Tuesday, May 19, 2009

106 days of birthday fun!

“If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.”
~Winnie the Pooh
My great-great-aunt Greta (Marguerite) will be 106 this August. When she came upon 100 (living in her own room at an assisted living home) we thought it would be fun to celebrate the 100 days leading up to her 100th birthday. And she loved it so much we've done it each day since. "We" are led by my father who organizes everything through e-mail to her hundreds of neices and nephews scattered up and down the east coast and across the country. The Woodbury women always outlive the men, but she may have lived the longest by never having gotten married or having children!!! But she says the children, grandchildren and so on, of her brothers and sisters (8 or 9????) are like her kids. So here is my first card to her to celebrate the 8th day of celebrations:

I used the layout for this Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge, and the colors are from Stacey's fabulous Jewelry Color Inspiration Challenge. Boy was it a challenge for me! A few weeks ago I was seeing these cute littel crocheted flowers everywhere, and I wanted some. Too bad I could only find them to win, or for sale. So I sat down with some yarn from my stash and a small crochet hook and gave it a shot without a pattern. I'm not loving all the ones I came up with but wanted to use one on a card anyway. I'll probably give it a try again and see how they turn out with a bit of tweeking. If you do have a pattern to share, please do!

My card is larger than I normally do (just under 5 x 6 1/2) because at 105+ Aunt Greta's eyesight isn't the best (she's in a nursing home now) and I write large so she can read it without waiting for someone to come by and read the mail to her. I've been writing to her for almost ten years now, since I was a freshman in college and discovered there's nothing worse than an empty mailbox! Since them I've tried to write a weekly or biweekly letter and it's a good outlet to send off many of the cards I've made. So here's to birthday celebrations and family...enjoy!


Smiles,

Paper: Baja Breeze, Creamy Caramel, Whisper White, Chcolate Chip, Washington Apple DSP
Ink: Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip
Stamps(SU!): Love you Much (heart), Friendship Blooms (bg flourishes)
Other: crocheted flower, white ribbon, Blackbird Brads

7 comments:

  1. Omgosh, Caryl! You are multi-talented...your very own crocheted flowers! So awesome!...Thanks for playing in the Jewelry Color Inspiration #37!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great story about your Aunt! Cute card too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is awesome! The whole story behind it is very touching as well. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a wonderful joy your Aunt must be, all her great stories. I am so glad you all cherish her. Good for your family to cherish this living history book!!!
    She is going to love this beautiful card you have made.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great use of your fun flower! Love the effect it has on the card. I think your Aunt Greta will LOVE it!!!

    It's a good life!
    Terri E.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think your flower looks great! It looks so soft and nice. I like the brad in the middle of it too!

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a great idea to celebrate the days leading up to a big birthday like that. And such a nice card. Great job on crocheting the flower yourself. I think it looks terrific.

    I have a cousin in a nursing home who will be 92 soon. I started writing to him several years ago when I was doing some genealogy research. He was so helpful so I went to visit him to talk more. He's such a fun character. So I visit him now about once a month. I also send him monthly cards and I write big too because of his poor vision. He also never married. Maybe that is the secret to living a long life! I hope not because I like being married.

    Btw... that verse is one of my faves.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment, they always make my day. I love to get feedback and would love to visit your blog too!