Family Connections

I've been thinking a lot about family connections over the past few days. My Granny died last Thursday (aged 86) and it has been very busy. I've still got my other grandmother alive who is currently aged 105!!! When I was a little girl my family were very close, we spent Christmas Day together, often got together when there were birthdays/celebrations and I knew all my cousins. Then about 25 years ago there was a big fracture in the family and everyone went there seperate ways. A lot of the younger cousins never got to experience what us 'older' ones did and they haven't had opportunities to get to know everyone.

My girls have only met the handful of cousins that I've stayed in touch with although over the years we've seen various photos of different cousins and their children go up on Granny's walls. We had the funeral on Monday and it was really amazing to see who everyone was. It's the first time that Mum and her four brothers have been in the same space in years and apart from three cousins (2 are living overseas and 1 is in the South Island) all the grandchildren were there along with all their children. There was a lot of catching up to do and it was interesting trying to work out who some of them were... you'd recognise facial features but not quite know which family branch they belonged to.

Granny would have been really pleased with the day and how it all went :)

Now on with the creative update... I've been trying to remember all the projects I wanted to update but the brain feels a bit fried at the moment.

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  My circle journal group is finishing up this week and final post off date is next Monday. I'm so looking forward to getting my journal back again!!! I've been photographing each journal as I work on it so look out for some great 'eye candy' next week!

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  I took part in a 'Travelling Stamp' swap through Glamour Girls. Deb found a fantastic stamp and she wanted to see what everyone would do with it so she sent up a Travelling Stamp list and we all put our names down. Next step was that she made an ATC using the stamp and posted it to the second person on the list. That person got to keep Deb's ATC and then make one of their own to send on to the next person and so on and so on. I've had the stamp now and made my own ATC with it - Love the stamp Deb!!! Sorry but I can't post a photo until it's all been done and dusted but I promise that I will as soon as I can.

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  Next is another Glamour Girls ATC swap. The theme was 'Stick and Stitch'. A few people have said that the slide shows are taking too long to load for them so I'll just put them one after the other this time and see if that helps:

Shell (yep that's my one!)

Karen

Kath

Rebecca

Robyn P

Oh yeah... a few of you have been asking about how the house sale is going... and the news is there is no news. Quite honestly the advertising for the house leaves a lot to be desired but the exclusive contract with the real estate agent finishes at the end of the month so maybe they will get their butts into gear soon. One great advantage is that it's made us much tidier people!!! The girls think twice now about getting out heaps of things knowing that they will have to pack it all away when they are finished and I've actually been putting away my scrap stuff when I'm done :)

Finally, a really big thank you to Nie and Rangi!!! While I was away SbO ran a Melbourne Cup prize draw and Nie nominated me knowing that I couldn't do it myself and I won third place!!! Rangi and Nie both emailed me as soon as they heard the news (we're all in the circle journal swap together) and I just want to say a big thank you to both of you for your heartfelt emails and the welcome home. I feel really grateful to have two such amazing online friends!!!