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