Retirement Card

The priest at my parish had to take an early retirement due to illness.  I attended his last Saturday mass this past weekend.  This is weighing heavily on my heart.  I enjoyed his masses and felt a connection to Father Dave that I have not felt to any other priest.  He will be sadly missed by so many including me.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, Father Dave showed care and concern when I had my skin cancer operations going on by taking my hands and saying a prayer and then continued to bless my head all this while he wasn't feeling well himself.  I feel blessed to have been a parishioner at his parish for 9 years and will never forget the welcome and warm feeling that he gave the church.  Father Dave was never judgmental and made going to church an enjoyable event.  I have never known a priest like him in my life, especially, one that would stop you after mass when you have a bandage on your head.  Have you ever known a Catholic priest to bring Saint Nick (Santa) ringing his bells as he walked up the aisle and saying a special guest has arrived and than continue to kneel in front of the manger in prayer and hand out candy canes on Christmas Eve?   I didn't until I went to my first Christmas Eve mass with Father Dave.  Father Dave you will be missed, take care and get the rest you deserve.

Here is a card that I had made for him (sorry my computer is having issues turning this the correct way):

  

A Haunting Experience

Joe and I took a trip up to Salem, MA on Friday with some friends.  We did haunted houses, a wax museum and walked through the oldest cemetery in Salem.  Also, we did a spell casting by a real witch was very powerful and a little frightening.  It felt like a religious ceremony in a way and the witch did an excellent job.  The frightening part was when she was picking up her knives and you never know when someone may go crazy and start to stab you or something.  It was a beautiful day outside and we had a lot of fun.  Sorry Laura one day we'll go to Salem with you!

My Grandmother's Spirit Lives In Me

I told Joe last night that I think there is a little of my Babci's spirit in me.  Many things that I do seem like the kind of life she lived including making a mess in the kitchen.  My Babci always told me the best cooks are the ones who make a mess in the kitchen.  Seems like this saying may be true because every time I bake or cook I make a mess  and I have been told that my baked goods and cooking are excellent by several people.  With that said I went back to my Polish roots yesterday and made some Pierogi (dough with a sauerkraut filling), Joe said they were the best he has ever had.   Golumpki (stuffed cabbage) is one of our winter staples in our house as well and Joe loves the way I make those. 

So here is a photo of my Pierogi before we cooked them up:

Scarves for Breast Cancer Walk

Been busy making these scarves over the last week.

 

 



Another Thank You Note

This is the card that I made that she used to send to her husband:

Paint Nite

I went to Paint Nite on Thursday night with some friends.  Had a blast doing our painting.  The instructor was great and I learned some techniques which included the correct way to mix my paints which I was having trouble with when doing some of my personal paintings.  And as Joe told our friends - I took down our wedding photo to hang this up even though I just told him we need to find a new spot for our wedding photo.

 

 

Halloween Invite

Joe and I convinced my sister to throw a Halloween Party (although it wasn't hard to convince her).  We told her all she had to do was provide the people and the place, we would take care of entertainment, decorating, and cooking.  So we are excited that she volunteered her new home which her and Tom just moved into about a month ago for the party and we are looking forward to it. 

Of course I was also in charge of the invitations:

Thank You Cards

I'm been busy lately.  So what I've been up to:

A craft/dog/car show this weekend that I was a vendor at.  I made some paintings last week for this event.  Didn't go so well, but the day was beautiful and I had my support team with me (the little mascot and my husband).

Making invitations for Halloween Party (more coming in next post).

Volunteered to make cupcakes for this Friday night for our priest's goodbye party.

Helping Joe take down trees for our firewood for next winter.  We've done about 7 trees so far.

This was the pile 2 weeks ago and has grown.  As you can see the assistant mascot loves to be on top of the world.

Making some scarves for breast cancer walk.  I have to next Friday to get this done.

Setting up a card making party for Saturday (World Card Making Day).  My thought was the girls in the group make cards and the guys take down some trees.  Now it looks like it will rain so the guys will need to hang out and entertain themselves.

And the biggest project was making Thank You cards for my family and friends.  My immediate family threw me a birthday party back in August.  I started to make the cards back after the party, but just got my gifts up here and was able to finally write them out and mail them.  And if you're a family member that reads my blog try and guess which one is coming to you.  All of them are individually made and different. Joe was impressed when I sat next to him and told him exactly who each card was for and asked me how I remembered.  I said it was easy because I took the time to think of the person it was going to and what I think best represented the gift or the person (either the colors, cards, sentiments or image). 

So here are all the cards:

Thanks for looking.