Category Archives: flashback

Oct29

Tug at my heartstrings

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Brian happened to look on the shelf on the bookcase above where I was looking and found Tug:

How I wish my grandmom had taken a photo of us together back in May, 1982! Now I have restored faith about tonight! Tug’s son Mark hung his dad’s World Series ring above his dad’s favorite bar (I think in Philly somewhere) today.

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I received a Blog giveaway from Sherry over at If I Could Set My Soul Free. What a great bag! It’s pretty and roomy. I’ll get a lot of use out of it. Lucky me!

Sherry has an etsy shop (see her blog) and hand makes so many pretty pieces like this!

I just added books and a quilt square kit to my etsy shop-link on right under Artilicious Divas. Also added a few things in eBay at the top under Moonlitstitcher’s Page. I need some pocket moola!

You may be hearing from me in a few hours!

Oct29

Phillies memories

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I’m still praying to St. Anthony that I will locate my signed Tug McGraw photo I got of him in person in 1981. I know where it use to be, and I went through the entire shelf and it’s not there. I did find this:

I think it’s one of the better portraits I drew years ago. I was only 21 when I did this of Tug. : )

And then on the shelf was the 1978 team, almost the same players from the 1980s team. I have that big box of stuff, but since this was on the shelf, here it is:

And a close up of Tug:

His famous saying was ‘You’ve gotta believe’. I’ll keep hoping!

By the way, the Tampa Bay Rays had to move out of their hotel in Philly and ended up in the swanky Hotel DuPont (look at the video tour-it’s really nice and Longwood Gardens is mentioned too)in Wilmington, a stone’s throw from here. They were really impressed by the joint-perhaps their upcoming consolation prize?

Oct24

Happy 22nd Birthday Sean!

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Sean playing in the leaves, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Today Sean is home for his birthday. He’s a bit sick with a sinus cold, but he made the trip down to be with his dad and I, so that is a gift to us. I don’t know where 22 yrs went. I remember I got tired of my mom saying how time flies and kids grow up too fast and now I am saying it! My once little pumpkin baby is a responsible and caring young man now. And I call him my friend, which is important to me. The birthday card I got him mentions that, and I tear up when I read it, every time. I don’t know why, I guess I’m just glad he is and I hope he always will be.

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I shared my little ‘foodie’ figurines last week. This week I am sharing my ‘stitching’ figurines. They are on an antique hutch that belonged to my great aunt. I painted it pink.

Incidently, the little sampler behind the pig and cow was one of the first cross stitched pieces I made back in 1980. : )

The little stitcher’s John Deere piece reminded me that he was suppose to be some relative of ours as my maternal great grandmother’s maiden name was the same but pronounced ‘Deer-ree’. I looked up info about him and couldn’t see where he had a brother by the name of my gr-gr-uncle.

Oct18

Photo Hunt-Family

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PSHunt

Christmas 1960

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The first photo is of a mom (my mom) without a husband. She is trying to make the best of it because it is Christmastime, 1960. She has a 6.5 yr old, a 1 yr old and a newborn.
Below that is my wedding photo of our entire family at the time. Can you pick out my mom and two brothers from above? I am so happy we had this photo taken (April 14, 1984) as three of the matriarchs are now deceased and the patriarchs haven’t been well lately

Oct9

Show & Tell #13

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Today I want to share a pastel drawing of my son Sean that was done in Paris, France in 1989. My in-laws went to France several times back then as my father-in-law was there for business and my mother-in-law went along. I would too! They happened upon this artist who did a few drawings for them. Having a little artist training, I know a drawing or painting looks more like a person when they aren’t looking straight at the artist, so I picked the one with Sean looking away.

It looks a lot like him. I’m not crazy about the striped shirt. We obviously still have it hanging up-in the living/dining area.
Here’s the photo it was taken from.

My mom likes to draw and she said the artist didn’t quite get his chin and nose correct. I think she was very talented!

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I decided to rearrange my postage stamp collector’s album. I have been collecting mint US stamps since Sean was about the age he is above-3. Not all of them for each year, but quite a few. I had stuck a bunch of canceled postage from the US and around the world in the same book, but took them out. I did leave the uncanceled stamps from France in the book, as my in-laws had bought them for us while they were there.

Of course I wanted to use some of the stamps in my collage art and made these cards:

Here’s what’s cool about the above. I was making an Asia themed card the night before, (check Flickr side bar) and cut out this bamboo ‘deer chaser’ to use, but it didn’t quite fit. I cut it out and used it on a card and starting to go through the stamps and found the perfect Chinese stamp of the little boys with the bucket in a shallow pool of water. The verse says-“Not all those who wonder are lost’ by JRR Tolkien

I have done a few cards using Chinese fortune cookie fortunes. Used another Chinese stamp and the registered piece from an envelope that the first stamp was on. Apparently it came from Brian’s former place of employment.

