Flowers for Aunt Mae

I've never been good at being a regular blogger.  I have times where I'm really into it, and others where I go weeks or even MONTHS between posts.  Anyway, in addition to getting used to James going to school, then him beginning to ride the bus, we've also had car woes and my Aunt died.  She called me "Kimby," she was the only one to ever do that.  I liked her calling me a special name........

She died at home, free of pain thanks to medications, and with her family surrounding her.  Towards the end she kept saying "It's so beautiful" and kept talking to loved ones who had previously passed away as if they were in the room.  And this is kinda...unexplainable: she said "Well hi, I didn't know you were up here" to a man in her church that she didn't know had died.  Seriously, no one had told her because while it's a small town, our family had its own death drama to survive.  So, it's wonderful to think of Aunt Mae at the "pearly gates" with my grandparents and cousins and so forth. 

So, with relatives on my mind, I made this today:

Inspired by a post on another blog, I used the lace from my mother's wedding dress, a pink t-shirt that no longer fits, and a black frame I had lying around.  The flowers look sort of pink in white glue in this picture, but they're actually more t-shirt and lace mixes.  Now don't think I'm being sentimental, my mother's wedding dress was from 1961, badly damaged and worn for a wedding that was laid to rest back in 1984.  But--it was lace, and I've really been wanting to make crafts for me lately, as opposed to things the whole family would like.  I love the femininity of this, it's something I could see having in my closet or over my tub for the next 50 years (in my "boudoir," in particular, lol.)

Also, well, it's the flowers that started the whole project.  I've been collecting examples of "fake flowers" for quite some time.  I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated just to flowers.  I have at least 20 tutorials, but I've only made a couple (and yes, pom-poms were one of them, I'll be trying that project again because they're "so fluffy I wanna die!")  So I've been collecting "burning" fabric for a while now, and I happened to find enough the other day for a simple pin:

(bad picture, sorry, glam is hard to photograph without effort)

Only 8 petals and a glam button from my stash, but it was my gateway drug :)  I don't recommend starting, because it IS addicting!  Flowers just look so happy, sitting there waiting to liven up a boring craft. 

Oh, and I was also enabled by The Headband Challenge and Link Party at Little Miss Mama by way of Amie at Kitty Cats and Airplanes.  I especially loved Amie's headbands all week long, and after much thought I just had to try one.  I was so thrilled by it that I took about 50 pictures (seriously, it was sad) and kept on crafting.  So here's a couple of pictures of my first headband (my other pictures weren't good at all, but I made a headband with a cream ribbon and stacked bow and then a plain denim one.)  And at the end is a picture of the collected flowers from today. 

see the awesomeness of my flower?

posed on my lace and flowers frame

and this doesn't include the ones on my headbands or from my craft the other day.  Oh, I never posted that!  Look:

I was on my way to bed when an empty box of soda cans somehow inspired me to stay up until 4am making tissue flowers and a felt sun and happy clouds.  It makes me smile just looking at it :)

It's been a good day.  Aunt Mae would have enjoyed my flowers.