Regarding Mothers

Even though Mother's Day is past, this is Women's History month. A distant cousin sent these two items to me today and being a mother I felt compelled to share them with all you other mother's out there. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

REAL MOTHERS

Real Mothers don't eat quiche; they don't have time to make it.

Real Mothers know that their kitchen utensils are probably in the sandbox.

Real Mothers often have sticky floors, filthy ovens and happy kids.

Real Mothers know that dried play dough doesn't come out of shag carpets.

Real Mothers don't want to know what the vacuum just sucked up.

Real Mothers sometimes ask 'Why me?' and get their answer when a little voice says, 'Because I love you best.'

Real Mothers know that a child ' s growth is not measured by height or years or grade...

It is marked by the progression of Mama to Mom to Mother...

THE IMAGES OF MOTHER

4 YEARS OF AGE - My Mommy can do anything!

8 YEARS OF AGE - My Mom knows a lot! A whole lot!

12 YEARS OF AGE - My Mother doesn't really know quite everything.

14 YEARS OF AGE - Naturally, Mother doesn't know that, either.

16 YEARS OF AGE - Mother? She's hopelessly old-fashioned.

18 YEARS OF AGE - That old woman? She's way out of date!

25 YEARS OF AGE - Well, she might know a little bit about it.

35 YEARS OF AGE - Before we decide, let's get Mom ' s opinion.

45 YEARS OF AGE - Wonder what Mom would have thought about it?

65 YEARS OF AGE - Wish I could talk it over with Mom.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.

It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows, and the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows!

Have a great week.
Jean

Animals and Me

Last month I asked my husband if I could have a bird feeder since he had said earlier that he didn't like the mess birds made. But he relinquished and let me get one. I knew we had cardinals in the back yard somewhere because I could hear them singing. I had previously worked in a hardware store and knew that cardinals liked safflower seed and squirrels did not. I have been feeding the squirrels corn for several years now and they are such fun to watch but I didn't want them eating the birdseed. So I decided on Safflower seed.

Well, much to my surprised the birds found the feeder almost immediately which is a bit unusual. It generally takes them a while to find it. Now we have cardinals, blue jays, beautiful little burgandy headed house finches and other birds I don't know eating safflower seed. However, I did not know that the squirrels little cousin, the chipmunk likes safflower seed too. I caught him red handed in the act, stuffing his little cheeks as full as he can get them and running home to unload the treasure. One day I caught him taking corn and he had his little cheeks so full that as he ran across the deck he dropped a piece. He stopped and ran back, looked right at me in the window and stuffed the dropped piece back in his mouth and bolted for home. They are such fun and when I'm tired or bored I take a seat at the window and just watch the goings on of the animal kingdom on my back deck.

It baffles me that some people say animals are dumb. They are not dumb. They have relationships and responsibilities just like we do. Sometimes I like to be an invisible occupant in their homes and see firsthand how they talk and relate to each other. I think we are not so far above the animals as we like to think.

Anyway, just had to share my animal stories with you. Hope you enjoyed it.

Etsy

I have started an Etsy account this morning to replace my old Ebay account. It is called of course Ruby Door Designs. I listed some new postcard designs this morning also. Hopefully, Etsy will be much better than Ebay has been to digital designers in recent days. Here is a sample of one of my postcards.

New Items On My Website

Hi,
I just listed a lot of new collage sheets on my website and over the next few days plan to upload a lot more things. I have not been posting here for a while.

I also do Genealogy research for others when asked. I have had my head in Ancestry.com for the past several weeks doing research for a group of folks in Minnesota who are trying to trace the ancestry of the original builders of a small limestone Catholic Church. I am happy to report that I found the information they needed and they were more than thrilled. It's rewarding work but can also be unbelievably frustrating. I could not do it full time.

I have once again begun creating new artsy things. Thanks to Ebay not allowing affordable digital media auctions I will be transferring all of my digital ebay auctions to my website.

Have a great week, ladies.

Poor little thing !

Hi everyone,
Been awhile since I posted. Sorry about that. I've been busy taking care of my sick baby. As you can see from her picture she's a beautiful Maine Coon cat who is three years old and a wonderful friend. Her name is Fancy and she is all that and more. She's developed a nasty infection and can't seem to get rid of it. Been trying for 2 weeks or more. We thought she was getting better but it suddenly got worse and after taking her to the Vet we found out she has a "malformed anatomy" which could be part of the problem. She'll need a special diet and lots of TLC. I think she's going to be a spendy little lady....but oh well, we don't deny health care to our children, I can't deny my "precious" good health care either. At least not until it gets beyond my means. I just hope and pray she gets better soon. I hate to see her so miserable.

I've also been working on a genealogy project for my former sister in law who is trying to get a little vintage Irish Church on the National Register of Historic places. It was built in 1857 by Irish immigrants in eastern Minnesota. She needed to trace several families back to their Irish homeland for the application. Since I've been doing Genealogy research for over 30 years she asked for my expertise. So that has occupied quite a bit of my time the last few weeks.

