A Very Sugary Cupcake...and Sweet Mother's Day Memories...

Good morning, dear friends!

Seems like I haven't posted forever--just a few days, though!  It's been busy here, but today is nice and quiet...{sigh....!}

I have a couple of things to share with you today...first off...I've been needing some birthday cards to have on hand, so I finally got one done yesterday:

I LOVE these colors together--one of my favorite combinations--just makes me really happy!  I used three of my favorite Pink Persimmon stamp set for this:  "Vintage Cupcake", "Vintage Greetings", and "Sweet Greetings"...each one is just delightful!

Lots of silver Stickles, lace and the perfect shade of vintage pink rick-rack trim were used...and some oh, so fabulous German clear glass glitter for the frosting!

Also added some Diamond Stickles on some random pink polkadots on the background paper--I just can't seem to stop with the sparkles!

I've also been working on things for Mother's Day...My Mom asked me last week if I would make something with my Grandmother's picture on it for her Mother's Day display in her "shrine", as we call it...the place in her entry that she always decorates so beautifully for each and every holiday.  Here's what I came up with:

This is LaPriel when she was just 17 years old, in 1929...my Dad's mother.  I love her.  She passed away when I was just 3 1/2 years old,  but I do remember her.  What I remember the most is that she absolutely loved me.  That warm, sweet thought is stuck in my memory, and I know it will never go away...

 I used yellow and turquoise for the card because they were her favorites...As I worked on this, my thoughts kept revolving around her.  I have a copy of her journal--the only one I know she had, and in it is found this lovely Mother's Day memory from 1946...

"Mother's Day--I woke up early this morning and went in the front room and there were four lovely potted plants on the mantle with notes on them to me from my boys...I squealed out loud and out came my precious boys grinning from ear to ear.  They said that wasn't all.  They asked me to go outside, and out there they had planted flowers all out in the front...they had signs on them.  One said, 'Dear Mother, I hope these will bloom.  But they never can bloom as blooming sweet and lovely as you.  Grant.'  Another, 'Merry Mother's Day, Mother Mine.'  Then another sign said, "I hope these will grow, but they never will grow as beautiful as you, Mother Dear.  Clayn.'  (my Dad!)  I cried--couldn't help it!  I wonder so often how I happened to be so lucky to have such love as I have....A lovely Mother's Day..."

Sometimes when I'm too busy, I think of another time in her journal when her boys really wanted her to go to town and see a movie with them, and she did, writing that she hoped they always would want her to go with them like that...precious moments that fly away too soon!  I'm so grateful for that wise lesson from my Grandmother...

Her daughter, my Aunt Diana said that she always said, "Remember to smile before you answer the phone...a happy voice on the phone means you've reached a happy home." More good advice! 

She told me that once a man had called their home once mistakenly, and that my Grandmother sounded so cheerful, he called back later, "just to hear a pleasant voice on the phone"!

I need to remember that more often!

I asked my Mom what typified her the most--how could I characterize her--in the small space of a card--in the best way?  So many thoughts came to her mind, and my Dad's...in the end, I found inspiration in these words...and I just feel that it's something she would say to me right now if she could...

...so those are my words to you, today, as well...Believe in Yourself...

...and have a most wonderful day!