Five days after our last post, my mother lost her battle with two cancers.  She lived her last day as if it were like any other.  She made my Dad his favorite bread pudding and meals, watched their favorite TV shows together, chatted over tea or coffee.  My parents spent a leisurely afternoon just being together.  I received a phone call from my Dad just after midnight to come over because my Mom was really sick.  My husband and I were still up and drove a fast fifteen minutes to get to them.  I helped my mother in her final moments and never realized what was happening as it was happening.  Later at the hospital we were told that they had never been able to revive her.  The woman in my life that gave me life had lost hers. 

Now I feel a void. 

I am grateful for family and friends, friends like Cynthia (the other half of TwoLuLa) who listens when I ramble and rant, who holds my hand or hugs me when I feel lost and alone, who brings me back to life when I feel defeated.  A best friend.  I lost my greatest best friend in my mother.  I am more grateful for my other best friends now.  Always I have my sisters and my daughters, but now each of the women in my life mean so much more to me.  I treasure each one of these women because life is so precious and valuable and ends in the blink of an eye when we least expect it.  In the friendship of women I find parts of what I loved about my own mother.  I find some of what I have lost. 

Maybe God makes it that way so that we find what we lost in all of those around us that have always been here - men and women alike - but specifically that mothering sisterly bond grows stronger.  When we lose someone we love, the space left behind in our hearts for the love we received from that one special person, begins to be filled in with the love from others too.  We never fully fill up and forget, but we hurt less.  This is my hope, day by day, one day at a time, that me and my family and friends hurt less from the loss of one great lady.

Peace to you,
Carol

Crocheted Mittens!

Luther and I enjoying one of our many walks.

Wherever have I been? It has been sooo long since I have posted on TwoLuLa!  I can't even clearly say what has taken over my time….I guess just life in general! But more on that in my next post.

I wanted to share the mittens I just completed for my daughter Olivia.  This is my second attempt at crocheted mittens.  The first pair was for my daughter Eva. Carol was over for tea and crochet one day, many moons ago, and she was making hand warmers for her daughter Emily.  I was intrigued by them, so she taught me how to make them.  Once I got started I decided to turn them into mittens.  This was a  trial-and-error procedure for me, having never made mittens before. I will have to borrow them back from Eva to photograph.






For Oliva's mittens (done in red to match her college colors - Go Rutgers!) I decided to follow a pattern.     After some internet browsing i came upon this Basic Crocheted Mittens pattern at p2designs.com.  I altered the pattern a bit to fit the hand size I wanted and the yarn/hook I was using.

               

                                                           I am not sure if I finished the hand and thumb openings quite right, but Olivia seems pleased with them.  She took them back to school with her and will hopefully get some use out of them before the weather turns warm.  I regret that I only have lousy photos to share!             Cynthia

We are still here!

What happened to January and February you might ask?  I apologize for our blogging slump.  Life just gets in the way sometimes, you know?  So I was looking over at Made by K to see what she is up to and found owls.  One owl per day with a little bit about it and the statement that she has been post-less for six months.  Her thought is to take one photo.  Post it.  Say a little about it.  I thought.  GREAT IDEA!

I have an endless list of things to do to my house.  One was move the living room around to accommodate a new television viewable without the glare from the window.  And then hang artwork on the now vacant wall.  This project was waiting for my husband to decide what TV to buy (waited three years).  Miracle happened New Year's Day in the form of a sale he discovered.  I will skip the details.  Here is what I did to my blank wall needing pictures:

For now I am happy with the arrangement.  I think I will change out what is on the shelves seasonally (the snowflakes will go when spring is here).  Also, I need to paint the shelves as they are currently unfinished wood. I am not sure what color to paint them or if I should stain them.  The walls are Behr "Boston Fern" green.  I have painted black wood furniture and honey oak stained furniture in the room.  My comfy chairs are floral on a deep purple background.  I am considering painting the shelves purple.  What do you think?

Carol

Post-Christmas

Christmas Day has come and gone.  The two weeks leading up to the big day came with challenges that I will spare you the details.  The best of the celebrations began on Sunday at Cynthia and family's annual "Christmas Eve Squared" party.  Friends that are more like family now all gather and bring food to share and celebrate the coming birthday.  Cynthia and Bob did a fabulous job decorating their lovely home for the holidays (she needs to post pictures).  We talked and laughed and told stories.  I so very much enjoyed myself and felt genuinely happy - which is the best gift. 

Christmas Eve I attended the later worship service at my church with my daughters and various family members.  We were treated to a brass quartet pre-service concert of classic Christmas tunes.  I love singing all the hymns of Christmas.  My congregation is filled with really good singers and since we are Lutheran, we sing a lot.  The choir sang beautifully.  For our final two hymns we "go dark" and all hold a lit candle to light our way and our music while we sing.  I loved all of it.

Christmas Day we went to my sister Janet and her husband Jim's house.  Sixteen of us gathered there.  We each brought a part of the meal and our gifts to give each other.  What a wonderful time we all enjoyed!