Oct4

Photo Hunt- Sad

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PSHunt

Ruthie, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

This is my late grandmom (‘mom mom’ to her grandkids). One day I got the bright idea to take some photos from old video of my brother’s 1982 wedding because there were some good close ups of Mom mom. Though it’s not a very clear image, it’s her classic smile and it makes me both happy and sad to see her face again. She lived to be almost 97 and I think about her almost everyday.

Oct3

Show & Tell #12

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Lily slate I designed, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

This is hanging in our family room.

Several years ago, I use to stencil ‘Welcome’ signs on slates for a local businesswoman. I think I did at least 300 of them using store bought stencils of her choosing. Linda would let us buy a few from her for our own stenciling. This lily one was made over 12 years ago. It’s a layered stencil, meaning the leaves are a stencil that are put down first and other layers are added. I should say, all the slates got a coat of the ecru acrylic paint first. We were told to follow the natural edges of the slate, which I did here. This is an okay design for someone who never made a stencil before, let alone a layered one. My inspiration was an old botany book (gee, wonder where that is?) I only made a few more as gifts and then turned my attention to cross stitch. I won’t tell you how the lady closed down her business-well I should-so you never do it-hold a meeting to insult people’s stenciling and then close down! She did it to mine-I had added a spray of foam to waves in the ocean and made seashells a bit pinker. That’s me and they looked fine. Plus I had done 100s of them already! She made another stencil lady cry (the poor thing couldn’t even copy or blend well, but she really tried). One stencil lady, who followed the stencils to a ‘t’ got kudos. She also spent way too much time on them for what she got paid-IMHO.Let’s say she was a good copier.

It’s really not too hard to do and if you ever try it, make the design your own with your own special touches! : )

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If anyone would like to read ‘The Secret Lives of Bees’, which is coming out in movie form soon, I have a copy I just finished. Let me know.

Sep27

RIP Paul Newman

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Not only was Paul Newman a great actor  (my favorite of his was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), he really loved kids and raised over 200 million dollars for his Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for sick kids. I thought his salad dressing and chocolates were pretty good. How cool was it to see a man his age racing cars-he started at age 70!

This website says it best:

The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp Honors the Life and Legacy of its Beloved Founder Paul Newman
He was a man of extraordinary generosity, vision, creativity and compassion. His selfless commitment to the welfare of children living with serious illnesses has been inspirational to people around the world. Twenty years ago, Paul Newman founded The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, the first in what has grown to become the world’s largest family of camps serving children with serious illnesses. The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp is part of his living legacy, and for that we remain forever grateful. His leadership and spirit can never be replaced, but he has left us with a clear course for the future.

Paul’s dream lives on in the joy, magic and healing power of Camp. What an extraordinary privilege to have shared his friendship and affection.

We’ll miss you Mr. Blue eyes.

Sep11

One down…

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…and one to go!

My mom did fairly well with her cataract surgery today. She thought it would have been an easier experience though. Said she was really aware of the surgeon’s work. Now if that was the case, I think she would have been hitting the ceiling in pain! It must have been an anesthesia that didn’t knock her out all the way. The cataract was so hard, he had to do it without the use of an ultrasound procedure and do it the old-fashioned way.  She had to go to a seminar last night and the nurse (also the doctor’s wife!) gave it and was there today. Mom said she was so kind to her too. Mom called me a little while ago a bit weepy and needing some TLC. She should have come home with me and then I’d have to take her to the doctor for the follow-up, but it’s a little trip out here, not sure if she was up for it. I was hoping my brother’s would take her some dinner. I got her lunch and she only took a few nibbles of it. She has to put 4 kinds of drops in her eye 4 times a day. I watched her do it the first time and when she called, she was an hour behind with it. Keep her in your thoughts-maybe she’ll see like a 20 yr old again. : )

This was a weird day with it being the 7th anniversary of the attacks. I was at my SIL’s first, she does my hair, and hearing planes going over was making me think back and how close the planes were that horrible day.

A really cool gift to me was being featured on Sherry’s blog- If I could set my soul free. I was so flattered and it really lifted my spirits! Thanks again g/f!

Sep6

Photo Hunt-Strings

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PSHunt

Oh this was a difficult hunt, but I located some dusty strings on this model ship in my son’s bedroom (reflected on his little dresser mirror). I didn’t want to pull out the guitar and I even took this photo:

of Bri’s old slippers (ew and never thought they would get blog time) and this:

Of a pretty tassle hanging from my curio cabinet.

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Sherry is doing a Truth or Dare for her blog party. She had quite a dare! My goodness girl!

The only thing I remember is I dared myself to stop these freshman girls in the dorm from slamming their door every time they came in and out. I was older and it was rather annoying. It was before security cameras, I guess, like 1980. I got out the vaseline and coated the door knob. I listened for a reaction within the next 1/2 hour and I heard a ‘ewwwww gross’ as they tried to open the slippery doorknob . HA! I had a good laugh. And I kept a straight face when they told me about it too.