my paper heart

ugggggghhhhh.... hormones, nostalgia, wedding planning and a happy memories are conspiring against me this week, and i am aching with a big sort of ache for my dear mom.

last year this weekend mom and i sat down at her rickety dining room table to make some home-made valentines for all the people who had been helping her. we cut paper hearts and glued them onto card stock, and came up with funny cheesy things to write on them. check out mom's grin. her big beautiful smile to be doing something crafty. she ate macaroni and cheese that day, and i remember that a friend of hers from church stopped by to give her a new jack for her car, because he had noticed when helping her put some things into her car trunk that her jack was all rusty. i think about that random gift, that out-of-the-blue "i noticed you need this so i am going to get it for you, and drive it to your house" thoughtfulness when i wonder why it feels so hard to show practical love to people. i feel like i never know what people need. then i remind myself to look around and just NOTICE.

anyway, i was thinking about mom and the valentines a lot this weekend. it was such a sweet sweet day with her, just sitting and laughing and trying to come up with unique cards, and giggling about why she wanted to make a valentine with a rubber ducky-shaped cut out on it for her friend at work. it was some inside joke, but i don't remember it now... her unrelenting smile and hopefulness. the love that poured in around her all the time. happiness. craftiness. a sunny day with my mom.

Roommate and i also got to work on wedding decoration making for the HomeMadeWedding, and it was superexciting. i was so excited about actually making wedding stuff, in fact, that i couldn't sleep on saturday night. she and i sat in our apartment cutting paper circles out of red, pink, and orange scrapbook paper with big circle punches. then we sewed them into long strings of random circles. presto! instant garland decorations. to go with our "theme" of Red, Pink, and Orange Circles Hanging from Trees. no, really, that is the look we are going for. i also ordered some big round paper lanterns from a party store, and my sister is working on an invitation which Red Pink and Orange circles and a tree. oooooh if that sounds crazy then just try to trust me that my artistic friends are talented enough to make this work. trust me. we are professionals.

and, just to tie these two random snippets together a bit more neatly, we used the rest of the valentine paper i had bought for last year's mom valentines to make some of the paper circles. and it made me happy to know that we were sewing mom and our project into even the decorations for the big day.

she would be proud.

it was mom, after all, who first showed me how to use a glue gun at the tender age of 8. it was her crafiness and DIY attitude that sparked many a glee-filled hour of my childhood as i used her supply scraps to make doll furnishings for our dollhouse, barbie clothes, dress-up costumes, chrismas presents, curtains for my bedroom, and all manner of fake-flower-hot-glued-to-barette hair adornments.

thanks mom, for your craftiness and for a love for beautiful, personal, unique objects. that stuff is sure coming in handy for the wedding planning!