Christmas Card Swap 2008

Happy Holidays to you! Although I have been taking a break from swaps for a few months, I just had to participate in a fun Christmas Card Swap hosted by Jan & Tom. It was a lot of fun. I sent to 12 folks and so far have received 8 cards. In our cards, we were to send "little gifts" with each card...here is what I have received so far!

This lovely card, ornament and yummy recipes are from Lisa. I just noticed on her blog that her mom passed away yesterday, so my condolences go out to Lisa and her family. What a terrible time of year to lose a loved one.


This cute card and fun handmade tags are from Awtem Nymf


This lovely card and vintage hankie is from Deb, aka Garage Sale Gale. Love it!

This fun card and little ornament and proverb card are from Cary.

This amazing crocheted angel is from Jan, the hostess with the mostess! Thanks, Jan!


This amazing crocheted cross bookmark is from Linda.

This handmade card and tags and cute cupcake notecard are from Missy.

And finally, this fun little package of a cute card, note cards and gift tags are from Lady Jane.

AND I also wanted to thank my dear friend Kai, who sent me the sweetest package with this adorable handmade ornament. Thanks, Kai! You are the sweetest!!

A Pretty Little CAT FRIENDLY Christmas

pic of me on 12/13/08 in front of mom's xmas tree...

Welcome and Happy Holidays!

Heather at Pretty Petals is hosting a Pretty Little Christmas Blog Party today. I don't have lots of "pretty" holiday things around. I have cats. I used to have a beautiful, Victorian tree every year. I have cats. I used to have lots of glittery pretties around for the holidays. I have cats. I used to have pretty garland coming down the stairs. I have cats. You get the idea.

So, now I have a few key holiday decorations that so far are completely cat-friendly. And truth be told, while I love to look at pretty decorations and I do sometimes miss it, my pretty little four-legged furry children make me just as happy at the holidays and year round.

So....
These are some sample cat holiday cards that some company sent just this year in the mail that I thought would be great cat-friendly decorations, so I purchased some $3 black frames at Walmart and voila! (that's my sweet kitten Henry snoozing in these first two pics)


A cute little Santa (who may not be as cat friendly as I first thought) and a cute little prim stitching project framed up on the wall.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.... (well this is really my faux fireplace that we had growing up)

And finally, this is my tree now... a two-foot pinecone tree.... :-)



Have a wonderful peaceful holiday, my friends!
Lolly

pic of my sweet girl, Teddie

PEACE

Peace to you and yours this holiday season.................I wanted to share some of these sweet, peaceful photos with all of you of a few of my four-legged furry children..........

Miss Teddie (left) and Joey...

Spike, my gently boy...

and Marty, my gentle giant...

Love to you all and I will be back soon (ish) to update my blog. I have so much to blog about but when I find the time, the energy is gone......

Peace!

Lolly

My sweet cat, Mouse

My sweet cat, Mouse, passed away in the early hours of this morning after a fairly short, but hard-fought battle with skin cancer. White cats are prone to skin conditions and unfortunately hers was a very aggressive form. She was my completely deaf and oh so sweet girl who was only 8 years old. For someone that couldn't hear a peep, she didn't miss anything and definitely made her presence known!! She was a feral cat that I fed from the time she was about 3 months old. She had a kitten, Max, and they both came into my house to live with me when Mouse was about 1 and her kitten was about 5 weeks old (that is a long and beautiful story that I am thinking about writing a children's book about). She was still nursing him at the time and was a great mom. She was friends with all the other cats and loved to be near me, loved to eat, was one of my "greeters" when people came over and just a real light in my life.

I lost my old boy, Charlie, just this past December (see this blog) and Max (Mouse's kitten) passed away suddenly just four short months ago (see this blog) so you can imagine my devastation. Her life and our life together was just too short. How can it be over so soon? But I want to always remember the wonderful details of her life with the love and faithfulness she showed me. Although she wasn't with me long enough, I am grateful for every wonderful day I had with her and the two boys I lost this past year. I hope Mouse knew how much I loved her and how much I will miss her physical presence in my life.

Be blessed my sweet girl.

"We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own live within a fragile circle, easily and often breached. Unable to accept its awful gaps, we still would live no other way. We cherish memory as the only certain immortality, never fully understanding the necessary plan." ~Townsend

This is sweet Mouse...

And here she is loving and cuddling with little Miss Teddie....like I said, she was a friend to all!

OUR ETSY STORE IS OPEN

Hi folks! Finally, I can do a blog letting my friends know that our Etsy store is open, Lolly's Nest Egg with The Needle's Web. I am in business with my mom, who also just happens to be my very best friend. We don't have tons of stuff in the store yet, but will be adding and updating weekly, and sometimes daily!

From our Etsy store announcement, "We are a mother/daughter (and best friends) team who love to create! Our original and one-of-a-kind designs are made with love and great attention! We only make those things that inspire us and that we like ourselves! Lolly (the daughter) creates under Lolly's Nest Egg and Sandra (the mom) creates under The Needle's Web, but you can always find our work in this shop at lollysnestegg.etsy.com. You can see more about us in our Profile section!"


