Nothing was new, but it was charming — or downright spectacular. And I had such fun sharing the R. Bliss furniture (ca. 1915), the teeny Humpty-Dumpty Circus in the manner of Schoenhut, and the entire box of matching wooden doll furniture with anyone who would look and/or listen!

I shared Mom with the customers, too — showing the little china babies with legs or arms missing, all the little critters that needed love.

And the icing on the cake was that people were actually buying! I did very well, and I’m glad that Mom’s playthings went to good homes. Donnie drove over after yard sailing on Saturday, and my BFF and her intended came from Hanford, after seeing pictures on her phone and “shopping” via text message. Gotta’ love technology!

My last thrill of the day was selling the Humpty-Dumpty Circus to a young woman who had a table at the sale…a third-generation miniaturist who was there with her mother and grandmother. I’m not sure which one of us was more excited about her purchase!

I’m back in Visalia, ready to re-start the weekly grandmother routine…it felt very good to hug my granddaughters for a few minutes tonight.