I really hope to get back to my design work soon. I really miss creating. When I get a moment free I will try to stop by a few more blogs and leave you a note.

Have a great week.

So long to Ebay !

Well, needless to say I am extremely disappointed that Ebay has chosen to bar the sale of digital artistic works. Since Ebay is doing this I will be closing my Ruby Door Design Ebay store on March 31st and will be selling my digital creations exclusively from my Ruby Door Design website - www.rubydoordesigns.com. Special thanks to all my customers on Ebay and I hope to see you at Ruby Door Designs.

New items on Ruby Door Designs

Hello ladies,
Just thought I'd tell all that I posted 12 new collage sheets and one digital art print to my website. Still working on getting more things uploaded. I'm probably slower at this that most of you more experienced gals.

If you have a chance stop by and take a look see.

Have a great week.

Jean

Talented family

I am a very fortunate mother I think. All of my children are creative in some way, artistic or musical or over my head in technology. I am so proud of all of them.

In addition to Avalon Rose Design my 4th child (a daughter named Kari) is beginning an online business of her own. With instructions and inspiration from big sister (Avalon Rose Design) Kari has started Enchanted Willow Designs. While she is fairly new at this whole process she loves doing it. She still needs a little practice but is very motivated to make this work. For personal reasons she needs to work from home and this seems like the perfect opportunity for her.

Please drop by and take and look at her work http://www.enchantedwillowdesign.com/.

I'm still trying to get things uplisted to my own site. Seems like there just aren't enough hours in the day anymore. Must be the getting older thing.

Thanks for stopping by. Look forward to hearing from some of you. Have a great week ladies.

New Projects

Thought I would put up a couple of pics of my most recent projects. This is one of my collage sheets. I will be uploading them to my website (www.rubydoordesigns.com) this week.

This is another group of tags I'm working on. This group is of Vintage Women and will also be posted to my website this week.

Please feel free to stop by and mention me to your friends.

Thanks, and have a great day.

Make My Day Award

Good snowy morning all. Just when we thought it was all going away and we could see green blades of grass the sticky white stuff comes back to plug our driveways, soak our shoes and make us genuinely TIRED of it. If that's possible even. I am so ready for spring.

My daughter Cathy at Avalon Rose Designs sent me a "Make My Day Award" and I am forever grateful to her for her encouragement. Since I'm pretty new at this blogger thing I don't have 10 favorite blogs, so I will just say thanks to Cathy and congrats to all you other ladies to whom she sent her pretty award. Nice going Cathy.

Trying to do some spring cleaning and sorting through accumulations to dispose of. Have to do that before I can clean and redecorate. With my Fibromyalgia it is very slow going. One day at a time.

We have four memebers of the family living her with us, mainly Chomper, Bandit, Kuna, and Fancy.........our cats of course and they do make for a collection of various shades of pet hair in every crack and crevice. And naturally they want to help, tear the boxes apart and drag the pieces of cardboard all over the house, toss it up in the air and play with it. But they are precious and we wouldn't know what to do without them.

On the work agenda this week, I hope to get some new things put up on my website and some of the old stuff put on sale. If you get a chance please stop by rubydoordesigns.com and check us out.

All for now. Have a great week ladies and look forward to hearing from some of you.

Jean

Old Things - Clay Harrison

I found this on the web while searching for poetry for a scrapbook of memories of my mother who passed away recently. While things are just that, "things"; I find that those "things" seem to mean more once the one who had them is no longer there. I have found it to be especially true in my case where my relationship with her was estranged for the last years of her life. I had just recently begun to rebuild our relationship and it ended all to soon before what I wanted to say had been said. It makes me sad, that I never made the first move to rekindle a love I had known for so many years and lost due to misunderstood facts. So now, the things she left behind will become a memory book to share with all of her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and on and on for as long as the pages last or world keeps on turning.

I just had to share this with all of those who love vintage "things". Everything we touch leaves an emotional mark on someone and tho they are just "things", they are not just "things" to those who lived the memories.

Old Things are More Beautiful
(Clay Harrison)

Old things are more beautiful
than many things brand new
Because they bring fond memories
of things we used to do.

Old photographs in albums,
love letters tied with lace
Recapture those old feelings
that new ones can't replace.

Baby shoes, a Teddy bear,
a ring that grandma wore,
Are treasures waiting there behind
a door marked "Nevermore".

Old things are more beautiful,
more precious day-by-day.
Because they are the flowers
we planted yesterday.

Thanks for stopping by.

Jean @ Ruby Door Designs

What a morning !

Well, this has been a crazy morning. My husband bought me a new computer desk for my laptop computer. It's more modern than I like but the price was right. I'm so pleased to finally have a desk but I tried to put it together by myself. Aaaaahhhhhhhh. Should not have done that. I've been hit on the head a dozen times by pieces that don't want to stay standing. Guess it takes someone with more hands than I've got.....;-) I've given up on finishing for awhile. I think I'll wait for help. I can hardly wait to put it to use.

I will be updating my website with new items in the next week. Please stop by and check it out when you can. Have a great day everyone !