Woohoo!! Some of the things we have listed include:

This AWESOME handmade LONG scarf for Goth chicks and for chicks who love Halloween......LOVE IT! Can be found here.

Another VERY COOL creation for the goth chick or the chick who loves Halloween (although I would wear it year round!). It can be found here.

Perfect for the season! This is a FUN necklace for all the Democrats out there (there is a Republican one too!). It can be found here.

This is Miss Betsy Beary who comes with HANDMADE clothes and stuff, as well as a HANDMADE bag to keep her and her wardrobe in! She is not handmade but her stunning wardrobe is...you must take a look. She is here.

We also have these adorable DEMOCRAT and REPUBLICAN dog bandanas. The picture is Democrat but we have both in several different sizes. Check it out here.

Thanks for looking! I hope that we can eventually be as successful as some of the wonderfully crafty ladies whose blogs I stalk...I mean read....every day! :-) They are my inspiration!!

Love, Lolly

Catching Up....

Hello, friends. I am back to blogging and I am commiting to being much more regular with it. I have a lot to say but with not feeling well and the loss of a furry baby, I didn't want my blog to be a constant downer. Having said that, though, I will appreciate all prayers and good thoughts this Friday, August 1. I am having intravenous iron infusion - a 6-hour procedure...ugh. Despite taking strong oral iron supplements, I am still severly anemic and my blood levels keep going down. I have had test after test come out ok, but my levels keep dropping. So we are going to try this and I am hoping that this infusion and subsequent therapies if needed will give me more energy so I feel better. I also need more energy for CREATING! Mom and I have given ourselves deadlines for FINALLY opening our etsy shop (mom is going to be selling with me!) so I need to make that inventory. Fingers crossed.

OK, fun stuff......here are some ATCs that I made for a swap I was in....it was an interesting swap, because we had to use recycled product for the base of the cards. I used boxes from my AMY's meals....and of course that is my little Frieda as the model in each card.


Some more ATC for a feathered friends swap....

Some cards for an anything goes card swap....

And I should have blogged about this in June, but two years ago I got my grandmother into a wonderful nursing home closer to me (about 5 minutes from my house). I am her power-of-attorney and just love the care they give her there. We are a very involved family so she feels like a queen there. She is 91 years old and she is just thriving and truly feels that it is her home. The facility and the employees (as well as the residents) are wonderful and each year they have a *SENIOR* prom (get it?) where the seniors can dress to the nines. The nursing home even has beautiful dresses the ladies can borrow and fancy jewels and nice things for the men. The residents are in heaven each year and they play music from all of the decades. The joy on many of the residents' faces will honestly just take your breath away! I always attend and leave feeling very blessed to have taken part. Anyway, here are a few pics of my beautiful grandmother at this years prom....isn't she a beauty?

(that's my mom on the left)

Let me end this long post with this sweet pic of one of my furry kids...sweet Bess. Isn't she adorable (and when she's sleeping, she's not yapping! :-) )

Hope you all are well and enjoying the summer! Talk to you soon!!

Lolly

The Winner of my Giveaway is...

Hi, friends! Just a quick note to announce that the winner of my first ever giveaway is.......

obsessed scrapbooker of Life in Smirleyworld

Her number was chosen by random generator:
This program will generate a random number between two numbers of your choice.
Enter a lower limit: 1
Enter an upper limit: 22
Random Number: 14

Thanks so much to all who played!! I really like doing giveaways! There will have to be more!

Elizabeth will be getting the summer edition of Artful Blogging, plus a bunch of other goodies that I have collected (some vintage goodness and fun scrapbooking stuff). I will post pics later of the goodies I am sending her!

Love, Lolly

I'm back...and MY FIRST GIVEAWAY!

I'm back...not quite 100% recovered yet, but getting better every day (it was bronchitis and for some reason it really threw me for a loop, but three rounds of antibiotics later and many cough medications...)...and and I am still missing my sweet cat Max, but taking comfort in my memories and my other four-legged children. Thanks to all of my blogger friends who sent me sweet wishes about my sweet boy.

OK, on to business. I am FINALLY starting to feel the creative juices flowing again, so am going to work this weekend on producing some stuff. In the meantime, I thought I would have MY FIRST GIVEAWAY! Blame it on not feeling well, but I actually bought two issues of the Summer 2008 ARTFUL BLOGGING magazine....doh!

SO, I would love to give the extra copy of ARTFUL BLOGGING (Summer 2008) away to someone! I will ALSO throw in a bunch of other fun supplies and vintage goodness (not pictured) to the lucky winner!! Each comment on this post will be entered in my giveaway. I think I will have the drawing on...let's say a week from today June 26. Just be sure that I have a way to reach you! I will post the winner after 12:00pm EST on June 26!!





Thanks, my sweet friends!

