Eileen Hull

I was honored to be asked to create a piece of art for our choir to give as a gift to a visiting muscian who is doing a workshop for us. I love this uplifting quote from Psalm 100. I had an idea of how I wanted to lay it out and of course waited till the last minute (there were other last minute things with more imminent deadlines before this! And do admit I am a procrastinator but sometimes people actually do wait till the last second to order something… and I can’t even get mad at them because I do the same thing…) ANYway, I was happy because the artwork came together pretty well and I was breezing along- matting went well- I liked the colors, they matched OK, went to frame it and the problems began. I wanted to use this cool antique frame- have been doing that a lot lately- save them for the “special jobs”. I started cleaning this glass and found two scratches! And of course it’s a weird non-standard size frame and I have no idea where my glass cutter is to do a new one. However, when when I went back to my frame room area and poked around- lo and behold- I found another frame within 1/4″ of the other one! With a little shimming, we were back in business!

The lesson is…everything takes longer than you think it will… so don’t wait till the last minute! I am saying this for myself mainly. And any of my children who happen to see this. 🙂 And for those who do things ahead of time (and you know who you are) I hate you. I mean, congrats on planning ahead…. but I’m sure my life is much more exciting than yours.

I am so sad. We made the exchange last night and I cried for about half the trip home. Thought I was doing OK till I saw the front porch with her little rocker sitting next to mine… But I did have an excellent night’s sleep. Life returns to reality and work…

In other news, I have 3 projects appearing in the August issue of Crafts ‘n Things! So that was pretty exciting to see. Now I am finishing off orders for the Coast Guard Academy Parents’ Club and the Army Officer’s Wives’ Club of the Greater Washington Area, assorted matted graduation announcements and wedding presents.

Pam came over yesterday and we did a project together- it came out really cute and she was so excited about giving this to her friend. Will post tomorrow.

I have been adding some features and fiddling around with this blog but it’s slow going. Had some excellent suggestions from my friend Patty’s daughter Caitlin who married an English guy and lives and works in England. She writes such a fun blog- check it out. Thanks Cait! You are so kind…

Time is flying by… this is our last week with Trinity and it has been so much fun to have her here with us. I never really understood what people meant when they said “It’s so much more fun to be a grandparent” but now I can see why. When mine were little (and there were four fairly close in age), it seemed most of the time was spent with maintenance- feeding, changing, baths, school, driving, sports and activities- that there didn’t seem to be time to just ENJOY them. But this has been a month full of enjoyment. She really is a delight, not that I am biased in any way…

So, at night, after I kiss her angelic little cheek, I come down here to my really messy, fun studio and see what trouble I can get into. I had sent proposals for what I KNOW is a really cool idea for a book in to two different publishers and was rejected by both (nicely, but still…). I’m not giving up yet… Also put myself out there with an idea for a regular feature in a craft magazine, so who knows… All they can say is no 🙂 The good news is the new product is coming along beautifully and can’t wait to be able to tell you all about it!

Today I planted. $168 worth of flowers from Lowes have been sitting in the back yard for a week and a half but it has been either raining or buggy or humid. Today was cloudy, about 74 and perfect. Trinity and I suited up- on went the gloves, bug stuff, comfy clothes and ponytails- and went out for a few hours to put them in. And now I think why did I wait. It was really fun. Of course I need a lot more…

In front of Giant every year, there’s a lady who sets up a flower stand and I usually visit her a couple of times. Now I have waited so long it’s buy one, get one free! So tomorrow Trinity and I will hit her stand and see what’s left. I think my favorite flower is the tuberous begonia- they flower continually and require minimal maintenance- what’s not to love? The photo above is something I saw on the way down the driveway to get the mail- have no idea what it is but love all the wacky strands popping out everywhere…

Is Trinity not the cutest child you have ever seen? My friend invited her over today and here she is proudly walking up the path to show me the cupcakes they made. Lorine is following with a box of dolls and clothes that Trinity is borrowing. Tomorrow we are headed out to Purcellville to check out a new fabric store. The fun continues 🙂

I am working away- this has turned out to be one of my busiest months ever! Today I mailed out an emergency gift order to my friend Charlene at Ft. Bragg, the last batch of wedding invitations have been finished, did three sets of graduation announcements, and am more than halfway done with an order for 600 magnets. Tonight I am finishing up some single orders. I am framing our NY house neighbors’ 50th wedding invitation as a surprise. As we were driving up to check on our rental property in upstate NY last weekend, we stopped at 11:30 PM for gas. Much to our dismay, the RV would not start. So we spent the night in front of the gas pumps listening to announcements telling us to turn off our vehicles while pumping gas, while we slept in our bed! We rented a car to get the rest of the way and our neighbors welcomed us into their home, since we had no RV to sleep in the next night. I also found some beautiful faux lemons in the thrift store- that’s Toni’s latest favorite thing to collect and think she will love them.

So life is good.