Memories Are Made of This: Creativity and All That It Implies

My mom often says she can't do anything. She doesn't say it to be pathetic or get attention. She says it very matter of factly. I always laugh when she says it, knowing just how wrong she is.

I must admit that I love to do and make lots of things......probably too many things! All types of arts and crafts keep me busy for hours. They also keep me up all night! I'm either engrossed in a project way past bedtime, or I'm lying in bed thinking up yet another project that I want to attempt.
Martha always told people that if something was handmade, they needn't ask who did it. She simply told them that the answer would inevitably be 'Mary.' I always laughed when she said this, knowing just how wrong she was.

On my most recent visit to Shelby, I carefully chose a project I could take with me that would be easy to transport and easy to work on since I would be out of my element and away from my abundantly stocked supply of materials. Since I love autumn and its colors, foods, activities, and holidays, I decided to take the makings for Halloween and Thanksgiving greeting cards.

The first time I decided I to pull out my supplies, I spread them on Mom's breakfast room table right next to the scorepad and deck of cards that she uses to play gin rummy with her friend every day (see, there's one thing she does and does well!) I began making my first card and had decided on a Halloween theme with jack o'lanterns and ghosts. Mom walked by and I told her to sit down so that she could join me in my card making. Sure that she would laugh and tell me no, my mouth dropped open when I heard her say "okay" as she smiled and pulled out a chair. She sat down, looked at my card and asked if she could copy it! I told her that she could, and she grabbed a blank card, some stickers, a glue stick and went to town! She actually didn't copy mine, as she let her own creativity take over. She did quite well and was very proud of herself. She immediately took it back to her bedroom, wrote a note in it to her dear friends Barbara and Dick, put it in an envelope, stamped it and came back anxious to make one for her friend from church who also makes her own greeting cards and has many creative talents. I never even saw the completed version of that card because Mom followed the same routine......walked back to the bedroom, wrote a note and got it ready to mail. She surely doesn't waste any time!
That was the end of Mom's greeting card creations, but I am pretty sure she enjoyed it while it lasted! I went on to make about 40 cards over the next few days. I never seem to tire of it.

All of this leads to the photographs I took of Mom's house and her household "things." Things to me are not merely things, rather they symbolize some period of time within a lifetime.
I moved all my craft supplies out to the sunroom because I knew about those late afternoon games of gin rummy, and I had to clear up the table for that!
Mom's sunroom is such a special place. I think it's my favorite room in her house. I love the outdoors and the sunshine so the sunroom with all its windows lets me enjoy the beauty of the backyard, the trees, the birds, and the sun shining in. Needless to say, it was a pleasurable place to put my creativity to work.

Out in the sunroom I looked around at all the things Mom has put in that room to enhance the decor. There are several of my handmade things in that room. One piece hanging on the wall is a framed needlework picture of a deer in the forest drinking from a stream. Another is a needlepoint scene of some wild ducks in flight. It has been made into a throw pillow. These pieces brought back memories of the hours and hours and hours I used to spend doing needlepoint and cross-stitch. I remember Jim saying to me during the early years of our marriage that he forgot what my face looked like because it was always either buried in a book or into a piece of needlework! That was a happy and simple time in my life that I love to remember.

I also saw the painted cement figures of a frog and a turtle on the floor of the room. I can't believe Mom still has them and still finds them attractive enough to display in this beautiful room. I guess she is just sentimental like me! I painted those figures when I was a teenager. I did them for the sunroom we added on to our home on Ridgeview Drive. This is the home I grew up in. That sunroom reminds me of many happy times, including my wedding reception, which was held at our home. Many of the guests were drawn to that room and out onto the patio. I guess they had the same feelings that I do about the beautiful outdoors.

When I painted these cement creatures, I don't think I imagined how many smiles they would evoke over the 40+ years they have been displayed in my mom's homes. Maybe one day I will have grandchildren to whom I can show these figures and watch them smile. I imagine that too will be a happy and simple time in my life that I can look forward to.

After smiling at this reptile and this amphibian with chipped paint and some scratches here and there, I spied a throw pillow on the loveseat. It is a simple and beautiful cross-stitch with little butterfly-like designs that says "I love you." I didn't make this one. My sister, Martha, made it. She shouldn't have told everyone that I was the only one in the family with the creative gene.

Mom's talents don't stop with the creation of a couple of Halloween cards nor did Martha's creativity stop with a simple piece of cross-stitch. Through the years these two dynamic women's talents and creativity surfaced and showed their faces far more times that I can count.

And I love you too, Martha.