Moving on

Just wanted to drop in an say "Good Morning". So much to do and the time goes so fast when you get older. Working on a scrapbook of old pictures found at my mothers and scanning things I can use for new projects I have in mind. Building a family tree of my mother's side of the family........etc etc. I could write a list a mile long but it wouldn't get anything done any faster so guess I'd better get at it.

Hugs to all and have a great day.

Jean

Home At Last - Tribute To Mom

I have finally returned to my home following the death of my mother. She had lived a long full life and I think she was ready to pass the torch to the next generation. She was 92 years old and for the majority of her life she had been extraordinarily healthy for her age with the exception of severe arthritis in her hips, which made walking impossible. I think that being confined to her home and an electric scooter was a bit depressing for her in her later years and she had lost her sense of purpose. She couldn't go anywhere or do anything and she had always been a very active person. She enjoyed gardening and every year her flowers and food flourished it seemed even better than the year before. She had the "greenest" thumb I've ever seen. I certainly did not inherit it. I just look at a plant and it withers up and dies. In her younger years she was an avid hunter and fisherman. We located pictures of her with two shotguns and two large deer hanging beside her and others where strings of Northern Pike had been pulled from the Minnesota Lakes near where she grew up.

I learned so much from this woman who had been my mother by choice not by chance. I was abandoned on the steps of an Iowa orphanage in 1959 at the age of 8, along with 3 of my siblings, by my biological parents. One year later we all had a new farm home and new parents. It was a completely new experience but one full of everyday surprises. Hard work in the garden and collecting the turkey eggs at 5 am before school were just a couple of my duties. Those turkeys were bigger than I was. Scared is not even the right word to describe my fear of them. But she taught me how to get the egg out from under a big scary turkey without letting it bite me. Living on a farm in the '60's and 70's was not like it is today. We butchered chickens, turkeys, and hogs as well as cattle. We milked cows, and fed orphaned lambs with a pop bottle. Packaging meat for the freezer was one of my jobs. We canned bushel baskets full of tomatoes, apples, beans, peaches,...you get the idea. One day of the week was bread baking day and that was what we did the entire day. Loaf after loaf of white and wheat bread and dinner rolls too. Most of it was frozen for use at a later time. Sometimes she did it herself and we had the best oven baked hot rolls with butter when we got home from school. We looked forward to that day. She was a very hard worker and taught us the value of a hard days work. If you weren't tired at night you hadn't worked hard enough. In the evenings it was story time. Sometimes she would tell us silly stories from her own childhood or read to us from a huge stack of children's story books. While we had a TV it wasn't the center of our lives. Singing silly songs, telling stories, making up stories, playing cards, dominoes or scrabble were evening entertainment.

It seemed to me that she knew everything. Along with the things already mentioned she was a great carpenter and taught me how to finish and refinish wood furniture. When we built the new house, I finished all of the woodwork, under her watchful eye - no small task. She was the most versatile and intelligent woman I've ever known and she never stopped learning. In her later years she read constantly and was always up to date on current events. She didn't read novels, she read Science Digest, The Smithsonian Magazine, Newsweek, Time, National Geographic, and Discover Magazine. Things that would teach her more. You would think that at her age she would want to just read novels and relax but that wasn't her style. She kept herself so well informed on matters of importance that if we had a question about anything we went to mom and she always had an answer. Now the torch passes to us and I don't think any of us can fill her shoes.

When we started going through her things we found a complete folder of stories and poetry she had written when she was young. It is very good thought provoking writing in this day when life is so complicated. She lived in a simpler time when a beautiful pink and purple sunset made you smile and you went to bed at dark so that you could be up to meet the sunrise. We were thrilled beyond words to find it and the lot of us-her children and grandchildren sat on the floor in the living room of her home and passed the pages from one to the other. Tears were shed, smiles and laughter were evoked and a sense of "WOW I never knew this side of her", were echoed all around. She had never told us of her attempts at writing.

I could go on and on about her atributes but I think I will end this here and write more in the journal I am writing for my children to have when I am gone.

We will miss her but her memory lives on in we her children who will pass the information and stories to our children and grandchildren. Thank you mom for taking me as your own and giving me a lifetime of happy memories.

Welcome to My Blog

Well, my daughter finally convinced me to start a blog. I am not exactly sure what I'm doing so bear with me if I'm less than exciting to begin with.

I am retired and have lived my entire life in the Midwestern United States. I have five wonderful children who were and are the most important things in my life. I have four grandchildren, two beautiful little girls and two rambunctious little boys. I was married in December to a wonderful man; so technically I guess, I'm a newlywed and very happy.

I love artistic expression in any form, be it literature, sculpture, family histories, photography, collages, paintings, sketches, etc. I have beeen working the past couple of years with Paint Shop Pro and have been creating shop tags, web designs, logos, Family History charts, photo collages and my most recent creation are collage sheets made from vintage images I have purchased and scanned and put together. I've included a picture of one of my collage sheets. I have an Ebay store, Ruby Door Designs. Please feel free to stop by.

Going to visit family in the hospital this weekend so that's all for now.