I hope you all had a wonderful celebration of family and friends this year too!

Peace On Earth,  Good Will to All! 

It is 12-12-12 !!!

This is certainly a busy time of year for everyone.  It is also the time of year when I begin to think about the things I want to do better next year.  One of them is keeping up with this blog.  TwoLuLa has been a wonderful outlet for Cynthia and I to think about the creativity in our lives and post progress.  Yet here it sits, unattended. 

I have survived my big craft show.  Sold adequately but nothing to quit my day job over. One show a year does not a business make either.   I know I have much more work to make a business like this succeed, so I am not giving up yet.

Last weekend, my hubby and I and my sister Janet and her hubby went to Cape May for the weekend.  We toured the Victorian homes for their holiday tour.  Such a fabulous weekend!


The Thursday we arrived was sunny.  So we walked the block to the beach and by the time we got there it was cloudy and drizzly.  The sky remained this color for the remainder of the weekend.

In case you are wondering, the beaches south of Atlantic City did not sustain the severe damage the the rest of the beaches from A.C. up did.  The beaches that are the ones my daughters frequent are devastated.  Streets are sand covered.  Boardwalks are gone.  Ordinary people lost their homes (not the second homes you think about, but their primary residences.)  Beaches are eroded.  Much reconstructing is needed and it will never be the same. 

While Cape May did have some flooding, for the most part, it looked untouched.

Doilies purchased at an antiques mart.

We frequented this small shopping district and it's beautiful stores.  I even did some Christmas shopping.
By far the favorite was walking past the fudge store and the ladies giving free samples.

These are a few of the beautiful Victorian homes that make this beach resort so fabulous.  Did you know that Cape May is the United States first beach resort town?

We stayed at the Carroll Villa Hotel.  It is an old Victorian hotel.

.

Walking for the Holiday lights tour took us in and past many beautiful old homes.  Below are just a few we passed.

 On our last day we drove to Sunset Beach and the weather did not cooperate.  Still, my sister and I braved the chilly weather to walk to the water's edge and collect memories from the sand.  This is the beach known for its "Cape May Diamonds" which are stones tumbled by the surf to be clear as diamonds.  We did find a few as well as some beautifully colored stones.  I am thinking about crocheting around some of these stones and turning them into necklaces. 

That out in the water on Sunset Beach is a sunken concrete ship.  Yes, it did float at one time.

So we collected our "Cape May Diamonds" until the temperatures got to us and rain drops influenced us back into the car.  All in all we had a fabulous weekend and plan to return again next year.  Or perhaps pick a new destination to experience.


Peace,
Carol

Count Down Begins!

No, not Christmas... not yet.  A big craft show that I signed up a year ago to participate in and am frankly frightened that it is only eleven days away.  This is one of those shows that draws hundreds or thousands of people.  Some years they buy.  Some years they look.  I was doing so well the first half of the year creating items to sell.  Then summer hit with vacation and I must have fallen asleep along the way.  Now it feels like no matter how hard I work, I won't have enough product to sell or variety or the stuff people want to buy.  And it feels like an investment in this show of $75 for this table.  I need to at least sell that and a bit more to make sitting for a day worth while. 

And my nephew Kyle told me that we are all experiencing "hurricane brain".  Since losing a week or more of power and adding to that shock and depression for all the losses so many people suffered in our state and neighboring New York.  Lives, homes, cars, all of it and an extensive amount of recovery needed to rebuild.  Knowing it will never be the same again. 

Back to the show... both of my sisters have tables too.  Ruth is by far probably the most prepared for this.  Janet works too much overtime to feel prepared for it.  And I am in the middle.   Always seem to be (I am the middle child after all). 

I have done a handful of shows over the years.  I don't feel like I know what I am doing yet.  Any advice?  I would love to hear some!


Oh, and in eleven days I will begin the next countdown to Christmas!!!


Peace to you and yours,

Carol

Hurricane Sandy

Well, after 8 days without, our electricity came back on last night.  We had no lights and no heat, but our gas hot water heater provided us with lovely hot showers and water to wash in.  And I was able to cook on our gas stovetop. So, all in all, it was not a terrible experience for us.  Our home was not damaged, unlike so many others during the storm. So much of the Jersey shore and Long Island are so horribly devastated.  School here was closed for an entire week. My nieces' schools on Long Island will not open until next week because the damage was so severe.

Thankfully, my family was all together and safe and happy, just a bit cold at times.  I actually enjoyed the peaceful silence of a house without a furnace running and without TV! And the stars at night!  Wow! Other than when we are camping in the woods, we never get to experience true darkness.  How bright the moon and stars appeared!

Now New Jersey is being hit with a snow storm.  It is night time now and I can't wait to see the yard in the morning light.  All family members are off the road, safely home or at school.  I pray for those who must still travel tonight because the roads are bad.  And I pray for the many thousands who still have no electricity or means to keep warm.

Here's hoping you are safe and warm,

Cynthia