Lolly

I lost my sweet cat, Max...

Hello friends. I am so sad to tell you that my sweet little four-legged furry bundle of joy, MAX, passed away on Wednesday morning. I had dropped him off that morning at the vet to have surgery, then I headed home since I have been so sick. My Max was to have all of his teeth extracted because of severe gum disease and a raging infection. They gave him a sedative before they could even give him anestesia or intibate him (normal procedure) and within 2 minutes he fell over and his heart had stopped. They gave him CPR for about 15 minutes to no avail. The doctor thinks that the infection may have compromised his heart and it was just too much for his body. Also since he was a feral cat, we just don't know about genetics, etc. But without the surgery, he would have continued to have infection after infection and would have starved, since he wasn't eating enough to sustain his big body.


I am still in shock today and so very sad and depressed. I just lost my beloved Charlie in December and now my sweet boy, Max....Max was such a good boy. He was only 7 and I have had him since he was 5 weeks old when I took in him and his beautiful mother who were ferals - he was still nursing when I took them in. Max was a talker. In the picture below of him alone, he was "talking" to me, trying to get some message across. He was my social butterfly - always greeting everyone at the door. He was my constant shadow (much to the chagrin of my other beloved shadow, Freida). Max made me laugh with his antics. He was a friend to all of the other animals - not a mean bone in his body. You all know that my beloved four-legged furry children are the world to me and ARE my children. I miss him so much and I just wanted to share my thoughts with you all. There was such a depth of love in his eyes when he looked at me. I hope he always knew that I felt the same.


My dear Max - be free, be strong, know that you will be mourned and missed, that you have loved and are beloved. Be blessed my baby kitty, until we meet again.


Love, Lolly

My sweet boy, Max

Max (in front) with his mom, Mouse...

I'm still here!!

Peek-a-boo!! I'm still here!! I have been sick for the past few weeks and have not even had the energy for blogging....I have so many things to post about! I will hopefully be back soon!

~Lolly

Toy Day

Hello! Today is Scrappy Jessi's Favorite Childhood Toy party and I want to play!! Sorry for some of the blurry pics, but of course I waited until the last minute to look for some of these and then the scanner wasn't working, and then....well you get the picture!
Anyway, here we go. This is me at about a year and half...I loved dolls and stuffed animals and I loved my books....those Little Golden Books rock!!

Me again with my Raggedy Ann doll!

This is a new monkey I have now, but when I was young I had one EXACTLY like it.... I can't explain it, but I just have always LOVED stuffed monkeys.

Another new one, but one like I had when I was little...

Oh, this is my beloved little tiger that my beloved grandfather gave to me when I was a toddler. Obviously this little guy has been with me for forty years. My grandfather is long gone, but I just love this little guy. He proudly sits on a shelf in my studio.

Also this beloved stuffed bear of mine..little Teddie has been with me since I was an infant and also keeps little tiger (above) company on a shelf in my studio. As you can tell, I took these guys everywhere with me when I was young. They are tattered but very loved!

Here is an older me when I was about 8 or 9.....once again surrounded by stuffed animals and dolls and reading....note I was reading (and really into) Jughead and Archie....clearly that dates me!

A young me on Christmas morning with my new kitchen set....my sisters and I spent hours with that set and all the accompanying fun stuff that went with it.

You can only see one piece here but on this day, my sisters (they are the blond twins) and I received this fantastic block set and we literally played with that for years in so many different ways. I can even remember building "furniture" for our Barbies with the set!!

That's it for today! I couldn't find my pics of some of the other fun toys I enjoyed as a child................like the board game (remember those?) SORRY, Barbies and especially my beloved Barbie Camper, my Crissy doll, my Little Kiddles, etc.......I could go on.....

Thanks, Jessi for hosting this fun party!!

~Lolly

The wonderful junque in my trunk.....

I was lucky enough to participate in Junque in my Trunk swap hosted by Heather at Pretty Petals Boutique. My partner was the wonderful Elaine but she doesn't have a blog at this time (but she should!!)....Anyway, this first batch of photos is what I sent to her. The box (trunk) I made has a vintage picture of my grandmother on it.. what a beauty she was (and is - she will be 91 next month!)...I wish I had taken more detailed pics of all the fun goodies that were actually in the box, but I was running late in mailing the package and so it goes...anyway, here is a condensed visual of what I sent to the wonderful Elaine....







And here is the absolutely wonderful and quite stunning "trunk of amazing junque" that I got from Elaine......she truly went above and beyond and I am still in awe of all the unique goodness that she sent my way. She knew that I love anything cat or vintage cat-related and almost everything in the package was cat related...even the vintage cards had cats on them...unbelievable thoughtfulness.....first of all, this is the amazing flower covered box that I first opened...I truly did not want to open it - it was that beautifully put together....


And this is just a few pics of the amazing things Elaine sent me......











This was an absolutely fantastic swap and I had a great time giving and receiving!!
~Lolly