In the news

So there is this newspaper in the UK called the Guardian I don't know much (actually I don't know anything about this paper other than it is in the UK) I actually have heard from my spouse that their point of view is quiet different than mine and I probably wouldn't agree with most of what they post but who can go wrong with Christmas crafts. They wanted to have my embroidered ornament as one of the features in their Christmas newspaper insert and I let them. They modified it by adding their own pictures and changing a few words but it is still my tutorial in the paper( no money for it always happens that way). So how does a girl that lives in Utah get in a UK newspaper I guess my blog and flickr have to do with that an an email I answered saying yes followed by many more asking and answering questions.

Vavo and Nono

As most of you know, I am a florist. What you may not know is that I have a lot of florist relatives, ie: my aunt, a few cousins, a sister, and last but not least, both of my grand- parents. My Vova and Nono owned two different flower shops, and I grew up in those shops as well as all the other people I mentioned. It was just a family business, and we all helped out. The part that was great was that when one shop closed, they joined forces in the other and became a very strong team at work and at home. They had this great team at home and at work and always seemed to love their work. I can't always say that is true for me when I have been a florist over the years, but I still love arranging flowers and that is the gift I will have forever from them, a couple who always loved each other. I miss my Nono very much; he died while I was in collage.

My Vova is still alive, but I don't get to see her as much as I would like. She is still an amazing woman and a great role model to her entire family.
The last photo is my Vavo and one of my cousins at a floral convention. I love the way she sticks an anthirium in her hair; she loves anthirium and has always placed them in her hair like that, especially around Christmas time. The two pictures above it are my grandparents, also at floral conventions. The top two pictures are from flower shows and floral exhibits that my grandparents did.

Baby Bonnets in store Today

New items in my etsy store today.
I have also tried to add paypal to my etsy store;
not sure if I did it right, hope it all goes well.
(I am hoping this makes it easier for customers and faster for me to ship to customers without the wait of the check clearing and the shipping of the check)

Yellow striped bonnet with antique hex back piece made from antique afghan.

Green striped bonnet with antique hex back piece made from antique afghan.

Purple on purple striped bonnet with antique hex back piece made from antique afghan.

Red striped bonnet with antique hex back piece made from antique afghan.

variegated bonnet .

A Look at Christmas

I looked at this tree a lot while over Christmas vacation and all of it's kissing balls lovingly made by my grandmother for all her family and friends. All the work that goes into making these for a woman of 94 years on oxygen -- wow, lots of love! This isn't even 1/3 of what she made; I took the photo after Christmas when everyone had already grabbed their new one.

This was kind of a unique Christmas for my family. We did go to California although, from a blog point of view, my readers would never have known it because I had the blog on auto publish. Meaning I typed up some things for the holidays well in advance and on the corresponding day they published.

But as for my trip, it was fairly smooth other than we had some major things happen that tilted the family, ie: two deaths three days before Christmas, and a cousin paralyzed also three days before Christmas. None of these events happened together, but all on the same day. My cousin is a young mother; long story short, her little girl needs her mommy to walk and help pay the bills. My cousin is a nurse in a prison and got hurt while trying to rescue another nurse (who just happened to be pregnant, meaning more weight than a normal person, and my cousin is petite). During a prison riot she was in a golf cart trying to pull the other woman into it to get to safety, and she, my cousin, got pulled out and hit the ground got hurt. Now she is in a lot of pain and can't walk; any prayers for her would be greatly appreciated.

While at my Vavo's home we sat by the phone for any news; I spent a lot of time looking at these items since they are in that room. This may sound strange, but I am glad it was Christmas; it just put an entirely different spin on things. The family was already gathering to be together, so we all got to strengthen each other and had the time to do it, too.

The pictures in this post are from my Vavo's parlor in her home, the home I grew up in and will always think of as home and comfort. The cherubs are up all year. Peace be with you.